Evening star., 1938-01-16
A Lesson From France.

Happily, the American system pre-
serves the United States from the fitful
changes Of government to which France
is spasmodically subjected, but the cur
rent upheaval at Paris-the twelfth that
President Lebrun has faced during six
years in office-has pertinent interest
Tor this country at a moment which
finds administration and business CROP
ing for way out OF the Roosevelt
recession" It is nominally the latest
fall OF the franc which brought down
the Chautemps cabinet. Correspond
ingly, it is the hurdle which NJ Georges
Bonnet, late Ambassador at Washing
ton, seeks to take in forming a new
government independent of Leon Blum's
late Popular Front-Socialist support.
But the problem perturbing France
and muddying its political stream goes
deeper than the franc. 1t is even more
fundamental than the differences i'm
mediately dividing the Blum cohorts,
who demand rigid monetary control, to
check the f1uctuation of the franc, and
the Bonnet group which insists upon an
unrestricted currency and a balanced
budget. Underlying these conflicting
programs is the basic and overshadow-
ing matter of production. Premier
Chautemps as early as last fall foresaw
the situation which at length has culmi-
mated in his downfall, when he declared
1t essential for the life of the country
that production be increased and that
"this necessity must be placed before
all others, since the whole social fabric
depends on it."
Industrial production was hit to the
point of paralysis. by the long series of
strikes France has endured, by inces-
sanity rising taxation, by ill-digested and
exaggerated social legislation, and by
wages and hours law which keeps
French factories going forty hours and
keeps them idle 128 hours a week. The
inevitable result of these expensive and
restrictive factors has been to make
production costs unbearable except by
the financially strongest concerns The
vicious circle simultaneously raised prices
to an extent that handicapped French
goods in the export market, while Grip
pling purchasing power at home. The
tribulations of the franc are, of course,
directly attributable to these various
root causes, for the spiral of industrial
depression depletes government reve-
nues, breeds consequential treasury def
cits, necessitates government borrowing,
shakes faith In the stability of the
franc, drives capital abroad-and upsets
cabinets.
American conditions are, of course,
not identical with those convulsing
France. But that ut can happen here"
many economists and business leaders
outside the starry-eyed orbit Of the New
Deal are convinced. They feel that the
lesson present-hour chaos at Paris
teaches us is the folly and gravity OF
policies which prevent instead of pro-
noting industrial xpansion-policies
which look to scarcity, not abundance,
Of production, industrial and agricultural
alike. What the French crisis seems
especially to admonish the United
States to do is to refrain not only from
legislative expedients which hamper and
harass legitimate private enterprise, but
also from alarmist and provocative gen.
eralities like oracular threats to blow
all holding companies out of existence,
regardless Of their legality or economic
road which France has taken, to her
costly dismay.