The Irish standard. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn. ;) 1886-1920, 1916-01-08

that smoke? Nothing which those
buildings contain, not single ele
ment of which the structure itself is
composed, was produced here in Chi
cago. That smoke could not be found
rising Heavenward here If coal had
not been brought into the city from
some distant coal mine. The bricks
and the stones and the woodwork that
constitute the building, must have
been supplied by labor expended far
away. And in each factory the diff
ferent elements that constitute the
raw materials of it's finished product
must be contributed from varied
climes. And in the great shops and
stores where the workers employed
in these factories exchange the wages
gained by their labor for the commodi
ties necessary to their support, all the
articles they purchase are themselves
products of labor expended in every
quarter of the globe.
| The very life Of great city de-
i ponds on a continual flow towards it
of food supplies and raw materials of
industry, which are exchanged against
a continual outward tide of commodi-
ties produced by the industry of it's
own population. AS these tides swell
! populations increase. Should they
fall populations must diminish. A
great city is not maintained solely by
it's own inhabitants. Its existence de-
ponds upon all the labor and all the
resources Of all the world.
The foundations of this city are not
on the ground that it occupies. The
foundations Of it's buildings rest on
the soil of Illinois. The foundations
Of it's industrial life, that is to say,
it's real foundations are in the indus
trial energies of men exercised every
where.
Since every city depends for it's sub
sistence upon uninterrupted supply of
the commodities which constitute it's
means of subsistence and the basic
materials of it's industry, the loss of
men numbering millions in the full
tide of their youth and in the very
flower of their productive capacity
from the industrial forces of the
world is matter Of serious moment to
you and to the people of every other
great city. But destruction of human
life and manning of human beings are
not the only injuries this war has in
ficted upon the productive powers of
mankind. Its destruction of property
and diversion of capital from produc-
tive enterprises Of industry to destruc-
tive enterprises of war is an addi-
tiOnal restriction to the prosperity of
the world and an additional menace
to the human race
The efficiency of each man in pro-
ductiOn depends upon the capital avail
able to facilitate his labor, and the
amount of capital available to facili-
tate labor in any one part of the world
is the entire capital of the whole
world. When capital becomes scarce
the cost of it increases, that is to say
the rate of interest rises. When it is
abundant it becomes cheap and rates
of interest fall.
Owing to the increased rates of in
terest already caused by the loss of
property amounting to twenty billions
of dollars and diversion from produc-
tion to destruction of all the capital
these warning countries can command,
any industrial enterprise: the cree
tion of house, the building of rail
way, or the construction of a great
public improvement will cost now
more than three times what it would
have cost twenty-five years ago In
deed, it is doubtful if capital for con-
struction of a great public improve
ment like the establishment of transit
facilities for city OF this size could
be obtained at the present time on
any terms whatever. Scarcity of
capital therefore menaces the pros
perity of cities in two ways: BY in
creasing the cost of producing COM
modities it raises the cost of living
BY restricting production it diminishes
the demand for labor and thus de-
presses the rates of wages.
So we see this war, by incapacitat
ing many millions of men from indus
try and destroying capital to such a
vast extent, has seriously affected the
conditions of life not merely in the
countries which have been the theatre
of this destruction, but here in Chi
cago, in New York, and every other
city of the globe.
The first effects of this devastation
were clearly evident last winter in
the widespread unemployment which
afflicted this and all other cities. 1t
is true that recently demand for
munitions of war has caused an ap.
parent improvement in our industrial
conditions. But that appearance is
delusive. 1t must be obvious that the
moment this war is over the demand
for these war materials will cease
The capital and the men that have
been diverted to production of them
from other industrial enterprises will