Money

Is 5,000 francs per year ($200) a fair rental for the two and one half acres of prime Paris real estate upon which stands & straddles the Eiffel Tower?

Until recently no higher rental could be exacted, because of the meagre earnings of the syndicate which maintains La Tour Eiffel and its elevators and restaurant. This winter, however, the tower has blazed three nights a week with blatant, flaming advertisements of the trig, small motor cars built by M. Andre Citroen, famed "Henry Ford of France."

Last week the Municipal Council of Paris, shrewdly reasoning that the tower must be paying well at last, moved to assess and impose upon the luckless syndicate a higher rental.

In Manhattan, last week, were Deputy Governor of the Bank of France Charles Rist and Director Quesnay of the Bank's research department. Although both kept mum as sphinxes, they were known to be conferring with Manhattan financiers upon two mighty projects: 1) A $60,000,000 loan to Rumania, to be floated under French aegis for the purpose of stabilizing the Rumanian leu. Parts of this loan will be absorbed in Paris, London and Manhattan, with Blair & Co. handling the U. S. share; and 2) the transfer of some $250,000,000 in French gold from the U. S. to France, preparatory to the definite and legal stabilization of the franc. Within the past month the equivalent of $72,000,000 in French gold has already been quietly repatriated.