OCR Text |
Show Relief Through Fear Brought to public notice by the unexpected proposal of the American Government that all payments of international debes connected with the World War be suspended for one year, the world is beginning to realize that the financial fi-nancial burdens placed upon the German people are beyond their capacity to pay and at the same time maintain their industrial and commercial enterprise. The victorious nations are dis-covering dis-covering that there is no way to collect the costs of a modern war from the defeated countries. Thf. idemnity Germany was to pay .was not fixed by the Versailles Treaty, but within a few years the creditor nations realized that this indefinite indefin-ite obligation was unsatisfactory and the Dawes Plan, subsequently modified into hte Young Plan, was adopted. Even' these figures have been more than Germany has been able to pay. The present movement to relieve Germany of war debt payments this year has been made a possible success by the willingness of the United States to postpone 'payments 'pay-ments due her by the nations which would have received money from Ge-many. In ether words, the United State.-; foregoes receipt of th? greater part of the money wn;ch Germany is relieved of paying. pay-ing. Thus, regardless of official cenial, there seems to be some relationship re-lationship between reparations paid by Germany and war debts paid by the allied countries to America. No one should mistake the present pres-ent relief offered Germany as any indication ot a permanent relir nuishment of the payments whicn the victorious nations are trying to collect from Germany. The present relief has been actuated, not by any spirit of generosity, but by a sudden fear that the burden placode on Germany, if allowed to crush her economically, will drive Germany into communism eeventu- j ally. To prevent this danger the statesmen of the various nations are hurriedly seeking to grant temporary tem-porary relief. However, regardless of official denial, the granting of a year'j moratorium is a step towards par-t.ai par-t.ai cancellation and revision of war obligations. It will prepare the public of the creditor nations to expect the subsequent change. Already it has become known that the United States was willing to postpone the payments two years msead of ona. For a number of years the most competent financial fanure tomeet the tremendous ob-exnerts ob-exnerts have predicted Germany's ligations placed upon her. The tothe same viewpoint. This pos-public pos-public will gradually be educated sibility is not entirely evil for In all probability the nations which give up debt payments will reap a large benefit from increased commercial com-mercial activity. |