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Show Hi PIE Ft TO I PnODLiGTIDN Student of Business Conditions Condi-tions Believes Spiritual Awakening Needed. 'I't i? gradually dawning upon the con- '"It Is j.Tadua'.'.y d:ivu:r.s upon tlie con-the con-the prcs-T.t hz. price? of aH comracdr.ies art- by no means stimuli tin? rrodu"t:on in the hemih, d volume," :says the Metal- -rp;:1. 1 and Gl emie.il Encir.eeriiis?. "Pri . es for coal, for instance, " have i-eon fixed at inures quits exorbitant, if virwei from the nre-v.ar standpoint, and yet the geological survey is recording a practically stationary production, and the newsr-arers report stories of fuel fam- ines. As noted e'sewhere in this issue, ,7op:;-i mines. which formerly were mv.tahle on -10 ore. were closed reeent-iv reeent-iv when ore declined to $70. Copper production pro-duction has he;-n seriously curtailed, even i :;oui,h its price has been above 2,V-2 cents :or r. i o n t ; i s . The relation of output to prices a; times even seems to follow i hat curious anomaly in the (labor mar-he mar-he ; ; that is. the 1 ; : h. e r the daily w a g: e the lower the production per man-hour. "The reason is not so obscure. His:h commodity prices mean economy in con- j sumption and u?;e in production, w h i I o i low commodity prices mean the opposite. I Y;; h high prices the ultimate consumer gets along with, less than he really needs. and even the n h is fin a n ce s ca n ha. ni 1 y hear the strain : the manufacturer, at the same time, need make no effort to produce in an economical manner, for the price he receives for his output will cover a multitude of sins of omission and commission, com-mission, and even then leave a very encouraging en-couraging cash balance. That is to say, they did. "Today, however, all his fellow producers pro-ducers have rone and done likewise; all i his low-priced stock of raw materials and I repair parts is exhausted ; his total ex- ! per.se for labor, everything, is increasing so rapidly that it overtops the income; a red. f.gure appears on the balance sheet, and the factory closes. 'Ts it not that America needs a spiritual spir-itual awakening? "War is a hard taskmaster, task-master, and yet ars may furnish the leaven which In time will ferment the entire body. For there are countless young men now serving their country, leaving behind their positions, the'r salaries, sal-aries, their hones for preferment everything every-thing that seems best to them. Money means little to them now; it will mean less ere they happily return- May they come back fire-refined, with a purer and better outlook and more stable sence of the eternal fitness of things, to instruct the stay-at-homes by their nobie example." |