One other effect of the war has already begun to reveal itself in the emigration from America of thousands of Servians, Austrians, Russians, Germans, Frenchmen, going home to take their places in the ranks.  While many of these men are brave and honorable citizens, the fact that they respond to such a call proves them not yet Americans.  The war will tend to remove a goodly part of the distinctly foreign element in the country, the part not yet amalgamated, and therefore the part most alien to our institutions and the most difficult to place in our social structure.  If the war continues, Europe will draw every able-bodied man who can be influenced to go.  Far more important, immigration will probably become negligible not only during the war, but for some time after it.  Usually the reason for leaving home lies in the crowded population of European States and the lack of opportunity for advancement, plus the glib tongue of some agent of a contractor or of a steamship company.  In recent years those who have come have not been desirable additions to our population because they came from nations alien in blood, language, religion and institutions, and were not therefore easily knit into our national structure and absorbed.  There will be little, if any, further immigration.  The men are wanted for the army and will not be allowed to leave during the war.  After peace is restored, they will be imperatively needed in the fields and factories and every effort will be made to retain them.  In fact, it does not take any wild stretch of the imagination for one acquainted with the results of the Thirty Years’ War and of the Napoleonic wars to conceive that, from the view of economic opportunity and rewards, Europe might become a more favorable scene for the truly capable and ambitious than America is today.  The tendency of a war is to absorb the best of a nation and to leave the dregs.  For the power of organization and the fire of initiative Europe will at no distant date be ready to pay well.

The Effect of Economic Readjustment.

Unquestionably the economic readjustment which the war will force upon the United States will have an immediate and serious effect on individuals.  Some will profit largely and promptly.  All who at present possess large stocks of food, leather, oil, woolen cloth will be able to dispose of them at enormous profits.  From the greater volume of freight the railroads will benefit directly.  But while the farmers and cattle-men, the steel and oil kings are rejoicing in the opportunity, all industries which depend chiefly upon exportation or which manufacture an amount beyond the normal American demand, will be closing the factories or curtailing the output.  For a time certain individuals, perhaps a relatively large number of individuals, will suffer inconvenience, loss, anxiety, and even privation.  But the vast demand for labor in other industries, and the almost certain extensive demand for relatively unskilled