Jasper County Democrat, Volume 21, Number 90, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 8 February 1919 — How Much Indemnity Can Germany Pay? About Three Billions a Year? [ARTICLE]

How Much Indemnity Can Germany Pay? About Three Billions a Year?

By PAUL CLAY, Statistician

How much indemnity can Germany pay? This is one important question before the conference that will fix the terms of indemnity,, because the amount wliich she owes is so large as to be practically unlimited. The mere property damage is one of the small items, for as a matter of equity she should reimburse the world not only for the property destroyed but also for the suspension of industry, the loss of life, the sufferings of the survivors and the war costs. Probably these items would add up to not less than $150,000,000,000, which is 50 per cent in excess of the entire wealth of the German people, personal and real, tangible and intangible. As it is impossible for her within any reasonable time to pay what she owes, the demands of our allies will doubtless be limited merely by her physical ability to pay. What we wish to learn is the breaking point of her finances. To impose upon her any less than the last dollar she can pay is an injustice to the peaceful civilized peoples whom she has destroyed as far as she could; and on the other hand to require of her too # large an annual payment would defeat our own purposes in that it would break down her industries and render her a bankrupt nation from whom we could not collect. In the nature of things we cannot have both reparation and punishment, if by the latter is meant any form of boycott. We must choose the one and forego the other. ' Therefore, as a means of collecting the damages from Germany, our allies will find it necessary to again admit her to the world’s commerce. Detailed figuring, which need not be set forth here, warrants the conclusion that an indemnity of about $2,700,000,000 per annum can be collected from the German nation without breaking down its industries ; and this amount can be gradually increased within, say, a five-year period to about $3,500,000,000 per annum. To attempt to collect more would probably defeat our own purpose, and to collect any less would be an injustice to ourselves and our allies. • r . t .