The Montgomery advertiser., 1908-12-18
Secretary Dave Given
 Ovation. MEMBERS OF LOCAL CLUB TELL OF WASHINGTON IMPRESSIONS GROWING MONTGOMERY SPIRIT IS
 TALKED OF.
 % President Forbes Urges That Pride Now Beins Taken in Civic In- teresss Net Be Allowed
 to Lag or Grow Bur-
 densome.
fore fore you as a program during these

fore you as a program during these
 Success Out of Failure.
 "But. think for a moment--it ia A long cry from q resolution in Chatta- nooga that there shall be a Southern Commercial congresg,' to this point swners sdn we are are participating In such a these men. Up to this date there has never been successful commercial gathering e2 of broad scope in the South. nad followed close upon the heels of enort. Yet. these men, strong in the taith that there was an immense fu-
 ture for the South, and strong In the the truth about the South. and strong m the conviction that a plain. simple utterance of what we have would bring
 70 us the recognition to which the vast South is entitled in that faith we stepped forward toward the task laid Defore us in Chattanooga and some of us have worked ainosf day and night on tt until thIe moment.
 To all of us 1t was a holy task Two of the members of the Committee nave talked 1t over since we came here
 and we were obliged to speak In relig- and our souls were pledged to the work until it was done. We knew that once a mighty stream of influence flowed from the South; we knew that | stream: we saw the stream swelling as the .pent.up waters rose higher and higher. and taking our reputatlons in any moment. We have in this Congress pulled the king-log and now stand aside to see the mighty stream move
 "I ask you to lend me your minds for short while, as we review very what has been said in these two days. Each of these utterances brought out rsm Ar awAa -z.Q development; each of these facts brought out has laid before your very eyes a foundation stone for Southern greatnees such as has never been made tory of the United States.
 Reviews The PrOGram.
 Our program first touched upon health. because we who are working for the commercial development of the South knew full well that dread--the ill-defined dread of dtsease-ls the most significant hindrance in the proper recognition of the South. tor from New Orleans or Mobile or any other Southern city, great and fair though their utterances might have been. We had here the Surgeon Qen- eral of the. United States to tell the pIain. simple truth as to the 5outh's safety as a place of residence. He had no motive for special pleading; he had no motive to conceal any fact: he made this statement, and 6 statement that is true in every particle of it-the South ig,as safe a place to live as any other place. provided men will take ordinary sanitary care.
 That simple message of his Is ai- ready being read in England and Tn Europe; that simple message will give up who live down there a stronger assurance regarding our homes and the place where we are to live and ulti- mately to die; and that simple mes .N,rx. Ak. East and West. where 1t is impossible for the people to remain indifferent to the vast opportunities of the South, will give thousands a new assurance as they turn their. eyes longingly to- wards country where three crops can . be raised in one reason and the cattle do not eat off their heads on the pro- ducts of three or five months of growth.
 Then, in one great comprehensive paper. whose significance will be ap- precited more and more as the years go by when the Panama canal itself approaches completion. the Secretary of War the Honorable Luke D. Wright. President Roosevelt in this Congress. laid before you certain irrefutable facts regarding the existing southwark swing of commerce and the definite southward trend as soon as the inter- oceanic lines themselves have to take the southward swing.
 You have been shown, first, that the Gulf coast is safe to live in, and tain factors In national development that will produce for the Gulf region itself civilization akin to that wnicn gathered upon the Mediterranean.
 shows Gulf Map.
 If I might De permitted to add to what he had said, let me ask you to look for a moment at the vast map facing me. Of Gulf ports. Nature fore- ordained, c north and south movement for every. thing between the Alleghanies and the Rockies, and if man and nature had worked together in the early years. when this country was settled, the civilization that fringed the Atlantic | and conquered the West by an East | and west movement, would with much l greater facility have worked north | ward from the Gulf coast Into the | tions of our day-the necessity for | the route between raw pro- duet and manufactured article, is bringing to the South definite recog- hilton. and. in consequence. mans own are exerted, not to destroy an east and west movement along the ines of earliest discovery and earliest achievement. but to add to 1t a north md south movement, as laid down by l he finger of SGod when he graved his enormous continent
 Then you heard a statistical article, Ihowing what growth had taken place n southern ports within the last two ,r three decades. These statistics need ;ause no jealousy In New York, fin Baltimore. in Philadelphia, or in Bos- on. We simply in the southern ports handle that to which we are normally untitled.
 "rhe greatness of these great Allan ic ports north the Mason and Dixon's inc will endure forever, but not all # the greatness that belongs to the inormous eastern coast line of the United States ought to remain within he fraction of coast line extending rom Portland, Me- to Baltimore We rave shown that in the last ten years he Gulf ports gained 140 per cent n imports and exports, that in the ame ten years the Atlantic ports gain d 50 per cent These figures sound but they need cause no remor in New York. Baltimore or for the simple reason hat 140 per cent gained on what we were still leaves us small in eomparI. lon with their supremacy.
 Waterways OG South.
 ''Naturally when our thoughts wore turned toward harbors and ports, the 'eeders of those harbors and ports be- come important, and, therefore, the Honorable John A. Fox, Field Secre- .ary of the National Rivers and liar ,ors Congress, has deBcribd the peculiar importance of the waterways of the .sv sf gS .,o,, ..,ttt .-t.-!. ~. .., l