Shenandoah herald. [volume] (Woodstock, Va.) 1865-1974, 1925-07-10
APPOMATTOX TO
STONE MOUNTAIN
A story OF Unparalleled Achievement
Showing How Nightly the
South Has Wrought
JOHN RANDOLPH HoRNADY

Just three-score years have passe,
since the South laid down it's arm
and, with empty hands, turned to tn
task of repairing its shattered for
tunes. How marvellous these years
hlled to the brim with epic accom-
plishments, and how dazzling the vi
sion which dawned upon the peopl,
as these fruitful years drew to thei,
close,
/ Never has a people wrought more
worthily in the accomplishment OF
material things, or given loftier play
to noble and heroic sentiments. II
has been period in which the
southern people dreamed great
dreams, translating them into actu-
aiity. and its close is marked by the
Inauguration of a work more daz-
rzllng than ever man conceived in all
the ages of the past-the conversion
of mountain into the most colossal
memorial the world has ever known.
one that overshadows the Pyramids
and is more inspiring and more en-
during than all the vaulted temples
raised by the ancients to the won
der of succeeding ages. Fitting. in
deed, this climax to sixty years of
Homeric achievement.
Much lies between the surrender of
the South at Appomattox in 1865 and
the triumphant achievement which is
being witnessed at Stone Mountain
IN 1925, and the story is one which
well may inspire pride in the heart
OF every American, whether from the
North or the South, the East or the
West. The Stone Mountain Confed-
crate Memorial is and will ever be
more than a memorial to the immor-
tai heroes of '61-'65. 1t speaks now
and will ever speak of the energy,
the genius and the fine spiritual
qualities of people who could con-
ceiye so great a vision and who had
the faith and the courage to make
it a reality. Indeed, in reading this
stupenduous monument to the he
roes OF another generation, the peo-
pie of this golden age are rearing
transeendent testimonial to them
selves.
In briefly tracing the journey of
the South from Appomattox to Stone
Mountain-a journey begun with
empty pockets and with no indemni.
ty in the offing-one might we'll en-
ter railroad construction as the great
irst-step in the journey of progress.
How the South managed to finance
the repair of destroyed railroads and
the building of new lines of commu-
nication is. one of the mysteries of
that stirring period, but somehow the
thing was done, and transportation
soon began to play major part in
the scheme of regeneration. But
these early railroads were not of
standard gauge, and freight moving
in or out of the South had to be
transferred from ear to car-the
cost, the delay and the inconvenience
OF which one may we'll imagine. In
the early eighties, this condition had
become intolerable, and Southern
railroad executives decided to stand
ardize, which they did shortly there
after, performing the task in two
hours, That was a dazzling feat in
itself. OF course, there had been
much preliminary work, but the ac-
tual shifting of the rails was accom-
plished while the long hand on the
watch made two circuits of the dial,
and thereupon the operation of trains
was resumed. the running gear hav-
ing been standardized meanwhile by
the simple process of lifting locomo-
tives and cars from one set of trucks
and placing them on others
The Standardization of Southern
railroads was, one milestone in South
ern progress. Another was the de-
velopment of a process from convert
ing Southern iron into steel, old
processes refusing to work when ap-
piled to Southern ores. This prob
lem, which was solved at Birming-
ham in the early nineties, introduced
an era of industrial expansion which
has contributed nightly to the
wealth of the South. 1t led to the
investment of hundreds of millions
of dollars in Southern communities.
It brought steel mills, rod mills, wire
mills, plate mills, structural steel
mills, ship building plants, and hun
dreds of kindred enterprises, open
ing new avenues of employment and
adding immensely to the wealth and
population of the South. 1t created
new cities and FASTENED the growth
of old ones.
i Another great milestone in the
march of Southern progress is found
at the point where the South deter
mined to develop its own resources
Henry Grady, that brilliant apostle
of the New South, put his finger
upon this weak spot in the Southern
; armor some forty years ago, produc
! ing a little classic in which he toll
of the funeral of Southern boy
and pointed out that all the Soutl
furnished was the corpse and tn
1hrIa IN tha pround ct;rrad ~, ~,