Clinch Valley news. [volume] (Jeffersonville, Va.) 18??-2019, 1917-12-07
GERMANY's BANkRuprcY.
lNew York Times.l

Is useIul now and then to find firm
ground for judgment about it. Ii
there is any such thing, it must be
the statements of the Imperial Ger
man Chancellor to tn Reichstag, and
one of them was published yesterday |
Count Won Hertiing asked for a new
credit of fifteen billion marks, and |
added that the seven loans to date to- |
tailed sevcnty-three billions. German
credits are spent before they arc
funded, so that there is reason for
adding those sums. Germany's fund
ed debt before the war was over
twenty billion marks Here are in
disputably 108 billions on which the
interest cannot be less than per
cent and must average more. Peace
is not in sight, and peac on German
terms was never so distant, but al
ready the German interest charge ex-
ceeds four billion marks year.
This is the irriducible minimum of
Gcrmany's obligations. To this must
be added items which cannot be cal
culatcd outside of Germany, nor stat
cd candidly inside Germany without
arousing alarm comparable only to
news that the enemy at the Rhine.
AT the date of the last loan the total
of the seven was twenty billion marks
below the credits voted. The differ
cnce seems deficit which must be
covered in some manner. There are
outstanding German treasury bills to
| he same figure. There is, in addition
over eight billion marks Of notes of
the Reichsbank in circulation. The
The German war loan banks have re-
ported circulation of about six bill
lion marks. But why pile up the full.
list, when the mark is a mere counter
with values shifting daily? Ger
many's neighbors will no take marks
but barter for goods so far as trade
is possible ony any terms. Germany
borrows from one neutral under
threats and secures loans from anoth-
er with commodities. These are rec
ords of Germany having offered Is
per cent. discount for credits out
side the empire. Perhaps no living
nation ever was in such desperate
financial straits
1t is no reproach to Germany to
say that it is impossible that these
loans will ever be repaid. There are
other loans without d;,te which are
valued because their principle never
falls due. But they are not loans of
nations whose interest obligations are
larger than the savings of the pco-
pie i'll times of prosperity and which
there is reason 10 suppose may be
larger even than the total national
increment Of wealth from which the
savings can be made. Whatever du-
plications there may be in the pyra-
miding of German loans and curren-
cy, not one outside of Germany can
figure an interest charge much below
the eight billions Of marks which the
Germans saved, according to the cal
culations Of Herr Havenstein, Prcsi-
dent of the Reichs-bank. He thought
Germany would not be ruined if they
spent their drink and tobacco money
on the empire interest obligations.
But it would be grim future for
Germany in which il saved nothing
and then could not meet current OBJ
| legations. a mans life would not be
worth living on those terms. For
nation it would seem hardly possible
to live so.
Germany's bankruptcies arc several
and the financial Insolvency IS rot
the greatest Gcrmany's casualties
are tenfold her armies against
France in 1871. Her man power is
not equal to the demands which grow
with every opening of new 'front.'
as the weakening on the western line
shows. Her trade and shipping are
PROSTATE, even if it is not right to say
that they are bankrupt Worse than
all is the German moral Bankruptcy
Except her allies, there is no country
which regards her procedure as with
in excuse or even tolerance. One of
the most recent utterances of the
Kaiser was: "Thc German sword
will regain us the respect of the
world. Things will become different.
The sword makes us respected" That
could not be true even if the sowrd
should enable Germany to pay its
debts with indemnitics. If it were
conceivable that Germany could con-
quer the world and eXtort from others
ut the swords point means of pay
ment of its debts to Germans, the
sentiment of the would be hatred, not