The copper era and Morenci leader., 1917-01-26
BUSINESS OUTLOOK FOR FUTURE
 |S GOOD
Heavy Foreign Purchases of Food Stuffs and Various Raw Materials Are Certain to Continue.
By George L. Walker

Peace in Europe, even if it comes suddenly, will not find the financial and industrial interests of the United States unprepared This country will be rich in gold, liquid capital and pro ductive capacity, while the war ex- | hausted and devastated nations will be in even greater need of our raw materials, particularly our foodstuffs, cotton, metals and lumber, than they are now. Although our imports will grow gradually, it is quite certain that our exports will be large enough to maintain the balance of trade substan tially in our favor for more than year after the war ends. That will give both the industrial interests and the wage earners sufficient time to learn from observation and experience whether or not they care to have this country continue doing business under low tariff.
 Of course a great deal of readjuSt- ment will be necessary as manufac- | turing plants now making munitions of war must be re-equipped to supply the requirements of peace, and mech anics and other workers will be ob- | liged> to shift from the industries that become dull to those that increase i their activities. In these matters, however, Europeans will have far
 greater problems to solve than we shall in America. Their industrial forces must be reorganized and an un- usually large number of inexperienced
 workers will have to be trained. As the people of the several warning na-
 tions will have been practising ex-
 treme frugality for three years or more, every family by that time will
 come to feel keenly its own accumu- 1 lated needs for clothing, household necessities and comforts. Each man returning from the various fronts i'm
 mediately will become a buyer of mer- chandise, and he will not be disposed
 to wait until the prices of shirts, socks
 and shoes decline. It is quite pCss- ible that the warning countries will have greater markets at home for a time than they can supply.
 European credit will be good and her industrial interests will borrow heavily in this country after the war Assuming that the political readjuSt
 ment will be thorough and satisfac
 tory, the war bonds which will con
 stitute large portion of the average business mans capital resources vii become entirely satisfactory collatera fer loans With the credit thus Ob tained supplemented by that accruin& , from sales of merchandise in thi: , country, Europeans will buy heavily from US. Their supplies of foodstuff' cannot be built up to the pre-war basis f in less than two years and this perio' ' will be the golden age for the Ameri
 can farmer. Food prices must con itinue high even if maximum crops ar
 raised. The farmers of war exhaust l ed Europe will be obliged to draw UT l onthis country for breeding stock an' l. miIch COWS, as by now there must b s a great scarcity of these animals, am l. of swine also, particularly in the are controlled by the central powers. 1 S should be borne in mind that onl = slightly more than a normal foreig t demand for this country's product n will be necessary to maintain rela-