Perth Amboy evening news., 1923-10-20
A WORLD
PROBLEM

WASHINGTON, Oct. 2o.-The in
vestigations made by the Interna-
tional Trade Commission have
shown how intimately connected are
the various world problems which
perplex many nations with the ma
tional problem Of Germany - the
Versailles reparations. The United
States section of this Commission.
under the managing dictatorship OF
DR.. Clarence j. Owens, has made
surveys of European conditions X
tending over a decade, bringing them
up to date by a tour of industrial
Europe. Every fresh inquiry detects
In the Preparations the cancer spot
of the world. In summarizing some
of the findings of the body. DIR.
Owens declares that the PREPARATION
policy as laid down in the Versailles
treaty "can have no result other than
a PROSTATE and helpless Germany.
a bankrupt France, financial and
business depression to greater on
less extent all over the world and
ever looming darker and more ON
nous the war that shall wreck civil
ization."
The Commission has reported, as
the result Of it's most recent inquiry,
that NJ country ave England can
balance its budget because OF the
chaos into which the reparation
question has thrown Europe. What
ever the wheat growers of the North
west and the cotton growers of the
South have suffered through inabil-
ity to find markets for the surplus
American production among the pre-
war European purchasers was found
to trace directly back to the repara-
tons question.
English farmers have left their
fruit to rot on the trees and some
of their crops u~nharvested, accord
ing to DR.. Owens report, because
the rest of the world was dumping
food stuffs on the London market.
In ordinary times, Germany and the
central European countries would
have had money to buy these badly
needed products, thereby absorbing
not only the English production but
much of the goods of the rest of the
world. Therefore, it is seer that the
German disorganization not only
causes distress in neighbor countries
but deranges the markets of the
whole world by i~nterrupting usual
channels of trade and diminishing
the usual consumption.
While in England, DR.. Owens had
a conference with Prime Minister
Baldwin. The Prime Minister has
gone on record as saying that a part
of the world machine has been stop
ped by the German difficulties.
arising chiefly from the reparations.
THE contraction of trade in the
Ruhr," he said. sis felt in Liverpool
and Calcutta and Valparaiso and
Chile and Australia" He might well
add Sioux City and Atlanta and any
other American City.
In the course of the conference
between the American trade COM
missioner and the British Prime
Minister the formers plan for the
settlement of the European debt
problem by application of amortiza-
ton tables was discussed and the
suggestion received the renewed ap-
prevail of Mr.. Baldwin, who, when
Chancellor of the ~Exchequer, en-
ployed the principal of the tables in
arranging the funding of the debt
to the United States.
IICoS NdDIC0 dlG WI hCu jul ~
to provide for the liquidation of both
principal and interest of any debt by
means of relatively easy installments
over a period of ~sixty-six years.
The suggestion of the employment
of these tables in the handling of the
German reparations, as we'll as the
other debts of European countries.
was regarded as especially timely in
view of David Lloyd Georges recent
endorsement of the plan of Secre-
tary of State Hughes for a scientific
ascertainment of the indebtedness
and an agreement, possibly through
an international conference, of meth
DDS of payment. If such a confer
ence could be held, the International
Trade Commission believes that the
amortization system could be applied
to all of the debts and bring about
a speedy agreement and mmence
ment of payments.
The Commissions European re-
searches led it to the conclusion that
it might be wise to declare a general
moratorium on International debts
for a brief period and then begin
annual payments on the amortization
plan. With a definite knowledge of
what amounts were to be paid each
year, it is believed 1t would be prac-
ticable to balance the budgets of
the European nations. No attempt
is made to disguise the. fact that
hard work on the part of all the
debtors would be imperative, but
each nation would know the full ex-
tent of it's annual burden and could
adjust its afftN's accordingly.
Such a settlement, 1t is pointed
out. would assist materially in stab
ilizing the foreign exchanges. So