Evening star., 1926-10-24
FRANCE, NEAR COLLAPSE,
TRACES ILLS TO AMERICA
Prosperity Is But ON Surface as Wealth
Is Being Exported and Feeling of
Foreign Bondage Is Rife.
BY FRANK Fl. SIMONDS.

~ ARIS: There is notoriously
l. nothing more difficult than to
get any real idea of the con-
i dition Of a country which is
in the throes of imitation. The
very nature of the disease is such
that all the symptoms seem to deny
the fact The economic life, so far
from indicating any slowing down of
activity, discloses an acceleration
which is entirely like the fever in the
human frame. But this acceleration
promotes the notion Of prosperity. of
success. of something which denies
to the eye all that the expert may
say.
Thus the American who comes to
Paris now Is struck instantly by the
animation of the streets, by the roar
of traffic, by the crowds in the hotels
and the shops. 1t is true that with
few exceptions the crowds are made
up of foreigners; you hear English.
American and German spoken In the
streets almost more than French it
self The brilliantly dressed people
who fill the sidewalks. the resta urah hts.
the hotels, the stores are for the
most part aliens. But the illusion Is
nevertheless perfect, and the COnclu-
sion follows almost inevitably that
these foreigners must be making huge
contributions to the domestic pros
perity of France.
There are. too other signs which
seem to confirm the impression of
prosperity. Britain has millions un-
employed. nearly two millions. with
rectly engaged in the coal strike.
Germany has more than million and
three quarters. Poland. Czechoslo-
vakia. Faly-all these ma atoms are af-
flicted by the curse of pemploy-
ment in varying degrees. But in
France the weekly figure for coun-
try of 40. .0O0. 900 inhabitants does not
reach 500. Moreover. to meet the lack
of domestic labor, more than two
millions of foreigners have been call
ed from outside and work steadily.
X X
If the crops of the present year
have been a little disappointing, 1t is
| not less sure that agriculture is pros
porous and that the pea SAINTS are en-
joying a standard Of living and a
state of wellbeing which is unprece-
dented. The simple life of the remote
commune is yielding strikingly to
the corruption of bobbed hair and
silk stockings. But far more sig
nificant-the great factories. the
working at rate not equaled else
where in Europe.
Nevertheless, the fact stands forth
Enthusiastically that while France
works the franc declines. Steadily.
with ups and downs, hut with ten
dency which over weeks and months
does not vary. the French franc is
! falling, and the most sanguine of
| trained observers can fix no time
when this process is likely to end.
Even more significant, day by day
the wealth Of France escapes over
| the frontiers, the fight from the
| franc continues and increases. con-
| fidence does not return. Official bank
ruptcy. the actual emptiness of the
treasury, has been a fact or near
fact many times in recent months.
In reality, If you desire a figure
to illustrate the situation of France
today, I can think of nothing more
exact than that of the squirrel in the
cage, who. treading his little wheel,
turns and turns with great rapidlty,
moves with an enormous velocity
and gets nowhere, remains always in
side the bars Of his cage until. ex-
hausted by his effort. he lies down
still inside the bars.
X
Moreover. if YOU look little below
the surface, what do you see? The
prosperity of the surface is patiently
misleading. If no one in France is
today starving, literally millions have
seen all the savings of lifetime al
| ready wiped out by the fall of the
franc. The men and women who had
before the war accumulated small
| fortune. always invested in govern
ment securities which insured their
old age. have seen those economies
reduced to nothing. Ten thousand
| francs, which were In 1914 Woftn
| about 50 900. are now worth $215. and
the end is not yet. Imitation. which
has substracted six-sevenths OF the
value of the franc. has wiped out
literally billions of savings made by
the little people.
The same process has brought all
the teachers. professors, employees of
the government, all the more or less
intellectual class, which lived on small
hut assured incomes and savings. TO
condition which is we'll nigh akin to
destitution If the farmer and the
artisan have been able to keep the
price of farm products and the wages
of hand labor commensurate with the
value of the franc, nothing like this
has been possible for the middle
classes.
Moreover, looking at the vast ap-
parent activity of French industry,
it is equally clear that there Is
fatal weakness inherent in the phe-
nomenon. France Is today selling
abroad below the cost of production:
she is dumping vast quantities OF
iron. steel textiles upon foreign mar
kets at a low price, but the price
does not enable her to purchase new
raw material; it is the result of a
steadily lowering standard of living:
it is in reality a true export of capi-
tai. 1t Is a process which, as the
progress of German imitation demon
strated. leads in the end to the i'm
poverishment Of the exporting coun-
try. 1t is sale below the cost of
production.
What, then, is the trouble? The
customary American answer that the
French will not tax themselves Is far
beside the mark. for France Is today
taxed as the United States has never
been. Nor is there any justice in ex-
planning the situation by reference
to military expenditures or colonial
enterprises such as Morocco and
Syria. These are at most mere drops
in the bucket. The fact is that Fra nee
today as result Of war and recon
structiOn Is burdened by debt be-
yond its capacity to carry. Sixty cents
in every dollar which the government
receives Is at once consumed by debt
charges and this without any refer
| ence to the foreign debt. the American
! and British debts, which have as yet
| remained unpaid.
One hears again and again that the
French have so far failed to balance
their budget, to reduce their expenses
to meet their income. But this is
again a half truth. for again and
again the budget has been put in
theoretical bala nee only to see this
balance destroyed by new fall of