The Montgomery advertiser., 1902-12-24
DEBTS OF THE WORLD
ADDRESS OF O. P. AUSTIN or
 BUREAU OF STATISTTCS.
Some Interesting Figures and Com parisons-How the Different Ma tions Rank-Position of this
 Country.

tute of Bank Clerks, In Tuxedo Aaa, plp &y-ninth Street and Madison Avenue, last night. O. P. Austin. Chief Of the Bureau of Statistics at Washington. delivered lecture on The National Debts Of the World" which, he said. aggregate $l-- 0oo, 900, ,o0O."
 Continuing, the distinguished statistl- cian said: ''In I7So before the beginning of the Napoleonic wars, they aggregated about two and one-haf billions. The population of the world today Is LsOo,- OOO, 900; in 17s0 1t was ooo,0oo.ooo. The av- craze per capita of the worlds national indebtedness today then. Is over SSoi in l1sO 1t was s4. This is the record of century of activity both in peace and In war, of the introduction of steam oz the construction of half . million miles of railway and a million miles of telegraph. of the building of great fleets and na- ves. of the maintenance of great armies, of great and costly destructive wars. "The interest, and other annual charges upon this enormous national Indebted ness, amounts to q, 200, o0o. 900 per annum. sl00, 900, 900 a month. or ss much In a sin gle decade as all the money of the world. while the principal of the dshts today is nearly three times the total gold. silver and paper money Of the entire world cern- | bined." Mir. Austin then proceeded to aski How and why has the national indebt- edness grown to such vast proportions ! | It's aggregate today is twelve times that of 17sO. while population is only two and | half times as much as that date. The answer Is not c dinacult one The | railroads of the world have cost prob ably thirty billions of dollars. and one third of them have been built with nA- tional funds and are owned by national | governments. The other great national | works in aid Of commerce or for national | defense have cost untold sums. aggregat- ing many billions of dollars, and con- structed at public expense The standing armies and navies of the world include 1000 900 men. withdrawn from production and sustained by national governments at cost of 6 round billion of dollars per annum in times of peace. and of vastly more than that sum In times of war. The wars of tho period from 17so to 1909 are estimated to have cost s1s. 900. .o0o. 900. more than all the money in the world today. and more than ons-half the national in- debtedness accumulated during that pe- riod. Every year adds to the cost of the maintenance o< armies. of the conStruc- 1 ton of navies and Of the operations of war. Every year sees new demands up- on national governments, for the con- struction of great works in aid of com merce and for national defense, for the maintenance of great commercial fleets, and for the building of great and costly vessels of war.
 The first ninety years of the seventeenth century, a period of comparative peace, added but about $ ,0Oo, ,o00, 900 to the world 8 debts. The thirty years from 1Ts0 to 1920. the period which included the Napolsonic wars, added S5.000 00o, 900. In the thirty years of peace which followed the na- tional debts increased but about Q00o.- 900 900. but in the American civil, the Balkan and the Franco-Pruseian wara. there was an increase of Ns,000. 900 900 in the national indebtedness, bringing the grand total up to $2s0o0. .00O,O Following this came large expenditures for standing armies and the construction of great na- vies. and in the period ls9S-19o1 the wars between the United States and Spain and of England in South Africa, and now the total national indebtedness stands at $s1 00o, 900, 900.
 The principal national debts of the world today, stated in the order of mag nitude. are as follows; France, the larg- est S6S0o. .0Oo. 900: Russia. s8,1e7. .0oO, 900; United Kingdom, $S.o6o. GOO, 900; Italy, $2.- 6sS. .0Oo. 900; Germany and the German States, s2.57s. 100000; Spain. M.72s. 900. 1000; Australia. $l.1Ss. .OOo.Ooo; Austria-Hungary. q, ,154. .o0o. 900; India, S.oa1. 100000: United States. ssss. .Ooo,o 900 and all other countries, s. .375, ,o00, 900.
 AS the debts of the ten countries named by Mir. Austin aggregate three-fourths of the worlds national Indebtedness. he proceeded to analyze them on that sim pie basis, and to show the conditions and the principal causes which led to the creation of such great indebtedness in each of the countries named, the pur- poses to which the money thus raised has been devoted, the sources from which it was drawn, the progress which is being made by each in the liquidation o6 the indebtedness, and the standing which these securities have in the great fnan- cial centres of the world.
 Following are few facts contained in MT. Austin's analysis:
 Tn nearly all cases the issue price was below par; the only exception is this country. So far as known. only two classes of securities have been issued at or above par, those two being those of this country and a part of those issued by British colonies. Thus. the outstand- ing obligations call for the payment of fully $2,000, 600 more than was realized for them by the respective governments issuing them. rhiS country has in recent years SOlO her securities at & lower rate of interest than ever paid by any other nation in the world. The debt of Franco Is nearly double that of any other nation and six times greater than that of the United States, with a population only one- half as great as ours. As a re- suit of refunding operations about one half of the debt of France now stands in the form of perpetual per cent. rentes and some were issued at 80 per cent. and others at S2 1-2 per cent. of their face value They are now quoted al or slightly above par, while the redeem able 8 per cent rentes, payable fifty years hence, are mostly quoted at lower rate."
 Mir. Austin then described the debts of the various countries in oetail. and after discussing the national debt of the United States. and showing how in 1885 1t was practically extinguisned, and then gradu- ally increased. and again decreased, until 1t reached its present amount by causes that are known of all men, not to say by our school children, MT Austin show ed how the pes capita of debt, less cash .n the Treasury has fallen from practi- caiy $17 in 1885 to $l2.27, and the per caipta interest charge from $429 to 35 cents. auu the rates of interest from "a per cent. on large part of the debt in .S65 to per cent. on about one-half of the national deot at the present time.
 N nile 'otuer countries of the world nave e--.y increased tlelr public debts. the -"t &.e3t E.S..s..-. peaA.NS nations, the
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