Page:The Czechoslovak Review, vol4, 1920.pdf/344

nied the opportunity till the Great War had broken their Austrian and German masters of asserting their national aspirations on the political and military fields, the Czechs sought to realise them in other ways. They determined that when freedom came it should find them worthy of the gift, and if it did not come—it must have seemed remote enough sixty years ago—yet they would attain that inner freedom, that liberty of the soul, which tyrants and bureaucrats cannot take away. So the Sokols gathered in the best of the nation, and they devoted themselves to the promotion of physical and moral development. Scientific athletics and gymnastics gave them the former, the sense of brotherhood and corporate consciousness the other. How well they succeeded the events of the past few years have shown. There were no soldiers in the war who fought more worthily when they got the chance of fighting for their own cause and friends; there is scarcely any achievement in all the campaigns more notable than the amazing march of the Czechoslovak prisoners of war from the middle of European Russia half-way across Siberia. A people so educated for freedom and self-control as the Czechs have been in their Sokols can be trusted to make good use of the liberty they have se amply carned. We have no fear for the future of Czechoslovakia when it has succeeded in overcoming the economic difficulties from which it suffers in common with all Central and Eastern Europe. From these it will emerge more successfully and, we think, more rapidly, than its neighbors; for it has the two assets of a rich and fertile land and an energetic, intelligent, sober, and intensely patriotic people. It needs for the moment capital, raw materials, and the means to restore its damaged industries; and it will be good business, as well as sound policy, for the Western nations to give it all the assistance in their power for these purposes.—London Daily Telegraph.

To the man of the street, the fact that exchange rates rise rapidly, it is a sign that commerce is constantly increasing, that the volume of products exported exceeds the commodities imported. Under ordinary conditions this is true. Nevertheless it must not be overlooked that in this day with the rapid rise of exchange rates the export business immediately becomes stagnant because the cost of production always remains, while the selling price is either reduced or raised by the corresponding rise or fall in the value of the exchange unit on which the transaction is based, thereby incurring a loss to either the seller or purchaser.

Merchants often wonder why Czechoslovak manufacturers refuse to quote binding prices in currencies other than Czechoslovak crowns. It is impossible for the merchants to exist unless they are allowed a fair margin of profit. To quote in foreign currencies is a gamble to them. They must quote prices in crowns and require payment to be made in the currency of the country to which their goods are destined to meet the conditions of export imposed by their government.

This procedure is open to many objections but under prevailing chaotic exchange conditions no other solution has been found. The buyer may always protect himself by depositing the amount of the purchase price with his bank at the execution of the contract against the arrival of documents or goods, as the case may be, or, he may purchase exchange on Prague for the amount of the invoice and if rates rise he is the gainer, and if they fall he loses nothing.

Organization of Czechoslovak Beet Sugar Companies is interesting. In a large measure it may be termed cooperative. A recent organization is the best illustration.

A corporation was formed with a capital stock of 6,000,000 Cs. crowns divided into 11,000 shares of a par value of 500 crowns and 2,000 half-shares of a par value of 250 crowns. Five thousand whole (500 crown) shares are sold to investors to provide funds for necessary buildings and equipment. The balance, six thousand whole (500 crown) shares and two thousand half (250 crown) shares are distributed among sugar beet cultivators on the following basis:

When the farmers accept this stock they obligate themselves to furnish the given quantity of sugar beets to the sugar mill. Annually the prices are fixed by the Board of Directors at which the mill buys the sugar beets from its stockholder-farmers. This assures a fair price to the cultivators. The stock is limited as to dividends—ten per cent per annum in this case.

The division of the Board of Directors is of interest. The sugar beet growers elect three-fifths of the members and the investors two-fifths. The executive committee is constituted on similar lines.

Under this method the mill is assured of a constant supply of sugar beets the farmer knows where to dispose of his crop and a fair return is the reward of both the sugar beet producer and the investor.