The Hartford republican. (Hartford, Ky.) 18??-1926, 1919-02-14
Gross debt. all $4,000, 900, 900
January 4, 1910.


Gross debt, all 49,. $4,000 100000
The figures show that the increase
since August, 1914. is 166,700 million
dollars, which represents the actual
debt contracted by these nations in
consequence of the war. Debts of
minor countries are not included.
They amount 10 many hundred mil
lions
Vast as the above figures are, the
debt obligations Of the nations will
not end even here, The compilation
makes no allowance for obligations
to be incurred for further military
purposes, for the demobilizing of ar
mics, and for pensioning them. Nor
does 1t allow for the restoration and
Joplenishment expenditures that will
impose upon the nations the duty to
incur futher loans.
There will be, beside the expense of
demobilizing the armies, the work of
rebuilding and restoring. Of housing
on an unparalleled scale and of road
making. There will be the impera-
tive need of agricultural develop
ment, shipbuilding and improvement
of transportation, to say nothing of
schemes of economic and social re-
form that are regarded as absolutely
essential to future national efficiency.
The bank maintains, in drawing
conclusions from the figures of the
war debts, that none of the large ma
tiOns will default its war bonds. nor
seek to cancel them by any outright
confscation of wealth.
THE moral obloquy and financial
chaos attending deliberate repudla-
tiOn Of war debts" the bank says.
would be greater than any of the
nations could bear" During the re-
construction period the nations will
be Jealous to restore their prestige
and return to normal business pur-
suits with their reputation and flnan-
Gial standing firmly established
among the people of the world. To
Insure this, first and foremost will be
the need that their credit shall re-
main unquestiOned. Russia offers Il
Dresent-day example OF nation that
has lost position and confidence
through the endeavOr OF de facto
government to avoid meeting its just
obligations. Governments in the
past have gone out of existence, yet
history shows how often the people
OF those nations nevertheless ac-
Enowledgad and met the debts con-
trGcted in their names. rather than
have the sacredness of their word
dishOnored and their credit destroy
ed
The band maintains that INCREASING
wealth OF nations, combined with
carefully drawn tax plans, will
eventually bring about the wiping out
OF the war debts. 1t shows that in
the century following the battle Of
Waterloo the British nation gained
vastly in prosperity, although its debt
was larger than ever before. In sim
liar fashion il is shown how the
wealth of France increased in face
of war Notwithstanding the blows
30 her prosperity dealt by the revo-
luton of 1883, the Napoleonic period,
the revolution Of 1S4S and the Prus-
sian war of 1870, industry and accu-
mutation went on in France, so much
so that compared with 1889 the
wealth of France up to the opening
of the great war had increased more
than eightfold
The determining factor of the
whole matter in the future" the bank
concludes, will after all, lie not so
much in the bulk of Indebtedness as
in the productive power of the people
who support that Indebtedness. De-
pending upon the wealth production
OF the people, the support of war
debts will be governed accordingly,
aud debts will be wiped out not by
any Reputation or conscription, but
by encouraging industry, trade, com