The Daily Missoulian. [volume] (Missoula, Mont.) 1904-1961, 1917-01-14
IS AMERICA inefficient?
North American ResieW Sees
Danger to This Country
After War.
Continued From Page One.J

1t is based first, on the consciousness
of the fresh power which Great Britain
has derived from her present ordeal.
Nothing since the introduction OF the
steam engine has SO reyolutionized. so
renovated, sent such an nvigoratinS
stir through the whole of British m
slustry as this war. For the past two
and "A half years the most inventive
and most highly trained brains in the
kingdom have been placed freely M
the disposal of the government ana
have applied themselves as never be
fore to the problems of manufactures
Great Britain will emerge from the
war incomparaby better equipped anu
more efficient for all industrial pur-
poses than she was when il began,
Science and business We're never so
closely allied the mechanism of pro
duetion was never so well organized,
the relations between capital and Ia
Dor were never so sympathetic as al
this moment in Great Britain: ana the
same brains that have solved the COM
mercial and scientific problems o. the
war with conspicuous success will be
Mt the service of British manufacturers
when it is over. and will make them
rivals in every way worthy of our best
attention. Those who know anything
whatever OF the spirit of enterprise
that ncrmeates Great Britain today,
of the extent to which whole trades
iyy,I lx.3 bn arm
ment. of the miracle OF industrial I'M
provisation which has been wrought Tor
tho purpose of turning out mnaitions,
and the huge factories equipped with
the latest machinery that have been
erected must be perfectly aware that
the British industrial future is as
slired beyond challenge or dispute. The
mere fact that in the middle of the
greatest war of ali history. with s.,
100000 of her men in the army, and
with another 100000 engaged solely
on war work. Great Britain has been
able to raise her ordinary foreign tade
to a point never exceeded in the most
prosperous years of Ts.2ce. gives the
measure of her new found capabilities
EngIishmen Tranquil.
This, then, is the first ground of the
tranquility with which Englishmen re-
gard our invasion of markets and
spheres to which before the war we
were comparative strangers. They
believe they can more than hold their
own by virtue of their greatly IN
creased deficiency. But they have an
other ground OF confidence that touches
as more nearly. They believe. and all
Europe believes that the quality of
American craftsmanship is not level
with the demands of these eNacting
times. They rely upon the poverty of
constructive thought at Washington
TO harass and impede the enterprise
of the rest of the country. They trust
10 American legislators to trip up
American industry wherever it can be
done. They are we'll aware of the al
most automatic regularity with which
congress falls down before any large
problem of fiscal. financial or indus
trial policy. They know it's record in
currency and banking matters during
the past two generations. They sec
the present plight Of the American
railways. They followed the campaign
a+tainst the trusts. The letters of
sheer aisorganiZation that manacle
American business at almost every turn
are no secret from them.
So long as we continue to send to
congress an overwhelming majority of
medaling lawyers and an insignificant
minority of men of affairs, so long
as the best business brains of the
country do not find their way to
Washington, Engishmcn feel that they
can sleep easy in their beds. For they
possess what is little less than a
permanent guarantee that one by one
the opportunities opened to American
citizens by the war will be taken from
them, and that stupidity al the capitol
will always thwart and frequently null
lify or,r best efforts to make ourselves
felt in international commerce anC
finance.
So long as we remain as We arc to-
day, the least organized and least eff
ficient nation on earth SO long as oul
legislatures and our administrative
authorities are on par with the ted
eral reserve board, the Europe tina
will emerge from the war, geared VI
to the highest pitch of ordered energy
can well afford not to take American
competition too seriously.-The Nortl
American Review.