WAR DEBTS

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LIX, Issue 17957, 8 December 1932, Page 10

WAR DEBTS

TO TEE UNITED STATES A NEW SYMPOSIUM OF OPINION Hereunder are extracts from 1 Ac Have Paid Enough.” a collodion of anient opinion, largely American, on the United states' policy of insisting upon payment of war debts : Inmi toe Allied Governments. It is dedicated "to bredflick W. Peabody, a noble American, in recognition of his campaign to induce bis foiiow-countrymen to rate thenhonor above dollars. “Literally, our business interests "'ere being fertilised by,the blood or the millions of soldiers who v. ere dying on the battlefields of Europe. . "Instead of thinking of tile debts-ol Europe to this country, we should toi 1., of the enormous prolits made hy tiie people of the I nited States iu . selling to the Allies, at exorbitant prices, a total in four years of 12,000,000,000 dollars ’ worth of goods over and above what we lmd sold in pre-war years. "When, we remit these debts, if wo Jo, let us not do so with any thought of altruism or benevolence, but merely as a just and summary business transaction. in which the Allies gave more for our salvation than ever can be measured in dollars.”—American Manutaclurer.s’ Record, September 2/1. 1921. “We profiteered oil the Allies to an extent which we should now look upon with shame and sorrow.'’—American Manufacturers’ Record, September 24, 1.925, “America will be rich, prosperous, and wealthy as the result of this wav. We shall have made untold millions <d this wealth out of the woe and swelter of Europe. The money which has come to us from these people is money in trust, and unless America recognises this trust slie will pay dearly and bitterly for its possession.”—Mr. lloovcr in a .speech at New York, February 1, 1917. * * “Europe is in pawn to the United ,States, not for a year or 10 years, but for this generation and the next. I he, child in the cradle to-day will he a gre.v-bearded man before this enormous toll is paid and Europe is I roe. “Germany will be ruined by the terrific levy, but her European neighbors will not be enriched, for of the total debt, under the Young- scheme, of £1.800,000.000, not less" than £1,300,000.000 is earmarked for the United States to meet the total allied debts to her., And the eternal wrangle for the odd £500.000.000 will keep, the European family in discord to the end of the monstrous chapter. “It is like a fantastic nightmare, and I refuse to believe that any sane American thinks that this dreadful tragedy can drag on for 69 years, or 40, or 20. or 10. 1 have never met an intelligent American who defended his country’s action, and few who were not frankly ashamed and humiliated hy that action. Why, then, is it persisted in?”—Mr. A. (b Gardiner, London Daily News.

“The American taxpayer pays 22.59 dollars in 5000 dollars. In England it.is 830 dollars, or 35 times as great. In France, 787 dollars; 33 times as great. In Belgium, 620 dollars, or 21 times as great : and in Italy, 1025 dollars, 50 times as great. The American is the most lightly taxed person in the world. Many noble and distinguished Americans are confessedly sick and ashamed of an America, glutted with gold dunning the impoverished European peoples lor debts, the offspring of crafty finesse, and of no moral validity. “Is it right that your country should I e receiving from her. friends, who were also her protectors in the Great War, seven-ninths of all the German reparations (which were expressly devised by • your own President Wilson, to compensate the allied nations for the destruction- and damage done by Germany), ; while at the same time she declines to accept any penalties from her late enemy?’.’—Chapter 111, article by Edward Cavendish.

“Our declaration of Avar was followed ov the mobilisation not only of our man power, but also of our material ami financial resources. From the latter we made extensive advances to other nations lighting a, common enemy. Thus arose the first phase of the war debt problem . . , Froiii the record of debates in Congress, it is dear that theso advances were not regarded by those

who voted them as business transactions. but rather as joint contributions to a common cause." —From a “Statement on the War Debt Problem,” signed by 45 members of the Faculty cf Columbia University—professors of economies, finance and business, public law and social science and history.

“We entered the war in April, 1917, and it was not till July, 1918, that wo wero holding any appreciable part of tiie line. During that time many thousands of French and British boys died while serving as substitutes for American boys. We loaned moneys to our allies, imt it was no substitute for the lives of those French and British boys who died that our boys might train in security at home.”—General Ryan, commanding 27th Division, U.S. Army, in France.

“We are looked upon as the Shylocks of .the world, exacting from starving peoples our pound of gold. We prate of idealism, of the brotherhood of man, of the hope of ending for ever .the menace of war, and to a Europe industrially bleeding we offer only advice which is not wanted, and present our bills for money lent.” —Mr. James Gerard, formerly U.S. Ambassador to Berlin.

“There is not a single European nation which does not associate its miseries with our actions and our prosperity with its privations. What strikes me as rather appalling in this country (America) is the total lack of exact appreciation of the depth and vitality nf European; dislike and distrust of America ami Americans, based on the sense of cruel and undoubted injustice aj: 1 1 desertion.” Mr, Frank Fymonds, a prominent American journalist. "In Lie war situation America lent :.mne ecu billions of dollars to her a.cli.e Allies. This money so loaned was al most entirely spcul in purchases -made in the United States. So. therefore, we still have the money, and we also have the notes; and we have pressed our Allies coercively for the settlement of this indebtedness, without a. single oit- .• -I. either for sacrifices on our behalf or services rendered by the Allied armies, or the increased peace-time purchasing power of the dollar. “Our Government exercised every pressure possible, and held our money markets closed against our Allies and their nationals to retard their recovery and business restoration, until they should adjust the payments on the socalled ‘advances,’ or war debts.” —By Henry Bourne Joy. director, Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago, and Director of INS. Chamber of Commerce. Extract from a session of the Committee on Ways and Means .of the House (J’ Representatives, January, 1926 : Mr. Mills; The debt that Italy owes us represents not only normal value of goods received, but. in addition, the enormous increase in prices and the enormously increased prolits made during the year. Mr. Winston: That is correct. All. Mills: And those profits were all derived by citizens, of the United States. Mr. Winston: And most of them have come, into the Treasury of the United States by way of taxes. Air. Collier: Have you any approximate estimate as to how much of this 1.600.0C0XC3 dollars was spent in the purchase of American goods and commodities? Air. Wilisten : 1. think almost all of it. “Never in the world’s history Inis a nation declared war. and. for upwards of ,-t year, left all the fighting to its Allies, and at the war’s close demanded payment for materials and supplies furnished its Allies to enable them to do its share of the fighting;”—-Mr. Henry Buiirrie Jov. * - A-* . | “Bhylock. demanded a pound of flesh of bis enemy. Our politicians have I placed America in the position of demanding it of her friends.”—Mr. F. W. Peabodv, speech, August, 1927.

Senator Smoot. Funding .Commissioner and Chairman of Senate Finance Committee, .said at a hearing of the committee on “Capacity tc- Pay”“My suggestion on all of these settlements has been to -get every single dollar out of these countries we could possibly get out of them and let the countries live.”

‘Those debts, utterly uncollectable in anything save goods and services, which all creditors are averse to accepting, probablv are destined to bang over the world for an indefinite period, accumulating paper interest, paralysing international trade and the industries dependent thereon, and engendering international ill-feeling and enmity, until it is demonstrated by bitter experience that nothing else can bo done with them than wipe them off the slate.” —

\nioricaii .“Commerce and Finance. 5