The Republican journal. [volume] (Belfast, Me.) 1829-current, 1919-03-20
Do We Want Prosperity :?
BY H. H. Windsor, in the April Popular
Mechanics Magazine

World conditions are, to all appearances,
more favorable to most wonderful period
of prosperity for the United States, for
several years to come, than ever con-
fronted any nation in the history of the
world.
But, we mustn't spill the beans!
Bankers, alone; manufacturers, alone;
labor alone; nor farmers, nor miners, nor
lumbermen, and so on, alone, not even
the Government alone, can make pros
perity To insure prosperity, there must
be harmonious team work; everyone con-
cerned must do his part.
The world never needed and wanted so
many things which are produced by the
brainwork and handwork of man, as to-
day. For four years, the former sources
of supply have either been dried up, or
commodities could not be moved. The
shelves in the stores of the world were
never so nearly empty. Farm machinery
in other lands has been wearing out with
little opportunity of replacement. New
fields are required which also must have
new machiney. So also have the railroads
of the world been wearing out, and thou
sands of other necessities and comforts of
life have been used up or exhausted.
So much for export. What about the
work to be done here at homer Millions
upon millions worth of Industrial build
ings, and houses, and depots, and street
improvements, and good roads are need
ed. Then, why doesn't it start?
In the first place, there must be a reor-
ganzation and readjustment to get a
plant which has been running on war
work back to it's former line of produc-
ton. Not only in many instances an
actual change in machinery, but In hun
dreds of cases final settlement with the
Government. This involves vast
amount of work by experienced men,
who must count and weigh thousands of
items, check bills for cost, inspect, ad-
Just, make allowances, decide disputes,
interpret contracts; all this before final
settlement and payment can be reached.
Under the most favorable conditions, this
takes time, for these questions must be
settled with justice to both manufacturer
and the Government,
Another cause is the unsettled condi-
ton of the labor market. Labor has
benefited in many ways under war con-
ditions and naturally is reluctant to re-
cede from its high water mark; nor is it
desirable that it should in all respects
But does labor realize that the permanent
conditions of peace cannot maintain all
the emergencies of war? Some men can
run very fast for a hundred yards, or
even a mile, but the best cannot main
tain the pace for long, or even do it every
day. The horse which wins the race
could not do as we'll on ordinary roads,
nor maintain his greatest effort for an
hour, much less a day or month In
order to stop a fire, the fireman smashes
costly windows and chops away doors,
and even blows up entire buildings, but
we don't do .hese things every day. 1t
is only an unusual emergency which
makes such costly work justifiable If
it were kept up long enough, we finally
wouldn't have any houses to live in.
We should discriminate between what is
warranted 20 stop a war and what is
reasonable day in and day out.
just now in the effort to make war
conditions Of labor and wages perma-
nent, we hear of strikes here, there and
everywhere Not only in this country,
but abroad The plain truth is, no law
OF any country, no refusal by large masses
of men to work, nothing which man has
ever been able to do or is likely ever to
do can maintain, for any length of time,
abnormal con iitions. The normal of to-
day cue and ought to be, and promises to
be, an Improvement over the normal of a
desire, and al benefit from, steady i'm
provement from year to year; but bust
ness, as it exists, is powerless to main
tam sudden and supreme effort. The
runner, the wrestler, the race horse, all
arrived at tlelr maximum through an
advancing process, and not in moment.
Busl esS cannot permanently maintain
the highly water mark of wartime con-
ditions in peace times any more than the
race horse can deliver rural mail at a
two minute clip, six days a week.
1t is quite certain that some employees
feel that employers could maintain war
conditions if they wanted to; but there is
an equilibrium of trade, relentless as the
law of gravitation, which cannot be dis
regarded.
At certain points on our seacoast, under
stress of storm, the tides rise to unusual
heights for few hours or days, but even
Old Ocean himself cannot keep up the
the high-water mark for 365 days in the
year. The ship which tried to anchor too
near shore on these high tides would soon
be left wreck high and dry on the
rocks. The captain who thus lost his
ship would be blamed even by the crew
and passengers who urged him do do So
Even were the vessel put atloat later,
WOulu sui DC LllG uteQlGSS loss OIL
its service, and all to no good or lasting
purpose.
improvements which can be accom-
plished gradually often become destruc-
tive when demanded in a moment If
every man on every farm in the country
struck on July first, they couldn't make
the growing corn ripen in month from
planting, If all the doctors, lawyers,
workmen, farmers, manufacturers, bank =
ers, business men, transfers, railroad
men, and all the rest, even the editors,
should quit all efforts for month, they
could create condition of awful chaos,
but they could not change natural laws.
Every boy would like to be man to
morrow, but it can't be done; it takes
time to make man out of boy; always
has, always will. We can all remember
when the hours and conditions and pay,
for everybody, were very arduous. |
haven't forgotten the time when, as a
boy, | worked 16 hours day for 81 a
week, and it was the going rate of wages,
too. Nobody has to do that now, thank
goodness. Normal conditions, as COM
pared with 40, 80, 20, 10 years ago. are
immeasurably improved, but it has taken
time The jump from 40 years ago to the
present couldn't have been made in day,
or month, or year, no matter how many
of us struck. There has been a grand i'm