The Pensacola journal. (Pensacola, Fla.) 1898-1985, 1919-12-29
Have
SHOALS AHEAD
Look Forward With Optimism
Believing They Can Weather
Storm
LABOR TROUBLES CEASE.
Cotton Manufacturers Have
More Orders Than 1t Can Fill
In the Next Five Years.

London, Dec, 2S.-The people of
Great Britain look forward to a new
year of financial and political difficult
ties but with greater optimism thar
they would have thought possible a
few months ago.
A new world fit for heroes to live
in which was an ideal of the war ha 5
not yet been fully attained at home
and international problems which
brought on the war still are hanging
over the head of the nation. Yet the
British people are trying to face the
future in an invincible faith in the ma
TONS ability to conquer all troubles.
The most cheerful optimist of all is
Premier Lloyd George Under the
leadership of his unfla gging faith that
everything will work out for the best,
the clouds of dependency, pictured by
the newspapers when the chancellor
of the exchequer declared that the ma
tion was heading for bankruptcy, say
Britons, have vfsibly lifted.
A foremost cause for confidence is
the steady commercial revival and ces-
sation of labor troubles, which Britons
hope will continue. These give ground
for prediction by optimists that Great
Britain viii return to normal conditions
sooner than other great European
countries which engaged in the war.
Manufacturers in many lines have
business booked far ahead. The cot
ton trade. noe of the basic British in
dustries, is said to have all the orders
it can fill for the next five years.
Shipbuilders say they are in the
same happy condition. They have yet
to be convinced that America will be
able to take away the former British
IN, tIa irc fyo do
base their confidence in the belief that
while the British are sea -faring race,
the Americans are not.
Apparently they believe that Amer
lean ships built in the war are des-
tined to be bought eventually by dis
tinctly maritime nations. Their conf
dence however, is not iron clad. Lord
Inchcape told the shareholders of one
Great Britain steamship company that
if the American government turned
over its ships to private owners, Great
Britain need not be afraid, but if the
American people were to be taxed to
build up their mercantile marine, the
outlook for the shipping industry in
these islands was nothing but rosy.
British bankers and merchants look
forward TO a great increase OF busi-
ness with South America in 1920. They
expect TO hOld thelf pfe-Waf CUSTOMERS
and to gain much of what Germany
lost. They profess to discount the
prospect that the United States will
acquire control of the South American
field.
Many nations are anxious to buy
from Great Britain. How some of
them can pay is problem The de-
cline in exchange rates had depress-
ing effect on American trade but ex-
change with France. Italy and smaller
markets is favorable to Great Britain.
Against these reasons for business
confidence stand two handicaps in the
form of financial and labor conditions
The national debt appears appalling TO
the British public but optimists argue
that it is smaller than was the debt
after the Napoleonic wars, measured
by the country's wealth and potential