Taxation After the War

For the student it is not so much the question of who shall pay as it is the amount to be paid. The importance of this is increased by the fact that it is unlikely a decisive victory will be won by either party, or at least such a one as would allow them to demand huge indemnities from their opponents. Let us assume that the war continues for three years, and on that basis measure the burden that will be imposed upon the various European nations. It is generally assumed that at the end of eighteen months the total burden of the war had been $40,000,000,000. This, however, does not include the guarantees the various nations have made, nor the losses in property in Belgium, Poland, Servia, and other devastated regions. If all these are included at the end of the third year the cost of the war will be over a hundred billion dollars, which may be roughly divided as follows: England, 40 billion, France, 15 billion, Germany, 25 billion, and 5 billion to restore the devastated regions. This would leave 15 billion to be borne by Austria, Italy, or Russia. An important journalist recently said that such an amount could not be paid, but that the debt would be transformed into rentes of the character the French now use. Every creditor then would have a right to his interest, but have no right to the collection of the principal. Should this be done, the hundred billion dollars of indebtedness would at the present rate of interest demand an annual levy of 5 billion dollars a year. If the present amount of taxation that the people in the various countries in Europe pay is added to this, it will demand a quarter of the income of the people. What method of taxation could raise this vast amount

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