The Idaho Republican., 1913-08-08

conflicting conditions cause vari
ance of opinion with regard to the
future, and pessimism prevails be
yond point that is justifiable.
Political agitation or Legislative
changes are not responsible for the
present condition. Our condition is 9
replica of that existing all over the
world, and the causes therefore lie
deeper.
] Nor are they to be found among
the records of trade and manufacture
no matter where you turn. In Ger
many, industrial activity is intense in
spite of high interest rates and the
lack of available capital. There has
been large gain in the volume OF
her trade, as we'll as in the profits
enjoyed by her industries.
So in England, in Switzerland
France and all of Europe, and in In
dia and Japan. The volume of ocean
shipping is enormous.
The primary cause of the European
stringency has been the conversion Of
large sums of liquid capital into fixed
investments of various kinds. Dur
ing the last five years this movement
has almost doubled that of the five
years preceding, and it was newt
able that the accommodating demands
should be felt in the money market.
Additional stress was caused by the
Balkan war, with its attendant pos
sibilities of general strife. It is
not surprising therefore that borrow
ing became diff ult, or that Euro
pean investors threw upon the New
York market their holdings of Amer
ican securities, causing our prices to
sag abnormally.
Nothing is really wrong with the
! business situation. Railroad tionn-
age, manufactures, foreign trade
balances, copper consumption, steel
output, immigration figures etc.,-all
show that business is being conducted
successfully, profitably and in healthy
volume. With regard to local con-
ditions, we have interviewed between
forty anr fifty prominent business
houses in Salt Lake, and with scarce
lly an exception they report their busi-
ness for the months of May and June,
1913, was from 5 percent to 35 per-
cent greater than during the same
months of the year previous Really
the only very blue spot in the United
States is Wall street.-the speculative
center.
The effects of tariff changes have
been discounted in the public mind.
The important thing to remember is
that American energy and manufact-
uring ability are winning markets
steadily, not because of the tariffs
but because of superior quality and
low prices.
Recent investigations of the de.
partment of commerce and labor
show this clearly, and show that the
bugaboo of high wage and living costs
(as related to our manufacturers
ability to compete with those of for
eign countries) is no bugaboo at all.
The figures show that while our wage
scales are considerably higher than
those abroad, than those of England
for example,-the total proportion of
wage cost in the price of the finished
article is actually much less than
abroad, even less than in Japan. They
show further that it requires 255
English employees to turn out the
same volume of manufactures that is
handled by 100 people in the United
States, and that, though our wage
scale is nearly twice that of England
her total labor cost in the finished
product is $119 for each 800 that
the United States has had to spend
Not only that, but England uses II. 2
percent more power than the United
States in doing a given amount OF
work. The figures are similar for
other countries. These statistics
prove that our high wage rates do
not need to be balanced by high tar
ms in order to protect our industries
from being overwhelmed by a flood
OF cheaply manufactured foreign