Great Falls daily tribune., 1919-02-23
WORLD FINANCES.

filled the minds of all men in the belllgerent Id
tions of the great world war was, How can we
win this war? It's hold on the minds of men was
so complete that they had no room in them 1or
other or lesser anxeties. Then that idea lost Its
mastery in the central European nations associ-
ated with Germany and was succeeded by All
other. That was, Where are we going to get
food to eat? A third phase of national psychoi-
ogy now seems to be growing uppermost, and IL
is expressed in the query, Where are we going
to get money and credit to carry us over to nor
NAL peace production again? Great Britain,
which for some generations has been the great
reservoir of saved up wealth called capital, finds
that she has spent forty billions of dollars in this
war and cannot help any other nation. She can
perhaps carry her own burden but no more. The
French government now has to carry war debt
on which interest to the amount of $2,40OOCO,-
600 must be paid annually and $4,0O0,0000OO a
year must be raised to meet the expenses of the
national budget The gross wealth Of the whole
of France in the year before the war was So5,-
OOO OO0 900, and lie total annual expenditures IN
the fiscal year 1914 was but little than ST.
OO,O0O,000. Much of the gross wealth Of France
before the war has been destroyed by the invad-
ers. They hope to get this back from Germany
some time, it is true, but the ability of Germany
to pay is thing not yet demonstrated and open
to reasonable doubt. The new German financial
minister at Berlin declares that the German peo-
pie do not yet understand fully the financial po-
sition in which the war left them. For the last
year of the war national finance, he says, was "a
program of desperation" Since last October,
when the government asked for a credit Of 49,
900, 1000, 900 marks and was refused, it has been
on the verge of financial exhaustion. DR.. Schif-
fer startled the national assembly, we are told.
by announcing that the war had cost Germany
161, 900, 100000 marks and indeed this consider
ably exceeds most estimates. 1t comes to $751;
100000, 900, whereas Lloyd George last Decen-
ber put the cost Of the war to Germany as be-
tween $4,000, 100000 and $35,0O0,O00,000 as
against $4O,OOO.OOO,000 for Great Britain. The
German government will need, the assembly was
told 10000, 100000 marks for the current year
merely to meet current interest. This would
mean something like S75 per capita, staggering
demand for country in Germany's position.
Whether Germany would be able to extrcate it
self the financial minister did not undertake to
say; it would depend in part, he pointed out, on
the terms exacted by the allies.
If one in five of the German population is a
wage Garner or producer of wealth as political
economists reckon to be the case in this country
that would mean that an average of 1915 per
year would have to be deducted from his or her
income merely to pay interest charges on its
present debt to say nothing of the cost of gov
ernment and indemnities to be paid the allies.
Even if it repudiated all present debt and sub
stituted allied indemnity payments in place of
them to an equal amount the burden would be
staggering and perhaps impossible If costs of
war; indemnities were added it would multiply
their tax burden by four or five times their pres
ent interest charge.
Then there are the other allied nations, the
newly formed nations. the other beaten allies of
Germany, Russia, and the whole world, one may
say, confronted with similar need of wealth to
repair the losses of and get on their feet
more And every last one Of them are turning
anxious and hopeful eyes toward the United
States as the only single reservoir of wealth in
sight that has not been drained dry. And how
is it in the United States? Not so desperate as
in other countries, it is true. Yet our estimates
Of money needed to pay interest and government
charges after we have settled our immediate war
accounts in the current year. is four billion dol!
lars annually just about four times as much as
it was before the war. 1t means to us that our
federal taxes for many years to come will be
about four times as large as we have been used
to paying. A four billion dollar budget means
$40 per CAPITA or 5000 year on the average
from each producer Of wealth or service from
the lowest wage Garner to the richest capitalist
who deals in the service Of capital. Quite re-
spectable load any thinking man will concede