Tazewell Republican. [volume] (Tazewell, Va.) 1892-1919, 1912-04-04
FOURTH ANNUAL
MEETING NEXT WEEK
Southern Commercial Congress will Convene
In Nashville, Tenn, On MOnday--Maw
Important Subjects Will be Discussed

Ia Nashville, Tenn, on next Monday,
President Duncan U. Fletcher, saws:
'The years 1911 to 1915 are appropri-
ate for national jubilee.
From the blackness of night the
South has come out into glorious day.
From the depths of a vast despair
she has risen in a spirit of chastened
triumph.
"The memories of her defeat in war
are being dispelled by the vision of the
enduring victories of peace.
During this jubilee period the South
ern Commercial Congress is devotitg its
annual meetings to setting forth the
facts of the South's recovery and estab-
fishing semi-centC nnial contrast.
THE first of these great meetings
was held in Atlanta to demonstrate by
every means in our power The South's
Physical Recovery That meeting
brought together thousands of men and
women.
''The second scene in the drama of
the South's recovery is set for Nashville,
April to 10, and will deal with the
south's agricultural and educational re
covery and related subjects. 1t comes
fifty years, save one day, after the bat
tie of Shiloh, and a hundred years after
the War of 1872. The stage is set in
Nashville, the home of old Hickory
hero of the War of 1872 An additional
reason for choosing Nashville is that it
is in the great Mississippi Valley, that
has exerted, and will continue to exert.
the most far-reaching enfiuence upon
the agricultural development of the
United States.
I'm 1913, at some Southern port, we
shall deal with the South's commercial
recovery.
'In 1914, in Oklahoma, we shall deal
with the South's internal development
"In 1915 we shall set forth, with all
power possible, the victories of fifty
years of peace. This meeting will pro-
badly be held in Washington.
'These meeting are held for the glory
of the South for the inspiration of her
men, and for the enlightenment of the
nation"
The movement represented by the Con-
gress was inaugurated in Washington
some three years ago, and has a two
fold purpose: To awaken in the South
ern States themselves a clear and more
comprehensive conception of their re-
sources, opportunities and possibilities,
and to remove from the minds of the
people of other parts of the country and
of the world at large misconceptions re-
garding this great section-misconcep
tions born for the most part of ignor-
ance or inaccurate knowledge of condi-
ton obtained here. The affirmations of
the organization point out that the
South is pre-eminent in coast line, in
costal indentations, In navigable streams
In water power, in average annual rain
fall, in varieties of soil, in number of
growing hours for crops, and in the pos
session of forests and minerals; while
the fundamental idea underlying it is
that the territory embraced in the six
teen Southern States constitutes
homogeneous section of the United States
with its own peculiar problems, and that
these problems group themselver under
the two general activities of having the
South know itself and in having the
country and the world at large know
the South.
The general headquarters of the Con-
gress are located at Washington, where
a building has been erected to serve as
a permanent place of exhibition for the
various products of the Southern States,
but in order to impress more forcibly
upon the country the great object and
purposes of the Congress a convention
Is held each year. The first two con-
ventions were held in Washington, at
the second of which it was planned that
the next five, coming during semi-cent-
nnial year, should be so worked out that
a reunited country could contemplate
the South's achievements along con-
structive lines during half century of
peace.
Last year the Congress met in annual
session in Atlanta, Georgia, at which
meeting the physical recovery of the
South was the principal theme. One
hundred addresses were made by men
of prominence in practically every field
of human endeavor-bus;ness, states
manship, diplomacy, ariculture and ed
ucstion. Those addresses have been
collected and published in volume
comprising more than a thousand pages
and continuing the most comprehensive
and illuminating compilation of facts
bearing on the South that has ever been
laid before the public. At the Congress
to be held in Nashville next week the
chief theme will be the education and
agricultural recovery of the South and
an attempt will be made to defind the
needs of the Southern States in the
matter of immigration. President Taft
and Governor Harmon, of Ohio, have
already accepted invitations to be pres
ent. Addresses will also be made nv