which
there will most likely be a great demand, or with the transportation and
distribution of both imports and exports to the rest of the community.
In certain industries, like the manufacture of cotton cloth, which is
localized in New England to such an extent that whole districts are
dependent upon it for a livelihood, the distress will be great, for the
factories closed upon the declaration of war and the workers are a long
distance from the Western fields, where laborers are only too scarce.
The cheapening of transportation, the rapidity of communication, the
superior mobility of the population today over ten years ago, make it
probable that these people will soon find new places.

Concomitant with the war came a rise of prices. Foodstuffs especially
advanced sharply and will certainly continue to rise until some material
increase of the supply is assured beyond a peradventure. The tendency in
England and above all on the Continent for the cities to buy great
supplies to guard against possible want will increase this tendency.
But, without question, should the war last, a rise in the whole level of
prices of everything, including labor, will take place in the United
States. It will affect some individuals adversely, but for most will be
in the long run almost negligible. For those who actually produce or
handle goods which advance in price the result will be a profit, because
the price of the commodity they have to sell will almost certainly
advance sooner and faster than the prices of the commodities they
themselves are compelled to buy. In time the two will equalize and they
will be precisely where they were before the war; they will pay out with
one hand what they take in with the other. In nearly all cases where the
individual produces or shares in the production of an actual commodity a
general rise in prices, even to the extent which this war threatens to
produce, will be to him only a temporary advantage or disadvantage.
True, wages and salaries in industrial pursuits will not quite keep pace
with the rise in foodstuffs, and factory workers and clerks will not
benefit to the same extent nor as soon as the farmers will. People whose
incomes are derived from stocks in the businesses which prosper will
probably receive much more than they pay by reason of the increased
prices of other commodities, and certainly cannot be worse off than
before.

America's Real Sufferers.

The real sufferers in America will