The Bossier banner., 1919-10-16
THE STRUGGLE IN ENGLAND.

Americans will 90 well to study the
situation in Great Britain at this time.
in order to avoid the rock upon which
England's ship Of state seems In dan
ger of being wrecked. The fatal rock
is a greater national Indebtedness than
the workers Of the nation are willing,
or able. to support. Britain already
owes S4O.OOO.WW.OOO and is daily sink
ing deeper into debt because of her
disorganized Observation-Disclosures to fal
into decay during the war.
England's capital is all spent. If
she succeeds in borrowing from Ameri-
ca money with which to rebuild her
factories and re-eStabliSh her world
trade it will he after her government
has shown its ability to levy and col
lect enough taxes to pay interest on tile
billions she already OweS-several bill
lions of which debt she owes to Ameri-
ca. The collecting of such taxes is IL
greater problem than it might seem at
first glance. Apportioned among the
population per capita, each man and
woman and child of Great Britain
owes, approximately. $1,000 of this ma
tional debt-each family about $1,000.
To pay interest on this sum in the way
of taxes and then as much again i'll
more taxes to carry on the works of
government and administration seems
staggering burden for Il people who
have been exhausted by four years of
WARRIOR Il nation clothed in rags and
too poor to buy enough to eat, save on
credit The last word is expressive of
England's present peril; she is living
on credit
And the foregoing statement of facts
is the real explanation of the continued
series of strikes and general labor un-
rest The workers of England seem to
feel instinctively that under the pres
ent system Of government they will
first have to produce enough values by
their labor to make good the national
debt (held. for the most part. by the
old property-owning claSs) and then
what can be produced over and above
that amount will 80 partly into more
taxes to support the army and navy,
and the remnant toward the support
of their families. The alternative is re-
pudiation of the national debit h e
acknowledgment by the government
and people that the credit which Eng
. land has spent three hundred years in
, slowly building up is gone; that Brit
ain is Il bankrupt nation.
1 The British property class has, dur
| ing the course of the war. been retIuir-
ed by the government to pledge their
! property Of all kinds at the banks for
cash with which to buy government
bonds If the bonds are not to he made
good by taxation they are ruined.
! The radical element in Great Brit
alton of the national debt, the Sociali-
zation (seizure) of all the railroads,
mines and factories and their control
by the workers. The moderate labor
element favorS only the government
control of the industries and the seal
ing down Of the national debt to IL
point where the burden can be cOmfOr-
tally borne The program Of the mod
crates. however. means ruin just as in
evitable to the property class, for that
class has pledged its holdings to the
full limit of their value at the banks
and nothing less than the full face
value Of the bonds they have bought
will save them.
The end of the matter will probably
he the compromise that the British are
so fond Of and the compromise will
be so gradually brought about and SO
conservatively carried into effect that
the old order of prOperty-ownerS will
imperceptihly sink into the mass of the
nation and new prosperous class
gradually arise from among the masses
of the now poor or moderately nOur.
iShed order. The English are Il won-
derful people and the most remarkable
thing about them is the Steadiness with
which they face desperate situations
and stand terrible punishment-;lnd
survive.