Ellsworth American. [volume] (Ellsworth, Me.) 1855-current, 1919-05-21
-FOUR YEARS OF WAR CHANCES WHOLE
CHARACTER OF FRANCE AS A NATION
Has New Ideals Undreamed l914Fute of the Country
Turned From Agriculture to lndustriaIsnl-Whie
Distant Future Is Bright Problems to Be
Solved Are Mighty.

time when the average American was
/ thinking and talking of the closer
| trade relations that would spring up
i between France and America as 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 manufacture
err of a well-known automobile. This
I firm had several thousand cars In
france ordered for war purposes by
the French government. 1t was i'm
possible to sell the cars to civilians,
/ 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
of exchange was already against the
French. 1t was thought desirable to
keep the exchange rate from mount
ing higher against France.
Mere fluctuation of exchange was
not the primary reason for barring out
As it happened. a well-known
French concern operated by Andre
Citroen. whose name is as well known
in France as the name of the leading
manufacturer of cheap automobiles is
known in America, had turned his fac
tory over to munition production dur
ing the war. While the peace con-
ference was starting, Citroen was
converting his works into a plant for
manufacturing small and fairly
cheap car which would take its place
as the cheapest car in France as soon
as production could be gotten under
way
In the meantime Citroen was pro-
tected. The lot of American cars was
not to be thrown on to a market that 1
the French considered to be legitimate |
ly Citroen's.
Close to Industrial Paralysis.
Americans in Paris did not appreci- |
ate the French situation as revealed |
in cold figures of the statisticians,
namely, that France was on the very /
WI SC VI lbSotdtC SIS
that the country. with only one or
two false moves. might easily go into
that vicious circle of Industrial mis-
fortune that had already hit Austria
where the whole economic fabric had
degenerated to point that brought t
rank ruin TO the greater portion of the
population.
While France was enacting laws that
prohibited the importation of Ameri-
can manufactured articles and thereby
hoped to protect her own disrupted !.
factories while they got back from
lea, as she had every right to do, shut
out one Of the principal commodities .
the French have to sell abroad: wines.
brandies and liquors. Our national
prohibition amendment cut off at one
stroke one of the leading products I
the French had hoped to sell in the !
United States. There was of course .
no spirit of retaliation on the part of F..
America In this-it was simply the
working out of a strictly national prob /,
lem.
American officials here in Paris who 4
were watching the strained relations !
between the Americans and certain
cliques of the French used to point
out that America must make due al
lowances for the critical problems of
reconstruction days In France and re-
member that any unjust commercial
discrimination ordered by the French
government would right itself quickly
enough because of the inequalities
such rulings made in France itself.
In other words, it was regarded as
only matter of time before pressure
brought to bear by the French bust
ness houses who were unfavorably af-
fected by the embargo against Ameri-
can factory stuff would cause the gov
eminent to let down the bars in many
instances and permit the flow of trade
to resume
French Industries Ruined.
To Illustrate: The country around
/ Lille In the north of France was a
/ great spinning center before the war.
1t was also the center of some of the
worst fighting. And the spinning mills
were destroyed by shell fire and by
willful robbery by the Germans. OF
the $4,000 bobblns spinning linen
/ thread before the war $4,000 were
destroyed and 10000 stolen. In the
wool spinning business in this section
| 100000 bobbins out of $500 900 were
destroyed or stolen, according to the
/ French minister of reconstruction
: Something like five hundred cotton
bObbins We're put out of business. To
complete the job of paralyzing the
/ 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