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Show INTERNATIONAL INSINCERITY. When a sound business needs financial fin-ancial accomodation, it borrows money on proper security from another and more prosperous business. The time comes for payment, and the first business busi-ness asks for an extension of time on the grounds that it is unable to spare the money from iis business. Then the creditor and debtor meet and talk the matter over on a purely business-like basis. A mutually fair agreement is reached. But when two nations become creditor cre-ditor and debtor the result is very different. Business methods arc forgotten. for-gotten. Politics rears its head. The debt is made a plank in political platforms. plat-forms. It it wrangled over, and settlement set-tlement blocked for purely political reasons. That is the trouble with the war debt problem. Instead of being treated treat-ed as a matter of banking it has been turned into a political football. The decision of France not to pay, after her Premier had worked to save his country's credit, was an entirely political poli-tical decision, having nothing to do with the merit of the debts. France, indeed, is in a far better position to pay than either Italy or England, both of which met their obligations promptly. The war debt qui stion should be considered by a business commission, made up of men who understand the problem in all its phas.es. It should be 1 : i inline to political influence. Thin it ..ill git somewhere. |