The Birmingham age-herald., 1920-06-14
MEN, WOFTEN
 AND THINGS

of spenders, and the way American tourists have scattered gold abroad and wasted it at home gave them the right to confer the title upon us. But if the average citizen of these United States is given to parting with his money freely, it is a weil-known fact that southerners have earned | reputation for their prodigality. There is an old saying that man this side of the Mason and Dixon line is rich as long as he has dollar in his pocket, and when that is gone he is willing to exhaust his credit
 Some wise economists have pointed out the fact that the only thing which kept the southern white after the free ing of the slaves from remaining bankrupt was because the negro was more improvident than his old masters But it does not take a Solomon to know that had our fathers been com polled to live side by side with thrifty race after years of an.e-bellum free living, the soil and wealth would have passed out of their hands.
 
 Years ago. when Nthe agitation against the yellow races coming into the United States was so acute in the west, I felt that it was an unchristian thing and contrary to the spirit of humanity; but after more mature thought I began to see that l the law of Se1f-nrasarxotio, b,d n rjghtful place even in a land which was founded to give a home to those who believed in religious freedom and an asylum for the oppressed from mon- archical tyranny.
 can therefore sympathize with the exclus1onists who are unwilling to l open their doors without restriction to I hordes of foreigners whose scale of living is far below the American stand ard, and therefore willing to work | longer hours for less pay because of l tbeir ability to put up with things which no white man wants for himself or his family. Had not safeguards been thrown around the orientals the extreme west would have passed into | their hands and we would have had a greater problem with our yellow cit- | izens' than we have today with "our brother in black"
 The competition has been keen enough with the immigrants from cer- ! tain parts of Europe who, tempted by | good wages, have come over here and l slaved and saved and when their piles were made returned to their homes to spend 1t. This is one reason why there has been such an outcry against for 1 elgn settlements in our great cities. I l realize that I have almost without | meaning it opened up a mighty big | question which is only yet now begin- 1 hing to attract the attention it de- serves because of it's menace in more ways than one.
 1 I never tire of reading about the old 1 type southern gentleman and his gra- cious helpmeet. There is an air of TO- | nance about the porticoed mansionsi with their stately columns, wide halls and spacious living rooms, which fires 1 the imagination. The whole thing had an aristocratic basis, having it's birth in the landed estates of the English rcblemen. man was the master of his house, just as the woman was the
 
 and Call. It was bred in the bone. | It was considered bad form to give too much thought to money, and so l there grew up race of men who 1 tossed it about with free hand It might be all right for Yankees to save | and scrimp, but for a southern gentle man to be known close was to set | him down as a miser, or at least as l Ct ha bafu 1 tv sections could not be accounted for by climate alone, for different ideals rnled, and then slavery had it's influ- ence.
 Then came the shock of war, which left its bitter imprint on the minds of the Unionists and the Confederates. But the bitterest dose of all for the south was the awful days of recon | structiop. I am writing without even a tinge of bitterness for I was born }atter the wars close, and was too lt- tie to realize the full cup of bitterness pressed upon the lips of the van qulshed. Perhaps it is possible after half century to look upon the acid | test as the quickest way to make the south see that the old ways of living had perished from the face of the earth and that she had to walk in new paths of economy and frugality.
 | I think the world will acknowledge that the south showed the mettle of its people in the way they went to work to rehabilitate devasted coun- try; but in spite of everything 1t was not humanly possible for a people to completely reverse themselves in few years, for it takes time to ge. habits which have endured through genera tons out of the blood. Some few ac- i complished the feat. but the greater part went limping through life, out of go back to the stride of the old days |
 Bnt at last the miracle Is being ac- ! complished, and more and more the south is learning the lesson that to be eeonomical does not mean to be nig ! gardly, and this encourages me even in these days when money seems to be the only cheap thing to try and urge upon the people not to throw it away. but make it buy it's full value, how ever little that may be when it's worth is less than a half of what it was be- fore 1914. for the day is coming when it's purchasing value is going to be greatly increased. and therefore is worth putting aside for a rainy day"
 
 The government is preaching thrift through its bureau of publicity for it's bulletins come to my desk weekly It had many speakers urging it from platforms. It seems willing that every enc should practice it except itself but why complain. for it seems to