Daily capital journal. (Salem, Oregon) 1903-1919, 1914-12-07
BUSINESS
HARD HIT BY WAR,
BAD ON CONTINENT
Those Furnishing War Sup
plies Prosperous, but All
Others Knocked Out
BELGIUM SITUATION
Is INDESCRIBABLE
Once Wealthy Families and
Former Day LabOrerS Are
Alike Just BeggarS

London, Nov. 2l.-(By mail to New
York. THE extent to which the Euro
pean war has thrown all sorts of bust
ness out of joint is something almost be-
yond belief except to those who, them
selves engaged in trade, have felt the
actual effects Of it.
OF course there are a few lines which
nave profited. For producers of army
supplies of all sorts naturally it has
meant a boom.
Most comercial branches, however,
have suffered heavily, and many big
cone arns, supposedly almost simpreg-
nable in their strength, have been com
lpletely ruined.
Retail trade of nearly all sorts has
slumped enormously. The number OF
unemployed has been greatly increased,
and naturally the families of the work
less have been compelled to curtail ex-
penses. In addition to this there is
general disposition to retrench, even
amolg those vino have not yet felt any
really serious pinch, the. widespread
view being held that nobody knows
what the future may bring for these
deeming it more than safe to economize
as far as possible.
Retailers Hard Hit.
All this has hit che retailers,
Dealers in luxuries Of every variety
have been hard hit. OF all of them
traders in objects of art have felt the
falling off in business most. Practical
ly speaking they have done no business
Mt all since the war began.
There has even been stagnatiOn in
the law courts. Barristers with pre-.
yiously large practices have seen their
incomes dwinde close TO the vanishing
point The people apparently are too
much absorbed in the war to think Of
litigation.
The larger financiers may have prof.
tied, but the smaller one-brokers and
specuiators--havesu suffered with the ma
jority Of business men. Many Of them
who had obligations to meet are hope.
essly ruined.
On the continent conditions are still
worse. In Belgium, in particular, once
and exceedingly rich country as might
naturally be expected, the situation is
frightful
The stories of suffering there relate
mainly TO the peasantry who have beer
driven from their homes and seen all
they had destroyed. II is true, to bC
sure, that there are many more in thii
class Of society whose fortunes, sucl
as they were, have been wrecked.
In Other Countries,
But the difference is doubtless NOR
, noticeable to those who were but q few
y months ago well to do or even wealthy
' Families which counted tacir dollars
! until the German invasion in some In
! stances well into the hundreds Of thou
:, sands, are homeless beggars today. i
! Germany loses and is compelled 4
make individual restitution these peo
J pie may, to some extent, regain thci
= feet again. Otherwise they will hay,
to start life afresh with absolutel,
I nothing but the rags they have on,
France, Germany and Austria arr
4 rather worse off than England, Austrii
: considerably worse.
: italy, Holland, Switzerland aud Scan
dinavia have not Jared much better
. Russia, being less dependent on the out
+, side world, has escaped somewhat eas
! ily except in those districts which th
= Germans invaded
Servla has nd been swept by actua
I fighting yet to such an extent ns Bel
y gium, and as II was a poor countr
:, when the war began, the differenc
|, between what was and what Is, is no
10 marked. Conditions there are tel
rible, however The people poyert
Ia beyond belief or the men, casuu
-, glance gives the impression that a fu
/, half had suffered some kind Of mutt
4 aiior In battle,