Shepherdstown register. [volume] (Shepherdstown, Va. [W. Va.]) 1849-1955, 1919-08-14
Sherdsown, Jefferson County, West H. 1919
Debts and Taxes.


After the catastrophe, the settle
ment! The financial authorities of all
| the belligerent powers have been max
ing up the accounts to see where they
stand and what they must do. Ger
many reports a floating debt of seven
ty-two billion marks, which is eighteen
billion dollars. That is in addition TO
the funded debt, the present amount
of which is not announced; but every
one will remember with what eXulta-
ton the government used to announce
the success of its huge war loans.
France has forty billion francs-eight
billion dollars-of paper money out
standing. That also is floating debt,
the standing Of which is like that Of
the greenback debt this country con-
tracted during the Civil War Like
our own issues of paper currency, it
need not be paid at once, although il
will cause more or less arrangement
of business so long as it remains un-
paid.
The floating debt of Great Britain is
one and a half billion pounds sterling,
or seven and a half billion dollars.
Undoubtedly a large part Of that con-
sists of issues of paper money, but
it will breed no trouble because, un-
like the paper currency of Germany
and France, it has not deprecated
from the gold standard.
The gross public debt of the United
States is almost exactly twenty-five
billion dollars, Of which only three
and a half billion is floating debt.
Our situation is far better than that
of any other of the countries that
were engaged in the war. In round
numbers the aggregate public debts
at the beginning of this year are said
to have been as follows: Germany
forty billions, Great Britain forty bill
lions, France thirty billions, and
Italy twelve billions. InaSmuch as
the debts must have increased large
ly in the half year since that time. i
may be safe to estimate the sum of
the five (including that of the United
States) as one hundred and sixty bill
lions-an amount so great that the
human mind can hardly comprehend
it. Such figures are like those in
which we state astronomical distances.
How are those obligations to be
met? Undoubtedly the debt of the
United States will be slowly but sure
ly reduced by the commonplace
method of paying it by installments
The wise course that our government
followed-meeting the colossal ex-
penSes as far as possible by taxation
is now greatly in our favor, for we
paid twenty-nine per cent of the cost
of the war in cash, although we had
to increase the rate of our national
taxation twentyfold to do it. Great
Britain pursued the same policy and
increased its taxation tenfold. Ger
many and France did not do that.
Germany trusted to the luck of war
to bring back the entire cost in in
IDENTITIES. Now the German minister
of finance tells the people that their
taxes are to be multiplied by nine
Whether that will supply the sums
that Germany must pay as repara-
ton is not stated. If not, the out
look of the German people is even
more gloomy.
France also failed to pay any con-
siderable part of the cost of the war by
taxes; but France has a wonderful
power of recuperation.
We need have no fear that the sit
uation anywhere, serious as it is, is
so hopeless as to lead to collapse.
With the exception of our loans to
the Allies, and of the advances by
Great Britain to France and to its
own dominions, almost all the debts
are owed by the governments to their
own citizens. Paying the interest and
the principal is not quite like taking
money out of one pocket and putting
it into another; but it is an advantage
to have as little as possible of it go
out Of the country that owes it.
Our own country is the richest Of
all, and its debt, proportionately TO its
wealth, is the smallest.