The commonwealth. (Greenwood, Miss.) 1896-1923, 1916-12-13
REBFULD'S SPEECH.
tRy Associated Press)

] hor.ala, Va. Dee. l3-Ihe United
States viii eater competition for the
world trade after the war with every
advantage, said Secretary Of Com
MERGE Redield, speaking today before
the Southern Commercial Congress
( There il tha best reason for know
ing that in at least four important
respects the ead Of the war will mean
calls on US for supplies which now
we are prevented from furnishing"
said MIR. RalGeld These demands
will be for food5tliTs Of many kinds,
for agricultural machinery, for lum-
ber in many forms and for credits in
the way Of loans and investments
Americas advantage will lie, said
the secretary, in the fact that her ad-
justment5 from war to peace condi-
tons will not be SO severe as in the
fighting countries,
1T is reasonable to suppose that
foreign industries as a whole" he
said, will have to make a sharper
readjuBtment Of product from war
goods to peace goods than is to be
the case with us. Consider what
manufacturer in one Of the Central
Powers would face if he undertook to
make up goods for stock today on any
considerable scale for an export mar
ket He would manufacture at high
rates under var conditions, with high
ar than normal costs, with some of
his trained supervising and working
staff ia the armies, ard with every
material enhanced in price, perhaps
with some supply cut Off.
"This man must pile up goods so
made at a time when credit is costly
aud taxes are advancing for a sale
at future time which may be distant
and in markets whose current move
nents he may not know and Of whose
future conditions no one can tell him,
He may not be able to say whether
styles, designs, colors and dimensions
and other clements of the goods he
makes will suit when the unknown
day shall arrive when he can offer
them for sale, Nor will he know
whether in the interval industries
Shall not have sprung up in the place
where he would sell, that will make
the vending Of his product there i'm
possible.
"For a manufacturer under condi-
tions Of this kind to pile up goods
would be almost an act Of industrial
insanity and certainly not one whose
existence on any considerable scale
should be thought dangerous
threat"
Economic alliances are formed, the
secretary declared, not as offensive
weapons but as a defense.
"These movements can not be look
ed upon as If they were weapons back
ed by exceptional economic power. On
the contrary q aaner view is to regard
them as weapons forged to overcome
usual economic weakness, They are
not the outcome Of developing
strength duty Of increasing loss. They
are created to make the best Of bad
situation"
| Economic alliances may come and
90; tariff policies may change; but
| greater things than either will deter
mine our place in the world" he con-
cludod. IF we will waste we cannot
win. IF we condemn the scientific by
boagtful adhesion to the so-called
practical-which often means the ig-
uorant-we cannot win either. If we
pit unframed minds and hands against
those which have been skillfully
taught We cannot win. II we persist
4 in ignoring what it costs to do busi-
ness we cannot expect TO cope with
! those who arc more intelligent. We
cannot have our place in the sun un-
less we deserve it.
I "If were asked the message which
I at the end Of thirty years connection
5ith industry I would leave az warn,
| ing against danger, the sign post for
! the future path, it would be:
Educate young people for the work
Of the field; make industry the ser.
gant Of science; know costs and the
,auses Of costs; stop wasting"