EXTERNAL SIGNS OF WEALTH

Successively, as the staggered bankruptcies of Germany occur, statesmen, economists, inter-allied experts suggest to the Germans new and more ingenious methods of liberation: “You will see how easy it is! With our system, you will pay painlessly and without even realizing it..."

The Germans renew their notes and then, at the moment of maturity, they declare: “Ya!... Ya!... What we lack is not the art and the way of giving you money. 'money. What we lack is only the money that we have to give you. »

So our nationalist newspapers show ironic pity: “Those poor Germans! They don't have any money... But they buy our best wines. They populate the palaces of Switzerland, although one Swiss franc is worth three French francs and one French franc is worth millions of marks. And in Italy, 100,000 luxury cars belonging to German tourists have been identified. Aren't we the pears? »

We are the pears; and the nationalist newspapers, exceptionally, told a great truth there. But we are pears at home, not only as creditors, but above all as debtors... And the Germans are pears too. And the Russians are pears too. Continental Europe is a vast fruit tree... (Continental Europe, because the English are not pears.)

Forty years ago, when we said “a rich Brazilian” or “a rich Hindu” or “a rich Russian”, it seemed like a pleonasm. Hindus, Russians and Brazilians who came to France came there to spend excess money. They were moguls and boyars. We did not think, naturally, of the millions of Negroes, moujiks and outcasts who, there, under an excessive or coldly deficient sun, were dying to ensure the sumptuous reputation of luxury articles intended for export. .

But in Germany they have the parasites of defeat just as we have the parasites of victory in France. Defeat or victory is the same thing for the heroes who died in honor and for the families of heroes who are dying today in pain. And it's the same thing for the profiteers who knew how to get rich.

In Germany as in France, there were a few thousand resourceful people who today make famous claims for national prosperity. French patriots are indignant: “The Germans do not pay their debts. And there is a German plutocracy whose insolent luxury insults our misery! »

The Germans are ironic: “The French budget is an unfathomable abyss where the Minister of Finance does not even dare to glance. France screams poverty... But, in France, the most modest dancer has her pearl necklace, the least mercanti owns his castle. On Sunday evening, count the luxury cars on Avenue du Bois de Boulogne: these are people who, while gambling, have just left five million on the lawn of Longchamp!”

The mass of the German people are stoically starving. The mass of the French people deprive themselves of the superfluous and even the necessary with great dignity. This is a banal observation which, on the eve of the elections, may seem inspired by base demagoguery, but which, on the contrary, is calculated to revolt the soul of an aristocrat.

Because, the social ladder being reversed, it is the thugs who are at the top. The rich are cads, killers of gods. They know how to count, certainly; they never knew how to read. Their courtesy goes so far as to say “Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. » They acquired a certain culture, having known through Phi-Phi all of Greek antiquity; and they talk about the “Olympiads” which will soon be “contested” or “taken place” at the Stade de Colombes.

We know they are like that in France... We assume they are like that in Germany...

G. de La Fouchardière