The Ocala evening star. [volume] (Ocala, Fla.) 1895-1943, 1916-11-07
PAYING FOR OUR PROSPERITY
columbia state)

tCOlumDla SCaLGJ
To the general and commendable
humanitarian desire that the Moloch
of war should soon find safety there
is now added very real and personal
feeling against the effects of the
European conflict. To everybody but
those whose fiirtations with war
brides have been productive of vast
and sudden profits, the pinch of the
high cost of living has come to the
felt as an intimate factor in daily ex-
istence.
When the war first struck horrent
Europe, with the shock to Americans
there was mingled for a considerable
number the immediate prospect of
something very like ruin. While the
chancellories of Europe were taking
stock of their forces before launching
themselves on the dire sea of war,
Americans stood aghast that there
should come in this civilized age de-
velopment so subversive of every
principle that had been taught and
learned. Then, before the sorrow of
the war had succeeded to the first
sympathetic exultation in brave deeds,
to some millions of Americans there
came the picture of commercial dis
aster. With tremendous crop in
sight, with the markets of about a
third of Europe cut off, with the GER
tainty of reduced consumption in that
portion still open to traffic, cotton
dropped and dropped, fell to a value
represented only on paper. Some cot
ton, it is said, was sold at cents
and that from crop which it had
been estimated would bring IL and
which had been cultivated on that
basis.
For time business was paralyzed,
stagnation that seemed close to the
touch of death fell on Southern ac-
tivity, as to a less degree it struck
the North. That was the first direct
contact of the Southerner with the
war. While the sorrow and suffering
for which he felt a deep sympathy
were far away, his own problems of
subsistence and advancement were
Imminent and immediate.
| But times changed, and cotton soar
led, and the business of the country
became thing to wonder at. Appar-
emily the wars grip on this neutral
nation had been lifted. The respite
was to be only Temporary, however.
With millions of productive laborers
lengaged in the destructive business
of war, the memorable law of supply
and demand came into play. All
Ithose unproductive millions not only
had to be fed and clothed, but they
had to be fed and clothed-and sup
piled too with their IDEALLY tools
with goods of special character. No
mere surplus would suffice; they must
have the top of the pot else their
bloody tasks could not be accomplish
ed.
/ So the world saw the prices OF
sugar, most desired of foods in wal
TINS, rise to heights unprecedented
To the sugar planters that was adj
vantageous; Cuba reveled in the pros.
perity its cane fields brought it. But
the average citizen, who likes plenty
of sweetening in his mornings cot.
fee, began to feel the pinch. His
wages had gone up, but they had not
risen with the wings of sugar.
i Wheat, with the great resources OF
the Russian empire all but cut of
from outside markets, rose vigorous.
", and took flour with it. The cent
loaf became thing of pressing i'm
portance. Meats rose because thous.
ands of drovers were summoned from
the goad to the gun and because the
struggling millions still required
meat. Wool, cotton and leather, the
bases of clothing shot upward be-
Icause those millions who faced the
battle thunders must have uniforms
and boots and harness and bandages
| That well known old problem-the
cost of living-more than anything
else has now become the war problem
tof America. In it the American, as
the Southerner felt it at the beginning
of the war, feels the near approach OF
the breath of that devouring monster
which has ravaged the fairest fields
of Europe. Even in the midst of a
great prosperity it can be felt and