The Washington times., 1915-05-08
THE WAR DEBTS

At the end of the Napoleonic wars
Great Britain had a debt of about
four billions Of dollars. At the be-
ginning Of the present war she had
Just about the same debt.
In effect, therefore, considering
that the country's population and
wealth had immensely increased, the
country had greatly reduced her debt
burden. Four billions of debt in 1916
must have been quite as grave a
burden as ten billions Of debt would
be today. Within the century, al
though it has not been the policy OF
Britain to attempt the complete
wiping out of it's debt, there have
been periods when considerable re-
ductions in it were accomplished.
Since the Boer war compelled a large
increase in it for time, there has
been a pretty steady reduction until
the beginning Of the present
struggle.
More than the increased wealth
Of Britain is available to help that
country carry the burden that will
be imposed upon it by its part as
chief banker of the allies. The
whole world is vastly wealthier than
it ever was before; and in normal
times it is increasing it's wealth at a
greater rate than ever before. It
is better able to stand the expense of
a war far more costly than any war
of the past has been. Half the world
is involved in the war now; which
means that, one way or another, the
bills will be spread over that share
of the population. Indeed, it is very
apparent that all the rest Of the
world, though not actually in the
war, will have to help pay.
Considering all the elements, there
is no reason for grave misgivings
about the ability of the great coun-
tries to pay the debts that will be
piled up. Great Britain is the
worlds banking headquarters still,
but France and the United States
have enormous stores of capital,
France especially having an almost
unbelievable capacity for liquidating
and quickly utilizing her wealth.
Beyond this lies the fact that the
war debts are being contracted in
terms of gold, and that gold has been
getting cheaper all the time. 1t has
been estimated that the last twenty
years has seen as much gold pro-
duced as all the historic centuries
before that period. There is no rea-
son for assurance that the rate of
gold production will not go on in
creasing. The very fact that it will
be needed in greater quantities to
meet the demands caused by the war
will find reflection in readjustment
of economic conditions that will pro-
duce increased annual outputs. The
war will put an end, in all proba-
bility, for a considerable time, to
the slump in the value of gold; that
is, gold will take a turn upward in
value, and that upward turn will be
incentive to increase its production.
One more effect of the war will be
the imposition Of necessities under
which people and peoples will be con-
strained to conduct their affairs more
economically. There will be great re-
adjustments in the control of the big
stocks of wealth; and on the whole
the wider and wider social control of
means Of production will be one of
the most important effects of the
war. Social control" is rather a
vague way of suggesting an idea
that is nowadays pretty we'll under
stood as to it's large implications,
even though many different people
would give different definitions of the
phrase. Such economies as the Rus
sian people are effecting through the
SePPt NSSiOii VI NOuhuy WUeH
over a considerable period of time,
must compensate for a very great
waste of wealth through a war,
which must be in any event of COM
paratively short duration.
Talk of reputation after the war
is therefore not to be taken very
seriously. No great country could
possibly gain so much by repudia-
tion as it would lose. Better for
Britain to have remained out of the
struggle, and seen her allies de-
feated, than to go in, land with the
winners-and then repudiate. She
might recover from a military defeat
in brief time, as France did after
1871; but she would never regain the
place in world confidence that would
be sacrificed by reputation.
Legal Aid Society, G. w. u.