St. Paul daily globe., 1895-12-01
RIVER AT s A. NJ.
ANuNMITIGATEp CURSE.

AN [
Back in the thirties there came to
farm house on the Western reserve
of Ohio. as regularly as the weekly
mail brought to it the only paper
from the outside world taken in the
neighbOrhoOd, a neighbor woman
with her inquiry if there was pros
pect of a foreign war. A survival of
the idea, unquestionably held by the
old lady on the Reserve, that a for
eign war is a good thing for us of
this country, crops out in the COM
ment of the Omaha Bee on the COM
plications in Turkey and Russia in
Asia a European war, says our
contemporary, would make a demand
for our breadstuffs and provisions at
higher prices, and, if prolonged,
would send foreign capital here in a
flood for investment. Then there
would be the demand for munitions
Of war after the warning nations had
used up their supplies, to contribute
further to our 'buSynesS" and our
profit. Out of Difference to the no
ton that war is a calamity, the Bee
says that americans, as a peace
loving people, hope that European
war will be averted, but if it must
come they Will not reject whatever
advantages it may bring them"
Doubtless the Bee expresses a SEN
tfment that is yet widely diffused, but
it is one that is based on the tran
sient and superficial, and misses the
long range of effects. War is de-
struction Its reactions are as vio-
lent as are it's actions. Whatever
temporary gain neutral nations may
make, or rather some of the people
of such nations may make, is off
set by the losses others incur and by
the reactions that follow long after
hostilities cease. This is especially
true under the conditions of our
lllOucIu IL llO uSli lCso, az my A4cbNS NS
veloped in the last half of this cen
tury. Nations are more closely knit
than ever. The interchange of prod
ucts, the dependence one on the
other that has resulted, the growth
of internal exchanges, the ultimate
commercial and financial relations
growing out of these conditions, make
war between any of the commercial
nations of Europe in a large meas
ure civil war, whose destructive
effects all the trade-allied nations
feel
The things that are seem in times
of international house-burning are
the advances in the price of the things
whose production war interrupts, or
affects by changing producers into
consumers. But there are many COM
pensating effects that are not seen,
which neutralize all gains. Armies
must be fed and clothed, and pro-
visions and fabrics may advance;
but even here any study Of the range
Of fluctuations in prices shows that
the advance is largely speculative,
and the benefits of this inure- to a
small portion of a nation. But the
cessation of demand for other prod
ucts, the fall in prices of them, the
Nf tho nj
ton of trade and exchanges, the dis
turbance of finance, the shrinkage
in values of stocks, impairing the
purchasing capacity of many, are
some of the things that are not seen
however severely their effects may
be felt. Reaction equaling action
is law of commerce operating just
as certainly as it doesin physics.
Even in the things that are seer
the reactions are manifest in the
rapid fall of prices when peace fol
lows war But what is not seen here
stimulated by the increased values
after the cause has ceased to oper
ate; the momentum of production
that carries it on to an excess. Mean
while the elasticity Of human tastes
has responded: to the temporary
prosperity, expanding expenditure:
taking up the slack caused by in.
creased income, and these tastes de.
n1anding satisfaction after the reac
ton has reduced income again. 1t i!
the seen effects that render possible
the retention of the idea that war i:
a good thing for The nations not in
voIved but any consideration of the
unseen and unnoted effects, laying