The Bismarck tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, N.D.) 1916-current, 1934-07-09
C,lillotine Waits Slayer
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StQvisku Scandal Barred

VIldt 4AVACS 41AS CIWlSO OtcTLklISW
two governments, caused public
massacre, precipitated q revolution,
and shook the Third Republic Of
France to its very foundation.
The name Stavisky will have its
place in history. There ought to be a
bust of him In some hall of fame !.
in papier mache made out Of coun-
terfeit bank notes. Forger, crook,
swindler, gigolo, pimp, briber, intri-
guer, arms-smuggler, spy, conspirator.
murderer, master mind Of gangdon
and possibly a suicide. he seems not to
have missed one single criminal trick
and they are not through finding
out about him yet.
More Than . Good Story
To Americans. who have undergone
three years of financial depression
such as history had never recorded,
who have seen their own institutions
fall. their banking system totter, their
credit machinery crash, their indus
tries sitting and apples sold on the
streets by citizens who had driven
high priced automobiles only three
months before, there Is meaning in
the Stavisky scandal more subtle
than the detective story and the muir
der mystery 1t involves.
Picture a country with a national
debt of 80 billions of francs, not
counting the war debts. This Is about
81 billion dollars at present exchange,
or about $500 per head. It is more
than the per capita debt of the Unit
ed States, although our country is
three times the size Of France in pop
ulation. Picture the population Of
New York, New Jersey and Pennsyl-
vania forced to pay in taxes the yearly
operation costs of the whole United
States. Picture those tax-burdened
people suddenly realizing that 40 per
cent of all this money goes for carry
ing charges on their unthinkable ma
tional debt.
French income taxes alone were SO
per cent in 1888 Business was taxed
by more than 100 seperate taxes. in
Guiding q tax on turnover before
profits, tax on all salaries, assess
ments again ION salaries-paid) for q
social insurance fund, more assess
ments for family subsidies for work.
ers with children And on top Of this,
1t was the salaried individual, chief
, ly, who paid practically all the taxes.
Non-salary incomes evaded taxation.
In France the scandal Of tax-evasion
is 50 commonplace that 1t Is joked
about in the cafes.
And while we are drawing this dis
NAL picture, imagine this same coun-
try with trade deficit amounting to
one billion francs monthly, trade re-
lations so stupidity nishandled that
other countries are just giving up and
refusing to play. Agricultural pro-
duction, in France, is insufficient for
domestic consumption. Manufactures
are limited largely to luxuries or, at
least, non-essentials France depends
on the outside world for raw mater
ials. II she cannot, in return, sell
her manufactures derived from these
raw material imports, she Is sick.
economically anaemic, and suffering
from financial dysentery.
| Europe's Battlefield
Complete your picture by observing
that France has been torn by wars.
Not only did the Great War destroy
French property to an incalculable
degree, but for nine hundred years
France has been the battlefield Of
Europe because Of her geographical
and political position. AS a result the
French people have developed, In self
defense, thrift-psychosis which may
seem exaggerated but which Is an In
nate tendency to put aside for the In.
evitable rainy day." This rainy day
has been, for centuries, synonymous
with war and invasion. Hence thu
Little People" Of France distrust the
banking system. Likewise the credit
system. Ditto the check system. Ane
these systems, in France, are pueril<
and unwieldy as consequence Of thi'
national tendency to hoard.
Now, on top Of this uncomfortable
situation, when everybody in France
Twas wondering how to carry on, won