Evening star., 1932-07-21

lle1 IN tnlS respect.
"The world Is drifting toward chaos
because Of lack Of confidence: This
drive to cancel international debts is
helpinp to DESTROY whatever confidence
there is left. When confidence goes,
credit goes. As credit Is DESTROYED,
trade Is destroyed We hear good deal
about capacity to pay. Let us think
of the capacity Of our own citizens TO
pay, burdened with increased dencits
and further undermined confidence IN
the Government
Another discouraging but signin-
cant thing Is that while governments
and peoples are complaining ABOUT taxes
to pay debts 1t seems Impossible 1or
them 10 come to an understanding o.
the necessity for reduction OF expendl-
lures, particularly for armaments. Inc
nations of Europe are spenoing seven
times more on ornaments tnan tney
are paying the United States on DEBTS
still due to us and what they nave
paid to us they have paid out OF monies
received from Germany ana stiana wnacm
Germany borrowed. If these nations
would cut their military and naval ex.
penditures by one-seventh they could
pay the sums to us that they have
agreed to pay What they have agreed
to pay the United States amounts TO
less than one-half per cent OF the ma.
tional incomes: less than 5 per Sent
of their annual budgets and less than
One-Seventh Of what they spend Tor
armaments each year. AS result OF
this large expenditure Tor armies ana
navies our own expenditures Tor arma-
ments are many hundreds OF millions
of dollars more annually than we other
wise would spend.
Proposals at Geneva.
THE American Government has pro-
posed at Geneva reduction OF one
third in armaments and this propo-
sition has been refused. I have intro
duced a resolution in the Senate which
provides that If the governments OF
Europe will agree to gradual progress
sive reduction of armaments OF per
cent each year for 10 years and II they
will further agree to abolish conscrip-
ton for all military purposes Tor
period of 80 years. total 40 per cent, the
Government of the United States will
relieve them of all payments due us.
This proposition is based on the theory
that If conScription were abolished for
80 years 1t would ensure world peace
for that period We would save to our
taxpayers in reduced expenditures for
armaments during that period more
than these governments owe us now.
International confidence and security
would be assured because peace would be
assured and as a result international
credit and trade would be revived. The
world would have 80 years in which
to revive domestic and international
commerce under the blessings Of peace
and the resulting income to taxpayers
would be so increased that the added
{ox ho h,Ir
However. up to the present time such
arrangement does not seem acceptable
to European governments. Therefore
cancellation or reduction is out Of the
question. They seem to be drifting
back into the prewar system of secret
diplomacy and forming alliances for
balance Of power. apparently confident
that after the American elections their
debts to us will be Cancelled In this
hope and aim they are encouraged by
an army of propagandists here as nu-
the drive was organized to get us into
the war. Bankers had their stake in
the war as they now have In cancella-
ton.
After Election Prospects.
Whatever justification there may be
for the hope Of cancellation after the
ITO the United States this demand
for cancellation Of sums owed us comes
at time when We are, already over
burdened with paying up loans, when
we have bigger deficit in our Treasury
than any other country, when we have
a higher percentage of per capita unem-
ployment than any other country. 1t
comes at time when we are trying
desperately to recover from the l5-year
dissipation Of credit resulting from run
ming our printing presses night and day
printing evidence of debt in the form
of stocks. bonds and mortgages and dis
posing of them to investors from the
Atlantic to the Pacific and from the
gulf to the Canadian border. The re-
suit of this working of the printing
presses overtime has now made it nee
essary for the present administration
and Congress to obligate the Federal
Government to extend credit in the
amount of over four billions of dollars
to bolster up the tottering credit of
banks, transportation systems and other
private industries.
Hopes for Future Course.
I'm the absence of a will to reduce
expenditures on ornaments I do not
see how the United States Government
can agree to place more European bur-
dens on the back of the American tax
payer. Let us hope that as result OF
the terrible price we are already paying
that the American citizen will learn by
this bitter experience to be more wary
in the future about being led into other
international adventures under the guise
of peace and wars to end wars when
in fact these usually prove to be merely
what President Wilson, after his appar-
ent diSilluSionment. in an address at
St. Louis, SO pathetically said that the
last war was only another commercial
war
"One wonders whether the bones OF
Woodrow Wilson would not turn over
if they could but understand the
brazen conduct of those whose
back we protected from 1914 to
1917. Surely never before has the good
nature and almost puerlle faith Of a
people in its pretended friends been
SO abused as they have been in the case
of the American people who in 1917
hurled themselves into a fatuous cru
which today are forming precisely such I
a coalition. such a ring Of iron, as
caused the war in 1914.
ITO those who are listening to me
I ask how long will you suffer being
used as mere pawns in the game of
finance and politics? Don't |
you think it is time for you to wake up?"