There is an annual increment, not easily ascertainable with
exactness, but approximately ascertainable to the wealth of every
country in the world. Just as when a man is working a farm there
is in normal years an increment or accretion of wealth or income
to him above the cost of the production of the products of the
soil which he sells, there is such an annual increment to the
wealth of each country taken as a whole. Some experts have told
me they calculated that, at the outside, in prosperous peace times
the annual increment of German wealth is ten billion marks.
Now when we have the annual interest to be paid by Germany exceeding
the annual increment of the country, the social and even moral
bankruptcy of the country must ensue. If repudiation of the loan
or any part of it is then forced, the loss naturally falls upon
those who have taken the loan. The working-man or small capitalist,
who put all his savings in the war loan, is without support for his
old age, and so with the man who took insurance in the Insurance
Companies or put his savings in a bank.
Pages:
295
296
297
298
299
300
301
302
303
304
305
306
307
308
309
310
311
312
313
314
315
316
317
318
319