The Omaha guide., 1939-11-18

Happenings that affect the Dln-
ner pals, Dividend checks and
Tax bills of every Individual. Ma
tional and international problems
Inseparable from Local Welfare.
As this column pointed out
last week, American Industrial
production in many fields has
suddenly shot upward even though
consumption has. remained at
about the same level. Obvious
reason for the rise is the expec-
tation of big war orders from
Europe, plus the supposision that
raw material prices + due to
go up and stay up. Manufactur-
ers have figured that they'd best
buy heavy stocks at once, While
prices are relatively low, and be
prepared for big business when
Europe begins calling for sup
plies.
But, going by some significant
recent indications, there is a very
good chance that the manufactu-
rers who have been planning on
a major war boom taking place
soon will be fooled-and that the
.'war prosperity" balloon may be
rudely Debated.
In the first place, it is a GER
tainlsy that our only major war
customers will be England and
France-B rittania rules tn e
waves, and the German merchant
marine has been almost entirely
driven to cover. Britain has been
preparing for this war for a long
time. She didn't say much about
T.. but has been laying in abnor-
mally heavy supplies of basic ma
terals for many moons. The re-
suit is that considerable time
must go by before she will have
to face a shortage of any impor-
tant material asset.
In the second place, the allies
must husband their slender gold
possessions. They haven't any
money to spend foolishly. Every
penny expended must do two pen
MES work, if possible. That
means Britain will exhaust to
the utmost the resources of that
empire on which the sun never
sets, before she makes any big
purchases elsewhere. And the
British empire taking it fer
GRANTED that her fleet will be
able to keep the trade lanes open,
and hold down losses from Ger
man submarine, ~battleship and
air attack TO a minimum) is ex-
ceedingly rich in almost every
thing that is necessary to the
maintenance of a country In
either war or peace. To a consid-
erably lesser extent, this is also
true of the French empire. And
what the French lack will, as
long as possible, be supplied
them by the British.
The effect of the war so far
has been harmful to American
business. England and her posses
sions normally constitute our
largest single foreign customer.
The outbreak of hostilities caus-
ed an immediate drop in British
imports from this country. Where
for instance, We used to have a
fine stable market in England for
perishable fruit, that market has
dwindled-and, think some, in
the near future it may disappear
entirely.
There is one obvious exception
to this-and the exception is
arms. If the embargo is removed,
we may confidently except the
munitions industries to boom.
Britain is not able to prouce
adequate war materials, even
though all the resources of her
great manufacturing establish
ments are today being given to
supplying her soldiers with the
weapons of destruction. If you
have airplanes, rifles, shells, or
machine gums to sell, you have no
need 10 worry about your future
business-you will probably re-
ceive more orders than you can
handle, if the war goes on. But
producers of other materials
cannot bs sure of a sanquine
outlook as yet. And those who
are buying raw materials on a