When you look into the French method of paying for the war you get the
really picturesque and human interest details. In place of taxation you
find that the war is being paid, in the main, out of the savings of the
people. Instead of mortgaging the future, the Gaul is utilising his
thrifty past.
Never in all history is there a more impressive or inspiring
demonstration of the value of thrift as a national asset. It has reared
the bulwark that will enable France to withstand whatever economic
attack the war will make.
The difference between the English and French system of war financing
is psychological as well as material. The average Frenchman has a great
deal of the peasant in him. He is willing to give his life and his
honour to the nation but he absolutely draws the line at paying taxes.
This is why the French have made it a war of loans.
Go up and down the battle line in France and you get startling evidence
of the French devotion to savings. More than one English officer has
told me of tearful requests from French peasants for permission to go
back to their steel-swept and war-torn little farms to dig up the few
hundreds of francs buried in some corner of field or garden. Equally
impressive is the sight of farmers--usually old men and women--working
in the fields while shells shriek overhead and the artillery rumbles
along dusty highways.
Thus the French war debt will be met because of the almost incredible
saving power of the French people.
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