CHECKING HIGH PRICES

Dominion, Volume 13, Issue 151, 22 March 1920, Page 2

CHECKING HIGH PRICES

WHAT PARIS IS DOING. In Franc? the only people who have pained by the war a,re those' who have things to sell. The army, of profiteers is larger tliaii.in most other countries, and the'profits bigger, for. the reason that the machinery ' for controlling:, prices has been' more difficult, to establish. When it has been set up, when prices, especially as regards food, have been fixed, tlic evil of overcharging has not been overcome, states the Paris correspondent of the "Daily News.", , ; When one complains of having to pay two francs for a plate of soup, and four francs for a morsel of fish in a restaurant which cannot be'ranked as firstclass, the proprietor explains that he is not to blame. It is the "source, lie says.. 1 The grocer says the same thin?. That is not the view of the Food Ministry.'' JI; Vilgrain, of this department., conceived the idea of fighting, the. gToeers by erecting in several parts of the city wooden booths in which all Kinds of provisions could be had at prices lower'than those charged in the shops. The fact that these booths had to be established proves that the food authorities were convinced that the 'grocers were charging -exaggerated prices for their commodities. And so the "baroques Vilgrnin" were meant to bo a ' check on profiteering, and their institution is instilled by the enormous trade done. But tliev aro not sufficient in number effectively to check profiteering. It is only those grocers whose shop? arc m tlie immediate vicinity of the,, booths who have. had. to bring down prices: . , /Apparently, however,, the experinient of providing Government grocers shops has been sufficiently successful to justify extended efforts in the direction of lowering prices. Now (he Government is bent" on fighting .rapacious restaurantkeepers, in the interests of. midmettcs, typist", clerks and other. workers. . \\ e are to have a chain of Government restaurants in the city. The author of the idea is M. Henri Roy. of the Food Sunish'v.'wlio was pivon the difficult job of putting down fowl frauds,. To this end a special police service . wiis placed at his disposal. These, food policemen are working, vow-hard, and with noteworthy results. Hardlv a day elapses without speculators and food, dealers being brought to'the courts and heavily \tined for overcharging'their customers. . M. Roy has great hop»s\thnt, the Government restaurants will bring down prices. Some havq already/been started in populous quarters; and humble workers, who had to count their money before entering a restaurant to See .if they had enough'to pay foi; a satisfying meal, can now eat well and cheaply. There aic many restaurants in Paris where you are charged' two francs before you have eaten <i bite This is for the "convert.' But ill the Government establishments (which, ■by the way./ aro vroy bright places), you can for this sum have a very good meal. You staTt with a, liors d'oeuvre, followed by-a meat course with one vegetable, another vegetable course, a sweet and bread. ■ . And the restaurant-keepers—what do they think about it? Naturally,- they are of tho same mind (is the grocers. Tliey are complaining about unfair coinpetition. '