The herald and news. [volume] (Newberry S.C.) 1903-1937, 1919-08-12

affected and diarranged and our in
dustries, our credits, our productive
capacity, our economic processes are
inextricably interviewer with those
of nations and peoples-most init
mately 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 action of the world.
We are just now shipping more
goods out of our ports to foreign
markets than we ever shipped before
not foodstuffs merely, but stuffs
and 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 impos-
sible yet to predict how far or how
long foreign purchasers will be able
to find the money or the credit to pay
for or sustain such purchases on such
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 ma
chinery of trade with the ends of the
earth. All these things must remain
uncertain until peace is established
and the nations of the world have
concerted the methods by which nor
NAL life and industry are to be re-
stored. All that we shall do, in the
meantime, to restrain profiteering
and put the life of our people upon
tolerable footing will be n1ake-shift
and provisional. There can be no
settled conditions here or elsewhere
until the treaty of peace is out Of
the way and the work of liquidatlng
the war has become the chief concern
of our government and of the other
governments of the world. Until then
business will inevitably remain spec
ulative and sway now this way and
again that, with heavy losses or heavy
gains as it may chance, and the con-
sumer must take care Of both the
gains and the losses. There can be
no peace prices so long as our whole
financial and economic system is on
war basis.
Indecision in Europe.
Europe will not, can not recoup
,, her capital or put her restless, dis
tracted peoples to work until she
knows exactly where she stands in re-
spect of peace; and what we will do
is for her the chief question upon
which quietude of mind and conf
dence of purpose depend. While
there is any possibility that the peace
terms may be changed or many be
held long in allegiance or may not be
enforced because of divisions of opin-
ion among the powers associated
against Germany, it is idle to look
for permanent relief.
But what we can do we should do
and should do at once. And there is
a great deal that we can do, provis-
ional thought it be. Wheat shipments
and credits to facilitate the purchase
of our wheat can and will be limited
and controlled in such way as not
to raise but rather to lower the price
of flour here. The government has
the power, within certain limits, to
regulate that. We can not deny
wheat to foreign peoples who are in
dire need of it, and we do not wish
to do so; but, fortunately, though the
wheat crop is not what we hoped it
would be, it is abundant if handled
with provident care. The price of
wheat is lower in the United States
than in Europe, and can with proper
management be kept so.
By way of immediate relief, sur
plus stocks of both food and clothing
in the hands Of the government will
be sold, and of course, sold at prices
at which there is no profit. And by
way of a more permanent correction
of prices surplus stocks in private
hands will be drawn out of storage
and put upon the market. Fortunate
ly, under the terms of the food con-
troll act the boarding of foodstuffs
can be checked and prevented; and
they will be, with the greatest en-
ergy. Foodstuffs can be drawn out
of storage and sold by legal action
which the department of justice will
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