The St. Louis Republic., 1902-12-21
Young Statesman Returned to
Paris to Disentangle Fl
nancial Affairs
BROUGHT ORDER OUT OF CHAOS.
Provided Two Months supplies for
Bankrupt Government. the
budget Not Being Ready
for Parliament.
BY ]. CORNELY.

= SPECIAL BY CABLE To THE NEW foRh
HERALD AND THE ST. LOUIS REPUBLIC
Z Paris. Dec. 20-(Copyright, l9l2D-Thls
a week belongs to NJ. DouTner. because it be
s longs TO the Budget Committee of which
s n Eoumer is president
NJ. Doumer even came from lndo-China.
: where he was Governor. expressly to pre-
! side over the Budget Committee ard apply
z his precious faculties to the task OF dis
i entanging our financial affairs. after hay
ing disentansled our colonial affairs.
Guided by him. mastered by him, the
y Budget Committee has finished its lahors
and everybody is complimentiug him.
In reality rot hard to please. for
4 We approaching the end of December.
1902. The budget should have been before
Parliament long ago II has not yet been
taken up. and will not be until after the
holidays-that is to say. when 1903 will have
= begun: and for this reason it was neces-
Sary to obtain I vote of two months supply
on account
PRAISE FOR YOUNG STATESMAN.
But We have lost all right to be exact
ing. and ii is precisely because our financial
debates have been conducted without any
regard for common sense for several years
past that We now go into ecstacies
without becoming ridiculous over the merits
of the young statesman whose acknowl-
edged influence induced the Budget Commit
tee 10 prepare an almost practical preface
I to the debates from which VIII emerge the
financial law of 1862
The task easy one Everybody
acknowledges that leakages perpetually de-
ciared themselves in the estimates of eX-
penditure. while the resources, discounted
3n advance in the estimates of receipts,
regularly failed to supply all that was
expected from them.
There came time when the Budget Com
mittee. thanks to these increases in eX-
penditure and decreases in receipts. found
. itself face to face with an incontestable
deficit of nearly sl2.600.OG0. That is figure
of which II is difficult to dispose. The
committee nevertheless succe eded. either by
correcting erroneous valuation or by pairing
down the most inflated estimates-those of
the War Office. for France Is like all other
nations. she is dying financially, and she
believes she is bound TO defend her national
life "a outrance.
FRANCES FINANCIAL SYSTEM.
Imagine a private individual with an in
come of 500 year who should make out
his annual account follows:
Il shall need $3.50 to pay the interest
my debts; $3.50 will be required to purchase
locks and bolts and safety chains that will
prevent thieves from breaking into my
house, and revolvers and daggess with
which to kill those robbers if they do get
in: $3.50 and s260 make $40. As 1 have only
500 there are left $50 to pay the expenses
OF board and lodging and distractions for
myself. my wife and my children
What would be said of such a person?
He would be called a lunatic and would
be locked up.
However if you multiply these figures by
q million you will have in a nutshell the
financial history of France which lives On
$160,p0000O year cut of income of over
S6O0.G0O000, all the rest of which is employed
to pay the arrears on its debts: that is 20
say, the expenses of the wars 1t has en-
dured-or to accumulate the means of eD-
during or making other wars and consa-
Quently of loading itself with other debts
on which our children and our grandchiI-
dren will have to pay the interest.
SOME FRAUDS CORRECTED. |
But all this is futile philosophy.
The practical reforms realized by the, |,
Budget Committee consisted in correcting !
errors Of calculation and in unearthing !
frauds which naturally are increasing com |
mensurately with expenditures.
Henceforward for example, it will be i'm |
possible to avoid payment of the transfer |
taxes on bequests by the trick of joint ac-
counts. which consists in depositing per- !
sonal property in the bank in the names of ,
both their present owners and the heirs of
those owners. that the bank in case of !
death. hands over to the heir the full
amount of his inheritance. Joint accounts,
in the future. will be subjected to Govern |
ment control.
VIII any control be exercised over the
Bouilleurs de Cru-that is to say, 100000
FTenchmen. who possess the privilege of |
making, without paving anything to the
Treasury, product on which other French
men are obliged TO pay tax of SO centimes
per quart?
All that has been done was TO declare
that the exercise of this eXorbitant privi-
lege would be watched closely Nobody
dared even to mention suppressing it. and
everybody repeated the historic saving OF
the Grenadier Of the Imperial Guard at
Waterloo. The 100000 Bouilleurs de Cru are
TOO numerous-it is not desirable that they |
should form an electoral league against
those who had deprived them of their priyi- |
lese. Liberty to be poisoned is preferable,
as it was preferred once before when the
licensing of liquor dealers was suppressed. !
NOVEL FENCING CONTESTS.
1t SO happened that another colonial Gen.
eral Gallieni has re-establisnad the Ecens-
ing of liquor dealers in NADIA gascar, it hay
ing been ascertained that rhe Ma'agasy
population was growing more end more a
prey to the drinking of docUored brandy.
and that alcoholism was injurinS the fe-
Cundity of the race. The Malagasy will be
better treated than the French, who like
wise suffering the dire effects of al
coholiSm upon the brthrate
Little by little there will deveion the idea
that in order to obtain reforms we must |
turn to the colonas, who nave learned the
art of government by experimenting IN
aniIna viii. This is a sentiment which -four
ashed during the closing years of tho Roman
Empire, and which preceded by only 4 lit |
tie while the advent OF Caesarsm. in those
days people spoke of Scipio the African,
Caesar the Gaul, people viii one day say |
Gallieni the Malsgasy. or Doumer the Indo-
Chinese
1t would not do to omit inentiaa of Il |
combat which took place at Nice ON Thus |
day between two French and two Italian |
fencing masters 1t not an interna-
tionai conflict, like that of Venezuela. The |
issue was to learn which the better
style OF fencing-the French or the Italian. |
If the best style of fencing IS that which
infiicts a wound. then the French is the !
best for both Italians were W runded.
Nobody is likely to suggest that lie Bon |
Dieu" paid much attention to the judgment |
which people seemed to ask Of lin.
GERM OF VOLCANO UNDER