Jasper County Democrat, Volume 20, Number 87, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 30 January 1918 — BUSINESS NOT AS USUAL [ARTICLE]

BUSINESS NOT AS USUAL

When war was first declared, the call went out to the country, “Keep Business as Usual.” At that time it was feared that the war scare would have a depressing effect upon industries of the country and cause business to “steer close to shore.” Ordinarily '/this, might have been the result, but in the present instanco the very opposite has been the case. Instead of curtailing business in any direction, the war has given such a stimulus tp business in all

lines that the American people today are more prosperous than at any time in their history, and this in the face of the huge sums they have been called upon to contribute to the various war activities. Now tho slogan is not business as usual, but business NOT as usual, —greater than usual, with more vim and vigor than we have ever before put into it. We are called on to make every minute and hour of our days to count. The manufacturer is urged to speed up production, the farmer is urged to multiply the yield of his acres. Every mill and factory and. shop in the land is urged to give its best efforts to swelling the volume of business —because only by keeping the volume up to the highest possible mark can we be enabled to , respond to the tremendous demands that are being made upon the resources o>f the country. We have been accustomed to boast of the immense natural arid undeveloped resources df the country. The time has come when those resources must be developed. An unopened coal mine must be opened and its treasures, thrown on the market. Mineral deposits must be developed and their contents given to swell the total of materials. Valuable tracts of timber that are needed for manufactures must be laid under the ax and the saw. The resources of the country must be brought into use.

While prices in all commodities are high, the country has money—millions and billions of it. Almost any kind of a workman in any branch of industry can command a decent salary, and good workmen are in demand at wages never before dreamed of. But in order that this may continue, all must work and earn and spend. The purse .strings must not be closed on the dollar that is in hand, hut it must be .spent freely that a crop of dollars may be the result. What if raw materials are high? The world is crying for the finished product at figures even higher. The demand in all lines is, supplies, supplies, and more supplies. There is no limit to the demand except the capacity of the country.

Those responsible for the order that no more profanity is to be used by the mule drivers in our army in France, were doubtless moved by a worthy motive, but like many other worthy motives, it is more attractive in theory than in practice, kgfiip mule is an American institutnwi. There has always been, in c/iJnection with this institution, a peculiar vocabulary that fits no other. The amenities of polite society are meaningless to his muleship. It is only when he begins to smell the sulphur as it drips from the language of the driver, that the long-eared hybrid wakes up to the knowledge that there is “something doing,” and begins to assert himself. If the report is true and the order is really in effect, the mule will feel like an orphan in a strange land, and if mules can think he will call down curses on the day that he wandered so far from home and those friends who, if not the most polished in their diction, at least had the merit of perfect profanity.