AAA ANT EU TTR | HVA AAT f : ipa | { af: war é, » : c( 'line ao | uy | ~ (| | | > VW i | | I i ws AN mrt TT Na I HAMMAM UA VOL. 48 CLEVELAND OCTOBER, 1918 NEW YORK No. 10 SRR NSS y ZY Y " Gi Yy UZ Ss 4 WS <s Yj ws gn SK K SSG WW Xx Germans Can Not Stand Adversity and Success in the New Loan Will Add to Th EALITIES of war have exploded innumerable theories and none more effectually than the plausible contention that the delicate fabric of modern finance would not support a war of more than a few months' duration. Four. years after 400,000,000 Europeans and 17 months after the same man, not satisfied with the added enrollment in the forces against him of three-quarters of a billion British and French colonists, Italians, Jap- anese, Indians, Chinese, Siamese, etc., brought 100,- 000,000 Americans from neutrality to enmity, we find a call issued for the largest individual loan on record. The totals of two, three and four billions of dollars, which represent sales and subscriptions to the three other Liberty loans, are dwarfed by the $6,000,000,000 required in the fourth loan. The Marine Trade and the New Loan In this Liberty loan campaign, the shipbuilders, the ship operators and their employes hold a post tion peculiarly their own. In a broad sense, their present business and trade is a creation of the war. The few shipyards of other days have been sup- planted by hundreds of new ship construction plants. The few ships of the barren years before the war are being forgotten in a broadening flood of new cargo carriers. The opening of the European war found Amer- ican shipyards and shipping, with but few excep- tions, in a comatose condition that showed signs of becoming chronic. The entrance of the United States found our yards and shipping invigorated by an infusion of foreign war orders coupled with an increased number of American ships resulting from 'the premium of a powerful neutral registry. - year later, the whole trade has been practically made. Government supervision has become a eality and with it appear the funds to che ur existing facilities and to initiate pew plants rom a little considered industry, shipbuilding an Operating rank among the nation's greatest. one man made the decision that brought war to- eir Present Discouragement As an employer of labor and funds, the shipyards have for months had almost the first call on the country's resources. Priority rulings may change almost daily, the nation's supplies of steel, of coal, and of men may drop well below the constantly ascending line of demand, but through it all the shipyards are secure. The United States has been won over en masse to the vital importance of ships in quantity and is determined to produce these ships, regardless of the fate of other important but less vital industries. What Shipyard Labor Owes. From the labor side, the rights of the nation to the workmen's fullest financial support are equally incontestable. Wage scales today are the highest ever known and the thrifty workman finds the op- portunity for piling up his savings better than ever before as the cost of living has not climbed as rapidly as the cost he exacts for his services. The impetus to high wages started in the shipyards. Transforming an industry from a small beginning to one of the greatest in the country, brought about such a demand for labor that higher wages than other trades could afford to pay, were offered to attract men quickly. The hiring of men from other yards boosted this rising scale. Today, workmen with their enhanced rewards for their labor can find in the growth of the shipyards the answer to much -of this gain. These remarks appeal possibly more to selfish than to unselfish motives. But the men in the yards and on the ships are in more intimate contact with the growing need for supporting the boys at the front than most other workmen as their every effort is designed for that purpose alone. The shipbuilding and shipping industries should lead the country in their response to the new loan. -- When the German is reeling from the allies' mili- tary successes, Americans have the opportunity to crush what feeble hopes he may still cling to, by an avalanche of new war funds. 437