Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1903-06-11
FRENCH MONOP011ES
GOVERNMENT MATCHMAKIN0
NOT SUCCESSFUL.
Opposition to State Control Of Tobacco,
Alcohol and Other In
dustries.

Paris Correspondence New York Tribune.
The administration of one of the most i'm.
portant Industrial monopolies carried on by
the state-that of the manufacture OF
matches-has just issued its annual report
of operations. and the facts disclosed have
ELECTED from NJ. Henri de Parviie. NJ. Paul
Leroy Beauieu and other eminent political
economists vigorous protestations against
continuing state industrial monopolies.
such as tobacco matches, salt, alcohol.
telephones and telegraphs. The monopoly
question has become acute one in
France owing to the strength of social coll
lectivism. which In parliament and before
the country hammers away daily at the
scheme of submitting petroleum. railroads.
sugar and half a dozen other necessary en-
terprises to exclusive state control Public
opinion is agitated and people are begin
ming to ask whether these state nonopolies
are after all worth the candle. Does the
state monopoly give cheaper and better
articles than can be obtained by private
enterprise and healthful trade compeu-
tion?" is the question that one hears on
every side. With regard to matches the
overwhelming majority of answers is in the
negative. and political party is In process
of formation with an object of doing away
with all state industrial monopeliss except
those Of tobacco, postage stamps and tele-
graphs.
Number Of Matches Made.
According to Official figures the number
of matches manufactured in the year 1901
was IS. O0O. O0O, COO, and the profit on their
sale was % 713 247 francs, or "a. 142 go The
great proportion of matches were old lash
Toned wooden matches, of which nearly
twentyfour thousand millions were made.
while only little over one thousand mil
lion wax matches were turned out in the
anf Nj
vile, a scientist who has formed an inter-
esting collection, contemporary and retro
spective, of matches which he is about to
present to the Municipal Laboratory ana
Museum of the city of Paris. has drawn up
a paper, which will shortly be read before
the Academy of Science, which thoroughly
ventilates the match question. NJ. de Par
ville's conclusions are that the french
matches produced by the state monopoly
are the worst and the dearest in use In any
civilized country.
OF Poor Quality.
NJ. de Parville courteousy showed his col
lection Of matches to Tribune corre-
spondent. In one glass case were placed all
the specimens of the French matches of the
"regie." Near them were placed in SYM
metrical rows all the varieties of matches
made in the United States, Great Britain.
Belgium, Holland, Russia, Sweden. Italy,
Germany, ria-Hungary and Swtzer-
exhaustive experiments with large guam
titles of all these matches, and / have
found that the matches that have the
greatest defects are the French matches.
Some of them are thin as a siIken
thread. others thick a stout tooth
pick. There are cracks and assures in the
phosphorescent tips and the matches are
very brittle unequal and uncertain" Five
per cent of the French matches are so care
lessly made that they contain no phospho-
rus or ignting composition whatever. In
certain packages it was found that out of
lOo matches as many as forty Were so bad
ly made that they could not be ignited.
Some of them were tipped with red phos-
phorus, 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 igniting. All this is very n
fortunate, because the manufacture of
French matches is intrusted by the state
to the best engineers who have been grad
uated from the polytechnic school.
Health of the Workmen.
M. de Parville has questioned the m
gineers, who complain that they cannot
persuade the government to supply money
enough to buy good material for the
work, such as wood, wax, sulphur, chic
rate of potash and sesqui-sulphure of phos-
phorus. 1t is found that the government
is in great haste to collect the receipts
of the state matchmaking industry, but
provides no working capital to carry
the business with the same intelligence.
care and watchfulness of the public pulse
that would be the with private enter
prise. Then, again, the workmen complain
of the diseases caused by the daily manipu-
lation of phosphorus Yellow phosphorus.
for instance, emits noxious vapors at an
ordinary indoor temperature of Is de-
grees centigrade az FahrenheiD. although
its boiling point is go degrees. The phos-
phorus vapors cause. necrosis of the teeth
and jawbones. Experiments show that
these harmful phosphorus radiations can
be neutralized by sprays of one gramme
of essence Of turpentine for one thousand
cubic meters of AIR. Private matchmaking
companies in Sweden and Hungary add
slight solution of turpentine to the phos-
phorus. and hang coarse flax cotton
sheets impregnated with essence of tur-
pentine in the rooms where the men
employed in manipulating the phosphorus.
This measure has been proved to be thor
oughly efficacious, but 1T has been SO far
impossible to secure the adoption of this
simple remedy in the government manu-
factories of France.