The Brattleboro daily reformer. (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1913-1955, 1920-08-14
BOUNT|FUL CROPS
RELIEVE AUSTRIA
Gtl|lIif 4
B - lit f
Early Fruit and Vegetables
Now Abundant in
That Country
FUEL SHORTAGE
STILL SERIOUS
Public Utilities in Vienna Threatened
with Early OBSERVATION-DISCLOSURES
in Exchange Has Produced Pronibi-
tive Prices for Necessities.

VIENNA, Aug 14.-Bountiful crops
of early fruit and vegetables and prom
Use of an abundance of harder later
yields from field and orchard, with the
big American flour credit still available
for the ration of daily bread have given
Austria a reprieve from the terrible
hardships of last winter.
Fats are as scarce as ever, however,
but in this gracious weather their need
is not so keenly felt Meat, too, is
scanty and high, beyond reach of the
masses. The American flour credit will
be exhausted before the winter sets
fairly in and no man in Austria knows
from where or by what means it will
be replaced.
Strikes and disturbances in the Tes-
chen coal fields, the situation in ST.
lesia, virtual suspension of the Hungar-
ian supply, little as it was and, finally.
Austria S inability to enforce even the
meagre contractual supplies from Bo
hernia, have prevented the hoped for
accumulation of modest fuel reserve
during the summer months Public util-
tiles of Vienna are reported to have
but a week Is reserve of coal for power
and light and less than a month of gas
coal at a minimum consumption. The
last Austrian pig iron oven in operation
has Just drawn its fires for lack of coke.
Into this situation has been injected
a curious business phase resulting from
the increased value of the crown on
foreign change. In the late winter and
early spring the crown dropped as low
as 800 to the dollar on private exchange.
Encouraged by this a small export
trade was nourished. Austrian fac
tories, famous for certain forms of fin
ished articles, began to resume opera
tions on a limited scale, foreign buyers
seeing a good business chance in the
low crown value against standard
qmohies for fasfr 80 rvnmant
Manufacturers were able to get adj
vanees of credit 60 secure coal and
needed raw materials. 1t was a good
speculation for foreign values Then
the minister of finance, Dr. Reisch,
dropped hint one day during de-
bate in the assembly that it would be
wise if Austrian retail sellers, were to
raise their crown prices to the equiva-
lent of foreign values. They did it. A
suit of CLOTHES, that cost from 5000 to
1000 crowns rose in price to from b.
600 to $4,000 crowns. Everything else
went up in proportion.
Then the government, acting on the
same principle, is reported to have gone
on the Zurich exchange, which controls
crown quotations, with large amounts
of foreign money and forced the crown
up. Their efforts were assisted unex-
pectedly by an influx into Austria of
,1o4,N
tipn of the monies of the other conn
tries Of Central and Eastern Europe
made this their last field for speeula-
ton. Pounds, dollars and francs be-
came plentiful with small demand and
the crown rose in value until the official
price was 1870 to the dollar and 80
in private deals. Retail prices contin-
ued to 90 up, so that with the rise in
the crown cutting foreign values one
half the plan literally "cut its own
throat -
Foreign buyers quit. Retail trade
stagnated. Native Austrians did not
know whether to laugh or cry at a
straw hat in a window bearing the
price mark of 1000 crowns. But they
were not sold.
The next step in the reaction hit the
basic industries. The few factories
running have begun to eurtaI or close
down as orders are cancelled and new
contracts fail to come The ministry
of specialization is besieged with re-
quests from manufacturers to be per
mitted to discharge employees. it be-
ing reported that as high as twenty a
day have been recently received. ~
The new state of Czecho-Slovakia is the