The New York herald., 1921-06-26
FORCING GERMANY
IMPERILS BRITAINS
TRADE, SAYS GIBBS
TeutOns' Plan Would Give
Them Possession of the
World Markets.
WORKERS SATISFIED
Accept Is Cents an Hour,
While English Are Slack
ing at 60 Cents.
STATESMEN NOW UNEASY
Realize That Cry of Make the
Enemy Pay! May Prove
Boomerang.
WORKERS SATISFIED
STATESMEN NOW UNEASY
BY Sir PHILIP GIBBS.

BY Sir PHILIP GIBBS.
Special Gable to THE NEW YouK HERALD.
Copyright, 1921, by THE NEW York HERALD.
LONDON, June 25.-The facts l re-
ported in my last despatch about Ger
man industry and the determination
of the German people to pay the in
IDENTITIES If it is humanity possible
by an intense development Of eX.
ports have been discussed by big
financial men in England, not with
out anxiety. The speech of Reginald
McKenna, former Chancellor Of the
Exchequer, reaching exactly similar
conclusions, showing that If Germany
pays that way British trade will be
destroyed. to say nothing of Ameri-
can trade, has awakened public in.
terest to the new danger. which had
not been realized before by simple
souls.
They are now faced by grotesque
paradox. that when they shouted
make Germany pay!" they were
lAS lOI tiClk OWh
ruin. Mr.. McKenna's suggestion
that Germany should be made to pay
in raw materials would not help
England, because in coal we already
have raw material which we could
not sell at present prices, even If our
miners would consent to work again.
To Raise Value of Mark.
I see only one way out of that
dilemma about German indemni-
ties, which presents us with choice
between two evils-payment by over
whelming competition and non-pay-
ment with allied war debts still bur-
dening our peoples. The way out is
by economic arrangements with Ger
many by Great Britain, France and
the United Stat"s which will bal.
ance imports with exports and raise
the value of the German mark so
Germany cannot undersell the world
at exchange rates. How that is to be
done | am not sufficient of an expert
TO devise, but it ought not to pass the
wit Of man.
Even Frances statesmen are be-
ginning to realize that cooperation
with German labor and industrial
organizations may be better policy
than the mere extraction of tribute
from Germany, thereby continually
developing its resources in the world
markets at the expense of France.
The iron ore of Lorraine needs the
coal from Westphalia and the other
way about.
The discussions held between Wal.
ter Rathenau and Louis Loucheur,
Ministers OF Reconstruction in Ger.
many and France. respectively, may
result in an economic compact OF
kreat Importance to both countries.
and may servo the cause of common
sense in its victory over passion.
IL this succeeds, it will be the first
step forward in a new policy in
Europe. which must prevail as the
one escape from armed aggression,
namely, an economic union of inter
ests by which raw materials and all
natural resources shall be exchanged
and developed between the countries
and according to their respective
needs and industrial potentialities.
Interdependence the New Policy.
This new policy of replacing the
rivaa-- of races NY economic inter.
dependence is only beginning to
glimmer In the old mems brains
old. tired men who still cling to the
power of old traditions-but the
pressure of national forces and
urgent perils are shaping that way.
More than that, 1t is common arith-
metic which is going to dictate the
high policy. Domestic and foreign
affairs will utterly be controlled, so
far as Great Britain is concerned, by
such simple sums as four from six
leaves two, and four into three won't
go.
rOi inSlduCe, Wl1SLOH CnurCn1lIS
romantic dreams of irrigating Meso-
potamia, so that the Garden of Eden
may again blossom forth from the
desert sands, have been rudely shat
tered by unkind critics. who point
out that money sent to Arab wastes
means so much less in English
pockets at a time when tax collec-
tors are searching our trousers for
the last threepenny bit in order to
pay doles to unemployed men. Mr..
Churchill's Imperial arithmetic sim.
ply won't work. AS subtraction
sum 1t is jeered at by the whole
school.
So again with the help to the Greeks
I'm q new campaign against Turkey.
There are groups of political gentle
men I'm England not altogether ig-
norant of finance who would like us
TO support King Constantine and the
Greek army with munitions of war
for certain rewards hitherto not spoc!-
fed But other financial experts. and
the man in the street, who does most
of the paying and most of the dying
when ii comes to war, are protesting