AMERICA'S COMING IN

Waikato Independent, Volume XIX, Issue 1892, 17 April 1917, Page 2

AMERICA'S COMING IN

BIG THING FOB ALLIES. The financial position of the United States at the present time is such that it could render almost unlimited, aid to the Allies. Mr Theodore H. Price, one of the best-known American writers on financial matters, puts the matter in this lucid and emphatic way: — . With America in, it would be the men and money of practically the whole world against Germany. In wealth we have : Nearly double the wealth of the British Empire; five times the wealth of France; six times the wealth of Russia; twelve times the wealth of Japan, Our resources are nearly a match for all the Allies, big y and little, put together. Our resources are two and a-half times those of Germany, Austria, and Turkey combined. Add Uncle Sam to the forces fighting Germany, and the balance of resources against that unhappy nation would be about five to one. These figures serve to indicate the gigantic weight of money, power which America has at her disposal. As to how she would use it the New York Outlook offers this forecast: — We would, of course, give our first consideration to . our first line of defence —the Navy. And we should have to give thought to the development of our military arm though for some months its effectiveness would-be chiefly moral; but financially we could be at once of immense benefit to the cause of liberty and law; for Congress could at once vote a very large loan, in the billions perhaps, putting it at the disposal of the Entente Allies, with -whom we should be acting in concert. By meana of financial assistance, which in concrete terms means a vast flow of goods and supplies of every sort, we could thus use our inexhaustible resources much more freely and legally and openly than we are now doing. The same journal, it may be ■■ tioned, also emphasises the importance of the prohibition of all shipment of goods between America and Germany, and any neutral ports intended for Germany, which would be a necessary sequel to war with Germany. This would make still more effectual the already far from ineffectual blockade which Britain has established; and it is suggested that this tightening of the blockade is the weapon which Germany most fears.