The Washington times., 1916-01-01
THE OLD YEAR OF PERFORM
ANCE, The NEW YEAR
OF PROMISE

| imagination paint marve ,ouS PFC
lures of what is before US. Behind
US is the year which we know be-
cause we have lived it. Never in the
history Of this country has such
another transformation come over
it as in the past twelve months.
From being idle hundreds Of
thousands of our wage-earners
have become busy. From work.
ing at low wages with no GER
tainty that they would con-
tinue from one week to the other.
hundreds of thousands have come to
find their wages higher, their labor
ir demand.
| There is a greater value in our
labor; there is a greater value in
our natural products, and many
more of them; still greater value
in our finished products.
There are new markets for cur
war business, and there are new
markets for our peace business. And
so we work and flourish and are
happy.
Now this uplift from the depths
to the heights, this shift from slack
times to rush times, this change of
labor from want to plenty, this
transformation Of the nation from
the hard times to opulence, is not
due merely to the fact that we have
sold to belligerents a billion dollars
or perhaps two billion dollars Of
war supplies.
1t is not due merely 70 the fact
that we have sold abroad. war trade
and peace trade all together, in the
year of 1915, some three billion five
hundred million dollars of our prod
ucts of the farm, the factory, the
mill, and the mine.
1t is not due to the fact that after
we have deducted from those three
and half billions Of exports some
one and three-quarter billions Of inn
ports there is left as a balance of
trade in our favor something more
than one and three quarter billions.
1t is not due to the fact that ex-
changing those prodigioUs exports
into our own stocks and bonds that
have been owned by foreigners we
have bought back more than
billion in such securities. with their
interest and dividends now due and
paid in this country instead OF in
countries across the sea.
1t is not due to the fact that in
these last twelve months the outside
world has sent into this country
more than $456,5OO,O0O of gold, as
against the trifle of $22,5OO,0OO
which we have sent to other coun-
tries.
1t is not due to the fact that we
have left to foreign countries, mu-
inequalities, and individuals more
than billion of dollars of credit.
Our power to do all those things
has depended and must depend upon
the ability of the American people
to support themselves at home,
American farmers farming primar-
lily for American consumers, Ameri-
can manufacturers manufacturing
primarily for American consumers,
American common carriers carrying
primarily for American consumers,
American markets taking primarily
the products Of American producers.
This country, dragged down be-
fore the war by the economic policy
which, taking away our markets
from American industries and giving
them to the foreign industries, there
by took wages away from our labor
and handed them over to labor
abroad, emerged from the disaster
when the war checked the food of
imports, and let our industry and
business get on their feet again.
The return Of their bread and
butter was assured to American
wage-earners, the restoration of
profits was assured to American in
dustries, the revival of wealth-mak-
ing was assured to this country
when American labor, American
capital, American enterprise, and
American effort once more had a
chance at our own markets, which
in peace or in war are the greatest
and the richest in all the world.
Whether we sold belligerents gun
powder by the ton or by the ounce,
whether we sold them shells by the
shipload or by the box, whether we
made munitions or did not make mu-
nitions for consumption on the bat
tlefields of Europe, this country be-
came economically sound, industrial
ly safe, and financially secure when
we were once more able to make
peace supplies for consumption in
this our own country.
There was that problem-that
bread and butter problem-when the
peace of Europe was broken. The