The daily times., 1922-01-06
AMERICA BELIEVES
ARMAMENT BACK OF
ECONOMIC TANGLE
SUGGESTED
There Can Be No Stabilized
Exchange Until There is
Credit; There Can be No
Credit System if There is No
Balancing Of Budgets; This
Call. for Reduced Expenses.
(By David Lawrence.)
Copyright, 1922, by The Daily

Copyright, 1922, by The Daily
Times.)
Washington, Jan. 5.-xAmerica's
attitude toward the economic relief
of Europe has been given to Ambas-
sador Harvey for presentation to the
Supreme Council. 1t consists, in brief,
of an expression of Willingness to
listen sympathetically to any propos-
al that the. European nations may
offer but reserve the right to approve
or disapprove, participate in or stand
aloof from the plans that may be
suggested.
Talks which this correspondent
has had with members of the Cabinet
since the session on Tuesday when
the greater part of the discussion was
about the European economic situa-
tion lead to the conclusion that the
Harding Administration is not going
to tell Europe what to do but is go
ing to wait and see if Europe can
recognize its own shortcomings and
show the world that it is ready to
overcome them.
The viewpoint of the American
is simply this: the Arms
Conference was called at Washington
in the hope that reduction of arm
ament both on land and sea would
bring relief to Americas overburden-
ed treasury and would at the same
cfo M rd To- ,oir
|of budgets The United States felt
that armament was the root of the
whole business and that exchange
!couldn't be stabilized until Europe
recognized that Germany was up
against it and couldn't pay all the
Preparations France was demanding
iof her and that Europe herself
couldn' begin to balance budgets un-
til the immense expenditures for mil
itary and naval armament were stop
/, ped.
| The United States government feels
that something was accomplished
along naval lines in the conference
here but is amazed to find some OF
the nations so far from seeing a solu-
4 tion of tn economic situation as tC
4 be actually proposing an increase in
slnavies On top of this came France
to argue that the land armament
lquestion couldn't even be taken up
Surveying the situation at the
; Cabinet meeting, members of the
administration came to the conclu
sion that America had done her par
lin taking the initiative, had show1
J, the world a willingness to cut he
navy to the very lowest possible basi
land now was being forced against he
will to build ships for the next tW'
(, years so as to match the desires o
the other nations Instead of an i'm
mediate reduction, there is in fac
only future limitation. But asid
from that, the disappointment~
most keen over the European idea
ION land armament. AS Cabinet mem
bers here see it, Europe has abou
three and a half million men unde
arms for a total population of 16O
4 UUU,OOU,VUV people. HOldHu ALONE Id
100000 men insher army and hasn
begun taxing hex peasants. Her re
ceipts are only twenty per cent c
her expenditures. If the ratio of me
s under arms to total population wer
maintained in the United States as
Europe, the equivalent would b
labout two million men in the Amel
lican army, according to estimate
made by American officials.
Isl So the whole question is revol7
j. ing one. There can.be no stabilize
n exchange until there is credit. Thel
l. can be, no credit system if there
IS no balancing of budgets. There ca
Is be no balancing of budgets unit
IN rigid taxation is applied and uni
se military and naval expenditur
Il, cease There will be neither of the
tconti4ues op Page b