The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1924-05-16
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tons, the. German people are going to
stay in Gewnany and operate the in
dustries of Germany, and whatever
reparation payments are made must be
made with their surplus production
after they have had. a livelihood and
enough out of their lab0rs to induce
them to keep laboring. That is to say,
in the last analysis the production and
payments have got to be voluntary.
The presence of French troops in Ger
many will be effective only SO long as
they think they haye1a chance to get
rid of foreign domination. You cant
garrison country: you can't reduce
people to slavery and get any satisfac-
tory results. Slavery would be failure
from an economic standpoint; it never
could compete with modern industry.
Limit Also On Taxation
For. the same reason there Is a
limit to the taxation that a govern
ment can successfully levy for the pur-
poses of making payments to foreign
country.
But after all the problems having
to do with raising the funds are dis
posed of there remains the most trou-
blesome problem of all, and that is to
find the means of payment, to actually
accomplish the payment of one country
to another.
I'VE know that as rule information
al payments are made in goods and
not in gold, and we know that in the
case of Germany they cannot be made
in gold, for she has no gold. 1t is
agreed among economists and clearly
set cut in the Dawes report that repa-
ration payment must be made in goods,
the products of German industries.
sold in foreign markets and creating
balances which can be applied to pay
meiits. The amount available is the sur
plus Of exports over imports.
But the problem of reparations in
cludes not only the question as to
the abilities of the German industries
to produce goods in the quantity re-
quired to cover the payments, and of
the willingness of the German people
to apply them for this purpose, but also
the question of the willingness Of other
countries to receive these goods and to
allow THEM to be sold in their markets
in competition with home industries
"The Dawes committee recognized
that there were two problems in ac-
complishing the reparation payments.
different, although related. The first
was " RAISE i'll NtTmhny tHc sum tC-
quired from the German people, and
the second was to convert this sum in
Germany money into credits abroad
available for the payments.
THE committee dealt with this lat
ter problem of conversion in complete
and effectual manner by requiring the
creditor to receive the payments within
Germany and in German money. The
obligation of the German government is
discharged when the funds are deposited
in the new central bank at Berlin, to
the credit Of the transfer committee
provided by a plan to represent the
creditor countries.
Must Not Disturb Exchange
''The transfer committee is charged
with supervision over payments in kind
as well as payments by means of ex-
change, and must conduct these OPP
erations in such a manner as not to
disturb unduly the value of the cur
rency. If exchange transfers cannot
be made without disturbing exchange
rates, the funds win accumulate at the
bank until the sum of 1000, 900
gold marks has been reached. After
that the committee may invest the
Accommodations in Germany until the
total has reached 5000, 100000 gold