The Bridgeport times and evening farmer., 1920-06-26
NATIONAL DEBTS. OF WORLD HAVE GROWN RAPIDLY Increase of Indebtedness Has Been General in All
 Countries. Germany Is Far Ahead
 In Per Capita Increase Majority of Debts of Each Country Is Owned At
 Home.
Rx O. F. AUSTIN

The national debts of the world now approximate $ze5, 90, 900, 900, bagafnst $44, 900, ,eoo,o at the begin ming of tho great European War. The Interest charges on the grand total hanow exceed s9,ooe.ooe,SoD per an- num- As against about $1 ,Tso, 900 ,0oo lin the year before the War. The per Fcap3ta. of national population Of all tthe countries, for which debt figures arc avaiIanfes about s15o per capita, lagatrsst approximately $av Der capita in 1918, and annual Interest charges isboat $S per capita at the present 5e147fe, as against about~$1 per capita ha- IS1s-
 These a1garessares of frcourse in very kround Germs. It is not possible to I1zaeasure with extreme statistical accu- racy the total national indebtedness Eef the world many designated month hey year, since the official statements 1 national debt are in many cases E0ornparatiuely infreuuent and in some bfnsbamces stated in terms not readily tconpaEabae with, those ofother coun- EeIdes, while the figures covering the F4nterest rates on the various issues and, therefore the annual interest B1harges, are even more difficult.
 In general terms, however, it may Ebestated that the debts of all coun- BSL1cS COlO1lieSS ol tne "OIfQ III (which national obligations are creat- cd and recorded aggregated a. little lover $l ,Ooo, 100000 in the year HOO. k1.Sp0, poo, 900 at thesbeginning of the EaIapoleonic Wars in 1793, and about t$Z.1o0, ,00 ,00o at its close In -1S16. In the SS years of comparative peace which followed the Napoieonic Wars the advance was comparatively slow, the world total standing at about a, ,5oo, 100000 at the beginning of the Crimean War in 1854. In the twenty years which included the Crimean tthe American Civil, and the Franco Prussian Wars, the period 1854 to 1874, world national debts increased F1b0 per cent, advancing from $S,- 500 ,00o, ,00O in 1854 to $22,000, ,000, 900 in 1874 Then came a forty-year period, which included not only the Spanish-Americah, the British-Boer, the Balkan and the Russo-Japanese lWars, but also large expenditures for the creation and maintenance of big standing armies and great navies, well the construction of railways i and telegraphs, many of them by na- tionai governments or through aid granted by them and in that forty year period, 1874 to 1914, na- tionaI debts again doubled, stand ing at the beginning of the
 
 enormous armies aggreSatinS 3O,O00,- 900 men; its transportation of men, munitions and food supplies across great oceans; it's use of new devices for destruction on land and sea, in the air, and beneath the oceans, and the additions to national debts made thereby advanced by leaps and bounds at rate hitherto unheard of in any of the earlier wars, which sink into insignificance when compared with the magnitude in this one in which a dozen nations participated, and fin the six years from it's beginning in 1914 to the present time world indebted ness grew from $44, 900, 100000 to ap. proximately $265, ,0OO, 100000, an ac- tual increase in six years of over $200, ,000,0 100000, an average annual increase of $35, 900, 100000, as against an average of a little more than $1,- f0005000,000 per annum in earlier kYears.
 ThiseappalIing increase in world na- ffonal indebtedness during the recent kwar is, as has been indicated, due in large degree to the magnitude of op- eratfons, the bigness of armies and naRies. the transportation of men. munitions and food supplies across tgreat oceans, the creation and untili- zation of new devices for destruction on land and sea, in the air and be- meath the ocean, and also in not inconsiderabIe degree to the fact that the paper currency in which these new obligations were created and with which their proceeds were ex- pended was of a. constantly decreasing value as measured by it's gold back ing, until in many cases only a shred of gold remained as the basis of the paper currencies with which the gov ernmenta1 securities were purchased or their proceeds used, and as a con- sequence much greater quantities ot this currency, still measured in its original terms of face value, were trequired while all of the expenses ot the official machinery of the respec- tive governments correspondingly in- ! creased
 The purchasers of these new gov. ernmenta1 securities have, therefore the advantage of having purchased them with the of a currency ot low purchasing power and the expec. tation that the value of the currency tn which they will be redeemed many years later will be greatly improved with the gradual deflation and re turn to something like normal ol more nearly normal value of the cur rency of the countries which hav, been the principal participants in tn national borrowings meantime. II certain of the important European countries the ratio of gold to out standing notes was in the closin. years of the war only about one sixth as much as at the beginning o the war, and as a result of the lov purchasing power of this currenc, much larger sums of it were re Qufred, and could only be obtained b. borrowing In fact, this low purchas ing power of the currency in whicl the bonds-were paid for may be look ed upon as one of the chief factor in the bigness of the war debt
 Bond Sales Below Par a Factor
 Still another factor in the grea increase in quantity of securities is sued is found in the fact that in man instances the sums realized for ther Were materially less than their fac vafue,7 the issuing price of the Sc curities of most of the Europea countries having been from to 1 per cent, and, in a few instances, ap