Evening Republican, Volume 20, Number 220, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 13 September 1916 — U. S. Must Use Every Means Possible to Preserve Its Trade When War Ends [ARTICLE]

U. S. Must Use Every Means Possible to Preserve Its Trade When War Ends

By H. J. WATKINS of Chicago

It will be necessary for this country after the European war to use every means possible to preserve our trade. The sacrifices made by the British colonies and the recognition thereof by Great Britain, as well as the necessity of conserving British trade, are likely to bring about a closer bond of union, which may take the form of some kind of British alliance or federation that cannot prove advantageous to the United States. Moreover, as the British armies have been fighting side by side with those of France, Italy, Russia and Serbia, and in alliance with Japan, and as England has had to bear a part of the financial burdens of her allies, it is not unlikely that the alliances following the war will be broader than the British empire and will take the shape of a preferential trade compact among the allied nations. The political reasons for such ties, even if ‘not created with any declared spirit of hostility to us, nevertheless would have a tremendous effect upon our trade and would multiply the difficulties we already have in building up and maintaining our present foreign commerce.