The Omaha morning bee. [volume] (Omaha [Neb.]) 1922-1927, 1923-06-19
Germany Is
in Fair Way
to Pay Debt
Investors, Policy and Mortgage
Holders Robbed of Savings
by Government and
Industrial Group.
All Bow to Will Of State
BY MARK SULLIVAN.

say how the world should judge Ger
many's depreciation of her mark. and
how much weight that action should
have in the assessment Of reparations
against Germany. In effect, what the
German government did was to rob
all its savers, all it's owners of in
vestments in bonds, all its life in
surance policy holders, and all its
holders OF mortgages, Of every mark
they had accumulated.
The money thus robbed from one
fit chiefly Of two beneficiaries, the
Gman government. including the
municipal and local governments, and
the great industrial magnates, owners
Of factories and active businesses.
As to the German government, it
can now pay off all its bonds and
even buy in all its masses of paper
currency for less real money than
one years gross income of Henry
Ford. Having done this. the German
government would stand as no other
country in the world, with no debts,
no bonds and no obligations whatever,
either to its own people or to for
eigners, except, of course. the amount
she must pay in reparations.
Factories Debt Free.
In the same way every manufacture.
ing corporation in Germany stands
as no other manufacturer stands in
any other country, without any debts,
bonds, or obligations. stripped to do
business without any overhead Of debt
or interest on debt.
Now, virtually this enables Ger
many to produce and sell goods in
the markets of the world cheaper than
any other country can. 1t is a mathe-
matical fact that Germany as it stands
today can pay immeasurably greater
reparations than any one dreamed
possible at the time of the Paris peace
conference before Germany began the
depreciation of her currency.
But there arises the question. Is II
-noX, fair TO assess reparations against
1simany, not on the basis OF its
capacity to pay when the war ended,
but on the basis of her capacity to
pay after she has exacted incredible
sacrifices from one portion Of her
people?
Taxed 100 Per Cent.
Looked at in one way, the deprecia-
ton OF the mark has been kind of
rough taxation. It has amounted to
taxing it's investing classes 100 per
cent Of their wealth. One of the COM
plants of the allies against Germany
/ is that II has not laid as heavy taxes
as Britain, or even France. In the
ordinary sense of taxation this is
true, but, as | have said. the saving
and investing classes of Germany
have been. in effect. subjected to a
capital levy of 100 per cent.
One astonishing aspect of this
transaction is that the investing
classes who have suffered so severely
do not seem to resent 1t greatly or to
harbor any grudge against the bene.
ficiaries of what has been taken from
them. 1t is as II every American
investor In Liberty bonds and steel
corporation bonds had been deprived
of everything he has. To complete
the analogy, ina gine that Judge Gary
ernment and had either conspired or
at least connived in the process Of en-
riching his corporation at the ex-
pense of its debtors.
II is fact that in Germany the
big business magnates have now the
power which in the old days the mill
tary junkers had. Under these cir
cumstances robbed American would
have a. sense Of outrage against those
who had robbed him. But l learn
that In Germany the robbed investors
harbor no resentment.
Germans Are DociIe.
They are as docile now to the bust
pssss magnates who are in power>in
tfiS state as they used TO be to the
militarists, but they think the leaders
Of the state decreed IL. Therefore,
these leaders must have believed it
as for the good of the state. And the
docile German endures tamely what.
ever he is told is good for the state.
The peculiar mentality OF the Ger.
man people, their subservience to
whoever is in the places OF power in
the state, their docile acceptance OF
whatever their leaders tell them Is
for the good of the state-all that
makes them most difficult and baf-
fling element for the rest Of the world
TO live with. Possibly. however, II
is doubtful IL any people can be said
TO have peculiar mentality. What
we call by that name may be merely
the temporary results of generations
of submission drilled into them by
the kaiser and his regime.