Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1920-01-24
STILL WORKING
ON SCHEME TO
POOL WAR DEBT
Europe Hasn't Given Up
Hope of Shifting Some
Costs to u. S.
BY DAVID LAWRENCE.
Especial to The Argus).

HdNcH yet sOtten over the nOtlOn
that the United States will partici-
pate in huge pooling of war debts
and get behind comprehensive
scheme whereby a general loan is
floated that absorbs all the big
bond issues of the war. And inso-
far as the private bankers of Eu-
rope have joined with certain Amer
ican bankers to bring about an in
ternational financial conference at
The Hague to be called by the
Chamber of Commerce of the Unit
ed States, it appears to be extreme
ly unlikely that the treasury de-
partment will look upon such
project with approval In fact,
some pronouncement is expected to
be issued by Secretary Glass in the
next few days outlining our gov
ernment's position.
Up to Government.
The Chamber of Commerce has
a committee. at work on a report
which will answer the invitation
made to it to call the international
conference. Whether it will be ap-
proval or rejection depends large
ly upon the attitude of our own
government and while there are
some in Washington, not only rep
resentatives of American banking
groups but European institutions as
well, who still imagine a compre-
hensive scheme can be launched to
finance the world during the trying
days of reconstruction, the prevail
ing sentiment on the part of those
who would naturally have to get
back to the plan to make it effec-
tive is far from favorable. The
trend seems to be to say to Europe
that financial reconstruction can
only be accomplished gradually and
that the paths of relief lie through
the ordinary processes of commerce
and such foreign trade corporations
as can be created under the Edge
bill.
If it were not, for the fact that
European bankers have shown a
clumsy hand in dealing with the
situation there would be much
more favorable consideration given
to their proposals, but nearly every
scheme brought forth has in it the
earmarks of what the average
American would call getting our
from under and leaving the bag tt
America to hold"
England Would Get Out.
There was,-for instance, in tn,
original petition which was signed
by various bankers asking for al
international gathering certain
suggestion that, inasmuch as thu
United States had loaned 10 billions
to the allies and a large part o
that was taken by Great Britain
and re-loaned to Belgium, Italy ant
other allies, the government of the
United Kingdom ought not to bt
obliged to stand back of those loans
but ought to be able to shift then
on to the countries themselves as
a responsibility direct to the coun.
try which originally loaned the
money, namely the United States
Thus America would not have t
look to the government of Grea'
Britain for those billions but t
smaller countries whose powers o.
rehabilitation would have to bt
awakened by a prodding America
instead of a prodding Great Britain
That scheme whether or not it hat
the backing of any responsible
groups in England did as mucl
damage here as any one propose
and served to make persons in au
thority look with much less en-
thusiaSm and interest on the new
plan for refinancing the debts of tn,
world.
There is no question that the gov
ernment here recognizes how close
ly interviewer American prosperit,
is with the early reconstruction O
Europe, but the European banker
seem to have mistaken notioI
about the entent to which the pub
lie generally would buy foreigl
loans nowadays, as compared witt
the way they purchased Libert
loans during the war. The cos
of handling a large foreign loal
| would be enormous. The maa
ipeople who gave the services free
such as the four minute men ALI
the workers in every state, city an
town would not be available graft
and the eyDenSa of selling the lOa
itself is bound to be a heavy bur
den. With news, moreover, of un
certain political conditions in Eu
rope, the appetite OF the public fo
foreign loans is not altogether
certain quantity.
/ Keep Up Efforts.
But the various committees 6
work here on the project are NJ
discouraged and they are trying I
. formulate some plan that may er
list the generous support of tn
American people who served IL
world SO splendidly during the wa
when the future of civilization wa
in the balance. Whatever plan
evolved however must, in order [
get even the moral support of OF
government, involve no new con
mitments on the part Of the Anne
lean government and must be
such character as to reveal marl
ed progress toward better schemt
Of taxation inside European coul