Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1919-08-12
No Wonder Germany Quit
ByB BRIGGS
NUMBER FORTY-ONE

Everybody is growing about the
wages, and so forth these days, said
Major Frank C. Mahin of the Army
Recruiting Station, 325 Market
street, Harrisburg" but 1 wonder
how many people have any concep-
ton of financial conditions in Eu-
rope. Take Italy for example: when
the war started the total National
Wealth of that country was figured
at sixteen billion dollars. To-day
their debt amounts to eleven bill
lion dollars, eleven out of sixteen
billions of wealth are mortgaged as
! result of the war. Italy's govern
ment had an annual income of
about three hundred million dol
lars; now the interest charge oil
their debt is about five hundred and
| fifty millions a year and the cost
of running the government has in
creased, so that taxation, high as it
was before the war, must be at
least three times as ~"eat in order
to merely meet the annual charges,
without leaving one cent to put
aside towards ultimate payment of
the debt.
France is much better off than
Italy because it's national wealth
was siXty-seven billions of dollars.
The French debt is twenty-seven
billions, leaving sixty per cent un-
! mortgaged. Frances governmental
income was about six hundred mill
| lion and the interest on the debt
will amount to about thirteen hun
| dred millions a year, so taxation.
! Tho thinp iS
however, is the destruction of prop
erty in the very wealthiest part OF
! France. Mines, orchards, fields,
| factories, buildings, have been de-
| Stroyed to the value of many bill
, lions of dollars.
Great Britain had a wealth of
| eighty-five billions. Her debt now
amounts to about thirty-four bill
lions, seven billions more than
france, but her wealth was eighteen
Dllllons greater and she has suffered
! no appreciable damage to her prop
| erty. For that reason Great Britain
mas been able to borrow money at
a lower rate than France or Italy
SO their annual interest charges will
run little higher than those of
| France.
Now we come to poor, poverty
stricken United States. Our wealth
was the mere trifle or two hundred
! ana twenty billions of dollars when
the war started. Remember Italy
with her sixteen billion as compared
with out vast accumulation of filthy
lucre. We had a trifiing little debt
! when we started-more chicken feed
! amounting to a little over a bill
lion dollars. 1t has now run up t.
! the vast total of twenty -four bill
mons, but we are still three billions
behlnd France and ten billions be-
| hind Great Britain, despite the dif-
terence in our wealth. We have
only little more than twice Italy's
! debt and yet our wealth is fourteen
times as great. AS a result of our
| vast wealth and the small propor-
ton we were having to mortgage,
we had no difficulty in largely over
subscribing every loan, and selling
those loans at lower interest rates
| than any other count could. And
since such war as this late one
! is largely a question of having
| enough money to buy the necessary
equipment and supplies, when Ger
many saw every Liberty loan go
over the top with a big margin and
at a lower interest rate than they
themselves could get, when they
| tNoAiSSN NIiub SNSIyO OllG VI America s
two hundred and twenty billions
were on tap for use against them
they decided that was another ex-
cellent reason why they better cali
it day and leave the war fiat OIL
its back. incidentally their own
national wealth was only seventy
eight billions and they had piled up
the biggest debt of all, thirty-nine
billions or just half their total
wealth. Now on top of that, as d
little present for having started the
war and having caused the Allied
countries to spend one hundred and
twenty-three billions of dollars,
Germany is to pay the greater part
of the thirty billion dollars indem-
nifty, which will leave them in worse
shape than Italy is right now. and
as the Allies year by year will re-
ceive that indemnity they can slow
ly improve their financial condition
and remove the physical traces of
the Hun devastation from their sun
ny fields and thriving cities"