The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1916-08-03
TRADE STRUGGLE To
CONE At WARS END
US Must Maintain Big Efforts And
Keep Gold 70 Hold Business Lead.
by HENRY NJ. HYDE. }

sme0lclne to Patagonia, typeWrlterS TO
Timbuctoo. canned goods to Canada,
groceries to Greece, mouse traps to
Mesoptamia, and everything else we
can raise or make to all the rest of the
world.
Else when peace comes IN Europe
panic may come in the United States.
Many factories will close down; lot of
us will be out of jobs; there will be the
devil to pay generally.
That is what many of the great bank
ers and industrial leaders say. They
say that prosperity depends on coun-
try's having lot of gold in its vaults.
When you have the gold, you can issue
notes against it, make loans, build new
factories, keep things running. When
the gold is gone everything else goes
with it. Hard times come.
The way to get gold is to sell more
to other countries than the other coun-
tries sell to you. Then they have to
settle the balance in gold, which YOU
tuck away in your vaults.
When you buy more abroad than you
sell. the gold has to be taken out of the
vaults and sent across the sea to the
amount of the balance you owe.
That why the United States must
plan to keep its foreign trade up to a
high point after the war if it wants to
continue prosperous.
=. For the year ending the last of June,
1916, the United States sold to foreign
countries goods worth two billion dol
lars more than the value of the goods it
brought from foreign countries during
the same time. That is a pretty tidy
balance of trade in our favor. 1t means
that the United States now has the
greatest stock of gold on hand in the
whole world.
One of the most important bankers
in America sat in his Office in Wall
street and looked out the window
"When the war is ended" he said,
1--WE will find all Europe depleted of its
gold. It's first object will be to rebuild
its stock of gold. The point of attack
will be our gold reserves. The meth
DDS they will adopt will be every means
known to trade and commerce by which
merchandise, securities, and credits can
be exchanged for gold. We are estab-
fishing price basis here which will
d. make Us a good market to sell in and a
bad market to buy in. We've got big
job on our hands"
What plans is the United States max
ing to continue and extend its foreign
trade and thus preserve its gold reserve?
Before an attempt is made to answer
that question, it NAV be interesting to
take look at what the nations now al
war are doing.
All the world knows how the govern
ment Of Great Britain has been OBJ
liged 10 take over 5000 great factor
les for the manufacture of war mater
ials. At the same time 1000, 600 men
have been enlisted and trained to arms.
To partly take the place of the absent
soldiers hundreds of thousands of
women have gone to work in the fac
tories.
Yet side by side with this tremend-
Gus military effort the making of goods
for the export trade has apparently
gone on unhampered, so great has been
the increase in efficiency.
1t is q startling fact that the total ex-
ports of Great Britain for May, 1916,
were greater in value than for May,
1914, before the great war began.
Lloyd-George declares that the i'm
provements in the organization of in.
dustry and in the efficiency of the work.
man-under the pressure of necessity
and the more effective control of the
liquor industry, resulting from the war,
will more than compensate the nation
for its economic losses.
American business men will face,
after the war, competition infinitely
keener, better organized, more effici.
ent than they have ever met before
Devastated Europe will throw the en-
ergies of ten million hard and disci-
plined men into the fight for world
trade, backed, if need be, by the newly
trained labor of a million or more
women.
AS in Great Britain, so in France. A
month after the war started the indus
trial life of the republic was at stand.
still. Her great supplies of raw ma
terisl, of coal and iron, her most I'M
portant manufacturing districts, were
and still are-in the possession of the
enemy. Yet in two years France has
built new factories, installed new ma
chinery, trained new workmen, until
today, as Andre Lebon, former minister
i Of commerce, declares, "she has be-
come greater manufacturing and in
dustrial country than ever before"
Scores OF sleepy French cities and
villages have been transformed into
busy manufacturing towns. More than
1CE 000 Ero0ob -