THE QUESTION OF PROFIT OR LOSS
Or course, the one apparently strong and valid argument to be brought against economic pressure is that it would bring great loss to the commerce of the nations applying it. But that loss would be far less than the loss brought by war. And there would be no loss whatever if war were avoided. Still to the automobile factories in these great Lake Cities, working over time on war contracts, to the farmer enchanted with the magic of “dollar wheat” and to those especially affected by mounting export balances an economic pressure that resulted in smaller trade may seem an astonishing measure to adopt. But ask the cotton growers who had their market cut from under them by war; consider the virtual moratorium in this country when the exchanges closed, bringing an incalculable loss in shrinkage in security values and affecting all business; consider the industrial survey made in New York and other cities during the past winter showing that unemployment had increased threefold; listen to the poignant human appeal from our Charity Organizations; at least one must grant that the shield of Mars has two sides. And it has always had two sides. But the burnished side is not that which reflects the ghastly image of war.