Page:Walter Renton Ingalls - Wealth and Income of the American People (1924).pdf/24

2 people; nor can the premiers of Europe put into motion the spindles of the cotton and woolen mills, or by any incantations compel the people of the Orient to buy goods. The people of the Orient, and of Europe, and of the two Americas are in the grip of the same economic forces. In brief, the world became poorer by the war, poorer in property, and poorer in morale of the people. This is the basic economic condition that determines everything else. All other conditions are purely collateral or consequential, and the direction of attention upon any one of them alone prevents a correct view of the whole picture from being obtained.

I am not alone in the entertainment of such views. In a lecture to the Institute of Politics at Williamstown, Aug. 25, 1921, Prof. Achille Viallate, of Paris, said with extraordinary lucidity and brevity:

‘The whole world is now passing through an economic crisis such as we have never before seen, a crisis that reminds us of the close economic solidarity which now links the nations together, and forces us to realize that we can come back to pre-war prosperity only through mutual help and an economic and political policy deeply grounded in common sense.

“As a result of the war great empires have collapsed, wealthy nations have lost their supremacy in the economic and political world, and their places have been taken by other nations.

“The impoverishment of the impoverished nations is worse than it appears. The enrichment of others is, in great part, only an appearance. They have been enriched not effectively, but only potentially. They are not only unable to recover quickly their loans, but are also unable to dispose of their excess of goods,