The New York herald., 1921-01-15
SATURDAY, JANUARY IL, 1921.
A Receiver for Austria.

lhe world mas got 10 lace tIle lruth
about Austria. AS Government she
is a hopeless bankrupt. AS IA nation
she is a destitute cripple. Merely to
feed Austria as ministration of hui
manity can relieve in the intervals OF
feeding the agonies of starvation.
It cannot work out the economic sal
vation of millions of people who, If
left to themselves, must continue in
the most desperate straits that ever
befell q civilized race. 1t cannot an
nul, it cannot even long put off, the
day Of reckoning for all Europe, pos
sibly the whole world.
Even victors in war must heed dam
ger signals when their peace terms
and DEGREES become high explosives.
Austria is the victim of greed and
force parading under thin veneer
known as self-determination and
smugly calling itself righteousness.
So the Government Of Austria has
thrown up its hands in despair and
millions Of idle and starving subjects
are to become charges on the hands
of the Allies because the Versailles
peace makers failed to heed even the
. simplest of economic facts in their
mad desire to do justice to all the
subject races which had felt the op-
pressing hand of the Hapsburgs.
SO long as the future holds moth
ing but the blackest possibilities for
German Austria it can hold nothing
better for all central Europe. And
until central Enrope has been revived
solid prosperity cannot be assured to
the Old World.
Austria must go into the hands of
a receiver. The receiver must have
the right and the power to cancel the
Government debts, which as they now
exist are not worth anything any
how. He must have the right and the
power to declare that the billions of
outstanding currency shall be no
longer legal tender. They are not
worth anything either. SO nobody
viii lose anything of real value.
Everybody will gain by as much as
the mountains of unpayable but crush
ing debt and the mountains Of value
less but smothering currency are lifted
off PROSTATE and helpless nation.
Receivers certificates of home pur-
chasing power and of foreign exchange
value must be put out to take the
place of the cancelled billions of worth
less paper that no longer will bedevil
production because 1t need no longer
be accepted by anybody for anything
unless II be to make bonfires the coun-
try over to celebrate the delMerance
OF nation from economic bondage
indescribable and Incompatible.
To have money value in a country
where the very word money has be-
come mockery and to pay honestly
for work and goods where hitherto
they could be exchanged honestly only
in crude barter and TO a limited ex-
tent within n narrow circle of Inn
GVNNA 'Atdiditcs ti4S AettlNtl >
certificates must be indorsed by the
Allies, perhaps by other solvent coun-
tries, including our own United States.
Whether this Endorsement, In effect
a gold loan by the savlors Of Austria,
counts quarter OF n billion, half
billion or a billion Of dollars in real
money, II will be cheaper. many times
cheaper, than bootlessly feeding mill
ions of men, women and children for
years and generations. as they must he
forever fed unless they are redeemed
out Of the wilderness of financial.
economic and physical bankruptcy.
A receiver, Representing the Allies.
Representing II need be the Old World
and the New World. can get Austria
up on her feet again, can put Austria
TO work again, can set Austria in the
ranks Of living Powers again. Then
can come reparation, IL must be, TO
those beyond the boundaries Of the
now stricken and perishing nation
can come even Indemnity 10 those
whose useless bonds were cancelled
and whose worthless paper kroner
whether basketful or truckload. were
swept away. Otherwise never can
either come for anybody, nationalist
or foreigner, friend or foe.