The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1924-04-10
Path To Permanent Peace,
DalDes Hope For His Plan
Penalties Forgotten He Says, As Committee
Sought Way To World Safety

PARIS, April.--Brig. Gen. Charles
G. Dawes, the unofficial American rep
resentative on the first committee
which examined into the economic and
financial situation in Germany, in a
covering letter to the report of his com
mittee, tells the reparations commission
that the committees recommendations
emust be considered not as inflicting
penalties, but as suggesting means for
assisting the economic recovery Of all
European peoples and the entry upon
new period of happiness and pros
perity unmenaced by war; ~
The letter of General Dawes follows:
ITO the President of the Preparations
Commission
"Sir: Your committee has unani-
mously adopted report upon the means
for balancing the German budget and
the measures to be taken to stabilize
its currency which I now have the
honor to submit.
deeply impressed by q sense Of Its
responsibility to your commission and
to the universal conscience, the com.
mittee bases its plan upon those prin-
ciples Of justice. fairness and mutual
interest in the supremacy of which not
only the creditors OF Germany and Ger.
many itself, but the world also have
a vital and enduring concern. a
with these principles fixed and &C.
cepted i'm that common good faith which
Is the foundation OF all business and
the best safeguard for universal peace,
the committees Recommendations must
be considered not as inflicting penal.
ties. but as suggesting means for as
sisting the economic recovery Of all Eu-
ropean peoples and the entry upon new
period Of happiness and prosperity UNI
menaced by war.
"Since as result of the war the
creditors of Germany are paying taxes
to the limit of their capacity, so also
must Germany be encouraged to pay
taxes from year to year to the limit of
her capacity. This is in accord with
the just and underlying principle of
the Treaty of Versailles, reaffirmed by
Germany in its note Of May 20, 1919,
that the German scheme Of taxation
must be fully as heavy proportionately
las that of any of the powers represent
ed on the commission More than this
limit could not be expected and less
than this would relieve Germany from
the common hardship and give to her
an unfair advantage on the industrial
competition of the future. The plan of
the committee embodies this principle.
Ruled By Business Prudence
t"The plan has been made to include
flexible adjustments which from the
very beginning tend to produce max
imum. of contributions consistent with
the continued and increasing produc-
tivity of Germany; the conservative es-
Inmates of payments to be made in the
near future are dictated by business
prudence in outlining the basis of a
loan and should not destroy the per-
spectiye as to the effects to be regis
tered in the aggregate of eventual pay
ments which. will annually increase.
with normal economic conditions
and with productivity restored in Ger
many, the most hopeful estimates of
the amounts receivable are justified.
NTifhedt such restoration, such pay
ments as may be obtained will be of
little value in meeting urgent needs
of credit or nations.
ITO ensure the permanence of the
new. economic peace between the allied
governments and Germany, which in
wolves the economic adjustments repre-
scented by the plan, there are provided
the counterparts of those usual eco