Mohave County miner and our mineral wealth., 1919-01-04

iSx N as a whole, $6,971, ,634,OOO, break all records, exceeding 1917 by per cent and all crops, valued at $12,272, ,412,- 900, gained per cent over the preced- ing year, itself high-record point in values. These financial returns, coupled with the planting of a record area, 49,027, ,000 acres, in winter wheat with the third highest condition re- corded, contain excellent promise for the coming year so far as the farmer is concerned especially so in that an excellent price is guaranteed him for 1919, in case, as is possible, yield exceeding that of 1914 is realized.
 Looking Forward
 While certain amount of the buoy ancy with which the victory of the allies was greeted has disappeared, and readjustments from a war to a peace basis in industry have made for a good deal of uncertainty, due main ly to the question of the future price and disposition of unneeded war sup plies, there seems to be no good reason for taking counsel of our fears as to what is to happen after peace terms are signed. Much weighty talk of problems to be solved appears in the papers, but unless all past experience is at fault, most of the problems aris- ing are very similar to those encount- cred in other periods of readjustment following widespread hostilities. If the result had been different and Ger many had won, there might have been good reasons for vast deal of worry. But civilization has won; the rattling sword, the shining armor and other properties" of the Berlin snowman, as Harden called him, have been re- legated to the scrap pile, and Europe no longer has to listen with bated breath to the rantings of people who in the past had made murder and rob bery profitable while masquerading under the comparatively respectable name of war. We do not believe the millennium has come, or that we have seen our last war, but something like what the poet Tennyson termed "Par- lament of Nations" is about to meet, and under the agreements likely to be evolved therefrom, the world should be safer place to live and do busi- ness in.
 We believe that big potential de- mand for good exists, at price, and it is known that there is and will be a tremendous demand for food pro- ducts from Europe, while materials for clothing and for shelter and inn plements of agriculture will probably be badly needed. The United States having suffered the least of all the belligerents should be in a position to supply these demands, as we have a good share of the food and the raw materials which the world needs, and our prestige has certainly not suffer- ed at the hands of the two million men who have represented us in Europe. We also have-what we hitherto lack ed-a big merchant marine capable of serving our importers and exporters, and our loan to allies and neutrals have given us financial footing in the markets of the world of which our bankers probably will not be slow to take advantage. If it is necessary to finance our customers throughout the world to enable us to sell goods, we can do it, because we financed Europe when the possibility of returns was not nearly so good as now. We also have larger capacity for out put and certainly greater adaptability for catering to foreign demands, whether of peace or war. In fact, we have reached in a few short years a position that it took Great Britain, the business nation par excellence, gener- ations to achieve. Fears of unemploy- ment of the masses should be consid- cred with the known fact in view that immigration. which should have given us 5,000,000 persons in the past four years, has been almost at standstill. Furthermore, we are not sure that our whole army is coming home much be- fore year from now. War taxes are source of apprehension, but these too should be looked at in the light of the fact that taxation Tin this country has not assumed the all-pre- NduluS CHdTdCCeT lIIlpdTIeu CO IL III Europe by centuries of custom and precendent. Unless most signs fail, the possibilities of future state con- trol, interference or regulation are not so great as seemed certain when we were in the full stress of war;
 Lower prices may come, not all of them at once, by the way, and may delay but should not radically inter fere with the processes of proper read justment. While war imitation may have been responsible for some of the present high prices, the latter in the last analysis merely spell scarcity, which it should be our work to re- move, and in removing make business friends who will stick and customers who will come again. No headlong break in domestic prices seems prob able with the purchasing power of our people so high; supply and demand conditions what they are; stocks of goods outside of government hands not burdensome; those in government