The Washington times., 1911-11-05
FRANCE AND THE MUNICH.
PALlZATION OF TRADE,


The French government, like all the
Others in Europe, is confronted by the
cost of-living problem in an acuter and
more dangerous form than it has YET
assumed in America. The margin be-
tween bare living cost and the wages
of middle or lower class workers In
Europe is narrower than here by far
therefore proportion of increase &,
prices, which here occasions disaffec.
tion and grumbling, there means that
many millions of people are showed to
the very brink of starvation.
Having more difficult conditions To
meet the European governments are
contemplating measures which to us
would seem revolutionary. The French
government, for example, has intro.
duced bill to give municipal authori.
ties power to enforce competition in
necessaries of life by going into bust
ness on their own account. It is worth
while to note that while municipal trad.
ing of this kind would be long step
toward socialism yet the excuse which
is relied upon to justify it is that this
step is necessary to preserve com.
petition and fend off, socialistic ex.
tremes.
In this country we are doing a
good deal of worrying about whether
we shall persist in the effort to save
competition as an institution, or shall
recognize frankly that in the great
businesses it is dead, and turn to the
alternative of regulation; regulation,
it is to be added, which shall either
directly or indirectly fix prices and
keep them within bound. The idea of
plunging into trade, as a government
function, has not been seriously pro-
mulgated here. The French are going
about it gingerly; but they are none
the less moving toward it.
The French government proposal is
that municipalities shall be allowed to
establish groceries, bakeshops, meat
stalls, and the like. To this an alter
native is proposed, under which gov.
ernment financial backing would be
given to municipal trading enterprises
of cooperative character. France has
long been affected with a disposition
toward communistic ideals; but in oper.
alton, communism, or cooperation, in
trading enterprises has not been very
successful. The great cooperative
trading projects such as have grown
to enormous proportions in the north
of England, and in some of the British
cities, have no parallels in France. 1t
appears that the French cabinet has
in mind to encourage, if possible, the
development of such cooperative con
Germs by loaning half the capital neces-
sary to conduct them. The British CO.
operative mercantile societies started
and have succeeded without any gov
ernment or municipal backing or
favors. 1t is an interesting fact that
while the sturdy Britisher doesn't in
dulge much visioning as to the COM
munistic state, and leaves the formu-
lation of that sort of theory largely
to the French and Germans, he has
gone farther than either of the others
in actual cooperating merchandising
He makes the thing work; they, for
the larger part, end with talking about
it.
The French minister of agriculture
declares that the cost living situa-
tion is nothing less than world wide
crisis which must have the attention
of all governments if they are to reach
solution which will consist with the
preservation of the present social and
economic structure. The development
of artificial conditions in industry, un,
der the hothouse influence of tariffs
and regulations about importing neces,
saries, is recognized in continental
countries as one of the grave phases OF
the situation, and tariff agitation Is
afoot in those countries, just as it is
in the United States.