Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1918-12-24
War to Make u. S.
Richer. Vanderlip

New York. Dec. 24.-Frank A. Van
derlip, president Of the National City
Bank. in an address before the New
York Credit Mems Association declared
that prices would go higher during the
period of transition from war to peace
and predicted that imitation would con-
tinue for some time. The remarks OF
1.-THE speaker were. greeted with consid-
cradle enthusiasm by his auditors when
he declared at the outset that he felt
he could be trifie more cheerful than
the preceding speaker. He said that
he disagreed with Dean johnson in the
latter's statement that this country
would emerge poorer from the, war.
II believe that we will emerge much
richer from the war;" said Mr.. Wander
lip. richer in spirit, <icher in our un-
Outstanding Of human needs and richer
in material wealth. We have created
big industries. we have built ships, de-
veloped the railroads, we have built ter
minals and warehouses, we have become
creditor nation instead of debtor
nation. for Europe now owes us SS.OO0.-
900, 900, on. which the interest is about
$500. 900. Oc6 annually.
st has been said that Americans are
hoas but in view of our achieve
ments I must really marvel at our
amazing moderation. We have shown
the world that we are able to accom-
plish what we set out to do"
Mr. Nanderlip referred to the state
ment Of Dean Johnson that this country
will be called on to absorb 100000
n
TO the fact that during the last four
wears immigration has fallen off t" the
extent of 5.000.O0C people. while a mil
lion have migrated to their native lands.
This left 10000 to be accounted for.
he asserted. and while he did not desire
to argue that this transition could be
accomplished without jolt. he felt
that the absorption would be easy. and
he was not so sure there would be, a
surplus. of labor after all.
No Labor Surplus.
Nov ask you as credit men," said
Mr.. Vanderlip. how much thought have
you given to the labor problem? ven
rture to say very little. altho you are
directly conc~-'~d with the sociological
features of this question.
"If the representatives, Of labor
I'm; ION and a business man or a banker
came on this platform to debate on the
phases Of the labor problem. | believe
that the labor leader would show a more
comprehensive knowledge Of the situa :
ton, than the business man. The rea-
son for this is that the labor man has
given greater thought to the propos!
ton. while the business man is absorbed
by his daily tasks to such an extent that
he has neglected to give the matter the
serious thought which it merits
Referring to the statement that Am
erican labor will not be able to compete
with cheap foreign labor. the speaker
declared that the efficiency Of American
labor would reach such IA standard that
it would be worth the highest paid to 1t.
"Of course. we will have to do away
with fantastic wages and THOSE who
have been receiving them realize that
they must cease Efficiency recently has
gone down and wages have gone up. 1t
is now time for efficiency to so up and
to remain up I believe that we can
maintain high wages, but we must not
forget that we must expect high
measure of efficiency from our work
ers, and in that way we will be able
to compete with foreign labor.
IL think that there is every reason to
be firm and optimistic regarding the
outlook"