The Daily Phoenix

The question is often asked, has the thousand million dollars indemnity paid by France to Germany been a benefit to the latter? A French paper answered this interrogatory, by showing that the debt of Prussia has increased since the war $132,000,000, that taxes are higher now in Germany than they have been for the past twenty years, and that the German Minister of Finance has petitioned Parliament to authorize a new loan, out of which to meet the current expenses of the government. Great as was the war indemnity paid to Germany, it covered but a small portion of the expenses incurred by that power. And when to the actual expenses are added loss of population and waste of wealth in scores of ways connected with the war, it can readily be seen that Germany did not actually gain much by either the contest with France or the large war indemnity paid.