The Birmingham age-herald., 1910-12-11
PARIS FACES 4
 COAL FAMINE Christmas Promises to Be Cold
 Proposition DEPUTIES ARE sNUBBED Prompt and Old Reply Comes From Petition to Russian Duma for Cause of FlnIand-Blacks
 for the Army
DEPUTIES ARE sNUBBED

Cause of FInland--BlaclSs
 for the Army
 Paris, December 10.--(Special.)--A evil star seems to be lowering over our gay city of late for just before the arrival Of Christmas we are threatened with coal famine which the weather, which is usually cold for this time of the year, threatens to make terrible calamity.
 The railroad companies cannot deliver coal fast enough and coal dealers and others are protesting to the ministry Of public works against the delay.
 An idea of the unsatisfactory conditions may be gathered from the fact that only geo carloads of coal are arriving in Paris daily instead of 1500 or 20o0 carloads. It seems that there are only 100000 tons of coal in reserve, while 25.oo0 tons are consumed daily.
 Strenuous efforts are being made to avoid anything like a scarcity of coal. The railroad companies are being urged to do all they can to improve the situa- ton. The Paris chamber of commerce. too, has addressed circular to.the great syndical groups in which they are re- cuested to call attention to the difficult ties of the railroad companies in view of the eneumberment of their material and the necessity of promptly withdrawing any goods from the cars at goods sta- tions in order to set the rolling stock ana give place to other consignments.
 At the present moment 1t is extremely difficult for Parisians to husband their coal supplies. The cold is intense and the lack of coal and vigorous winter Is a prospect from which citizens may we'll shrink.
 Some four hundred French deputies and senators have come in for a decided snub from Russia. Their signatures appended to a petition in favor of Finland would, it was thought. make a deep impression on the duma, but the reply was prompt.
 'The members of the duma,' said M Kronpensky, did not require the advice of citizens of another country in ques- tions of Russian policy that did not con- cern them in any way soeyer." And M. Dietrich, member of the council of the empire writing to a French senator, spoke of .'prodigious and unheard of meddling'' and the advisabiity of ob- serving "les convenience information ales."
 The indigent is certainly worth bearing in mind-Russia is no longer the auto erat, but has her legislative chambers The French politicians seem to think that the Czar and the imperial court ruled the roost, and 1t is to dspel that illusion that the duma thought it well to speak plainly.
 The black experiment promises to be very successful. Colonel Mangin, who was entrusted with a mission to Central Africa, has returned delighted with the prospects of raising negro battalons He found a real enthusiasm among the chiefs, who were only too delighted at the opportunity of contributing a tribal quota to the levie even in the districts where the railway Is being made. and 2 franc 30 centimes and 5 francs a day are being paid as wages, the natives ex- pressed willingness to follow the soldiers career.
 It is apparent that a real spirit pre- yails amongst these black nationals of France. Twenty thousand men, the col onel declares, could be raised if parlia- ment consents and will vote the money. This is one way of tiding over the mili- tary difficulties created by a dwind1ing population in the mother country.
 The declaration made by Prince Victor Napoleon to the French journalists who went to Kanealieri may be considered as "bolt from the blue." Let it be re- membered that the prince had always refused to make any communications to the press and there were no exceptions to that rule.
 The day after his marriage he called the journalist together and addressed them In just the same way a French minister would do when he has some thing important to put before the public. And this was his message: That he was for the republic; that he admired M Hriand: that he would defend republican conouests, and that his brother Louis had left the Russian army. Now "con- quests to which the prince referred would mean no other than that what M Briand week before had said they meant The disestablishment and disen- dowment of the church, the suppression of the religious congregations, and the supremacy of secular primary education
 Prince Victor, in a word, has placed himself in touch with the radical major ity in the chamber and elevated M. Briand to the skies It is not then sur- prising that the pretender is considered to be aiming. towards the prince-presi- dentship of the republic, for all the world like his uncle Napoleon in 1s4s. And many there are who think that M. Briand is not unlikely to encourage the idea. It would, so it is contended. fortify the republican regime, unite discordant ele- ments in the nation. and do no injury to cherished political convictions
 Tn view of the threatening attitude as- stunned by the labor organizations. all sorts of people are bending themselves together for self-defence. The building contractors and architects have united with a view to putting down strikes, and now we are to have a middle-class association, which, we are told, is to be international in character.
 It will be an anonymous body. Nobody will know it's strength or the names of it's members. Its headquarters will be at Brussels, near the International insti- tute of the Middle Glasses, though it's aims and methods will be distinct. The new association will be of an economic and political character.
 It is pointed out that the builders and small traders of Amsterdam complain of not being able to obtain money at low ,nt crest because a group of speculators have opemted in Egyptian cotton, thus forcing the Bank. of England and the hanks in the Netherlands to increase their ratee of interest The international as- .ociation, it is stated, will take measures to protect the credit of the small bour- geoise.
 Soon the apprenticeship question will occupy it's attention. and afterwards the contract of labor. It will deliberate in secret and it's decisions will be prompt. The association will fight international If will introduce in the