New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1870-12-09
PE4CC PLPEES.


The International Peace Society, which met
at the Cooper Institute recently, AID passed
resolutions ccusm'ug guDpowdcr doubtless
meant well, but Is momb,i5 as spokesman
do rot seem 30 possess much brains. iHey
cannot sop war, by wAtieascs or itIc la
ralcuc3 O.. a srupy and mildly UnSrTAm@he,i
character; or ~ pitching rotund curses at mil
liant Gcspo.s. Nations always fight IS soon 90
lyrspcsc and industry they have accumulated
a l.tc surplus energy. 1t cEplodcs il latte,
az tho electric suIchayee Of the atmosphere
breaks IN thunder We should be Sad IL "e
could believe otherwise. bUt We canho. FuG
aside tne teachings Cf experience OF tie tcs-
timouy OF four thousand Yeas, wherein the ma
tions have 20 billed md banged each other
that ~ memory Oi them survives save mat
which Gm.y iliumiucs their annals OF Ulccd.
In new lands like OuIs, there is 30 much to 90,
so wide "a territory 10 be subducd, SO urgent
a demand for human labor and so various q
career cran 20 ambition and enterprise, that
IN, dvcilars in them do not desire to fSht
very often; ,hUuah, beng sons OF Adam, they
have TO prappo Cnce in a while, merely
to keep their hands in. In the older
lands, no such conditions prevail They
[
growth, and their surplus populations (popUla-
ton ever leading to su-plusaeo) must either
emigratc or fight themselves OF tie lace o.
tie outh. Half Europe rings with battle to-
day, AID thrOuglout the rest dull, Drcsaging
movement rocks M Themes. few months
ago, there was hardly so much as speck OF
war unoa it, horizon. The s!Onu has broken
upon the world as the cyclone breaks upon
the trnric scas-w hout sign or premOnition
We may pa1llc little benevolent platitUdes
about H. at the Cooper Institute or elsewhere,
if we desire to do so but our time would
pclhars DO better employed if We set sobcIly
to work to estimate It's influence upon Us, our
properties, progress, w,li-bcing, and so on.
When the war began, it was by some
thought likely that 1t would exert a salutary
effect upon our commerce, and that our
prosperity would b. enhanced in the same
proportion that that Of Europe suffered. The
nation Mt peace, with all its industries in
activity, has "a manifest advantage over one
at war; whose industries are stIlcd, and
whose energies, turned from the work of
production, are engaged in that Of deshuc-
ton. The farmer expected to get an enhanced
price fOI his pork and JreGlSiuifs, the manu-
l
finaucicr for his securities. But these results
have not followed. Grain is about onc-third
less han it was when the war broke ont; and,
instead of increasing, every SORT of commodity
except gold has diminished in price. In place
OF an increased market for our paper securi-
ties abroad, those already held in the great
mOncyCd ccntcrs begin to find their way back
to us. Europe holds about $l,50O,000,0C0 Of
orr promises to pay of all sorts and, if her
difficulties or apprehensiOns lead her to pre-
cptate any considerable portion of them upon
orr market, the consequences will not be
trivial by any means. She will of course send
back the railroad securities first; and, rs they
amount to some $3O0,0000O0, it may not be
quite convenient at a moments notice to
hand over the cash for them.
1t looks, indeed, as if, IN the event of early
peace or in that of continued war, Europe
would want some of her money back. If the
war continues, almost every Government in
Europe will come into the market with loans
at rates of interest so high that they will
seriously compete with our remoter but, rs we
think, equally safe, securities. If il ceases the
industries of France, now dormant, and those
of Prussia, which are nearly so, will speedily
reabsorb an immense volume of capital; that
capital during the war has been sent to Lon
don OH deposit; and the high rates of interest
ruling in our money market have allured it
hther and made it instrumental in bolstering
up securities which without such sustenance
would have fallen before this to their normal
level. 1t is likely to be called back any day
and it is perhaps well enough, however disa-
greeable the contemplation may be, to keep
that fact in mind.
immigration has been one of the chief sources
of our prosperity. Every able-bodicd and honest
laborer, and every thrifty and diligent house
wife who has reached our shores and gone
honestly to work, has contributed directly and
largely to the wealth of the country. More
over, these recruits have brought with them, in
the aggregate, II good deal of ready money
hard cash wrung from the soil, the mine, the
loom, by frugal and laboriOus generations.
Those who would otherwise keep up the
hither-flowing tide of life and continue to re-
enforce our industries have been blown to
pieces before the battemeuts of Strasbourg,
Metz, and Verdun, and are still swept out of
life by the guns of Paladines and Trochu or
they are wasting in the trenches of Versailles
and st. Denis. All the available strength of
two nations, numbering nearly lO0,OOO,OOO
people, is in collision, and the strife is girt
with tempest and fire, and the walls of women.
Those who ought to recruit our industries are
cut down by bullets, or fever, or famine, in
legiOns, the number whereof we should vanly
seek to conjecture. How far this deprivation
of I'M accustomed recruitment of our ranks of
ma i.tl ha