Grand Forks herald. [volume] (Grand Forks, N.D.) 1916-1955, 1917-11-08
War, MONEY AND GOODS

The financing Of q war Is a. important m nv az III
os No centuries. The present war is being conducted on .
scale OF such MAGNITUDE that money and, credits have been
demanded and supplied in sums never before approach
go, It IL admitted that the financial burdens which
must % borne by the world after the war will be heavy
ones, and It 10 often said that when peace is reached some
Of AL Of the great nations will be In q condition Of
practical bankruptcy.
This condition will have nothing to do With the ex-
istance OF money. There will be as much money in the
world after the war as there was before. That money
Will have a purchasing power differing not very greatly
from Its former power. Authorities disagree as to
whether or not prices will decline greatly for some time.
But at any rate. the change in the purchasing mower Of
the dollar is not likely to change NOR. than it does in
the periodical fluctuations from good times' to bad
times and vice versa. How can, the world be bankrupt,
or how can it DO impoverished, when 1t has as much
money as 1t had before. and when its money has ap-
proximately the same purchasing power7
Because Of its peculiar situation in the war, Germany
affords q rather more concrete example Of the conditions
than is to be found in any other nations. The entrance
bf Great Britain into the war at an earlier date than had
been desired by Germany. destroyed German foreign
trade at one stroke. The sea was at once swept Of its
German shipping. "A commerce in itself very consider
able. was carried on with Holland. Switzerland and the
Scandinavian nations. but in the main German foreign
trade was suspended. S
The consequence was that Germany's trade for more
than three years has been chiefly a domestic trade, and
that condition will be more pronounced during the re-
mainder of the war. The German government has bought
from its own people. German business men Of all kinds
have traded with each other. No money-relatively
speaking, has entered the country. and mono has gone
out of it. II money is wealth Germany Will be as rich
at the close Of the war as she was at the beginning
But money is not wealth. It measures wealth. Gsrmany's
wealth was in her goods. the products Of her fields and
factories, her ships and her railroads. in the raw ma
terial which she had bought for use in her factories, and
the finished product after labor had been applied to it.
in the accumulation Of commodities suited to the activi-
ties of her people. Those stores have been depleted.
Some of them have been destroyed. Metals and textiles.
and chemicals have been taken for the use Of the armies
and those things are gone. Ten million men have been
taken from the industries and. while their consumption
has greatly increased, they have ceased to be producers.
To supply these armies the entire surplus effort Of tho
population has been required, and the power to create
has not kept pace with the work Of destruction.
The war, then, should 1t be sufficiently prolonged.
would find Germany destitute of goods. Her accumula-
lions Of every sort would be gone. Her real wealth would
have disappeared. She would DO left without goods. but
with as much money as she had at the beginning. Her
money is changing hands constantly. So are her credits.
But indebtedness is being piled up at such a rate that
as to pass the possibilities Of production. Practical
bankruptcy, therefore. with vaults filled with stocks and
bonds. and even with liberal quantities Of gold and silver,
is quite q possible position.