Normandie in Flannels

Irate French Communists raised hubbub last week with complaints that their country's new 79,280-ton Normandie, world's largest liner, "will be run as a direct charity to the rich, and to the rich alone!"

For every 1,000 francs a Capitalist spends on his ticket, the Reds figured, he will enjoy some 1,200 francs worth of superluxury food, transportation and accommodation on the Normandie--"charity to the rich" contributed by French taxpayers who meet the French Line's deficits. Last week this peculiar situation was grappled with firmly by New-dealing French Premier Pierre Etienne Flandin, a veteran transatlantic traveler who knows the value of sea prestige. On his order the Normandie wall be classed virtually as a naval unit among possessions of the State under a bill last week submitted to the Chamber of Deputies.

Results: 1) Since no state insures its property, the enormous prospective cost of insuring the Normandie is canceled and her operating charges are that much reduced. 2) For the first time the cost of sea prestige arising from a superluxe liner will appear frankly in the naval budget.

A surprise to the French Line, which had understood the Normandie was costing some $45,000,000, came last week when the state footed up the cost at 900,000,000 gold francs ($59,400,000). No surprise was the Line's operating deficit for 1934, given as $3,960,000. Paradoxically, until the Normandie was almost complete, the Reds who last week were yowling against "charity to the rich" demanded that she be completed "to give work to the unemployed."

Emphasizing the state's role last week, Premier Flandin further ordered what amounts to printing an advertisement of the Normandie in the form of French 1.50 franc stamps--the denomination for overseas postage--so that small steel engravings of the Normandie will automatically be mailed to all parts of the world.

In a bulletin from her builders the Normandie was said to be "now wearing her flannels." Explained these petticoat-minded Frenchmen: "Especially fire-proofed flannel has been found to be the best sound-deadening material with which to insulate each cabin of the superliner between its double walls."

*Because every state owns so much property that the inherent spread constitutes, without insurance, more than ample ''division of the risk" on each unit.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.