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HEARST’S SUNDAY AMERICAN, ATLANTA, OA., SUNDAY, MAY 25, 1013.
Fate of Tallulah Falls To Be Decided This Week
Will the Daring $5,000,000 Power Project
Go for Naught? Court to Rule on Riparian
Rights to Beautiful Turbulent River.
Will the greatest and most daring
development project in the South,
which lias been worked out at a cost
of close to J6,000,000, all go for
naught?
The question probably will be de
cided this week, when Monday, In the
court of Rabun County, will be called
the case of the State of Georgia vs.
the Georgia Railway and Power Com
pany of Atlanta, entailing the owner-
°f Tallulah Falls, and the right
of the company to convert to its own
use the water of the beautiful and
turbulent Tallulah River.
. The story of the suit is simple. The
Georgia Railway and Power Company
contends that when it purchased,
three years ago, the property sur
rounding Tallulah Falls, it secured
title to the gorge of the river and the
riparian rights of the stream. Bitter
ly opposing the corporation is a fac-
tion of conservationists, headed by
Mrs Helen Dortch Longstreet, widow
of the famous Confederate general
wll ° declare that the gorge never was
ceded by the State, and that the per
sons selling the property to the power
company did not themselves possess
title to it.
Tunnel May Be Worthless
” ‘ne conservationists win the suit,
* n “ * *h e title to the gorge is vested
in the State, then the gigantic engi
neering feat which the power com-
P an >' n as Put through will be useless.
A 14-foot tunnel, more than a mile
and a quarter in length, which has
been bored through solid rook to skirt
the famous cataract, will be as worth
less as a mole trail. A dam higher
tnan the structure whoj^e collapse de-
etroyed Austin, Pa., will be a wall
with no more function than an aban
doned barn. And the entire project of
the ambitious power company will be
defeated.
Purchasing the land about Talfulah
Falls, the Georgia Railway and Power
Company three years ago announced
Its intention to exploit the water of
the mountain stream to develop 90 000
horsepower of energy,
“To furnish power to industries in
^orth Georgia, and to decrease the
cost of manufacturing from 30 to 70
per cent,” was announced as its pur
pose. Forthwith it proceeded to work
toward this development.
Several thousand feet above the
falls a great dam was built, 380 feet
across the river gorge and' 115 feet
high. Phe dam is one of the most
considerable on the American con
tinent. Several thousand feet below
the falls a power house Was built,
with a tremendous capacity.
Rock Had To Be Conquered.
But as great as the two structures
are. they are insignificant in com
parison With the task that they in
volved. To connect the two, a,‘tun
nel was conceived, 6,663 feet in length,
sloping down through the mountain!
through the most unyielding
and impervious of rock. The concep
tion itself was gigantic, the work even
more so.
The tunnel has an inlet Just above
the dam. It has a cross sectional area
of 151 square feet. The head of wa
ter on the tunnel is 31 feet. At the
lower end of the tunnel, which has a
uniform drop of two feet in 1.000 feet,
a large surge basin was quarried in
the opposite side of the
inlet tunnel, and connected with
six steel penstocks at a point
about half way down the side of the
gorge. By means of this dam and
tunnel a 600-foot head of water is
obtained at the power house a mile
and a quarter below. The diameter
of the penstock, or steel tubes, is five
feet each, and their length 1,075 feet.
By means of the tunnel, a portion
of the water in the stream is di
verted* and will run, an underground
river, around the waterfalls. The con
servationists declare that the beau
ty of the falls will be destroyed. In
answer to this plaint, the power com
pany makes the showing that only
about one-third the natural volume
of the stream will flow through the
tunnel, and thus the falls will not be
ruined as a scenic feature.
Beauty Unhurt, It Is 8»id.
The power company also will pre
sent in its defence that the beauty of
the gorge while necessarily changed
by the addition of the dam and the
power house, will not be marred.
The power company already has
established its transmission lines, two
in number, with steel towers. The
towers are 0 t 70-foot height, and on
the copper wire of the lines the
power will be brought to Atlanta, a
distance of 87.5 miles, at a pressure
of 110,000 volts. Lines are also being
built to many other neighboring
towns, and it is expected to have a
large connected load by the time the
development is completed.
A storage dam, 700 feet long and 97
feet high, has been built at a point
seven miles above the intake dam,
and provides a storage of 1,250,000,000
cubic feet.
All this work has been laid by the
Georgia Railway and Power Com
pany with a confldence that its title
to the property will be sustained by
the courts. The fight against the
power company will be made on the
ground that the original State survey
of 1818 and 1819, which marked the
land belonging respectively to Rabun
and Habersham Counties, did not es
tablish the center of the stream as
the county boundary, but the edge of
the gorge on the Habersham County
side.
Gorge Not Ceded, They Say.
The gorge of the stream, according
to Mrs. Longstreet and the conserva
tionists, was never ceded by the State
to any county, but remained the prop
erty of the State government, and
therefore transactions subsequent to
the 1818 survey, by which the gorge
area has chftnged hands, were illegal
and to no purpose. Thus is sought
to wrest from the power company
the land on which it serenely has
built its developing agents.
The power company, however, is
sanguine of victory, claiming that a
surveying party sent out by Hoke
Smith, when he was Governor, and a
iater party sent out by Governor
Brown, both returned the verdict that
the Georgia Railway and Power Com
pany was within its rights. •
The suit against the power company
was brought by Attorney General Fel
der, at the instance of the State Leg
islature. Mrs. Longstreet, failing to
enlist the executives in her fight, took
the issue to the State Senate in the
1912 session. The appeal of the con
servationists for a suit to oust the
power company was indorsed by the
company Itself, desirous of freeing its
title of the cloud.
Another Fight Promised.
If the State wins the fight in the
courts, the conservationists have de
clared. another fight will be made be
fore the Legislature this summer,
when, they foresee, the development
company will endeavor to purchase
the rights of the stream from tile
State. This, too, they will fight.
Last year when agitation first began
to prevent the intrusion of modern
industrialism into the scenes of Geor
gia’s greatest natural beauty, Mrs.
Minnie Moore, of Rabun County, and
Mrs. Longstreet were the leaders. Mrs.
Moore sought to restrain the company
from stretching its lines on her lands,
and Mrs, Longstreet attacked the
company from every conceivable
WOMAN SUFFRAGE IN
S OME of these days, perhaps, the
women of the South will be
given the right of suffrage,
and will exercise that right freely
and generally. Some of these days,
perhaps—yes! But, in all human
probability, not soon.
There are many advocates of
woman suffrage in Dixie. They
are right thinking and earnest
thinking people, who see much in
woman suffrage that commends
Itself to them, and they unhesi-
^ tatingly stamp it with their ap
proval, as a theoretical proposi
tion, anyway.
They are neither so foolish nor
yet so hidebound that they refuse
to admit the possibility of seeing
through a millstone with a hole In
i it; and by the same token, they
f grant the possible good effect of
woman’s participation in the vot
ing, at least in certain circum
stances.
The South will be the last sec
tion of the nation, nevertheless, to
grant suffrage to its women, be
cause, in the South’s old-fashioned
and maybe misguided way, it has
not become convinced that to grant
woman the right of suffrage would
not make her less womanly.
Woman’s Rights in Georgia.
That’s the sum and substance of
Southern lukewarmness to woman
suffrage—the fear of a depreciat
ing effect upon woman herself.
The time long has pasesd when
the advocate of “woman’s rights"
is laughed at and sneered to phameu
silence, either in this section or
any other. Women have many
rights in the South to-day that
they do not enjoy in some other
localities. Georgia, Cor instance,
absolutely exempts a wife’s prop
erty from levy and sale for her hus
band's debts, and denies to her the
fight in any way to make her prop
erty subject thereto. Not only is
she protected amply against her
/ husband’s misfortunes in a business
way. but she is quite as amply pro
tected against herself and her pre
sumably wifely inclination to help,
neither wisely nor well, as she
likely would be tempted to do, in
ordinary financial crises in the
home.
^ hen the time comes that the
women of the South really ask for
Wj the ballot—when the time arrives
/ that they sincerely believe the right
* of suffrage necessary and qssen- j
tun to their welfare and the safe
ty of the State and the protection |
of their own firesides—then, for the
asking, the right of suffrage will be
conferred upon them.
It is going to be a long, long time,
however, before the women of the
South come to feel that way about
suffrage.
Woman stands more uniquely a
thing apart from ordinary business
life in the South, perhaps, than
anywhere else in the nation.
Women on High Pedestal.
For some reason or other, the
men of the South have elected to
place their women on a very high
pedestal—in a way, the menfolks
down Dixieway are foolishly fond
of their womenfolks, their mothers,
their daughters, their wives, their
sisters, their cousins and their
aunts.
There is something more in that
much-abused term. “Southern chiv
alry,” than many people imagine!
In the South the women largely
are of native stock. Their fathers,
their grandfathers and their great
grandfathers were Southern men
before them. And those fathers,
and grandfathers, and great-grand
fathers always have lifted their hats
in a feminine presence, largely am
plified their courtesy in response to
feminine demands and desires, and
"my deared” and “certainlied” and
“to-be-sured” so continuously in
conversation with their mothers,
and grandmothers, and great
grandmothers that—well, the wom
en of the South naturally expect a
very great deal of the men by way
of gentleness and peculiarly re
spectful consideration. And they
would be astonished beyond meas
ure if they failed to receive all of
that and more!
It may be said of the men of the
South that they constantly have
“spoiled” the women dreadfully and
that the time now has arrived when
the “spoiling" should cease.
They Revel in Spoiling.
Still, when one stops to consider
how long the women of Dixie have
been “spoiled” by the men thereof
and how truly and surely they have
fairly reveled in the “spoiling ’—
how they have “just loved it.” may
hap—one readily may see how cer
tainly woman down this way will
incline to go slow In inaugurating
any movement likely to upset that
ancient and approved order of
things. „
Being wise in their generation,
the women of the South know that
the men delight to think of them
Picturesque Tallulah Falls and Mrs. Helen Dortch Longstreet, who is leading a fight against the Georgia Railway and Power Company, which, she says, will destroy the scenic beauty of this
wonderful river. The large falls and one of the smaller are shown.
Grave Tales in Flower Tongue
By ANN TEEK
On St. Simons Island, at FYederlka,
there is a little old-fashioned ceme-
tary, half hidden under the moss-hung
trees, and folded away In the kindly
shadows of oleander and magnolia.
Ancient spiders have woven their
webs across the open doors of neg
lected tombs, and were it not for
the bright flowers that bloom about,
there would be a weird desolation
there.
The old schoolmaster, who taught
the colonist children to read and
write, sent over to Georgia and the
Carolinas, by the board, from London,
in 1734, lies under the low, flat four
legged slab where he has slept for
more than a century and a half. Some
of the men who died at Fort Ann,
some who gave their lives on Bloody
Marsh, and many a youth and maiden
whose romance was dreamed under
the patriarchal^ trees down beside the
Altamaha, are likewise burled there.
You can close your eyes, and in
fancy hear the familiar notes of the
hag-pipe. You can hear the voice
of John Wesley preaching to the red
men under the gigantic oak that still
bears his messages to the world, and
perhaps you might hear the phantom
whisper of his one colorful but tem
pestuous love affair that was partly
enacted at Old Frederika.
But back to the grtive yard! I
wandered there one summer morning
noting the abundance of palm and hy
drangea. Remembering the field of
white popples, that resembled a flock
of irresponsible butterflies through
which I had passed, when my eyes
fell upon a grave upon which gleamed
a small crimson flower that was like
a glowing star. Its five red petals
lay flat upon the earth, destitute of
blade or leaf, and so beautiful was it
that I covered the strange flower.
The stem of the blossom was
scarcely perceptible above the ground.
I closed my fingers about It, and be
gan gently to pull. Inch by inch it
grew under pressure. A foot, two,
three, and maybe four, it came Into
view, waxen, succulent, quivering. At
last it broke, and with a sudden thrill
began twisting about my wrist and
arm. It clung like a wraith—like a
transparent snake, until I was almost
afraid.
Trembling with passion, quivering
with life, from trfe very heart of the
dead it had come with its nerves and
scarlet lips for the star-flower had
grown exactly over the place where
the heart of the long gone dead had
beat.
• • •
Another flower story has come Io
me this week. Over a year and a half
ago, a young man and maiden well
known in society, were married. The
romance was as sweet as a romance
could be. The young wife was very
fair and very fragile, and when the
little baby came she began to fade
away like a wraith. After a time she
died, and the baby lived. The young
husband, knowing that the little
mother had loved pink roses very
much, planted one at the head of the
grave. During the weeks that fol
lowed. never a bud or blossom un
folded. until Mothers’ Day, and then
the little rose bush put out all its
shower of fragrant flowers, and one
by one dropped their petals on the
narrow mound, until it was covered
as with a rosy mantle.
* * •
Orth Stein, artist-writer, once sent
to an Atlanta woman, who had rend
ered him a trivial service when he
w r as ill, a splendid Easter Lily. Twelve
perfect blossoms were opened upon
the slender stalk. In time the plant
died, and was thrown away in the
garden. Next spring the woman
walking among her flower beds, dis
covered that the bulb had reached out
and taken root in the kindly soil. For
days the little sheaf of green strug
gled on towards the light, and finally
put forth a bud. A well-known news
paper reporter made a pretty story of
the lily, and a woman seeing it In
print wrote an appreciation of its
effort to live, comparing the plant
witji her own life.
Well, the woman to whom Orth
Stein had sent the lily, had It carried
to the woman who proved to be one
of the unfortunate, and whose last
look on ^earth was fixed upon the
bright little blossom.
* * •
On the point of St. Simons Island
one finds a gigantic magnolia tree.
In days primeval, an oak tree stood
where 'the magnolia stands. From
the heart of the oak, was taken a
beam that went Into the building of
the old ship, Constitution, and then—
the three gradually wasted away un
til a hollow' stump was all that re
mained. In time a migratory bird,
feeding its young, perhaps in the
stump, dropped the seed of a mag
nolia, and taking root It grew, and
grew*, until Its lovely leaves spread
out In the sunshine, and its Gary-
mead cups were offered to the birds
and butterflies, filled w’lth nectar. And
there it stands to-day a fragrant mes
sage from the past.
* t •
A well-known Daughter of the Con
federacy tells the story of how one of
the soldiers of her family came home
to die during the w’ar with the States.
After he died his uniform was laid
away as one of the sacred treasures
of the family. Nearly half a cen
tury passed and the uniform was
taken from its place of security. In
the pocket was found a peach seed.
This seed was planted and It grew.
Since then it has flowered and borne
fruit.
• * *
I am here reminded of the theft of
a research party who were making in
vestigations in Egypt several years
ago. When the tomb of an Egyp
tian Princess was opened, a small fil
igree vessel containing corn grains
was found on the breast of the mum
my. Filching a few grains of the
corn the Egyptologist brought them
back to his home in this country, and
gave several grains to a friend of his
in Kentucky. The corn sprouted,
grew, and bore ears of corn. These
were distributed among the friends of
the planter and In a short time there
were thousands of stalks of corn,
grown from the few' grains that had
lain for many hundreds of years in
the grave of a Princess of the Nile.
By ROSWELL FIELD
A MAKESHIFT MARRIAGE.
M rs. batluh-rkynolds is
the author of certain con
ventional and not very highly
colored romances, a woman of rep
utable standing in English literary
circles. She is reminiscent of those
amiable ladles of letters who preface
every chapter with a nice little quo
tation from Browning, Tennyson, the
Rossettis and Jean Ingelow, with an
occasional dab at Maeterlinck, Austin
husband, in spite of her contradictory
fondness, and Oliver begins to appre
ciate the pearl he has thrown away.
All heroines In conventional novels
are pearls, and are at one time or aa :
other thrown away.
At the end the American repents of
his acts toward the noble young Eng
lishman, spirits his wife. Vivian, from
the danger zone, and leaves Oliver
and Astrld to begin life anew under
more favorable auspices.
While there is nothing very thrill
ing in this narrative of the unhappi-
Dobson and William Watson. This ness which pursues faithless man and
... . .. . t t*i i ct 1 n cr '’tvnlatH o« thuv mil tne./r
pastime we may describe as an Inter
mezzo, a literary relaxation, some
thing to lift the mind above the sor
did details of the contemporaneous
novel.
Among Mrs. Balllie-Reynolds’ late
contributions to letters is “A Make
shift Marriage,” published by Hodder
Stoughton. The scene Is laid in
the suburbs of London, and involves
certain worthy, middle-class people.
Oliver Brendon, a young maga.zlno
editor, has given his faith to a fluffy
little girl, Vivian Faulkner, who has
rewarded him by throwing him over
and accepting the affections of a vis
iting American millionaire.
In revenge for this slight, the
wrathy Oliver proposes to and mar
ries a young stenographer, Miss As-
trid—whatever it may have been. As
trld, unfortunately, loved him, which
complicated matters, inasmuch os
from the start ho behaved like the
cad he was.
Vivian repents of her engagement
to the American and seeks to renew
her affair with Oliver, who too late
sees that with less haste he might
have won back his sweetheart. The
rest of the story is taken up with th*
efforts of all parties to straighten
their tangled affairs. The American
suspects both his wife and Oliver,
and resorts to various unworthy
deeds to wreak vengeance on Oliver.
trusting “typists,” as they call them
in England, let us admit that for lack
of anything more stimulating the
story will prove eminently satisfac
tory to the readers who never weary
of the contradictions of tho human
h< ut.
Spite marriages are not infrequent
as the bases of sentimental stories,
and many desirable lessons may be
learned from the .folly of defrauding
a trusting woman to punish a silly
and faithless one. Mrs. Balllie-Rey-
nclds does not like America or
Americans, and in common with va
rious other authors and authorises
of British birth and family does not
hesitate to administer such reproving
slaps as may ease her feeling and
establish her principles.
While It Is manifest that Railton
acted in a manner not at all worthy
of a, high-minded American gentle
man,’ he was the veritable soul of
chivalry In comparison with the cad
dish Oliver, who followed his selfish
instints and purposes to the limit un
til ho saw what a silly little fool had
jilted him and what a paragon of
spirit and intelligence he had mar-
rled.
ThU0 we go along in this reading
world, picking up whatever may come
to hand, and making the beat of the
gifts the publisher? provide. The
reason for Mrs. Balllle-Reynold*' pop
ularity seems to be evident.
Astrld has learned to despise her
By EDWIN MARKHAM
except certain excellent though tardy
THE
OLD LAW AND THE
NEW ORDER
In a little book called “Tne Old Law
and the New Order," issued by
Houghton-Mifllin, of Boston, we find
a study by George W. Alger of present
day conditions. Discussing the courts,
Mr. Alger makes some interesting
points:
“Twenty-five or fifty years ago
there were time-honored phrases
which were applied by lawyers with
more or less approval to the Amer
ican Judiciary. The courts were tile
'Palladium of our liberties,’ the
'Guardians of tho Ark of the Cove
nant.’
“To-day the public attitude has
largely changed. These phrases are
no longer current. The people are
dissatisfied with the guardians of the
ark, and in some quarters there is
dissatisfaction with the ark itself. The
popular magazines are full of arti
cles upon Judicial aggression, Judi
cial oligarchies, and the lubrications
of Ingenious laymen, who. uncon
strained by any embarrassment
through knowledge of law or of the
functions or powers of the Judiciary,
cheerfully lay at the doors of tho
courts all the Ills of our body politic,
"The Legislatures and constitution
al conventions are debating proposals
for the recall of Judges, and tho bar
associations aro adding to the gen
eral confusion by sweepingly de
nouncing, as demagogic attacks upon
the courts, all proposals of change
By H. EFFA WEBSTER
weak and silly enough In her mar
measures of procedure reform ema
nating from themselves. The plat
form of <?ne political party advocates
a simplification of tho method of im
peachment. Between indiscriminate
attack and unreasoning defense the
courts suffer both from their enemies
and, if possible, still more from their
friends, while sober-minded citizens
are left without light or leading.
“What is the fundamental thing
which has aroused this tumult of con
flicting charges, this spirit of bitter
ness, these recriminations and at
tacks? At bottom, the difficulty will
be found to be a change In the atti
tude of the people, not toward the
courts themselves, but tow’ard law
making bodies and the desire to re
adjust in an essential particular con
stitutional power as between the
courts and the law-making bodies by
the only feasible method which our
complicated system affords—direct
application of public opinion.
“The attempt to analyze the pro
cess of this change would be difficult,
and no broad generalization can be
made which would not appear in some
quarters to be glaringly Inaccurate.
For one matter there has been in
our country In recent years a decided
growth in actual democracy. Despite
occasional flashes of its ancient power,
government by political oligarchies
(boss rule) is losing ground. For an
other matter, we have passed indus
trially from individualism to collec
tivism, and our law has not yet adapt
ed itself to the transition.”
HER DIVINE RIGHT.
It isn’t “Her Right Divine” for a
married woman to fall in love with
“the other man,” and then deliber
ately agree with the “soul mate” in
a liaison—according to all ethics of
ordinary decency. A novel by Oliver
Kent, that carries the quoted cap
tion, flagrantly attempts to demon
strate the negative of our assertion.
Many men and women may agree
with this author, but the large ma
jority of both sexes, endowed with
less elastic moral principles and with
considerably more self-respect, are
ready to declare that whenever a book
of the brand of this “Her Right Di
vine” Is published and circulated, lit
erature is vitiated to a certain de
gree—even if the novel is so subtly
lunguaged that it comes into the cur
rent of literature in any way.
Daphne, the heroine of the story, is
iage to make it no surprise when she
falls In the position of “affinity”
to “the other man.” who is on the
edge of becoming husband of another
woman because he owes her his name,
a frivolous woman, as unfaithful to
herself as to all her lovers.
This little ripple of honesty seems
incongruous In Hilary’s (Hilary Is the
“other man”) moral texture, since he
is so abominably immoral later—and
continuously. However, Hilary’s evil
and the corresponding evil of Daphne
are made “divine” in the book—the
sordid materialism glorified because
this pair find their happiness In “In
dependent” conscience.
Subsequent events and relationships
of both men and women reveal a
shocking status of “society” around
and in Brentford, a far-West town.
The G. W. Dillingham Company pub
lishes this novel,
point, alleging violation of the anti
trust law among a dozen other things.
All the attempts of the leaders so far
have been unsuccessful in stopping
the work of the power company.
Most of the improvements are
established. Cliff House, the big. airy
hotel, once surrounded by primeval
woods, now peers down upon the great
stone wall that is the South’s largest
dam. At Lodge station is a consider
able lake, where once the tangled
thread of the Tgllulnh twisted slen
derly. Peaceful Valley, through which
the little river flows on Its last lap
to the Savannah and to the sea, is
now* alive with the whir that comes
with the construction and operation
of a giant power house.
Old Wagon Road Raised.
The old wagon road in the gorge
has. been ’raised to a higher level,
where the water which will be backed
up behind the dam will cover its old
site. The bridge of the Southern
Railroad, which will be covered when
the dam is in operation, wae replaced
by a new steel bridge, built by the
Georgia Railway and Power Company.
Bitterly opposing all these improve-
DIXIE
and to contemplate them in their
roles of wife, mother, sister, daugh
ter. sweetheart and friend. More
over, in their hearts is a suspicion
that they would not appear in a role
one-half so engaging marching in
political parades, participating In
hotly contested conventions and pri
maries, and elbowing their ways to
the ballot box.
Now, all of this may seem a bit
mushy and foolishly reactionary—-
or something—to the women of
some other sections than the South,
but in the South it accurately sets
forth the average point of view.
If the right of suffrage is to make
women one whit less womanly, to
make her even SEEM one whit less
womanly. In the eyes of the men of
the South, then It is as certain as
anything can be that the Southern
women will never ask for it. And
unless they DO ask for it. it will
not be extended to them, for to un
dertake to make a voter of a South
ern woman, without her knowledge
and consent—foolish and funny old
“Southern chivalry” would balk at
that, surely!
The Case of Florida.
I imagine that these more or less
general views upon the question of
woman’s suffrage in the South will
be read with some impatience in
certain quarters, and that I will be
looked upon by this and that wise
person as rather impossible and dif
ficult In outlining an argument—
and yet I know so well that what I
say will meet the approval of a
vast majority of Southern men and
women that I shall rest content to
be viewed with alarm here and
there.
“But.” says someone, determined
to dispute, regardless of my dog
matic opinions, “there Is Florida—
a few days ago a woman’s suffrage
bill came very near passing the
House of Representatives there.”
“Indeed.” continues Doubting
Thomas, “the vote in the House
stood 38 to 26—a change of 7 votes
would have passed the bill!”
D. Thomas Is right, too! That
very thing did happen in Florida,
and I think that when woman’s
suffrage does come to stay in Dixie
it likely will locate it?* entering
wedge In the Land of Flowers.
But consider this: Florida, of all
the Southern States, is made up
the most, in its white population,
of non-native citizens, and particu
larly has its more recent additions
come from the Central North. These
ments, has been the work of the Tal
lulah Falls Conservation Association,
of which Mrs. Longstreet is president.
Mrs. Longstreet has become a mili
tant in the fight against the develop
ment company, sparing no strength of
phrase in the public cards which she
has issued in appeals to Georgia peo
ple to permit not the work of the
power company at the falls.
“One of the greatest scenic wonders
of the world—an heirloom which has
come down to us from the immemorial
ages—is in the clutches of the water
power trust,” she declared In one
card, “which would rob the Western
world of a great handiwork of the
Almighty. To-day the first natural
asset of this republic, which is the
Tallulah Falls, has been seized and is
being commercialized by. a band of
pirates and vandals in violation of the
laws of both God and man.”
Mrs. Longstreet asserts that she hay
spent $12,000 in the fight to thwart th *
power company from erecting its
structures near Tallulah Falls,-making
that declaration several day?* ago be
fore a committee of the United States
Senate.
immigrants have come into Florida
convinced of the righteousness and
immediate necessity of woman 1 ?
suffrage everywhere—and maybe
they are right—but they have come
with the point of view far removed
from Southern trend just now, nev
ertheless.
As Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi
and Tennessee lower the heavy lead
of their native-born population over
their foreign-born, if any or all
should do that, then will the cause
of woman’s suffrage grow, perhaps,
for that out-of-the-State increa. 6 **.
coining from the North, the West
and the Middle States, already in
clines most favorably to woman’s
right to vote.
South May Yet Like It.
Once it adopted woman’s suffrage,
it is possible that the South might
bo pleased with itself for accepting
the innovation. Time was when the
South was held to be an agricul
tural section, pure and simple, and
the pioneer manufacturers were
looked upon more or lesF« askance,
and set down In various philoso
phies as well-meaning, but amus
ingly misguided persons.
The man who built the first cot
ton mill in Dixie was rated a ven
turesome fool, destined rapidly t6
be. separated from his coin.
As a matter of fact, after twenty
years, he ?*till is here, and others of
his ilk are as thick ;fbout him as
honeysuckles in the Southern woods
of April!
Undoubtedly there are many
weighty arguments in favor of ex
tending the right of suffrage to
women. It may be that the argu
ments in favor of It far outweigh
those against it So far. however.
Southern women have found them
selves only superficially interested
in it, and there is no observable
symptom of a forthcoming epidemic
of enthusiasm in Its behalf in this
vicinity.
Neither the women nor the men
of the South have given the Rubject
more than passing thought, and a
serious campaign of education, if
one elect to call it that, in respect
of woman’s suffrage looms not on
the horizon of Southern political
endeavor nowadays.
Maybe the idea is a delusion and a
snare that the extension of the >*uf-
frage to woman Nvould make woman
less womanly—maybe it Is a men*
obsession—but until it is removed,
both from the male and female mind
in the South, the cause of woman’s
suffrage is going to make little, if
any, headway here.
—By James B. Nevin