Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1930-04-30
PESS|M|SM GIVING
GERMANY TROUBLE
Achievements Over Post War
Obstacles 0bscured by
Mental State.
Nv the Associated Press.

BY the Associated ffeSS.
BERLIN, April 30.-That Germany's
chief handicap today is a deep pessi-
mism which obscures in the popular
mind the chief achievements over post
war obstacles is the diagnosis given by
Jacob Goldschmidt, executive director Of
the Darmstaedter & National Bank, one
of Berlin's chief private financial insti-
tutions.
He said that the burdens placed on
the loser of the World War have been
so great that the nation is blindly star
ing at blank wall, overlooking the
breaches that have already been made
in that barrier to progress.
This depression Of the spirit Of
great people is one of the most serious
consequences Of the critical year 1929,
and Is perhaps more worthy of atten-
ton than the material changes which
the year has brought" he says. THE
hard fate of the German people cannot
be mastered and overcome If its vigor
and strength and the creative and con-
structive impulses which are the ex-
preston of that strength are nullified
by a spirit of Gripping pessimism and
hopeless resignation.
Optimism a Necessity.
"Our people must not be deprived, on
top of the great material losses to
which the past year has once again
given prominence, of the principal asset
which it has had hitherto in the recon-
struction of all that defeat had shat
tered, namely, its optimism and will to
work.
Prom faith in ourselves and in the
organic SoundneSS of our national and
economic system We must draw the
energy which we need more than ever
since, in the domain of foreign policy,
the past year destroyed the great hopes
We had placed in the transformation
of the Dawes plan into a new and fun
damental contractual regulation of the
relations of Germany with the other
partners to that settlement"
Observing that practically no one in
Germany is really satisfied with the
separations solution embodied in the
Young plan, Influenced as it was by a
tendency to lose sight of all but purely
material requirements, Herr Gold
thelesS nothing to do now but fulfill its
obligations to the uttermost and then
learn to wait" for the economic
reaction"
Fruitful Waiting Policy.
"In the life of individuals, and still
more in the life of peoples" he goes on,
"a policy of waiting Is often more fruit
full than continuous activity, and need
IN no sense imply missing the moment
for action when 1t comes"
What Germans are constantly over
looking in their present pessimistic
mood, continues the report, is Ger
many's actual progress during 1929. 1t
was precisely during the unsettling
The Hague that the American stock
market frenzy was sucking the worlds
money into Wall Street and making 1t
abnormally difficult to raise money for
industry In Germany.
Yet survey of the past year, in its
political and economic aspects, reveals
clearly the exceptional achievements of
Germany in the period of transition be-
tween the Dawes and Young plans, in
ngnting her way through a severe crisis
without any possibility of recourse to
the capital market at home or abroad.
That is circumstance which justifies
resolute opposition to the atmosphere
of mistrust.
THE technical and administrative
foundations of German production are
sound" asserts the banker. I'm this
connection the favorable trade balance
Is remarkable. Germany became In the
course Of the past year the second larp-
est exporter In the world.
1.-THE significance OF this achievement
Is the greater when 1t is borne in mind
that these exports consisted mainly of
finished products, which thus proved
their ability to compete on the world
market In spite Of all tariff restric-
tons"
ION the whole" he adds, "the after
effects of the Wall Street collapse have
been favorable for us. It has at last
made possible a rational return to the
normal conditions and relations of the
international money market and, above
all, has set Germany, with her intense
demands for capital and credit, free
from the dangerous competition Of the
unnaturally high rates for money on
the New York market"