The Monmouth inquirer., 1925-04-02
SOUND PRINCIPLES
FOR ALLIED DEBTS
Payments to America Should Be
Guided by Dawes Plan,
Says C. E Mitchell.

The fundamental principles Of the
Dawes plan for settling the European
war debt question are applicable to
the problem of the Allied debts to the
United States. Charles f. Mitchell.
president Of the National City Bank
81 New York, declares in an article in
the American Bankers Association
journal Mr.. Mitchell says:
debts between nations are always
3 source Of International trouble, and
! consider it Of great importance that
our own economic as well as political
relations with such countries as
France, Belgium and Italy may be Inn
proved by an early adjustment OF
their debts to our own national gov
eminent.
Country Endorsed Dawes Plan
II hope that we are gradually learn
ing chat such debts, If unduly forced,
maj result more calaSnitously to the
commercial interests OF our own coun-
try than to those Of the debtor coun-
Try. THIS tax Of forcing payment OF
sewery dollar to the last penny Is
commercially unwise. / think We may
assume that the Dawes plan has had
the Endorsement Of the American peo-
pae Through their election Of General
Dawes to the Vice Presidency Of the
Omitted States. That plan is n that
establishes fundamental principles
which may be applied In considering
tAe debts OF one nation to another
resulting from war.
The first principle, as / see It, is
chat the yoke Of the war debt shall
not be held as a burden upon the
people beyond the generation that had
to do with the war. This principle is
clearly fnttnated in the fact that the
industrial and railway debentures
which form the principal security and
H1azns Of payment Of the debt carry
s per cent interest with i per cent
@nauRt4zsk1Dn, which mean that such
obligations are to be over a period Of
about t~hir&y-six years.
An Invitation to Trouble
ANY attempt to force the carrying
OF such debt burdens to the second
and third generations is but an en-
graved invitation to further trouble.
'~The second principle Is that the
debtor country shall be taxed to the
limit while tho debt remains. but in
NO event TO a point where its eco
nonnAc structure colAapses under the
strain, and, further, that the nationals
Of the debtor country shall in ne case
have a lesser burden Of taxation upon
them than have the nationals of
She creditor country-another prfnci-
pie the ~soundnass Of which cannot be
questioned.
'~The third principle is that with
gach taxes collected, payments there
from shall be made t o the creditor
country to such an extent only as they
can be made without disrupting inter
national exchange and commerce The /
scundness OF this last is apparent on
its face.
-Theses i regard as the fundamental
principles of the Dawes plan, and all
Of the hundreds OF pages of the So
called Dawes report are devoted to
setting up the machinery by which
these principles can be put into effect.
IF these principles are accepted as
sound then they must also be sound
principles by which the payment Of
the debts Of allied countries to us
shall be determined. and we would
best Apply snch q yardstick as our
measure. rather than attempt to make
Depwlar the slogan of every dollar to
the last penny In the adjustment Of
cur foreign reaations, essential to the
development Of Increased export and
rapport trader there can be no problem
Il greater importance than reaching
o sound and final conclusion as to this
irsaEntlng question Of the debts Of al
EA4 coaxsrioB TO ourselves"