The Union times. [volume] (Union, S.C.) 1894-1918, 1914-06-12

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shade into the Irish potato and the
fruit of the night-shade into the to-
mato. We can remember the little
red berry of our grandmother's gar
den called the Love apple. This has
been developed into the modern to-
mato, which is used as food on all of
our dinner tables. He has taken the
wild grasses of Asia and developed
them into wheat and oats. He has
taken the wild dog rose and multi
piled it's petals and developed it into
which is the pride of the fair sex.
Truly, he has changed the face of
continents. He has turned the world
into a vast workshop where all of the
powers of nature submissively aid
him in all of his needs. Now fellow
graduates it devolves upon you to
take up this mighty on-rush of civil
ization and carry it on to a fuller
completion.
1t is the tendency of the age for
people to attribute mans success to
the goddess of luck. If man be-
comes wealthy of gains quick renoun
"He is lucky man." There is no such
thing as luck. If you will look about
and make a close investigation, you
will find that back of every achieve
ment there can be found great
amount of persistence and hard work
leadership.
In speaking of leadership, | could
point you to many landmarks of indi-
vidual leadership but 1 wish to hold
before the work and leadership of our
Southland as a whole. The greatest
fate that ever befell nation, crash
ed with ponderous weight upon our
Southland as result of the Civil
war; Resulting from this conflic:,
her lands were laid waste, the beauti-
full homes that once crowned her hill
tops were burned, her commerce was
destroyed, her school advantages to-
tally eclipsed, her money made coun-
terfeit, and her strong and stalwart
sons who were once the flower and
strength of the land, were left dead
upon the battlefield, soon to be for
gotten by their foes, but though dead,
their gallantry and bravery will ever
stand as monument to the lost cause,
held sacred in the hearts of their sons
and daughters.
But the surviving hero of the South,
after the last bugle had been sounded
and they stacked their guns as q tok-
en- of peace, went again to their DESC
late homes to take up the grim and
desperate struggle for life. These
men returned to no waiting opportun-
tiles or appointed tasks, but to a sad
dened and desolate land in which
tasks must be found and opportuni-
ties created. They were to work out
their tasks, without money, credit,
homes or utensils.
No other region among all of the
cultured nations, ever lost in less than
five years over one tenth of its pop
its wealth, and the very genius of its
life. No other region except Poland
1 eyer knew such losses; and Poland
ceased to exist. The mills of battle
and of grim starvation ground the
ssRRaaf sRafti q 'fodt na thrift Of the South so low
impoverished state. It was onlv IN
1900, after lapse of forty wears time
before the South had regained its pe1
capita wealth of 1860. Here existed
the submerged South, the silent. the
enduring, the patient, the grim South
constantly struggling under and econ.
omic and social depression, but with a
heritage and courage that knew not
1t has been the passing wonder of
our unlocking friends, why the South
mas been so slow in initiating the
great industrial regime that has revo-
iutlonlzed the present age. By your
PERMISSION, shall mention a few
reasons for its seeming stupidity
FIRST, of all the millions that have
been collected through tariff and in
ternal revenue from the Southern
states, less than 20 per cent of these
millions has been spent in the South.
Inc great naval expenses, amounting
annually to millions, are Scattered
abroad on the northern shores except
a plttance spent at Newport News.
" the fabulous sums spent annually
Dy the Federal government in the
erection of public buildings, less than
io per cent of this sum is spent in
the South. Of the vast sum that the
south pays each year into the Fed
era! pension fund, less than one tenth
OF IL ever returns into the South
Hence the Federal government has
Deen the conduit to drain the South of
IT'S currency. Is it a wonder that the
South has been too poor to build it's
own railroads, to erect factories or to
operate its own mines? But in spite
or all these facts the South is now
using It's own accumulated wealth
as working capital and has challenged
the spinners in Massachusetts, and
the iron makers in PENNSYLVANIA. Con
siderlng the natural advantages of
the South and her recent awakening
In industry, it is destined to become
tne producing and manufacturing sec.
tion of America.
Although our Southland has made
such wonderful progress along indus