any cases stop altogether the stream of imports to the
United States. These millions of men in the field and on the sea will
not possess most of the economic wants they had in time of peace and
will become conscious of many which they usually did not feel. The war
will diminish and in many cases entirely stop the stream of ordinary
American exports to Europe. Because of the stoppage of the European
supply of things we have usually bought of them, and the cessation of a
European demand for things we have usually sold to them, the conditions
of the home market, both in regard to what we must buy in it, and to
what we must sell in it, will be vitally changed. When our present
supplies of European importations are exhausted, we shall be obliged to
make for each other and buy from each other the things which we happen
to be no longer able to import or export. A great readjustment of the
economic fabric in the United States will take place if the war lasts
longer than a comparatively short time.

How long a time that must be will depend entirely upon the sharpness of
the break in the economic life of Europe, and the amount of supplies
they have on hand, which, as they will not now need them at home, they
will be anxious to sell in the United States. Indeed, it would not be
surprising if there was for a short time a glut of English and French
manufactured goods in the United States market.

Europe May Depend On Us.

Of late years the commercial relationship between the United States and
Europe has changed very greatly. For centuries we were a debtor
community, buying largely from Europe, possessed only of crude staple
products for export, and scarcely able by a series of expedients and
exchanges to pay for what we bought. Tobacco for many decades, then
cotton, were the only commodities of which much was exported direct to
Europe. Then came, during the European famines of 1846, 1861, and 1862,
an enormous demand for American grain. Yet only during the last few
decades have we been able to export largely manufactured products or
been able to deal with Europe on an equality of terms. We are no longer
a debtor nation; we are no longer dependent upon Europe; the United
States is an integral and essential part of the interdependent
international economic fabric. Indeed, if the war continues ten years,
Europe may be dependent upon us.

In a sense we are not ready to meet the crisis. During the last ten or
fifteen years the expo