Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1909-03-27
NEW ORLEANS.
Continued From Page Eleven)

great cotton plantations, among the
largest in the state; several thousand
acres of land in the YaZoO valley Is
the head partner in the largest cotton
commission house here; Stockholder
and director in several banks and
other corporations, and probably eXer-
cises a greater influence than any
other individual in commercial circles.
For these reasons Mr.. Parker was
elected president of the southern
Commercial Congress and was recently
given a complimentary banquet by the
business men of Washington.
Mr.. Parker is the originator and Chief
engineer of the Southern Commercial
Congress, which has purchased the site
of old St Matthew's church in Washing-
ton and proposes to put up mlllioh-
dollar building there with fund oil sl'ooo
contributions from 1,ooo southern men.
This building is to be a national mead
quarters for southern interests at the
National capital-a rendezvous for SOUTH
ern men, a museum OF southern re-
sources an information bureau concern
ing everything that relates to the south,
an advertising agency for southern enter
prises; with reliable expert advice con-
corning investments Of every variety III
the South. AS Mr.. Parker himself eX-
pressed it not long ago:
I'VE realize the backwardness of the
south, and we want to wake things up
and get a move on our section of the
country. We propose to place the south
ern people in closer touch with the re-
,n
it without delay in the most practical and
efficient manner. We want to corrent
false impressions and create new ones;
we want to have lighthouse here TO
throw its RAYS upon all matters of south
ern interest in and out of Congress and
give our people chance with the rest OF
the world.
The new building, as the papers have
already announced, is to contain an as
Sembly hall for conventions relating cs-
pecially to southern affairs which 1t is
proposed to hold regularly in Washington
during the sessions of Congress, for the
purpose of waking up things as Mr..
Parker has said And to quote him again:
THE south as a whole enjoys benefit
every time a new enterprise is started,
every time new farm is opened, every
time a settler comes in, and we want to
make such events more frequent in the
future than they have been in the past.
We want to induce northern capital to
take advantage of the marvellous unde-
veloped resources of the south. We want
better schools and better roads; reciprocal
trade with the north and all that is
meant by modern life in America"
The fundamental idea of this movement
as explained by it's promoters in a circu-
lar is Ito cure the curse of sectionalism
and place the southern states upon a
parity with the other states of the union.
There is no denying the fact that the
people of the south have perSistently
stood in their own light, and have thus
lost many valuable opportunities The
character of the laws enacted and the
attitude Of the people in the matter of
Legislative restraint upon enterprise have
in the past undoubtedly tended to check
material progress and advancement.
THE race question has unfavorably
affected the more desirable element of
immigration.
For one reason or another labor en-
ploying industries have preferred north
crn to southern locations.
Water transport which might
have given the south the lowest freight
rates in America, has all but been aban-
doned, and that. too, without proper
tional compromising benefit through rail-
road construction because the isolated
proportion of the south is yet many
times larger than is that of the north
Southern resources are marvellous in
extent. In Louisiana a greater variety of
profitable crops can be grown than in
any other state of the Union. Here are
the greatest salt and sulphur mines in
the world Natural gas in abundance has
recently been discovered. There is plenty
of fuel oil. Natural navigable waterways
penetrate to nearly every parish in the
state. Governmental waterway improve
ments will ultimately connect the Missis-
sippi at New Orleans with protected
channels from the Rio Grande in the far
southwest to Boston in the far northeast,
while the Chicago ship canal to the
Mississippi and the Improvement of the
Ohio, Missouri. Tennessee, Red and other
rivers will give practical waterway ac-
cess from all parts of the country to
almost every section of Louisiana. Low
freight rates and transportation facilities
IN abundance, together with the fact that
New Orleans is 600 miles nearer the
Panama canal and the great markets of
the far east and far south, will give
Louisiana and Louisiana products almost
every conceivable advantage in reaching
the markets of the world, providing
Louisiana citizens are wide awake and
doing things to attract the investment
money urgently needed for the develop
ment of her resources"
These are not my words but they are
quoted from the announcement made b.
the managers of the movement in the
Times-Democrat of this city. And from
them you will perceive that there are
men who understand what is the matter
with New Orleans and the rest OF the
south; who realize that the narrow sell
fish provincial feeIipp that rra,,;Is hove