for some time
after it. Usually the reason for leaving home lies in the crowded
population of European States and the lack of opportunity for
advancement, plus the glib tongue of some agent of a contractor or of a
steamship company. In recent years those who have come have not been
desirable additions to our population because they came from nations
alien in blood, language, religion and institutions, and were not
therefore easily knit into our national structure and absorbed. There
will be little, if any, further immigration. The men are wanted for the
army and will not be allowed to leave during the war. After peace is
restored, they will be imperatively needed in the fields and factories
and every effort will be made to retain them. In fact, it does not take
any wild stretch of the imagination for one acquainted with the results
of the Thirty Years' War and of the Napoleonic wars to conceive that,
from the view of economic opportunity and rewards, Europe might become a
more favorable scene for the truly capable and ambitious than America is
today. The tendency of a war is to absorb the best of a nation and to
leave the dregs. For the power of organization and the fire of
initiative Europe will at no distant date be ready to pay well.

The Effect of Economic Readjustment.

Unquestionably the economic readjustment which the war will force upon
the United States will have an immediate and serious effect on
individuals. Some will profit largely and promptly. All who at present
possess large stocks of food, leather, oil, woolen cloth will be able to
dispose of them at enormous profits. From the greater volume of freight
the railroads will benefit directly. But while the farmers and
cattle-men, the steel and oil kings are rejoicing in the opportunity,
all industries which depend chiefly upon exportation or which
manufacture an amount beyond the normal American demand, will be closing
the factories or curtailing the output. For a time certain individuals,
perhaps a relatively large number of individuals, will suffer
inconvenience, loss, anxiety, and even privation. But the vast demand
for labor in other industries, and the almost certain extensive demand
for relatively unskilled labor ought not to make the period of
transition long or the amount of suffering considerable. After all, the
vast majority of the people of the United States are connected with
farming, with the manufacture or production of the very things for