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 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.
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