The Birmingham age-herald., 1912-02-04

state Senator Watt T. Brown of Rag land delivered the following address at the recent banquet of the Gadsden Bus mess Mems league: 30 l It has been said that the south is syn onymous with opportunity We realize this to be true and believe that we are on the eve of a great development of the resources of the south Here the prizes are larger and more varied in character and the opportunities more readily grasped than in any other part of the United States.
 If the south is to have an unchecked development of her resources and an un- broken march towards industrial great ness she must have well trained, eff cient human labor supplied in adequate quantities.
 This labor can come to the industries of the south best from the training of our own people, and our own people should have the blessings that come from industrial efficiency in order that they may have share in the wealth derived from a develoument of the south's re- cources. with those coming into our country who are already skilled work men.
 0ere are three essential factors in the developnfent of every industry. These are capital. managerial brains and skill ed labor Through the wealth producing power of the American people abundant capital for legitimate manufacturing en- terprses has been available. The older and well established schools of technol- ogy and engineering have turned out men equipped with managerial brains. hut the supply of skilled labor has in no sense been adequate to meet the demands of manufacturers or conserve for the youth of the land the opportunities that come through industrial efficiency.
 The south feels in the beginning of her industrial greatness the value of splendid services rendered by the graduates of her schools of engineering and techno- ogy. Also her agricultural colleges have contributed their share of graduates who have exerted wholesome influence on agriculture.
 But the most crying need of the south todat is for a more general training of the masses of her workers both in the fields and in the factories.
 | We have in our midst great beds of iron ore. fields of coal forests of timber, etc. besides one of the greatest agri- cultural countries in the world. ] The key to this great vault of wealth l is industrial education. An education
 that will teach how to go down into the ground and bring out the raw materi- 1 ais and convert them into the most fin
 ished products instead of sending the ra W
 materials away to other countries, as WIG are now doing, to he manufactured into
 high class products only to be shipped 1 back 10 us at high prices: an education | that will teach us how to take a ton of nie l iron worth $l5 and transform it into the 1 highest grade steel valued at moro thar
 S5000; an education that will teach how | to take the timber from the fodests ani
 manufacture it into high class furniture
 etc; an education that will teach how
 to take the cotton products, the hack bone of the south. and manufacture
 them into the highest class cotton goods
 as well as other native products, and no
 ship the raw materials to the north an,
 cast to be manufactured there into fin ished products and to be sent back to u: at high prices.
 The north and east are only leading thu
 south on two propositions-they hav'
 more and cheaper money and skilled la | borers.
 Now, if we will teach and train ou
 boys and girls along industrial pursuits
 where the head and the hands co-opet
 ate. the south will be a greater wealtl | producer and then and there will tn south come into her own. With a splen did climate. our cheap lands and ou l great natural resources of all kinds. | the south is to be found the greatest op portunity before the American peopl
 for the development of industrial inter
 ests. for agricultural pursuits of ever. kind, for the making of homes and tn l investment of money, and no othe part of the United States can compet with us.
 The north and east are awake to tn realization that an industrial education the key to general prosperity and ar pressing now, more than ever. educatio EalonS this. line. They are beginning { specialize on everythinglN ,fe ] The city of New York regards spes,ia
 training so highly that 1t has establishe