Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1931-01-08

amount to in the different countries.
Jonathan Mitchell London economist
and writer, reports that several coun-
tries, including Italy and Spain, tried
to have the investigation stopped, but
1t went on, even against the opposition
of both governments ana many Euro
pean manufacturers.
Taking Great Britain as equal to 100
units, recent figures Of the international
labor Office show comparative wage
levels in terms of real wages, such
as food and clothing of the four great
European powers and the United States,
to be as follows:
United States. ............ss..... .l91
Great Britain. 100
france ..s..'"'''s''' 90
Germany ..........s...s.s.. -
Italy ................... 40
In plain words, it takes only SAB in
italy to buy what $50 will buy in France
SIT in Germany, 500 in Great Britain
and $197 in the United States.
Henry Ford is satisfied. His plants
are busy. The controlling interest in
most of the foreign Ford companies Is
owned by the citizens of the various
nations Sir Percival Perry, head Of
the British Ford Co., is we'll known
British business man and is directing
a company which is employing the ideas
worked out in the United States by the
Ford chemists, metallurgists, mechanical
engineers and technicians of every kind.
So what Mr.. Ford is really doing Is
exporting not goods but the product OF
American brains-a revolutionary step
in the business world" says a well
known writer. Probably that's why the
Detroit manufacturer is more talked
about in Europe than he Is in the
United States.
viii Senator Norris win his long 10
year fight to have the United states
Government own and operate Muscle
Shoals? Today the goal is almost
within his grasp, for the House COM
mittee yesterday broke long deadlock
by Welding to the Senate on the pro-
posed legislation.
If the Senate bill, which provides for
Government operation OF the power
plant, the Government construction OF
the transmission lines, and the lease
Of the nitrate plant for the manufacture
Of fertilizer, is passed by the House
it will 60 directly to President Hoover
and he viii be called upon to decide
whether the Federal Government viii
own and operate the $50, 900 power
plant.
Will the President so decide? We
only know he has repeatedly expressed
his opposition to any plan Of Govern
ment ownership and operation Of public
utilities, and that q similar bill was
pocket-vetoed by President Coolidge.
Sees Recovery.
AIlard Smith, vice president Of the
Union Trust Co. Of Cleveland, thinks
1881 will be q period of ''unmistakable
recovery with returning prosperity for
business"
Mr.. smith told the Economic Club of
Chicago the other day that the most
important problem facing the country
ID to restore and maintain the purchas-
ing power Of the great mass of people,
volume of goods" Which means that
the present wage levels should be pre-
served at every cost, If purchasing
Bower Is to be maintained.
America Is committed to the princi-
PIE Of large public purchasing power as
The foundation for business prosperity"
said Mr.. Smith. Industry is geared up
10 mass production, and even great mass
consumption Is essential to sustained
profits"
True, but how to maintain Sustained
profits" is the difficulty.
Mai. G. II. Douglas of England in his
various books, Economic Democracy"
sCredit Power" and Democracy" has
addressed himself to the problem of
maintaining purchasing power on a level
With production. In the United States,
Catchings and Foster have attempted to
advance similar ideas. But neither in
the United States nor in England have
such ideas been widely accepted by the
economists bankers or the business
world generally.
Still that does not prove that those
who do believe in the principle are
wrong. There Is something in II. Just
how much is the question nobody seems
able to answer.
British Film Industry.
The British Empire Film Institute is
busy these days trying TO get bankers
and business men TO finance amply the
film industry in Great Britain upon the
theory that it is a very necessary and
valuable national asset"
Many conferences have been held by
British film leaders, with the repre-
sentatives of the British dominions, in
an attempt to expand materially British
dln1s In British territory. But, up to
date, the move has not been particu-
larry successful, largely because Of the
great popularity of the American films,
which admittedly, on the whole, are
better in technique than either the
British or the German films.
Still, American film interests are Civ
AAA3 AAOAC ~aA CALA dbtClbtOkl llOH W
etgn production than ever before.
Fate plays a strange hand sometimes
b the most unexpected ways. Witness
the case Of Mrs. Lolita Armour, widow
Of j. Ogden Armour, the packer, who
In 1925 lent her husband 81 900, 900,
which he could not secure from any
other source, in order to meet an obli-
CATION which he had made before bust
ness adversely hit him.
For this loan he gave his wife 400
shares Of stock In the Universal Oil
Products Co.-then a pure speculation.
This stock, only three years before, had
been refused by Mr.. Armour's creditors
IS being Of little or no value.
But Mrs. Armour had fatthl She took
1t and held 1t. When Mr.. Armour died
IN 1927 this stock was about all she had
left.
And the other day she was paid So
$4,000 for her holdings return Of
more than 800 per cent in four years
Who says there Is no such thing as
luck in the world
copyright, 1881. By North American News
paper Alliance,