Gunnison Valley News | 1932-12-15 | Page 4 | Why Can't they Pay?

WHY CAN'T THEY I PAY? Il is just a bit difficult for the or- J dinary man who isn't an economist, j or psychologist, or diplomat, or fool to understand the logic of all this poor-mouth our oversea debtors are putting up over war debts. Here are some figures, vouched for by indisputable authorities, which even an economist ought to be able to understand: Great Britain says she can't pay the United States 159 million a year on her debt, yet she can spend 461 million a year for military purposes in time of peace. France's case is far more ridiculous. ridicu-lous. She says she can't pay us 50 million, yet she is spending 541 million mil-lion on her military establishment more than 10 times as much for arms as it would take to pay her debt to us. Then there is Italy, which was given giv-en an absurdly easy debt settlement, spending 331 million for arms, but nimble to pay us less than 15 million. Poland and Belgium show a similar situation. The United States has already given giv-en these nations very lenient terms and lew interest rates in connection j with their war aebts, with 60 years in which to pay. We have even intimated inti-mated that we might further reduce these debts if these nations would make an honest effort to , reduce their armaments. This they are too stubborn to do. Combined European debtor nations are due to pay the United States about 147 million a year. Combined, they are spending 2,250 million a year for war preparations. Why canl they cut their military expenditures one-ninth and thereby save enough to pay these honest debts?