The Birmingham age-herald., 1921-10-26
GOVERNOR TAYLOR
 GREETS VETERANS
 AT 31ST REUNION
Tennessee Executive Voices Pleasure Over Unity Exist ing In All Sections of the
 United States
Hx Associnted Press

or and former United states Senator James B. Frazier of Tennessee fea- .ured the opening session of the thirty first annual reunion of the United Confederate Veterans here to- lay. Governor Taylor, in welcoming he delegates, declared that he yielded to no one in his love for Dixie )r for the American republic. and voiced his pleasure over the unity existing in all sections. He said that for national unity, and he reconciliation was made complete when President Mckinley ordered headstones placed at the graves of dead at the expense of the government.
 Governor Taylor, referring to the souths part in the World war, paid tribute to the men of the 30th dlvi- sion, which was recruited partly in Tennessee, and which was given credit for breaking the Hindenburg line.
 Before launching his address,
 Governor Taylor called Johnny
 Bass, n grixxIed veteran and in-
 mate of the Nashville Soldiers
 home, to the platform. He then
 nskcd that n fiddIIng trio of
 Texans come forward, when the
 governor himself took up his fid-
 dIe and led the orchestra, with
 Johnny Bass at the piano. The
 crowd went wild when the fid-
 dIers started the musical pro
 gramme with "Dixie." and the
 rebel yell resounded throughout
 the tnbernncIe.
 Mayor A. w. Chambliss welcomed the delegates to Chattanooga in a happy vein, his declaration that he was Hooking for the men who kissed his wife" and his reply to a voice from the audience as to what he in- tended to do to the culprit that he was not going to do anything, but am proud of it," creating loud ap- plause.
 Following welcoming addresses from local speakers. Gen. John F. Hickman. commander of the Tennes- see division, U. c. ", turned the con vention over to Gen. K. NJ. Van Zandt, n-chief. Gen Van Zandt did not make an address, and after the reading of Virginia Frazier Boyles poem, "Chickamauga," the proceeded to bushes.
 Judge Howry of Washington, say ing that 1t had been suggested In the public press that the veteran orgap- ization be disbanded and reunions abandoned, offered resolution ask ing that committee be named to prevent disintegration.
 .t.x.- ,1r. !, Q |, address in response to welcoming speeches by Col. Mcdonald Lee or Richmond.
 Speech of Taylor
 The text of the governors speech followse
 The honor falls to me to welcome on behalf of,Tennesee, the surviving soldiers of the Confederate armies, to this their annual reunion, and to thank those in charge for having se> lected as the place of reunion, our great industrial city of Chattanooga.
 While we are ever ready and anx- ious i'd do honor to the heroes of the present, at the same time our affec- tionate regard for the heroes of the past Is none the less ardent, and we hold ourselves in readiness at all times to honor them also.
 "I have heard 1t said all my life that there is nothing In name. A rose by any other name would smell as sweet is a proverb hoary with age. as old as the prince of poets, it's author would be. were he alive to- day. But this proverb fails utterly when applied to Dixie. As I have said before on another occasion, the name of Dixie stirs the harp strings O lra ar1e n n life and a nation an epic more thrill ing than the Iliad of Homer--an epic of men as knightly as Henry of Ma varre; of woman as beautiful IS Hell en of ancient Troy and as' heroic as Joan of Arc; a new epic of battles as celebrated as Marathon or Thermo- pylae; of soldiers as illustrious as Miltiades or Leonidas: of statesmen as renowned as Pericles; of orators as brilliant and as powerful IS De- mosthenes; of poets as sweet, IS mel odious and as passionate as Sappho or Alcaeus, as weird and as tragic as Euripides.
 The name of Dixie calls into being a new epic of success and failure of hope and despair: of victory and defeat: of prosperity and diversity of love and hate of poetry. song and TOn1ancGr Oi N'iol anu PtAitHtts dIiI of dauntless courage in the face oi overwhelming cateclysm
 Nation Soiidified
 q repeat again. that through sucf vicissitudes no people in all the his tory of the race has ever passed and risen so quickly from such depths ol disaster to such a restoration ot blighted and ruined fortunes. I yielt to no one in my love of Dixie. be- cause l yield to none in my love for this great republic. Once divided ant therefore weak. 1t is now united ant therefore powerful.
 "The foundation for this unity O. the sections, was laid in the Spanish American war. when the first blood shed in the cause of humanity wa: the blood of a son of Dixie. Int reconciliation became universal anC complete when Mckinley ordered headstones at the expense of the fed eral government. to be placed at thu graves of the Confederate dead. as signing as the reason, that men wh' were willing to die for what the,
 tContinned on Page SeventeenD