The Hood River glacier. (Hood River, Or.) 1889-1933, 1914-09-17

Extraordinary complications attend
ing the outbreak of war in Europe
have caused a paralysis Of business on
all the great markets, and construct
i've enterprises everywhere have been
checked. The American market has
come to be the most important tinan-
cial center of the world for the time
being, because the London bill of eX-
change, hitherto accepted everywhere
as the standard Of payment, is no long
er readily available for conversion into
cash. The hold-up Of business gener-
ally has been wholly unprecedented,
and although ocean transportation is
being gradually resumed, it is possible
only with the aid of war risk prOtec-
tion. EurOpe's credit machinery has
broken down absolutely, so that a
moratorium has had to be resorted to as
the only means of preventing financial
chaos. In spite Of the fact that we
shipped $50, 900, 600 gold in the closing
days of July, and about Sl60. 600, 900
since the year opened, the foreign
markets would unquestionably have
taken 500, 900, 600 more gold had it not
been for the combined efforts of the
banks to prevent it.
The real conflagrationn started with
Germany's declaration of war against
Russia on August |. A few days be-
fore that Austria had declared war on
Servia and developments were so SEN
sational as to indicate that all of the
great powers of Europe would newt
ably be drawn into the conflict. The
struggle now takes in nine or ten ma
tions, whose residents comprise more
than half the population of the world,
and while it is probable that the
sphere of disturbance will not extend,
| the disruption is so extraordinary as
to make it impossible for anyone to
| forecast the future. Professor Charles
Richet, of the University of Paris, has
estimated the cost of sustaining the
armies at virtually $50, 900, 900 day,
and this, of course, does not include
! the frightful waste represented by the
withdrawal of several million men
| from the productive industries. Prob
ably no economist could estimate with
any accuracy the total cost to the civil
| lied world of such war, but there is
| little doubt that the struggle will be
altogether the most costly Of the kind
that the world has ever seen. Europe
will be wrestling with the burdens for
years to come and future generations
will have to pay heavily for this great
crime of the twentieth century. But
! the hope is that some way will be
found for ending the struggle within
a few months. Admiral Mahan has
expressed the view that it will be a
! long war, and some European experts
have taken similar ground. But the
sufferings of the people are so great
and the commercial burdens assumed
so heavy that some basis is afforded
for the hope that the first terrific bat
tie on land or sea may open the way
for quick recourse to peace tribunal.
One blessing likely to come, how
ever, will be the utter disgust of civil
lied nations upon their realization of
the bloodshed and the total waste in
volved in this the greatest Of all wars,
and possibly a keen sense of humilia-
ton that such a thing could happen in
this enlightened age. Then when the
people start to pay the bills, and have
to reckon with the destruction of Sc
many useful lives, the sense of wrong
and injustice should be so great as to
give rise to the most extraordinary
peace movement that the world has
ever seen. That in itself would be a
great achievement but the pity of il
is that the nations affected had to tol-
crate wholesale murder before discoV'
ering the awful folly of it all.