The Birmingham age-herald., 1910-12-29
WONDERFUL REGION
 IS THE SOUTHLAND
Country's Resources Devel-
 oped By Pioneers
DEBARDELEBEN's WORK
Richard H. Edmonds Pays Tribute To Greatness of the Man Who Did So Much For Alabama
 and Birmingb

Charlotte, N. C., December S.-(Spe-
 cial. )-Richard H. Edmonds, editor of the
 Manufacturers Record, Baltimore, at the annual banquet of the Greater Charlotte
 club in speaking of the progress and
 possibilities of the south, said in part: l Men who have studied the wealth. creating resources of the world, great en-
 gineers. great geologists, great authori- ties on agriculture, on climatology and on pomology will tell you that nowhere else on earth Is there a region so wonderfully endowed by nature as the land we call the south. Here are riches of minerals. of timbers, of water powers, of agricultural potentialities and of climate combined into one harmonious whole, which give to this section advantages of which earth has no duplicate. As southern men we are trustees for the world for this rich heritage. Unless we utilize these re- sources for the creation of employment, for the turning of these buried treasures into living wealth. bringing blessings to mankind. we shall prove false to the trust committed to us.
 .who saves his country saves all things. And all things saved shall bless him.
 "Who lets his country die, lets all things die.
 And all things dying curse him.
 Patriotism finds one of its highest ex- pressions in the development of coun- try that it's people may be enriched by Il Af f11Air ind frio T1d commercial opportunities, for upon this foundation must be built its educational advancement-even it's civilization. The patriotism that is concentrated upon the utilization of the buried talents of the south and upon making them do their appointed work. is certainly as great as the patriotism that fights nations bat ties. He who builds city is more to be l honored than he who by the arts of war destroys city. His work may be less spectacular, but it counts for more in human happiness. We have given to our military leaders the hero-worship that ought the more worthily to have been be- slowed upon our business leaders.
 Tribute To Pioneer Developer
 There died in Birmingham a few weeks
 ago a real hero. In his work for city
 building, for wealth creation, and the
 employment of people, he was a mightier
 force for good than the man whose mill
 tary genius enables him to conquer or
 destroy cities. A third of a century ago
 when this section had scarcely emerged
 from the wreck and ruin of the war,
 Henry F. DeBardeleben, an Alabama man
 who, by reason of his birth in the pine
 country, loved to call himself a 'piney-
 rcoter,' with the vision of a seer had a
 mental grasp of the riches of coal and | iron ore in the mountain section of his
 native state. To their development he
 gave his life. He was a dreamer; but so
 is every other man who achieves much
 in this world The poet the painter, the great railroad developer, the construc- lives genius who marshals his forces and builds and manages a vast industrial en- l terprise, is each a dreamer
 | In his imagination one dreams pic- ture and then paints the ideal which in
 his own spirit has already been created.
 Another dreams poem, and with poetic genius gives birth to what has already
 been born within his soul. Another with equal genius sees in his imagination the
 possibilities of railroad He bridges rivers and tunnels mountains that he
 may bring transportation facilities to a
 country that needs to be awakened from
 inactivity to the thrill of new life. The
 eye of another penetrates the very earth | a5e
 to be blought forth that 1t may be made
 available for the use of man. His dream
 takes hold of the completed plan; he sees how out of it new industrial conditions can be brought about to the upbuildfng of his country. The painter, the poet,
 the railroad developer. the geologist the
 industrial leader, each has the same power to dream, but cast in different mold Each has the same genius to achieve. And he who works out his dreams in the building of a railroad, in the creation of an industrial enterprise, in the opening of a great mine, or in the building of city, may display as much genius and be as worthy of as much honor as he who paints a picture, or he who charms the world with the ihusiC ol HIS pOelry. lSebdIueftpeA WdS a dreamer, but, like others, he caused his dreams to come to pass.
 A third of century ago, with little business experience, DeBardeleben under took the development of coal mining and of iron-making in Alabama Due in part to the depression following 1873, his early ventures were not successful; his paint ing was failure. Nothing daunted, but rather with increased courage, he en- tered the fight again. He founded an in- dustrial town and secured for the build ing of furnaces and iron works, as the basis of its existence, some millions of dollars of capital. Carrying his enterprise still further, it became a part of a large aggregation which has since passed into the control of the United States Steel cor poration. Flushed with accumulated wealth of about sa0O0,OOO in actual money, which in that day looked as big as 10 times that amount now, he decided to go to New York for the purpose, as he once said, of teaching Wall street how to spec ulate in southern securities. He took his S3, GOO 900 with him, but he left it there. In about six weeks, as he told the story, he had nothing left but a railroad pass to carry him home. Even this did not dishearten him. With unfiinching cour- age he faced the new conditions, started | life again, took his miners pick and on mule back spent months hunting the
 mountain regions of Alabama for new de- | posts of coal and iron ore. He rose su- perior to all the discouragements which | harrassed him, an6 continued until his
 death to achieve great things. He died | tInl fn trv lf-