s of over $1,500,000,000 in gold, and it is inconceivable
that any large part of this should flow out--unless we should be so
insensate as to inflate the currency.

If we keep our heads, we shall at the end of the war be in the proud
position of being the only great nation whose economic resources have
not even been strained.

Effects of War on America

By Roland G. Usher.

Head of Department of History at Washington University; author
of "Pan-Germanism," "The Rise of the American People," &c.

_From The Boston Transcript, Sept. 2, 1914._

The events of the last few days of July, 1914, showed the Americans the
far-reaching effects of a state of war. There are now few who would say,
as used to be so common, that a European war would make no difference to
us. The closing of the New York Stock Exchange, the great shipments of
gold and its consequent scarcity in the United States, the closing of
the New England cotton mills, the cessation of export to Europe and of
transatlantic communication with the Continent were instantaneous
effects of a war 3,000 miles away obvious even to the apathetic and the
heedless. With these we have not here to do; such are already past
history. There is, however, a legitimate field for speculation as to the
probable effects on the United States of the continuation of the state
of war in Europe for months or years. The permanent results of a war
naturally cannot be predicted in advance, but in the light of the
history of the past, certain changes and developments in the United
States appear so probable if the war continues as to reach almost the
realm of certainty.

Needless to say, the European war will not involve the United States in
actual hostilities. It is highly improbable that either our army or our
navy will see service. We are too distant from the seat of war; too
entirely devoid of interests the combatants might seriously injure which
a resort to war could remedy; too completely incapable of aiding or
abetting one or the other in arms to cause them to assail us. Even were
we not as a nation of a peaceable disposition, even had we not a
President blessed with a singularly clear head and able to keep his
temper, we should still stand little chance of going to war. One
eventuality alone might affect us--Japan might attempt some measures of
aggression in the Far East which would interest us as possessors of the
Philippines, but that is practically foreclose