The Connecticut labor press., 1919-04-12
By LLOYD ALLEN.
Western Newspaper Union Staff Cor
 respondent.

6y LLOI U ALLEN.
 Western Newspaper Union Staff Cor respondent.
 Copyright 1s1s by Western Newspaper unton.) 1 Paris.-Four years of war absolute l ly changed the character of France as
 nation, changed her economic situa- tiOn, altered her outlook on the world and turned the whole future of the 1 country toward industrialism rather
 than agriculture.
 The France of today has new ideals 1 that were undreamed of in 1914. Only 1 one big characteristic of the pre-war days remains, and that is the unalter- ! able and deep-rooted fear of Germany.
 fear. bred by generations of worry that sthfted long before 1870 and that 1 has imprinted itself on French char /acter as mark that will endure for 1 decades to come. l Dread of the German will not pre- 1 vent the French from embarking on | a national career of prosperity and l will not prevent France from trading with Germany-they must trade with
 their old enemy, it is vital neces- l sfty; it cannot be arranged otherwise | for the simple reason that Germany | still holds her, supremacy as the big | coal producing nation of Europe. 1 While France has some coal she must still depend on Germany for some 1 thing like 23O00,O00 tons a year even 1 after the supposedly rich coal fields l of Alsace-Lorraine go to France, as 1 they undoubtedly will in the peace l treaty. .-s-.+ erNSr fn ho fl1aTx csfp eP6N situation between the French and Ger | mans. France will lack coal and the 1 Germans will lack iron. ..s .>~ France will sell iron to the Germans and get coal in return. "A immediate Problems Mighty
 While the somewhat distant future is very bright for France the imme- diate problems she must solve are 1 mighty. She has the beginning of her l new industrial system in the form of l a series of factories that made Inu-
 nitions during the war. .t-
 Her former industries are smashed. At the first German invasion France lost 80 per cent of her Woolen indus 1 try, 90 per cent of her sugar mills, four fifths of her coal production, four ffths of her iron and steel output and
 four-fifths of her coke. The Germans struck France right through the heart
 of her industrial region. Today this section is for the most part waste. With the beginning of the peace con- 1 ference France was out of essential
 raw materials. She was in situa- tion altogether different from England and America. She had no chance of, starting out to build up foreign trade | and for that reason was anxious to
 have the allies maintain their blockade against the neutrals and the central powers as long as possible. America and England on the other hand knew
 that the peace of the world must de- pend as much on the resumption of
 normal trade as upon any strictly DO. litical action. :s -
 Germany Needs Raw Materials. Unless raw materials are pushed in- to Germany the German factories can, | not run and Germany cannot pay the indemnity he~peace conference will
 place on her shoulders Unless the factories of Germany are permitted to operate the German civilians will not have work and if a large problem of
 unemployment develops. the. revolu-
 tionary elements-that is the very rad ical revolutionists-will overthrow whatever government the Germans now have set up and the German sig nature on the peace treaty will be null and void. Out of these conditions the French governments policies were naturally oIe xls from the American and British pol- icies. It was impossible for France to plan for the future as America and
 England would. As a consequence there was great divergence of ideas during the early days of the peace conference that was more or less mis- understood by Americans in France and caused an undue amount of crit icism to be launched against French
 methods and French statesmen. The French for instance passed governmental resolution about the
 middle of January that practically stopped the importation of American, English, and other foreign manufac- tured articles into the country, this at 1 time when the average American was thinking and talking of the closer trade relations that would spring up between France and America as a re-
 suit of the two nations having fought
 side by side in the war.
 American Firm Hit. One of the first American firms hit by the resolution was the manufactur- CT of well-known automobile. This | firm had several thousand cars in | France ordered for war purposes by | the French government. It was im- possible to sell the cars to civilians, 1 since such a move would be the cause
 of French money leaving the country. If money left the country the French financial situation suffered according
 to the amount spent abroad. The rate