Budget, Franc

At 3:30 one morning last week, the Chamber of Deputies terminated eight months of wrangling over the French budget for 1926-- voted that instrument.

The imposing total stands at 37 billion 500 million francs. It "balances" with a surplus of 160 million francs. Upon the innumerable issues faced during this budget's creation, five Ministers of Finance have fallen.*

Financial experts deplore the new budget's many inconsistencies and general lack of coherent plan. It represents a political compromise between the Left, which demanded the raising of additional taxes by a "capital levy" (bearing chiefly on the rich); and the Right, which called for the enactment of "indirect taxes" (affecting all classes). As the budget stands, the expenditure estimates of many departments have been scaled so low that it is doubtful if they can actually pull through the year on the sums allowed them.

Franc. The franc touched a new "low for all time" last week: 30 francs to the dollar: 3.27 3/4 cents to the franc.

Belgian Franc. The Belgian franc simultaneously declined to 29 francs to the dollar: 3.45 cents to the franc.

*Doumer (TiME, March 15) ; Loucheur (TIME, Dec. 28) ; Painleve and Bonnet (the latter served as "Budget Minister," an office created to deal with this one problem) (TIME, Nov. 30) ; Caillaux (TIME, Nov. 9),