The daily Gate City and constitution-Democrat. (Keokuk, Iowa) 1916-1922, 1917-06-20

war are men and money, When.
as IN the present war, men, in hun.
dreds OF thousands, are taken for
the army and navy and money in
billions is needed to supply and
equip them, the natural result is to
make labor for any other purpose
ever scarce as the war progresses,
and to make capital for any other
purpose both scarce and high. BY
the same line of reasoning, any use
OF either labor or capital for any
purpose other than military, not
absolutely needed during the war, is
an unpatriotic act
| Starting first to analyse the labor
situation, there are two ways to off
set the shortage produced by the
| combined effect of war munition re-
quirements and the taking of men
for the active service; one is to
eliminate all useless or the less use
full work, and the second is to en-
| large the category of those who per-
form the nations work. The latter
means, of course, the employment Of
women wherever they can replace
men, or the employment of older men
to do work for which they are physi-
cally fitted.
In England the government has
prepared a long list of trades, in
which during the war, it is absolute
ly prohibited by law to employ males.
This list contains seventy (7O) kinds
of industry, but typical set of such
industries is as follows: French
polishing, china manufacture, millin-
cry, bookbinding, manufacture of wall
paper, candy, beer, church organs
and bricks. You can see at glance
that they are work which can be dis
pensed with for the good of the
nation when the need exists. 1t has
been stated, from statistics carefully
compiled, that 100000 women in
England are now doing work which
before the war was done by men. In
the United States corresponding
number Der capita would be 100000,
since our population is three times
as great as England's.
There is another list of industries
issued by the British government
since they adopted CONSUMPTION,
which is prepared on the same basic
theory as the one l just mentioned,
but which it requires a little more
thought to understand fully the
necessity for That is a list of the
industries from which 1t is unlawful
to recruit soldiers and in which there
are no restrictions as to the en-
ployment of males.
These industries are, of course,
those which produce arms and am
munition and other things needed by
the army or navy or for the public
good. 1t has been found by expert
ence in Europe during the present
war, that it takes five men in NUM-
tons and other industrial or agricul-
tural work. to keep one man on the
fighting line. With the Importance
of munitions in modern war SO much
greater than ever before in the
worlds history, these five men are
just as essential to the success OF |
the whole as the one man under |
arms.
Every Ounce Of Human Energy.
It is this necessity tor saving labor,
FOR not trying to make square peg |
fit in round hole, for concentrating
every ounce of human energy in a
nation at war, that makes the uni
versal military service law such
wise, fair and benef1cent one. The
persons Ned by our wonderful presi-
5ent) who had the courage and sense
20 insist on universal CONSUMPTION.
had to fight against the sentimental
deal of nation of patriots springing
% arms. But they knew Gas we must
Ill know when we have thought 1t