The sole arrangement which for a time caused heart-burnings in France was that respecting the sums of money which Germany should have been made to pay to her victorious enemies.  For the opinions on that subject held by the average man, and connived at or approved by the authorities, were wholly fantastic, just as were some of the expectations of other Allied states.  The French people differ from their neighbors in many respects—­and in a marked way in money matters.  They will sacrifice their lives rather than their substance.  They will leave a national debt for their children and their children’s children, instead of making a resolute effort to wipe it out or lessen it by amortization.  In this respect the British, the Americans, and also the Germans differ from them.  These peoples tax themselves freely, create sinking funds, and make heavy sacrifices to pay off their money obligations.  This habit is ingrained.  The contrary system is become second nature to the French, and one cannot change a nation’s habits overnight.  The education of the people might, however, have been undertaken during the war with considerable chances of satisfactory results.  The government might have preached the necessity of relinquishing a percentage of the war gains to the state.  It was done in Britain and Germany.  The amount of money earned by individuals during the hostilities was enormous.  A considerable percentage of it should have been requisitioned by the state, in view of the peace requirements and of the huge indebtedness which victory or defeat must inevitably bring in its train.  But no Minister had the courage necessary to brave the multitude and risk his share of popularity or tolerance.  And so things were allowed to slide.  The people were assured that victory would recompense their efforts, not only by positive territorial gains, but by relieving them of their new financial obligations.

That was a sinister mistake.  The truth is that the French nation, if defeated, would have paid any sum demanded.  That was almost an axiom.  It would and could have expected no ruth.  But, victorious, it looked to the enemy for the means of refunding the cost of the war.  The Finance Minister—­M.  Klotz—­often declared to private individuals that if the Allies were victorious he would have all the new national debt wiped out by the enemy, and he assured the nation that milliards enough would be extracted from Germany to balance the credit and debit accounts of the Republic.  And the people naturally believed its professional expert.  Thus it became a dogma that the Teuton state was to provide all the cost of the war.  In that illusion the nation lived and worked and spent money freely, nay, wasted it woefully.