The New York herald. [volume] (New York, N.Y.) 1920-1924, 1922-02-05

turning their eyes and their steps to-
ward France.
Paris Is full OF young Englishw omen
OF the clerk and stenographer class
seeking employment In some English OF
American firm established there. So
overstocked is the market that warnings
have been officially issued TO dissuade
them-but they are coming still. by the
hundreds and the British Consulate Is
kept busy with their woes. So, II you
travel anywhere in France, especially In
the North you find that it Is peppered
with young Englishmen, mechanics and
the like.
Many OF them married French girls
during the war and came back as soon
as they were demobilized; others have
come over in the search for the work
they cannot find at home and have
stayed on. In many cases the plunge
has justified ITSELF there Is little unem-
ployment In France and although wages
are low, compared to the English trades
union standards, they compare more
favorably when the difference in ex-
change Is considered.
The case OF Switzerland presents yet
another aspect OF the international exo-
dus Swiss money Is worth lot just at
present--with the Inevitable result of
commercial crises, lack OF foreign trade
and unemployment. One curious Incl
dental result may be noticed en- PEASANT.
The out-of-work Switzer receives a
small unemployment grant--averagin
something under fifty Swiss francs a
week. II is paid him every fortnight
If he remained at home. looking for
the work that is not there, he would
come near to starving.
Syvfss Goinx to Badeu
But he does not stay at home. He
slips across the frontier into Baden,
where his unemployment dole Is worth
some 5000 marks and prices are low and
lives comparatively on the fat of the
land. Many of him are even venturing
as far as Vienna. where on some $500
crowns a week he can afford to rub
shoulders with millionaires. His life in
Vienna isehowever handicapped by the
fact that the railroad fare Is consider
able, which. as the Swiss authorities in
sLst that application for the dole must
be made fortnightly. takes some OF the
gilt off the gingerbread.
Very much more serious from the
national point Of view is 1t that many
manufacturers. finding that the home
rate Of exchange, OF costs and of wages
are rendering 1t impossible for them to.
4
their whole enterprises across the from
tier. some into France, the majority
into Germany. They have already
bought large tracts of land in the
Grand Duchy OF Baden and erected fac
tories, where. through the abundance of
cheap labor and the comparatively enor-
nous reduction OF overhead. they are
doing far better than was ever the case
in Switzerland. Especially Is this move
ment evident In the watch trade. for
which Switzerland has long been the
European headquarters. and It Is caus-
ing grave concern to the Swiss author
tiles
Middle Glasses Make Up Bulk.
Broadly speaking, however. the ex-
odus Is most evident In the middle
classes. retired professionals, annuitants
and those with small fixed incomes
And 1t runs round the whole European
circle, recalling the doggerel verse about
the small fleas that had smaller heas
to bite 'em and so ad infinitum. For
while your small British or Swiss annu-
liant looks longingly to France, so does
the Frenchman to Italy and the italian
to Germany and the German TO Czecho
Slovakia and the Bohemian to Ruma-
MIA and the Rumanian to Poland or
AuStria.s where at last the limit Is
reached and the unfortunate native can
find no country which confesses to Q
currency so deprecated as his own.
But even there the movement Is not
completed. For as every one who has
recently travelled through those most
depressed parts OF central Europe can
testify. the Pole and the Austrian and