THE NE
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THE
MIMC TRADE
VOL. LXVI. No. 1
Published Every Saturday by Edward Lyman BUI, Inc., at 373 4th Ave., New York. Jan. 5, 1918
T
Single Copies 10 Cents
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1HER.E is now evident a decided reaction against the propaganda fathered by certain eminent personages
in Washington which advocates the drastic curtailment of all expenditures, unless for war purposes,
during the continuance of the great conflict in which this country is now engaged. The arguments
presented in this connection are so radical and so opposed to economic law that business men find
it difficult to fathom the reasons for encouraging the stagnation of business as an alleged assistance to the
Government.
The "stop spending" policy has been likened to a giant who comes by night and takes funds from the
manufacturer's till, and then in the morning appears at the manufacturer's front door and exchanges these
funds for goods. Repeat this process long enough, and eventually the manufacturer will have neither money
nor goods.
It has been pointed out, time and time again, that earning and spending depend upon each other. If
people earn without spending, earnings eventually stop; if people spend without earning, the spending supply
eventually runs out. There is no miracle about it. We spend because we have earned, and we are able
to earn because we spend. Through this process the United States has become the greatest of nations; when
this process stops we shall cease to be great.
Thrift is not only necessary, but should be the rule because it will be of benefit to the nation, but this does
not justify the suggested curtailment of industry, or the hysterical attacks upon so-called "non-essential"
industries and the throwing out of employment of men which the Government is not ready to use.
As a matter of fact, the utilization of non-active man power to-day is a much more important matter
than the undermining of the working forces connected with the so-called "non-essential" industries.
This subject has been so admirably handled in an editorial in the New York Evening World, entitled
"Preach Production-—not Restriction"—an editorial which merits the highest commendation for its timeliness
and lucidity—that we take pleasure in reproducing it herewith :
"Christmas over, the nation is bound to plunge deeper than ever into the business of making itself efficient
for war.
"Problems of concentration, adjustment, co-ordination press with ever-increasing urgency upon the
Government and upon the special administrative authorities created to meet and solve them.
"For the sake of the future, in a wider sense than that of security won by a victorious conclusion of
the war, the American people should pray that the great process of turning this peaceful nation into a formidable
righting power may be carried out with a wisdom that shall never lose sight of the fact that the purpose and
destiny of the United States extend beyond the wanning of the war, into an era of re-established peace, industry
and national well-being.
"While we make guns and shells by the million, while we turn out airplanes and destroyers at top speed,
let us never forget that these things add not one iota to the permanent solid assets upon which the enduring
power of the nation—even for war—depends.
"There are many w r ar-possessed Americans just now who would willingly have their fellow countrymen
believe that the country's productive energies should be shifted wholesale to groups of special war industries.
"Other industries of various kinds, summarily classed as 'non-essential to the wanning of the war,' are
'doomed'—by prediction at least—with a thoughtless haste that does little credit to American level-headedness
and common sense.
"Labor, we are told in excited tones, must be taken forthwith from this and that industry and concentrated
on war work.
(Continued on page 5)
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