The Montgomery advertiser., 1908-08-24
HE REPLIES TO PECK
SECRETARY DAVE GIVES ALA
 RAMA INFORMATION.
The Letter is Written fo Refute slighting Paragraphs tn PecI<'s Anti-PrOhtbitton Letters From
 Alabama.

!
 Alter having to the huge delight of young America gotten. the father l of "Peck's Bad Roy" into just loads l of trouble Samuel Peck ex-Governor | of Wisconsin, who recently travelled | in the South has been guilty of pop ping an extravagant joke at the ex- l pense of Alabama Mir. Peck evident | ly intended to be taken seriously in 1 his statement concerning the woeful lack of enterprise In the State of Ala bama, but willy-niIly he eohid only make joke. The camnerciai Club of this city however. believed 1t best to tiurnoF the humorslt. and Secretary Dave has, written him a letter which he expects will 2 cause a change in his view of the "pltiabie .situation'' prevailing in poor Alabama. It fol- lows:
 Hon. George W. Peck.
 Milwaukee. Wis.
 Dear Sir:
 In your. recent articles based upon Journeys through the South, you wrote much that was of interest to all of us. Your Mobile article in particu- lar seemed eminently fair. There was one point in your letter, however, that some of us would like to have made more clear to you. Allow me to quote:
 T am astonished to see that Ala bama has not within the last forty years. developed more In population and material resources. Land on each side of the railroad for hundreds of miles Is unoccupicd, and the same woods, of. small jack pine and ani oc- easional tree bis enough for a saw log, Is seen everywhere, with few good houses away from the large towns. and apparently no considerable number of new settlers on the rich Rni1 that going n waEtan
 The above criticism Is unjust In that 1t leaves behind 1t the impress sion that all of Alabama remains in the same serubby condition as that part which you saw skirting the rail- road. You will find, believe, that where railroads run at all with the incline of the land they go through the least impressive portion of the country. It Is the same in Wiscon- sin 1t Is the same in New England. journey away from the main lines of the railroads on branch lines cross country would show you an astonish- Ing development in Alabama, de- Sslopment that has done more in ten years past than in the thirty years before.
 Our great wealth of yellow pine tim Der has left millions of acres of stump land south of here. In the southeast arn counties, in great deal of Bald win county, ana much or MoOlIe coun- ey this has been turned Into truck land of the most profitable character. On your journey you passed through a place named Castleberry from which notwithstanding It's unpromising ap- pearanee along the railroad track great quantities of strawberries are shipped early in the season to North ern markets; your same Journey took you through Brewton. the hinterland of which is extraordinarily rich. Some of the rural towns on branch lines in the south eastern counties have jumped in ten years from mere clear ings to hustllng towns. Our capitol city of Montgomery has Jumped from thirty thousand to sixty-fve thousand in eight years.
 We admit immediately that the de- velopment of Alabama Is not yet what 1t should be, and towards a greater development various commercial or ganizations are devoting their energy. The riches or Alabama in natural re- sources are so great that an under. standing of them by our own people. and by the general public will neces- sarily bring us an Increasingly rapid | development Tn another portion of your article see you voice an opinion that. white | men do not work in this State. In 1 this ] am sure you would ind your l self mistaken if you had investigated | fully. The smaf truck farmers of the eut-oYer pine lands would show