Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-09-26

The diplomatic conference which sus-
pended its sessions at The Hague Au-
gust 81 will reconvene next week to
make final arrangements for establish
ing that giant financial organization
known to its intimates as the b. l. 8"
AS only few of us are really intelli-
gent on the Einstein theory, so even
fewer will become on familiar footing
with the "B. I. S." but nevertheless We
want to talk about it among our mon
eyed friends to save our face" for
"B. I. g." means Bank Of International
Settlements" where all depositors and
borrowers are such personages as Uncle
Sam and John Bull and other national,
or rather international, characters.
Let an ordinary mortal walk into the
Bank of International Settlements, with
trunk full of gold dollars, and ask
the privilege Of opening a checking &C
count and he will be stared out of
countenance and haughtily directed to
the exit, though he offers letters Of in
PRODUCTION from the biggest bulls Of
Wall Street.
There never was such bank in the
whole history Of high finance. It's a
Yankee idea, given through the Young
committee to help liquidate what Ger
many owes the world for her recent
running amuck in the sl1ambles of civ
ilization.
When the B. I. S. opens its doors and
begins to receive deposits from its one
depositor ueber Allies
that will be the signal for the end of
the Dawes plan" The He'll N Maria
plan met the needs of its day as we'll
as anything that could be devised by
experts under existing political condi-
tions-August 80, 1924. Up to that time
German reparations had become more
and more entangled and inefficient each
year. Frances military occupation of
the Ruhr Valley to enforce collections
accomplished very little.
While under workings of the Dawes
plan all payments by Germany have
been complete. so far as concerned Ger
to the American agent general, located
IN Berlin, that was only the beginning
of one part of the problem. The most
difficult problem was how to transport
the payments out of Germany to the
creditor nations without demoraliZing
finances Of both Germany and the sew
eral creditor nations.
Germany made her payments-in
PickWickian sense. She paid in the five
years total of 81 1890. 100000 by means
of borrowing from American private
I,
actually paid only s811 100000 net on
her reparations. while making the bluff
of paying nearly $2.oo0,0OO.000. May
be the private "shylocks" will get
their interest and their descendants
their principal of the Investments" in
the bonds Of the republic. but that has
nothing to do with the immediate in
ternational situation.
X \ X
It became obvious a year ago to all
creditor nations that Germany could
not continue to find such good fellows"
as American investors in her bonds TO
enable her to keep up the payments by
continued borrowings, and especially
that the plan Of transporting payments
out OF Germany, put upon the receivers.
was unsatisfactory.
When part of the payments in the
first years were to be "in kind. e., in
raw materials, such as coal and iron
which France and Belgium could use
in reconstruction of their devastated
districts, there was little difficulty In
transporting them without rousing an
tagonism of the business interests in the
receiving countries. No country can
permit goods to be dumped in compe-
tition with its own labor interests.
Congress is just now arguing over that
DrOIlioe, DuC IL CrulSm, neVertne-
less.) So France and Belgium were glad
to receive from their war enemy the
raw materials useful in rebuilding the
devastated homes and cities DESTROYED
by that debtor. In addition thereto, the
suffering countries advanced millions of
francs to rebuild for immediate occu-
pancy, while Germany fell down in her
pledged payments.
Now the rebuilding is completed: no
more raw materials are wanted, but
money is demanded to enable them to
meet the financing Of that Completed
rebuilding. &C. o. D." becomes the
trade mark now of "B. I. S." and lest
the reader becomes hazy over the In
itials, there is another trio that fits,
meaning Up. D. O."
y " +
Keeping in mind always how difficult
it is to take out of a country a vast
sum of money without creating money
stringency, which would send the high
cost of living into the sky, and remeni.
bering, also, how impossible it would be
to carry into country vast quantity
of manufactured goods without throw
ing thousands of patriotic workingmen