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Show Debts Make Enemies For makinfr a real, heart-felt enmity, there is nothing more efficacious than an unpaid debt. And the bitterness, as a rule, is not on the part of the creditor. He may regret his loss, and even feel peeved at his debtor, but the real iMiimiiR is on lite part of the debtor, as a rule, particularly if he has no intention of paying the debt. To him, the very thot of the person he ownes is obnoxious, because it remind him pf his own shortcoming. And so the grudge goes on in his heart. Among nations, there is a similar situation. It was demonstrated dem-onstrated a few days ago, in France, when thousands of war veterans staged a demonstration of hatred against the United States, because of the debt funding agreement between the two countries, by which, incidentally France is to pay a small fraction of what she really owes to the United States. Americans Amer-icans believe, righMy, that their country was very generous willi France, and that the French people should be filled with gratitude at the millions they actually got and which they never will pay. But very evidently they are not only grateful, grate-ful, but venomous in their hatred because they had to pay anything. Concerning the settlement a French newspaper article headed "Shylock," is quoted as follows : "France, if our precious parliament ratifies the Mellon-Berengcr Mellon-Berengcr agreement, binds itself to pay to its ex-ally, that it saved even as it saved itself, seven billion dollars, or in the present rate of exchange 210 billions of francs. "One must not cease to put these Tnonstrous figures before be-fore the eyes of Frenchmen so that the sentiment of disgust and revolt which is at the bottom of all our hearts, comes to full light and makes it impossible for our pusillanious parliamentarians parlia-mentarians to vote for this monstrous agreement." Of course, no mention is made of the million of francs that have been remitted and never will be paid. With articles like this distributed over the country and read by the people, it is easy to sec how hatred can be fanned into fury, and all sense of reason lest. And all because the United States asks for a small return of the millions it lent, and which were borrowed from its own people. |