The Cordova daily times., 1918-07-25
BASIS OF THE NATIONS INDUS.
 TRIAL STRENGTH

It has been said repeatedly, though seldom with exact definition or eX planation. that this is a war of whole peoples, not alone ol armies; of mo- biliZed economic resources as well as Oi fleets, air sQuadrons and batteries Ol artillery In sense this is true of every war. to the extent that Citi- zens are called upon to buy govern, ment bonds pay taxes and deny them selves certain commodities which are needed by the nations armed forces. In another sense, however, non-com- blatant populations are involved in the present struggle in a way which has never been witnessed before.
 Our own government has laid hands upon the bodies of it's people in the draft levies, upon their dining tables through the control Of food, upon their daily business through the fixing of prices of commodities and the licens- ing of their distribution. Not bill can be bought or sold in the foreign exchange market without report to 1he authorities on the transaction. Not $l0O,OOO or securities can be of tered to the public without official sanction. Not man or woman can set sail for Europe without satisfac, tory cause shown for the voyage.
 In the face of such minute control of everyday affairs, the country IS prosperous. Nearly all the customary indicators point to an industrial and commercial life at the highest level in our history. Gross earnings Ol the railways are unprecedented; foreign trade iS at figure never approached before the war, the Clearings, loans and deposits of the banks are the greatest ever recorded; there is prom ,s,. ol one of the greatest wheat crops eyer harvstcd our gold holdings az grcgatc one-third of the total stock oi ,hr metal in the world; production of pig iron k the largest yet attalned' The stock market has recently pre- scntcd d firm front in the face ot the most discouraging news.
 It would be easy, of course, to dra" false conclusions from these pleasing facts. Freight traffic, conducted un- der government control and largely Tor government account, might not be paying its own way, or might be i'm rosin. q too heavy cost oI transporta- ton upon the general public. The tremendous expansion of bank credits duriu. the past year might be nothing but unwholesome imitation. Our eN- ports might represent sales to no per ...n,nt market, but merely the filling uf emergency orders from our allies for war materials. with the prospect Of q disastrous shrinkage when the emer. gcncy has disappeared. As to the Grmness of the security markets, 1t is worth while to recall that q stock market boom of impressive size has been going on in Germany itself. Most of these contingencies represent ques tions for the future to determine. At the moment the safe inference is that the production Of commodities has struck a pace which approXimates though it may not fully meet, our UT gent military demands, In addition tc the ordinary requirements of civi life, in so far as those requirements have not been curtailed or eliminated under the stress of war. Moreover, Il is plain that the tremendous adjust ments which 1t was necessary to mak, in finance and industry were effected with none of those rude shocks anC ruptures which 1t was feared would b, experienced.
 The undeniable chee"fulness whicl is felt in the industrial world, in spit, of drastic restriction and regulation can easily be traced to several basic causes. It may be worth while {,