Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-07-28
MISTAKE OF POLITICIANS
BACK OF DEBT ORATORY
French Leaders Forced to Acknowledge
u. S. Means Business After Years of
Promises of Cancellation.

financial crisis to economic prosperity.
The notion that Britain, staggering I'M
der her war burdens, would consent to
further concessions TO France visibly
prosperous was absurd
Thus, in the end as he had been
forced to see that the franc could not
be restored to its old value and has had
TO stand sponsor for the Sterilization
program. which amounted to the re-
pudiation of four-flfths Of the French
domestic debt, Poincare has now to as
sumo the only less unattractive role of
spokesman for the ratification of the
treaty compelling France to ray rather
more than half Of what she owes
abroad.
The dream of the politicians-and OF
Poincare. for that matter-has been to
get a hard and fast settlement with
Germany before the settlement with
America and Britain. for this would al
least save their faces Even more ig-
noble has been the maneuver to ruin
Poincare by making him the protagonist
of the debt settlements and so stirring
public prejudice as to insure that. once
he had forced the ratification of the
treaties as a necessary step in national
and international rehabilitation. he
would fall. The radicals who have
never forgiven Poincare for saving the
franc when the government of the Car
tel had brought France to the edge of
the abyss. saw in this operation a
chance for revenge.
Blow to French Prestige.
The idea of making Poincare go hat
N hand TO Washington TO ask for a
new postponement. despite the fact that
he and every sensible Frenchman knew
only refusal was conceivable in the
premises. was worthy of the Chamber in
~
position of seeking to evade a Just OBJ
legation and invited the rebuff which,
however sottened by Mr.. Stimson's dip
lomatic phrases. could not fail TO be
blow to French prestige not merely In
America but all over the world. Once
more. in the name of patriotism, injury
was done to national reputation for the
lowest of all conceivable reasons. name
~. to satisfy the requirements Of a
mean domestic political trick.
Out of all the tangle of the debt oues-
tions France does not. under the Dawes
plan as amended by the new Young
plan. fare so badly. OF the sum of APP
proximately S500.000,000. which Ger
many is now to pay annually for 81
years, she will get. in round figures,
S270.000,000 and she will pay under her
debt settlements with America and
Britain rather more than Sl00,000,000
less annually. And this sum will go to
cover the costs of her reconstruction.
Obviously it will be nowhere nearly
enough. but it will be something sub
stantial.
Great Britain, by contrast. since I'M
Ger the Balfour note policy she collects
only enough to pay the United States,
will get nothing to meet the incalcula-
Bile costs of economic devastation dis
closed in her appalling totals of unem-
ployment. Italy, on her side. will get
no more than the bare requirements TO
meet her foreign debt payments, and
must herself face her burden for re-
construction in Venetia and Trent.
Senator Borah was hardly we'll ad-
vised when he used as an Illustration OF
contemporary French prosperity the TACT
that France was importing labor from
neighboring countries. for this process
was rendered inevitable by the enor-
nous human losses of battle. Since
disproportionately this casualty account
was borne by the rural districts. French
farmers were obliged to have recourse
to Italian and Spanish Workmen. even
to Algerians and Moroccans. Even to-
day the population Of France falls
nearly million short of the numbers
within the same area at the outbreak
of the war. And the presence of these
foreign laborers constitutes a drain
upon French income. since large remit
tances are sent home by the alien
laborers.
France in Good Shape.
Nevertheless, all things considered.
France has emerged from the war in
the best shape of any European coun-
try Industriallv she is producing more
than in 1914. Fiscally, by reason of her
drastic reputation of national debt,
she has reduced her domestic debt to
figure hardly more than twice as much
as in the pre-war period, which, allow
ing for the diminution in the real
value of money. represents something
like parity Set this beside the British
expansion by 35. as contrasted with
1914. AS for Germany war and lnf7a-
ton wiped out her capital and will
condemn her to borrow abroad, TO mort
gage her domestic property for gen.
Grafton at the least while she must
undertake to pay the French, British,
italian and Belgian debts to America
for two generations.
But the Frenchman being logical and
the victim of this logic has been I'M
able to reconcile victory with the pay
ment of debt abroad representing the
costs of the war. He has found it i'm
possible to discover justice in the neces-
sity for France. with casualty total Of
400 900. to make financial transfers to
the United States. which lost less than
100000 on the field of honor. Thus he
has cried out to the heavens against in
Justice and sat still until the situation
forced upon him an action which at
once did violence to his convictions and
came too late to preserve his dignity.
Since from the moment the Mellon
Berenger accord was made it was clear
that we had spoken our last word. the
obvious course of wisdom for France
was to accept the inevitable gracefully.
IT. moreover. French capacity for pay
ment was momentarily doubtful in 1925.
in 1929 no doubt remains. But the
politicians chose the other course. and
now they find themselves exposed. not
only as mistaken but as impotent. They
must present their constituents with
this bitter dose, having for years pledged
themselves to keep the cup away That
explains all their wriggling. squirming,
Grating. which unhappily has done their
country no good in foreign eyes.
(CopyriEht. 1929