The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1909-03-01
THE NEW SOUTH, FoRsoorH!

From the New York Sun.
Why should Mr.. J. j. Willett of An
niston, Ala. go forth into the wilder
nesses of Chicago and like places and
prate loudly of the new south and re-
instated harmony and all the rest of
the unmeaning yum yum which plays
part at modern banquets? We have
been hearing this folderol for more than
30 years. There was a time perhaps
when the north didn't understand the
south and when the futtering of the
bloody shirt by such professionals as
keifer, Grosyenor, etc, fairly smoth-
cred the hustle of the New England and
middle western pioneers then settling
down to southern enterprises and build
ing up the waste places with their
Drawn and brain and duly financed en-
ergy. In those days Henry Grady of
Georgia made specially of northern
banquet halls and fioated pearly songs
of thingumbob across the nuts and
wine. He told us of the new south, of
the fratricidal struggle which had
passed, of the harvests smiling over the
once angry scars Of war, and of gulps
and ecstasies in general. Wry prolong
this flood of nonsense?
A month or two a go there was Gen.
Rufus N. Rhodes of Birmin CHAM who
went to Augusta at the head of dele
such slush as this
Judge Taft, if you knew the heart
and the head of the men of the south
and particularly of Birmingham, you
would know that they regard the result
of the last election as a benediction
from God Almighty Himself to the peo-
pie of the south over their own pro-
test. I am a democrat; most of these
gentlemen are democrats, but we all
welcome your advent into the south,
| beca use you want the south once
again to hold her place in the councils
of the nation. You will find no more
fertile field for the planting of your
seeds of patriotism independence of
thought, independence of political ac-
ton, than among the representative
men of Birmingham, Ala.
I'VE want you to help us strike off
our hands the shackles of an ignorant
political system which does not do the
most to develop our resources or to
prosper and safeguard our happiness
We promise you real. genuine, tangi-
BILE results for the greatness and the
glory of this section
Sound and fury, signifying nothing,
and when did "Rufe" Rhodes become
general?
1t is all rot and rigmarole. Northern
south and have been for many years.
The cotton mills Of the Carolinas, the
! steel, coal and iron mines and manu-
factories of Tennessee and Alabama,
the sugar and rice fields of Louisiana,
the lumber industries of Mississippi and
Florida, these and a hundred other pur-
suits have absorbed the immigrants;
ntermarriage and community of inter-
est have drawn fasteners and middle
westerners into the local civilization
and identified them with the destiny of
the section. The southern boom was
| born of its own natural resources, not
of maudlin mounting over dinner tables
or at the h cad Of visiting delegations.
Willett of Admission and Rhodes of Biz
mingham are merely tiresome buck
sters of fapdoodle
Outsiders have seen that the south
offers them many fiattering opportuni-
ties. They have gone there with their
money and their activities and have
! been assimilated That's all there is to
it. The New South be bowed!