Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1916-01-26
Copyright. 1879
BY HERBERT COREY.

Copyright. 1916l
BY HERBERT COREY.
CHICAGO. January o4.-Three phases
of our growing national prosperity are
engaging the attention of Chicago
merchants. The first is that cyclonic
trade from the west. 1t is fairly blow
ing the goods off the shelves in tn
repositories. The second is the man
ner in which the export trade is jump
ing ahead. There was time when it
took good American hustIing to get
toe-hold in the export business. Now
adays foreign buyers are establishing
Offices in Chicago to be nearer the base
of supplies. The third is the labor sit
uation.
Were too busy" one large employer
said. We're making too much money.
We're paying too high wages. There
is danger ahead"
Because this condition is common to
the whole country his statement must
be amplifed. Certain lines of manu-
facture have felt the direct impetus
of the war order money. Because their
profits are very large the manufacture
ers have been willing to pay higher
wages than ever before. Some of them
go father than that. The Allis-Chal-
mers Company, at Milwaukee, the
amounts taken from their pay en-
yelopes during the hard times early
last year.
Other lines are indirectly speeded up
by the war order money. Because the
manufacturers are making an abnor-
NAL profit they are able to pay I'M
usually high wages. They are forced
to do so. because if they do not their
employees threaten to leave them in
favor of the war goods factories. Still
other factories do not feel the war
order money at all, except as that
money filters through half a dozen
hands. The manufacturers are able to
raise the prices of their product a
They will continue to go higher while
the unnatural stimulus of war con-
tinues. But in these non-war lines
there is limit.
Therefore" said the employer quot
ed. there will be strikes More work.
men will be getting more money this
year than ever in the history of the
world. believe that is not an ex-
aggeration. But one of these DAVIS
there will be a readjustment"
But They Are Making Money Now.
The west feels the readjustment will
not come before the end of the war.
of false prices and wages will be scaled
down. and this and that will happen.
Perhaps one or more of the belligerent
nations will be bankrupted and unable
to meet it's obligations. The west re-
members that most of the war order
business is done credit. 1t wonders
who will hold the bag.
Meanwhile" says every third man
one meets. some one must make
money. The only way we can keep
from making it is to shut up shop. We
will hardly do that"
The Chicago attitude is distinctly diff
ferent from that OF New York. The
eastern metropolis is war mad. Every
one there talks war babies. shares,
fractions, orders. millions. The city
seems to have It's nose hooked over the
ticker. Many New Workers say frankly
that the longer the war lasts the better
they will like it. because of the specu-
1atiTe opportunities. Chicago is revel-
ing in the wonderful trade. But Chi
cago shakes her head. She doesn't like
this particular sort of money very we'll
II might carry a curse.
Lots of u.s.. said one man, ARE al
ready getting out of the war business
In spite OF the prices, il does not pay"
He instanced the case of one man.
For the purpose of this story he may
be called a maker of automobiles When
the war began he was almost delirious
because he landed an order for forty
cars day. That order pulled him out
OF the hole. He renewed his contract
not long ago. Now he is beginning to
see the other side.
He cannot fill his domestic ORDERS"
said his friend, land his competitors
are getting his trade away from him
The profits he makes will not compen-
safe him for that. To hold his home
business he is doubling the capacity
of his factory. II war were to stop to-
morrow he would have a huge, empty
plant and no business"
The Gate of the West.
Chicago altruism is more or less hand
ouned. moreover. by the tremendous
business that is being offered. Chicago
Is the gate OF the west. Nine states
Illinois. Wisconsin, Minnesota, Iowa, Mis-
souri,. Arkansas, Oklahoma, Kansas and
Nebraska-deal with Chicago directly
The states east Of the Rockies and most
dealings through the lesser gates of Kan
sas City. ST. Louis. ST. Paul. Omaha and
the like.
T~enty-six trunk lines make Chicago the
greatest railroad center in the world. and
are kept busy hauling goods from Chicago
TO the west and from the west to Chicago.
In our east-and-west- barred country
trade always flows to the east and never
10 the west. Chicago draws clear from
the Pacific coast. and Yet but short
distance to the east the buyers move
toward the Atlantic sea board.
The west will Guido its best past dur
ing 1916" is the prediction of a Chicago
wholesaler.
There is lumber. for example Lumber
Is not war baby. The little order OF
100. 600. 900 feet OF cheap. soft wood for
a winter covering for the trenches in
France hardly Jared the market. But
on every country road west OF Wabash
avenue farmer is at this immediate
moment tooling a team home, hauling a
load OF lumber. He proposes to patch
his roofs and build new shed for the
beeves he plans 10 feed and make a
summer kitchen for his wife. A 1915
census would show an upward bound In
the number o: western lumber yards
The hardwood market feels IL. Pianos
are on the rise
'rhe farmers are buying pianos fol-
the young ladies' nowadays said piano
hanufacturer. Not long ago the girls
were content with cottage organs"