The Bridgeport times and evening farmer., 1920-04-09
FRENCH EXPLAIN
 EXCHANGE RATE

As a unique example of French thought relative to the present rela- tions Of the United States and France the following letter is of interest. It was written to a prominent local firm by a well known French export and import house:
 Dear sirs-We duly received your letter in which you kindly drew our attention to the considerable decrease in the French exchange in comparison with the dollar and you explain to us the reasons. Permit us to inform you that we know not only the causes aut a5se the effectss on your side, gold and prosper1tys on eurss poverty and high cost of living,
 You also gently expose the mag nfficent percentages of production of the United States in gold, grain, cop per, cotton, etc, etc.
 '.In turn, with sad pride, we wish to remind gon of some comparative percentages between Franco and the United States which, we think, you might have forgotten.
 ttFrarce has supported: 9T per cent. of the deaths, SS per cent of the nutiiiated, 80 per cent. of the war expenses, 112 per cent of the Instructions (we say 112 per cent, be- cause you have kept for yourselves the German tonnage detained in your ports in compensation of unexisting destructions1>
 And these percentages derive their true value when you compare your 100, 900, 900 inhabitants with our 40,- oo0, ,eo0-
 t'You cannot doubt that if we French of the Marne and of Verdun (the writer having found himself there personality had not for four years and three months defended the worlds liberty at the price of a sea of blood and a mountain of gold, that would have been from your country that the Germans would have repaid themselves for the cost of the war and not from an empty France. It would have been on your 60 per cent of copper, on your 66 per cent. of oil, on your 50 per cent of cotton that the PrGsSian masters would have fed their preying people, ~FSo after having seen near the trenches, the charity, and the gener- osity of the Americans, comforting us with the smile of woman, serving out coffee before returning to the hell ot the trenches that we are infinitely pained to find ourselves abandoned by your nation once the peril has passed
 And we addressed ourselves te your country through your interme- dium, ask, what has happened to your disinterestedness, your nationai generosity, the promises of the an nuI1ing of the debts contracted with you to fight against 8 common en- l emy? Shall we, the conquerors, but harrassed, reimburse you and reim- purse you threefoId due to the loss 1T the exchange? Shall we have to fight { on a new economic front, a battle ex. hausting and indefinite?
 "Is this the real reason, dear sirs of the depreciation of our money which flinders our relations; thai which you expose, originating in the refusal of our powerful allies to di- vide the expenses of the war? They
 calculate, without doubt, that they have made a good stroke, he having hoarg1ed the wealth which they have l paid with only 45,000 of their chil-
 dren scattered amidst 1,To0, 900 ot
 ours
 I've conclude, dear sirs, begging you to consider this as not concerning you or ourselves, but as a direct ap- peal of France to America