Happily, we may say that the corner-stone of a solution
of the debt problem is almost laid.. The risk that Congress will not ratify the settlement for fund- ing the British debt seems to be decreased. The opposition in Congress will probably attempt to make the acceptance of the funding terms conditional on President Harding agreeing to a War Pensions Bill, which he has vetoed. But the Administration is confident. The Presi- dent had considerable choice in the manner in which he should submit the terms to Congress. He might either have asked for an amendment of the Organic Act, which forbids the acceptance of terms at the proposed rates of interest or for a resolution covering the present terms. He has preferred to submit the whole Report of the American Debt Commission, which declares it impossible to fund the debt within the terms of the Organic Act, and thus let this expression of expert opinion have its full weight with Congress. The President showed the highest wisdom and a peculiar sense of the special importance of the occasion by the phrase he used in recommending Congress to accept the terms as " a recommitment of the English-Speaking World to the validity' of contracts." That is the essential of the matter, and it is deeply encouraging to see that the President seizes it in this way.
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