The Franc
WE offer a thousand felicitations to France. Else- ,' T where we record the steps taken in Paris last week and on Sunday, the result of which has been that the franc was stabilized on Monday morning. These steps were sensational only in their rapidity, -which was due to a wise determination to give no chance for speculation. For several months the Government and the Banque de France have succeeded in keeping the franc " pegged " so that the legal stabilization at practically the same point really only changes a de facto position for one de jure. Thus not the least item in the success of the whole business is that the final event has come about without any of the sensation that might have caused French finance and commerce to be temporarily upset during an awkward period of transition. The less the outward, palpable effects of the changes, in fact, the duller the superficial results, the greater the success of the whole matter.
Those who are concerned in international trade have gradually become accustomed to the now established rate of exchange. For some months they have been forgetting the fears of those rises and falls which cramp all commercial enterprise or make a gamble of trade. The ordinary reader of the Spectator who travels in France will perceive no serious differences at all. There may be a slight rise in prices because any moment of change is generally seized upon by sellers as a chance for grasping or an excuse for excessive caution, but we -see no reason why a rise should be lasting. There is to be a new coinage, but the golden examples of the Paris Mint ,are not likely to fall often into the hands of the traveller. A new 100 franc coin, the size of the Napoleon or the Louis d'or which it will replace (and which will be worth about 99 francs), will chiefly interest numismatists. Let us make an excuse here to turn our eyes homeward for a moment. We admire the energy of the present Deputy Master of our Mint, and recognize the new vitality that he has inspired there, but we confess to a great dis- appointment in our latest coinage, wherein, we see less improvement on the old than we hoped for. The French have by tradition and artistic instinct a far better sense of medallic design than we have here, where the art of men like Simon and others, who made British coins and medals second to none, seems to be lost for a- time. We anticipate delight in the new French design.
• inside France there will be great general satisfaction at the assurance of stability, but there are bound also to be great searchings of heart in some quarters. The rentier, for • whom presumably no compensation can be hoped, must finally accept his heavy losses as irrecover- able contributions to the cost of the war. So also must many Britons who hoped- to help France by investing in her war loans. There will also be some national heart- burning which we who are not Latins will not fully share. We can, however, even as outsiders, sympathize a little with the franc when it looks across the Alps in the face of the lira. If a Gallic cock should adorn the new coins, it would have dearly - liked to crow a little louder than in the present circumstances its sense of fitness would allow. But let it take -heart, for it has in other respects plenty to crow about, and if it were dumb the world would sadly miss the cheering sound.
We do not 'know enough about that silent partner of the State, the Banque de France, to giye it any praise that is worth having : obviously the Governor and his colleagues have co-operated with great financial skill, with firm authority_in the world of business and with high patriotism. But what are we to say of the man whose real triumph is so conspicuous ? For M. Poinchi'd's success can only be measured by the arduousneSs of his long drawn out, incessant labours, Herculean labours indeed. At last we can look back without haunting _ qualms upon the nightmares of two years ago, upon the chaotic France of which we hardly dared to let ourselves think. Government after Government rose and fell, but the chute of the franc continued headlong. The Ministers of Finance could only pour out paper money to meet liabilities from week to week, or try feverishly to raise fiesh loans to pay off the short-term borrowings of the last Minister who fell from office. M. Caillaux, on whom we fnced our hopes for .a moment, might have succeeded financially, but was in other ways unacceptable. We had watched the losers of the War in like case and had seen the mark wiped out before Germany began to revive. Was France, too, to plunge to the lowest depths ? Talk of a military dictatorship was rife with its attendant dangers. Then M. Poincare returned ; the strong man, yes, but would France Submit to. the cure by a strong man who would inevitably prescrihe severe treatment slow treatment devoid of any glamour and accompanied by nauseous 'draughti ? TO the credit of France 'she did consent. Her faith in herself rose again. LeOslation had only increased the determination to turn French money into any other form of wealth, but now a new confidence was created of which one ounce was worth a ton of restrictions, and the Value of the franc was doubled.
As for M. Poineare, we had disagreed with him often enough. We knew his burning patriotism and the power of his brain, but a frigid determination to hold - down his beaten enemy, a stubborn view, which we could not accept, 'of how Europe should spiritually or materially revive, were more evident in him then. M. Briand, maybe, worked wonders of persuasion before Loearno ; perhaps the bankers were teaCheis of the statesman in matters of finance. A man is not less great because he takes good advice ; sometimes he is the greater if he has to 'curb the inclination of his own views in taking it. At any rate, M. Poincare, who had been, we grant it, a minor hero in his tough resistance to the resurrection of Germany, in his faith that the franc could be revalorized as France would have liked and in his public labours for so many years, rosé 'grandly to greater heights. When he called upon his country to make sacrifices in peace as she had in war, the small, ' square figure seemed to assume` truly heroic proportions. He made a National Government take office and sink their personal disagreements as only a man of dominating power could. He achieved that most difficult aim of persuading them and keeping them persuaded of their duty to support him through thick and thin till the economic salvation of the country was secure. He laid burdens on his countrymen and, what is less easy in ' Fiance than elsewhere, he extracted from them the payment of the taxes he imposed. With a hundred other cares of office pressing upon him daily, he has never for a moment relaxed his efforts. Unless it be in Mr. Pitt, - we can think of no example of such concentration of a single man upon the bearing of such mighty burdens up - so steep a path. To change to the simile of Lucretius without adopting his sentiment, it has been- no easy pleasure to us to look across the sea and watch from our comparative security the struggles of France led by M. Poincare, but-it. is indeed a pleasure to be able after these -two years to congratulate him and his countrymen upon `emerging from the buffets of the waves.
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