Great Falls tribune. [volume] (Great Falls, Mont.) 1921-current, 1922-07-16
BY A.. GARDINER
Britain's Greatest Liberal Editor
Special Correspondent Of Great Falls Tribune

Copyright. 1922. by The Great Falls Tribune
London, July 1J.-The latest col
lapse of the German mark has created
widespread alarm in English financial.
trading and political circles. 1t is well
recognized that the mark is the barom-
eter of European society. The ruble
may be waste paper, the kronen waste
paper, yet Europe can recover. With
the mark waste paper the vertebrae
of the European financial situation is
broken. Exchange has fallen low and
the momentum is increasing. The
situation is passing beyond control. 1t
might be redeemed if good viii and
sanity prevailed, but with Poincare at
the helm France leads Europe in a
mad dance to death.
BIameS Bankers Meeting
The renewed downward movement of
the mark is the direct result of failure
of the bankers conference in Paris.
This conference was the last desperate
expedient to keep the European sys-
TEN in being. Poincare's speech tor
pedoed it. 1t was most incredible be-
cause a loan was the only means
whereby Germany could pay repara-
tons. Does France want the bank
ruptcy of Germany more than her
reparations! That is a plain question.
II mutually utSll ttiitt UlIIS CdHlit
be reconciled. She can have one or
the other. but she cannot have both.
1t appears that the bankruptcy of
Germany is her first and dominant
motive. France calls heaven and earth
to witness that Germany does not pay.
But the French policy aims TO defeat
every expedient that would enable her
to pay. SO Europe rushes toward a
Niagara. Word trade is paralyzed
with the continent reacting to mediae-
valism. Each country is c~linging
within itself. Modern Europe will
perish IN this basis. England is most
Immediately vulnerable. She lives on
world trade. Half of her food is
grown abroad. World trade is now
diminished 80 per cent under 1914.
That spells ruin for England. The
recovery of Germany is necessary for
the recovery of everybody. Economic !
ruin cannot be localized. Corpses are
not healthy neighbors.
France Faces Ruin, Too
The present insanity shall ruin
France as well as the rest. She is
the most self contained nation of
Europe. but She cannot live alone.
Her private wealth is great but her
budget deficit is enormous. Instead
of taxation she balances the budget by
loans subscribed on the assumption of
enormous PREPARATIONS from Germany.
But the policy Of securing PREPARATIONS
becomes more and more remote and
visionary. Meanwhile the debt in
creases. More debt is created TO pay
interest. Where will this insanity
end? When the French peasant finds
himself with his safe empty will he
to lend money to pay interest
borrowings? He will discover that
the economic and financial ruin of
Germany could not end with the eco
nomic and financial ruin of England.
He is beginning to make the discovery.
is showing symptoms of the
Influence of the collapse Of the mark.
The present level of the franc is arti-
ficial.
Unfortunately there is no prospec,
of a change in France while the pres
chamber continues. | am assured
that in the provinces public opinion is
sensible, but the chamber and
the French press are unteachable and
a new cabinet will not be elected for
rs months. The present chamber will
not listen to reason and any states
nan who offered such a policy would
fall. The elimination of Poincare
would be the remedy. He represents
the mind of a chamber that would
any premier who dared tell
rance the truth. In the circum-
England. Italy and America
will be compelled more and more to
DurSup an in6pnepdapt oource