Norwich bulletin., 1918-12-07
PROMISING ASPECTS

in anticipation of peace, continued with two interruptions, in 1872 and iFa 1880, beyond the period under consid- eration. The reference is to yearly averages of actual prices, which were in terms of greenbaclss from 1862 to 1878, not to imaginary prices computed upon the basis of the gold premium; for the fluctuations in greenback prices and in tlee premium on gold were not parallel. the high peak in the latter antedating by six months the high point in prices.
 The course of wages is instructive. Wages Jagged very much behind prices in both the upward and the downward movements after 1860: they increased more than prices and sustained the gains for longer time. Specifically, according to Professor MitcheiFs rah- ulations, the high peak il prices came ir January, 1885, and tnare was an almost uninterrupted decline .,laeeaf- ter, the index number for 1880 stand- ing at only 4 per cent. above the level for 1S6o Wages, on the other hand, rose much more slowly during the war period. but continued to rise generally until July, 1872. seven years after prices had begun the long decline. The margin of gath for tine workers, the net increase in real wages, main tained at the close of the 20-year. He- riod, is roughly measured by the :n. dices. They show a gross gain of B per cent. in wages in 1S29 over the 1860 level, against ] net increase of ] per cent. in wholesale prices
 The relation between the movement
 Of prices and the volume CT business ] is significant For nearly the wilnIe of the after-war period under review the l indices of prices and business move ! in opposite directions. Tho decline in
 prices was due. aot merely to antiei- patton of. the redemption Of the green N5acks, but chiefly to the increa asing volume of business. The comparative steadiness of the upward swing in bus ! i,less from early in the war to 1872 1T the face of wide and long continued
 movements of prices in both directions would show, if proof were needed, tila. the prosperity of the period rested upoi more substantial found4tions than th' stimulus of rising prices.
 There is no cause for wonder in tf' tagging or inertia Of ga ges. for, ow ing to the length of the period fe
 which contracts are made, tho com
 parative inmobility Of workers, a51,
 the power of custom, wages general. respond more tardily than tio prjcf Of commodities to changes in currea cy or in industry. But the coniinucJ
 rise of wages for seven yeats coinei
 detst with falling prices ,caurGt be px i.aIained in terms Of inertia. The wage earnefs gained doublv. For sorns, rea
 son industry was putting uaora none
 into the nay envelopes wear after yea and, what is more aignifican:, th ,, workers were paid in dollars of in , ereasing purol12 cir" nower, The se. cret lay in the output froni farms an
 factories. or the increasing quantit
 of goods produced labor received a increasing share.
 Because in the conditions prevailir
 Ion the eve of the war. especially 1 , the provision cf essential transporta tion lines, if,eee was 2 sul3stantii fasis for eoAtInued growth of l,usin as 3 the war did not prevent or in grea [ measure retard such deveiepmen l And in the crucial test Of the recon : struction period, neither currency ir 5 flation, the shifting from war to peat i bases, the long downward trend
 prices nor the rising rnst Of labor--i1 5 deed, not even the combination of q 6 four factors--proved 3bla toNstay s remarkable industrial exnansion. | Readily observed dit arences b, y tween certain aspects of the presel
 
 f tc obscure some suggestive anaioo.f
 l After the Civil war the exploitation i, an undeveloped west offered eTapio. . n1ent to former soldiers and to hume = ous ir1Tnigrants as well. But the we !, was not newly discovered. What v; ' new was the accessibility of that r
 gton made possible mainly by the 2! :. tensive railroad building just befo and after the war.
 , No small part of the worlds r1atur s resources lie today untouched beyol ss the present industrial frontiers, b = they will not long remain so
 The building of railroads from f
 east, west and south into the heart Africa, the construction of q tran x continental and numerous shorter lin F, in Australia: a substantial nilea ,,99 opened in Siberia in accordance wi :. the Russian programme of 1913 for {
 construction of 5n,G0o miles of raiiw !, in a decade. and the completion .a Canada's second and third trsnscen = mental iines-these are some of f 'e many recent q achievements in the fs l. of transportation3 mainly within t ,I war period itself They and the rece ,s ss trogress of sanitary enginaefil N aNS which guarantees the hahitability ot 'Caucssians of nearly every tropit ss, land, all point to another of the worl ls recurrent periods of unusual industr cxpansion.
 n' The United States. emerging fr' i- the great war after a hrief particir III ton which has entailed the lisht Iee cost borne by any of the principal ls oi ligerents, with 'an increased ca!,i = equipment and eizable merchant r ~ rine. is in a peculiarly advantaeec sL position for sharing in the leng te a aeI growth of business. Americas she Ie will be fornd iT an intensive grow IL ii, the development Of nroduetion
 home. with corresponding increase ed it's business in the newly opened art 5. of the world.