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Show I "BUSINESS MEN'S WAR" FOR GREAT I BRITAIN AND THE UNITED STATES Most Efficient and Powerful Men In Commerce and Industry Give H I Services to the Government That Could Not Be Purchased ; v What the National Council of Defense Is" Doing for I rff.w Jhis Country -- BBJf New York. Thla war may not be a I Jy trade struggle, but 'on' the shoulders of H business men depends to a great ex B tent the successful prosecution otjt. Bfl Especially Is thls'tru'e'Tn Great Hrlt-B Hrlt-B Bin and the United States. In Ger-B Ger-B many before the war tho corporate B Interests, such as the steamship lines, B banks and factories, were closely H linked with tho government In an ef-B ef-B Sclent race for world leadership. The B government aided them; quite natur-B natur-B ally they aided tho government when B war broke out Bl With Great Britain and the United B States the situation Is somewhat dIC-B dIC-B ferent There was co-operation be B tween the government and big busl-B busl-B ness, but not so much tho Intimate B Teutonic sort. But the situation Is B now changed, and Instead of war being B pushed to a finish one way or the B other by the government with little B aid outBlde of floating bond Issues, B the business men have taken over du-B du-B tolls lack of action on which might B be fatal. B Great Britain has Fcverr.l hundred B of tho most efficient nnil powerful B business meu In the country perform B Ing Innumerable tusks to conduct the B war on a strictly business basis. The B number In this country Is larger, with B the list growing dally. B The service of none of these men, B whether they be English or American. B could be purchased. Their earning B capacity Is vlrtuully unlimited. Yet m all of them have given without re-U re-U serve or qunllflcatlon their time and H energy In aiding their country. It Is H not an nlnrmlst view to think what H would havo happened to tho cause of B the allies had not the business men B stepped In and did what they have m done and are doing. 1 8eeklng Results. m Not, of course, that the public M knows just what either the British board or the national ndvlsory cornel corn-el ratsAlon of the national defense coun-H coun-H ell In this country hus done. They BJ seek results, not publicity, and for H this reason It Is possible only to have H a faint idea of their achievements. It H requires a strong Imagination to vlsu BJ nllzo Just what they have done, but H their general results of cutting gov-BJ gov-BJ ernracntal red tape, purchasing sup-Sfplles sup-Sfplles quickly and economically and analyzing the resources of tho nation with tho view to utilizing every hit of power ure almost sufficient In them selves. Over In England public recognition was given the business man by Ilonar Law, member of tho war council, In the houso of commons. "The ministry of munitions," he said, "Is n body of business men more competent, I believe, be-lieve, than that to be found In any Industrial In-dustrial undertaking In the country." Tho clothing department of the British war, olllcc has more than n hundred men nttnehed to It alone men who were lenders In their particular par-ticular field before tho outbreak of hostilities three years ngo. Bonnr Low nt the time of his address In parliament stated that they could not be bought by any salary tho houso of commons could possibly give them. These , men who hnvo volunteered their services to the British govern men and who nro virtually working their heads off for It nro the very meu who nro directly responsible for Britain's Brit-ain's commercial supremacy. , Engineers In Service. Thyarojthe ones who bridged, and bored and tunneled the earth from China to Peru; who created great railway systems, who control great combines, arid who havo amazed men accustomed to government routine by the way In which they have 'ousted the old, slow, easy-going methods. None of these men was especially desirous of being -known ; they did not caro to emblazon their names before the public Perhaps but few of the British, aside from those In shipping circles, know Andrew Weir, who Is now surveyor-general of supply at tho British war office. Yet he was one of the foremost shipbuilders on tho Clyde before .the war and Is now saving the British nation ,$5,000,000 a week by efficient methods.' The new financial secretary to the chancellor of the exchequer Is Sir Samuel Hardman Lever. He was never a member of tho house of parliament and for this reason tticre were many groans when hewas named for this position. He, too, has saved the government gov-ernment millions of dollars. Shipping Is controlled by Sir Joseph Maclay, a formldablo business man on the Clyde, who was called Into scrvlco and who has since made remarkable headway with a difficult proposition. Sir Eric Geddes made possible the transporting of troops from one sector sec-tor of the western front to another, yet politics has always been distasteful distaste-ful to hltn and he hitherto confined himself strictly to the big Job of running run-ning the Northeastern railway. Cowdray In War. A mighty Job faces Lord Cowdrny, head of the Air board, and has faced htm since he took office. He Is better bet-ter known under the name of Pearson, being the hend of the oil firm of that name that successfully battled with the Standard Oil company. Lord Cowdrny himself personally directed many of the marvelous engineering fents the firm has carried through In Mexico and Cannda. One of his partners, part-ners, Sir Ernest William Molr, Is In charge of tho Inventions department of the ministry of munitions, sir Ernest wns resident engineer of tho tunnels under the Hudson river In Now York, but this Is simply one of a long list of achievements. Lord Rhondda, new food controller, Is n commercial man of front rank In England. He was once In politics, but later quit, and when he was called to his present post he was head of a great colliery alliance employing 20,000 men, and ho also found time to be n director In not less than 40 companies. Lord Rothormere, who has charge of the army clothing department, Is president and founder of the Anglo-Newfoundland Anglo-Newfoundland Development company, which developed tho resources of that colony to n marvelous extent. Sir Alfred Mond, who eommnndeers hotels, tills public pnrks and erects buildings needed by the government overnight, made millions as a manufacturer manu-facturer of chemicals. This list Is necessarily Incomplete; It does not nnrrate In detail the exploits ex-ploits of the men mentioned. It gives, however, porno Idea of the caliber of men who have enlisted to aid tho British Brit-ish government. Their old has been lnvaltinble; their success to be measured meas-ured moro than by savings of tens of millions. Their savings, It might be said, nro real and not Imaginative. Following England. What these men have done In England Eng-land nnd their resultB will best be told after the war Is over and men carefully annlyze Just what they hnve done Is being done In America to a remarkably similar degree. . Never before were men with such earning capacities and with , such keen ability io organize and direct, all gathered for tlie same purpose. When It Is considered that such men as Howard Coffin, one of the greatest great-est engineers In the country; Julius Rosenwnld, a mercantile power of pnrtlculnr acumen; Thomas Edison, the electrical wizard; Daniel Wll-lard, Wll-lard, n transportation expert, and others, oth-ers, nro nil working toward n single goal tho success of tho United States In the war It Is truly remarkable. The ontjre personnel of tho advisory' ad-visory' commission of the national council of defense breathes power. It naturally would with men like Theodore Theo-dore N. Vail, head of tho Belt Tele-phono Tele-phono pystem ; Wallace D. Simmons, head of the largest hardware company In tho United States, and others on tho list, all actively engaged In the council's wort.. There are men who are on tho committees who leave Important Im-portant work to go to Washington and unravel knotty questions on transportation, trans-portation, food nnd kindred subjects. Most of tho big railroad men In tho country nro doing what they can to old; tho big financiers are Joining In, so nro the manufacturers. Although they have accomplished wonders since their organization a few months ngo. If wo could but nscerfnln tho real extent ex-tent of their efforts, of which only a few leak out now nnd then, It would deserve properly to bo classed above twentieth century Inl nicies. ' Merolna the Railroads. It Is rather much of an old story i now to tell of tho merging of all tho ,i railroads In tho United Spates fnto qno . continental system, doles iwty with i competition for th"u snko of umxlimun i national efficiency In transportation. But It Illustrates to what extent tho business men havo jjoue uud how willing they are to use their power to aid the government. Itnllroads htlvo not been alone In their sacrifices; many lines of business busi-ness hnve dono something similar. Every move of this kind on the part of the business Interests has shown tho more clearly how vital their aid Is and how much less tho govern-men govern-men could do without It, proving It Is n business man's war. In this connection, Grosvenor B, Clarkso'ri, secretary of tho council of nntlonnl defense nnd of tho ndvlsory commission, said: "Modern war means that battles are won not alone by fighting men but by fighting Industries. War has ceased to bV a profession In which military men alone are called. On the contrary, It enlists the specialists of every Industry and every, science from the firing line clear back to tEe" first line of defense. "In tho Words of noward Coffin, who started the movement for mobilizing mobil-izing the Industrial forces of America, Amer-ica, 'twentieth century conflict demands de-mands that the blood of, the soldier must be mingled with from three to five' parts of tho sweat of the man In the mills, 'mines and factories of tho nntlon In arms.' H This sentiment of Mr. Clarkson crystallces the thought as to. the great change In conducting warfare. It applies equally as well In both Great Britain and the United, States and, perhaps the other allies but British and American business -men, more than those of France, Italy and Russia, are prosecuting tho wnr, because be-cause upon them lies tho task for financing the struggle. England helped her nllles financially during the early days of the war, and now tho United States hns taken over tho Job for virtually tho entire world. They not only give money, but save It without being parsimonious, for, had It not been for their united support sup-port both governments British and American would havo been hundreds of millions of dollars worso off. The Injection of business men as directors of the war Is novel, hut It has achieved results thnt could not have been obtained under tho older form of things. |