Walker Lake bulletin. (Hawthorne, Nev.) 1883-1926, 1919-05-10
Research Division the Council of National Defense Offers All Its
Facilities to Aid in Reorganization of Industry and
Resumption of Trade-Burden of Reconstruc-
ton Must Fall on Industry.

of the services of an organization that
for many months has been establish.
ing connections and perfecting faclli.
ties for the securing of every sort OF
vital information at the earliest posi-
BILE moment 1t is available. Through
the fact that the council of national
defense itself consists of six secre-
taries of administrative departments
of the government, ard by virtue of
the further fact that for more than
two years the council has been en-
gagged in the closest cooperation with
national. state, and local agencies of
private as well as public bodies, the
reconstruction research division has
been from its inception possessed OF
invaluable contacts in all directions.
The material and staff now placed at
the service of business was originally
intended primarily for governmental
use, and they will, of course, continue
to function as the governmental clear
ing house of reconstruction informal
ton. The beginning of the councils
researches into reconstruction and re-
adjustment matters in this and for
eign countries followed upon a memo
randum addressed to the six cabinet
members forming the council by Gros-
venor B. Clarkson, its director, on May
q, 1918. The president of the United
States received a copy of this memo
randum, and shortly afterward author
lied the council to begin its studies.
In the memorandum In question Mr..
Clarkson, after defining the prime
problem as being that of Industrial
reconstruction-in broad terms, The
reconversion of industry from the
war basis back to the peace-time basis
and the reabsorption into industry Of
the labor employed in the service of
the United States-said:
ut is elementary that after the war
America will not be the same Amer
lea. Already she has In many dlrec-
lions broken with her past and she
Is being hourly transformed. The meta
morphosis is going on as much In
the thought of the country as 1t is
in the structure; the same thing will
be true in the period after the war.
New conditions and relationships Gre
ate new problems for nations as well
as for individuals; and, let me add,
the change will be as great in the
thought and ideals Of the nation as 1t
will be In its strictly material prob.
lens, whether these be Solitary, com
mercial, or those having to do with
labor.
Let us grant that we shall gain
military success. Let us then not fall
into the danger-trap of allowing The
material effects of such success to ov-
ershadow consideration of the higher
values which give a nation its life.
The civilized world today, as we know
that world, may be said to be che
great altar of sacrifice. If that is not
true now, it certainly will be true if
the war continues for another year
1t is our duty in any adequate intel
lectual conception of the task to see
to it that the gains to the moral as
well as the material well-being of the
nation shall square with the sacrifice
A little reflection will convince one
that this aspect of reconstruction is
the fundamental aspect and that upon
it must be predicated all successful
plans in this direction.
"a year ago we were a great. lazy
democracy. Lincoln said, "A fat hound
won't hunt. That sentence illumined
our national disease. The transfor-
nation from that condition is already
under way. Soon the spirit of the ma
ton will be burning flame. There
will be sloughed off the scales fostered
by Il love of luxury and the loose and
boastful thinking that have been our
curse in the last generation. Out OF
the turmoil and the sacrifice will come
discipline and orderly living and think
ing, and, therefore, with sequential
and irresistible logic will come de
mands for new conditions of living
commensurate to the new ideals. Again
| repeat, here Is the fundamental re-
construction to which the American
government should address itself and
only herein can be found the policy
which shall be the groundwork of any