The Lakeland evening telegram. (Lakeland, Fla.) 1911-1922, 1915-05-26
Textile Industries
In France Have
Lost Heavily
(By Associated Pressl


Paris, May 26-Three hundred
million dollars lost by the textile in
dustries of northern France in raw
materials and manufactured pro-
ducts taken by the Germans as booty
of war-that is the estimate given
the Associated Press by an author
lied member of the most influnen-
tial textile corporation in France
and an authority on industrial sub
jects.
What the total loss, including
damages TO plant and to buildings.
may amount to. there are no indica-
lions. for many rumors of the
transferring of valuable machines to
Germany have not been confirmed.
The above estimate is based on con-
tirmed facts only. 1t more than
bears out the estimate of the Ger
man publicist, Ludwig Ganghofer,
who after a visit TO the German
front. told the Muenchner Neueste
Naehrichten that the war booty sent
from Northern France TO Germany
in the form of cereals, sugar, metals.
wool, leather, etc, amounted to hve
hundred million dollars during the
first six months of the war. 1t is sup
posed that his figures were based on
the requisition price said to be very
inferior to the market value On
the latter basis the actual total
would be far in excess of the Ger
man figures; the estimate for the
textile industries alone would so in
dictate.
1t is know that the Germans took
nearly all the raw material and I'm
ished goods in the great wooden
manufacturing centers of LeCoteau,
Roubaix and Tourcoing, where
America buys heavily of the finer
wooden fabrics They also emptied
the linen fctories with the excep-
ton of those at Armentieres. where
they were driven back too soon, and
at Lille where they have recently
begun to requisition these products.
The territory occupied by the
Germans contains more than eighty
per cent. of the wooden and linen in
dustries of France consequence is
a shortage of all these products. The
army is seeking hundreds of thous-
ands of yards of canvas for tents
that these industries are unable to
supply. Cotton, tried as substi-
tute, proved unsatisfactory.
THE financial problem resulting
from this state of things" accord
ing to this authority, twill require
most serious study after the war :.
A commercial and industrial ac-
tivity such as we have never seen
will be witnessed in France, but the
setting in motion again the indus
trial machine will be attended with
great difficulties. One manufacturer
in the occupied territory has lost
raw material and finished goods to
the value of five million to ten mil
lion frances. The banks had ad-
vanced him a half million francs
The security for that advance is
gone. That man will say after the
war: 81 am not played out. l want
to put my industry on its feet
again." but where will he find the
means since he has already hanging
over him a debt of half million
francs and the goods that secured
it are in Germany? 1t is a serious
problem, but it will be solved.
Another great difficulty is in the
restoration of our plants, the replac-
ing of our machines. Under exist
ing conditions it seems likely that
it will take two years for machine
constructors to furnish what we
shall require. Perhaps we shall
have to call upon the American in
genuity to help us in working out
the difficult problems, but they will
be solved for never was the spirit OF
our manufacturers and workers so
strong as today