REAL    ESTATE









B UILDERS





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Vol. CIL





NEW YORK, DECEMBER 7, 1918





No. 2.Í





Leading Business Men Take Up Peace Problems

Under   Direction   of   U.   S.   Chamber   of   Gommerce,   Plan   for
Readjustment of Internal and Enlargement of Foreign Trade

(Special to the Record and Guide)





Atlantic City, December 5, 1918.

READJUSTMENT not reconstruction is the desig-
nation of the period upon which the United States
is entering, adopted by the thotisands of repre-
sentative business men assembled in convention here
this week to study and solve post-war problems. At
this writing it is not possible to more than indicate the
course upon which this readjustment is to be carried
out. But there have been some signiíĩcant pointers that
a complete return to all the methods of doing business
which were in operation before the war is not anticip-
ated nor encouraged. The dominant idea, voiced by
every speaker and echoed by the entire assemblage, is
that a new era has been entered upon in which at
Isst some of the conditions prevailing only two or three
years ago have been materially altered and that these
changed conditions, together with the knowledge ac-
quired and the lessons learned during the war, will
enforce difFerent standards in the conduct of business
in the years to come.

Never before has there been in this country such a
gathering of leaders in the commercial world as the
Chamber of Commerce of the United States has suc-
ceeded in bringing together here for a four-day con-
ference. There may have been as large assemblies in
point of numbers but none before so thoroughly rep-
resentative of every phase of business, and in which
the delegates were of such commanding importance.
.\tlantic City is famous for having been the meeting
place of large bodies of men called together for the pur-
pose of conference or action on various questions rang-
ing from business to religion but usually restricted to
one or a few lines of inquiry and resulting in compar-
atively limited procedure. These occasions have usually
been part business and part junket, with the latter fea-
ture predominating.

But it was evident the first day of this convention
that the only thought in the mind of every man was to
get to work upon the program outlined by the ofîicials
of the Chamber of Commerce, and to effect, if possible,
at the earliest moment, a broad gauge scheme for bring-
ing back to normal conditions a business world that
had been so seriously upset by the events of the last
four years.

While the convention was called by the Chamber of
Commerce, it is not a meeting of that body. It's mem-
bership is composed of the business men who formed
themselves, in trade units, into War Service Commit-
tees to assist the Government in handling its war prob-
lems by expert advice and colaboration. There are
381 of these cominittees, and the Chamber of Com-
merce, in planning the convention, divided them into
36 groups of related industries. Practically all of these
War Service Committees are represented at the con-





vention, thcre being between four and five thousand men
in attendance who have the right to take part in its
deliberations. Among the principal groups are those
producing or manufacturing building materials, and
these interests have formed the Federation of Build-
ing Industries, which will hold meetings later in the
week.

Whether these War Service Committees will con-
tinue to work on peace problems, or will be formed
into an organization with central directing oíificials, or
whether their future activities will be merged into and
be controlled by the Chamber of Commerce, is as yet
nndecided. But the latter plan is more likely, because
the Chamber of Commerce has now in organization and
membership become recognized as an essential and
strong factor in the business establishment of the coun-
try. If the War Service Committees decide to work
within its organization, it can easiiy become extremely
powerful.

What makes this convention particularly notable
is that the delegates are the really leading men in their
respective lines. Presidents and Vice-Presidents and
General Managers of Companies, the heads of firms, not
the second or third rate employes of these concerns
have come together because of their desire to know at
first hand what the other men in their lines of business
were thinking as to conditions brought abotit by the
sudden cessation of hostilities and the no less sudden
plunge of the world into an unprepared-for peace. It
is not to be disguised that the prevailing feeling in the
early hours of the convention was one of pessimism.
This was due to the fear of impending labor troubles ;
of the overhanging menace of large supplies of raw
and nianufactured goods in the Government store
houses, which might be dumped on the markets with
demoralizing effect; of the uncertainty as to the terms
under which cancellation of Government contracts
would be effected ; of the lack of knowledge as to cost of
products and materials when Governmental restrictions
were removed and to many other unanswered ques-
tions, which until they are solved, act as a bar to thc
resuiiiption of business on the former basis.

This feeling of pessimism was not allayed during thc
hundreds of meetings held the first day of the conven-
tion by the different groups of men. For one who had
anything good to report there were a dozen who
could argue and prove to his own satisfaction, and
generally to that of his hearers, that never were
things in such bad shape. These statements were gen-
erally of local or personal conditions. In the aggregate
it seemcd as if the whole country was on the verge of
panic and ruin—with Bolshevism lurking in the back-
ground.

These meetings were held for the purpose of getting