The sun., 1918-11-03
PROBLEMS OF ADJUSTMENT
TO NEW CONDITIONS
AFTER THE WAR.

Preparing for the Future-Sena
tor weeks's Resolution Providing
Bipartisan Committee Of lives
tigation Tabled at Washington
ny RICHARD BARRY.
Peace may bring peril unless We
are properly prepared to meet 1t
This, in brief, is tIAs message brought
to America by one of its own citi.
zens. who was born in sod hut
in Nebraska, but while retaining his
American citizenship has for the last
thirteen years been an English manu-
facturer residing in London. He is
]. Calvin Brown, whose knowledge OF
the subject Of reconstruction caused
his advice to be sought by leaders OF
both great political parties.
| Mr.. Brown Is the author OF several
works on political economy. among
them THE Cure for Poverty" and
| EVERY Americans Business" He says
the coming OF peace means a shock
| which he fears may cause the coll
lapse OF many Of the present Euro
] pean political and financial structures
and which he thinks will be greater
test for the American economic sys-
tenn than the war has been.
| The writer asked Mr.. Brown, who
has been intimately acquainted will,
the European efforts to solve the
problems OF reconstruction, Just what
J. had honn Annn thnro urh q 4
he thought of the situation confront
ing this country.
| II fear that when the United States
| is plunged in moment into peace,
he replied, "the country will face a
| situation which few now foresee. Let
| US examine for a moment the two
sides Of the ledger as they probably
I will be written.
Balance sheet May Please Us.
ION the credit side America will
! take a careful invoice Of what the
war has done for her and to her, ard
| she will probably be gratified when
she reads the balance sheet. Her loss
Of human life probably will be COM
paratively small. Some millions of her
best young men have spent consid-
, cradle time in being broadened and
| instructed by cosmopolitan communion
with foreign fellow soldiers abroad /;
they will be disciplined and hardened
~ army training and will return full
OF confidence, new, unprovincial am
| billions and inclinations.
with man power largely unim-
| paired she will face a war debt which
should not worry her. One-third Of Il
is really a good direct or indirect in
,estment, and the other two-thlrds
simply has been taken out of one
| pocket and put into another. while on
! the right side Of the accounts she will
find herself the gamer in several i'm
portant directions. For over four years
her industry has enjoyed unlimited de-
mands for her productions and when
peace Is signed she will find that this
| unlimited market for four years has
| caused her enormously to increase her
producing capacity. and SO to improve
her producing methods as consider ably
to reduce her average pre-war cost
of production.
I'm addition to this she will find that
the war has enormously increased the
| demands in foreign markets and con-
siderably weakened her principal for
eign competitors. especially Germany
whose products will meet with serious
damaging sentimental prejudice for
years to come.
"In taking this rosy view OF Amer
| ica's future one must jump from the
day peace Is signed to a point beyond
| that of reconstruction. Whether Amer
lea will be able to secure the future
prosperity which is offered her by
these circumstances will depend en-
tirely upon whether or not the Govern
ment here supplies America with the
| necessary legislative measures, espe-
cially economic ones.
May Pay War Debt Rapidly.
II constructive legislation is en-
acted, then the whole American war
debt should be paid on rapidly out of
only a portion of the increased pros
perity Americans should enjoy; but if
bad and destructive American meas
| ures are passed, none OF the future adj
vantages which are offered to America
may be enjoyed and even the present
prosperity may be destroyed. America
has always been rich in opportunity
and resources, and yet her prosperity
has fiuctuated further up than that Of
any other nation, and just as far down
in various periods OF her history.
ION a careful examination OF these
fluctuations we find that with the ex-
ception Of the panic which occurred a
few years after the close Of the civil
war and which was probably occa-
stoned by the backwash OF that de-
structive war, all panics and periods
of depression which have occurred IN
the United States since her birth have
been caused by Administrations in
Washington whose tendency was
rather to attack industry as a popular
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