The Birmingham age-herald., 1920-08-15
SAYS FRANCE HAS PLENTY OF ROOM ! FOR ALL-COMERS Rates Are Reasonable and Hotel Men Say Wine Drinking Is About
 ..ls.lsa
By GEORGE T. BYE

Paris, July. 25.-A forecast of com fortable accommodations for all Ameri- can tourists who can get passage to France during the summer was given me today by M. Victor Duhamel, president of the French Hotel Industry and the Association of Hotels de Luxe of Paris.
 There are not enough Atlantic liners to cause us embarrassment" he said. I do not believe there are very many more Americans here now than there were before the war and we have the addi- tonal room of the continental tourists who are not travelling this year.
 Tn the next five months I would say that we may have such a thing as crush in Paris, but to offset this is the fact that the rural hotels of France have been very much improved since the war. A great many tourists may now be ao- sorbed by these suburban and country hotels, which will now be found with bathrooms and many conveniences ana luxuries surprising to the old visitors or France.
 "A great deal has been said about the rates of the hotels of France. It is true they are advanced between two and three times to give us as near the rate or profit we received in 1913 as possible We pay as much as ten times more for coal and other necessities of a hotel as we did before the war. Labor costs very much more. In every case l know the rates are very reasonable, and are lower than the rates in New fork TOT the same class of accommodation. ms is equally true of restaurants. Wlth eA- change at it's present level the Amerl- can gets as much for hls dollar here as he did before the war.
 we have heard no complaints rom Americans as to the rates charged, ai- though I know that many Of them are suspiciously on the guard when they ar rive In all the larger hotels in faris the rates are posted conspicuously at the entrance. These are fixed prices and are not subject to the slightest alteration. The new taxes will only slightly affect these rates. A tax of 10 per cent is inn nosed on the charges in a hotel de luxe and per cent on the cheaper hoteis. The 10 per cent tax has been in erect since the war, and the new order merely continues it. On wine we will nave to nav a little more. It's on income oi persons that the tax falls hardest, but this shouldn't affect tourists even snsnt- Nv unless they become French residents
 ''Monsieur Duhamel, I have heard from a tourist agency that the class or Americans visiting France this year IS not the same as before the war, that the tourists now are mostly or the newly rich class and have never traV- elled much before.
 "I connot say if that Is true or not. We are getting a number of our old patrons back. There are Aemericans, sinplv and in families, who before the war spent every spring and summer in France. They are making permanent reservations again.
 "Is there much drinking by the Americans in Paris?
 .sThat is something that my col leagues and I have been discussing None of us have seen single lntoxl- cated American, though Americans lave their champagne and whisky but not to excess. The consumption Of wine at our hotels is not so great, as before the war. Yes, the higher price ;s one cause. and then the war has taught moderation.
 we are really anxious to have Americans and English people come over and go through France. It will help to restore confidence in the human race to see what the French people have done since the war ended We are on our feet again. There IS no idleness in France. Everybody is work ing with will. In spite of our terri ble losses we are close to normal again in our daily life. And speaking of losses. money losses, most hotel pro- prietors have closed thei rbooks on the war years, with no intention of dis tributing extra charges over long period to make up for those losses lost one million francs personally in the Hotel Wagram, which l own, but that is the war to me, and the war Is over, so I start with clean slate again"
 M. Duhamel and the other hotel pro- prietors of Paris proudly exhibit to
 of thair Ap,eriCan friends ll- luminated copy of letter from Brig Gen. w. w. Harts. commanding the Paris district of the A. E. F. written year ago to M. Duhamel expressing the gratitude of American army officers for their fine reception and low expenses in Paris hotels.