The Birmingham age-herald., 1917-03-04
Mrs. Mathis and Frank Willis Barnett to Make
 Speaking Tour of County
Continued from Page Five)

1 (COntinued from Page Five) send each man away with a desire to be
 a better citizen and more effective
 worker in his special line. Now this l takes genius, and Mrs. Mathis Is a truly gifted yet unspoled woman. Her sim plicity is her chief charm When a guest
 in the magnificent home of MT. Wander
 blt, one of the worlds greatest bankers he said to her: Mrs. Mathis, I want you to meet Judge Gary" he of steel fame Without moments though, she
 replied: "Why, what do I want to meet
 him for?" q beg your pardon replied
 the courteous money king, T meant 1 | want MT. Gary to meet you.
 l Now she wasn't putting on. It never 1 occurred to her that it was any special l favor or honor to have an interview with l the great steel magnate and as she couldn't think of any reason for meeting him, she simply said so. She is by no
 means banker shy, for she Is used to the
 money kings and as their spokesman and | representa- tive has been able to do great 1 amount of agricultural missionary work l in Alabama
 | I said she was the Joan of Arc of ag- riculture. She has also been called an economic Moses. Surely she Is woman
 
 the west that the south is the promised land. She may not live to see the great exodus, but they are coming, coming.
 KEEP MONEY AT HOME She breaches that it's shame for us to send cotton money to other parts of
 the country to buy what ought to be | raised here. She is right, absolutely right Long may she live to cry aloud and spare not the people of Alabama who in the year 1914 sent over 100,O0O,0 900 north for food for man and beast. I'm glad to state that through hers
 and others pleas the increase in feed
 and products of 1915 over 1914 was 14,O0o,
 GOO bushels more of corn, 75O, GOO bushels of oats and several millions more bush els of peas. beans and potatoes. This, taken in connection with the greatest hay crop ever cut and the fact that the live , stock was increased in every county in
 the state, showed that our people are willing to be led
 Mrs Mathis is always more than will ling to give full credit to all the other agencies at work in the state to better conditions. We spoke of her as an economic
 Moses. Here was her message and an-
 swer of salvation to the "Buy-a-Bale'
 movement that was putting the central south into the charity or begging list:
 Raise what you eat and make cotton
 
 dozen words. but in them are hid the
 souths economic redemption from the north and west.
 Like an apostle of old, with true re- lligious fervor, for she is devotee to every uplifting movement; she toured her state and heartened the down hearted un- til today the sons and daughters of this
 fair state are smitten with a burning purpose to make Alabama the garden spot of the south.
 MUST FEED OURSELVES Her slogan. begun several years ago, was: ''We must feed ourselves" At first some thought, she was a bit fa- natical, others that she was an en- thusiast, still more who set her down as an optimist,. while the worldly
 wise or cynics passed her up as a
 dreamer. It takes fanatics. enthusiasts, optimists and dreamers to do things in this old conventional and conser- vative world in which we live. If it had not been for these types today we
 would be living in times no better than the middle ages.
 l Paul of old heard the cry, Come over into Macedonia and help us," and needing it he started a new religion on it's world tour. After Mrs. Mathis great Birmingham speech she leapt
 into fame and all over Alabama came cries from discouraged farmers, Come and show us how to feed ourselves" And she did it 50 successfully until
 the clamor was taken up not only in America but came floating oyer, the seas and the day the great war ends efforts already made to get her will be renewed.
 She is . woman of great common
 sense. She has no panacea. She