The Goldfield news and weekly tribune. [volume] (Goldfield, Nev.) 1911-1947, 1918-09-14
EYES FRONT AND GO AHEAD

Men of broad vision are looking forward to the days when
mi!ijarisnl and autocracy will have been destroyed and the
world will practice the arts of peace more actively and freely
than ever before. America should make greater progress
after peace is restored than she has hitherto accomplished,
american business men owe it to themselves, their country
and the world to plan for the peace that is coming as well as
for the winning of the war. Peace must not catch us unpre-
pared as war did in 1914. Because we did not foresee the out
break of war we floundered for six months in fear of disaster
and then found ourselves prosperous and busy supplying the
wants of others.
War was not a certainty until it came, but peace must
come and should not find us unprepared. In the period of re-
organization and reconstruction that will follow the end of
the war, the peace and prosperity of America will depend on
its industrial system. If we so order things that every man
can earn a living America will go ahead like an express train
on a clear track. If every man finds gainful employment in
producing real wealth consumption will be sustained by the
buying power of the people who do the work.
Since the war began our finances, industries and COM
merce have grown in strength and volume. We are prOduc-
ing more, we are saving more, and we are learning how to
do things better than i'll former years. Our banking resource
es are far greater and, at the same time, more liquid than be-
fore. Our banking and currency system has proved sound
and panic-proof in the most trying period in all history,
where most other countries have had to resort to moratoriums
and to suspend specie payments for a time. We are building
ships and more ships at a rate that seemed incOnceivable I'M
til they began to slide down the ways into the waters on all
our coasts and the Great Lakes. We have erected great in
dustrial plants and enlarged existing ones. The only thing
that checks productive momentum is shortage of labor.
Having added so much to our financial resources, our
foreign and domestic trade, our machinery of production and
our means of transportation, the time has come to contrive
methods for turning these resources to account as soon as the
war ends. If we turn our full man-power into productive
channels at once we shall find markets at home and abroad
for the maximum output of which we are capable. In a few
localities labor employed in war work will have to be sent to
other points where peace products furnish work for all, but
this will not be difficult if the workers are reasonable.
Most of our industrial plants now engaged in war work
can take up the manufacture Of peace products without delay
All textile mills, clothing factories, shoe shops and plants for
making food products can go ahead without interruption.
Electrical works, steel mills and machine shops will find the
world hungry for their products. Arms and ammunition will
cease to consume labor and raw materials, but airplanes and
automobiles VIII be LII greater request than before. Ine de-
velopment of the airplane as an incident of the war will estab-
lish a peace industry that will rival the motor ear and motor
boats. All depends on making the changes quickly and
smoothly.
If we make good use of our resources peace should bring
prosperity. America enjoyed prosperity after the Civil war
wherever the machinery of production remained intact at its
end. 1t will be in good order everywhere on this continent
when this war ends. All that will then be required will be to
keep the wheels turning.