The comet. (Johnson City, Tenn.) 1884-1916, 1909-04-15
MIR. POWELL SPEAKS.

J The next toast, "The South" had
been assigned to Hon. j. Norment Pow
ell, and after pleasing introduction by
Mr. Brownlow, he handled the subject
in an able and eloquent manner. He
said
This toast suggests, what all students of
history recogniEg that the affairs of nations,
as of men, depend on very small incidents.
If William Penn had engaged in land
controversy with some neighbor on the north
or on the west, and not with his friend Lord
Baltimore, it may we'll be questioned
whether, at the present day, the imaginary
line of division between the north and south
would exist any more clearly than between
other portions Of our country; Of one blood,
a common tongue, and with a unanimty of
social tastes and business interests, where
could the point of cleavage be found if
Charles Mason and jeremiah Dixon had not
run that famous line2 Little could 1t be
foreseen at that time, that, though they set
tied the land controversy between the pro-
prietors of Pennsylvania and MaryIaud,
they furnished geographical basis for the
greatest misunderstanding, mistakes and
prejudices-not to say the greatest war--that
the New World has ever seen. These
things can be spoken of now, because they
are past. The Mason and Dixon line, and
no line, imaginary or otherwise, exists to
| divide this nation. Some twenty-five years
ago, the greatest exponent and prophet of
the New South" Henry w. Grady, in
burning words, told the world that she had
accepted her portion and was working out
her own salvation, and he begged that her
condition might be understood and the ef-
forts of her sons and daughters appreciated.
Today we see, perhaps sooner and in
larger measure than her devoted son dared
to hope, his vision realized, and the south
today takes her place where, but for the in
stitution of slavery, she would have been
seventy-hve years ago.
This may be fitting opportunity to cor
rect one error which exists in the minds of
many Of our friends from other sections
the south does not, and so far as we of the
present generation can tell, she has never
for one moment, regretted in or bemoaned
the disappearance Of that deIeterious insti-
tuition. am glad to testify that, while
have-heard hundreds Of the preceding gen
Grafton of men and women of the south re-
joice that it was no more, have neverheard
but one man express a regret and he was
far from being representative citizen. Oc-
casionally some ill-advsed effort is made in
one section or in the other to fan into
fame the dead embers of forgotten bitter
ness. These will occur from time to time
so long as there are fools to rush in where
angels fear to tread, but, as time goes on,
they will become less frequent.
The latest incident of this kind has oc-
cured in the undue prominence given to
school girls statement that before the war.
the south was in a condition of intellectual
blindness. This opinion, we know, is not
generally entertained in the north; on the
contrary, we have frequent occasion to be-
lieve that the common opinion is that our
intellectually and culture have been sogreat
that we have been enabled to perform a
prodigy Of racial improvement unparalleled
in the history of the world, and, by contact
for only about three geneI ations, to fit for
the highest duties Of citizenship and for the
highest social consideration race which
bad been in cannibalism. We who are
more familiar with the results Of our work
; in this direction are compelled to admit the
value and efficiency Of the centuries of civil
ization which the Anglo Saxon race has ex-
perienced, and we believe that the sociolog-
ical student of the future will attribute to
the south its just due for what it has borne
i Continued on 2d page.