The Washington herald., 1920-04-19
TEMPORARY JAPANESE FINANCIAL PANIC HAS NOT
AS YET, CHECKED FOREIGN INDUSTRIAL PROGRESS

restored her former industries to a
comparatively high state of pro-
duction, but she has developed new
Industries. For example, her ex-
ports of shoes in October, 1919,
showed an increase OF 800 per cent
Tin volume not in currency over
those of the same month in 1913.
Wrought wood produsts showed an
Increase almost as great and there
were numerous other increases in
goods for which the raw materials
were at hand. Her textile industry
is almost fully restored, her iron
and steel Industry less so, but that
is also being brought to normal.
Belgium's explanation of her re-
covery Is that her workers were not
demoralized during the war BY a
fictitious prosperity in the form of
increased money wages and are con-
tent with their present compara-
lively high pay. Czecho- o-Slovakia-a
new state-was the first European
belligerent to export more than 1t
imported. The eight-hour day Is
the law of the land. but the Czecho-
Slovaks are working overtime be-
cause they are possessed by the en-
thusiasm of a newly liberated peo-
PhC anu diC SoeCi " d place.
alongside the other nations of the
earth. Italy is not new state but
she sees an opportunity to develop
resources that have lain dormant
for years and Is doing 1t despite po-
litical differences and wholesale
proletarian propaganda. The Ital-
ians are a virile- people who listen
to SOCIAL doctrines with a pick in
their hands. Here. in a willingness
to work while considering the
merits of schemes for living with
out work, lies the solution of Eu-
ropes problem. England Is solving
IL that way even more rapidly than
any of the others. but France is only
beginning to realize that she alone
can work out her salvation. Her
losses in the war were great, but
the difference between her losses
and those of England was one of
degree and not of kind Before the
war France was more nearly self
sustaining than England, her wealth
was better distributed and she was
generally more industrious. The
devastated farm lands and towns of
France have reduced her productive
resources only slightly so far as the
nation Is concerned. Individuals
suffered beyond measure. but ma
tionally France is Almost as well
equipped to supply the need of her
people as she was before the war.
So far as we are concerned we
have repeatedly demonstrated our
Willingness to respond to cries of
actual distress-and we have not
changed. There are things that we
must do and will do when Contin-
entail Europe does what it must do
on it's own behalf. First 1t must
work, and next IL must restore the
economic organization which served
Europe before the war; that is. the
people of Europe must trade as far
as possible with each other just as
they traded prior to 1914. regard
less of animosities. The incidental
benefits that Germany would derive
from a program of this sort are
secondary to the Importance OF re-
storing the accustomed channels of
trade. The people of France and
England are already trading with
the Germans when they can do so to
advantage. and if they are alive to
their own interests they will go
even further and help Germany re-
store the economic machinery that
held Central Europe together before
the war.