AMERICA AND WAR

Timaru Herald, Volume CXLVIII, Issue 21554, 17 January 1940, Page 11

AMERICA AND WAR

ADVANTAGES ONLY TEMPORARY In a recent survey of the possible economic effects of war on the United States, the Guaranty Trust Company of New York reaches the conclusion that whether or not the United States remains neutral, a prolonged war will entail a loss of man-power, destruction of property, and industrial disorganisation, and in the long run will react unfavourably on the country. Neutrality may mitigate these effects, but it cannot prevent them. In the final analysis the survey points out, any temporary advantage that American business may gain in world markets as a result of the war will be more than paid for in subsequent losses due to the industrial paralysis and the general impoverishment that must overtake the belligerent nations. Equally inevitable and perhaps even more disastrous in the end will be the financial disorder that is likely to follow in the wake of war. The immediate effects of the outbreak of war, concludes the survey, have been less unfavourable than many persons apparently feared, and the results over a somewhat longer period may give every superficial indication of exceptional prosperity. But in the final reckoning the losses to the United States, along with the rest of the world, will be incalculable.