66 



The Dawn of a New Constructive Era 



Country's 

 Amazing 

 Economic 

 Resources 



And so, the economic resources of our country are tremend- 

 ous. If the wealth of 285 billion dollars were equally divided 

 amongst us, we are told by the great economists that there would 

 be $1,385 to the credit of every man, woman and child in the 

 Figures Show jji^ii^f^ States. In spite of the fact that we do 96 per cent, of our 

 business on credit, by the use of checks and other forms of ex- 

 change, there is in actual circulation in the United States $38.40 

 for every man, woman and child in the United States. Our 285 

 thousand miles of railway represent three-fifths of the railway 

 mileage of the world, of which the South has approximately 

 50,000 miles; and our freight rate today of three-quarters of one 

 cent for carrying one ton one mile is the cheapest freight rate in 

 the world. 



But, my friends, in spite of this great economic development, 

 in spite of our wonderful form of government, we have not 

 adopted the scientific form of intensive agriculture that is prac- 

 ticed in Germany, in France and in England today. We have not 

 utilized our forests. Why, the substitution by Germany of 

 forest products instead of cotton, instead of nitroglycerine, and 

 instead of cotton absorbents, shows the value of the proper util- 

 ization of the forest supplies, and this has enabled Germany — our 

 great enemy in this war — to wage the war with so much ferocity 

 up to the present time. It is her scientific training, her prepared- 

 ness, her efficiency. 



But I rejoice, my friends — and I say this with due respect 

 to our German-Americans, for I believe they are going to be 

 loyal to Old Glory during this war ; I believe every one of them 

 will be loyal — I rejoice, however, that in the United States we 

 have the ideal of character, while in Germany they have the 

 ideal of efficiency. In Germany a man is simply a cog in an 

 organization, and he is worked just as much as a cog would be 

 worked in any kind of a machine. In the United States the 

 ideal is of character. What we need in the United States, and par- 

 ticularly in the South is the blending of the two ideals — character 

 and efficiency. Our men are a high-toned men, who wear their 

 consciences as their kings, and wear the white flower of blameless 

 private and public lives. Character is one of our inheritances; 

 but, my friends, we lack the ideal of efficiency in the South. If 

 we could but blend the two ideals of character and efficiency in 

 our American civilization, and particularly in our Southern civil- 

 ization, we would have a character fashioned that would pass all 



American vs. 



German 



Ideals 



