The Farmington times. (Farmington, St. Francois County, Mo.) 1905-1926, 1919-09-19
A BUSINESS PROPOSITION


would speak, as the chief magistrate
of the nation, explaining not meas
ure of party policy but a measure Of
national welfare transcending part,
politics. In the speech at the luncheon
given by the Chamber of Commerce
he addressed himself primarily t.
business men with a comprehension OF
the essential internationally of com
merce, Of industry and of finance
We are told, he said, that we should
mind our own business, but how, he
pertincntly asked, can our business be
separated from the rest of the world
Our business is not and cannot be lin
tied to our confines. We have long
ago crossed our boundaries. We long
ago reached the point where we pro-
duced and manufactured more than
we could consume ourselves, and now
our surplus products are vastly more
than our own needs. Our business is
everywhere, in every land, inextrica-
| bly, mingled with the business of
others, and as we grow greater and
more productive our prosperity is
more dependent upon the extension
and expansion of our external COM
merce. Our industry and it's remun-
GRAFTON are more and more to be
measured by what we sell abroad
rather than by what we sell at home
Our finances are more and more con-
cerned with and influenced by the
questions Of foreign credit and ex-
change. And therefore the mainte-
nance and development Of our bust
ness, at home as well as abroad, is
very largely matter Of other peoples
business and very largely dependent
upon the peaceful relations of the peo-
piles with whom we do business.
These thoughts were not expressed
by the president, but grow out of the
suggestion of his remarks. One of
the most far-reaching and largest
continuing consequences Of war is the
inevitable disruption of the normal
processes of business. The whole
world is now suffering and must con.
tinue to suffer from the breaking
down of these processes of produc-
ton, communication and exchange re-
sulting from the great war. The pur-
pose of the League of Nations is TO
diminish war, to prevent it, if posi-
bic; to put an end, if that can be ac-
compIiShed, to the great economic dis
astcrs that war produces, as well as
to put an end to the needless slaugh-
ter Of men on the fields of battle.
Business in the large sense is the
foundation of all prosperity, and
peace is the essential foundation Of
stable business. If peace is not to be
established and maintained as the nor
nal state Of mankind by the co-opera-
ton of the nations, how is it to be
done? No one has suggested or can
suggest any other practicable way.
They who would have US return to the
status quo ante bellum, the status of
intrigue and jealousy
and enmity, the status Of secret treat
les and combinations of great powers
for the domination of weak ones, the
status of rivalry in ornaments for the
great war and still greater wars, that
every one realizes must come under
the continuance of such conditions and
relations, hold out no remedy, offer us
no hope! If this League of Nations is
not established now, when every ar
of eXpediency, Of necessity
and of humanity demands it, when
the opportunity is correlated with the |
poignant desires of mankind for relief |
from the horrors of war, then we
must return to the conditions of the
past and prepare for the inevitable
calamities that must redden the fu-
ture. Aside from all social and po-
litical and humanitarian considera-
tons that is not good business. No |
business man would be satisfied to go
to certain disaster, if he
could by any conceivable measures
make disaster improbable.
The League of Nations is essential
Iy a business proposition, a PROPOSE
ton that touches with material fin
ger the foundations of prosperity.
This is true not only in the establish
ment of permanent conditions of
peace which leave business free 10
follow its channels undisturbed, but
in the saving of the vast wastage of
war, in the promotion and enforce
mcnt of just international laws, for
The protection and advancement of
in the strengthening of
credits, in the stabilizing of exchange,
in the prevention of regional monop-
olies of trade by force of arms, in the
and expansion of the
means of communication and of trans
port, and in numerous ways which the
assurance of peace and the friendly
cooperation of the nations for the
advancement of the common welfare
will surely bring to pass. 1t is bus
mess proposition, and it is our bust
ness that is concerned in .it.-Globe-
Democrat.