New Britain herald., 1918-04-06
Henry Clews Weekly Letter
Especial to the IIerald)

l in pushing the war; and preparations l for a more vigorous campaign are , evident upon all sides. It is now i year since we declared war against Germany; and. despite the shortcom- , ings and mistakes which invoked flood of criticism, splendid progress , has been made. It must be remcm- bered that we entered this struggle upon 8 much larger scale at the start than anv other nation except Ger
 many. The Allies entered more grad
 uaIl7- and upon a. much smaller scale
 than ourselves. It may not be ad-
 visable to give details, but it js well
 known that VIC have trained ana
 equipped a large army in an lncred- iblv short period, and have already transported S large portion to tne front three thousand miles away.
 Our navy has been immensely strengthened in both numbers and ef-
 nc7encv. Our industries have been
 successfully mobilized upon war
 basis; and the country'S cnergle5
 have been concentrated with gratlfy-
 ing speed and success upon winning
 the war The result of all these pre- paratol.y efforts will soon be much more apparent than now. It must DC renerl bered that this war is huge iob. for which we were not prepared, either in organization or plans. More or less r,unCei ing and waste eHpendi- ture were inevitable at the start. our army had to be gathered over widely scattered area; men and num- tions were transported over iong dis tances: while much delay and con1u- sion were caused by the breakdown 1 of transportation and the hardshlps 1 of a severe winter. With the dlsap- pearance of these difficulties, thcr0 ! should develop q hearty cO-operatlVe 1 spirit from the Atlantic to the Paclflc. 1 Party politics should be patriotically l represseG during the period of the war. and the national consciousness 1 concentrated tpon one single object, that of winning the war
 When will Germany walen to the 1 bitter consequences of adding the 1 United States to her long list Of enc raies" The longer Germany delays 1 subm ission. and the more damage she l intlicts upop others the more severe 1 will be the terms of settlement and 1 the worse her ultimate breaRdoWn. l Count Czernin's latest peace talk is 1 merely c1moufiage, intended to con ceal the enemy's growing anxiety for ! the Presidents call for additional
 men and the announcement in Great
 Britain that the age limit of army 1 service has been raised.
 The Third Liberty Loan campaign 1 is now on. It should be pushed with every energy. The loan can and will 1 bc easily Hoated. Three billions is a l much smaller sum than expected. l The higher rate, 4 IA per cent and 1 the short term, 10 years, will tend ! 10 stabilize these and previous Liberty l issues. Though not convertible into 1 higher rate issues they may after six l months ownership be used in pay
 ment of inheritance taxes at par. The ! income tax payable next June may 1 almost equal S3,000, ,O00,0OO; but the l country will have no trouble about meeting this test of the war, as we'll
 as continuing financial aid to our | Allies. Indeed the marvel is the ia 1 cility with which the United States ] takes on all these applications, prov ] ing that our financial resources are l much larger than ever dreamed of. l Tho first year of war has cost the l United States nine billions of which more than half went to our Allies 1 one third to our own army. one
 
 to shipbuilding. One-sixth of this amount was raised by taxa ton, the ra!ance from Liberty Bonds.
 In some departments industry has become more active with the open ing of spring, and the improvement
 in transportation. The increase in
 pig iron production is very striking,
 the March output being 32130O0
 tons, against 2,319,00 tons in Feb ruary. This increase was largely due
 to recovery from the deadlock in
 transp ortation which occurred during
 the severe weather of February. Ship
 building has also been speeded up with greater intensity, so that the April output of ships and munitions should also be heavier. Our textile trades are fully occupied. chiefly upon army work and at profitable prices. Food products are active and growers are securing handsome returns. This is true of all agricultural produce. Cot ton touched another tip record, 35 cents while Western farmers arc now
 looking toward S2.50 wheat Meats are high though not scarce. Crop advices are very favorable thus far.
 and the April winter wheat report will show a. conside derable improven ent In condition compared with last year. The necessity for cOnSerVa tiOn of flour is still pressing owing to poor
 quality of last years crop. but the
 flour administrator is authority for
 the statement that this years wheat
 crop promises 500. 100000 to $50 ,o0O,-
 coo bushels against $50, 100000
 bushels last year. The dullest in
 dustry in the country is probably that
 of building, because of high costs of
 labor and materials; also owing to
 disposition of the government to dis courag ge any important new construc-