Russia, since the war began, had enormously increased her resources by suppressing the sale of alcohol (Cheers). Thus alone she had in-eased her productivity and her labour by between thirty and fifty per cent, (Renewed cheers). It was as if she had added millions of labourers to her labour reserve without even increasing the expense of maintaining them.
But, hitherto, Russia had not been able to command capital in her own dominions to develop those resources. The war had made this problem still more difficult, especially in the financing of outside purchases for the war.
France, also, had had special difficulties. People did not quite realize the strain upon this gallant country up to the present. (Cheers) She bore the greatest strain in proportion to her resources. She had the largest proportion of men under arms. The enemy occupied a part of her richest territory and only a few months ago her bankers could hear the sound of the enemy's guns as they sat in their countinghouses.
Nevertheless the whole French nation possessed wonderful confidence (Cheers). Every visitor to Paris was impressed with their calm, serene courage, which was supposed to be incompatible with the temperament of the Oeclt (Laughter). There was a general assurance that the Germans had lost their tide, and that now the German arms had as remote a chance of crushing France as they had of over-running the planet Mars (Cheers). That feeling pervaded every class of the Page money market, where difficulties and was reflected on the Pi
wore passing away and the arrancements for raising money to promote
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.