The Chattanooga news. [volume] (Chattanooga, Tenn.) 1891-1939, 1919-07-22
PARALYZED INDUSTRY
BY FRANK A. VANDERBILT.

hanohhB the Foreign eAcnhnBe sltun-
ton.
So the manufacturer must first OBJ
tain an import license. which Is always
a tedious process and frequently a DIFF
ficult one, After he has permission TO
import raw material he must secure
the foreign funds necessary to pay for
IL. Suppose he has done all this and
and land transportation; he Is then
ready 10 start his mill. II may be, II
II Is located In Italy, for example, that
he can get no coal. In any event the
price OF coal and the difficulty OF get
ting II regularly, together with the diff
ficulty of transporting II In sufficient
quantities viii be a serious handicap.
Then comes the labor situation. and
although every manufacturer is sur
rounded by idleness. in few cases is his
labor market favorable. II his product
Ia one that requires special skilled labor
he finds that his former labor force has
drifted away and Is difficult to replace.
Always the increased cost Of living and
the idea which Ia universal. that labor
shall have In the future a larger share
new wage scale somewhere from two
to three times his prewar scale, while
all over Europe the demand for a
shorter day Is adding, at least In the
opinion OF many manufacturers. to the
labor cost of production.
But now suppose that the manufac-
turer has surmounted all these difficult
ties and has actually started the pro-
duction Of his product. There then
again faces the obstacle OF broken down
transportation. II his market had pre-
viously been In the Balkans, the near
east, or countries along the eastern
front, the transportation problem is at
present unsolvable. The difficulties.
~ tra rfot ias, nf nm
believably great, and bad as the mail
service is. II Is frequently speedier than
the telegraph. This Is no extravagant
figure of speech; II Is plain statement
OF conditions that are so widespread as
to be typical.
last produced his goods and has got
in touch with his prospective custom
ers. II these customers are in Spain.
France. Holland, or the Scandinavian
countries. they probably have means
to pay for what they want to buy. II
the credit questions involved will be ex-
tremely serious; and so far as Poland,
Lithuania, Rumania, and the Balkan
countries are concerned, nothing but
The credits asked are not short They
are too large and too long for any
manufacturer 10 undertake to carry
himself. They are not of a character
which permits them to be handled as
banking transactions.
And so there is going on chaotic
scramble Of the representatives of all
these small countries to create credits
in any form which will pay for goods
they so urgently need. Thus we see a
situation where the need of goods is
practically without limit, but the diff
culties surrounding their production and
marketing are so great that up to the
present time there is condition of
idleness unprecedented in industrial his
tory.
Loans Must BE Liberal.
The picture that has been drawn of
the difficulties that manufacturers are
facing may seem to be extravagant and
overdrawn. Not all manufacturers face
all these difficulties, but the picture is
not extravagant or overdrawn IL taken
as a general indication Of the state of
industry in Europe today. The great
obstacles are the difficulties of obtain
ing credits to purchase in foreign mar
kets, the inability to get ocean tonnage,
the breakdown of domestic transporta-
ton. labor unrest, and throughout the
great war area the destruction of ma
chinery. Machinery, raw materials, and
railroad equipment are the main things
that Europe needs and must have to
restart the industrial processes. To Sc
cure these 1t is necessary to obtain
in the aggregate vast foreign credits.
1 believe there can be no secure peace
until the way is found to supply these
credits to all industrial centers. 1t will
not do to pick out only those districts
or those industries which may seem to
offer the best security, for there will
be security nowhere as long as there
are. here and there, plague centers in
which idlness. lack of production, dis
organized transportation want and hun
ger make a breeding ground for the
bolshevik microbe.
published and copyrighted 1919 by the
Macmillan Company
(Syndicated by United Feature Syndi-
cate. 31s World Bldg, New York;