New-York tribune., 1921-02-06
Exchange Rate
w Orries Swiss
Hotel Guests
Sojourners i'm Some Cases
Find That Their Bills
Are Considerably Higher
Than They Had Figured
Resorts Lose Patronage
War Has Left Many Suffer
ers Without Means to
Seek Health i'm Alps
From. q Special Correspondent

SENENA, Jan. 2f.--f you want TO
study the exchange question at close
quarters Switzerland is the place. So
journing here for pleasure are to be
found persons of all nationalities, and
spective exchanges is the constant topic
OF conversation. And exchange can
be very vital matter, indeed, when q
fall in the value Of your country's cur
rency may make q difference of 20 to
IS per cent in your hotel bill. This, in
TACT, was the unfortunate experience
Of many Greeks living in Switzerland
when their country threw over Venice
los and declared for Constantine.
In the days before the war one civil
lied country's money was as good as
another's for oil practical purpose. The
Eaglishman. Frenchman and German in
Switzerland got just as good value for
their respective currencies as the
American got for his dollar. Now the
table Of quotations from Geneva or
Zurich tells very different story. In
8 table representing twenty-three coun-
at discount.
Americas Above Par
These three countries are the United
States, Japan and the Argentine Re-
public. The Argentine exchange is at
par, while those of the United States
and Japan actually are ct premium.
All these unfavorable exchanges
mean so many countries unable to trade
with Switzerland. Who now in France
and Italy, TO say nothing of countries
with worse exchanges, can buy the
famous watches of Geneva or the welT
known brands of Swiss milk chocolate?
No wonder that Swiss industries are in
q bad way and that there is unemploy
ment. Not single industry is flourish
ing except the electrical, and this last
Is prospering only because the state
railways are in process of electrical
ton.
The industry which has been affected
above all is, of course, the hotel in
dustry, which in some respects is the
leading trade of Switzerland. Numer-
Gus though Switzerland's foreign WIS.,
itors are these days, they are only g
fraction of those of former times. Last
summer, with one or two exceptions,
the usual tourist centers were virtually
empty the whole season. Before the
war the most numerous visitors were
Germans. How many Germans are
likely to visit Switzerland now either
for pleasure or for business with the
mark worth about one thirteenth of it's
pre-war value? One meets Germans
certainly, but they are very few. They
must be either exceedingly well off or
else persons who were farseeing
enough to deposit funds in Switzerland
before the big depreciation in German
values began.
Russians Pltied
For the Russians, who are, or rather
we're, numerous body here, the ex-
change has been terrible tragedy.
For most of them it has meant abso-
Lutte destitution. Some are supported
wholly or in part by various charitable
bodies. One meets with cases Of Rus
slams of noble family whip had never
done an hours work in their lives
earning small sums by teaching Ian
guages or music or by needlewoFk.
1t is at the mountain health resorts,
such as Davos and Leysin, that the ex-
change tragedy is at its grimmest
Leysin, fer example, used~ to be the
place chiefly favored by the French for
the cure of tuberculosis in all it's
forms. Nowadays the French colony
there is mere remnant of what it
once was. The disastrous fall in ex-
change last winter nearly emptied the
place of French people, and the bitter
ness of it is that 50 many of these re-
turned to their homes half cured, prob
ably to die. For those who remain it
Is often q terrible financial struggle.
81 am spending all my dot on my
cure," French girl will tell you with
a sad smile. What that means those
who know French life will appreciate
Before the war it was difficult enough
for French girl without q "dot" to
get husband. Now, with the enor-
nous surplus Of women, the dowerless
girl Is condemned to lifelong spinster-
hood.
The exchange has it's humorous side
also. An Englishwoman or, to be precise,
an Irishwoman, who came out to Swift
zerland recently was much puzzled by
the fact that while in pre-war days she
cot 25 francs at least for her 81 sterling
she now got only % francs. "Who gets
the difference ?" she asked at the bank
where she was changing her money.
1t would have taken cleverer man
than this stolid Swiss bank clerk to
give satisfactory answer to the ques-
tion.