Salt Lake City, Utah, Thursday Morning, June 27, 1935. Our Debtors Default THIRTEEN foreign nations, owing the United States some 11,000,000,000 in war debts, let June 15 come and go without a gesture toward paying anything on the past due instalments, which now amount to 811,678,329. Only Finland again kept her promise and paid the amount which was due. This wholesale default of our debtors seems to have been taken for granted, for it created little or no interest as revealed by inter national press dispatches. As a matter of fact, by an exchange of official and unofficial notes, it seems to have been made very clear to our state department that Great Britain and Italy, at least, intended to default again. According to a recent statement issued by Secretary Hull who assures us of his vigilance in attempting to collect our foreign obligations the British and Italian foreign offices have already expressed the desire of their governments to arrive at an amicable settlement of the long pending debt problem. Turning to the press dispatches of the last few days, however, it is very significant that Great Britain,Germany, France and Italy are pouring additional millions into armaments. England, for instance, has made an additional appropriation of half a billion dollars to be spent this year on her army and navy. Sir Philip Cunliffe Lister, minister of air, in explaining the British position, said, paradoxically: We cannot hope to obtain the objectives of peace and limitation of armament until our own strength is adequate. France, likewise, is preparing the largest budget in her history for air, land and sea defenses. Germanys military preparations, as made public a few months ago, are defiant and disquieting. Mussolini has recently placed a million men, under arms and is planning to enlarge his navy and air force. Italys most recent aggression in Ethiopia has already offset the united front which it was hoped might be the result of the recent Stresa conference. Marcello Malpighi (1628 to 94) Italian anatomist, famed microscopist and founder of histology, he was professor of anatomy at Bologna, Pisa and Messina. His work on the embryology of the chick and the histology and physiology of the glands and viscera were epochal. These fabulous expenditures for military purposes give the lie at once, to the alibi that Europe cannot pay her debts to us what are we going to do about it? We cannot continue indefinitely to say that such developments are no longer our concern. Of the three possible solutions of the war debt question cancellation, payment in full, and revision the last named is far and away the most feasible. It becomes increasingly clear that payment in full is highly improbable. Cancellation, on the other hand, is an alternative obviously unfair to the American citizen. The developments of the past year lead more and more to the conclusion that world recovery hinges upon an effective settlement of the war debt question; upon the adoption of a feasible disarmament policy; upon currency stabilization, and upon the resumption of world trade. To these issues we must sooner or later address ourselves. A few weeks ago Senator Millard E. Tydings of Maryland proposed a resolution in the senate, which, if adopted, would empower the president to canvass the possibilities of a conference in Washington with the European governments concerned to consider the following matters: The settlement of the intergovernmental debts, the means of obtaining a substantial curtailment in world armaments and a holiday in world armament construction, the means of securing a stabilization of the currency systems of the world, and the means for reviving world trade, all to such an extent and under such terms as may be agreed upon. As a concrete plan to put before such a conference, Senator Tydings read into the record the proposal of Mr. Salmon O Levinson, a Republican lawyer, who has given much thought to the war debts question. Whatever may be the merit of Mr. Levinsons self styled business mans plan, it will be admitted by all thoughtful Americans that the sooner we take a positive stand on these vital questions, the better it will be for ourselves and for all concerned. Enlightened self interest demands that we play our part in restoring a stable economic system in the western world. Moreover, it would be better if we took the initiative than if we allow ourselves to be precipitated prematurely into a discussion of these issues, as we were at the London economic conference in 1933.