Montgomery County sentinel. [volume] (Rockville, Md.) 1855-1974, 1909-05-21
SENA TOR BACON SPEAKS FOR
THE SOUTHLAND.

In the course OF speech on the subject
of the tariff, delivered in the Senate of the
United States short time ago, Senator
Bacon, of Georgia, replying to remarks
made by Senator Lodge, of Massachusetts,
made a strong presentation of the Demo-
cratic view of the tariff question and incl
dentally paid just and eloquent tribute
to the South He spoke, in part, as fol-
lows:
ION the continent of Europe there is
scarcely a hilltop but what is crowned by
the ruins of some old feudal castle. In the
days when might was the law and had the
full exercise of its will, those castles were
occupied by feudal lords who themselves
produced nothing. but who at certain sea-
sons made their forays in the country
round, and gathered from those who had
digged and toiled the fruits of their fields,
and carried them to their castles for their
enjoyment.
Those feudal lords were not indifferent
to the prosperity of the countryside those
feudal lords knew that it was necessary
that the fields should be fruitful in order that
they should gather from them their spoil.
So it is from the section which the Senator
comes. 1t has grown rich in making these
forays through the forms Of law :; it has
every year gathered an enormous tribute
which has flowed in golden tide from the
section which itself contributes it, and
which receives nothing in return.
"And this suggests the further thought
that, when those feudal lords gathered the
spoil and with their men at arms stood
around for its division, they were not more
Indifferent to the question from whom the
spoil had been derived than is the con-
temptation of the protective-tariff law,
when Senators gather around the spoil
to be distributed, in considering the ques-
ton of to whom these unnumbered mil
lions of dollars belonged or from whom it
had been unjustly taken.
THE Senator from Massachusetts spoke
of the overthrow of the South in the Civil
War. and while he paid tribute to the valor
of the South, he sought to show that there
was an inherent weakness, on account of
which there could have been nothing else
but disaster and defeat when it met the
North in deadly struggle. The four years
unequal struggle is the best answer to that.
Truth is this, that the South lost, not
by reason of inherent weakness, but be-
cause of the disparity in numbers. 1t had
contest upon it hands of S to in fight
ing men. 1t is true that the blockade had
a great deal to do with it but it was be-
cause the blockade prevented the South
having access to the remainder of the
world for the utilization of its resources.
II the ports had been open, if this much
despsed cotton had been available for in
terchange with the balance of the world,
there would have been no paucity of re-
sources But after four long years of bit
ter, relentless. merciless war. there was an
absolute destruction and exhaustion of the
resources of the South. | myself saw a
broad line of cinders and ashes across my
State from 80 to so miles in width-not
a pillar of cloud, but vast sky full of
clouds by day, and lurid glare from zenith
to horizon by night.
THE South will have no cause. either
now or hereafter, to be in any manner
apologize either for its valor or for the
application and production of resources
which, under any normal conditions would
have been ample for them in their struggle
Il wish to say further, Mr.. President.
that while have a pride which believe,
il not now shared. will in the near future
be shared by every American in the valor
of the southern men in that conflict. the
valor of the men in the field was not the
highest exhibition Of virtue and of courage
made by that people; that in the utiliza-
ton of the resources, in the maintenance
Of a stout heart in the face of hostile
world, in the sacrifice of every interest,
with every household house of mourning,
with their women not wailing, but clad in
black, with chair vacant at every table
and at every hearthstone, when the flower
of her manhood lay dead on hundred VIC
toriOus fields, it was only when physical
power failed from exhaustion, when stout
heart could no LONGER of itself maintain
the struggle however stout that heart
might remain, because physical resources
were gone, it was only then that this un-
equal struggle ended.
THAT day with its woes, belongs to the
past, which ] have no pleasure in reviving.
In se snh la
away. 1t belongs not to the present nor
the future. But can not sit still and hear
the SUGGESTION made that because we did
not have system by which one section
was plundered for the benefit of another.
therefore we failed in that great struggle,
for that is the argument of the Senator
from Massachusetts, and that alone is his
argument.
mr.. President. it was a remarkable
struggle. The history of it will never be
written within even the twentieth century
but the time will come when in song and
story the heroism and the devotion and the
fortitude and the prowess Of that people in
that mighty struggle will take their rank
with anything known to recorded history
Another thing which is going to be re-
marked. and which is more to the point Of
the particular issue which the Senator from
Massachusetts has raised. is that in the
midst of that desolation and ruin that peo-
Pile did not lose its courage. and that out Of
ashes and desolation. spread from the Po-
tomac River to the Rio Grande, there has
arisen a prosperity and development of
material wealth as to which no man can
pass through that country without giving
expression to his wonder and his surprise -
Speaking of the Republican tariff system
of taxing the consumers of the country for
the benefit of certain favored classes of