Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 86.djvu/384

380 said to have reflected any war influence. In most places, the decisions reached were about the same as were anticipated before the war broke out.

From a Lexington, Ky., publicist comes the observation that

it would be difficult to say that the developing interest of our citizens is being retarded by reason of attention diverted on account of the war situation. The retardation certainly exists, but appears to be caused indirectly by money stringency and uncertainty of market conditions. This is especially true in regard to the tobacco market, activity in which is to a certain extent dependent upon the interests of foreign purchasers. The very extensive tobacco crop of this section is not marketed until December 1 and thereafter, but uneasiness as to the conditions when the market does open is having a quieting effect upon all local development as well as business activity. There is a very small foreign population here, and partisan affiliations are not worthy of consideration. This city is not at present undertaking any extensive new public improvements and there is no present demand for improvements which would require bond issues or similar obligations.

This letter brings up a question that has no doubt occurred in connection with the other testimony so far adduced. To what extent is the difficulty of marketing bonds and therefore of undertaking improvements, and to what extent is the demand for retrenchment and greater economy of administration, to be attributed to the war; and to what extent to the financial stringency and hard times that existed before the war? That the war has accentuated the difficulties of the situation rather than caused them is the opinion of many students of the drift of municipal conditions and opinion.

New England's testimony is remarkably like that which comes from the. Pacific coast and the central west. Only in the south does the war seem to have been directly responsible for a greater stringency—and that has been due to the fact that it has in the past so largely depended upon a few crops, mainly cotton and tobacco, rather than upon diversified industries.

I do not observe that the European war is retarding or developing the interest of citizens in our community,

writes a Portland, Maine, editor,

nor that it has had any material effect on their partisan affiliations. I should think it might hold up public improvement to some extent since, for the first time in the history of the city, so far as I am aware, Portland has found it necessary to sell its bonds at less than par, the figure received being $95.28. Otherwise there seems to have been no visible effect upon the city;

and Springfield, Mass., reports that

it does not appear that the European war is detracting from the interest of citizens in local improvements. It is, however, making our people conservative in undertaking new public enterprises. It looks now as if various proposed improvements might be temporarily postponed.

In New Haven, Conn.,

municipal conditions are not affected; and, if affected at all, they are improved