The Pulaskian., 1919-04-04

a1rplanes were valued at 10000 E 4 900 marks. Porten fled to Koe- N
 nigsberg and headed con tS spiracy in the local working z N men's council against the com X N mander of the German garrison X at Kovno. The plot was discov- E
 cred and Porten arrested. & French textile industry the Germans, when they did not steal the machin- cry, broke some of the vital parts and took away all electrical fittings and every scrap of copper.
 What happened then after the war had ceased?
 The French government made it in- possible for the Lille factory owners to replace the stolen and destroyed spindles by buying them in America and England and France could not re- place them. It was pointed out to the men of Lille who wished to buy, and who had the money to buy, that it was illegal to send money out of France. If the spindle buyer happened to have fund handy in England or America. with which to pay for his stuff there was a slim chance of being able to put through the deal, but it was by no means a certainty.
 Back of this seemingly suicidal pol icy was the French government plan to make France as nearly self-sustain- ing as possible, to keep French money at home and to keep the rate of ex- change as favorable as possible to France.
 It did not occur to the French off cials that reconstruction problems could be solved more easily if the Lille people and others in the same predica- ment were permitted to buy factory machinery abroad and thereby hasten the day when the textile mills would resume production.
 Would Help Labor.
 With production started. even with factory reconstruction started the French economic system would be l benefited, because such an outcome would give employment to French workmen. And exportation of tex tiles-which have to be manufactured before they are shipped-would auto- matically push the French exchange rate into a position favoring France. Yet the whole chain of reconstruc- tion was blocked by the prohibition on importing foreign spindles and the 1 French textile people themselves were obliged to oppose government policy that hurt their business.
 American business men in France their heads when they were asked about the possibility of immediate trade between France and America, and the optimistic ones took the view that tight government control of trade as put into effect by the French in January as a reconstruction measure could not last long.
 What happened to the textile indus try during the war was only repe- tition of the sad fate of the brewing business and the mining industry, as well as the sugar business. All of this wreckage cost the French something like $300,0o0,0 ,000-that's the first official estimate.
 Dream of Prosperity. In the midst of this despoliation France has a dream of future indus trial prosperity to be realized only by protecting all national industry against foreign competition. Never before has she thought seriously of taking the Germans place in Europe, and now she believes that with only comparatively small amount of fa- voritism she can compete for many of the German markets.
 From the despairing days of July, 1918, when it seemed certain the Ger mans would take Paris and that French public opinion would not stand behind q continuation of the war, to the exaltation France feels today in the joy of victory is a far cry, to say the least.
 The tables are completely turned. Politically ana economically the French have made tremendous gains and they can only be expected to make the most of their bettered position in the world.
 If they happened to work at cross purposes to England and America, we can expect some compromise measures and some heated headlines perhaps in case the censor gets off the job some time in 1919, but scarcely anything more serious.