The Bridgeport times and evening farmer., 1919-09-16
PROBLE EMS FRANCE IS FACING AT
 PRESENT TIME
Tdealish and Courageous Yet People Are Individ-
 ualists and Kickers.
COMING OUT OF
 4 YEARS OF WAR
Why Country Has Not Made Effort As Yet To
 Solve Difficulties.

We have all heard of the man, who. expecting boiled eggs for break fast, was reduced to despair when the cook broke the eggs Into bowl for an omeIet.
 Let us not worry here about the omelets they are making in foreign countries when We have been eE- pccung boiled eggs.
 The fact is, and 1t Is as true for Frenchman in America as for an American in France. that lt takes s9me Co understand a foreign coun- try and to translate what you see and what you hear Into your own formulas and standards I go so far es to consider lt a mere detail that In a foreign country the people you meet have a better knowledge or their own language than of yours. Thisc can be overcome easily, but time and patience, is to understand the surroundings. the form of thought and It's expression, the ways in which the people work.
 Now let US take F.ance and Ameg- lea.
 We have great simuarities. We are ideaHsts, we have courage and stub borncss, we are ind,v,dua-rets and kickcrs. We have also grclt differ ences.
 Your country Is fifteen times big ger than ours. while your pOpula- ton Is only three times larger That means thCt the density of our pop ulation is five times greater than yours. We are a very old country, while your amazing development dates from the last century.
 You have big stretches of farm land, with a deep, fertile soil; we have small farms. in varied land ire guJar@y shaped, and often with a little depth of productive earth.
 You have extraordinary mines, with coal and ore nea,ly at the sur face; we have to go three or four thousand feet deep to get it.
 Our railroads, as NIr. Hartman told me once. are merely street-Car proposition, and although I felt in suited at the time, I understand what he meant.
 Now, of course. The big business mind of the people and .hcir ways of working are affected hg the place they are working iO and on.
 The French people have worked France successfully for fifteen hun dred years. and yoT will iu compar- inE the successful American and French business man. find that the American is more cnterprfsinE. quicker, loows out for the bly oppOr- tunity Is ready to take @ plunge, coucetves biz orra ntzati7n with quick realization. That the FrenChmau is more conservative, more thorough, more interested In the details. un- wiling Co take too big a risk.
 If | am not mistaken. the three points which have 0ecn mostly rais- ed by friends returning from France are:
 CD Political mana cement.
 C2) Insufficient taxa rion.
 t3) Our supposed unwiuinEness or inability to work
 There is preliminary point which must not be overlooked, be- cause it affects the whole proposi- ton.
 France is coming out of four and a half years of war, waged suddenly upon her at time when there was a general economic crisis throughout the world.
 America came Into the war two and a half years later after a period of unheard-of prosperity.
 Our war expenses were double yours although if I refer to the sta tistics published here by your banks. our pre-war wealth was only one fifth of yours.
 Our losses In men killed have been one million and a half: the same proportion for you would have meant every single American who wore a v. s. uniform being killed.
 hope you fully understand what I mean when I say this; it Is not to overrate the share of France in the war. but we are discussing an economic and financial problem. and I cannot do 1t if I do not refer to the facts underlying the whole situ- atiOu