The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1922-12-10

CARPENTIER'S WORLD TRAVELS
Copyright. 1922, by Frank G. Car
penter.)
Paris, 1922
London sulks in the dumps, feed
ing its idle on government doles;
Berlin, drunk at it's mad Belshazzar
feast dances on a volcano with
Meme, Meme, Tekel, Upharsin writ
on its walls; Vienna, half naked and
starving, fiddles like Nero while the
Austrian capital burns; but gay, joy
loving, pleasure-maG Paris is busy
at work. The horde of American
tourists rushing hither and thither
under conductors who show only the
battlefields, the great picture gal
leries, and. / regret to say. also the
sparsely clad females at Montmartre
and the Folies Bergeres may not see
1t. but / find work everywhere.
The streets are thronged with traf-
fic. Tram cars and great motor
buses whose fronts look like a loco
motives snowploY are loaded with
laborers and clerks going back and
forth to the shops; taxicabs rushing
like fury wind their way in and out
through big motor truckss loaded
with boxes and bales; great farm
carts, in from the country, drawn by
two or three huge Percheron horses.
fight for their places among donkey
wagons and motorcycle delivery boys;
even men are harnessed up and drag
ging goods through the street. The
vehicles are beyond description. and
they all move on the run. 1t makes
no difference in what quarter of the
city, whether on the boulevards or
the side streets, there is no safety
for the foot passenger, and the tour
list is on the continual dodge to pre-
vent being tramped on by Paris at
work
A Beehive of Industry
Indeed, this city is now one great
beehive of industry. with tens of
thousands of individual workshops
and great factories outside making
steel and iron machinery. railway
and building materials. airplanes and
automobiles. Only this week j visited
one establish ment which covers more
than 120 acres and 5000 hands as
busy as nailers. 1t has 10 acres of
buildings and is loaded with orders.
1t makes automobiles, trucks and
buses tractors, cycle cars and almost
everything that goes upon wheels
with gasoline as fuel. l refer to
the great Renault factory, which
makes an expensive high -class car.
1t had tens Of thousands of men EN-
pioyed on munitions and motor trans
portation during the war. Now, fig
uratively speaking, it has turned
from the sword to the plowshare, and
with standardized methods manufac-
lures for peace. The factory still
employs 1900 women. although it
had 5000 when the Armistice came.
1t has $4,000 men and expects to in
crease its force right along.
There is another motor car factory,
known as the Citroen. devoted to cars
like our "flivvers." or the well known
"tin lizzies." only of a lower horse
power and much finer body. 1t is
running to its capacity and can not
supply the demand. Nearly all of the
establishments that worked on mu-
nitions have been changed over to
supply industrial needs They are
making typewriters. farming ma
chinery, furniture and paper, or
building materials for the reconstruc-
ton work in the north.
Some Industries Of Paris
Even in Paris itself there are nu-
merous manufacturing centers. each
ward having its own branch of in
dustry One district for instance,
has leather shops and carriage shops;
and another is devoted to making
new bodies and designing equipment
for automobiles. At Grenelle there
are chemical works. and at Saint
Denis. Clichy. Saint Ouen and Pantin
are sugar refineries. breweries and
boot and shoe factories. The princi-
pal speciality here is luxury products,
such as jewelry. dresses, furs and
fine notions The city manufactures
also clocks and bronzes. fine porce-
lains wall papers and tapestries. Ii
is famous for its ernbroideries, dress
trimmings and artificial flowers; and
II has dye works and glass works
and chemical factories.
Indeed Paris makes everything IN
der the sun, from pins to locomotives,
from buttons to flying machines. and