The Montgomery advertiser., 1903-07-05
MONOPOLY A
 FAILURE IN FRANCE
STATE CONTROL OF MATcH-MAK- ING YIELDS BUT LITTLE
 PROFIT.
Product is Inferior to That of Fac tories in Other Compet-
 ing Lands.

Paris Letter to New York Tribune.
 The administration of one of the most
 important industrial monopolies carried
 on by the State-that of the manufacture
 of matches-has just issued its annual re-
 port of operations and the facts dis
 closed have elicited from Henri De Par
 vile, Paul Leroy Beaulieu and other em-
 inent political economists vigorous pro-
 testations against continuing State in
 dustrial monopolies. such as tobacco.
 matches, salt, alcohol. telephones and tel
 egraphs. The monopoly question has be-
 come an acute one in France, owing to
 the strength of social collectivism, which in Parliament and before the country
 hammers away daily at the scheme of submitting petroleum, railroads, sugar and a half dozen other necessary enter
 prises to exclusive State control. Public opinion is agitated and people are begin ming to. ask whether these State monop- olies are, after all, worth the candle.
 Docs the State monopoly give us cheap CT and better articles than can be ob-
 tained by private enterprise and health full trade competltion?" is the question that one hears on every side With re- gard to matches the overwhelming ma jority of answers Is in the negative and a political party is in process of forma- ton with an object of doing away with all State industrial monopolies except those of tobacco postage stamps and tel egraphs.
 The Match Industry.
 According to official figures the number of matches manufactured in the year 1902 was 3S,000. GOO 900 and the profit on their sale was g, ,7l3,247 francs. or $4,742,65o. The great proportion of matches were old fashioned wooden matches, of which nearly twenty-four thousand millions were made. while only little over one thousand million wax matches were turn ed out In the Government factories. Henri De Parville. a scientist who has formed an interesting collection, contemporary and retrospective. of matches. which he is about to present to the municipal la boratory and museum of the city of Pa ris, has drawn up a paper, which will shortly be read before the Academy of Science, which thoroughly ventilates the match question. M. De Parville's conclu- sions are that the French matches pro- duced by the State monopoly are the worst and the dearest in use In any civ iized country.
 M. De Parville courteously showed his collection of matches to correspondent. In one glass case were all the specimens of the French matches of the "regie. Near them were placed in symmetrical rows all the varieties of matches made In the United States, Great Britain, Bel gium, Holland, Russia. Sweden, Italy. Germany, Austria-Hungary and Switzer- land. M. De Parville said:
 Opinion of an Expert.
 T have made exhaustive experiments with large quantities of all these matches and have found that the matches that have the greatest defects are the French matches. Some of them are as thin as a silken thread. others are as thick as a stout toothpick There are cracks and Assures in the phosphorescent tips and the matches are very brittle. unequal and uncertain" Five per cent of the French are so carelessly made that they contain no phosphorus or igniting compo sition whatever In certain packages 1t was found that out of 100 matches as IT any as forty were so badly made that they could not be ignited. Some of them l were tipped with red phosphorus, others | with yellow phosphorus and others with | various compositions The wood of the | French matches is so brittle that 20 per | cent of the wooden matches break before | lgniting. All this is very unfortunate, | because the manufacture of French | matches is intrusted by the State to the best engineers who have been graduated from the polytechnic school.
 M De Parville has questioned the en- sineers. who complain that they cannot )eTSuaue the government 10 supply money enough to buy good raw material for the work. such as wood, wax sulphur, chlo- ate of potash and sesqui-sulphure of lhosphorus
 Not a Businesslike Policy.
 It is found that the Government is in great haste to collect the receipts of the State matchmaking industry, but pro- rides no working capital to carry on the business with the same intelligence, care md watchfulness of the public pulse that would be the case with private enter or.se Then, again. the workmen com 1lain of the diseases caused by the daily manipulation of phosphorus. Yellow for instance. emits noxious 'apors at an ordinary indoor temperature If l5 degrees centigrade (72 Fahrenheit). although its boiling point is 270 degrees The phosphorus vapors cause necrosis of he teeth and jawbones. Experiments show that these harmful phosphorus ra- iiations can be neutralized by sprays of ,ne gramme of essence of turpentine for
 900 cubic meters of air. Private match making companies in Sweden and Hun gary add a slight solution of turpentine O the phosphorus and hang coarse flax IT cotton sheets impregnated with es- l