The Ocala banner. (Ocala, Marion County, Fla.) 1883-194?, 1914-11-06
RIGHT AouT FAcE-MARcHl
II is Time for the South to Show Its
Character

fed TO hold sway in the south, COM
mend us to the statement just issued
by Wright Willingham, president OF
the chamber of commerce OF Rome,
Ga. Even if Mr.. Willingham's views
are not accepted by all of the people
who read them, they are at least cal
culated to provoke discussion to stim-
ulate thought and make people try to
prove that they are not among the
"mollycoddles." Speaking of the fact
that we have been Boosting for over
one hundred years that we could be
independent of trade with the rest OF
the world, Mr.. Willingham says:
For more than one hundred years
the United States have made the
proud boast that this country could
live regardless of any exigencies that
might exist in other parts of the
world: that this country, bounded as
it is on the one hand by the Pacific
ocean and on the other by the Allan
tic, separated thousands of miles from
the Yellow Peril; on the other hand
separated thousands of miles from
the heterogeneous elements of CONT
mental Europe-the rest of the world
might go to hell, if they chose to do
so, and still we would be basking I'M
der the sunny skies of America-the
land bubbling over with milk and hon
ey and hog and hominy.
"And now, my fellow citizens, we
have an opportunity to illustrate the
declaration made by every hill-billie
orator of the last century or more,
from the mountains of New Hamp-
shire to the plains of Florida, and yet,
here we are, the average one of us,
going around like NANCY dogs, whin-
ing aboU.. the war You can hardly
get ar audience with a man on any
other subject, and nine-tenths of the
people seem to be under the impress
sion that somebody has done them or
their folks serious injury"
And then, after little more of the
same kind of vigorous English, he
adds:
1.-THE question at this hour is not
Who hit Billie Patterson?'-buta are
the American people-the southern
people, lot Of palefaced mollycod-
dies, with skinned goats milk flow
ing through their veins, or have they
inherited the rich red blood of our
American sires who left their bloody
footprints on the frozen valleys of
Virginia when George Washington led
them on to victorious deliverance
from the yoke of English royalty?
''True, We may have to abandon
some of our twentieth century luxu-
ries. 1t may be necessary for us to
adjust ourselves to new basis of liv-
ing-but should we surrender? True
it is some of our folks may have to
divert to some extent the stream of
gold that has for the last ten years
flowed from our vaults and into the
Golfers of Mr.. Ford, Mr.. Packard, Mr..
Buick and Mr.. Saxon and other es-
teemed fellow countrymen to the
north of us, but we can still raise mule
colts and Jersey bulls and get there
somehow, even though it be at low
er rate of speed.
'NTrue it may be that our women
folks may have to suspend their SUI
fragette convocations for a brief spell
| and resume the monotonous business
of looking after the babies and knit
ting sox for the men-but this is the
way they used to do, and they manag-
ed to live through it.
True it may be that our rich dads
won't have quite as much money to
spend on their boys in the way OF
Piedmont cigarettes, patent leather
shoes and ice cream clothes, and it
may even be possible that the boy
will have to learn something about
self-denial and physical labor-but
this is the way they used to do, and
several of them managed 10 live
through it. Take, for instance, Abra
ham Lincoln, and few other cheap
skates.
'True it may be that some of ouI
farmers will be driven, against their
will, to the production of hog ana
hominy, peas and potatoes and sor
ghum and cider-but that is the way
they used to do in the old days, and
some of them managed to live through
it.
True it may be that the insincert
politician who has been feeding the
dear people on glittering generalities
and pleasant platitudes may be called
upon to deliver the goods instead OF