Bisbee daily review. [volume] (Bisbee, Ariz.) 1901-1971, 1915-09-22
FleHrlNo FoR TRADE EXPANSION.


German prisoner in the hands Of the French is re.
ported to have explained that Germany went war
because she wanted to obtain peace.
and why do we want peace?" he continued. "The
answer is very simple In order to get chance to
produce trade establish business connections all
the world since We could not get it any other way,
and bound to have it any price emperor
engaged in this general of attaining our
aim after its ending"
The story may be an invention. Whether it is or not
matters little What does matter is that the words
rbuted to the German prisoner supposed be highly
intelligent business man, represent of the most
ata falaces in the world.
Even today men persist in the old delusion that vic
orious war is necessary for the extension of nations
rade in spite of history and the evidence of current
vents. If there is thing certain to result
If this it is that Gemanys international trade viii
ufer enormously whether she wins or loses.
It has been proved by economists that in the modern
civilized world with the exception of such abnormal war
times this, is in way dependent on mil
itary power The most prosperous nations of Europe
have been the little peacefur Holland swz-
erand and the Scandinavian countries They have had
the whole world trade in at WILL their own merits,
many and every other nation.
It was only when the infested with pirates,
that naves needed protect ships and goods No
body attacked Germanys merchant fleet or thought
of attacking it, before she precpitaed the war What
Germany is represented as fighting for she already
joyed
A nation may to extent control the markets Of a
conquered province; but with the completely of modern
commerce it cannot monopoze them. Ordinarily the
commercial advantage gained is disappointing We know
that from experience with the Philippines Great
Britain knows from her experience with South Africa
Canada. Australia and New Zealand We sell far more
than England does.
The only foreign markets in the world really worth
fighting about those highly civilized and prosper,
Gus countries And those are precisely the markets that
cannot be won by fighting For while such country
may be defeated in war cannot be forced to buy the
victor's goods
Suppose that Germany were able to impose a Roman
peace the world by crushing the military forces Of
all her present enemies and all her other trade rivals
including tine United States Would that give her the
worlds markets?
Would the nations with the real buying power then
trade more extensively with Germany? We can read
the today in Russia in France in every corner
of the British Empire In all the Allied countries and
in many of the neutral boycotts against German
goods have already begun. Win lose will be many
years it may be decades before German exporters re-
gain the ground they have lost
By gaining absolute control the sea- and then using
that control megitmatey times peace against the
commerce Of other nations Germany might conceiyaby
ompe some extension of her markets; such unheard
Of measures would of course, stir up revolt and the
md defeat their purpose.
The point is that commerce is free by nature and
necessarily must remain free, war cannot change
he fundamental economic processes.
Germanys wonderful trade growth of the last forty
3eas has been accomplished by peaceful methods with
out either military or naval compulson Any victories
on by German armies and navies of any other
ountry, will have far less influence in winning CONNER
ia power than would the same effort devoted to peace
iu trade expansion