Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1931-02-15
EUROPE'S BUSINESS CRISIS
is PRODUCING SKEPTICISM
Conditions Show Trend to Advocate Inn
provements in Economic System
to Avoid Depressions.

nearly 5000 900 jobless, or nearly twice
the British figure. Austria Is hard hit,
with 80 per cent Of the working popu-
lation unemployed The situation Is best
in France, and comparatively good in
Ireland, Switzerland, Holland. Spain.
In comparatively unfndustrtanzed
countries like the Scandinavian, Poland
and the Balkans, unemployment teHs
little.
In Germany some 100000 persons
are involved, with q decrease In con-
Stunning power Of 5000 ,000, 900 marks, or
9 per cent Of the national income. The
worst is In the supposed incurable, or
hardcore, unemployment, which II
thought to amount today In Germany
to at least 100000, who would not
find work even under good business con-
ditions.
Production Decreases.
A result Of this crisis is an undoubted
decrease In the European birth rate,
except in countries which are backward
or where an increase Is furthered by
moral influences.
The curve of production repeats that
OF unemployment Great Britain's de-
crease in one year seems to amount to
about per cent. Italian production
did not drop much during the first half
of 1880, but 1t became catastrophe in
November, when the consumption of
electricity by industries decreased sud-
denly 10 per cent. German production
diminished by at least 20 per cent and,
in some industries, like steel, by q full
third
The building trades were badly hit
even in country like Belgium, whose
100000 unemployed bear witness to o
comparatively happy state. The Swiss
watch industry, French dressmakers
and perfumers and the Dutch diamond
industry are staggering, but generally
these countries are prosperous, largely
at Germany'S expense. Whole districts
of Switzerland are nourished by villas
being built for rich Germans and Eng
lish.
Scandinavia Is suffering considerably,
Sweden through a drop in the price Of
wood pulp, Denmark through that IN
butter, eggs and cheese, and Norway
through a shipping decline.
The grain-producing states Of eastern
Europe are the real victims, owing to
the tariffs Of industrial states and Rus
sian competition. Their standard Of
| living has sunk considerably. Hungary,
where agriculture is most intense. suf-
| fers most and the living standard Of
| its farmers has declined at least IS
per cent, while the Rumanian and
JugoSlav crop values are not more than
| half those in former years.
It Is believed that real improvement
in the states from Finland to Bulgaria
can be obtained only by treaty arrange
mentS, and here the search for new
trade arrangements is the most inten-
| sive.
Too Many Merchants.
Such is at least part of the picture.
Signs of improvement are scarce.
| Wholesale prices on the world market
| have fallen enormously, but the popula-
| tons of industrial countries are pre-
vented from having the benefits of
cheap foodstuffs and the agrarian popu-
lations of cheap industrial products oy
| by only the smallest fraction of the
wholesale drop and it must be assumed
| that consumption is still decreasing.
There Is tendency to keep manu-
| featured inland prices high by cartels
| in order to finance exports at the world
price. Most European countries, strik-
ingly Germany, possess far too many
per cent more firms employing ~ per
cent more persons to do the business
Of 1918.
The entire continent from Germany
eastward reveals real scarcity Of capt.
| tai, which Is prevented from flowing
! in from abroad simply by lack of polit-
| ical confidence. Sterilization of the
political situation. again enabling capt.
tai to flow eastward, would help the
situation, as would more liberal sys-
tenn Of tariffs and commercial treaties.
Meanwhile, without perhaps knowing
why, most Europeans seem to look west
ward for light and expect the coming of
improvement-if improvement can come
to reveal itself first IN the United
! States.
(Copyright, 1917