Evening Republican, Volume 21, Number 30, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 6 February 1917 — History Indicates That Prosperity and Not Panic Will Come at the End of the War [ARTICLE]

History Indicates That Prosperity and Not Panic Will Come at the End of the War

By THEODORE H. PRICE

Editoi of Commerce and Finance

Tn every case the post-bellum history of former great wars records a continuance of the business activity which the wars themselves had stimulated. After Waterloo England entered upon the greatest era of industrial and commercial expansion she had ever known. The British empire of commerce was, in fact; made possible by the Napoleonic wars. After our Civil war the-United States and the entire American continent, north and south, had a boom which lasted until 1873. After the billion francs she paid Germany, became more prosperous than ever in _______ • —— l ! \ ■ her history. * . . . The reason for this seeming paradox is that the activities of reconstruction are more stimulating than those of destruction, because they, are inspired by hope rather than by vindictiveness or revenge. People work more eagerly to live than to die. In so far as America is concerned, I cannot see that we have anything to regret or fear if peace should come tomorrow on terms that would guarantee the future integrity of international law. _ A ievf mushroom munition plants w'ould be dismantled and there would be some relocation of labor, but the more important and permanent business of the country would probably boomThe money which the war has provided us will permit of the prises upon a scale that will be adequate to our present development and the amount of money thus put in circulation will far exceed any profit • that we may reap from a continuance of the war.