Goldsboro Semi Weekly Argus

A STRIKING SUMMARY.
Senator Simmons Says Some New Things Well Thought Out at Elon College Yesterday.

Tuesday at Elon College commencement Senator Simmons was the orator, and it is said he was greeted by a great audience, to whom he talked on "North Carolina and Her People." and in the course of his unusually original and great speech he said some new things, well thought out, that are worthy of being published abroad. Here are some of them:

"I want to talk to you about North Carolina and its people, about ourselves. What we have done; what we are doing: what remains for us to do, and what we hope to do.

"North Carolina is by no means an empire, yet with people possessed with highest attributes of manhood and womanhood she has. For more than two hundred years we almost stood still compared with the progress of other states, we moved so slowly that we seemed to stand still—moved so slowly that we won the title of the Rip Van Winkle of the Union.

"Why did we move so slowly? That is what I want to talk to you about. North Carolina has never suffered at any time from lack of patriotism or the part of her children. During these years of slumber we were not stagnant, because our people did possess patriotism and the energy necessary to develop our resources, and we could not develop them only because we could not see them. But we see them now and have made more real progress in the last two decades than we have made in all our previous history.

"What were the causes, I ask, of our lethargy? First, the Civil War. Second, the action of 1868, which introduced a warm political element into our population which retarded our progress for more than a generation. The adoption of the amendment of 1898, which reversed this action, was a great step in the right direction, and then the wonderful victory which we won last year over the bar and distillery, removed the last hindrance to our progress as a state.

"But there is a work for us yet to do," said the Senator in substance. "In connection with our material welfare and in connection with our social culture and our intellectual advancement. The most enduring monuments of our people are its intellectual and literary advantages, and it is my sincere hope that North Carolina has not only developed the material wealth and social culture, but intellectual achievement.

I pray for aggressive individuals in our State, in thought as well as in action."

Concluding, the Senator said that North Carolina is to be a great and powerful state, and her people live and progress even beyond the expectations of the optimist. But let us hope that her grace may cause intellectual achievement in the creative genius of her sons and daughters, as well as their material accumulations.

"And to this end, in conclusion, I appeal for a deeper and broader culture and higher intellectual life in North Carolina, for a training and culture that will smite the spring of our greatest victories. I appeal for a broad, catholic North Carolina, for a spirit to serve and sacrifice for her, that will love as well as sing.

'Carolina, Carolina, Heaven's blessings attend her, While we live, we will cherish and defend her.'

In the course of the address Senator Simmons paid glowing compliments to ex-Governor Charles B. Aycock, and ex-Governor Robert B. Glenn, whose names, he predicted, would be written high in the roll of North Carolina's famous men. Generous applause greeted the Senator in many of his oratorical flights. Dr. W. W. Staley offered the opening prayer for the address, and President Moffitt introduced the speaker.