The Montgomery advertiser., 1908-08-13
Why Commercial Bodies
 Distrust The Demagogues

second session or the convention or the Commercial Secretaries of the South was opened at 9 o'clock this morning. The session was devoted principally to addresses by secretaries of commer- ciai bodies of the Southern States, chief among them was that of G. c. Dave. Secretary of the Chamber Of Commerce of Montgomery Ala. Mir Dawe's speech was in the main devoted to pointing out the advantages of the mineral and timber regions of the Southern States.
 Mir. Dave was followed by D. !. Watson of Columbia. S. C., Sidney T Roy, Shawnee. Ok; J S. Kendall. Greensboro, and Hon. Paul Roberts Nashville.
 MT. Dave spoke as follows
 sThe subject which I am to bring to your thought, Why Commercial Bodies Distrust Demagogues,' is one that can be handled in such a manner as to explode dynamite and thus in- Jure the one handling 1t. You will not blame me, therefore, if my treatment of this subject is characterized by care full choice of words; for the purpose of our convention Is to do good and not harm. to help the cause Of the South and not hinder 1t: yet, at the same time. to show that commercial bodies are intelligently alive to facts and fac- tors fin the Southeastern States.
 l9 speech; 1t is to show by revealing de- structive methods. how loud a call there is for constructive statesman ship in the States from which we States are becoming tired of political attftudinizing. Branching out from this main thought, there are many tempting by-ways which could be tra- versed if the speaker had any intent to leave Q sting in his remarks.
 tOne of these hy-ways would lead to the demonstration that the dema- eoeue flouriahes best where. there Is notstrong opposition to call his bluff.
 HAnother tempting by-way would lead to the conclusion that dema- gogue succeeds best where general ig- norance of public affairs is most com
 "Another easy and alluring by-way to traverse would lead to personal de- nunciation of some men who have set the South backward instead of for
 aBut from each of these by-ways the speaker deliberately turns aside, be- cause personalities produce wounds. denunciation of ignorance does not make wisdom; and the absence of two strong parties In the South Is re- Election on both.
 .As this is the first time that the officers of commercial bodies in the Southern States have come together. It Ia well that they should face all dif- hculties and find out whether the same can be overcome. The demagogue IS one of these. Therefore our subject.
 "Demagogue waa grand old word In it's origin. for 1t meant leader of the people. In later days the dema- to Influence the people by pandering to their prejudices and passions. In our discussion of the subject, dema- gogue will be regarded as one who for political ends, deliberately bewilders Gne public mind or who excites the public over dead issues.
 Antagonism to Capital.
 "In view of the wondrous heritage tation, whose distribution to a wait ing world will benefit all and enrich the South, the greatest need or tne South is development; H has sa nssn $500, ,0O0, ,000 additional capital at the present time to lead to its predestined growth. I might say that Alaoama alone needs such an amount peeauss above and under ground, because or it's uncontrolled miilion-horse water power and because of It's dock necessi- ties when the minerals begin to move. The south with such a clamorcus need, is nevertheless afrlicted Wltn men who try to make 1t appear thas capital should be hindered in every conceivable way. These are pnnelng the people to the very best friend or inc Southern States. Nothing IS bet ter for community or state than rush Of active mopey, Let hS nus trafe: A dollar held in stocking or in some other place of eoncealmen., i, does absolutely no good. The poWsr merely has the sense of possession without the sense to use use. ,,.as,,s as nap- ticipation in the world as IT tnroWn away. Should the owner spend It ne is doing good. because s.,I, ne pose poss iR rood win ii by investing it and making 1t work. Now demhgogues have tried to mislead our people ana mahe ,t xnem regard the working dollar as alnost crirninal in it's intent. The tnconsis- tency of such an attitude, embodied In various laws passed with malicious foreth ought, is that the very men wno passed these laws condemnlng s,, scslxw because of it's activities, are men wno would not think of investing uotIar unieas to make it profitable to them. selves. Their working dollars are not the doilara in massed capital cFlninali for every one of these coming rom without, or invested by ourselves makes more business and leaves be- hind wear by year, in wages and de- yeioprnent, more than 1t can possibly carry. away. They inveigh against massed capital when nothing but mass cd capital can handle the vast oppor. tunities awaiting development right where we live.
 Commercial bodies of the Southern States 0t9JfuSI oefuhEOEucS anu Chdt6" them with the crime of misleading our young men and some of our unthnk- ing men of older years so that they look upon the friend of the South as the enemy of the South. They also ch arge demagogues with scattering wrong impressions of the South ana of fts men and thus producing we'll founded tinidity elsewhere in relation to our enterprises here.
 Unreconstrueted Humbug.
 "In one of the Southern states is Q man who is supposed to have designs upon the Governorship of his State. this man will shout at the top or nis voice. q am unreconstructed." The demagogic character Of this shout is found m the fact that this man was not born during the Civil War and yeg ike other on-combatants, would rise 10 power by keeping alive the pas sIons that resulted from the most dreadful calamity in all Southern his- tory, the death of Lincoln, for # Lin- coln had lived the horrors of recon struction would have been avoided
 "Such denagogues reduce the moral and political stature of our young men by constantly compelling their thoughts to live in the past. Each generation has it's overshadowing problem and ac- cording to the manner in which 1t grapples with that problem so Is It's manhood developed and enriched. These demagoguesf If the South insist that the thought of our young men shall pc forever directed towards political is- sues that are absolutely dead. Tn con- sequence 1t is difficult to find among our rising young men those of such stature as was given to the men Of the Revolution or to the men of the CIVIL