The Bridgeport times and evening farmer., 1919-12-12
Germanys Stupendous
 Internal Debt
By WILLIAM PETER HAMILTON

small change will be sold, If not by the pound, at least by he bucket No
 one knows how much of it may be
 afloat, and repudiation is as easy and as costly as our Southern States found
 it in days we are all trying to for
 get.
 Away back in the time of the Russo Turkish war London Punch found something to say in favor of the in- debtedness of. the Sultan of Turkey. It was that his word was at least as good as his bond" If anybody can indicate a collectible bond in Turkey or a statesman there whose word is worth a, scrap of tissue paper, he has secured information which has eluded the vigilance of the present inVestl- gator.
 To those of us who believe it is nee essary to aid Germany, not for her own sake or for the sake of her peo- pie, or for anything she would have
 done to help others, but in the plair
 interest of saving civilization from a deibacIe worse than any single conse- quence of the war. 1t is interesting, to |put it mildly as the l French or Belgians would put it,---tC know that against the resources Ot
 Belgium and northern France Ger many issued paper money; for Bel 1 gfum :. 600 COG. .0OO marks and for France an amount not less than 5000, OG0.OOt marks and more like 4,o00, COG, ,Oo' marks. This is, of course, priol ! lien although, after meeting many O the greatest bankers of Germany, i must be confessed that it is difficult to make them see how their lnterna bonded Indebtedness is entirely sec ondary to that due to the Allies, anC is. in fact, with the best conceivable outside assistance, q doubtful second preferred stock upon which diTiden|
 will have to be deferred indefinitely
 It should be explained that thest tissues of marks are on the security O occupied France and are said by tn German department of finance to b included in the total German eur
 rency.
 German Currency Problem.
 This is a grim statement and it i not improved by the estimate of tn paper currency in circulation Ma
 Warburg Cn October), one of tn
 ablest bankers in the world, place
 this at 40 billions of marks, This 1 heavy enough, in all conscience. bu
 the probability is that there is nobod in Germany who knows how muc more may have been issued surreptl tiously, to say nothing of the eXten SIEe forgery OI all utaIuGL OL NuA SiiN'
 who proceeded in western Russia, wit the connivance of Lenine and Trot2
 ky Since Warburg's estimate the 1s
 hue has grown by 2,000000, 000 mark' or 700 00O, OGO marks a week.
 When, for instance, the Spartclde! who may be called the regulated Gel | man branch of the Bolshevtst famli! were in control in Munich they ha access to government paper, and earl 5 in the present year they are said | ? have printed 20 billions of marks, ? which one billion actually got into cll [ culation. This does not come into tE s banking or official estimates hecaus r the officials and the bankers woul s deny what has been a matter of cor g crete knowledge, in Washington s least, for many months past It wouI s be interesting also to know somethlf = more about the leans to the Germa . government of occupation in Rums < nfa- said to total 1,500 0Qo 00Q marx - and a like amount to Ukrainia. It h. s been impossible to ascertain how the; ! loans were made and whether they Il f voIved a further dilution of the ci r1Ila ton.