The times-news. [volume] (Hendersonville, N.C.) 1927-current, 1933-01-02
WHOLE WORLD
IS CARRYING
LOAD OF Debt
Writing Off OF Liquida.
tons Will Be Accen-
tuated In 1888, Said

Whether to be the corner grocer
on Main street, with a file of I'M
paid bills, or the United States
! government, with defaulted notes
! from France. Belgium and other
Ountries. the extraordinary
weight of preSent-day indebted
ness is chief problem before the
lworld.
1t is a problem which unites in
diWiduals and nations. Theorists
| propose all sorts of solutions for
| the problem, from q Wholesale
\ system of international imitation
/ to the simple one of letting things
work themselves out. Sam Smith,
| Main street grocer, and Uncle
/ Sam. international banker, have
| about the same difficulty.
/ Meanwhile, as the discussion
! goes on, a gradual process of
writing off indebtedness is under
way. at home or abroad. The year
| 1888 promises to be q year OF
/ liquidation. At Washington, many
of the efforts of the federal gov
eminent seem directed to easing
\ and cuShioning the process, which
to financial advisers seems nev-
! liable. Government economists are
/ frequently heard to assert that
! the sooner this impossible burden
of debt is scaled down the better.
DEBTS OF ALL KINDS
There is city. state and federal
debt: there is the local net bond
! ed debt: there is the gigantic bur
! den of farm mortgages; there Is
the city man who has mortgaged
! his home; there is the debt from
the department store account,
with an installment to pay on the
automobile, or with borrowings
/ against life insurance policies.
| The great mass of this debt was
contracted when dollars were
cheap: it is the worlds great diff
! fculty today that interest and
| amortization payments must be
} made with dollars that are Eek
!. pensive." In other words, what
has happened is that commodity
DriCeS IN terms of dollars have
! gone down, as they always do IN
the midst Of business contraction,
| The men who are advising the
administration on this major sub
ject of indebtedness forecast that
a great mass of the huge Ameri-
can debt total will be repaid,
while another great mass can
never be collected. 1t will either
be written off as paper debt or it
will be defaulted through fore
closure. bankruptcy or other cum
/ bersome process. Isolated IN
stances now frequently get into
the paper of shopkeepers who de-
eide to put the past behind them
:. with a single bonfire of unpaid
bills.
! DISASTROUS FOR SOME
| This may be good business for
some, but for others would be dis
astrous. The cumbersome process
! of scaling down the debt load IS
! the major feature of this period
of liquidation, effecting readjust.
ments i'm society on deep and
, incalculable scale, but rarely form
ing a subject for journalistic COM
ment.
/ Meanwhile. public attention has
been focused on war debts owed
| the United States, because of the
dramatic elements involved; but
no less an authority than Mr.
Richard Whitney, president of thS
New York Stock Exchange, re-
Gently in his annual report, said
"The most serious debt prob
lens of the United States are do
mestic, rather than foreign"
With the cooperation of gov
| arnment statisticians, an effort
has been made to get some basis
of measurement of the present
/. J size of American domestic indebt'
| edness, with the sums itemized fol
comparative purposes. Specia
thanks for the facts secured mus
go to the United States commerce
department.
1t is emphasized that the tota
figure is by no means authorize
tive, but represents a rough ap
Proclamation, and that the figures
: included are probably chiefly val
: liable for mutual comparison.
AMPLE ROOM FOR SOLVEECl
I Yet if the total of nearly STAT,
00O,OOO,OOO American indebted
: ness is accepted for purpose Of
comparison. this gigantic sum car
) still be placed against an eve!
larger figure-that of nationa
wealth. The National industrial
Conference board estimates tina