Evening star., 1916-04-28
FRANCE EXPECTING
PROSPERITY WAVE
0ptimists See Signs of Better
Trade Relations Than
Before War.
AMERICAN AUTOMOBILES
ARE IN GREAT DEMAND
Dressmakers Are Busy Turning Out
Work for Foreigners. and Other
Lines Are Booming.
Copyright. 1916.b
BY HERBERT COREY.

PARIS. April 1s.-"Prosperity is COM
mist. France is beginning to get back
on her feet
At first his story seemed convincing
The Paris agent for a small American
pleasure car managed to get $50 cars
on his salesroom floor not long ago He
announced that fact and opened his
doors for business That night he
closed them again. Every car had been
sold
Let me give you another illustra-
tion." said the optimist THE Paris
agent for another small American car
was notified that forty cars had been
dumped on the docks at Havre. The
transmission of freight between Havre
and Paris simply is not possible for
the private individual nowadays. Every
ounce that can be hauled on the trains
Merchants here have waited not weeks,
but months. for goods they know have
been taken off the ships at Havre or
Bordeaux"
Autos in Demand.
So the automobile agent in Paris
adopted the scheme the government
thought of first. When the big Ameri-
can trucks are set down on the Hayre
docks the government sends down a
battalion Of military chauffeurs and
tools them to Paris overland. One
might think this a rather hard test for
green trucks in the hands of green
drivers-for the men are those who are
being trained at the military school for
drivers. But they all come through.
AT least they always have. This offers
one reason why the French are so fond
use
The agent" said the optimist, sent
chauneurs down to Havre to bring
these little cars up by road Not one
of those cars has ever reached Paris.
Every one was sold en- route. When.a
detachment Of American cars, all fresh
and shiny. passed through the little
towns the drivers were stopped by men
who wanted cars and had the money
10 spend for them. That doesn't look
as though France were suffering
greatly"
Evidences Of Prosperity.
1t is true that in some items of her
sent more of certain lines to the
United States than she has in some
normal years A dozen or more show
steady upward trend. The reports
on file at the office of the American
commercial attache here are proof
that France is busy in every line for
which labor can be found Women
are being trained to take mems places.
Boys and girls who should be at school
nave become breadwinners. 1t is like
wise true that~men have made money
IN war contracts here, though not to
the extent that the newspapers report
in England. Such men can AFFORD to
ouy pleasure cars. These little cars
have q legitimate use in business, too
The French automobile factories are
making either cars or shells In either
case they are making for the army.
The cars worn out during the twenty
months of war are being replaced to
some extent.
But this Is not prosperity. An Ameri-
can buyer for a gown house told me
not long ago that there are ten more
firms at work in Paris making gowns
not doubt this statement, but the firms
are little ones. The total of employ
ment and output is far below what it
Is in normal times.
The French woman is not buying
nowadays except as she needs. Then
her gowns-and this applies equally
to the English woman-are Of the
simplest and plainest description. The
head of q dressmakers' syndicate here
told a friend the other day:
Mourning for French Women.
I'VE are making only mourning
gowns for French women. The model
gowns YOU see in the windows are for
the women of the neutral nations
Once there was a famine of material
for mourning gowns in Paris. The sup
ply is now equal to the demand The
totals in the dressmaking business in
1916 will be greater than they We're in
1915, because the old gowns have worn
out and must be replaced. 1t is like
wise true the French woman has real
lied that it is not good thing for
She is doing her part to keep up the
spirits of her menfolk by wearing
gowns which are bit more lively
than she would have dreamed Of buy
ing a year ago. even II her heart is
sad in the buying. But they are not
the dresses she would once have
bought. No evening gowns are being
made for French women.
"I like that hat" said an American
woman in one of the big shops the other
day Can you have it copied for me?'
That would have been a simple matter
once. Now it has become impossible.
There are no more copy1Sts Each shop
makes few new hats for the neutral
trade. Even these are far more quiet
than they once would have been. The
few employees remaining are of the better
sort. who make up each hat individually.
The little work girls who once filled the
shops have now gone to the muniton
works. or are making clothes for soldiers,
or are in other ways engaged upon the
work of war Hats made for French
women are just head coverings now.
They do not hunt for confections.
Women Do the Work.
Prosperity does not exist in a city in
which many of the larger shops close for