Forest City press. (Forest City, Potter County, D.T. [S.D.]) 1883-19??, 1916-07-19

unable or unwilling to readjust our
selves to normal conditions at the close
of the war. The management of our
large industrial companies has been ia
efits arising from this extraordinary
period. Indebtedness has been paid.
Reserves have been created and ca
pacity has been enlarged. This forth
hes our position against calamity. IL
this course is pursued there will be no
danger of a financial panic at the close
of the war.
There are good reasons for believing
that a large amount of domestic work
is being held back now on account Of
his construction cost. This will como
in when PRICES are lower. Yet when
the war is owe and war demands<cease.
and the soldiers are returned to pro-
ductive industry, everybody will have
notice that prices will reverse. The
question of cost will then be the serious
one in he United States for if our eX-
ports are cut off and our production
must all be marketed at home, prices
are bound to be unremunerative.
There is only one way to maintain
the high wage scale of these abnormal
times and that is by increasing the
efficiency of our industries. We Won't
get very far in foreign trade by ordi-
nary routine methods. We must have
a highly organized and concentrated
effort and genuine leadership in in
dustry. The most important thing
about wages is not the rate per day or
per week, but the rate per unit Of
product. 1t is possible to reconcile in.
%terests of employers and wage earners
and c~onsun,ers, and it is possible to
DAY higher wages here than are paid in
other countries and still sell goods
abroad, it we can lead the world in
method Of production.
The United States Steel corporation
has Is warehouses in South America.
where it carries full stocks of tho
goods wanted in those localities. where
these warehouses are situated. lie
there is a building to put up or a
bridge to be built. or any contract to be
let in South America that calls for a
der will be after it who uses American
steel. More thar half of all the steel
buildings in South America were put
up by a subsidiary company Of the
United States Steel corporation. This
is the kind of an organization and
management that makes Roadway in
foreign trade.
In recent years the most serious fact
in our social and industrial situation
has been the rising cost Of food and
raw materials Of our industries. The
result has been that a larger part Of
the gains in other industries have been
counteracted to the wage earners by
the higher cost Of living. II is a great
misfortune to nave the common neces-
stiles rising to permanently higher
levels. 1t means that we are losing
ground in the struggle with nature, and
it ought not to be.
Everybody Just now ls wanting hi,
wages Increased, and claims that he must
have more pay to hold his own. because
8 the cost OF living Is going up so rapidly.
, But since the business Of supplying our
wants is carried on by distributing our
selves In the various occupations and ex.
changing products and services with each
! other, it follows that Instead Of raising
: prices all around on each other what we
, rsi1' sroy Want 50 'i tbs to t spssd VIII up p pro %oet y,
Z really. want is 80 bushels Of wheat to the
acre instead Of IS, q fun bale Of cotton
! cows that average SEQ pound Of butter In
. a year instead OF $50; factories that will
turn out 10 yards OF cloth with the Same
train loads of 1000 tons instead Of 500,
and so on all around the circle of the In
dustrIes.
e There is no line of production in which
9 improvements are not always possible:
$ they, are being made all of the time. The
steel Industry is undoubtedly one of the
o most efficient industries in the country,
+ and yet the by-product coke oven is just
! coming into use.
: That country will nave industrial lead
: most RAPIDLY. Notwithstanding the costly
and vexatious labor troubles that we
sometimes have believe that we have
the most Intelligent and receptive body
Q of working people in the WORLD, largely
: because they are the best paid. lf we
. can awaken their genuine interest i'm In
them that they are as much interested
in reducing costs as their employers, Il
we can ORA" out their latent abilities
: OF America after the war, or at any time
j i'm the future.