The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1907-1939, 1918-09-13
FRENCH OUTLINE
INDUSTRY NEEDS
FOLLOWING war
Americans Must do Cooper
alive Selling for French In
dustrial Rebuilding.
(By Associated Press.)

WASHINGTON, Sept. 13.--Ameri-
can manufacturers who plan to sup
ply materials for the industrial recon
struction of northern France should
prepare for cooperative selling, for
revolutionary change in French meth
DDS Of buying is to follow the war.
A small number Of central purchas-
ing agencies, representing groups OF
French manufacturers engaged In re-
lated industries and assisted by the
credit of the French government, Will
deal with those supplying the material
Scattered American selling efforts
will not be able to meet the require
ments of the huge buying power or
several thousand French consumers,
in the opinion Of Pierce c. Williams.
American commercial attache at Paris,
who reports that unless American
manufacturers prepare for co-opera-
tive selling that they will be laboring
under a serious handicap.
The Central Bureau for Industrial
Purchases for the Invaded region,
French stock company composed OF
many manufacturers, has emphasized
in report that the task of restoring
the destroyed industries is too large
for individual and competitive buying.
It's directors are reported as equally
certain that it will be out of the ques-
ton for isolated American firms, no
matter how large or well equipped, to
meet the demand. 1t is with groups
Of American northumberland
group being able to supply a certain
Industry with all materials and special
Tnr the
Central Bureau wishes to establish
relations.
Although the French manufacturer
in the past has been regarded as most
individualistic among business men,
the size and completely OF the task
of reconstruction has caused him to
accept such a radical change in his
business methods as collective buying.
The industrial reconstruction IN
France alone is more than one nation
can properly attend to, so the pooling
Of American interests involves solu-
ton of the question Of whether Amer
lean manufacturers will be able to
hold their own In competition with
other nations.
Industries Ruined.
Although the area occupied by the
II
is small as compared with correspond
ing regions In the United States,
northern and eastern France with Bel
GUM we're in 1914 one of the busiest
workshops in the world. Nearly 49,
900 factories and industrial establish
ments were in the invaded parts of
France, and their output was more
than thirty per cent. Of all Of France.
These factories output in proportion
to the country's total production fol-
lows:
Iron ore, 80 per cent; pig iron, SO
per cent. steel, IS per cent; coal, 70
per cent; combed wool, "a per cent;
linen thread, 80 per cent; sugar 65
per cent.
Owners of the factories of course
have been shut off from normal COM
munication with their properties, but
workmen engineers and others caught
in north of France when the German
army rolled through there have grad
ually worked their way to Paris as
their reputation has been accom-
plished by the Allied arms. In many
localities and in almost countless in
dustries, -~Sng remains.
Coal mines have been flooded, and
years will pass before coal Will be
hoisted from them again. Electric
power stations and the transmission
lines have in many places been dis
mantled, the machinery being carried
off by the Germans, and the copper
wire sold at auction. Practically all
of the equipment in the Woodworking
plants, all the cotton, linen and wool
spinning machinery, together with
wool-combing and textile looms, have
been Systematically pillaged.
Repatriated workers report that ma
chimes have been skilfully taken apart
and all the copper and alloys in the
bearings sent into Germany for remelt-
ing. In many instances, after this was
done, the iron frame was broken up
and turned over the German scrap.
iron dealers.
Steel structures have been taken
down, and the sheet-iron roofs and
steel columns and beams have either
been sent back into Germany or used
ia the war zone. Sugar refneries and
lreweries are reported to have been