The Birmingham age-herald., 1924-02-03
DEATH REMOVES
 UNIQUE FIGURE.
Daniel T. Smith Strong But Modest Figure In Com
 munity's Life

IEIc0 uASt4uCb iOoo, anu ShoPPSb OOAs has written a sketch calling attention to some of the outstanding facts of his life as follows:
 2 To the Editor of The AgeHerald:
 1t seems to me that the recent death of Mir. Daniel T. Smith deserves more extended comment in the press than any of our papers have recorded 1t. Certainly when a good man dies the virtues of his life point a moral for the young. When a successful man passes out from among us, the why and wherefore of his success should be a subject of inquiry and the answer of value to all who are still living.
 Mir. Smith held commanding posi- tion in this community. Not that his name appeared often. So far as know his picture was never printed. , But if we should search every manu- facturing establishment among us, where would you find his superior in trustworthiness and efficiency!
 When good and great Dr. Carlos c. Smith was president of the University ef Alabama. they had prayers every < morning and some remarks from the doctor. He read Greek and Latin for pastime and pleasure, but he said to us enc morning: Don't use these words derived from the dead languages. Use good old Anglo-Saxou. Don't say a man is reliable Say he is trust --orthy.'" From that hour to this, l ha cherished the word as embodying ne. all that any man can hope to be. .aa still hear the deep-rich tones in wn good Dr. Smith emphasized its Efe~u 2. Trustworthy. Two good Sl as words, worthy of trust
 Great Example Dead.
 Surely when a man worthy of all trust passes to his reward great ex- ample is dead, even though his station were humble and his sphere of action small But this man occupied in all medesty a great position, one of the chief places in his city. in his state. even in his country. He commanded an army of thousand men, and had TO trouble with them, except such trouble as he took to help those of them eee rseded his friendly hand. Nothing ever did or said, nothing in his
 aan or his speech ever asked your t-al, n to his headship of this great rst working men. or to the millions
 r;a, and of products and of equip .f nd of moving machines that i-,S up to him. He never failed u5e or any duty. He was the em-
  sa- 9,.le $ trusted him because he was ; a rtas If all trust.
 be ontinental Gin company is one If - ,reat manufacturing establish nlors America. In all its depart p,ents d all it's branches 1t is famous | ta- fts olidity and efficiency. It gets a1sr- smoothly we hardly know it's f.are apt as we see the smoke of its ne and see it's merchandise in transit nd note it's workmen and it's ] employees as the solidest of all the solid customers in our offices and stores and banks Did you ever hear of one ot them being refused credit? What a marvellous question that IS Tn It's sug- gestiveness
 Just how much of this business righteousness, that peculiar and dis tfnctive character we all know and yet cannot put in words about this great corporation, was due to him, more than : to- the rest. is an inquiry neither properssnor worthwhile. He did his part and something more. What bet ter can be said of any man than some thing fiore?'
 Second Generation
 What I started out mainly to say was that Mir. Smith as manufacturer was of the second generation. Back in the eighties and nineties, Alabama was almost purely an agricultural state, and those of us who loved her and tried to help put her forward, devoted } our efforts and based our hopes on pro ductive industry as the only and surest road to growth and greatness. Only those of us who were here in the strug- gfe can realize how slowly it came about, how hopeless it seemed at times, n ke, fn no It was borne in on my mind, absorbed into my consciousness, that manufac- turing growth and success must come as a development, not boom. If Bir- mingham were ever to become great and enduring productive center, only that ability and bias that is handed down from father to son, would ever make it so. How many second genera tion men are gradually getting into the front of our manufacturing procession! I have known them nearly all, the pio- neers, the founders, the organizers. Some of them are not much heard in the second generation. Perhaps some will yet reappear in the third or some where down the line. But if you will only look around you and note the facts and think 1t over, you will be glad at the, number of the families who are be- coming d tradition and planting us all on that solid ground of father to son that made both England and New Eng Iand so greatly enduring as the abode of busy and skillful hands.
 Let me here set it down as my belief that of all our second generation men of mechanics and machinery. not one has shone like Daniel T. Smith.
 One more observati tion and this trib- rlte is done He looked about him with wide open eyes. He knew what was going on and he was ready to condemn what was wrong and to say what he thought about it. He could condemn, but nobody ever saw on his face the eynie's look or heard in his voice a sour tone. He did not believe that all was we'll in the very best possible world. Neither did it ever cross his busy mind that the wrong would win in the long run I think he felt that he knew it would not. His remedy! That every man should keep in mind what he harmed at his mothers knee and from his fathers counsel, and at the church where he worshipped as boy and man, and do his individual part. He looked around him and saw that more men we're trying to do right than wrong, and said so and acted and believed ac- eordfngfy. If the reader will recall the open graves by which he has stood from time to time in his life he will also recall that most of his dead friends had more or less successfully practiced the simple philosophy of the life of Daniel T. Smith And this dead friend of so many of us came as near to living his philosophy of Do your part" as any man who ever lived at any time or