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Show Ignore Facts ' i Free-Traders Give Credit To Under- wood When War Orderi Real I'y Did It. One need not be a captain of Indus- , try like Mr. Alba B. Johnson nor a magnate of high llnanco like Mr. Goo j W. Perkins to understand that at the j conclusion of the war tho United j States Is likely to bo confronted by I an exceptionally serious situation, i Any one with an average modicum I of common senso nnd n fair capacity I for profiting from the teachings of ex- perlcnco can recognize tho dangers by which in this respect the country Is confronted. Democratic defendurs of and apologists for the present administration ad-ministration and champions, of tho legislation at which Wilson's behest u Democratic Congress has during past three jer.rs enacted, never tire of talking about tho wonderful prosperity pros-perity which American people aro cow enjoying nnd they profess to be very 6urc that ' It has come to stay. They are, however, unable to give any convincing reasons for their confidence, con-fidence, and the facts which they llud It convlcncnt to Ignore are against them. Every ono who knows anything nt all or who Is competent to form an Intelligent and disinterested opinion upon the subject Is perfectly well acquainted ac-quainted with tho source from which this much-vaunted prosperity is derived. deriv-ed. It all conies fronj the Immense I orders for war munitions which hnvo been placed hero by certain of tho belligerent nations of Europe. Of course, this Is not ndmltted by the ( Democratic politicians and newspa- per organs. They Insist that It rests unon n substantial baBls and will prove enduring and to support this j view they lay great Btress upon the , wide extension nnd tho varied char- j octer of the Industrial activity prevnl Ing. They suy that It Is not conllned to the manufacture of war inuuitl ns, I but that all along tho line trade and business are booming and that no one who, wants employment nt wages better than have over heretofore been paid need look far to llnd It. Thcro Is a good deal of exaggeration exagger-ation In all that and already Indications Indica-tions nro hero and thero discernible that tho maximum of tho movement has been reached and passed Hint a reaction has set in and that the tldo which, taken nt the Hood has led on to so many fortunes Is beginning to recede. But In this connection tho point to be mado Is that any casting activity In other fields of enterprise than tho production of wnr munitions Is distinctly trnccablo to tho enormous enorm-ous purchases of tho European powers. pow-ers. It has recently been stated that the war orders have aggregated tho almost inconceivable total of threo billion dollars. Perhaps that Is an excessive estimate, but It is probnbly not very" far from the truth nnd It Is easily to Imagine what a stimulating effect this colossnl expenditure must have had on nil industrial and commercial com-mercial interests. The distribution of millions of dollars dol-lars among tho workers has inordinately inordin-ately Increased their buying capacity. In tho expressive slang of the street, they have had money to burn and It Is to their augmented expenditures that tho prosperity upon which the supporters of tho Wilson administra tion plume themselves nnd for which they do not hesitate to take credit Is plainly attributable. It Is only necessary to recnll tho conditions that existed beforo tho war to realize what may bo expected to happen when the artificial stimulus which tho war has furnished shall hove been removed. Somo may havo forgotten them, for the average memory mem-ory Ib short, and by a happy dispensation dispen-sation of Providence yesterday's sufferings suf-ferings quickly pass from the mind, but thoro nro many who will remom- bcr that here In Philadelphia during the winter of 1913-14, as In every oi-her oi-her great industrial city throughout the land, men and women who were reduced to standing in bread lines and to taking their turns at soup kitchens In order to mitigate their hunger pangs. Not since tho winter of 183-4, when tho manufacturing Industries of the country had been paralysed by the enactment of tho near Free Trade Wilson Tariff, had distress been so wide spread or acute. Not since then l1Bd the demonds mode upon the charitable been so pressing and ex-tensive, ex-tensive, . . The industrial prostration of which fo many of our people were the victims vic-tims had been caused by the Wilson- Underwood Tariff, which exposed our manufacturers to the unequal competition of poorly puld Kuropeun labor. During tho past two years tho operation of that Tariff has been counteracted by tho wnr, but It Is still on tho statute book, and when the wnr Is over tho samo cause will uniiuestlonnbly produco tho samo ro-suits, ro-suits, with this difference, that competition com-petition will bo moro than ovor Intense In-tense nnd Its effects more than ever ruinous. Philadelphia Inquirer, i |