The Birmingham age-herald., 1915-10-06
ANNUAL BANQUET
 OF FURNITURE MEN
 HELD AT TUTW|LER
Philip Oster the Principal Speaker of Evening. Draws Lessons From
 European War

With something more than 100 guests present the Birmingham Furni- ture Dealers association held it's an- nual banquet last night at the Tut wiler hotel. A programme replete with good speakers and several stunts that bore Sidney Lazarus trademark was carried through with out a hitch.
 President c. w. Green of the asso- citation, who welcomed the guests, re- ferred to them as the cream of the business men of Birmingham" He an swered his own query. Why" with these words: Because you have had the practical experience to make you so. No set of business men In Bir- mingham have had to bear the strain | that you have during the last two years. You have borne your burdens well. You have been patient with your customers, yet not a single fail- ure has been recorded in our ranks Now, with prosperity returning by leaps and bounds, with the mines working full time and the factories working overtime, and with smoke ris- 1 ing from thousands of stacks. why should we not be optimistic. and look | to the near future for the greatest era of prosperity the city has ever known?"
 Oster Principal Speaker l Philip Oster was the principal
 speaker of the evening and, after re-
 ferring to the upheaval in American
 business and commerce caused by the
 European war; he called the attention
 of the furniture men to some lessons that the war has taught, and which can be applied for future safety. | There is first of all to my mind, the
 lesson of precaution,' said MT. Oster. l Those of you who have read and stud 1 fed the precautionary measures Ger
 many has adopted for the safety of It's | financial and commercial life. Will
 recognize 1t as a marvellous achieve
 ment and differing greatly from our
 own unpreparedness for the commer- | cial panic that overlook us and might | overtake us again
 l Measures of precaution against business crises are as essential as pre- | cautions against fire and lawlessness The state may not be in position, or | our times not sufficiently advanced to provide actual safeguards against business upheavals, but the state can | stop causing and stimulating business crises within our own state. Whether | there were any precautionary measures | we could have taken in this country at the outbreak of the war to minim- | ize the commercial upheaval, l won' argue. I want to suggest, however | that there are precautionary measures that might be adopted by this state tc | stabilize business when crisis comes | and give us the safety that Is so neces-
 sary for the hearty development ol any community.
 "If this state had taken the pre- | caution several years ago to develop
 diversified crops, had put the business | of the state on such a basis that Il could borrow money when necessary | the war would not have affected us l 75 per cent of what 1t did. With tho state in a sound. healthy condition
 there would have been work found foi | thousands of people; our farmers could have sold wheat and corn when cot | ton was of no value.
 | "Another lesson draw from the wal is efficiency. Efficiency Is doing every thing that is being done as good as il can be done It is efficiency tha makes John Hopkins the leading medi- cal college of America. It is eff
 ciency that makes Iowa the greates agricultural state.
 Third Lesson Is CO-Operation | "The third lesson IS o-operatlon-
 real, practical cooperation, without regard to class or kind, where every one seeks his success in the success o the whole, where the big interests rec ognize their dependence on the wei being of the smaller business and oi the individual, and the individua realizes the necessity of the big cor poration.
 | J. R. Williams, manager of the Sin
 ger Sewing Machine company here
 was another speaker of the evening
 talking on i"The Advantages of Co Operation" MT Williams address wal
 in an optimistic vein.
 | Following the addresses of the even ling, general discussion, led by F. 0 Harvey was held MT. Harvey paid :
 tribute to E. D. Brown for the work the latter had done on the executive com
 mittee of the furniture mems associa tion during the past four years. MT Brown Is chairman of this committee
 E. T. Morgan's stunt" "The Histor, Glass;" kept the guests amused fo no full minutes, and three other stupt l fpdr.1gaJ in