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THE
flUJIC TIRADE
VOL. LIX. N o . 19 Published Every Saturday by Edward Lyman Bill at 373 Fourth Ave., New York, Nov. 7, 1914
The Danger of Pessimistic Exudations
OME of the widely read periodicals throughout the West accuse New Yorkers of being over-
pessimistic, and say that from this city is radiating an influence which is having a seriously
detrimental effect upon the entire trade of the country.
New York is too near to the great shipping interests, too close to the ocean cables and
too near to European interests not to be affected more than inland cities by the great war, the effects
of which are felt throughout the whole world, so closely are the commercial, industrial and financial
interests of all countries now interwoven. I am inclined to believe, however, that the gloomy charges
which the West makes against New York are well founded, and during the past week I have had
men in this office from London and Berlin who have told me that the war is a less absorbing topic
in those cities, and that there is actually less excitement than there is right here in this good old
city on Manhattan Island.
On a recent trip West I had opportunities of visiting cities where the people were absolutely
indifferent to war conditions, and the war headlines in the local papers, instead of being of the poster
type, a la New York, were reduced to the ordinary size and conformed with the regular news head-
ings of the papers. The people in those cities were attending to their vocations with care and pre-
cision, as the business interests of the country demand; but right here in New York we talk too
much and we get cold shivers up and down the spine and look at the dark side instead of the bright.
By cable, by post and by personal calls the demand for supplies of all kinds from the United
States continues to come in from both belligerent and neutral countries. Many of these demands
are urgent, and the factories which were running on reduced time a while ago are now running day
and night shifts.
The United States has nearly one-quarter of the gold of the entire world—more than England
and Germany together, and her natural resources are so astonishingly large that the human mind
becomes staggered in contemplation.
So many of the countries and their dependencies are now involved in the great conflict of
Europe, that it will take a long time, even if the war stops next month, to open factories and read-
just financial conditions in those war-torn lands.
In the meanwhile America is the one great nation not directly involved, for we are not at war.
We did not make the war, and we are not responsible for the destruction of lives or property.
The United States, its manufactures, financial institutions and people were never in a better
position to withstand adverse circumstances, and never so well prepared to overcome obstacles and
take advantage of commercial opportunities.
We are in a position to supply nearly all of the classes of manufactured articles which the
world needs, and what the American manufacturer a short time ago could only hope to secure after
an expenditure of much time, money and patience in soliciting trade, is now coming to him unso-
licited; but the manufacturer and business man cannot afford to sit and wait for trade. He can-
not play a passive part in the great world call.
At the beginning of the war nearly all the experts on military matters believed that on account
of the vast numbers engaged and the enormous expenditures the war could only last for a com-
paratively short time—six months at the most. Recent developments, however, appear to be causing
a change of opinion among experts, who now see the possibility of a long drawn out conflict, ancj
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(Continued on page 5.)