Evening star., 1926-06-06
FRENCH HARD HIT.
BY DROP OF FRANC.
Nearly One Third of Popula-
ton Declared Facing Ex-
treme Distress.
BY WILLIAM BIRD.

BY Radio TO The Star.
PARIS, June Approximately
1000 900 persons, or nearly one-thlrd
of the entire population or france,
today are in a situation bordering
on extreme distress. In some cases
this situation is more threatening
than actual, but those among TINS
number who have not yet been over
taken by ruin are not far from II.
Wage earners and their families,
and particularly white collar wage
earners, are for the most part, but
one degree removed from starvation.
Government employees, railwaymen
and clerks are paid today salaries fire.
ouently lower than $50 a month, and
rarely exceeding $40 month: on
this they are expected to maintain
their families in respectable conol-
tionS.
Intellectuals Hard Hit.
College professors, teachers. ana
other intellectual workers seldom re-
ceive. at today's exchange rates. more
than $500 a year, while the majority
of them are scratching out miser-
able existence at far below that
figure.
Even high state dignitaries, such
as Judges and army and navy officers,
have to be content with salaries which
reach s., 900 only as an extreme max
imum.
Industrial workers, although rela-
lively fortunate, are obliged to cut
their living scale to the barest neces-
stiles in most cases. The maximum
wages of skilled labor in Paris, where
the highest scale prevails, are less
than $150 a day, while 80 francs is
the prevailing scale in many indus.
tries. In the provinces many labor
ers receive SO cents a day and few
more than 81.
Distress, however. is not confined to
the salaried classes. In general all
Creditors" are in dire straits owing
to the debasement Of the currency.
Money lent when the franc repre-.
sented 90 cents in gold, now is draw
ing interest in paper, worth intrinsi-
cally only 2 cents in gold. and in pur-
chasing power one-fifth of it's original
value.
Savings Count for Little.
People who had saved all their lives
in order to spend their last years in
comfortable security are drawing in
comes which leave them dependent on
relatives, or on such work as they are
yet able to perform.
Even the trading claSSeS-althOugh
those in big business" are making
money rapidly-are for the most part
hard hit. Small merchants, not COM
pretending the meaning Of the fall in
the currency, are retailing their
stocks at prices lower than replace.
ment costs at wholesale. Business is
brisk, but their stocks are being
rapidly depleted and they will awake
some not distant morning to find they
have exchanged their goods for paper
with which no goods can be purchased
to reStock their shelves.
For this class, whether imitation and
depreciation continue, or stabiliZation
is achieved, ruin is practically certain,
because either way the wide gap be-
tween the francs international value
and its internal purchasing power
must somehow be closed up.
Today. although the franc has only
one-tenth of its pre.war purchasing
power in the international markets, it
still will buy one-fifth as many goods
in France as before the war. In other
words, the same money will buy twice
as much at home as abroad. When
this gap closes, as all such gaps tend
to do, those with franc incomes will
be twice as badly off as they are today
and ruin for these classes will be com.
plete.
Copyright, 1921