M. HENRI HAUSER DEFENDS FRENCH ACTION IN RUHR

"When I left France about ten days ago", said M. Henri Hauser, exchange professor of economics at the University from the University of Paris, in a recent interview with a CRIMSON reporter, "the French people, save the extreme left, were united in support of the advance into the Ruhr--Germany had evaded payment of the reparations so often and had so repeatedly broken her word that there was a widespread feeling in France that affairs had to be brought to an end. President Harding, in his message on the funding of debts, gave voice to this feeling when he said that 'the sanctity of contracts must be observed'.

"The devastation of northern France, which now seems to be somewhat forgotten, is still a terrible fact. When I last saw the devastated area I was astonished at the amount of reconstruction already completed, but there still remains great areas in ruins. As it is, France has done seven times as much work in the reconstruction as Germany, the aggressor. France has been obliged to borrow enormous sums of money to carry on this work and at the same time pay pensions to the wounded soldiers and their families. To pay the interest and principal on these debts a huge burden of taxation has been placed upon the French taxpayers. Although the national income tax in France is not much heavier than similar taxes in England and the United States, the greater total weight of taxation is seen when one considers the taxes in the departments, arrondissements, and communes, which are much heavier than the local taxes in England and the United States.

To put it plainly, France must either get some money by way of reparation from Germany or become bankrupt. Germany not only must pay, but can pay. A comparison of reparations after the war of 1870 with those after the Great War shows that although the total sum required from Germany is much greater than that paid by France after the Franco-Prussian war, the yearly payments made by France were larger than those made by Germany since the treaty of Versailles was signed. In this comparison we must also consider the fact that France had been invaded in the war of 1870, while German territory was untouched in the Great War.

"It seems to me that the best plan for the collection of the money in Germany is that which proposes to tax heavily the wealthy industrial leaders. These men profited by the war which did so much lasting harm to the entire world. Forseeing the decline of the value of the mark, they invested their profits in dollars, pounds, guilders, and other more stable monetary units. They not only did not suffer in the general financial break-down of Germany, but they also in a large measure escaped taxation. According to the German system of taxation, those who owe the largest amounts are given long periods of time in which to pay, while the smaller taxpayers must pay within a few weeks after assessment. By the time the larger bills fell due, the mark had almost invariably declined so precipitously in value that the amounts actually paid were negligible when compared proportionally with those paid by the smaller tax payers.

"Is it not just then", Monsieur Hauser concluded, "to force the German government to tax heavily the German war profiteers and in that way complete the payment of reparations which are by every consideration of honor and moral right, due to France"?