Richmond times-dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1914-current, 1918-11-19
|!0Rk OF RECONSTRUCTION
DEMANDS RAW MATERIAL
ASvety Nation OF World Will BE in
Market for Tremendous
Quantities.
REMNANTS HELPLESS STATE
sWilg Be Eventually Saved From In
dastrial Disintcgration Only ny
Presidents Declaration Against
Building Economic of BARRIERS.
BY MANFREu nMANuE,..

,s5S5 LONDON. November lS.--ln tho con
sysideration of reconstruction plans one
SssIactor stands out clearly-namcly. that
\ sseconstruction implies an enormous
u demand for raw materials.
The rebuilding OF devastated coun
Il part Of France, Ser
aShfa. TO mention only a fcw-wtll make
n great call ON number Of indus
r. which in ;prn Will he hue BUY
%manS lands. hclli@creut and otherwise.
work of non-war nature has been
to greater ar lesser de-
SEree. In yet another direction, rail
ways have been kept SerNiCca bic
ma possible. but only urgent renewals
I aaSs been undertaken; Moreover, Il
isSariety of pcace-timc industries have
sgBone by the board with the consequent
4 elimipation of raw material purchases.
S. with peace at hand all the world will
2be In, the market as buyers OF raw ma
sssterihls, and unless some control is or
4 $anized prices will be driven To such
s!aoulous heights that the burden Of
sAqgmented by that OF the cost OF peace
and peace itself will he II war for the
4 possession of raw materials.
Let us turn for a moment to GER
mage for supplies. Even if "all other he,
8thinEs arc equal" her ou;lOok is not
go. be enyicd. Her prewar growth m
trade and wealth was based on tho
s9mportation OF raw materials. Tho
{ war has put stop to her economic
HE. because it closed the channels
the export OF manufactured goods. The
sTeviVal of her economic life is equally
dependent tho rropcninS of these
schannels.
\ DR. SOLE TELLS or
E "tiNBEARAHLE POSITION"
gg.3 DR.. Solf. the Colonial Secretary, writ
ing recently in the lllustriertc Zeitunr.
gives expression To the uneasincss pre-
sSailing in Germany when he said:
Even should we succeed during the
peace negotiations in twisting the
ment for raw material supply. without
securing for the future any territory
Eof our own from which to draw pro-
portion for ousclves. We should OBJ
sSiusly be placed in that unbearablc
position for an independent people of
having TO be dependent upon the good
VIII Of foreign power"
Co4siderable light has been thrown
from within on the German position
of series Of straightforward arti-
Sles in the 1'rankfurter Heitung. Re
.ferring TO the fact that Gcrmanv's
economic life is wholly bound up with
She uses up stocks, impoverishcs the
SOL, reduces her stocks OF cattle, de-
5preciates the railways. machinery and
factories. destroys her, capital accu-
muiated during peace, down TO the de-
tailed possessions OF the ndividuai
J household, which wears out its clothes.
disposes OF its jewclry. and so forth.
FINALLY. she sends her gold and foreign
securities abroad ana contracts cred
Its and debts in foreign countries"
Z After the war says Feilcr:
81 The greater part Of the flow OF
money VIII he cut OF. In addition, the
essential feature in her economic lite
imports and exports would practically
vanish, and. AZ the same time, employ
gment would have to he found i'm the
small area OF the continental group