Show The DAY IN The most dangerous bomb in the world many Americans believe is the war debts There is enough dynamite dynamite dy dye dy- dy in It it they say to blow the standing and dignity of the United States to smithereens Were we thrice as rich as we are the argument goes we could not afford to let our debtors tell us when they will repudiate repudiate diate their debts to us and us-and and how On the day we permit that we may as aswell aswell aswell well erase crase the eagle cagle from our coat of arms and substitute a sheep The idea of ot paying a debt of any kind to toUncle toUncle toUncle Uncle Sam will become an international international joke While history endures historians will laugh at the ingenuity of the European diplomats in starting a war seizing the loot and making the Americans pay all the expenses It must not be done At the same time a resort to arms is unthinkable That is what makes the problem so difficult In many ways it ft stands out as the most serious seri serf ous question before us We must give Europe to understand that we are in earnest but without getting rough 4 a aThe The European idea is that if she can prove to her own satisfaction that she cannot pay her debts in gold the day they are arc due this is ample evidence that she cannot pay them in anything or at any time She reserves reserves re reo re- re serves the right to write the program manage the show and bring the performance performance per per- to a happy ending by giving giving giving ing herself a receipt in full fuU for all aU past and present obligations Unless Uncle Sam has lost a high per cent of his traditional acumen he will not rest content until he appraises ap ape praises the assets of his debtors and takes what he can get in lieu of his full dues Admitting that gold to pay the debts is not available at once what excuse can be offered for failure failure failure fail fail- ure to pay in some other material We may reject merchandise exchange because we have too much merchandise reasonable objection objection ob ob- ob dise disc no now But what can be made to acceptance of the debt in silver 0 Silver isn't as impossibly rare and costly as is gold It opens a market I In in the Orient for European products the making of which h should go a longway long longway longway way toward relieving the unemployment ment situation in European countries Doles would pay wages for th of goods that could readily be sold in China for silver and in that way the doles applied to the liquidation of the war debt Doles are payable in currency therefore the payment for making Chinese export goods would cease to tobe tobe tobe be a tax on the national gold supply The debtor countries would not even have their exchange C rates lowered by the tile exportation of gold on the war var account as in the past nast It may be suggested that the exports ex cx- ports to China would constitute hurtful hurtful hurt hurt- ful competition for the Chinese pro pro- pr ducer There might be some ground for this complaint if the Chinese producer producer producer pro pro- ducer would not be reimbursed by increase in the buying power of his capital silver far exceeding any loss due to competitive selling The benefits mentioned though highly important are slight compared com corn pared with the solution of the dire possibilities of the war debt controversy controversy contro contro- versy especially the possibility that our country may be thrust into the position of an overgrown infant blubbering bering for its rights |