New-York tribune., 1921-10-04
Heaviest Sufferer of War
Leads in Industrial Re-
covery and Has No I'm
employment Problem
W Orkers Own Bonds
And Not Silk Shirts
Needs No Imports
of Fuel or Cereal and
Export Trade Growing
By Wilbur Forrest
Special Cable to The Tribune

copyright. 1921. New Yo1lI Tribune Inc
FAklS, Oct. 3.-France. the greatest
sufferer of all the Allies IN the war
stands to-day in the best position Of
any of the Allied aud associated ma
lons. Against the millions out Of
WORK IN Great Britain and the United
States, and 100000 in Italy and the
100000 IN Switzerland, careful re-
search on unemployment in France
SHOWS that it is not problem here.
Aside from few thousand workers
temporarily idle because of strikes in
the textile factories OF northern
France, this republic is able to show
less than $4,000 actually out of work
Labor Problem Easier
Many elements and conditions enter
INTO Frances situation. France is
neither a great Industrial country nor
mecca for foreign labor. The read
Justment between capital and labor
began over year ago, when the work
ers generally accepted the common
sense view that the high war wages
had been temporary rather than a
permanent proposition. The govern
ment, which had been employing great
numbers OF forei gners Italians and
; Spaniards, as we'll as French Colonials
from lndo-China and northern Africa
- gradually sent these workers homo
IN order TO make gaps in the ranks
OF CIVIL employment for the French.
who found themselves demobilized
nom military service in comparatively
small groups, rather than en- masse. as
was the ease with the other Allies.
me 1act chat more than million
trenchmen were killed in the war
alded in the governments careful req
ulatlon of the margin between work
and the worker.
France, rather than Being a great
industrial country, is nation of small
industries, whose owners employ two
or three assistants and were not forced
TO discharge employees because thew
were not affected either by financial
OF economic conditions which result
TOM the activity Of great industries
Ihe proportion of these small estab-
lishments is very great and thew are
a great factor in the present healthy
status of France.
Big Concerns Curtail
1t is true, however. that many of the
larger industries in France are operat-
ing with greatly diminished stahfs. In
the iron and steel industry three
quarters of the furnaces are closed and
the plants are employing only a fourth
Of their former workers. The re-
have found work in the dev-
astated regions and in farms in viii
lagos throughout Erance or in small
industries which have always lacked
sufficient workers. Many industries
also are keeping their employees on
onefourth time, which assures them
Il living until better times come Con-
ditions are improving daily.
All the industries are reporting
steadily increased orders, which means
the employment of more men. The few
now out of work Will soon be EN-
nioyed, according to all reports of the
industrial situation.
The war upset labor conditions in
rance, as in all countries, because it
drew mass Of laborers unfit for &C
tual military service at the front to
the industrial centers, mainly in the
vicinity of Paris and other large cities.
This left the small industries located
in the towns and villages with Insult
cient help. These latter industries
since the war have helped absorb those
thrown out Of work by the lessened
activity in the larger works.
No "Silk-Shirt Class
One of the main elements contribute
ing to Frances position, however, is
the psychological makeup Of the
French lower classes. Instead OF spend
ng their high war wages for silk shirts.
automobiles and other luxuries, as was
done by so many in the United States.
their savings nave been reiigiously in
vested in horttern, interest bearing
government bonds.
Few races are more prudent in money
affairs than the French, and there is
scarcely a worker in the republic. sta
-istics show, who is not the owner Of
At least one Of these bonds Many, the
same figures show, possess enough Of
his paper to provide them with small
incomes, which, though barely suffi-
,ient to give them bread and butter,
them from the class having a
ife and death interest in the factory
pay roll.
This class is content to pick up odd