The Pensacola journal. (Pensacola, Fla.) 1898-1985, 1918-11-29
TRADERS
TAKE PROSPERITY
BY EDWARD III. THIERRY,
N E. A. Staff Correspondent

were either closed or barely Keeping
alive, are now waxing rich. Soldiers
are spending their pay here for food,
sweets, luxuries, knicknacks OF all
kinds
S.opkeepers gaily greet the Yanks.
They spend lavishly. The coionials-
including Canadians, Australians and
New Zealanders-are almost as good
customers. The British "Tommies"
are next.
Thcse soldiers are well paid in COM
parison to the French poilu He gets
only 5 cents a day, hence has little to
lspend.
Personal expenditures by officers
and enlisted men total more than ST.
I000,000 a day, according to conserva-
tive estimate. That means S6O,OO0.OOO
a month-almost three-quarter Of
billion dollars in a yoarl
| Wide Variation in Estimates.
| Estimates are at vice variance .Ac-
cording to rough figur es there are q
| 100000 American soldiers in Francs,
as many more British and about mil
| ion cGiOnials That's five million men.
| 1t was an American private, picked
| at random. who estimated the average
5. DISCRIMINATING The PUCK n:Iv1;e
with small wage and about a million
colonials and thousands of officers
earning about so cents a day. That's
i about 2 francs, so confines.
An American captain thought the
average was higher, perhaps three or
four francs day per man. A gov
eminent official placed it at five
francs. TWO others-one a Red Cross
doctor and the other an American
business man in Paris-thought it
was as high as 10 francs a day.
Taking the lowest estimate. by the
doughboy, and even cutting it 20 per
cent-the daily average reaches the
two million mark.
This includes soldiers personal ex-
penditures alone. Besides the Unit
ed States government has spent mil
lions here in war enterprises and in
buying supplies. The harvest goes
to French trades people, bushes men
manufacturers
One Hotel is Made Prosperous.
In a year, since tue coming OF the !.
Americans, a hotel at an Atlantic
port made enough money to remodel
and redecorate the building through |
out. Before America surged into the !
town the upper floors were not used. |
Now it is packed daily.
The Swiss proprietor told me the |
Americans were making him rich. He
said that their money was refittng the
hotel For the first time in history
he was able to put plumbing and sta
tonery wash stands in the room. He
was building a new court yard and
having the lobby wallis decorated by
hand The work was costing a mil
lion francs.
He was paying war prices for the
work. In peace times he said he
could have had it done for 100000 |
francs. But he didn't care He was |
charging war prices for rooms and for |
food.
In Dion it cost 50 for a room on the |
third floor, with kalsomined walls. an |
oilcloth floor and a wash stand The |
same kind of a room with running
water cost $3.50.
A bed-and a candle to light a tiny |
room-cost $3.50 in Neufchatel. The |
same thing in small town of similar |
size in small town in the United |
States would not have cost more |
than so cents.
Soldiers are Boon to Small Towns.
Hundreds OF small shops in towns
and villages all over France, especi- |
ally on the edge of the devastated re-
gion, are living entirely on what the |
soldier spends. Many hotels in Par
is and in other cities and towns. have
been able to reopen entirely because
OF soldiers and officers and officers on |
leave |
These estimates do not take into
sideration the large sums spent in |
living expenses by the thousands or |
Red eros. Y. NJ. c. A. and knights of |
Columbus workers
Much OF the money goes in tips. es-
pccially to walters and taxi drivers. |
ihey expect Americans to tip more |
lavishly than others.
An American captain had a fO-franc
dinner and gave the waiter 1 franc. |
a 10 per cent tip. The waiter showed
the coin back and followed him out to |
the sidewalk. demanding more. A
Frenchman. an indignant witness, said
ne customarily gave tip of only 80 |
centimeS, some times 25.
such abuses as that by individu-
ans called forth an editorial. "A
Scandal to Suppress" in the Petit
Partisan"
French Incensed by Profiteerinq.
Steps should be taken" the edi-
torial said, so that our brave allies
when they return home will not carry
with them the memory of extortions
by a few INSCRIPTIONS Frenchmen"
1t is this sort of thing that the
Franco-American high commission.
headed by NJ. Andrew Tardieu. has
been trying to prevent
Girl ushers in theaters and movies
usually do not receive wages. They
depend on tips. They ask for them.
So does the average taxi driver. 9th
er Americans give me tips. he tells
you in indignant French.
At the Cafe de la Paix in Paris the
price of cup OF coffee has recently
been increased from to IS centimes.
The same is true in Nice.