The Leon reporter. (Leon, Iowa) 1887-1930, 1916-02-03
WAR AND INDUSTRY.

WAR AND INDUSTRY.
Senator Burton, before the Bust
ness Mems League last Wednesday,
discussed the effect of the war upon
American industrial conditions. The
address was pitched in the minor
kew. It is impossible to avoid the
conjecture that if the senator's scrut-
inv of the field had been little
more comprehensive his horizon
might have been brighter.
He says of conditions just before
the war: For several years past
there have been immense crops"
And Just before that he observes OF
business conditions preceding the
war: 'There had been a period OF
enforccd economy, expansion
in form of new enterprises had al
most ceased, equipment was neglect
ed and stocks of goods ran low
If the senator will consult the sta
tistics of trade and production ne
will discover that in the year 1913
the United States produced the small
est corn crop since 1908, and that
notwithstanding the fact that the
combined yield of wheat, corn, oats,
rye and barley for that year fell
much more than 100000
bushels short of their yield for the
year before.
If he will review the records OF
foreign money markets for the fall
and early winter of 1913 he will flnd
that this time of short harvests on &C
~ ~. In 11oif
conceded with a period OF great
money stringency abroad, and, conse-
uuently, of diminished purchasing
power of our best customers overseas
If he will then turn to the sum-
mary of our foreign commerce Tor
June, 1914, and look at the state
ment of what we bought in the year
which ended with June 81, 1914,
and what we sold, he will find the Ell
feet of the 1913 drouth at home
and stringency abroad written clear
ly on the record.
He will find, that in consequence
of the drouth, we bought nearly $1O,-
100000 more of wood and tood ma
terials in the foreign market than We
did the year before, while we sold OF
these things in the foreign market
more than 100000 less. Here
was a change Of $4,000, 900. he
will find that, in consequence OF the
hard times abroad, our foreign Gus
toners took 100000 less OF our
manufactures than they did the year
before and that our total exports
were almost 500, 100000 less than
for the previous year.
No wonder expansion Of new en-
terprises almost ceased, equipment
was neglected and stocks Of goods
ran low" When an agricultural
and manufacturing people find ltsel1
buying food abroad instead OF selling
it to an extent causing change OF
s14O,OO0,0 in the trade of single
wear, and that happens to be a year
in which it sells SS6,0O0,OOO less
manufactures abroad because or
hard times there and hundreds OF
millions less at home because or a
drouth that dries up purchasing
power. something is bound TO come
of it. 1t was on top OF such sltua-
ton that the war came, with us sus-
nension of exchanges, both OF goods
and of credits.
The wholly extraordinary and IN
precedented nature OF the sltuaIloh
which produced our depression De-
fore the war began certainly ought TO
be taken into account in any forecast
of the future To take this INTO &C.
count makes it reasonable to face the
difficulties which will confront us at
it's end with a good degree OF couf-
age. There has been no time since
the panic of 1898, unless it was the
time Immediately following the panic
of 1907, when we should have been
SO utterly unprepared for the DIS
turbances of war as we were after
the drouth at home and hard times
abroad, in 1914.
Another important factor which
Senator Burton leaves practically out
of account is our new banking law
He calls attention to the fact that
Europe cannot lend to us as it mas
in the past and wholly fails to add
that by doing away with a foolish
provision of the national banking act
which froze up our bank reserves and
made it impossible for them to flow
where needed, we we're, UP to year
ago, realizing a minimum Of credit
uDon maximum of cash. We now
have a modern credit system; and
this fact together with the tremen-
dous liquidation of our Indebtedness
to Europe, already far advanced and
still in active progress, warrants a
much brighter view of the financial
future than that which Senator Bur,
ton, accustomed to the gray skies
oyerarching Lake Erie, seems cap,
able of taking.-St. Louis Republic
For Sale-On the stone farm II
1f rofivo n.