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Show Miscellany The Loss of German Products. Jt is only Riving i-re.lll whem crfilit Is jir-tl.v 'Jhc to say th.-it them Is inolni lily no other nation In t lie world vvIiuhp. simI-rlfii simI-rlfii Isolation roin nipp-ia lly would cansn surh wiflfHPiTail Iosh fi n haw lcln miir.o.l by th? Isolation of tii-mia n y.' II in np-proprl.ito np-proprl.ito that lliln should Ik- rocordod hoio. lir.";inso M'Tinany mot'O lll.'lll any oIIut nation ha.i won Its imporlant plaro industrially, not by reason of lis wealth of natural resoui'-rs or its yeoKra pld. a I 10. 'nlloii, but by the skill and intelll-s'-ii'-e with wlih'h its people bar at-la.'ked at-la.'ked modern te.dnii'Ml problems. Whil'j eimilieei s and oheinisls are fc'en-eially fc'en-eially ;iiv;nr of ' 1 e f li la 1 1 v ' s Irad'-iahlp In the li'-ld of H.i.in o and I or h nolocy , the evriils of the p:i:.l few uit'im h.'Ue been Cl'lll objerl I.mioIik to Ijm t,:ll"l lll- 1 1 . '. I' w I'll ' ' i ' a H'.'-d lb '"Ill lo V. ,m : I be V hoi. wmi Id haw relb d Upon i ; bisnr I : , hoil irl . t o; i i e.-r-i : I 1. 1. noil;.' Urn , to, 111.: .'aipplj of many materials necessary to arts lar'ut"r, urcrs in America, and in t.PRland who were congratulating themselves on then enlarged opportunities ' ,,ur''s',-, n-, ,1 In markets where the supply of. 'e"'l' Knods was cut olT have not m a found their own PV.H.etlve ope.a c, s seriously hampered oecauso I hey could no longer obtain certain a''r'als1r',071,f' many. As is xvell known, s eel nmnu facfurers aie ureatly worried to k now what they were lo do for their sup 1 ot ferromansanese. Manufacturers of tili7.ers hace had to face a poss.l e down of their works throupli ll e in -ting off of the supply of German po as h In the, textile Industry, ntanufacu.es suddenly realized that with a ccess to t'le German ports blockaded by ,"a,s,'!r'b there was every prospect that the supp lj of dyes and dyeiiiB materials would seriously seri-ously be Interfered with. In ' e din and 'chemical trade pr ccs ""b""' trebled when it was realized that furl he. supply .Tom Germany was cut off, e world would have to get alon? for s l ... e without certain drugs and chemicals which have become well-nigh esse lal both in pharmacy and in certain indus- T'CS- etend- The above list migni "s k'; ed It is in fact, only a statement of a few important staples, in the production produc-tion of which Germany lias been so piom-inent piom-inent that all the rest of the wo.ld has relied on her to furnish them. Surelv. from a hroad point of view, the victory' which Germany has gained o the nations of Ihe earth by its ''f in oonnuest of the most difficult fields of industrial technology, actually surpasses as a meritorious achievement a n victory which tts great military organization may gain by brute force. ,v,;0 It is said that most of these things for which we and other nations have been accustomed to rely upon Germany could be produced if necessary. This is true as relates to most of these materia s, provided sufficient time were available, but sufficient time Is in most cases a verv long time. In the fertilizer trade, for 'example, investigations have been In process for a number of years looking lo the production of potash from natural sources in the United Ptates. But what has been actually accomplished commercially commer-cially is the merest trifle compared with the demand which must be supplied. To develop plants which will produce the amount of potash required by the fertilizer fer-tilizer trade, and other consumers in the United Slates, and at a cost consistent with commercial necessities, would require re-quire not months but years. Farmers and fertilizer manufacturers are anxious to know what they are to do In the meantime. mean-time. The same thing holds true of numerous articles in the dye and chemical trades. Physicians and druggists accustomed to use some of the varied products of coal tar, most of which lias originated in and are solely produced by Germany, are in a quandary to know what they ran do if the source of supply is entirely shut off. It is of particular interest to note, moreover, that the manufacturers of England, Eng-land, Germany's great commercial rival and present enemy, are almost as badly hit as those of the United States by cutting cut-ting off the supply of German products. Our English exchanges reveal that while English manufacturers are making large plans for capturing the export trade in many lands which Germany cannot reach, they find themselves handicapped at every turn by cutting off supplies which they themselves have been accustomed to obtain from Germany. Fortunately, the war has not yet closed all avenues by which Germany can send out its products to the world. Through Holland, a neutral nation, shipments ship-ments from Germany can reach tidewater and be distributer by neutral vessels. Of course the drafts on Germany's male population for the army have paralzyed a large pT"t of Germany's industrial activities, ac-tivities, but since an underlying motive of the war is the maintenance of the nation's commercial prestige, it cannot be doubted lhat Germany wiil use every effort to continue to supply her foreign customers, so long as -any channels for the outlet of her exports remain open. Engineering News. |