Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1913-11-23
PARIS DEMURS TO
TARIFF SCHEDULES
Indignation Over the Demand
to Examine Books of
French importers.
TRADE JOURNALS SAY
PROVISION is INSULT
Wedding Gifts in Miniature Is Lat
est Innovation-Tango Dis
cussed in Official Circles.

cussed in Official Circles.
Foreign Correspondence of The Star
PARIS, November 10, 1913.
| A storm of indignation has been raised
| by the demand. under paragraph L of the
new tariff BILL that Treasury agents of
the United States be allowed to examine
the books of French importers. Thus far
the foreign office has refused to the
| United States this privilege. Other OBJ
| jections to the new American tariff seem
susceptible of adjustment. but it Is said
| that on this point the French govern
ment will not yield.
| The French trade journals declare that
| the demand is an insult. 1t assumes.
| they say that the French exporters are
committing frauds. That foreign gov
eminent should ask for it's representa-
tives the right to enter French business
houses and demand to see the books, as
Stunning that the firm has committed per-
jury in declaring invoices before an
American consular officer, is abhorrent
to French ideas.
Recalls Limoges Affair.
In this connection the French press re-
calls the Limoges affair of 1911. At
that time the United States Treasury De-
ment sent three agents to inquire into
the cost of producing porcelains. The
American commission was properly in
troduced to the French minister of COM
MERGE at whose request the Limoges
manufacturers opened their books to the
investigators. Afterward the foreign Of
flee complained to the United States gov
eminent that the Treasury agents had
violated the agreement that the informa-
ton thus obtained was to be held in strict
confidence.
Should a tariff war result from this sit
uation, it is pointed out that the French
people would be the losers. Three-quar
ters of the imports from America are
raw materials. cotton. copper, petroleum.
tobacco and hides, which France must
have, while the exports to America are
almost altogether articles of taste and
luxury, which the Americans may do
without or for which they can obtain
substitutes from other European coun-
tries.
Scheme for Greater Paris.
NJ. Delaney project of the Seine. has
submitted to the Paris municipal coun-
Gil a scheme for the creation of q
Greater Paris. The magnitude of NJ.
Delanney's proposal may be judged from
the fact that Paris as lie has planned 1t
will be more than six times as large as
the present city. The scheme includes a
number of novelties, notably that no
house should be higher than the breadth
of the street III front, or the courtyard
behind it. The plan provides for the
widening of 22o miles of existing roads
and the creation of fifty miles of new
ones.
The new Paris will extend some four
miles in all directions beyond its present
boundaries. The present r.ng of FORTH
cations, which encircles the city, is to be
demolished and the greater part of the
land thus vacated turned into public
gar dens. In addition to these it is pro-
posed to create two immense new parks
on the north and south sides of Paris.
totaling some Go acres. number of
plots OF land In the center of Paris be-
longing to the state also would be clear
ed of bu ldings and turned into public
gardens.
Paris is at present the worst provided
of all great cities in respect to parks
and open places, and is the most over
crowded of modern capitals. 1t is in
habted by us persons to the acre, COM
pared with only sixty-four in London.
National Birth Rate.
Socialism, syndicalism and strikes di
rectly affect the national birth rate. ac-
cording to NJ. Jacques Bertillon. Before
the Academy of Moral and Political
Sciences, NJ. Bertllon held that the
state of the birth rate in numerous dis
tricts of France is almost the inverse
ratio OF the prevalence Of socialist beliefs
IN these districts.
One of the most striking instances
which NJ. Bertillon cited was the case
of the mining town of Monceau-les-
Mines in the north Of France. Up to the
year 1850 the birth rate at MoHceau
stood at thirty-five births per thousand
inhabitants Within three years after
ward, during which a strong socialist
movement made its appearance in the
community, the number of births had
fallen to twenty -one per thousand 1t
has continued to fall steadily ever since,
and now stands at only fourteen.
| NJ Bertillon notes however. In conclu-
sion that socialism has not had the same
effect In certain other countries and as
cribes its peculiar effect in France to
the manner III which it has taken root
| in French soil.
| Artists Work Repudiated.