Americus times-recorder. [volume] (Americus, Ga.) 1891-current, 1912-01-06
WHAT WAR WOULD MEAN
TO EUROPEAN COUNTRIES
Commercial Disaster Follow.
ed By Starvation

|
ten a remarkable letter to Manches
ter Guardian, putting forward the
.commercial aspects of a modern war
MI Wedgewood says:
"One rather gathered from Sir Ed
ward Greys speech that he did con
template war as possibility-say a
lotto / chance during the next three
years-that ne really was nervous
ABOUT possible action on Germany's
part, but that, serene in the conf
dence of right and of superior dread
nougnts, he and the country might
face the unknown with true British
phlegm.
THAT is, of course, all right, but
there is another side. Old European
wars were waged between countries
that were mainly agricultural. Agri-
cultural labor does not depend to any
extent on credit or on cheapness of
capital. Since 1870 Europe has be-
come an industrial hive based upon
credit alone.
There was a crash when Roosevelt
merely said rude things about the
trusts; eve nduring the latest war
scare, in which few believed the run
on the banks in Germany was serious,
the slump marked. Every year that
passes emphasizes the international
character of capital and credit. We
suffered as much as the Americans
from the run on the Knickerbocke'
Trust Company; so did the Germans.
IF there is real war, the fact that
the governments will want to raise
money three per cent consols at 90
were talked of will not be by any
means the most serious thing for the
money marget or for trade.
"A contraction to two-thirds in the
face value of shares is bound to come
with it's concomitant rise in the bank
rate to almost any figure, and must
in any case start run on the banks.
Banks Would Act Promptly.
The, banks will call in all over
drafts, on which manufacturing bust
ness is largely done and refuse to
discount bills.
THE first bank will go in three days
and the bank charter act will be sus
pended in six; all payments will be
made in deprecated paper, even if a
general moratorium is not declared
and all banks closed.
Meanwhile what will be the course
of manufacture? Bills will be pro-
tested accounts remain unpaid, or
ders cancelled with self-accumulating
celebrity. NJ one will be believed sol
vent. Those workmen who are not
dismissed will be paid only in paper
paper which cannot be exchanged
for food. Throughout the industrial
quadrilateral'-Bir Birmingham, North
ampton, Sheffield and Preston-there
will be bloody bread riots in fort
night, and when they have got all the
food in the tLwns they will wander
into the country, numbering the farm
ers and eating the beasts.
Even the men on the railways can
not work when their families ale
starving. The railways and posts will
gradually cease TO run, and that
means complete anarchy.
Whether the gold reserve is $l40,-
600 900 or twice that amount, even If
the whole national credit be behind
the bank, nothing can save its sOlven-
cy if the people begin 20 run and
hoard. And with the banks goes the
whole of our civilization.
Il wish | could see flaw in my
argument, but if it is in any way UNI
sound it is obvious that our number
OF dee drougl.s is a matter of little
imp"T ,?nce.
s Nov, all this affects Germany just
us much IS. lselves-indeed, it ~
, fects nculrdls, TOO, to the same -
a tent in 80 far as they are manufactu'.
ers. Surely it is worth inquiring in
E to and bringing to Germany's ontice.
T They say that here as well as Il
8 Germany it is only the waetlhy elias
. that wants to fight Well, if they d.
/ fight, they may make up their mind
] that from that time no more rent o
t. interest will be paid, and that if the
do not fly the country they will prob
ably get killed They are childre
Iplaying kith a dynamo"