The Birmingham age-herald., 1910-12-29
ham will become a dominant power in the worlds iron and steel trade.
 Another Dreamer

reason of new inventions, to build an oil mill with up-to-date equipment
 which would be able to compete with
 this combination. I asked him to write
 us a story for publication in the Man
 ufacturers' Record of what he had been 1 telling me. He promised to do so. In
 a few weeks I received an article which
 stated that 1t would be followed by
 a second, giving in detail the proof l of what the first presented. In vain I waited for the second article. I re- peatedly wrote to him and urged that
 he send me the completion of his story as part No. 1 had been published.
 A few weeks afterward I learned
 from him that the more he studied
 the situation the more interesting 1t | became, and the data which he had 1 gathered for the second article had been used in preparing a prospectus for
 the organization of s2,500,000 cot ton seed oil company Some of the men who agreed to join the enterprise were large consumers of cotton seed oil. They thought that 1t would be nec- essary for their connection with it to be unknown until the company could
 build mills, for fear the combination
 which had been effected might make 1t difficult for them to secure their supplies of oil. It was then about April or May. To meet this condition mills must be ready to grind the new seed by September or early October,
 or lose a whole year.
 Found the Capital
 The man who had turned the unfn- ished newspaper story into pros pectus found the capital for this un- dertaking, selected the sites and drew the engineering plans for eight cot ton seed oil mills to cost about s250,-
 900 each, to be located at strategic Nnrt1, Co
 and Arkansas. About May or June contracts were given out for mills to
 be ready for the fall crop. The work was pushed forward and reports were | received daily at his office as to the progress of the buildings and the plac-
 ing of the equipment. As word came from the superintendent of construc-
 tion of one mill and another that 1t
 was ready. the electric wire flashed
 back the word Turn on steam" In every case the machinery moved har-
 moniously and smoothly, fulfilling the. well ordered plans of the man who
 in few months had achieved such marvellous results. Charlotte was the birthplace of that company. The man who wrote the half finished article
 who raised the capital. who planned the mills, and who saw to their con- struction was D. A. Tompkins.
 In every part of the south are to be found men who like DeBardeleben and Tompkins, wrought marvellous things 20 to 30 years ago. When we study what was done between 1876 and 1890 we can but
 wonder at their achievements. Coming out of the wreck and ruin of the war, burdened with the still more awful days of reconstruction, with a disorganized la bor system, with overwhelming poverty and discredit abroad, men of heroic statue did a work for southern development which should forever enshrine them in the hearts of their countrymen. The vic l tories won by Stonewall Jackson and Rob- ert E. Lee were not won against greater odds than the victories won by the lead CTS in industrial development who fought the great fight between 1876 and 1890. For getting the things that were behind, they pressed forward to the accomplishment of new things. They led the way They blazed the trails that others might fol- | low. All that the south today enjoys of material advancement, of world rec ognition of It's advantages and of educa- | tional power are to a large extent due
 to the work done, the inspiration given in
 the days of darkness and doubt by, the
 men who, like the DeBardelebens, the
 Tompknses, the Ensleys, the Smithes. the Hillmans, the Olivers, the Orrs and hun dreds of others whose names come trooping to your memory tonight were leaders of heroic mold, worthy of all honor.
 In the Newspaper Field
 Then, too, in the newspaper world of the south. what mighty men, what giants, now passed away, this section had a quar- ter of a century ago. There was Henry Grady, whose bugle call for any forward movement in Atlanta or Georgia always met a ready response. There was Daw
 son of Charleston, Pat Walsh and James R. Randall of Augusta. and host of oth- CTS, doing a work for the saving of a
 .1-.t.s to the truth and to the lines of honest thought and activity, that has never been surpassed in the history of journalism
 May we not well ask ourselves if rela- lively we are doing quite as much today as the south under the leadership of such men did 25 years ago? With unbounded self-reliance with courage that could not be daunted, the south under the leader ship of these men achieved marvels. 5sOf late years the south seems to have lost something of it's old-time self-reliance and initiative, and to have become too much disposed to look to others to do for 1t what 1t should do for itself. Are we not in danger of losing something of that confidence in ourselves and in our sec ton possessed by those who quarter of & century ago led the south out of the wilderness into sight of the Promised Land? It seems to me that no man can seriously study the manifestations of the last ten years without being forced to ask himself these questions Once in a while we hear from our own people at home and from those who have left the south and settled elsewhere, an apologetic note about the south. This was not so in former days Everywhere should be sounded the note of self-reliance, of cour- age, of optimism. We can neither hold our own people in the south nor draw those of other sections if we let the im- pression be created either by our own actions or by our failure to antagonize the work of those who would misead the south, and misead the country about the south. We must fully understand our resources, our possibilities, and with untiring energy preach the doctrines of self-development. of development from within rather than from without.
 It Is true that we should endeavor to draw men and money from other sections to the south on the purely business basis the homeseeker and to the capitalist. In the development of our own people and the development of our own resources we enrich the south and in doing so we make certain the attraction of people and of capital from other sections. Now that pioneering days have passed away. 1t is hardly conceivable that men of intelligence, and that is the only kind we want, can be drawn to any section with view to making 1t their home unless they believe that they will not only find all of the advantages which they are leaving, but that to these will
 be added others. No man moves from