export trade is being replaced by
collective importing, bringing business more directly under the control
of the consumer. This has been done by co-operative societies, by
municipalities and states, in Switzerland, France, the United Kingdom,
and in Germany. The Co-operative Wholesale Society of Great Britain,
acting on behalf of three and a half million families, buys two and a
half million dollars of purchases annually. And the Entente nations, in
order to avoid competitive bidding, are buying collectively from us, not
only munitions of war, but other supplies, while the British Government
has made itself the sole importer of such necessities as wheat, sugar,
tea, refrigerated meat, wool, and various metals. The French and Italian
governments, and also certain neutral states, have done likewise. A
purchasing commission for all the Allies and America is now proposed.
After the war, as an inevitable result, for one thing, of transforming
some thirty million citizens into soldiers, of engaging a like number of
men and women at enhanced wages on the manufacture of the requisites of
war, Mr. Webb predicts a world shortage not only in wheat and foodstuffs
but in nearly all important raw materials. These will be required for
the resumption of manufacture. In brief, international co-operation
will be the only means of salvation. The policy of international trade
implied by world shortage is not founded upon a law of "supply and
demand." The necessities cannot be permitted to go to those who can
afford to pay the highest prices, but to those who need them most. For
the "free play of economic forces" would mean famine on a large scale,
because the richer nations and the richer classes within the nations
might be fully supplied; but to the detriment and ruin of the world
the poorer nations and the poorer classes would be starved. Therefore
governments are already beginning to give consideration to a new
organization of international trade for at least three years after
the war. Now if this organization produce, as it may produce, a more
desirable civilization and a happier world order, we are not likely
entirely to go back--especially in regard to commodities which are
necessities--to a competitive system. The principle of "priority
of need" will supersede the law of "supply and demand." And the
organizations built up during the war, if they prove efficient, will not
be abolished. Hours of labour and wages in the co-operative Leag