Rensselaer Union, Volume 9, Number 33, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 3 May 1877 — Our Profit In The War. [ARTICLE]

Our Profit In The War.

Whatever may be the ultimate effect of the European war Upon American industry and commerce, its immediate effect ia sufficiently reassuring to enable us to contemplate the future with tolerable equanimty. The mere announcement of war has created a demand for grain of all kinds, blankets and clothing, boots and shoes, and all the supplies of war have stiffened in prices, aud there is no denying that America, as tbe principal producer of the supplies whioh Europe needs in time of war, will reap a rich harvest from the necessities ot the eombattants. Russia, with which our relations have always been friendly, ia by a singular coincidence our rival in trade, competing with us for the delivery of grain, tallow, bides and other rude products in tbe markets ot Europe. Instead of competing with ua now, however, Russia finds herself ent off from her ohief road to the markets, and will probably be a Urge purchaser of American supplies. Should the war become general, the direct advantage to ihia country would bemot;?ftrongly inarjk-

ed. After the plain and positive language of Von Moltkeon the army bill, it is not at all improbable that all Enrope should be embroiled In the miserable struggle* and. if this is so, we cannot help profiting by their folly enormously. Everything will be grist that comes to our mill, and tbe grists will come in from all directions.. The two or three millions of men who constitute the peaoe armies of Europe, and who, in lime of peace, take care of their clothing, quarters, accoutrements and supplies like so many old maids, are changed by a proclamation of war into reckless spendthrifts, raining arid destroying their own property even more remorselessly than the property of the epemy. Yet they must be armed and equipped, clothed, fed and cared for, and the coustant destruction of war must be repaired by a constant stream of supplies from the peaceful workers in the shrewder nations which have nothing to do with the war. Under the (stimnlus of an enforced economy, we have diminished our purchases and increased our sales so much that the balance of trade is largely in our favor, and we are rapidly paying off the debt incurred during a period of delusive prosperity. Even without a war it is very likely that ws would have been able to regain our lost supremacy in trade and manufactures, our ootton fabrics already supplanting those m England, oar hardware and cutlery finding a tain in Sheffield, and onr machinery making its way around the world. The tide which had set against qs for ten years had joat begun to tnru and the stimulus of the war will make it run swiftly. Our idle workmen will be set to work, our factories started anew, and. Instead ot working our way np by the slow and arduous path of low small profits and fierce competition, we wifi rise on the wave of a large demand in which there is no sueh thing as osmpetition. People who are called on st once to pay a higher price for flour, and who find tbe cost of the war added to other artioles of consumption, may not see the direct gain, but the farmer who has wheat to sell and the producers of all classes see it, and no nfotter that th« ultimate, lots may be, the people'of this country » r e so hard pushed and distressed shat they will welootne the temporary relief of an artificial demand aud probably overdo it in a week.— St. Louis Globe-Domocrat.