The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-10-19
MANN PREDICTS VOTES FOR WOMEN Virginia Governor Shows
 Little Enthusiasm THEORY JUST BUT
Many Features of the Atlantic Deeper Waterways Convention Now in Session at Richmond--Ye
 erans Entertained

Richni ond, Va, October 1S.-Notes for women in Virginia within ten years, a prediction of Governor William Hodges Mann, of the old dominion com monwealth. was one of the most ap- fourth annual convention of the Atlantic Deeper Waterways association sessions today. Governor Mann declared that he was by no means committed to the belief that such condition would not be eX- pedient.
 "Evolution of the. democratic form of government leads irresistibly to this log ical result" he said, and however dis tasteful it may be to some of us we might as we'll face it and prepare for it's com ing.
 "rhe theory involved in the right of women to the exercise of the ballot is a just theory, but the difference between the cry and practice especially in politics, is great'
 Governor Mann, in welcoming the hun dreds of waterway delegates to Virginia, paid a glowing tribute to the manhood of the southland in the reconstruction. This, he said, not southern manhood, but American manhood.
 The annual address of President J. Hampton Moore, noting the progress dur ing the year of the waterways projects, advocated by the association, aroused the enthusiasm of the delegates.
 Mayor Gaynor of New York was round- ly applauded for his attack on favoritism in railroad rates and monopolies.
 Other speakers included Col. Pleasant A. Stovall editor of the Savannah Press afatf df Atlantic seaport cities, who spoke on the relations of their ports to the water ways project.
 Colonel Stovall said the currents of commerce along the Atlantic deeper waterways, like the traffic on the Rhine, is destined to run north and south, that the association already had fired it's sig nal guns, with work begun on Cape Cod and the cut from Beaufort to Pamlico on the North Carolina coast completed.
 Through the courtesy of the Troy, N. Y., delegation. the old soldiers at the Con- federate Veterans home were entertained during the day by the band which ac- companied the delegation from Troy.
 Addresses were made and the inn promptu serenade took on an aspect of q reunion between the north and the south. Probably the proudest man at the con- vention today was Captain John Curtis, & Confederate veteran. who Is Richmond's harbor master. Mayor Gaynor of New York in greeting the veterans, remarked
 'Slr, I want to compliment you upon your striking resemblance of that great good man, General Robert E. Lee
 The southerner, swelling with pride, bowed low in recognition of the compli- ment
 Considerable rivalry exists in the con vention over the selection of next years meeting place. Hartford, Conn.,, Troy, N Y, and New London, Conn.,, are making efforts to secure the designation.
 The part which Colonel Theodore Roose- welt will take in the coming national cam paign will be one of silence, it became publicly known today through a letter which he wrote to Congressman 5. Hampton Moore. of Pennsylvania Dresi- dent of the Atlantic Deeper Waterways association, declining the honor of ad- dressing the association at it's convention here Colonel Roosevelt emphatically de- clared:
 "From now on wish to avoid making any speech that l possibly can avoid
 Concluding his letter MT. Roosevelt said:
 "I cannot undertake anything further of any kind or sort now"
 These portions of the colonels letter were taken by the waterways delegates to mean that he wished to refrain from giving utterance to any opinions which possibly might be miscontructed in con nection with the presidential campaign.
 The letter to President Moore begins with Colonel Roosevelt saying:
 q wish it were possible for my friends to realize my position, not for my sake. but because then they would understand just why it is that I cannot accept all the invitations which come to me.