The Birmingham age-herald., 1923-08-20
Another Attempt Upon Part Of American FinanCiers To Bring Intervention Seen In Report Upon The Situation CHAMBER OF COMMERCE SAYS FRENCH HAVE LOST German People Said To Be h.
 Creasing Their Wealth, But
 Little Coal Is Being Mined
 For Consumption In France
By THOMAS L. STOKES Al NNrs tnaA ~ uNn

(Lcnsed Wire to The ASe-Herald.D
 WASHINGTON, August 19-An- other effort by American business interests to bring intervention in the Ruhr, deadlock Is forecast in a re- port made by an observer from this country Basil Miles of the Interna- tional Chamber of Commerce, who has just returned from survey of economic conditions in the occupied areas.
 Miles, who speaks for a large por- titn of American business, found that the French occupation has not only been failure in making the Ruhr pay, but on the other hand that the physical wealth of the re- zion has improved in spite of the French occupation because of the en- ergy of the German population.
 France, he said. is getting only about one-third as much ctke and coal from the Ruhr as she got pre- viously from reparation deliveries. The Germans. moreover, during the passive resistance, have not been idle.
 WOrkmen Subsidized.
 Ut would naturally be supposed
  with unemployed" he says in his lengthy report "The opposite is the fact Theoretically. there is no unemployment in the Ruhr. A fea-' ture of the German government pol icy has been an organized subven- tion of industry.
 "The workmen are being subsi- dized by the government, with sup pfementary contributions from the unions and syndicates of mine own CTS and industrialists; fhe wOrkmen check in full force, every day, and are paid their regular wages. Most of them find little to do.
 "The natural reaction on the part of the owners has been to employ the men in productive woork which will be useful for the future. Accordingly. the factories and plants are being carefully overhauled, new veins cf coal are being opened, eX- tensions are being pushed forward, and housing schemes for workmen enlarged. 4 particularly striking example of new development on large scale is the enormous 1,100- foot lock in the Dortmund- -Herne canal at Ruhrort to cost, it is said, 300 100000 gold marks"
 Food More PlentifuI.
 Complaints of food shortage ap- pear to be much less vigorous now than on his inspection trip in Febru- ary, he said. Though most of the railroads are tied up by strikes, there is considerable travel on those which are being operated by the French.
 "The net result is that with six months of freedom from allied con trol, the Ruhr could probably get into greater production than ever be- fore; certainly within a year it's production could be organized to production very much in excess of any pre-war year." Miles stated.
 Ut seems Sufficiently clear" he said regarding the French efforts in the Ruhr, That the only people who can work the mines and factories of the Ruhr profitably are the Ger mans who live there. The idea that the French themselves can produce Ruhr coal, coke and steel without the cooperation of German labor and management is fantastic under any conditions approximating those which exist at the present" "The financial and other difficult ties of the German government would seem enormous. It is a fact, however that as long as faith in the government is sufficient to enable paper money to circulate as me dium of exchange, regardless of the purchasing power of the mark, the government can carry on."