Belding banner. (Belding, Mich.) 1889-1918, 1914-10-28
WORLD LEADERSHIP
FOR UNITED STATES
GREAT WARS EFFECT
PERTINENT SUGGESTIONS OF AN
EMINENT WRITER IN SEP
TENDER WORLDS WORK

In the splendid War Manual OF the
September Worlds Work Charles
Frederick Carter among other things
has the following TO say of the effect
OF the great European war on the
United States:
There is n streak OF silver. even i'm
the somber cloud The warning mil
lions will have 10 be fed and clothed
somehow. AT whatever sacrifice,
they will have to raise money with
which to buy the necessaries Of life,
and to large extent they will have
to buy from us. They must find
some means of getting provisions
across the sea, if they have to send
a whole fleet of battleships TO convoy
each freighter. Also. the rest of the
world must turn to US now for the
manufactured goods formerly pur-
chased from the warning nations. A
little more than half our foreign trade
last year was with nations not direct
ly concerned in the war. There is
now a chance for us TO obtain the
bulk of the trade of Europe former
ly enjoyed with these nations. The
I
in establishing a sort of international
clearing house to offset the collapse
of ali ordinary foreign exchange in
dicates a disposition to take advantage
of the opportunity.
Indeed, some OF the ablest finan-
ciers now assert that the present
situation is this Nations great op-
portunity if we but have the wisdom
TO grasp it. We can become the lead
er of the world in industry, commerce,
and finance If we will,so these far
seeing men aver. In order to do this
we must economizing.- The rich have
we must economic. The rich have
been economizing in recent years, but
the farmer and the workingman have
been growing more prohigate AS
the second step toward the world
leadership they say we must enact
the trust bills over which Congress
has been celebrating all summer.
Everybody knows there are underly-
ing evils that need To be cured, and
which these bills are intended to cure.
They may not be perfect measures,
but at least they make beginning
and they can be improved later as
experience may suggest.
One effect of the present situation
will be to compel us To finance our
own ventures. since we can get no
capital from Europe. The bankers
say we can do it.
Another effect of the war will be to
cut off immigration. Naturally, no
man capable of bearing arms will be
allowed to leave any Of the nations
involved while hostilities last. After
ward they will be even more urgently
needed than they are now. This will
not be "a serious drawback, because
there is labor enough here now to
meet the demand, though the restric-
ton of cheap labor will check the
wasteful development Of natural re-
sources and compel the conservation
OF which so much has been said. but
toward which so little has been done.
Another effect will be to compel the
United States to provide its own mer-
chant marine so that we may no long
er be dependent on foreign ship own
ers to get our products to market.
The Administration has already per-
ceived this, and has begun the task
OF undermining our archaic shipping
laws.
Another effect which will inure to
our benefit is that we will be compell-
ed TO manufacture our own cotton
instead of sending so large a portion
of it abroad to be manufactured.