The Lakeland evening telegram. (Lakeland, Fla.) 1911-1922, 1918-08-01
Enthusiastic Labor Meeting
Held Here This Morning;
Self Preservation Loyalty
League To Be Organized
SPLENDID ADDRESS HON. CLIFF WILLIAMS BROUGHT AUDIENCE
DO NECESSARY, PRODUCTIVE WORK; COMMITTEES NAMED

these returning heroes? l tell vol
the feeling in your hearts will make
hell seem like a real summer resort
to you.
| President Wilson says the devel
opment Of manpower is the most i'm
portant arm of the government just
now. The Germans are the best or
ganized people in the world In or
der to defeat them we must have q
stronger organization than they have
land we are getting it, too, don't
you forget. Any one of our boys
fighting with love of country in his
heart, is equal any day to two Ger.
mans who are driven to battle by
force. We must back them up with
the limit of our productive energy
here at home.
'The best friend the Kaiser has is
the man here in the United States
who eats but will not produce any
thing. That's the bully you folks
have got to get after and make him
hit the ball"
There were number of colored
people present, and Mr.. Williams adj
dressed them directly. In touching
words, he told of how his father left
his mother and her children during
the four years of the Civil War to
the care Of the colored slaves, and
came back to find things on the farm
in even better shape than he had left
them, due to the work of these faith
full servitors. IF I live thousand
years, can never repay the debt OF
gratitude I owe to the negro people,"
said the speaker. He complimented
the colored people on their many good
points-their sunshiny dispositions,
their total lack of a desire for re-
wenge. He said that their greatest
trouble, was that they had absorbed
too readily the bad phases of the
white mans character instead of the
good traits. BE sober and indus
trious, he admonished them, "and il
you do your duty, you will get =
square deal from the white man IN
the South, where you belong" Mr..
Williams closed with most compli-
mentary reference to Florida and the
enjoyment he had gotten out of hts
trip through the State. Il
Assistant Superintendent ]. A. Met
calf was then introduced, and he said
that for one time he had gotten ahead
of his chief; that the latter had waxed
most eloquent in his tribute to this
section, but that he himself, while
endorsing all that had been said, was
more consistent, as he had at that
time in his pocket a deed, just execu-
ted this morning, conveying to him
tract Of land within two or three
miles Of Lakeland.
Mr. Metcalf then reviewed the work |
Of the meeting at Barlow last night.
of which the meeting here this morn
ing was in effect continuation. The
object of the movement wos the or
ganization of Self-Preservatio 10y.
atty League. This organization pro.
poses to see that no slackers are per-
mitted In the city and county, and
that every man secures a position
necessary to the prosecution OF the
war. That labor is properly distrib-
uted between the different industrial
plants In the city and that in helping
themselves they also help the United .
States government in the solution of
Its most important wartime problem
The League will, at all times, coop
crate with the government in every
patriotic move.