hells 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. It is at once their pride and their
prosperity. When all is said and done, you discover that with nations as
with individuals it is not what they make but what they save that makes
them strong and enduring.

One afternoon last summer I talked in Paris with M. Alexandre Ribot, the
French Minister of Finance: a stately white-bearded figure of a man who
looked as if he had just stepped out of a Rembrandt etching. He sat in a
richly tapestried room in the old Louvre Palace where more than one King
had danced to merry tune. Now this stately apartment was the nerve
centre of a marvellous and close-knit structure that represented a real
financial democracy.

"How long can France stand the financial strain of war?" I asked the
Minister.

Light flashed in his eyes as he replied:

"So long as the French people know how to save, and this means
indefinitely."

Although the invader has crossed her threshold, France continues to
save. Every wife in the Republic who is earning her livelihood while her
husband is at the front (and nearly every man who can carry a gun is
fighting or in training), is putting something by. It means the building
up of a future financial reserve against which the nation can draw for
war or peace.

One rock of French economic solidity lies in her immense gold supply.
The per capita amount of gold is $30.02 and is larger than any other
country in the world. The United States is next with $19.39, after which
come the United Kingdom with $18.28, and Germany $14.08. Let me add, in
this connection, that a good deal of the French gold is still in
stocking and cupboard.

By the end of 1916 the war had cost France $11,000,000,000, which means
an annual fixed charge of $600,000,000, to which must be added
$200,000,000 for pensions, making the total fixed burden of
$800,000,000.

All this cannot be paid out of savings, although in normal times France
saves exactly $1,000,000,000 a year. But the Government has one big
trump card up its sleeve. It is the large fortunes of her citizens. They
have been untouched by the war because practically no income tax has
been levied.

While the average Frenchman will sacrifice his life rather than submit
to taxation, the upper and wealthy class will do both. The annual income
of the people of Fr