The Cordova daily times., 1917-01-13
FRANCE FIGURES ON ELIMINATION
 WAR DEBT
(By Associated Press.)

PARIS, Jan. F. - How is France
 going to pay the bill? By applying tc
 productive occupations the effort she
 has sustained in war" in the opinion of NJ. RaOul Peret. former minister oi commerce. In an interview with the Associated Press he also declared that the theory of reciprocity ought to be applied to the commercial re latiOns between France and the United States after the war. NJ. Pe ret is now, "rapporteur" of the bud, get in the chamber of deputies a post equivalent to that of chairman of the ways and means committee of the house of representatives.
 AleXandre RibOt, minister of fin. ance, has had the delicate task of borrowing the unprecedented sums that have been swallowed up by war RaOul Peret, who has not much more than half of NJ. Ribots 75 years. has before him the task of finding the wherewithal to liquidate the debt
 "M. Ribot, by his prompt action in issuing short term bonds, rendered an inestimable service to France" says M. Peret. He gave the French people a chance to show their confi- dence; they brought him so much money that it was not until the six teenth month of hostilities that he found it expedient to issue longer term bonds. Investments in French ponds are never gamble; yet in a sense the purchase of these securities was a wager on the result of the con tlict and upon the ability of France to foot the bill. French peasants. la. boring men, mechanics, capitalists- men and women of all classes that have money saved up - have been wagering in that way billion a month for nearly two years that France will triumph. Thirty-three and half billion francs, all told, NJ. Ribot found in two years time in the pockets of our people.
 France, in a two years effort ac- complished in military preparation what it took Germany 45 years to do. The same effort applied to industrial activity will do as much in solving the grave financial problem the war will have left on our hands but it is scarcely necessary to say that we shall need time to restore our fin ances.
 Tt is difficult and perhaps futile. to make estimates while the great effort is going on, but, supposing the war adds seventy billion francs to our present national debt of thirty bill lions, we shall owe a hundred billion francs. That involves an annual in terest of five billion francs, and is sufficient to require serious reflec- ton; yet 1t does not frighten the French people upon whom the charge is going to fall. They bring their money into the treasury as freely to- day as they did after the battle of the Marne, when we thought 1t might be over in less than a year, and they know exactly what they are doing.
 France has great reasons for wish ing to promote closer relations with the United Statec," said M Peret, in conclusion. There are reasons of sentiment and policy besides business reasons. We shall want to see you use more of our products than be- fore, and we shall need more from you. What is desirable, even neces- sary, to facilitate these growing ex- changes is a commercial tariff sys- tenn. Your advalorem tariff is the ob- stacle. It almost kept our industries away from the San Francisco fair. We are happy now that they went there, and we have been glad to see your industrial representatives here. It is to be hoped that out of closer intercourse may come a solution of your great benefit as we'll as ours. It is the theory of reciprocal advan, tage that ought to be applied"