The watchman and southron. [volume] (Sumter, S.C.) 1881-1930, 1916-01-12
PREPARE FOR THE FUTURE.
AMERICAN INDUSTRY MUST LOOK
AHEAD.
Secretary Of Commerce Rcifield Calls
Attention to Need for Securing
Peace Orders.


Redfield of the department of COM
merce in a memorandum on business
conditions transmitted TO President
Wilson pictures the country as in the
most prosperous state of it's history.
The warning is added, though, that
wars imitation of commerce will
last only until the wars end and
that business foresight alone will
prepare the United States for peace.
The slump that will follow the war
abroad, the secretary's summary de-
clares. must find Americans ready to
take their share Of the worlds trade
unhampered by provincial notions.
1T is not to be expected" the Sec
retary says, that our business move
ment will continue in it's present
form. No one dreams that we can
now or in the future maintain an
Iexport movement of more than five
billions actual value. or that we may
sanely expect a trade balance in our
| Ad'oT VI $S,VUO,OUV,UVV.
| 1T is alike impossible and undesir-
able that these things continue. 1t
is impossible for no other reason be-
cause the world has not the power to
pay to any one nation such vast sums
Tor any long period in addition to the
waste of war. The nations are not
spending their incomes in our mar
kets. but their capital"
I Opportunities for a normal pros
|perity after the war are outlined, the
secretary pointing out that the Unit
ed States has jumped to first place
among the nations in international
trade.
Whether we shall remain the
first" the memorandum continues,
depends upon the vision and energy
of our bankers. manufacturers, mer-
chants and farmers. We have for
the first time In our history a sound
system of finance. In this one re-
spect our preparedness is complete.
Our finances can be mobilized on
demand to meet the needs of trade.
Enterprise and investment may move
with certainty never before known
as regards the financial system. We
hold the greatest reserve of history.
Both financial power and effective
means Of using that power are in our
possession. Together they may form
"a basis Of commercial and financial
! opportunity"
| Prosperity has grown general and
no particular class is benefiting at the
expense of others, the secretary de-
Iclares. Opportunity being opened to
the railroads to take up long deferred
development work will give work to
Thousands, he continues, and by its
indirect effects. will keep many a
factory busy"
students Of the railway probelm
know that in the past hard days much
needed work has been left undone and
that vast expenditures are needed
soon to keep our railways abreast of
the national needs" the secretary
writes. ''The earnings now exist for
these impr ovements and the financial
system is available for the fiscal
power to cary them out.
"The economies forced upon rail-
ways, industrial corporations and in
ldividuals in recent years are a potent
factor in maintaining prosperity. Our
business is better done, less waste
fully done, than heretofore. There is
new tone Of efficiency in factory, in
office, on the farm and in the work
of the railway manager. We shall en-
ter the revived worlds arena better
trained for the struggle than we were
when the former game closed.
"Our horizons are wider. Our re-
Ilations with the whole world is more
lconscious.
IF I am correct in this analysis the
buying power of the United States is
greater than it ever was. The selling
power of the United States is greater
than ever. The loaning power of the
United States is greater than ever and
the saving power of the United States
is, greater than ever before and ali
more widely distributed.
Back of all these lie resources well
developed indeed, but relative to their
total extent untouched and the power
and the resources are in the control
Of people awake as never before to
opportunities which these give them"
OF the change to come at the end
of the war the secretary says:
1.-The war order must be replaced
by the peace order, and, as has been
said, the whole foreign trade must