The Bismarck Tribune

Persistence Will Win

Anyone needing modern illustration of the old adage, "If at first you don't succeed, try, try again," might do well to watch the progress of Europe's effort to scale down the war debts.

Constant hammering and continual assertion that revision of the debts is necessary if the world is to go ahead once more are reminiscent of the dripping of water upon a stone.

Without cessation and from many angles, the people are being told that such generosity on our part is a vital necessity, that we will be shamefully lax if we do not respond to Europe's plea.

Alleged self-interest is stressed in one barrage and the American sense of idealism is appealed to in another.

Eventually, under the stress of some sort of government leadership, a crisis will be declared, the thumbscrews will be turned down and the war debt question will become a matter of history before the people wake up to what has happened. It then will be too late to make effective protest.

Occasionally there appears something which runs counter to the debt-cancellation propaganda. Such an article was printed by the Washington Star, sent from Geneva by Albin E. Johnson. It shows that France lists her military expenses at 13,000,000 francs annually but that her expenditures actually are 20,000,000 francs for this purpose. In our money it is something like $810,215,946.

This is some $200,000,000 more than the United States spends for war preparations annually and this country has more than three times the population of France.

Johnson explains that many items which are spent for the army and navy are hidden in the French civil budget. For instance, a finance law provides 170,000,000 francs for air corps reserve materials. The public health department provides 57,731,250 francs for needy families whose wage earners are in the army; the agriculture department budget provides 13,747,050 francs for the purchase of army remounts, and so on through a long list.

Meanwhile, the United States follows an opposite policy. It includes in its army and navy budgets many things which are civil in character, such as $30,000,000 for the Panama canal management, $50,000,000 for inland waterways and similar items.

In view of these facts, if they are well enough known, the American people are not going to forget that France is the ringleader in the attempt to coerce the United States government to scale down the debts.

She cries loudest about her inability to pay.

As a matter of common sense, the people should make sure that their representatives in congress and in the senate do not overlook these facts.