The weekly soliphone., 1915-01-29
(From Mondays Daily Press)

liver an address before four hundred business men who were holding a meeting of optimism. MT. Bertig de- clares that the speech of Secretary Redfield of Washington, was one of the most impressive presentations that it has ever been his good for tune to hear. MT. Redfield spoke in advocacy of the ship purchase bill now before the senate and house, by ment spend forty million dollars in a merchant marine to relieve the oongested condition of transporta- tion. The meeting, says Mr. Bertig, was a most pleasant one. Eleven speakers were on the program, among the number, in addition to Secretary Redfield, being Gov. Brew er of Mississippi. The Commercial Appeal reproduces. MT. Bertig's speech in full. It was regarded as one of the very best delivered, and made very strong impression.
 About four weeks ago I left home on short extra vacation, not that I needed physical rest, but merely to get away from business worries,' '' said MT. Bertig. q wanted a mental tonic and I left instructions with my business associates to write me noth- ing concerning business, as I wanted to forget everything for the time be- ing.
 q had just passed through har- rowing fall, had heard the cry of hard times, the walls of the farmers and merchants, who thought they were ruined because of the low price of cotton, had been importuned by so many for extension of time on ac- counts and notes that it appeared to of business. I was blue and I could not see anything in the near business future.
 "On my return a few days ago l was greeted with the kind invitation of your secretary to attend this din ner of optimism. I hesitated for two reasons-the one that l am not q speaker, this practically being n,y first appearance in public, especially among such distinguished gentle men as I knew would be here, and the other, and by far the greater req son, that as this was to be a dinner of optimism, with conditions as ! thought they were, I didn't know how in the world any one could find anything to say that would be sp- propriate for the occasion.
 But it made me think. I thought of the frightful carnage on the Eu- ropean battle fields, the shameful waste of resources, the unhappiness, the misery, and l commenced to look around me here. My brief res bite from business had rolled the clouds away, the petty annoyances that had obscured my vision vanish ed; I found that the world was still rocking along the same as before, that those who had been thrifty in business and provident with their profits were lacking in none of the good things of life, while those who were shiftless and profligate contin- ued to drink the dregs just as the complex human family has always done and always will do.
 While there was no denying the fact that the voume of business be- ing done was seriously curtailed, that retrenchment in all lines of business was the wise policy, yet the thought was forced upon me that the so-called hard times were perhaps more of a condition of mind than of reality.
 ''The south is not impoverished nor pauperlZed, all 1t needs is indul- gence; but the buy-a-bale movement, the frantic appeal to congress for aid, the cotton loan pool, all con- ceived in patriotic ideas and design ed to be helpful, did more than any thing else to create that impression in the north and east. They still fur ther exploited the unenviabel position of the cotton grower and caused too many people to rely on outside sources for aid instead of working out their own salvation with their own resources.
 "We have seen our folly and pro- pose to correct it under the banner of general prosperity.
 "Our great trouble has been that our system of doing business in the south is wrong; we depend too much on the one crop-cotton. We have