The log cabin Democrat., 1920-07-31
HIGH FOOD PRICES
 TAKING FRENCH TOLL
People Undernourished and Over. Worked, Dying Like Flies-Wom-
 en Nations Hope.
(From a Staff Correspondent of the
 United Press.)


 Paris, July 15. (By Mail.) If you want to rent house in Paris today you have to wait until somebody dies, was the statement of Mime. Marcelle Robert Cremieux, daughter-in-law of 1 Senator Robert-CremieuX.
 "House-renting agents arrive before the undertaken to list the late rent CTS home.'
 The cities are crowded, not only because there is no building going on now, even after four years of war but because the country people are not going back to the farm since they learned that wages in the city are higher.
 Mme. Robert -Cremieux told me of her apartment hunting experience. It sounded like America. She hunt ed for year-then had to stay where she was living
 The day has passed when Aler- jeans can bring a small fortune to France and live comfortably the rest of their lives" she said.
 AOu uSCd NO SSC lONtIS lIOHleS Nlll large living rooms, four bedrooms and two baths for 6,000 francs. Today they are over 13,000 francs with money deposits-and the nyou don't find them"
 "Oh, living is very dear for the French. The exchange on dollars is high and you do not notice. But poor France Ten departments in- vaded, no coal, limited transportation, no building for six years"
 This charming, educated woman. who looks after housekeeping and marketing herself, compared market prices.
 Cheap cuts of beef are II francs a kilo, about 75 cents pound and a le gof mutton costs about $4. But vegetables are cheap. Wheat flour is high and still mixed with rye flour, as in war times.
 France is today paying more for every article than she did in the most dangerous period of the war"
 But Mme. Robert -Cremieux and oth- CT women of her class can pay the prices. How the poor French mother is keeping family together I learned of Mile. Perrin, head of the Stars and Stripes bureau of the American Red Cross.
 During the war and the following months, Mile. Perrin has been director of 5000 French families. Members of the American Legion adopted the children of 5000 French soldiers kill ed in the war
 Under the bureau, 700 mothers of the 5000 have become self-supporting. no longer needing the assistance of the Red Cross.
 But the women are giving out" said Mile. Perrin. They have worked too hard for their children and eaten too little themselves. We send the children to the country for 15O francs a month and let the mothers rest"
 But the French people are giving out. They are dying like flies" said Ia French dressmaker, who told me of six acquaintances who had died dur ing the week.
 "Oyerwork, too little food, Reaction from the terrible strain during the war! They catch any disease that comes along"
 This dressmaker tells me that she has an entirely new clientele; wives of manufacturers instead of officers wives who are now at home making their own clothes and even doing their own wash. They no longer need or can pay for Madame Liberge's gowns.
 They no longer visit gay tea shops with beauX, as they did during the war. The afternoons are no longer a time for lively scenes and we'll dresses women. And all this has oc- cured since war times, everyone agrees.
 Madame Liberge confirmed what Madame Robert -CremieuX said.
 The women don't want to go back to the farms where lovely hand-em- broidered garments seen in Paris shops are made. They can earn more in cities. Today l pay my appren- tices 30 francs. Yesterday I paid ten
 The lovely creations in gowns are few, but the dainty underwear is still plentiful. However, the quality ot silk and muslins is not so good in the new stocks Gloves that used to cost four or five francs, about $1 in the old days, now cost 27 francs and tht finest 50 or 65 francs. Silk and cot ton gloves are all that the French women can afford.