The Montgomery advertiser., 1909-02-23

 they did know that when their last task was done and they went to their long rest there would be other gen. erations of men to live and enjoy the blessings for which these old heroes strove. and they left behind them a standard of patriotism that has been passed on.
 Let me now attempt to speak with intense earnestness relative to the I Call of To-day.
 Young men! Ponder this! If the men of to-day think of themselves as the last of their race they make an utter mistake. The Call of Today is | exactly the Cali that came to the men | of Washfngton's time. The Call is So live. that men who come after you may consciously recognize the debt they owe to today"
 No true man liveth to himself The wtn who go through life without learn- ing from the past and blaming for a better future do not truly live. Such men are like the unobserving sheep, intent upon food. comfort. ease. lead ing to oblion. All history that was ever written. all noble throughts that l were ever spoken are ours to inherit today In order that we may better | live tomorrow. Unless we gather these lessons from the past the he- roes who lived and worked In the past
 
 concerned lived and died in vain. | If our ideal of life consists of es- cape from hard duties. of side- -stepp- | ing from personal responsibilities in the day that we live. the noble history ] of all men is fruitless in our lives. If even we simply live to boast of ancestry, to take pride in what great | men have done. we are unworthy of | that ancestry. An honorable family name is desirable; 1t Is something to be proud of, only providing that 1t stimulates in us. honor and endeavor. The poorest thing on earth is the | boastful fool who takes pride in fami- ly history and does nothing to justify 1t
 The Call of Today comes from the tombs of the Past. It's words are | these: Every age has its problems | and its problems are to be solved only by the men then living and not by tn 3 I heroism and devotion of the men who have passed away" . In this historic town are the sons I and grandsons of men who died for their ideas The heroic period In which they lived Is such recent history that the light of 1t shines brilliantly now. l And among some of us comes the nat :. | ural feeling that upon us is laid no similar opportunity to do great things. l It Is blinding mistake, and I pro- l
 1 Opportunity Beckons. 1 Your fathers could not foresee what would lie before the South, in oppor- tunity; for they knew little of the se- crets of our hills, little of the possi
 bilities of our soil, nothing of the transmission of power, little of the possibilities of our coast line, little of the completer binding together of the Atlantic and Pacific and they only dreamed that some day there might be | the shortening of the weary and dan gerous Journey around the Horn
 All of these things, now realized and understood. mean a call to you young men to cease repining over heroic days of the past and to realize that to you | comes the call of heroic living and act ing, rather than heroic dying. The closing word of the great Con- | gress which met in Washington in December to interpret the South. was this: Men of the South. this day calls upon you to live for the South because the nation needs a Greater South" If that call be true and right, then there stretches before you young men a pe- riod In Southern history when each of you can take part In a great construc- tive work that shall also leave its mark upon history.
 What does the South possess? It possesses more physical advantages in | combination than any other portion of the whole Union. And yet at tho same | time. excepting tie arid regions of the | West, this whole section is the least developed of all. Is not that enough to vivify the purpose of every man with 1 in the sound or my voice? Here we are blessed beyond the measure and yet halting along the initial steps of | our development. I do not know of any more thrilling conditions with which to confront men in whose veins courses ee red blood of noble an cestry.
 The problem of the south's develop ment and proper recognition is such a vast one that no one man can solve 1t | and no one group of men can solve it. | It is to be solved by a majestic word found only in an advanced state of civ 'ltzation-that word is cooperation CO-operatiOn Necessary. Cooperation Is severe discipline. It | means that men who come together for definite purpose chall be willing to forego, for the time being. some in- dividual rights in order that the whole may prosper. It is the spirit of the real soldier, as contrasted with the spirit of the free lance.
 If all of the real estate men were to realize that the gain of one is the gain of all: If all the bankers were to real lze mat tn ere Is something more to be desired than the individual prosperity of one bank, and that Is the prosperity of all banks. there would be here now the first lessons in co-opePation truly learned. Taking now a broader view, If each comme rcial body could come to realize that the growth of one portion of the South through honest endeavor would make the growth of the rest of the South more easy. than we would have the beginning of a mighty CO., operation. If every State in the South realized | that Its greatest strength rests in | neighborly pleasure over the riches | and development of every other State, | the we are approaching a mighty | South.
 The summons to greater South has been issued It rests upon the truth 1 that united effort is stronger than in- [ dtVidual effort, that two men agreed | 1 upon any one thing are mfghtier than | any two individual men working inde- | pendently. The summons Is to cease | aimless shooting, trifiing effort, local fog pushing, and to make of all the or | ganiZations of the South one vast su- lpra-organiZation whose power shall be | 1 Irresistible In removing every him | drance that lies fin the way of the | South and which shall voice to the | world in tones of power, the truth, the | whole truth. and nothing but the truth, | relative to our domain of matchless opportunity. The call Is to cease spo- | ! radio effort that has no relation to your neighbor's effort. to cease enter taining petty jealousies regarding