Evening star., 1923-01-27


-wELLESLEY HILLS, Mass. Janu-
ary 27.-Since the arrival of the Brit
ish debt commission to the United
States, Roger w. Babson has been
making a study of the situation from
a statistical point of view. His de-
tailed conclusions are dry and unin-
tsresting. The summary which he
makes. however. is most enlightening.
="E'irst, let us realize" says Mr..
Babson, that the coming to this
country of Stanley Baldwin, British
chancellor of the exchequer; Monta-
CUE C. Norman. governor Of the Bank
OF England. and their associates from
the greatest empire in the world. with
hats in hand and begging for mercy
financial history. For a centuries
Great Britain has been the world )
greatest creditor. and all nations. in
cluding our own, have owed the Erit-
ish empire billions Of dollars.
THE war turned the financial world
upside down. Certain great nations
like Germany emerged bankrupt;
France, the worlds greatest invest
rnent nation. emerged debtor, while
England, to whom every one caEle
Tor advice, now comes to Washing
ton for help. Truly this is the most
dramatic economic and financial event
IN the history of our nation. 1t also
emphasizes the fact that we have a
great financial responsibility as well
as a great opportunity. therefore.
it is with this thought in mind that
we must make our decisions.
Stands Up for France.
This whole question of repara-
tion." continued Mr.. Babson. lis
beund up with sympathies. politics
latter, without doubt. a great many
people in our country sympathize
with Germany, and many others,
through their love for Ireland. hate
England. Frank study of. tho situa-
ton should convince any disinterest-
lion of a burglar who attempted q
colossal steal. but was caught and
defeated in his plans. Irrespective
Of the question of Furnishing this bur-
gIar. all must admit that he should
make amends for the goods which he
partly got away with and destroyed.
France, therefore. should not be criti-
cized for insisting that Germany re-
store. as far as possible. the property
which was destroyed and damaged IN
her attempt to burglariza: Every
disinterested party must admi, that
this is reasonable. France is asking
of Germany only what any one of us
would ask of a neighbor who at
tempted the same thing III our COM
munity.
1.-THE reason that France has re-
comfy lost sympathy in her negoua-
tions with Germany is due TO the fact
that she is going at her problem in
the wrong way. Frances difficulty is
that she is inconsistent. She wants a
certain economic law apply to Hr.
but wants to suspend it in the case cf
Germany. Perhaps this is more or
less true of all the allies especially
when they say that they cannot af-
ford to pay their Indebtedness 10 the
CDited States.
.'Yet when one looks at the statis-
ties he finds that
Same As Cabinet View.
England. France. Italy and all the
allies combine ed owe the United States
only about ten billion dollars. while
they are demanding of Germany alone
refarationS of over thirty billion dol
lars! OF course. if Germany can pay
any such amounts as France demands,
there is absolutely no doubt but that
England, France and the rest OF them.
can very easily pay a smaller amount to
the United States. President Hard
ing and his cabinet and all others
who have looked into the matter
evidently appreciate this situation.
iss the only one OF the allies who
has made an honest attempt to return
any money to us. England is paying
interest on its Indebtedness while
the other countries have sent us
practically nothing. 1t Is true that
Gently pleading mercy, but we should
be- fair with England and recognize
that she has made her payments thus
far. in accordance with her agree
ments. AS to what we will eventually
do with these foreign debts cannot
be- foretold at the present time. Ger
tainly II would be useless to cancel
them today and have these European
nations go on another great spree
or: spend our money playing military
OF their sins, disband their armies
and live honestly and decently 1 be-
lieve the United States would be
glad to cancel the indebtedness or
do anything else which would truly
help. On the surface, the difficulty
with Europe is financial, but a statis-
teal study shows very clearly that
the real trouble with Europe Is
spiritual. Before we. or any other
country. can help Europe the Euro
pean nations must change their pur-
poses, motives and attitude toward
God and one another.
Babson Urges Caution.
..Cntil this time comes cannot ad-
Nlse any one to buy or even hold Eu-
ropean securities After paying for
the bare necessities of life Europe
has a surplus which 1t can use either
10 maintain armies or pay interest
on it's Indebtedness, but it has not
surplus enough to do both. Europe
is a good deal like the steamboat on
the Mississippi which Abraham Lin
coin used to tell about The boiler
capacity was enough to blow the
whistle or to run the boat, but not
enough TO do both. When the whistle
blew the boat had to stop. At the
present time Europe seems to desire
to: whistle rather than run. Until
Europe changes it's desires and puts
it's energies on running instead of
whistling wise investors will not
hold European securities. On the
other hand, 1 believe that when Eu-
rope quits squabbling and settles
down to an honest effort to produce.
these European securities will be
perfectly good. This is true not
only as to the money owed by Eu-
rope to the independent investors of
this country, but it also applies to
the ten billion dollars which are