Pine Bluff daily graphic. (Pine Bluff, Ark.) 1893-1942, 1916-07-30
MUNICIPAL SHOPS
,0f FRANCE CUT
COST OF LIVING
Mayor of One Town Opens
Butcher Shop and Oper-
ates at Big Profit.

correspondence of the Associated Press.)
Paris, June ga lockout of
their customers by the butchers OF
Normandy is one of the latest devel
opments in the resistance of the au-
tDorities to the manipulation Of war
prices of food.
Mayor l.. J. Oursel of Evreux fixed
limit for the butchers retail prices.
The butchers retaliated and declared
that the people should have no meat,
Mayor Oursel opened municipal
shop, selling at the same maximum
price that he had imposed upon the
butchers and his profits were so quick
and considerable that he had no need
to draw on the capital voted by the
municipal council to keep the enter
prise going. He is making so much
money for charities that the people
of Exreux are beginning to under
stand why there are SO many butch
ers-21 for a population Of less than
1900.
"That is just the trouble" replied
the butchers. 1--WE are SO numerous
that If the mayors business were di-
vidcd equally among us we would all
lose money; question of too many
fixed charges for the total volume
OF trade"
The mayors of France generally,
mparatively unconsidered officials
in ordinary times, occupying them
selves mostly with marriages, have
found their chance in this struggle
against dear living; they are coming
Gu; strong.
Mayor Chariot of Pavilion &pus
Bots, small suburb of Paris, con-
sidering dictation contrary to demo-
cratic principles, rejected the plan of
fixing prices and resOrted to compe-
tition. His municipal store has
brought the price of potatoes down
from 5 cents to ~ cents a pound,
beefsteak from 80 cents to % cents
and salt from cents to ~ cents.
Unable to buy potatoes from whole
salers who, he says, preferred to
| to deteriorate rather than risk bear
ing prices by putting it all on the
market. Mayor Chariot went to the
potato growers and bought directly,
selling at reasonable profit and
| forcing the dealers to meet his prices.
Mayor Fauquet of Bondy, another
suburb of Paris, and the mayor of
| Enshien, the popular watering resort,
put an end to exaggerated profits of
| leaders in the same way.
France hasn't get got to the point
OF alimentation in common but labor
unions and mutual benefit societies
| are adopting measures that approach
sinsularly some of the theories of
the collectivists by the establishment
of cooperative buying and distribut-
mig agencies.
The mayors of the larger cities, in
cooperation with the minister of the
interior are also occupying them
selves with the meat question. Their
| first decision was to secure a proper
tomato distribution of beef cattle
throughout the country and do away
with competition in buying between
the oommissary department of the
army and the civilian HIchers.
Under the new system all beef will
be bought on the hoof or requisition-
cd if it becomes necessary, by a
! commission including representatives
of the army and the civilian butchers
and the mayors of the large cities
such as Lyons, Marseilles, Bordeaux
and Rouen. The animals boughtewill
be proportional according 70 the re-
quirementsy Of the army and the ci-
william population. Those destined for
the population will be distributed
among the butchers according to the
importance of their trade
If retail prices do not respond to
the aims of the commission under this