New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1917-06-26
War Will Be Won in
Workshop and Kitchen
BY A. {. MILLER
Member Federal Reserve Board

monte SocictL)
Let US not make the mistake Of
supposing that the saving which IS
called for in the present eXigency Is
merely a saving of dollars. 1t is a
saving of the productive power Of
the community from the service Of
private consumption for the service
of public consumption which is called
for, and the saving Of money Is
Of consequence only so far as it re
suits both in a transfer and in an in
crease Of the effective industrial
power of the nation for government
use.
Taxation, and even loans which are
bottomed upon real economic saw
ings, can at best only provide the
government with buying power. But
the government will need more than
buying power in order properly to
finance the war. AS the war goes on
it will become clearer and clearer
that this is a war of economic re-
sources, and that victory will lie with
those who are best able to resist the
processes of economic exhaustion.
More than buying power will, there
fore, be needed for the effective
prosecution Of the war and its sue
cessful issue, no matter how ortho-
dox and carefully guarded in finan-
cial sense the methods of providing
the government with this buying
power are. Napoleon. as the greatest
soldier Of his age, summed up his
experience in the statement, IAN
army marches on its belly" The eX-
perience Of the present war is every
day reinforcing the doctrine that a
successful army is carried on the
back of industry. 1t cannot, there
fore, be too much emphasized, in the
discussion of plans for the mobiliza-
ton of the financial resources Of the
country, that, much as the govern
ment will need buying power, it will
need something far more potent than
buying power. 1t will need arm
power, tool power, natural power and
brain power and will power to organ
ize and vitalize them. Natural power
we have in unlimited abundance. Our
present problem is to combine with
this the undeveloped potentialities Of
our arm power, our brain power and
our will power; the power to do and
the power to do without. Our battles
will be fought on the plains of Elan
ders and the heights of Arras. But
the war will have to be won in the
American workshop and the Ameri-
can kitchen. The fate Of democracy
may, therefore, well be said to rest in
the hands of our women.
Can we reorganize our life during
the period of the war so as to pro-
vide a quarter of the productive
power of the nation for the use of the
government? Only, if at all, by an
heroic exercise of our national will to
enforce the necessary economic sac
rifce and saving. We must find a
substitute for England's blockade Of
Germany and Germany's submarine
blockade of England in forcing
economy and saving. have been told
upon trustworthy authority that
when the policy of the submarine
warfare against England was under
discussion in Berlin one Of the most
eminent Of Germany's economic
strategists protested vigorously
against it, not on the ground Of its
violation Of the established rules of
international practice, but on the
ground that it would help England
more than it would hurt her. Keep
the submarine away from England's
shores and England will eat herself
into bankruptcy quicker than the
submarine can Stare her."
Saving will never be as easy for
the nation as during the period Of
this war, if we know why we are in
this war. The war and all that it i'm
plies in the way Of high and chival-
rous national endeavor should be our
substitute for our customary luXu-
ries during the war. We can afford
TO be generous in national indulgen-
cies. Indeed. when we consider the
vast consequences for civilization
and the democratic principle that
hang on the issue of this war we can
not afford to be other than generous
in support of cause which we hold
true and dear.