THE MICHIGAN DAILY
SUNDAY, APRIL 1, 1923
SUNDAY, APRIL 1, 1923
THE MiCHIGAN DAILY
~
o
ie Allied War Debt
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LILLIAN REID
The recent funding of the" British prtance. Though its advocates de-
debt shows that the United States,. pended chiefly on sentimental reason-
like any other creditor, prefers to try ing, such as our moral debt to the
conciliation before taking legal action. Allies, they have one or two prac-
The ordinary man is willing to confer tical points. It is a fact that we shall
with his debtor, to find what he can not be able to collect all of the debt,
do. He has learned from experience and, if it is paid, we shall have an
that it is better to make terms him- excess of imports.
self than to call a lawyer and appeal The United States has always been
to the court. In the same way, a a debtor nation, and has been used to
nation is, wiser to compromise, than to an excess of exports which created a
resort to force for the collection of a "favorable balance of trade." Since
lawful debt. It costs too much fa v ithe war, we have become a creditor,
to war, or to law. a role which is new to us.
Like individual debtors, some of the Europe must have money to pay
nations are able and willing to pay= the eleven billions of 'dollars which
others are willing to pay, but must she owos. To get this, she 1must speed.
have their time extended; still others up production and sell goods. It is
can not pay, and never will. A crc- probable that the debt payment, final-
ditor nation must collect what it canI, ly, will be in the form of goods sent
and, like a business concern, charge to this country. That will make us'
the bad debts to overhead. an importing, not an exporting, na-
Every owner of a Liberty of Victory' tion. The manufacturers oppose this,
bond has a direct interest in this ques- because of foreign competition, but it
tion, for it was by means of the popu- has been pointed out that we are
lar loans that most ofthe foreign war prosperous enough to stand it.
loans were financed. We have become, For this reason, there has been'
the greatest creditor nation in the opposition to a high tariff, which
world, instead of the great debtor, and shputs out foreign trade. England. a
the American people want to know great creditor, has always advocated
who owes them, and when the debt fre trade, and has been successful -
will be paid. in manufacturing. The farm bloc has
At the end of 1922, the total Allied been considering further loans to
debt to the United States, principal Europe ,to finance manufacture and
and interests, was-over $11,600;00,4100. trade. Europe can not buy our agri-'
The form of the obligations was very cultral prodets without money. Some
simple, practically international I. O. argue that it is best to loan more to
U 's.s- our, debtors to put them on their feet,
The World War Foreign Debt Com- while others say that it is merely
mission, which was created by Con-: "sending good money after bad."
gress more than a year ago, has the'It is probable that we could get
power to discuss and -settle the .for along without this money, but from a,
eign debt problems. It may arrange business standpoint, debts should be
for the refunding, for extension of paid or- international credit will be-
time, and for new interest rates, but come weak. If the word of a nation
it can not cancel debts. It has al- is not good, it will not be able to
ready settled the British question, and borrow more money.
has arranged for conferences- with
other nations.
Altogether, we have about twenty Stopping By Woods
debtor nations, but only three are of'
great importance. Great Britain, O A Snowy Evening.
France, and Italy together owe r.s'
about ten billion dollars. Of these Whose woods these are I think I know.
three, England alone has made defi- His house is in the Village though;
nite plans for settlement. He will not see me stopping here
In February, a British commission To watch his woods 3111 up with snow.
met the Foreign Dgt Commission at
Washingtn, and arranged for the The little horse ust think it queer
funding of the British debt of almost To stop without a farmhouse near
$4,700,000,000. England, paid $100,- Between the woods and frozen lake
000,000 interest last year, and pro- The darkest evening of the year.
mises to pay more, so the principle.
was fixed at $4,600,000,000 to be paid He' gives his harness bels a shake
in sixty-two years. The interest will To ask if there is some mistake,
be 3 per cent for the first ten years, The only other sound's the sweep
and after than 3/2 per cent. England, Of easy wind and downy flake.
though reluctant, is able and ready- to
pay, and stands in the position of an The woods are lovely dark and deep.
honorable debtor. But I have promises- to keep,
France and Italy have made no de- And miles to go before I sleep,
finite plans, although they offered to And miles to go before I sleep.
send a commission. They have been Robert Frost.
unable to pay interest, and have no Reprinted from the New Republic,
immediate prospect of meeting their for March 7.
obligations. The economic situationj
in France is very bad, especially since
the rinvasion 4of- the Rub, while in Annvta ~ ~ ia
Italy, the Fascistitcontrol is decided-. fIWt$$00 III s }.
ly uncertain. Authorities say that ifB
payment is made, it can' only be after By Nw.o
EVEN MR. MENCKEIN, who is one-
a long time. These nations are like! half the reason why I buy THE
poo men who must have their loan SMART SET4 has run short of ideas
extended. for the time being, and has descended
Rmssia, Greece,.and Armenia are to the old device of making "filler" by
frankly poor debtors, for they have no 'cursing the current healing cults. In
governments that we recognize. The the April issue he wastes three pages
Russian de'i~s the most important, bombarding Couesm in particular and
but At is improbable that it will ever New Thought and Christian Science I
be paid.. also in particular. The practice seems
The other debtor nations are As- Ito be a perennial one with our maga-
tria, Belgian, Czechoslovakia, Estho. zines; I don't know why. Surely it
nia, Finland, Hungary, Latvia, Lithu- does no good, and only aggravates
ania, Poland, Rumian and Serbia. Lbatred, which in its turn does no good.
Tht ocider nations; have offered to Yc tca 't' mtake' idios wise by bawling
a e rrangements,hbut ote.new°theY Qut, neiter can "The Smart Set
states have all they can do to live, claim any credit for tself- by printing
'anu sh tra. But wl 'd rather read
ney Allareing adfinancial o '-Menken. on Coueism than Charles G.
yA, ndi Shaw on his net insanities: women .
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I
ESTABLISHED 1902
-1
'A World Language
LIONEL G. CROCKER
University of laichiga
In a certain small town of MchiganI to English. A Japanese student who'
the high school students are making was a private English pupil of mine;
their 'book reports from such ephe- was soon to leave for England. Pre-
mneral stories as "Freckles," "Poly= paratory to leaving, he had also stud-
anna," and so on. When I asked my ied French in college and had employed
cousin why she was reading this sort a private teacher. A farewell party
of literature in preference to "Lorna' was to be given to him by his rela-
Doone," "Ivanhoe," "A Tale of Two ties and friends at a country villa
Cities," and the rest of the usual run near Kamakura, to which this French i
of required books fpr outside read- madame and myself were invited. The
ing, she breplied to the effect that lady had previously taught her native,
her teacher wanted them to enjoy their longuage in Vladivostok, but when the
reading reports! I!Russian ' disturbances became, there
If this sort of thing keeps up"it' was no more time for the study of
will not be long until the Oriental French - so she had to leave -'
peoples will be coming to the United and suddonly. During her stay in
States to teach us about our own that city, however she had studied
literature; for in Waseda University English and it was fortunate for her
in Tokyo I found the great master-
pieces of English prose are being that she had, for, as so told me at
translated: "Cran~ord," "Henry Es- this gardn party, she could not have'!
mond," "Adam Bede," "Lorna Doone",begun to teach French if she had not
and the other books of this character known Enlish. This lady and I
Not only were prose' masterpieces be- were- the only foreigners at this
ing devoured wo'd for word, but the gathering. I found no difficulty at
works of the great dramatists were all in conversing with the Japanese
also becoming a part of the Japan- men.. After a few words of greeting
ese student's knowledge of the Eng- in Japanese, the only Japanese that
lish language and literature. The av- I understood, the conversation lapsed
erage student spends from ten to fif- into English. As I recall, there was
teen hours a week in the study of only one gentleman who could speak
English. This is not surprising when Frenc, and the poo French madme,
it is realized that the bulk of the Jap- not knowing any Japanese, was forced
anese foreign trade is with the Englisn to talk in "uncowth" English.
speaking people. As is well known,
the German language was much in I Not only is there this interest in
vogue during one period of the Jap- English in Japanhut the educated
anese Reniassance. The only student class of China handles English, it is
in Japan who now deliberately studiessad, with mre fluency than do the
German in preference to English is Japanese. My pal and I walked into
one who is preparing for medicine. the dining car of the express from
The Japanese government has built Mukden to Pekin. Glancing through
up an exceptionally fine system of the car, we saw that there were only
medical schools throughout the Em- two vacant chairs. These were at a
pire. During the early days of these, table already' partially occupied by a
schools it was not uncommon to have lady with a large bottle of beer and
professors imported from Germany, a Chinese youth dressed lavishly in
and now and then one may see Ger- Chinese silks. There was nothing to
man magazines and books' being read do but sit down in this uninviting at-
on the street ears. There are stiff mosphere of beer and the Chinese wall.
night schools where German is taught, On approaching nearer, I noticed that
but these can be counted on the fing- the lady was ofGerman extraction
ers, whereas it would take the fing- and as I sat down next to her I
ers of a dozen individuals to count the caught one or two words of Ger-
schools that attract the apprentice man; at least I thought they were
clerk, or tradesman who is seeking German! I remembered one or two
a knowledge. of English to add a few phrases that I had learned in Ger-
yen to his monthly stipend. It man class in high school and I tried
not an infrequent occurrence for Jap- ;these with .success. But after this
nan boyst oferhemnc~elfes Jas little sally, which to me was rather
aueo oyservants dierng sel esas lugubrious, she said to me in perfect
householdsevEnglish, save for the German mnflec-
ial tasks as blacking boots, pressingar
tion, "You are American, are you
clothes, looking after the baby, taking not?" Our conversation from then
care of the garden,: and shutting th s
windows on a cold, frosty morning on was in English; and on inquiring
for the advantage of mingling with whether the conversation I had over-
English-speaking. people. It is not1i heard between the Chinese boy and
an exaggeration to -say that one who the lady was in German or not, I was
speaks English would have little dif told that it had been in English. I:
ficulty in finding his way around in further learned that the Chinese was
the most remote ,sections of Tokyo a representative of the Standard Oil
for there is always someone in the Company.
'neighborhood who understands and Brander Matthews says in his "Es-
speaks a little English. This universal says on English,'' that as long as the
interest in English makes the sojourn- English speaking people do their share
er in Japan feel that he has a mother of the work in the world, the English
tongue of value and importance. 1anguage will flourish. Judging from
French at one time had. .the dis the extent that English is spoken in
tinction of being the medium of world the Orient, one would gather that
speech. While I was. in Tokyo, I had that share at present is a large one.
occasion to secure concrete evidence ' and that English is the prevailing
that French is graciously giving way world language.
IN DEFENSE OF TRADITION
(Continued from Page Two)
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essays on Emerson, Hawthorne and
the Adamses. Dr. Eliot has recently
declared that "Puritan men saw no
harm in getting drunk either gat 'wed-
dings on funerals" and that at Harvard
Commencements "graduates in the
college yard were so drunk and riotous
that sheriffs of two counties withf
large posses were actively etnployed."
Professor Sherman now informs us
that John Quincy Adams was "tempted
to frequent truancies fromn the law,
reading "Tom Jones", (an unpardon--
able sin) and Rousseau's "confessions,"
shooting, playing the flute, visiting,'
frequently dancing until three, occa-I
sionally drinking until dawn." Haw-
thorne who is generally enveloped in
erson stresses his unorthodox reli-:!
gious views and points out that the
search for moral perfection was noth-
ing- peculiar to New England Puri-
tans, but has motivated great souls In
all ages.
Professor Sherman's chief asset as.
a champion of conservatism lies in
his polemic adroitness. His is a pen
which can arouse violent antagonisms.
"Americans" has already been ex-
'ceriated by critics of the Mencken
school, the Byronic adolescents,
"words citizens," parlor Bolshevists
and cynical egoists innoculated with
the virus. of militant Prussian "kul-
tur." This opposition is certain to
cause a salutary reaction towardis
Professor Sherman's attitude; for his
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