The Waterbury Democrat., 1932-11-25

, fore. in the ridiculous position of loaning abroad the money with
 which to pay us debts owed from abroad. When we cease to loan. They must cease to pay. The whole situation is one which reflects grievously upon our prac- tical capacity and our business sense.
 While this strangulation of the worlds agriculture, industry and trade has been going on, our na- tionalt annual earning power nas diminished from some $S2.000, ,000,- GOO in 1929 to some $37, 7,000s0O0,- : l,O00 at the present time, or more Ithan 50 per cent. While we have tbeen insisting ons payments iron tabroad to be applied through oui budget in reduction of taxation our annual income tax coll lections have diminished by some roui times the amount of the annual | debt payments.
 In other words, the acceptance | of these debt payments has been 2 burden and not q blessing. q loss and not a gain. If we got rld ol them, trade would revive and the farmer, the wage earner. the m dustralist and the transportatioh company would again be able to earn a livelihood. These Woulo all have income from which to pay income taxes, and the gain to the American people would be so enormous that the sacrifice of the annual debt payments would De lssomething quite neglible.
 1t is not necessary now to gu over the whole question again, but 1t was bungled from the start by our, government. We should have promptly accepted the principles of the Balfour note of 1922. The at titude which we have Been taking l for ten years is in flat cOntradic- tion to the declarations made on the floor of the congress, when authority was given to our govern ments to make the advances to for eign governments which are the basis of these debts. As Lord Snowden said the other day ,n London, the sums advanced by the United States government to the allies, which constitute the debts to America, were in fact Americas $ contribution to the cost of the war she had declared on Germany. There is no use in going back over that ground now. The eco homie and financial questions which have grown out of these payments are far too pressing for us to waste time now in a mort mortem discussion. It Is right ana proper that we should press upon the debtor nations a genuine dis armament and thereby strengt n- en the cause of peace and relieve the taxpayers in every land. but we cannot wait for the accomplish
 ment of that. In the interests or our own farmers, wage earners anu industrialists, we need to act dt once. In view of the opinion so volub- ly expressed at Washington by So
 many members of the national leg islature, 1t is clear that probably
 the most practical plan to relieve the American people is, to extend for six months more the morator- ium declared on June 20, 1881. and then to sit down with the nations
 which are debtor nations and Work out an agreement of the same sort
 and kind which those nations en- tered into with the German gov
 ernment at Lausanne on July 5
 last. If this were done and quicK-
 ly announced to the world, ine clouds of depression would nIt
 with a swiftness which would pc
 surprising indeed. Every Ameri-
 can citizen would benefit. whether
 on his farm. in his shop. in his fac-
 tory, on his railroad or in his pup
 lie utility corporation. The notion
 that there is something about tnis
 matter which Is of peculiar ad.
 vantage or concern to international
 bankers Is ridiculous. The advan-
 tage and concern are for the
 American people as a whole.