The Farmington times. (Farmington, St. Francois County, Mo.) 1905-1926, 1919-07-18

JnlS year. DO you nave IidI COnDlIa
ton of lack of production and of &
paralysis of transportation and ever
though there were sufficient amount
of food at the ports it could not bt
moved to the people.
The Lack Of Market That Can Pay
l was telling you something of the
difficulties of the manufacturer. This
difficulty of transportation is an ex
tremely real one. 1t affects the man.
ufacturer in getting his raw material
the lack of which prevents him from
sending his finished products. But
what about the market for his finished
products? There is the rub. The
markets of Europe are ravenous for
things, and they have nothing with
which to pay. The manufactures
starting with a disorganized labor
situation, a wage-scale three times
the pre-war scale, a demoralized mo-
rale, great difficulty in getting for,
eign exchange to pay for his raw ma.
terials, great difficulty in getting bot,
toms to ship them in, great
difficulty in getting them trans.
ported to him afer it arrives at q
port, may still produce. But after he
| produces lie has not market that
can pay, a market that will give him
the means to go on completing the in
dustrial cycle of buying more raw ma
terial and paying his labor.
That is serious almost beyond our
understanding because we have not
realized, at least | had not realized,
how like a great manufacturing com
munity Europe is. Europe has in
creased its population since the Ma
poleonic wars from 75,000,000 to 440,-
100000 Just think of those figures
-175,0 100000 to 440,000,000! Europe
did not become any more productive.
She probably does not raise very
great amount of food more than she
did one hundred years ago. How has
she fed these people? You can just
compare Europe to a New England
mill town. If there were no market
for the product of the mills of that
town, if you could not sell, what would
happen? You could not continue the
industrial processes, your people
could not earn the wages that they
must pay to bring food into the town,
and they would go hungry or they
would go out. A responsible minister
of the British Government said to me :
"If you can't get the industries of
Europe started so that Europe in turn
can make an effective demand upon the
industries of England, the British
Government will have to get five or
six million Englishmen out of England
and nearer to the sources of food
supply"
1t is this that we must grasp-that
these industries must be kept going
in these highly industrialized Euro
pean countries if the people are to
live. Take England, the most thick
ly populated country in the world,
with seven hundred people to the
square mile. They have built up that
whole island into an industrial COM
munity that can live only by selling
abroad great part of the products of
the factory and, with the proceeds of
that export, buying more raw mater
ial and the food for the population.
England Threatened With Revolution
Let me tell you a little more about
acknowledgement as l see it. The
England that saw on the first Of
February was an England on the very
verge of revolution. You didn't get
that over here, but it is a fact gen.
orally admitted by all Englishmen.
When arrived in London--I think it
was the second of February-the
streets were full of army lorries try
ing to carry the people because there
were strikes on the district railway
and in the cube" Coal miners were
threatening an immediate strike and
the supply of coal was so scarce that
living there was most uncomfortable.
Up in Glasgow there were such riots
that they had sent military tanks to
patrol the streets. The railroad men
were threatening complete tie-up of
all transportation service. The cleo
tricians were threatening to put Lon
don in absolute darkness and we were
all provided with candles throughout
the evening, expecting the light to be
cut off at any moment. Happily
there has been a great change in that
situation. The great underlying COM
mon sense of the English came to the
rescue and differences were partly
composed. The coal miners demanded,
and received, Royal Commission that
should within a few days examine
their claim for higher wages and
shorter hours, and that examination
did not leave doubt in a mind in
England that the miners had made
out a case. The differences we're
composed with the railroad people,
and for the moment the outlook is
peaceful SO far as any revolution is
concerned.
A Million Houses for British
WOrkingmen
But | should like to examine for
you little further, the English stu
alton. England has held the premier
position in the international indus
trial markets. America grew, but
England grew, too. America grew
faster, so did Germany grow faster,
but England had up to the outbreak
of the war held the premier position.
How did she hold it? She had little
raw material, some iron and some
coal. That was all. ! will tell you
how she held it. She held it by I'M
derpaying labor. That was her diff
ferential. That is how she competed.
She underpaid labor until that labor
today has not house over its head