Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 27 March 1952 — Page 25
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| oe oo oo Crisis in France © - | By CHARLES R. HARGROVE franc: shrink from three cents to PARIS, Mar. 27--The ‘French one-third of one cent, at which franc is tottering. = level it has remained officially And with it totters a form of | pegged for qver-two and a half | government which seems consti-| Years. But nowhe peg looks like | tutionally incapable of furnish-|it's coming out.
ing France with the stability es-| Of all the major European cur- | sential to solving its problems, |rencies the franc has taken the The meaning is grave. biggest beating in the last dozen Parliament has refused to raise Years, taxes to support a badly con- The Italian lira ran the franc a | ducted government. The people good race towards perdition until | refuse to subscribe to" loans, a couple of years ago, when it | Behind it all is the story of underwent a painful operation a weakening franc. which restored it to health. The To American visitors the banks International Monetary Fund caloffer 350 francs, less commission, culates that in buying power for each dollar he wants to within France the franc was leh ange, but the street-corner worth last summer 5 per cent of dealer offers him at least 100 what it was worth in 1939, and | francs more. today it is worth still less. | So the Government loses a lot . = = of the dollars which should be] ACTUALLY only the elderly handed over to it to help it fi-| citizens of France can remember nance imports of coke, cotton|the time when they could buy and oll. with a franc as much in one year Moreover, Frenchmen to whom as the next. {dollars are owing postpone col-| In their early years they were lecting them and Frenchmen who | paying less than five francs for owe dollars make haste to pay a shirt, which cost them 50 In | their bills. |their thirties and now costs them | All which makes it probable 2000. [that sooner or later, failing a| They once paid less than two ‘*§ | miracle, the government will have| francs for a pound of beefsteal fl |to recognize officially and formal-| which now costs them 350 and ly that the dollar is worth 20 to|over. In the last 18 months alone 30 per more In francs than it| the French family finds its bills admits today. have gone up 50 per cent. . a = | The word the economists use ¢-IF IT does that the franc willl for this kind of experience is “in|be worth only one-fourth or one-|flation.” It is France's plague. fifth of a cent. Forty years ago Time after time-these 30 years it was worth 20 ¢ents. |past governments have pledged World War I brought debts and themselves to stamp it out, and confusion which reduced its value|time after time they have failed. to four cents, and when World| So that it would be hard to find
R. 27,1952 - -URSDAY, MAR. =.
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SUCCOTASH, Cream Style White sna No. 2 can a aE Sori JE ————————————————————— Four successive tumbles since or franc. E World War II have made the] ® * =
| THE LATEST crisis was much INE {like all its predecessars. The gov. : EL phils ol ernment discovered itself short CN © Rdg LIITT, of both francs and dollars. It had
0 N. $ GB been overspending at home and abroad. It could and did lay the Bl blame partly on developments be-
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prices of foreign raw materials, the burden of rearfaament on top of the burden of the war in IndoChina. But where a country’s finances have been well conducted, government can always increase its supply of francs by taxation or loans, plus economies. France's finances have been so badly conducted that parliament refuses to vote taxes and the people refuse to subscribe loans. Both argue that the fiscal system is-so unfair and so complicated that the first thing to do is [to reform it from top to bottom-— and that takes a long time, ! . . *» BOTH ARGUE that the ad- | ministration 1s {inefficient and | wasteful, but to reform {it takes a long time, Both argue that government
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{loans until fundamental reforms |have been enacted. But fundamental reforms imply a lot of things that take time. The electoral law, and possibly ithe Constitution, must be altered 80 as to produce a parliament that can assure a stable majority to produce a stable government. | Only then can the French set {to work to put the French house In order, politically, financially,
socially. | { | Long ago a French minister of 5 + + + service, now Vn today
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|finance, otherwise undistin$d when. |Suished, made himself famous ever you call for |by one remark. “Give me good complete Geaning politics,” said Baron Louis, “and ROOTER's electric |I will give you good finance.”
Telor-sharp blade, ” » » at doctor, the ROTO. | IN 30 years, almost the only
ROOTER service. high government that proved stable Wan io there whea | was the one that lived by the grace of Hitler to do his bidding. S Governments fell like nine pins. between the two wars and have
{been /falling like nine pins since
| the second one. They have had S RPVICE no time to govern. They have lost authority.
2070- | The meaning of that is grave ‘ {not only the franc is tottering, Be Sure It's 200 (but also the regime.
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