Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1916-04-02


awakening of the country and to
quicken the energy and wisdom of the
commercial men of France who are eN-
pected to open roads to new markets.
NJ. Lebon. by his special knowledge
of the needs of commerce. inspired the
creation of the two committees in
France and England. the object OF
which is to prepare the ground for tho
revival of French and British com.
merce after the war.
The work in view. and which, as We
have seen. has enlisted the best talent
and energy of France
Work Already and England, has al
ready begun. II is a
las oes un. question first of repair
and putting in movement the entire
ma chinery of production and exchange.
The work is extraordinarily complex.
for 1t touches all the legal and eco-
| nomical questions that may he imag-
ined. and to accomplish that It will be
| necessary to adopt a synthetic con-
ception.' a methodical direction nj
things appertaining to all economical
problems.
The first work Of these committees
will be to reconstruct what has been
destroyed. The German invasion has
resulted in vast systematic destruction
of property and the seizure of every
| thing moNable-cattle. crops and raw
material The government has assumed
F, the obligation 1t ow ed to the victims Of
| integral reparation. The regions that
| have not suffered direct contact with
| the invader owe to those who have suf-
| fered damage to bear fair share of
| the burden incurred. aud this in the
interest and the preservation of the
| community.
What will be the sum total of these
indemnities no one NAV saw or know
SO long as the invader remains on French
and Belgian soil. and the evaluatiou
has not been officially tahlished For
Belgium already II is estimated that
the figure will reach if il does not run
over. five billions. and FIVE billions also
for the losses sustained in the ten rich
industrial and agricultural departments
of France occupied in totality or in
part by the enemy. The credit foncier
perhaps may be employed to facilitate
the partition OF these losses. which may
neceSsitate successive emissions of
bonds and annuities consented by the
government in order to pay it's part
of the debt and the part of the probs-
BILE war indemnity to he paid by the
vanquished These emissions will ba
successive: it is necessary that 1t should
be thus, for the public does not pos
sess the indefinite facility to accept
these bonds. however sure and advan-
tageous they may he: the Unidentified
could not utilize as promptly one
may think the funds placed at the dis
posa1 of that category of victims Of
the war.
The agriculturist for fact could not
procure from day to day either cattle
or industrial Implements
Destruction which had been taken
away by the enemy: the
VI otoch. great inroads made in the
government herds for military or civil
| necessities will not be compensated
except after many years of efforts on
the part of cattle raisers. and the i'm
portations of live animals will not
prove a sufficient and certain resource
because of the immense needs which
will be revealed in countries more raw
aged than France; the manufactures.
even those of foreigners. of machines.
| implements. looms, steam boilers. ETC..
could not supply these demands in q
| few months.
| These industries would be paralyZed
because the world over it is expected
that there will be an intense crisis in
! la Dor, the intensity of which it is i'm.
possible to measure. The numper OIL
| laborers en- bloc unemployed Will he
frightfully reduced. and this VIII he
particularly true in central Europe.
which was formerly the principal
source whence the United States drew
its 100000 or 100000 men which
composed its annual immigration ana
which has suffered irreparable gaps
because of the terrible slaughter OF
men in the war of the twentieth CEN
tury. AS for the survivors of this
world war, some-and they will be
counted by hundreds of thousands-if
not by millions-will be unbiased ana
Obliged to change their occupations be-
cause of mutilation. Others-the I'M
hurt-wil have great trouble to re-
turn to civil occupations-to the regu-
lar work of the shop and the confine-
ment of the Office
And if in that respect the situation
should improve more than one could
suppose legitimately. other capital fac
tors will be needed to permit economi-
cal life to be resumed promptly. The
shock of the suspension of commercial.
industrial and financial activity on Au-
gust /, 1914. reached too far Tor one
to hope for prompt reconstruction or
stocks of raw material wasted or
carried off wool, cotton, metals. coal
etc.. No one should deceive himself.
then The economical convalescence
after the war will he slow in the ma
ture of things. and 1T Will be even more
so if legislation and the lnteresteo
powers do not intervene Immediately
to anticipate the return to peace and
thus set the future free of its present
letters.
The moratorium in commercial and
financial life in 1914 was justified as
necessary by the simple
Moro 4or;um result of the general
mobilization. It was
Justlned. not possible to pay
debts when the debtor was prohibited
from collecting debts due to him. Au-
gust /, 1914, economical life was sus-
pended. Not an industry, not house
of commerce, not an agricultural ex-
ploitation. but the one-half of the per-
sonnet abandoned its functions to as
sumo its military obligations.
Nor was this exceptional. In 1870
1871, when the mobilization was far
from being so generalized as in 1914
1915, the shock to business was not SO
complete. Yet delay was accorded Tor
commercial payments: the laws or
March 10 and "a decided that the bills
in circulation, payment of which was
deferred to August 10. 1870. could he
made payable seven months later, that
being the duration of the war.
1t is not all to repair the ravages or
war: it Is necessary to prepare the
roads of peace. to equip commercial
travellers for the voyages to be made
along new avenues of trade-avenues
heretofore exploited by rivals. To this
,f,l ,nfh he4