The Cordova daily times., 1923-01-10
GERMAN CHICANERY

the news that france IS cOuVluceu tHdI Ue1- many does not want the stabiizing of her mark, since financial stability would mean the payment of her separations obligations. The announcement yesterday of the drop of the mark to the lowest point ever reached, CO., incident with the threatened occupation ot the Ruhr by French troops, gives point to the contention of MT. W. J. Wohman, we'll known financial writer, who declares that the fiscal policy of Germany since the armstce has been shrewd piece of business dictated for the purpose of making her former enemies foot her bills. As a bit of national trlckery, says Mir. Wohman, it has not been void of art and skill and 1t has been slngularly suc- cessful.
 Th,1s far Germany has effected her repara- tions payments, paid the expenses of her gov ernment and the cost of maintaining the arm ies of occupation practically through one means only-the sale of marks German IT. nancial experts put the losses of foreign buy CTS of marks as high as $9O00,O0O,OOO. The losses of American purchasers, as shown by an authoritative statement by the Reich Bank, are approximately $96O,O0O,OOO. A Well-ln- formed German newspaper places the total forepn losses since July, 1921, alone at "'oo,- 100000. or $3,8OO,O00,00O. These figures are amaznS. all the more so when one considers tboir source They indicate that certain neu- tral countries have not only pald the eq1lVa- lent of German reparatlons payments to da'e but considerable sum in addition. Stlll fur- ther of interest is the view of a writer m D1e Bank who asserts that success m staDlllZ'hS the mark would provoke renewed demands on the part of the Entente nations for reparat'ons payments. He points out that stablllzlng the mark would do more damage to Germany than any burden that could be placed upon her by her old foes.
 Obviously there has been shrewd cacula- ton in policy which, observed from without, has the appearance of financial collapse m Germany. The low value of the mark has had several practical effects that have been to the advantage not indeed to the German middle and wage classes, but to the country as a whole. It has in effect exploited the working classes by holding them to low wage standards but concurrcntly 1t has enabled Germany to compete in foreign markets with the products of their own industry. German factories are busy, and their products are sold in England and elsewhere even in the United States, at prices that enable them to take cer tain leading markets as against home products Sheffield buys German cutlery and Detrolt buys German automobile parts-all at prices that arc profitable to the German producers, but fatal to foreign competitors. There has been shrcwd calculation in a policy that has put German industry to the fore as compared with the industries of the Entente countries and that has, as Mr. Wohlman points out, made Gcnmanys enemies, not only support her Government but pay the cost of maintaining the Allied armies camped on her soil and of covering her separations payments.
 In the advance of the French troops on Ruhr today the world will look with sympathy upon the end of French patience with a chi canery that has made fools of the Allied na- tions. Untouched by the ravages of war, Ger man territory under German thrift, has never been unable to pay. Her impositions on France, in '71 were in comparison far more onerous, yet France paid promptly and in full. The consequences of today's advance on the Rhinelands may be grave indeed. But the world will see in it the belated act which, performed in 1918, would have brought Ger man recognition of defeat and the payment of her dues by the only measures she respects force. '*Ws" *eF~s1"
 Pity tho man about whom there is nothing to admire