The Daily Ardmoreite. [volume] (Ardmore, Okla.) 1893-current, 1921-10-07

he asked, that II sponge were pass
ed over the papG obligations of rev.
olutionary Russia nominally valued
now. | believe. in t!illions-- and II
the present group Of fanatics at Mos
cow were replaced by a sane and in
tellgent government, Russia would
not be one of the great economic
powers of the modern world7"
Mr.. Noyes said that the vital ques-
ton today is 'the readjusment, the
rehabilitation and the economic re-
construction of those half dozen Eu-
ropean nations on whom fell the |
full shock and strain of four years
conflict" He said that no more diff
ficult and battling problem has been |
presented in at least a century but
That the restoration of national cred |
il, the resumption of gold payments
ana the bringing of International ex-
change To a normal basis are possible
of achievement Judged by expert
ences of the past, he was confident
a correct solution would be found.
Some Well known Facts
This is not by any means the first
time that economists have proved
that war could not be paid for,
he said. But the predictions have
never heretofore come true; on the
contrary, it is a strange testimony
of history that after the period of re-
cuperation, longer or shorter as the
case might be, even the belligerent
nations turned out to have become
richer and economically more pow
erful than ever before, the worlds
trade larger than ever before and
prosperity and accumulated wealth
greater than ever before. In this L
am not giving theories or arguments
but well-llnown facts with which every
one is familiar. He added:
"These older prophecies of perrna-
nent economic ruin rested on two
fallacies--first, that trade could re-
main permanently in a state of paraly-
sis when one community was able to
produce something which another com
munity wished to purchase; second,
| that neither interest nor rrincipai
] iOulu ever Dt Ddlu VII tNNbNhs
edly large war debt because the taxes
and revenue Of the pre-war period
have been insufficient to pay it,
England was declared to be on the
road to ruin half a dozen times dur
ing the century of costly wars which
ended with the battle of Waterloo and
which raised the British public debt
| : m SuQ ono DfJU
| France was declared economically
ruined three times within two cen
tures She had not only been depict
ed Of men and treasure by the disas
trous campaigns of Louis NV, ol
Napoleon and Of the Franco-Prussian
| War but on all three occasions she
lost, like Germany. great portions ol
her natural domain France paid so
called impossible indernnities. Hel
history after 1920 and 1915 and 1871
is an open book. Nobody i'm 1861 wouic
have admitted that the American peo
pie without impovershing themselves
could have paid after the war aggre
gate annual taxes l2 times greatel
than then Lorn. But the American
people did il.
Aware OF Danger
/ 'I am quite aware OF the danger o
historical analogy. Because an unpre
| cedented economic burden proved Z
, be boarable 80 or 100 years ago.
does not necessarily follow that a sim
= liar burden lO-fold or 1O0.fold create
will be bearable today. Somewher
, there may be a breaking point. Ger
( many was nearly a century in recoN
D ering from the Thirty Years Wa
=. and the downfall of the Roman Ell
0 pire was followed by six centuries
e an industrially S,aralyzed Europe. w
= cannot therefore. say that such re
= suits are impossible"
5 Mr.. Noyes said, however, that h
had discovered one exceedingly inte
- esting fact in history OF the las