Evening star., 1923-01-08

PaR6.)
is owing to the practical difficulties
OF making international payments
that we are about to consult with Won
in order to accomplish the end which
we both have in view
Here to Arrange Terms,
I'VE meet today under extraordi-
nary circumstances. We meet to set
tie the largest single financial trans
action, l believe, between two
friendly nations, in the history of the
world. We are here to arrange the
terms OF the payment of the British
debt to the United States. That debt
was contracted in a common cause
1t was the first contribution made by
the United States to save civilization
from being engulfed and free peoples
being brought under the destructive
followed by the contribution of the
man-power of the United States,
whose soldiers fought so gallantly
with ours and those of our allies for
the same purpose.
Then we were enlisted in a COM
mon cause: we still have common eco
nomic interests. The payment of our
debt to you involves much more than
the transfer of huge sums from Lon
don to Washington. 1t must affect
tries. and on their prosperity de-
pends to a large extent that of the
entire world. The settlement we
make here will determine the condI-
tion and material welfare Of the great
mass of wage earners in Great Britain
and the United States, their wives
and children. I do not, / believe, ex-
aggerate. 1 state this as my delib-
crate opinion after having given the
subject matured consideration.
Must Levy Heavy Taxes.
"The payment of our debt to you
will impose upon US the necessity of
levying heavy taxes to meet those
payments. From the beginning of
the war we were the heaviest taxed
nation in the world. We financed our
military operations to a greater de-
gree than any other nation by max
ing the present generation pay. 1t
is our way to pay as we go, so far as
we can. From that fixed principle we
have no intention now to depart. The
total annual per capita taxation in
Great Britain is today still greater
than that Of any other people. 1t
amounts to more than 800 per head
of the population.
IT invite you to consider my views
as to what this means and how I
fear it will affect your own wage
earners no less than ours Further
taxation would decrease the purchas-
ing power of the British workingman
and reduce our consumption of Amer
lean products. There would be a d.
minished export demand for American
cereals, cotton, meats and other
products of the soil, the mine, and the
factory. Desirous as we are to main
tain the social scale of our own
worker, the effect of additional taxa
tion would be inevitably to depress
it. From the consequences of that, I
do not see how America can escape.
The social condition of the American
workingman, raised to it's present
level in some measure as a result of
the war, is now the highest in the
world, but If we are unable to pur-
chase from you, If we are forced by
stern necessity to economize still
further, to buy from you only those
things we must have, but even these
in greatly reduced quantities, the
American farmer, as well as the
American workingman, will feel the
pinch He likewise will be compelled
to economize; he will have to do with
less; he will be brought down to a
lower standard of living.
"Spotted Prosperity Impossible,
Our modern civilization does not
permit of economic isolation. Eco
nomic relations are too closely inter-
woven for one nataion, to be porsper-
GUS when other nations are suffering