Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1919-08-09

and no legislative or executive action
can force them into full and natural
operation until there Ia peace.
There is now neither peace nor
war. All the world Is waiting-with
what unnerving fears and haunting
doubts who can adequately eay?-
waiting 10 know when II comes. a
peace in which each nation shall make
shift for itself as 1t can, or peace
buttressed and supported by the will
and concert OF the nations that have
the purpose and the power to do and
to enforce what is right,
World on Operating Table.
POLITICALLY. economically, socially,
the world Is on the operating table
and il has not been possible to ad-
minister any anesthotic II IL con-
scious. II even watches the capital
operation upon which II knows that
its hope of healthful life depends. 1t
can not think It's business out or make
plans or give intelligent and provi-
dent direction to its affairs while In
such case. Where there is no peace
Of mind there can be no energy in en-
deayor.
dustry, no calCulahle basis for credits,
no confident buying or systematic
selling, no certain prospect of employ
ment, no normal restoration OF bust
ness, no hopeful attempt at recon
struCtion or the proper reassembling
of the dislocated elements OF enter
prize until peace has been established
and so peace has been established so
far as may he guaranteed
Our national life has no doubt been
less radically disturbed and dismem-
bered than the national life OF other
peoples whom the war more directly
affected. with all its terrible ravaging
and destructive force but Il has been
nevertheless profoundly affected and
disarranged. and our industries our
credits. our productive capacity, our
economic processes. are ineXtricahly
interviewer with those of other nations
and peoples most intimately of all
with the nations and peoples upon
whom the chief burden and confusion
of the war fell and who are now most
dependent upon the cooperative ac-
ton of the world.
Shipping More Goods Than Ever.
I'VE are just now shipping more
goods out OF our ports 10 foreign
markets than we ever shipped before
NOT foodstuffs merely but stuffs ana
materials Of every sort; but this is no
index of what our foreign sales Will
continue to be or of the effect the
volume of our exports will have on
supplies and prices 1t is impossible
vet to predict how far or how long
foreign purchases on such a scale;
how soon or to what extent foreign
manufacturers can resume their
former production. foreign farmers
get their accustomed crops from their
own fields; foreign mines resume their
former output; foreign merchants set
up again their old machinery of trade
with the ends Of the earth.
All these things must remain uncer-
tain until peace is established and the
nations of the world have concerted
the methods by which normal life and
industry are to be restored. All that
we shall do in the meantime to re-
strain the profiteering and put the life
of our people upon tolerable foot
ing will be makeshift and provisional.
There can be no settled conditions
here or elsewhere until the treaty OF
peace Is out Of the way, as the ques-
ton of liquidating the war has become
the chief concern of our government
and of the other governments of the
world.
Until then business will inevitably
remain speculative and sway now this
way and again that with heavy losses
or heavy gains, as it may chance, and
the consumer must take Gaze of both
the gains and the losses. There can
be no peace prices so long as our whole
financial and economic system is on a
war basis.
Europe Cannot Recoup Capital.
Europe will not, can not recoup her