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Show m Disquieting Apprehension A gifted local merchant was aaU-?d aaU-?d vestcrdoy how business was nnd what tho outlook for futuro business busi-ness looked. Ho replied, In sub-Ltrnco sub-Ltrnco as follows. "Artificial conditions aro giving business a feverish, artificial, Intermittent Inter-mittent pace now, tho uncertainty of tho Immediate futuro, makes anything any-thing llko steadiness ot thought Impossible Im-possible "It Is like riding ovor a brldgo that Is half undermined by a flood nnd tho passongor Is wondering whethor tho brldgo will stand until tho train gets over or not. "Thero Is a double uncertainty. Ono Is, how long will tho war last? Thn other, what will wo havo to faco when It closes? It Is understood that England has a threo years' copper supply nlready on hand. She has forbidden hor colonies col-onies to export grain nnd doubtloss hns Issued tho same ardor to India and 1-gypt to storo nil hor cotton. She has about nil tho merchant ships that aro engaged; with tho closing of tho war she will rely upon hor trndo to keep her Interest paid and for credit to borrow moro money. "Sho will borrow all tho surplus mousy that has como to us through tho sale ot war material and hor struggle will bo to absolutely dominate dom-inate ocean commerce, and to deliver hor products In outside countrlos on such terms ns those countries cannot can-not compete against. And tho chief-eat chief-eat of all those countries Is our own. "Sho knows tho labor conditions of our country, sho knows that when tho war closes her own laborers will work for what thoy can got, that thoy will bo obliged to In order to live. "Sho counts on thoso facts to enable en-able her to borrow mouoy horo, bo-lloving bo-lloving that men and companies with surplus of monoy will prefer loaning It to starting now enterprises enter-prises under present labor rovlslon Ideas. It will bo all tho moro try ing It thousands of thoso stranded by the wnr como hero to untor Into In-to direct competition with our union labor. "Then while It Is tho Idea of tho Allies to crush Germany utterly and ollmlnato her from trado calculations calcula-tions for twenty-five years nt least they will not succeed. Hor territory terri-tory Is all Intnct, and to conquer her utterly Is a bigger contract thnn all concerned can carry out. "Tho war will hardly cease boforo German merchant ships will rcsumo tholr old routes and Gorman factories factor-ies will again supply thoso ships with ovory manufactured product that tho outsldo world neodu. "Franco will quickly be ready to send away hor products, for thero Is no way that any ot thoso countries count-ries can begin to recuperato, except through foreign trade! No country from which thoy expect to realize or havo as much through trado as from our own. "Wo havo' no merchant marine, and no protection 'against tho flood ot goods of all kinds that will pour In upon us. "It Is generally understood that woro tho war to closo tomorrow, business bus-iness would fall as flat In our country coun-try as did stocks tho morning after It was known that a German submarine submar-ine had sunk two or threo English merchant ships off tho New England coast. "How would It bo with us six months or a year 'after tho close of that war? "Our country Is not unllko n farmer far-mer who has a great Hold of wheat Ju3t ripening, jand no fence of any description nround It, while Just over n low hill a mighty herd ot cattlo are lowing with hunger, and tho question Is, will that farmer over bo ablo to harvest nnd save his crop?" |