Ogden Standard-Examiner | 1922-07-02 | Page 19 | French Excuse Delay in Debt

FRENCH EXCUSE DELAY M DEBT Paris Official on Way to Discuss Funding of U. S. Obligations BY ANDRE TARDIEU. (Former French Hih Commissiui-r to the United .States.) 1 (Special to The Standard-Examiner ) j j (Copyright, 1922. by The Standard-Examiner.) Standard-Examiner.) PARIS, July 1 M ParmeBtler of I tbe ministry of finance has lefl For ' tbe Frilled Stales. He will coulVr I there with the American committee on the Interallied debts. The attitude of the French government need noti be repeated We Intend, as alwayp, I I to pay what we owe. France. however I finds in difficulty in stating to h-r. I friends why 8be cannot pay immedi J GERMANY PAYS LITTLE. While France owes huge sumu she alpo is a creditor of Incredible amounts. Suppose, for instance, that Russia and others to whom France has loaned, phould p;y up. Then France would be In a good position to repay what 6he owes tbe United Stales and Great Britain In other terms, France finds herself embar rassed In paying her debts because other allies don', pay what ihey owe her. A second difficulty I Ormany France has collected practically noth ing from Germany in two and a half years for reparations. As her ex-j prnditures for pensions had to bn made she has had to borrow. Our Uebt interest absorbs marly 65 per cent of our total revenues and as we will be obliged to continue borrowing so long as Germany falls to pay. (I Is possible that in five yeai our debt interest in-terest will total 70 or 75 pr cent of our total resources TAXES COMPARED. Parmenfier will give the American committee all the details of this sit-nation sit-nation He also will dispel arv ;llu efbh that exists in certain quarters! concerning our fiscal policy, ire will demonstrate that a careful examination examina-tion will show that the French taxpayer taxpay-er is more burdened than the Ameri-'can. Ameri-'can. My calculations enow that consumption consump-tion taxes take 15 per cent of every Frenchman's Income on the average whllei.n America it totals only 3 2 per cent As for the income tax the j following example in significant: Oh an Income of 8000 francs the French taxpayer pays according to the city where he lives from fiO to 120 franc9 while on a salary of ?600 practically the equivalent, the American pays nothing On 25,000 francs the French man pays 2716 and the American nothing on an equivalent income On ."jit. wnd the Frenchman pays, according J to how he gets his money, from 21 to 31 per cent The American pays 1.8 to 12 per cent at the most ON LARGER INCOMES For bigger incomes, like 2,000.000 1 francs, wo tax from 73 to 83 per ceriT, j when the revenue Is from blocks while in the United States it is onh 56 01 at the moat 65 per cent. We may conclude that the mass of the French taxpayers pay more than I American taxpayers. Your figures do mil i umnare wlih ouis nmii i-r.n -. I above ono million dollars income:. I and In France there are not more j than 100 men with that sort of in-', in-', come. My own conclusion is that the I Frenchman pays about three times on j an average whal on American piys j You may reply that doesn't alter the fact that France owes the American treasury $3,000,000,000. You are right.! I But the preceding figures may she) I some lifchi on rhe problem which the I committer b!