The Dawn of a New Constructive Era 213 



when the war ceases. This matter has received the most careful 

 attention, and has been closely studied by those who are thor- 

 oughly competent to form an opinion, so far as human judgment 

 can do so, on this matter. The result of consideration of this 

 indicates that whilst we must look for some liquidation, and 

 whilst it is expected that prices will be to a considerable extent 

 lower than they are today, yet it is generally agreed that prices, 

 both for meat and for wool, must be maintained for many years 

 to come at a very much higher level than existed before the war. High Sheep 

 In the ordinary course of clothing consumption, a great part of Prices to Con- 

 the clothes which have been in use are converted again into wool """^ for 

 fibre in the form of shoddy, and so used in connection with pure 

 wool to produce woolen clothes. This reserve supply, as it may 

 be called, of wool fibre, has been to a very large extent exhausted 

 by the destructive agencies of war. Moreover, the great sheep 

 countries of the world have been showing a decrease of produc- 

 tion, and it is beyond doubt that war in this case has also been 

 the means of a much further decrease on account of animals 

 being used to provide food for the soldiers in extraordinary quan- 

 tities. 



In connection with what will occur after the war, two other 

 points must be taken into consideration, and the evidence of this 

 is conclusive. One is that in all the warring nations the demands 

 of the army for clothing have been so great that the civil popu- 

 lation has been afforded a very inadequate supply of woolen 

 clothing, and in consequence, when the war ceases there will be 

 a tremendous demand for wool to re-clothe, not only this civil 

 popu'lation, which is now non-combatant, but to supply those 

 who are now using uniforms with the ordinary clothes of the Tremendous 

 civilian. The second point is that the nations at war will, on the ^f^^^-^J^^ 

 cessation of hostilities, be forced to engage in the fiercest kind of w^,,; 

 commercial competition, to regain for themselves the markets Expected 

 which have been lost during the war, and to operate their in- 

 dustries, in order to obtain an income, from which they may be 

 able to pay off the interest on the enormous debts which they 

 have contracted. And there is further evidence that the British 

 Empire, controlling, as it does, two-thirds of the wool supply of 

 the world, will maintain for a long period after the war, a strict 

 control of these wool supplies, in order that she may conserve 

 her industrial interests, of which none other are more important 

 to her than those of woolen manufactures. In this connection, I 



