New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1921-02-12
Germans Place
IrndernnnnityL4irnnit
AT SO Billions

| estimates made by french and British
leaders of Germany's ability to pay.
The figures show that Germany's i'm
| ports in 1920 amounted to 5000, 100000
paper marks and her exports were s.
o00,00o,o00. In statement accompany
ing the estimates it is pointed out that
| the amount of exports must be in
creased go per cent IN order merely to
strike trade balance. The experts as
sert that Germany's ability to paw is
even less than these figures would in
| dictate. They assume that any effort
to equalize the amount of imports and
exports would involve a huge increase
of the latter to effect even moderate
increase of imports so that balance
probably would be reached at 9o0O,-
100000 marks. But, the experts say,
the payment of the proposed IL per
| cent tax would require the raising of
the value of the exports to 10000 000,-
coo marks, or about double the present
| worth.
The data given out at the Foreign
| Office includes figures to rontrovert
the frequently expressed Allied view of
the amount of Germany's taxation.
Both French and British statesmen
have contended that the tax rate in
| Germany was not as high as in the
| Allied countries and that it ought to
| be, so that the German people would
have to bear as great burden as has
| fallen on the shoulders of the Entente
peoples. These German experts assert
that the total Of taxation in Germany,
national, state and municipal, amounts
to 1853 marks per capita.
Dispute League Estimates
On the other hand, the experts say,
the figures made public by the League
of Nations and used by Allied leaders
as the basis of their statements as
sumed that the total Of taxation in
Germany amounted to only ATS marks
per capita. This was compared to 416
! francs per capita in France. The
League of Nations figures gave the
average income in Germany as 5000
marks and in France as 5000 francs.
| These figures, changed to dollars at
| the exchange rate as of January 81,
mean, the experts say, that the average
income in Germany was $60S4 and in
France $22592. At the same ex-
perts, the per capita tax in Germany
was $11.75 and in France $29.42. The
Trenchman, therefore, say the experts,
pays 13 per cent of his income to the
| government in taxes, whereas the Ger
man pays 20 per cent.
News is coming to Berlin from all
Iarts of the country that foreign or
! ders for German goods are beginning
to be cancelled because the buyers feel
that they will have to pay the II per
cent export tax decided on by the
Allied premiers
The widely circulated report that
ident-elect Harding will recon-
mend the negotiation Of commercial
treaty with Germany as soon as he
takes office, has raised the hope here
that the United States will throw the
weight of its influence against the pro-
Losed export tax. German leaders
contend that America must, in it's own
interests, insist that the amount of
Germany's war bill must be limited to
what the German people can pay with
out eXhausting their economic power.
Germans Quote Foreign Opinion
The German press has seized upon
the reports from Allied countries of
the realization that Germany can pay
her bill only by flooding France and
England with German goods, to the in
jury of manufacturers in those coun-
tries. In this connection one newspa-
per prints what purports to be a letter
from an unnamed London banker to an
English merchant in Hamburg. It as
serts that the opinion is general in the
never get more than one-fourth and
some say one-tenth of the sum men
toned in Paris.
The optimism of Louis Loucheur,
French Minister of Liberated Regions,
over the possibilities of augmenting
Germany's exports to such figure as
1900, 100000 or 100000, 900 gold
marks is looked upon here as a wild
dream. The newspapers point out that
even before the war Germany had much
greater imports than exports, and they
doubt whether such an estimate as
Loucheur makes can ever be realized.
DR.. Walter Simons, Foreign Minister
has reiterated to his friends, according
to the Lokal Anzeiger, his determine
ton to resign if the majority of hi:
Cabinet does not stand behind him ir
opposing unyieldingly the demands Of
the Allied powers,
Loebe Says Let Allies Seize Ruhr
, BRESLAU, Germany, Feb. II (By The
Associated Press).-Paud Loebe, Presi