The Press. Friday, January 3, 1919. The New America.

Press, Volume LV, Issue 16411, 3 January 1919, Page 6

The Press. Friday, January 3, 1919. The New America.

The war has changed every country which has engaged in it, and, so far as the Allies are concerned, we have reason to hope that they will ultimately emerge from the ordeal purified and strengthened by the experience. • Both morally and materially the changes brought about in the United States are of the utmost significance, and' far-reaching in their importance. As regards the moral results, America has "found herself" as a nation, and her people, after a period of apparent absorption in money-mak-ing and indifference to moral issues, have now proved themselves capable of making any sacrifices for the attainment of lofty ideals unselfishly pursued. As to the material gains which the war has brought to the United States, some striking details are given by Mr Sydney Brooks in the November number of the "Fortnightly Review." The European conflict, he tells us, was not a year old before it had done more than a half-century of enterprise in times of peace could have done to advance America's position in inter-' national finance, in the ocean-carrying trade, and in foreign commerce. Five years ago she stood third on the list of the exporting countries. To-day

she is practically in a class by herself, her exports being practically double those of the United Kingdom. The United States is now supplying nearly one-half of all the manufactures that enter the international commerce of the world. Her imports, if one compares the figures for 1913 with those for 1917, have risen by over 60 per cent. Mr Brooks doubts whether "any four years in the history of the " world can ever have shown so startling and pervasive a growth of pro- " ductive energy as the statistics for "1913 and for 1917 register in the

"case of the United States." He estimates that the agricultural, manufacturing, and mineral output of the country at present prices can hardly be worth less than 12,000 million sterling per annum. The wealth of the United States, officially estimated in 1912 at 37,000 million sterling, is probably 50,000 millions. Bank deposits have gone up over 50 per cent, since 1913, and in New York city alone the bank clearings are greater to-day than they were throughout the whole of the Union in 1913. One result of this prodigious transformation is that the United States from being a debtor nation has become the chief creditor nation in the world. It is calculated that she must have come into possession of at least 2000 million sterling of securities and other assets formerly held in Europe or by Europeans.

Space fails us to follow Mr Brooks | into the remarkable figures which he 1 gives to show that while America is buying less from Europe, she has enormously increased her commerce with other countries which formerly looked to Europe for supplies. She has largely diminished her imports and increased her exports of manufactured goods. Certain facts given by Mr Brooks must not be passed over, as, for example, that the United States, when she entered the war, had by far the smallest debt of any first-class Power, that an extremely high proportion of her war expenditure has been and is being disbursed among her own people, and that she possesses or controls some 66 per cent, of the oil production of the world, over 60 per cent, of the copper, 40 per cent, of the load, over 50 per cent, of the aluminium, about 70 per cent, of tho cotton, 40 per cent, of the iron ore, and nearly as much of the coal and silver; while her agricultural wealth easily outdistances that of any other country.

Tho war, it pointed out, has not only increased tho wealth of the United States, it has enlarged the ideas of the people, stimulated their and increased their industrial efficiency. By no means the least important result, it is giving them a mercantile marine. Before the war over nine-tenths of America's exports and imports were carried in foreign bottoms, chiefly British. The end of the war, it is estimated, will find tho United States in possession of a vast Gov-ernment-owned mercantile marine, with a sea tonnage one-half or two-thirds that of our own. Said Mr Hurley, Controller of American Shipping, some two or -three months ago: — "We aro building an American merchant fleet of twenty-five million tons—3ooo ships. We are backing modern ships with modern port facilities, establishing our bunkering stations all over the globe, and will operate with American railway efficiency. *We will carry American cargoes at rates corresponding to our railroad rates—the cheapest in tho world. Fast American pass.engor and cargo liners will run regularly to every port in Latin America, the Orient, Africa, and Australia." And Mr McAdoo, the Secretary to the Treasury, has intimated that this programme is to he carried out by the State as a matter of national policy, making a heavy loss, if necessary, on the freights charged.

In view of these facts, wo shall probably not be far wrong if wo surmise that the groat banking and shipping amalgamations taking place in tho United Kingdom, and the preparations being made by manufacturing and trading firms for a groat struggle after tho war, ore being made with an eye to the coming competition from the United States rather than from Ger-

many. The latter country, we now believe, will have her hands full for many years to come, and it will take her all her time to hold her own. She has thrown away tho greatest chance any nation ever had of dispossessing us of our commercial supremacy. Now the hatred Bhe has inspired in every part of the world, and her internal troubles, added to the exertions rendered necessary by the indemnities she will have to pay, will keep her within due bounds. Tho United States will be our chief competitor, but we believe that the Americans will fight us fairly, and if wo cannot hold our own in honourable competition, we deservo to go down. There is only ono featuro in the situation we don't like, and it is a 9 well to speak out frankly. American politicians who say that Amorica must have the "largest fleet afloat," and that the captured German ships must be sunk, because if thoy were distributed among the Allies, the largest ' share would necessarily go to England, ought to be suppressed by their own country. They are no friends to the United States, or to the peace of the world.