Her economic state will for a time surely be weaker. Her finances will be in disorder; her powers of production and consumption will be weakened, and it will take her a long time to repair the ravages to her economic system. This will apply also in some degree to the allied Powers. They, too, will have to repair damage to their respective economic systems. But we may easily over-estimate the exertions and the length of time needed to repair those ravages. If the allies are victorious the moral gains will, at any rate, be enormous, and these will be tremendous assets to set against the liabilities. Should they be conquered we may, indeed, woefully contemplate the future. Should, however, the allies be victorious, why should credit be shaken to its base? Instead of being shaken, the base of credit may become stronger than before. If a higher civilization be the outcome, then credit must become stronger, because its moral foundation will be stronger than before. What is it we mean when we talk of the destruction of wealth? What wealth is this war destroying? The war is certainly producing wealth, even though it may be the most fleeting wealth. The production of some kind of wealth may temporarily cease, and where the war has been waged there may have been great destruction of wealth in devastated cities, towns and villages. But other permanent wealth is being produced. Military stores and materials are being produced in prodigious quantities; but these cannot be produced without increasing the consumptive capacity of the nation in other directions, and consumption is necessary to the production of wealth. We also have to produce to pay for the materials we get from abroad and to provide the materials bought from us by other belligerent countries. There are now less parasites in this country and more producers. Even soldiers consume, though they may produce nothing. But do we always rapidly increase wealth when, in non-warring times, production far outruns consumption? Nothing is more familiar than the destruction of wealth by over-production. The over-produce not only perishes, but the powers of consumption are diminished when over-production throws great numbers out of work. While, therefore, capital and wealth are being destroyed--that is to say, a vast amount of capital is spent that is not reproductive--while soldiers are killing and not producing, they are consuming, and those who take their places as new producers can also consume more, and therefore can, even during the war, continue to repair the destruction going on. While destruction is proceeding, construction and creation are also proceeding. It cannot be all destruction and no construction. Who, then, can say how much greater the destruction will be months hence than the total construction, and how long it will take to repair the residue destruction?