Evening star., 1927-11-27

NARlS-When | was in Paris 10
- months ago, the memories OF
the panic of the Summer Of
i 1926 were still fresh; if the
franc had been rescued and
pegged, there was still an air of appre-
hension. Business men, bankers, in
vestors and all people of property had
lost confidence.
| Today the impression is just The op.
posite. Within a relatively few
months Poincare has fortified the
franc beyond the reach Of any attack
The franc has been pegged for nearly
| a year at the ratio of about % to the
dollar. All the confusion incident to
an unstable medium has gone.
| More than this, the impressive cir
cumstances is the unmistakable evil
dence of general prosperity. In re-
cent weeks ! have travelled through a
good deal of France, visited Stras-
bourg, I.ysn and Montpelier. stopped
in many smaller towns and walked
through not few villages. Every
where there is n sense of well being.
France More Prosperous.
| The France of the moment is, / be-
| lieve, more prosperous than at any
| time since the war. This prosperity
is not disclosed in any boom. On the
contrary, the period of rescue of the
franc was a period in which there
| were hardships, unemployment. q
slowing down of industries, an arrest
| in those trades which lad been over
stimulated by imitation. And in GER
/ tain directions this arrest continues.
although unemployment has almost
| totally disappeared.
| This year. France has for the first
time budget which is balanced-the
revenue meets the expenditure. In
| this same year. too up to date, France
| has exported goods to a greater value
| than she has imported, While TINS
| favorable balance has been fed by very
large tourist payments, which will GER
tainly touch S250.000,000. Unemploy-
ment, which never touched 100000,
has dropped below 10000, and this
| figure is to be set against the million
steadily maintained at public expense
| in Great Britain and the 1,150,000 of
| the worst moment in the still recent
German slump.
| Again, while Germany has borrowed
abroad upward of So, 500, 100000 since
| the restoration of the German mark,
France has avoided substantially all
| foreign loans. While foreign money,
| largely American, has been flowing
| into Germany, supplying the basis for
| Il present wave of prosperity. France
| has benefited by the enormous return
of French money which fed the coun-
| try in the Summer of 1926 collapse.
| Today the public debt of France is
around S12,0O0,OO 900. as against
| 81, ,000, 900 900 before the war. The
| British debt is now at least three times
as great. The American, even allow
| ing for the part covered by foreign
findings. is larger than the French.
Actually what has taken place is that
| by process of imitation three-quarters
of the French war borrowings have
been wiped out. This virtual repudia-
ton has imposed enormous hardships.
But the surgical operation has been
accomplished; the burden today is not
beyond the capacity of the French
| taxpayer.
Population Growing.
| Equally striking has been the
| fashion in which France has replaced
the human losses of the war. In place
of the 100000 lives lost in the war
there are today nearly as many for
eigners, who have come to France dur
| ing the recent years. The population
of France, which had sunk from &c.
100000 in 1911 to 100000 in 1921,
despite the addition of Alsace-Lor-
raine, with it's 100000 inhabitants
| has remounted to 4O,75O,O0O.
Not only have Italians, Belgians,
| Poles and Spaniards in great numbers
come to the cities and mines OF
| France. but in the south a very con-
siderable wave of settlement is going
forward in regions which had for
years been the scene of progressive
depOpulation. The pre-war discus
| sion Of the depOpulation of France
has not merely ceased. but there has
grown up an active debate as to how
| the immigrant is to be treated and
transformed as speedily as possible
| into hundred per cent" Frenchman.
| Looking at more immediate circum-
stances. France, with half it's popula-
ton living on farms, has in the pres
ent year enjoyed better crop yields
| than i'll several years. Thus, in sum,
you have busy factories. mines work
ing to capacity, good harvests.
| 1t would. of course, be idle to at.
tempt to set up any parallel between
| American and French conditions.
| France is not country of great in
| dustry in the American or German
sense, and it is not, therefore, a coun-
| try of great fortunes. 1t is not rich
as Britain has been or America is.
First Power to Recover.
But France has been the first of
| the great European powers to recover
| from the consequences of the war.