The county record. [volume] (Kingstree, S.C.) 1885-1975, 1921-11-03
PRESIDENT HARDING
VISITS The SOUTH
SPEAKS AT BIRMINGHAM, AT
LANTA AND COLUMBUS TO
LARGE CROWDS.

President Harding concluded his
visit to the South Thursday with a
series of speeches in Georgia, re-
consecrating his administration to the
task of finally obligatory sectional
divisions.
In two addresses in Atlanta and one
at Columbus the President told crowds
of cheering Georgians that it was one
of his fondest hopes to see his presi-
dency bring North and South into
complete harmony and cooperation.
At the statue Of Henery w. Grady,
Atlanta's apostle Of national recon-
ciliation, Mr.. Harding broadened his
gospel of understanding and good
will" to include all the world and gave
notice that if the ornaments confer
ence fails to bring the nations into
complete concord " it will be no fault
of the United States of America"
Many thousands heard and cheered
the chief executive at the monument
and a smaller gathering of business
men applauded him when ne expressed
9 similar plea for understanding at a
luncheon at the Druid Hills Country
Club. Applause greeted him the
length of a street parade, along the
route of which thousands crowded the
sidewalks and cross streets, despite
drizzling rain which fell part of the
afternoon.
So great was the crowd which jam
med about the Grady monument that
many could not hear and those on the
outskirts made such disturbance
that the president twice interrupted
his speech to try to quiet them. The
noise continued, however, so that Mr..
Harding had to tax his voice to make
it carry even to those nearby. AT
last a force of police reserves joined
the soldiers and cadets assigned to
preserve order.
Following his address the president
was escorted to the Georgian Terrace
Hotel, where he was rendered short
reception before his special train de-
parted for Washington.
The presidents visit to Atlanta and
Columbus followed an early morning
stop at the Infantry school at Camp
Benning, where the chief executive
saw q realistic demonstration of an
infantry attack, in which all the forms
of fire Of real warfare were brought
into play.
In 3. speech later at the luncheon
here Secretary Weeks Of the War
Department, a member of the presi-
dental party, praised the spectacle
and declared that Camp Benning was
zone of the things that should not be
Trapped" in the after~war cleanup.
During the days speech-making Mr..
Harding did not again mention the
race problem, on which he delivered
an address Wednesday in Birmlng-
ham, Ala. Another member of his
cabinet, however, Secretary Fall, of
the Interior Department, alluded to
the Birmingham address at Thursdays
luncheon as one of the greatest de-
liverances ever addressed to the
American people.
T want to say to you," he said,
"that when the message that the pres
ident brought to the South and de-
livered yesterday at Birmingham is
carried to all the people of the South
and it will be seen that no man who
ever spoke to the people Of the South
has carried to the people of the South
a message more in their interest"
The presidents luncheon speech
was very brief and was confined to
a reiteration of his plea for national
unity and of outstanding throughout
the world.
In his Grady monument speech the
president drew an analogy between
the lessons of the Civil War and those
of the World War, and declared his
hope that the spirit of reconciliation
typifed by Grady would find new ex-
preston in the present reconstruct
tion.
Unable to make himself heard from
the car, the president went to a
truck in the center of the railroad
ward where as he spoke Mrs. Hard
ing stood beside him, almost hidden
by a double arm-full Of flowers. He
pleaded that every thought OF Sec
tionalism be put aside forever, de-
claring his administration had been
actuated by that sentiment in bring
ing aid to the cotton situation at the
same time that we were helping the
grain situation elsewhere"