The Connecticut labor press., 1919-04-12

French textile industry. the Germans, when they did not steal the machin-
 cry, broke some of the vital parts and l took away all electrical fittings and every scrap of copper.
 What happened then after the war had ceased? .. l The French government made it inn 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 1 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 slim chance of being able to put
 through the deal.~ but 1t was by no means certainty. 55 As >@s Back of this seemingly suicidal pol l icy was the French government plan to make France as nearly self-sustain- 1 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 ofh-
 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, eve with factory reconstruction started.
 the French economic system would be 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
 maticaIly push the French exchange
 rate into position favoring France
 Yet the whole chain of reconstruc- tion was blocked by the prohibition fon importing foreign spindles and the
 French textile people themselves were
 obliged to oppose a government policy
 that hurt their business. -.t*t American business men in France
 during the peace conference shook 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 l January as reconstruction measure 1 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 we'll as the sugar business.
 All of this wreckage cost the French something like $500, GOO. .O0O-that's the first official estimate. .. g Dream of Prosperity. z 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 despairfng days of July,
 1e1S,ewhen it seemed certain the Ger mans would take Paris and that
 French public opinion would not stand behind a continuation of the war, to
 the exaltation France feels today in the joy of victory is far cry, to say
 the least. e@,-,- ..@
 The tables are completely turned.
 Politically, and 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. /.