Webster City freeman. [volume] (Webster City, Hamilton County, Iowa) 1884-1946, 1916-09-12
AFTER THE WAR.

Eds. Tribune: What con-
ditions will confront the business
world when the European war is
ended? Especially, what conditions
will confront the American farmer,
manufacturer and business man?
These are questions to which many
leaders of American business thought
are applying themselves at present.
They are questions that deserve the
sober thought of every American citi-
zen, be his business interests big or
little. And to no one should they APP
peal for more thorough consideration
than to the salaried man, the wage
worker and the producer, whose in
comes .depend almost completely on
the prosperity Of the United States.
This far all can see: With the
end of the European war the rush of
war orders will cease; if any orders
are pending completion they will be
Cancelled. In other words, the Am
erican factories which have been
rushed at top speed to care for the
needs of the warning nations will stop
their activities suddenly and COM
pletely, and the huge profits will
stop with them.
Europe, instead of ordering from
America on stupendous scale and
at any price, will order only the bar
est necessities at. the lowest prices
obtainable, until such time as its
nations have had an opportunity to
recuperate from the financial drain
imposed by the war. It's millions of
trained and efficient soldiers will re-
turn to peaceful business pursuits
with the determination to wrest back
from America the excess of gold
which has piled up here while blood
was flowing on the fields of Europe.
Will the United States stumble
blindly along to the end of the war
and then pause to wonder what to
do with the factories that have no
more war orders to fill and with the
thousands of workingmen who have
no more work to do on the contracts?
Will it revert suddenly back to the
dark business conditions that prevail
ed in the early summer of 1914, be-
fore the war began in Europe?
If it does, the nation will come to
a sudden realization of opportunities
lost while the time was yet available
for making the most of them. Even
the most unthinking will be able to
perceive evanescent qualities of a
prosperity based on war only.
The keenest business thought of
the country, working on the ways
and means of meeting the after war
problems that will confront America,
is agreed that the great need of the
United States will be steady hand,
a constructive brain and firmly de-
termined policy in the conduct of
affairs.
More than ever before, protection
of American industry by the govern
ment will be needed to bring about
a complete industrial and commercial
preparedness that will tide Americans
over the business crisis while world
affairs are being readjusted.
interviewer with every thought on
what conditions will be after the
war, is the question of tariff protec-
ton to American producers and
American workingmen. The moment
factories close all producers begin
to lose. Peaceful Europe will have
its eyes fastened on the rich Ameri-
can market. Peaceful Europe is well
aware of the barriers imposed against
a swapping Of the American market
by European-made goods when a re-
publican tariff is affording protection