New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1917-01-01


ever comes Of that. All the inhu-
ences operating to advance tho price
Of other commodities operated also
TO advance the price of food, plus
one more-namely, the shortage in
agricultural production throughout
the world. The wheat crop of al
nations declined about % per cent.
The Most
Significant Thing
And now we come to the most sig
nifcant thing of ALTO a fact preg-
nant with social meaning. 1t is this
Notwithstanding the rise in prices
and the sale abroad Of surplus mer-
chandise to the value Of more than
S3,000,000,000 (the equivalent OF
s120 for each family in the United
States) the domestic consumption Of
goods at the same time greatly in
creased. Not only did the American
public buy and consume actually
more goods than ever before, but it
bought richer goods. Testimony to
that effect has been voluminous.
Writing on the state Of trade at the
years end, "Bradstreet's" said
Holiday trade with retail dealers
reached record proportions"
Unfortunately, we have no trust
worthy current statistics to express
the physical volume Of business do
ing. Therefore, we cannot attempt
to say in what degree domestic con-
sumption Of goods increased. Bank
clearings during the year increased
throughout the country 40 per cent,
but an increase Of 40 per cent in the
physical volume of business would be
impossible. Bank clearings are af-
fected in two ways-by the volume
Of business and by the price level on
which the business is done. For in
stance, the crops were smaller in
1915 than In 1915, but their money
value was greater, and, therefore,
those bank clearings which alone rep
resent the production and distribu-
ton of crops actually we're larger in
1916 than in 1915.
Railroad earnings are better In
dication Of changes In the physical
volume of business. Everything that
we consume contains the element OF
transportation, and the price Of
transportation does not fuctuate
Gross railroad earnings increased
during the year II per cent. 1t IL
known that on a food tide Of bust
ness railroad earnings tend TO In
crease little bit faster than the
volume Of business, for technical
reasons which we need not stop "a
discuss, so that some deduction
though not much, will have 20 be
made from the increase in gross
railroad earnings before we have q
fair measure OF the increase in the
quantity Of merchandise produced
exported and consumed during the
year.
The increase Was probably 10 per
cent. There is much collateral evi
dence 10 support that guess. Let US
suppose that half Of this increase
was exported and the other half con
sumed. II is an extraordinary thing
20 have cone. The year 1915 was
one Of great activity. Yet in 1915
we increased our production OF good
by Is per cent The merchandise
sold abroad on credit was paid To-
in money. and the release o. This
money enlarged the buying power
Of the people. The result was pros
perity in degree never before wit
messed. The lesson is that in our
resources of raw material, labor anc
Imagination we have vast and undis-
covered potentialities. Nothing was
added TO US from outside during I'll,
year. We imported neither labor
nor capital. Merely by utilizing the
labor we had and speeding up the
industrial machine we created CAPT
tai 10 lend. Always before We had