The people's voice. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1939-1969, 1948-02-13
Blackmarket, Worst
Factor In French
Economy
BY DON c. MATCHAN
Former Editor Valley City (N.D.)
Times-Record

gressional discussions on the Marshall
Plan, about the Black Market in
France. But I've been living with it
for nearly three weeks and its import
ant in any analysis of what's wrong
with France.
Officially the Black Market does
not exist, of course. But without it,
people couldn't live. That's how bad
it is. There's a Black Market in cur
rency, in bread, in cheese, milk, sugar,
butter, gasoline. 1t doesn't exist in
meat, but the prices are so high ($1.SO
to S2.4O a pound for steak that the
ordinary folk can't buy it.
I bumped into it four times while,
walking along the streets of Paris.
Taking me for an American, four diff
ferent Frenchmen asked me if l had
money to change into francs, or cigar
cites to sell At the banks you get
1859 francs for each American dollar.
On the streets you can get from $50
to more than 800. It fluctuates, and
is such an established thing that the
papers quote the Black Market prices
being paid for foreign currencies.
Still its illegal.
A gallon of gas in France will cost
you ST. A good meal in the larger
restaurants will run from 81 to SO,
if you take wine. Shoes, clothing have
skyrocketed and foods have risen
from 1000 to 1000 percent since 1888.
In 1889 a two-pound loaf of bread
4
francs officially 40 if your coupons
don't hold OUT butter has jumped
from II francs to 1870; cheese was II
francs before the war, is 10S now;
milk was two francs in 1889, is 20
now; potatoes sold for 1 y francs
1.-TWO pounds) in the good old days,
are IS francs today; sugar has risen
from three francs pound to %.
Those are official figures, obtained
at the Food office. From the same
office came these figures on Black |
Market prices: Butter, S. pound;
sugar, $1.60; condensed milk, 80
cents; cheese, $2.40.
Because of these prices the worker
today is spending so percent of his
income on food alone Even a Right
list admits it's bad, as the deGaulle
press officer who told me "a man
earning 10000 francs a month must
spend 10000 for food"
The picture which has unfolded
itself to me in France is one of gov
eminent Indifference to the vital ques-
ton of getting food into human stom-
achs.
One retreat after another has been
made in the field Of controls, until the
whole system of distributing food at
prices people can afford to pay-work-
ing people, that is-has broken down.
The difference between control in
and France is striking.
told you what the average English
family gets to eat. Here's what the
average French family gets; Soup,
bread and ersatz coffee for breakfast;
potatoes boiled with cheapest cut of
meat, bread at noon. The same thing
over again at night They get a
little cheese occasionally, wine part of
he time, but little fruit. Only babies
get milk because production has
dropped so drastically
Anyone in the country will tell you,
however, and it was proven to me,
hat you can eat whatever you want
f you have the money" In a restau-
ant which can't be considered fash
enable I bought a pear for dessert
one evening. 1t cost me 90 francs, I
'oughly Y cents Eggs are sold on
he free market for 26 francs apiece.
This initiation, uncontrolled and still
has brought the caloric diet
If the average Frenchman from 5000
;alories before the war, to 2,400 a day
low. And to make it worse, the cal
;ium deficiency, due to lack of milk
md cheese. is two-thirds less than the
,ody requires.
l visited in the kitchens of French
took pictures of the meal to
which one family of five sat down at
loon, | know. And when the wives
nd the men told me, wherever | went,
We never go out, we cannot buy
lothes, the money goes for food" |
now they're telling me the truth
And | wonder how, over the long