PAPER MILLIONAIRES.

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume XLII, Issue XLII, 2 May 1922, Page 8

PAPER MILLIONAIRES.

AUSTRIA'S BANKRUPTCY. '

QUEER VAGARIES IN PRICES. CURRENCY WITHOUT VALUE.

Austria is a country of millionaires, the majority of whom are beggars, says the Vienna correspondent of the Morning Post. As a result of the dreadful aepreciation of the Austrian crown and the enormous n_,e of the prices of all commodities, a man who has a few suits, a pair of shoes, and linen, or a room with a bed and some furniture may now call himself a millionaire, for a decent suit o,r a bookcase alone costs at present about a quarter of a million a bed sheet 40,000. and a china plate 4000 to 8000 crowns. There are now crown-millionaires here everywhere, many of whom go hungry. According to recent rates of exchange, a million crowns is not more than £25 to £30. To understand the depredation of the Austrian crown to nearly one-two-thou-sandth of its pre-war value we must remember that the circulation of Austrian notes now amounts to almost 230.000 millions, and that, despite the fact that all Austrian factories have much work on hand and that four-fifths of the industrial production of Austria is sent abroad, the imports of the country are about five times greater in value than the exports. THE EXCHANGE PROBLEM. Apart from dispensable articles of luxury, upon, which increased Customs duties have been imposed, there are many goods which Austria must import, like; flour, fat, coal, sugar, and raw material. Thus i* has to pay for sugar about two milliards of Czechoslovak crowns per annum, while the arrivals of coal in Vienna alone cost about two and a half million Czech crowns per day. Austrian maufacturers and merchants are compeiled to buy at any price the foreign currencies- they need for satisfying their creditors abroad. Sometimes their demand for foreign currencies at the Vienna Bourse is so great and so eager that the rates suddenly rise 20 to 30 per cent. These great fluctuations make reliable calculations regarding cost and seiling prices of imported goods impossible, For instance, a draper bought English cloth last summer when the pound was eouivalent to 3000 crOwns, but when h© had to pay the bill in autumn the pound was 20,000 crowns. CHANGES WITHIN A FEW HOURS. The price -of a packet of Swiss chocolates in a shop .rises from 450 to 500 crowns, or that of a tin of condensed milk from 900 to 1000 crowns within a few hours. This practice is pursued not only hy the shopkeeper, hotel proprietor, coffeehouse owner, avtisan, hut also by the municipality and tfoi State. One day one pays 150 crOwns for a cup of coffe (350" times the pre-war price;, and the next 90 crowns. 0n« has one's hair cut for 200 crowns (400 times the pre-war price., while last time it cost 100 crowns. One must pay CO crowns for a tram t_cket (300 times the pre-war price), instead of 30 crowns on the preceding day. A man made a i ailway trip on January 31, returned, on February 1, and paid for the return journey four times what the com the day before. On December 31, 1921, prices were 1000 times as high as in August. 3914, and 10 times as high as on January ], 1921. Since January 1 the prices have again risen by 20 to 50, and even 100 per cent. THE SWOLLEN BUREAUCRACY. , The increases in the salaries of civil servants are now based upon the

monthly index figures of the prices of the most important commodities. Thus the salaries given to them in December were about 100' per cent, higher than in November. While in the Budget passed on November 1 the total expenditure for State eniDloyees was estimated at 43 milliards for the current year as against 17 milliards in 1920, at least 300 milliards will* be required, should the salaries remain what they are now. As the total number of State employees is 253.000. that of their wives and children 418,000, and that of pensioned civil servants 87.000, in Austria now no fewer than 758.000 persons, or about 12 per cent, of the total population, live on the State. Another item in the Budget for the current year which has considerable increased since the nassaere of the Bill is

the loss sustained by the State by the depreciation of the crown in connection with the purchase of foodstuffs, coal, etc.. abroad. Early in November this loss was estimated at 165 milliards of crowns. The Budget has increased the •revenue of the State by about 150 milliards. For this Durpos'p the taxes on beer, wine, and liquors, railway, telegraph, telephone and postal tariffs have been considerably raised, the land and income tax have been revised, the nrices of tabacco and cigars and cignr-a^-^in raised, and the gradual abr*b'tion of the food subsidies by which the pn'ces of important foodstuffs were kent far under the of the world market has becnm. Taxes must no*v he -"m advance before the tar authorities issue their summonses. Otherwise the tax is .raised by 50 to 100 per cent.