A CRASH COMING.

Taranaki Daily News, 7 January 1922, Page 11

A CRASH COMING.

“THESE DEBTS MUST BE WIPED OUT—ALL.” Why the International Debt of the World Must be Considered by the, Nations as One World Problem—. Why You Cannot Economic Law—Germany’s Coming Crash. London, Oct. 7. A notably outspoken article in the Outlook deals trenchantly with the problem of the world’s debts which are bringing disaster to all nations. “These debts must be wiped out, all of them,” it says. “The crash (in Germany) is coming, its date can be calculated within a few' months, the repercussions on the markets of the world will be terrible—and how will our merchants feel when they find their customer Genpany, and her economically dependent neighbor, as unable to buy goods and pay for them, as Russia? What are we going to do about it?” demands the Outlook. ECONOMIC LAW AND MORALS. “We must clear our heads of a lot of pestilential nonsense planted there by our own passions of the war period, and by politicians who have traded on those passions,” says the Outlook. “We must realise that the world is an economic whole, and that the present ills of the world are in great part due to the impossible attempt to mix up moral judgments with remorseless economic law. Economic law has no morals. Morality is human, spiritual, subjective; economic law is objective, inhuman, takes no account of the hates or derises or beliefs of mankind. “If we wish to punish criminals we cart kill them, but economic law punishes slave-holder as well as slave. In our desire to make Germany pay so far as possible for the suffering she brought upon the world, an attempt has been made to override economic law in the interests of morals (the Germans would say revenge, but let that pass), and the whole world, Germany less than some of the nations who conquered her, is paying the penalty, and will pay until we all face facts. ONE WORLD PROBLEM. “If we admit so much, we shall be great donkeys to deny that the economic forces which control men and nations, and which do not care who began the war, have ordained, in a world in which all nations are interdependent, that international debt is international debt, whether it be called reparation, or a friendly advance made by one Ally to another to repel an onslaught of barbarians. Having progressed so far, we are able to recognise the great truth that inextricably mixed up with the in-xer-Allied indebtedness is the problem of the German indemnity, that all debts, whether friendly or not, are inter-rela-ted, and that the international debt of the world must be considered by the nations of the world as one world problem. WHY THERE IS TRADE DEPRESSION. “Why are we and the Americans and everyone else struggling in a trade depression? Because, if we are British, we cannot sell our goods, so much do the exchanges favor us, to old customers who cannot pay for them; because, if we are Italian, we cannot buy the goods we nqed from the countries who so sorely desire to sell them, when our currency has lost purchasing power abroad. In every nation the fallacy persists that distress and unemployment are due to local political conditions, and i that panaceas can be found at home if I politicians seek them, whereas hard | times will persist everywhere until trade can be revived, and trade cannot, revive until the exchanges are stabilI ised. But the problem of exchange is primarily the problfem of war debt, whether* termed indemnity or friendly, advance. AMERICA TOO! “Most of these war debts cannot be paid. Setting aside the special case of Russia, Germany cannot pay France, Italy, or ourselves; without the German reparations, France and Italy cannot pay us; without the monies France and Italy, not to say Germany, owe to this country, we cannot pay the United States. Happy, fortunate America! Into her lap pours the gold of all the world, all nations are her debtors. So dreamed her business men, her great financiers, in the boom that followed the Armistice; now her factories stand idle, and six' million unemployed starve in her cities; ‘a new Midas,’ Mr. Keynes calls her, and predicts that f a point may even come when the United States will refuse golq, yet still demand to be paid vainly seeking more succulent fare than the barren metal of her own contract.’ ONLY ONE SOLUTION. “There is but one solution,” adds the Outlook. “Hard it will be for Frenchmen, to whom Germany is a foul aggressor who ought to suffer for decades, to admit the truth; difficult fact imposed by economic law that America must in great measure pay for Europe’s war, must take on herself the burden solemn ly laid by Treaty upon the conquered whom the fleets and armies of the United States helped to subdue. These debts must be wiped cut, all of them. “With reparations out of the way, France and Italy can be compensated in part by forgiveness of their debt to us. We shall not object, if we do not. have to pay America. The foundations for a fresh start can thus be sunk — with the debts out of the way, the exchanges can be stabilised, and not otherwise; with the exchanges stabilised, the trade of the world can recover, and not otherwise. WE TURN TO AMERICA. “And so we turn ta America. It .is j a hard thing Europe asks. Let America refuse, as she will be justified in refusing, if she finds a flaw in these arguments, arguments which. nearly all the experts of- the world would endorse in private, and most of them —unhappily —refuse to champion in public lest certain persons arise and pronounce with finality the dreaded curse ‘Pro-German’’ We admit the arguments are pro-Ger-man. We wish they were not, for then there would be no need to raise them; they would haVe been universally accepted years ago. Admitting them to be pro-German, we submit they are no less pro-British, pro-French, pro-Italian, and pro American.” concludes the Outlook.