Evening star., 1931-12-27
EUROPE TERMED UNABLE
TO PAY NOW OR EVER
Congress Must Choose Between Amer.
lean Cancellation or Reputation
by Debtor Nations.

something more than $4,000 900 900 Of
perfectly legal claims upon a Europe
which has, during all the years since
the end OF the war, been engaged in a
process of economic. financial and poll
tical suicide and is now approaching
the point of final crisis.
In word, Europe has been steadily
engaged in destroying the underlying
value which was the basis for our hope
of repayment.
1t is perfectly absurd to represent the
present situation as one in which in
tlnltely clever Europeans are engaged
IN deVlllSh conspiracy to get rid of
their lawful debts to us. and that in
this conspiracy the wicked American
| international bankers are conniving,
Europe is not Conspiring. 1t is COM
mitting suicide. And the American
bankers who got US into the mess are
trying to prevent not only their own
ruin, but the far wider ruin which NAV
yet come when the real extent of the
| commitments in German paper are
spread upon the record
Our rulers, political and financial
! nave made two fatal blunders in the
case OF Europe At the close of the
war President Wilson and his advisers
assumed that Europe was now prepared
TO settle down and that both materially
and morally America could forward
world peace and prosperity by making
vast loans for the purpose of recon-
Structlon. We did that without sue
cess and after the war debts had been
scaled down in the various adjustments
the sum we still asked for repayment
on was about equal to our postwar
loans. We just about Cancelled the
money lent during the conflict.
pourad
In 1924 private finance followed the
l9I9 example of the Wilson admins
tratlon and embarked upon new cam
palgn Of lending money to help Eu-
ropes recovery. We poured in billions
but Europe, after a brief truce. re-
sumed its political conflict Germany
dehed France through her Austro-Ger-
man tariff union proposal and France
broke Germany through her money
power. But when this battle was over
europe was again in chaos and patent
~ unable to pay her American debts
II congress would undertake to set
1orth Tor the American people in clear
and unmlstakable form what have been
the consequences Of our interventiCns
IN Europe-to show that those who
urged us to go into the World War tof
Whom the present writer was oney were
mistaken in believing that the result
would be peace and better world con-
oltlon; that those who urged us to lend
billions after the close of the fighting
were similarly wrong in believing that
tnls would promote peace and recover:
that those who advised the pril ata
investors TO go in after 1924. Convinced
That American loans would promote
prosperity in Europe and profit at
nome. were completely blind to the
realities Of the European situation
eventual good might come out Of the
washington debates and the general
situation.
But the effort to guard against a
possible cancellation of war debts.
which in reality already have come TO
nave the value Of Fenian bonds. is little
snort OF absurd. Europe can't pay now
and 1t does not mean to pay ever. The
single question Is between American
cancellation and European repudia-
ton, and as far as the taxpayer Is
concerned the effect is the same.
/ Some day the story of the billions
we have poured into Europe in the
war and postwar years Will sound
TO another age like the story of the
south Sea bubble. Now the two very
clear facts in the world are that Eu-
/ rope Is condemned to go through the
bankruptcy and ruin which its political
/ course IN the postwar years has rem
dered inevitable, and the United States
IS pound to carry out the liquidation
which has resulted from its European
adventures.
When the Government, Congress
ana wall Street at last recognize that
Wnat we nave adventured in Europe
Is Iost real readjustment will begin.
tCopyriEht, 1872