Evening star., 1933-11-09
REPEAL TO OFFSET
WAR DEBT LOSSES
New Liquor Revenues Await
ed as End of European
Payments Appears.
BY CHARLES F. sPEARE.
Special Dispatch to The Star.

Special Dispatch to The Star.
NEW YORK, November 9-Happily
for the United States Treasury. repeal
of the eighteenth amendment and the
beginning of the fiow of liquor revenue
into it comedies with what is taken to
be the winding up of the payments to
the Treasury of principal and interest
on leans made by it to foreign nations
during the war
The extreme estimates Of revenues
from the sale of liquor range from
s750,0OO 900 to OO0,0O0,OOO year,
the latter having been made by col
lege professor. Those who must figure
closely in making up the national
budget will be satisfied if the receipts
approximate the smaller amount and
would not be surprised to find them
! nearer 5000, 900, 000 This would be
more than the actual internal revenue
return for the fiscal year 1882, when
S503 SIC, 600 was paid in, and compares
with the estimate for the fiscal year
1888 of $900.000.000.
Believed Final Move,
The proposal of Great Britain to pay
I 81 100000 in American currency on
December 15-in other words about
S5000,000 actually in outlay to her,
with dollars at the present discount
is believed to be the final tapering
down of her war debt payments and
the end of them. France has definitely
determined not to make further remit
tances to this country against the debt
she owes. Italy apparently has come
I fn oh ba c. -
three nations that could pay a fair
proportion of their annual allotment
have decided not to do SO. The others
cannot pay if they would.
Consequently, what had been a sub
stantial source of revenue to this coun-
| try is no longer to be depended on. We
have apparently reached the end of the
chapter of war debt payments This
! applies now to reparationS as well as
to loans made between members of the
same political alliance during the war.
1t is to be seen how far it will apply in
the future between private debts con-
tracted between Germany and the
United States.
were punctiliously meeting their interest
and principal payments into the United
States Treasury, this Government was
IN receipt of large sums annually from
The 20 European borrowers. About 10
per cent of this was rendered in the
form OF treasury obligations and the
remainder was in cash. Under the
Liberty loan acts by whose terms
| funds were advanced by this country
to other countries associated with us
in the war, it was provided that all
repayments on account of principal and
made in United States securities should
be applied to the retirement Of our pub
lie debt.
National Debt Cut.
In those years of regular payments
the surplus of the Treasury was large
50 the debt retirement went on rapidly
and Secretary Mellon had the ambi-
ton to reduce the national debt to a
very modest figure in the present
decade. He was able to cut it down
50 9,300,0 100000 from 1919 to 1890. The
Liberty bond acts also prescribed that
all payments rendered in cash could be
accepted as Government receipts When
the debtors were able to purchase
United States Treasury obligations at
a discount and turn them In at their
face value. they did so. Eventually
these same securities went to a pre-
MUM, and then payments were made
chiefly in cash.
During the fiscal year 1882 there we're
no payments made by the European
debtors to the United States Govern
ment on account of the moratorium de-
clared on such payments under the act
| OF Congress in December, 1881 This
year Great Britain made a token" pay
ment of S10,000,000 on June Is and
viii pay $7,50O,000 in American cur
rency on December 15 So the tide of
foreign remittances on the war account
is fast running out. AS a working
credit for the American Government
IL Is no longer of much value. This is
finally recognized in Washington. Wall
Street had come to this conclusion two
years ago.
The original debt of the 20 nations
was S10,338,000.000 The accumulated
interest is somewhat more than the
principal of the debt. Against principal
and interest the sum of about $685.
600, 900 has been remitted. Uncle Sam
will be lucky if he collects Is cents on
the dollar Of his patriotic loan. The
swan song of war loan payments may
therefore be sung together with that
Of prohibition.
Copyright 1889