Clinch Valley news. [volume] (Jeffersonville, Va.) 18??-2019, 1922-10-13
A NEW OUTLOOK ON THE DEBT.
(Virginian Pilot.l

~ may yet turn out that the birth
of new and constructive national
attitude the PREPARATION problem
and to the unpaid foreign debts will
date from the remarkable bankers
convention that has just concluded
its sittings in New York. Up to the
moment Of this meeting these gues-
lions had not by any representative
American business group been admit
ted to serious examination. Isolated
bankers of the class commonly de-
nominated INTERNATIONAL" and scat
tered economists and publicists have,
it is true, for nearly two years en-
visaged the possibility, the strong
probability even, that a drastic revis-
ion of national sentiment with respect
to the unpaid war Indebtedness of
our allies must take place before the
problem raised by these debts can re-
ceiye constructive solution. But for
the most part their suggestions look
ing to a remission or scaling of GER
tain of these debts encountered small
Sympathy. The Wilsonian dictum,
tn. the people Of the United States
woul,i nGs consent to reduction of
fast. G.. .igrcssmen found it profitable
full and in furtherance of that view
authorized to deal with the debtor
cornt,ics only on the basis of 100
per cent payment Officially monroe
mission is still the government pro-
gram. IL may be expected to remain
the government program until the
people OF this country begin to re-
allie that naturalization of the dobt
and reparation probes is condition
of the return of America PROSPERITY
The bankers a.e the first innuen-
tlal Business group to brave the
pollt,cian's scorn and assert this nee
essary if unpalatablc truth. We may
isolate ourselves from Europe poll
tically but there is no such thing IA
isOlating ourselves from Europe f.
nancially and commercially. Whether
it is pleasing to our political prepos-
sessions or not, the fact remains that
we are involved in Europe's financial
paralysis and have u necessary part
t. play in setting Europe's economic
house in order. That means we have
Il part to play in rationalizing the
rcparations and part to play in
solving the problem created by the
vast unliquidated war debts. That is
the message proclaimed by Thomas
Is. McAdams, the Richmonder who
has made his presidency of the Amer
lean Bankers Association men,
orablc one in the annals of this or
ganization, and by Thomas w. La
mont, whose tentative efforts n wear
ago to make the bankers advance
spokesman of new national outlook
on the debts and PREPARATIONS ripened
THIS year into ringing summons to
leadership.
To this gathering, with n timcli-
ness that was nothing less than dra-
matte, came Reginald McKenna, form
er Chancellor of the British Excheuu-
er, with a statement of the debt and
reparation problem that was mas
terpicce of common sense exposition
No one can read his five-column sum
mary of an encyclopedia problem
without conccding the fairness of his
premises and the soundness of his
conclusions. Briefly, they are that
Great Britain can e.d will pav her
debt to the United States in full. hui
that to undertake to collect in full
from he other allied debtors can ONLY
lead to disaster. Germany, he con-
cludes, can pay PREPARATIONS onlv to
The extent Of her total foreign assets
and her eXportable surplus. Since her
total foreign assets are less than n
billion dollars, owned not by the gov
crnment but by individuals from
whom they can be purchased by the
government only if the mark can be
stabilized and the owners can sell
with the assurance of n profit; and
since paying Preparations with export
able surpluses is an operation that
cannot be completed without the alb
ssorpiton of these exports by the cred
itor countries, the conclusion is newt
able that there exists no way to col
lect the 80 billion dollar reparation
bill without saturating the debtor
countries with German goods-a solu
tion that none of the debtor coun-
tries can permit. There must be let
up in the pressure on Germany that
is vtiating her currency and credit,
and scaling of the indemnity that
will permit its payment through ex-
port SURPRISES not too large to en-
barrass the creditors. All thise has
been said over and over again and
again by every economist who has
approached the problem without pre-
Judgment, but it has never before
been said SO briefly, so simply and so
OPPORTUNITY.