Omaha daily bee. (Omaha [Neb.]) 187?-1922, 1918-12-24
Germany's Power to Pay
Philadelphia Public Ledger.

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rather, of the allies power to make it pay.
not its present wealth; it is only election clap
trap" to talk as if it were. To take much of that
| fixed wealth from it-say, its industrial equip
ment-would be drasticafy to reduce its power
to pay. The limit is: How heavy burden can
be safely laid upon the German people without
risk of bolshevism and reputation on the one
hand or naked war of liberation on the other
The facts of the situation may as we'll be
faced. Germany has waged war almost wholly
on allied territory. Correspondents accompany
ing the various allied armies into the Rhine
country are struck with the poignant, singing
contrast between the sleek, comfortable, un-
harmed German cities which slip into peace al
most as easily as American cities and the
burned, dynamited. tragedy-haunted French and
Belgian cities. II there were no reparation to
France and Belgium, Germany would have won
the war. 1t would enter the profitable competi-
ton of peace with heavy handicap in its favor.
1t would be as if one mill owner burned his
rivals mill and was not asked to pay for it. He
would soon get all the trade.
Then Germany has fought cheap war; 1t
cost it less than it did Britain, and its indebted
ness is to its own people. Britain, on the other
hand, is heavily in debt to us, and has further
more sent us some four or FIVE billions in secur-
tiles, which" says Winston Churchill, "had
been gathered as result of two generations of
prosperous trade" The British must lose the
interest on these and pay the interest on their
indebtedness--and then go out and compete
with Germany in the markets of the world.
Again. Germany wins the war, unless it is re-
CURED to reverse this balance which is today in
its favor.
The extent to which the allied nations have
been compelled to run into debt is indicated very
clearly by. the figures given by Thomas W. La
mont of J. P. Morgan & Co. Before the war
American inde htednese abroad WAS anprny-
mately four billions. That has been reduced
to one billion; and, on top of that. America has
loaned allied Europe eleven billions. Europe
owes us so much that it cannot hope to pay
even the interest in goods. We shall have to
buy more European securities to maintain the
balance. Is Germany to shoulder none of this
debt? If SO, its late war was the most prohta-
bic blood investment in history.
We may as well make up our minds to the
fact, however, that there will be preferred pay
ments and deferred payments. Some claims are
more pressing than others. Belgium and France
Italy and Serbia must be "restored"-to use
President Wilson's word-at once; they cannot
these decimated nations cannot proftably and
promptely employ it, German labor could quite
fairly be drafted to this superlatively just task
OF reparation. In the race for recovered pros
perity we must give our devastated allies
good start
Lloyd George is pledged against permitting
Germany to pay its debt to Britain by dumping
Cheap German goods" into the British market.
This is what he means by his third condition
that the payment must not do more harm to
him that receives than to him that gives. 1t is
quite obvious here again that the British pre-
mier Was making an election speech, with one
eye on labor and the other on the fair trade men.
But in any case it is not likely that either Ger
man products or German immigrants will be
welcomed in any allied nation for many day.
There will be a sentimental tariff against them,
whatever the fiscal authorities do.
The medley of rumors and reports coming
out of Germany makes it impossible to tell how
much danger there is Of the social, economic and
political fabric of the new nation collapsing dis
astrously before either bolshevik or kaiserite
uprising But such facts as we do know point
to stability The Ebert government is still in
power and the Prussian Guard has rallied to its
support The Chemnitz election went 1880 for
the ma jority socialists as against $500 for the
reds, thus repeating the poll of fortnight ago
at Dresden, which stood III, 500 against 8,440.
Germany seems to be still stolidly German.
Only the poor are hungry, and that is no new
experience for them. There is every prospect
that the peace conference will have a solid Ger
man government to deal with, and that it can
safely impose conditions which will leave no
doubt in the German mind for a generation as
to who won the war.