Great Falls tribune., 1922-03-12

proof of this is that the latest confer
ence merely confirmed the inviolabil-
ity of the Versailles treaty"
With such results from three years
of work the professional politicians
might. without feeling humiIiated. make
room for business men. The latter are
are unprecedented, impartial and not
and mouldy documents.
Have Failed in Past.
For. considering the record how can
we hope that the men who thus far
have proved unable to find an effect
ual means to war recovery will do bet
ter at Genoa than merely fill the ceme-
terry of the Old Doge's city with the
graves of fruitless plans.
Even Washington. the most fruitful
of all the conferences. had mainly neg
atve aims, namely, the preventing of
naval armament competition. a Pacific
war and the partition;ng of China
Then. too. the moving spirits at Wash
ington were Americans and Asiatics.
They were not from the mouldy lands
of bureaucracy and of parliamentary
and journalistic routine. The only
professional politicians were BRAND.
who despite his eloquence and craft
failed to help his country. and Balfour.
WHO perhaps would not have had SO
much success had the conference sub
jects not been so new TO him who had
spent most of his life occupied with
home politics.
Manufacturers. farmers. tradesmen
and bankers from the great and small
lands should meet somewhere without
reference to victor or vanquished,
guilt, punishment. treaties and national
prejudiees and take counsel from most
practical business methods to restore
the world quickly TO a lasting order.
Need Business Doctors.
Between Vladivostok and Cob1eus
there are 3O0,00O,OO0 millions of peo-
pie. half of whom need everything
from machines and scythes to needles
and matches. while the other half can
barely subsist and are unable to buy
anything new. Meanwhile other coun-
tries have a superfluity of gold and
can't dispose of their raw stuffs and
Surely cool business
heads could mend these mad house
conditions.
England is spending one and half
millions sterling daily in unemploy-
ment doles. equalling billion and a
half paper marks. Can any repara-
tions compensate for such conditions?
But if you say this to politicians
they speak of treaties. party coalitions.
peoples mandates and what not Such
phantoms ought not to exist at a con-
ference of practical economists con-
cerned only with economic facts.
The war increased the internal debts
of the helligerents from seven to ona
hundred and fifty billion dollars. super
imposing a foreign debt of twenty five
billion dollars, on which the interest
thus far has not been paid. to say
nothing of capital payments which
thus far have not even been considered.
What Of These Debts.
What is to become of this avalanche
Of debts. since it is certain the United
States will not abandon its creditors
rights to ten billions without somo
gain?
What is to become of the repara-'
tions settlements. when only a partial
accomplishment would be followed by
a gigantic increase in the debtors ex-.
ports. with ruin to the industries Of
other exporting countries?
A hundred million Russians are
or dying of filth. because
they took their tools and capital to
exploit the resources Of their rich
lands. The politicians speak endlessly
and senselessly of the bolshevist dan
ger and demand guarantees before they
begin trading. The coming economic
conference must. remember that no
other government is possible in Rus
sia at the moment and that most ter
rible chaos would result from sudden
fall of the bolshevists.
American business genius must real
ize that the time is past when easy
permitted an abstention
from European affairs and that even
the biggest. bank cannot exist unless
Eiven new creative work instead o6
merely the administration Of accumu-
lated wealth.
The old world needs the new, and
he new world also needs the old. Both
have the same problems.
It is hardly likely that the politicians
will voluntarily take a holiday, so it,
would have been q mercy II the United
States in answering the Genoa Invita-
ion had issued call for non -polt-'
cal conference Of practical cconpmistAl