New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1921-05-01
Kahn Explains
World Idea Of
Man ON Street
American View of After
War Events Is One of
Disillusionment, Banker
Tells the London Times
Ideals a Disappointment
Attitude Should Be Consid-
cred to Avoid Future Mis-
understanding, He Urges
Special Gable to The Tribune

LONDON, April 3o.~~The Times to-
day publishes a letter from Otto H.
Kahn, of New York, expressing the at
titudc of the American IMAM in the
street toward the proposed cancella-
ton of the Allied debts to the United
States. 1t says in part:
american opinion considers the cir
cumstances and motives of our entrance
into the war as essentially different
from those which affected most Of the
Allied nations.
America went into the war wholly
Of her own free will, uninfluenced by
any material or.political consideration
and without anything whatsoever to
gain.
1T. is literally true to say that she
fought mainly for an ideal and against
iniquty.
"rhe spells. and the only spoils,
which America asked for and prom
ised herself was to uproot the poison
growth of Prussianism, to make an
end of war as far as humanity posi-
Bile and to bring about finer, worthier
and nobler state Of the world.
Has the world been made better place
to live in?
"To ask these questions is to answer
them.
Result Is Disillusionment
"Sentimentally, the attitude of the
man in the street toward Europe has
gradually become one of disillusion-
ment and retrospective questioning.
"Practically, he does not consider it
justified contention, under the cir
cumstances of the case, that the loans
OF America to the Allies should co
lpso be considered and treated as a
contribution to the common expense
of the war.
When the man in the street looks
over the balance sheet of our participa-
ton IN the war, what does he find?
he is far from undertaking. it's
asset side. True, these credit entries
are of a nature mainly sentimental,
but doubt whether sentimental items
nave q greater popular value anywhere
than in this so-called land of the
almighty dollar
What about the debit side? He
seems to discern a tendency to discrim
mate against his country in respect of
those world opportunities which it's
people played no mean part in helping
TO win for their comrades in arms. He
does not relish the spirit and wording
OF the mandates nor the controversy
over the disposition of the formerly
German-owned cables. nor the dispute
about the Island of zap, etc. He finds
that nothing positive or substantial has
been done about the much-vaunted
pledge to reduce ornaments. He finds
barriers and impediments and willful
Interruptions thrown across the ways
of trade and intercourse. He finds wars
and preparations for war.
"Hc sees little reason to attach Gre
dence to the contention that these things
would have been materially different if
America had entered the League of
Nations.
Wants Debt Dispute Settled
:" Il he man in the street is not lack
ing in generosity. He does not mean
to drive hard bargain He appreciates
it cannot be treated as if it were
Moreover, he realizes quite well that
his own country cannot return to a
state of 'normalcy' unfit a reasonable
approach at least to an economic euui-
librium will have been established in
Europe. He recognizes that among the
prerequisites for that all too long de-
layed contamination is some kind of
settlement of the inter-Allied debt on
large minded and liberal lines, and
American cooperation otherwise in the
problem of European readjustment.
He is bewildered and disillusioned,
and the possibly naive faith which ami
mated him has undergone somewhat
rude shock. In order to be predisposed
toward those accommodations on
Americas part which are indispensable
to a satisfactory financial settlement,
and toward that comprehensive and
broad. gauged cooperation which the
situation calls for, he will have to be-
come affected with the impression of
an attitude, a purpose, spirit and a
condition in Europe more nearly ap-
preaching than seems to him the exist
ing state of things those conceptions
which he believed the American nation
was aiming and aiding to realize when
1t set out on its crusade to Europe in
the spring of 1917.
"These views and sentiments are
widely prevalent among the masses of
the American people and it has seemed
to me that this state of mind and the
r>n0 l.