The Birmingham age-herald., 1916-02-06

be confident that eventually tue nome market will absorb this enormous body,
 they seem equally certain that there
 Will be a period of considerable but
 uncertain length when thousands o[ these men will be out of employment.
 It is this situation of which the self
 governing colonies are anxious to take advantage Canada, Australia, New Iea-
 land and perhaps South Africa, before the war is finished, will have contributed
 thousands of their best men to the de
 fense of the empire. What will then be
 the situation in these countries, which,
 even before the war, were man hungry! Their whole future is bound up in the
 problem of getting men, more men and
 still more men. It is a question of sell preservation. South Africa, from which more Englishmen emigrate than imml- grate every year, threatened by the pre- domination of the Boers and fearing the
 swampng of the white population oy
 blacks, Chinese and Indians; Australia, an enormous continent set in d distant sea, fearful of the land hunger of it's ambitious yellow neighbors; Canada, capable ot sup porting population many times us pres ent number anxious to ensure the pre- dominance of the British, yet in desperate man hunger, throwing open it's doors to an alien immigrat ton from all over Eu- rope: What are these countries to do II they may not entice the Briton from his English home and his overcroWded labor market to the limitless expanses awaiting only the touch of human hand and human ingenuity to yield riches such as lew lands can boast? Is the Canadian, the South African, the New Zealander and the Australian to sit down with folded hands, CT is the home government to realize finally that the British empire is an en- tity; that whe ma man moves from Dor set to British Columbia to better himsef he is no more lost to England than If he moves from Dorsett to Yorkshire; and the empire is enriched to the extent of his increased opportunities.
 Viewing the problem from the English angle, the subject presents many fascl- mating ramifications. What will happen after the war depends largely upon the rapidity with which industry, not only in this country, but abroad, recovers from the devastation of war. But if the war lasts much longer a very considerable part of the whole liquid capital of this country, as well as of others, will be eX- hausted How soon. if at ali, will the government be able to liquidate any DOT tion of the huge national debt which it is rapidly accommodating? The withdrawal of billions of dollars from productive in dustry is bound to have a demoralizng AOA many years to come.
 Quite aside from the important ques- tion of working capital, how much of the trade which she has lost will Eng land regain? The United States is seiz- ing and hopes to hold considerable portion of it. Japan is taking much and means to retain it. In the worldwide competition after the war, English manufacturers will be at distinct dis p+o rad with 10 ican and Japanese manufacturers, to name only two of the most important
 competitors for world trade. With labor disorganized, with large propor- tions of her machinery converted to war work, with selling staff and office
 staff and management staff killed
 wounded or ill, the British merchant
 will be hard put to keep his present
 place, not to speak of regaining his pre-
 war supremacy. This means that thou
 sands of working men, principally the
 skilled labor upon which Britain has for many generations prided herself and upon which firm foundation hel worldwide commercial supremacy ha: been built will be anxious to emi grate.
 Before the war was many months old it began to be realized in this coun- try that life in the trenches, daily and hourly, face to face with death was going to radically alter the men tai outlook of Britain's youth Boys in their late teens or their twentIes who, under normal conditions, WoulC have settled down to the hundrum life of clerk in some English town, have had a taste of outdoor life, where risk and chance and a big reward for mi tiative is the routine, and no more vii they return to the desk, where surety safety and an ultimate meagre pen sion was to be purchased by the sur render of aspirations and ambition. The burn of the sun the lash of the wind the sting of rain, hail and snow have freed and expanded their souls anC no more can they be confined betweer i four walls. They have measured sword: with the elements and the fierce hea ] of Australia, the snow and blizzards ! the zero weather of Canada hold m | terror for their minds. They have walked and slept with uncertainty, day | by day for months, and the risks oi | emigration to one of the governing | colonies, which once appalled, theil
 conservative minds now seems a mos natural step.
 ! Yet Ensland cannot afford to lose ! many of these men if she is ultimate 1 ly to regain her pre-war position ir l the commerce of the world. For many
 years her falling birth rate and espec-