eue Freie Presse_ of Vienna on
Sept. 11 admitted that the activity of the exporters in Germany had been
crippled. According to _The Times_ (Oct. 7), the German Socialist paper
_Vorwaerts_, stated that "the state of want has reached an alarming extent,
even though we are now only at the beginning of the catastrophe which has
befallen the people of Europe." "Masses of unemployment grow every month."]

Austria-Hungary, which is not an advanced industrial country, will not
suffer quite so keenly, though even here the German newspapers admit that
trade has come almost to a standstill.[1] In the western theatre of war the
fighting has centred largely round the Franco-Belgian Coalfield, on or near
which stand on both sides of the frontier many industrial towns. Lille,
Nancy, Epinal, Belfort, Reims, Amiens, and Valenciennes on one side, and
Liege and Charleroi on the other, are all of economic importance. Even
apart from the actual destruction due to the war which in some of these
towns has been serious, the mere presence of the contending armies will
have a more or less paralysing effect on industrial and commercial life in
both France and Belgium.[2] The position in Belgium, however, is much more
serious than in France. It may best be described in the words of Professor
Sarolea, written after a visit of five weeks to his native country. "Other
belligerent nations may suffer from unemployment. In Belgium alone there
has been created a whole nation of unemployed. In other countries trade
and industry are dislocated. In Belgium they have come to a complete
standstill. Out of a population of eight millions, seven millions are under
the heel of the invader. Railwaymen are starving, for railways have ceased
to work. Office clerks are starving, for banks and offices are closed.
Public officials are starving, for no salaries can be paid.... Journalists
and printers are starving, for newspapers and books have ceased to appear.
Mill hands and coal miners and ironworkers are starving, for mills and
coal mines and iron works are closed."[3] Bad as this is, the condition of
affairs is somewhat relieved so far as France and Belgium are concerned by
the fact that the seas are open to them, but even then we must add these
areas to Germany and Austria-Hungary as regions where industry and trade
are at the best severely hampered, regions all of which are important
factors in the markets of Europe, and whose commercial paralysis will
re-echo thro