Omaha daily bee. (Omaha [Neb.]) 187?-1922, 1917-01-03
After the War Is Over

The end OF the war is not yet in sight, but
when it comes there will be undoubtedly letting
down of this abnormal foreign demand for our
products, and lowering Of prices and profits;
but although this may tend to check buying tor
a time the country is under tremendous momen-
tum and the war business is now small part of
the total. With drop in prices to somewhere
near normal levels there should be renewed
impetus to our industries. Although our exports
will fall off and our imports increase these
changes will come gradually. The first effect will
be shifting of the demand from goods to
peace goods There will be an enormous amount
OF work to be done in the world, in Europe to
restore state of industrial order and in other
countries to make up for the time that has been
lost There will be great outlet for our agri-
cultural implements and for machinery of various
kinds to make up the loss OF man power. The
shipbuilding industry will have long program
ahead of it, and its requirements will be an i'm
portant factor in the steel market. The railways
of Europe will need new equipment, and there
is every reason to expect the steel and equip
ment companies to have plenty of business, al
though the prices and profits OF business are
not to be expected and costs must be lowered to
correspond. The demand for our raw materials,
such as lumber and the metals, and for agrcul-
tural products, will be good reduction of the
number of meat animals has occurred in Europe,
which will require years to replace, and the loss
OF horses threatens to interfere seriously with
farm operations These are some of the pro-
longed effects OF the war.
Finally, there is work which ought to be done
in this country, and which is delayed by the high
costs now prevailing. In one immense field it is
known there has been failure for ten years to
keep pace with the countrys development, and
that is In the Improvement of railway facilities,
particularly at the terminals. Now that the ad-
vantages Of electrical propulsion are fully dem
onstrated there Is opened an enormous oppor-
tunity for construction work in that field 1t is
greatly desired, for the good of the general in
dustrial situation that the particular uncertainties
which attach to railway investments, by reason
of the public attitude toward them and their rela
tons with organized labor, should be cleared up,
so that the great work of development in this
field may 60 on. 1t means security to all the
industries, and full employment for the wage
earners in the transition period following the
war, besides improved transportation service and
great economies. Here is an opportunity for
craftsmanship where great practical benefits to
the country are possible.
abroad should be much better in the years fol-
lowing the war than during the war. The extra
ordinary demands upon as, the scarcity of mate
RAILS high prices and general arrangement of
trade, have handicapped new efforts in the foreign
field. Moreover, we are able now to enter this
organizer. The United States has become the
richest country In the world. Even before the
war its annual gains available for investment were
as great as those of any three other countries,
and our pre-emmence in that respect is now
greater. Our steeLmaking capacity is equal to
that Of all the rest of the world, and the same is
true Of our tool-makmg and misunderstanding
capacity.
We have therefore, the equipment for supply
ing the very things which after the war all the
world will be wanting. There has never been
a time when there was such pressing need for
improved appliances for increasing production as
there will be after the war. 1t is BY this means
that the wastes of the war must be made up. We
can go out to the undeveloped countries and put
into the hands Of their people the means of
opening new stores of wealth not only for them
Of munitions, however profitable and however it
may be justified, has its dark side, but there is
no dark side to the business of supplying the
implements Of industry. The more it prospers
the greater trade there will be for everybody.