Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1918-06-29
AFTER THE WAR, WHAT?

| AA1 u A1AN = 49, w ~&AN5 "
VrY ITH the lifting of the cloud
wv that has hung for more than
eight months over the Italian
front, the steady increase of allied
man-power in France and the evil
dent distress of the Central Powers
within, we may begin to think little
more about what we shall be called
| to face when the war is over. An
allied victory is more certain to-day
than ever. and then will come the
great trade war which has been
foreseen ever since the combat of
arms settled down to a period of
preparing to do with the gigantic in
dustries we have brought into being
since the war started? What are we
doing toward providing work at high
wages for the millions now employed
so steadily and for those other mil
| lions coming home? Are we to leave
them in worse condition in peace
| than they were during war? Is our
much discussed guarantee of per-
| sonal and national freedom to be
accompanied by the pangs of an in
dustrial depression? Yes. unless we
prepare for peace now, as the ma
tions of Europe have been doing for
the past year.
The Foreign Trade Convention,
held some time ago in Boston, COM
planned that the government "is
making practically no study of trade
recovery after the war as a means
of insuring the stability of the terms
of peace" and that the Department
of Commerce has little vision of the
work of preparing for peace" The
convention found the government
rather setting up new and compli-
Gated restrictions for the purpose of
winning the war, yet without organ
lied consideration of their effect on
trade recovery and keeping this war
won," and this was contrasted with
the preparations which other coun-
tries, even Germany. are making to
meet after-war conditions. This is
the complaint which is so general
throughout the American business
world.
Business men point out that the
federal payroll at least shows that
there are a sufficient number of
agencies employed to handle not only
the immediate questions of trade and
war, but to suggest something con-
structive with regard to the future.
The Bureau of Foreign and Domestic
Commerce, for instance, has a large
force at its command. which might
be used for that purpose. "It is all
right to have a War Trade Board and
War Industries Board" said big
New York trader. the other day. but
Trade Expansion Board would do
great deal to can the KAISER in
the opinion of some of us who have
a chance to test the sentiment and
movements of world trade" To show
how postwar considerations might
be harnessed with present war
measures, he continued: This war
would never have been launched if
the German military clique and the
German trade clique had not gotten
together, buried their differences and
concluded that the time was ripe for
seiZing the world for Germany. The
military faction promised to the
mercantile forces world domination,
and this has hnnY1 ha
that retained the support of Ger
many's business men for the war.
Nothing will wean it away so fast as
| to force upon those same business
men a realization that they are los
ing their grip; that their trade roots
are being ripped out and displaced
| by American products, American
trade names and American firms;
that such new connections are maxi
ing strides towards permanepce.
Once let that idea take hold and
commercial support for the war and
the German governmental policies
will vanish and bring about a speedy
peace"
| But the procrastlnation with which
we, as nation. have so many years
been cursed, has not yet been en-
tirely shaken off, and the agency for
trade expansion and permanent COM
mercial connections apparently has
ceased to function, whilst all Europe
is commercially consolidating.