Evening Republican, Volume 22, Number 193, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 16 August 1919 — Road to Reconstruction Is Well Marked by Three Reliable Guide Posts [ARTICLE]

Road to Reconstruction Is Well Marked by Three Reliable Guide Posts

By J. OGDEN ARMOUR,

Chicago Packer

The road to wise reconstruction is well marked. The first guide post says, “Faith in Business.” The next one reads, “Employment for All.” And the third one is, “Gradual Readjustment.” Faith in the future business of this nation is justified. All the elements which make for prosperity are present Chief among these is the financial situation. We are on a sound basis. Our credit system is more highly organized, and it has vindicated itself under the severe strain of war. Of course money is only one of the requisites of business. Equally important is a steady consuming market This nation in itself is the best consuming market in the world. Our one hundred millions of people are free spenders and their aggregate buying power is greater than exists in any other nation under the sun. But the home market is not our only market. Partly as a result of the war we have developed the facilities for entering into world commerce to a degree impossible a few years ago. We now have or shortly will possess merchant ships that will carry our products to the far corners of the earth and American ingenuity and enterprise, if given rein, will find markets for Yankee-made goods wherever there is money to pay the price. Employment for all is essential. We must enable our returned soldiers to be productive and prosperous. It is not sufficient to give them jobs which furnish an excuse for wages. What they will prefer and what the nation would give them is work which will add new wealth to the world’s store. Our government possesses millions of acres of arable land. It has millions more- that can be reclaimed and made arable. I advocate the opening up of this government land, its apportionment among soldiers who wish to enter into productive work. The stimulation of the work of production will provide much other work, and employment is in itself a panacea for most national ills. There has never been a time when an abundance of work was not accompanied by prosperity. A displav of patriotism, forbearance and common sense on the part of both capital and labor will enable us to go through the readjustment period with such success that we will get back on the highway of human progress without delay or accident.