Great Falls tribune. [volume] (Great Falls, Mont.) 1921-current, 1922-10-29
WHAT AMERICANS PAID
THE NEW YORK WORLD is

THE NEW YORK WORLD is
/ authority for the statement
that Germany has collected from
United States citizens an indem-
nifty greater than Germany exacted
from France after the Franco
Prussian war in 1870. 1t was done
through the purchase of German
paper marks after the signing Of
the peace treaty. While most of
the purchasers were German
American citizens who may have
been partially actuated by SYM
pathy for the Fatherland, we have
no doubt that the principal mo-
tive was cupidity and the mistaken
notion that the German paper mark
would rise in value and perhaps go
back to its normal pre-war value.
Many American citizens with no
racial connection with Germany
Joined in these speculations and
bought marks. They are all sadder
and wiser men today. The Ger
mans, needing gold credits in the
United States and elsewhere in the
world, cheerfully kept their print
ing presses at work and sold these
paper promises to pay sone time
in the future by the bale to anyone
who would buy them. The COM
plete story of the frenzied Ameri-
can buying of the German paper
mark, only fragmentary and dis
connected reports of which have
appeared from time to time, runs,
according to The World, as fol-
lows:
America paid 10 cents, S cents,
i cent a mark. America bought
80, Zoo, COO, 900 paper marks at an
average of / 1-3 cents a mark, S12
a thousand. Today paper marks
sell below 20 cents a thousand.
America has left what may be
worth $50, o0o,0 GOO. Not more. The
victims in America of this stu
pendous folly, the most gigantic
financial delusion in history, have
lost 1904, 600, 900. About one-third
| of the loss is represented by
worthless stocks and bonds bought
in Germany with marks. The
buyers have given to Germany
more than twice as much gold as
Germany has paid in gold in war
reparations payments to date,
S365,637,ooo.
| London reports British losses in
| German marks speculation at about
So7z, ooo, 600.
America has paid to Germany a
sum equal to one-third of the total
of the American civil war debt,
81, S45, eo7, 626, August /, 1865.
| America, victor over Germany, has
| paid her as much as Germany in
victory collected from defeated
! France as indemnity after the
| Franco-Prussian war of 1871
$eos, 100000.
All the German marks in the
world are worth today, at the cur
rent price, about $175,000,o0o in
| American money. less than one
fifth of the vast sum America paid
for one-third of them. This ire
mendous loss is compared by The
World writer with classic ex-
amples of initiation. He recalls:
The typical example of fiat cur
rency initiation and its ultimate
fate heretofore has been for 200
years the Mississippi Bubble of
John Law, Scotch economist of
note, successful Spectator, who
induced France in 1717 to expert
ment with his theory that plenty
Of money makes a nation prosper
Gus and happy, and paper money
secured paves the route to plenti-
full money.
Law merged his Louisiana com
paay with his bank, made their
shares interchangeable after taking
over the French national debt and
its interest income, A royal edict
gave him control of the mint. He
hitched promise of vast profit for
his Louisiana company with ap-
~pearance of solvency for his bank.
based on the credit and honor OF
! France. A riot of gambling in the