Daily capital journal. (Salem, Oregon) 1903-1919, 1914-08-21
WHAT SHALL WE SAY?
David Starr Jordan in Harper's
WpnklX

weekly.
(The following article was written
by David Starr Jordan, in London, on
July II, before the acute international
situation came to point of war be
tween Austria and Servia. As an in
terpretatiOn of events which were to
follow its writing, this article by the
great peace advocate assumes an ad.
ded and unique 4mpOrtance.-The Ed
itors.)
What shall we say of those who
claim that the depression of business
in America is due to tariff reduction
and to President Wilson's activity in
financitl reform'
We shall say that these people are
very partisan or else very ignorant
of world affairs. To say that the
present administration Legislative
and executive program has brought
about grave industrial depression and
suffering to business man and wage
worker alike, though perhaps most of
all to the wage worker" is to talk
mischeviOus nonsense.
This depression extends all over the
world, load on every form of enter
prise, and the United States apparent
ly suffers from it less than any other
civilized nation. 1t is the result of
the overstraining of credit. Already
pushed to the utmost, the Balkan war
furnished the last straw which would
break its back.
In the London Chronicle of this
morning (July ~ 1 read that while
the London stock exchange "watch
with gladness the flight of Huerta,
thankful that one long endured source
of suspense has gone, it does not in
sure an immediate and general revival
of business. There have been mo-
ments when their fears have verged
upon panic" But "Mexico-though a
great cause of anxiety-has not been
the sole menace brooding over the
markets. Serious troubles and constant
sources of anxiety have sprung up in
many directions. A gloom has
overspread markets and deepened the
depression there. AS the bank re-
turn clearly shows, there is no great
abundance of credit at this moment in
Lombard street"
The credit of the world is shaken.
The demand for coin is abnOrmally
great because the nations have wasted
money as they never did before. The
rate of interest is so high as to for
bid enterprise. And this rate Of in
terest is due not to excess of good OPP
portunities for investment but to dis
trust of the future, and above all to
the inordinate waste of capital and
labor in Europe. The waste of labor
shows itself in the enormous standing
armies, millions of men supported at
public expense, and paid from half a
cent to five cents a day, when they
ought to be earning on the average a
dollar. Capital which should be used
for enterprise and for the employment
of labor is wasted on armor plate, sus-
picion and fear.
The actual destruction in the Bal
kan war, appalling as it is, and ruin
Gus to all the nations directly con-
eerned, is but drop in the bucket
" lut NdoNC II hao
caused. Austria, the nearest neighbor
to the Balkans, has lost her Danube
trade, has spent millions on millions
in mobilization through fear of Russia,
has lost all confidence in herself, and
is virtually bankrupt nation held to-
gether mainly by the fear of something
worse, should she actually dissolve
And the rule of fear, waste and demor.
alization in Austria, as in Japan and
Italy, is marked by a rise of political
corruption.
The decentralization of the wal
wasted lands has its reflex effect on
other nations. The jingoes of Ger.
many use il as an excuse to pile higher
and higher the military burden borne
unwilhngly by Germany's magnificent
industrial organization. France spends
more and more in the throes of her i'm
possible condition. that of a military
republic. The French banks are over
loaded with bonds of dereliet or ex
panding nations, evidences of indebted
ness they can no longer sell. Russia is
borrowing on q grand scale, not to meet