Show U. U.S. US S. TOURISTS GIVE LONDON WIDE BERTH Lo Lost t to Flee Fleece e Y Yankee f Visitor Grieves British Capital t r nos Oct oat 23 Reckoning up the thelast last Jast st season London mournfully admits J s one ne gre great t loss There has been no American Amen Ameri- can This Is the more disappointing pointing g because every one ono confidently f t expected that Americans were coming not no not by by iy the thousand but by the many scores corea o of thousands and were going gon gonto to vamp SWamp us They were going to spend on such a scale as almost to restore the tho balance Jalance of ot exchange In May last there thereas Was yas as about how all these visitors I IWas were to be housed Special societies were ere formed to find them room and see sec that i they were not left eft starving and homeless In In the streets There was talk of ot equipping equip equip- ping special buildings to provide sleepIng sleepIng sleeping sleep sleep- ing accommodations barrack batrack fashion for those who ho could b be put up nowhere else SEASON COLLAPSES The season started well April was a busy month In May the hotels reported themselves chock chock-a. chock block block with visitors And then suddenly and completely the season so far tar as aa Americans were concerned concerned concerned con con- collapsed Rich people continued f r to 10 cross to l Europe but few of ot them stayed in London for more than a few tew days while many did not come come to ta London London Lon Lon- don at all People ot of moderate means I school teachers students and the active and inquiring young youn women of ot the Middle West Vest who is tho the years before the war I packed Bloomsbury and South Kensington Kensing Kensing- ton boarding houses to the tho full tull and made Southhampton Row How much more distinctively American a place from TUne Juno to September than lower Fifth Firth avenue Is Is never never crossed crossed the Atlantic What is the explanation It is writ writS S large or every one to read and it is to tobe tobe tobe be be hoped that some Londoners are to read It and nd learn from it Tho The people peo pee pl of or moderate means did not come to l London on lon because the tho Atlantic fares are arenow now flow EO so FO high that they cannot afford to pay them the tho rich avoided London be because because because be- be cause tho the international group of ot hotel proprietors who own the great l London ondon hotels put up their prices so high that even the rich would not let Jet themselves be fleeced for longer than they could hel SKINNING THE VISITOR Early in the tho year a great price boost ing campaign started in the big London hotels A A. A friend of mine who permanently permanently perma perma- retains a a. room room in one of ot these had Iad his price boosted three times In InV V three months each Jump being steeper in the last An American and his staying at a hotel not quite In the first lass had a bedroom for 2 pounds a night They went on a short visit to the continent and on their return asked for the same room It was now 4 pounds a a. night Another friend of ot mine who lIves Jives occasionally and entertains friends a good deal at one of the foremost hotels running an account there went off oft on a visit to America On his return he made mada his way to tn the 1 as usual and lived ived nin ninh in h his i usual fashion When the weekly account came in he found that it ft was more than 40 pounds more than it would have have- been a year jear ear before The biggest hotels in West Vest London are today charging charging- from 5 pounds a day d for bed and bath Other prices are lre in proportion Some of them have multiplied ed their charges four and fivefold fivefold five live fold In a. a year l' l Every Everyone eryl one admits that some rise in charges was inevitable Food rood wages light furniture rent taxes have all gone gon up UI in London but they have not gone tip lIP to this extent When American visitors visitors vis vis- vis- vis hors discovered how they were being they began to howl They sent their tales back across the Atlantic and intending visitors changed their line Une or route I OCEAN FARES The ocean fares fare's s. s as I have said prevented pre- pre vented mose people of moderate means from crossing the Atlantic on trips It is difficult today to obtain an Atlantic n passage for less than an 70 pounds sp 18 You are more likely k to pay lot pounds pounds' and even at that you may not be on a a. first class boat Now the average man cannot spare to soo plus extras for tor forthe forthe the tho twelve to sixteen days occupied bythe by the return journey on the Atlantic Sri Thomas Fisher the head of the Canadian Pacific services recently took fook the ford his confidence and gave us some amazing figures about the increased cost costor of or Atlantic services to the A second class Atlantic liner whose coal cost before the war pounds now spends on coal pounds Provisions have have- gone up from pounds to pounds and wages apart from the cost of ot improved accommodation for tor the crews crews- have risen from 2500 pounds to pounds The cost of construction of the ships hips themselves has risen three fold and if everything is included such as interest on capital charges depreciation etc operating cost has risen by 30 per percent cent SUGGESTED SUGGEST D' D SOLUTION One prominent trans-Atlantic trans business businessman man with whom I recently discussed the matter declared that the real solution solutionis is going to come along the he lines of ot the development of or the third class lie He points to the history of or the third class car car- on on British railways Originally I they were open trucks and used by no one who could afford to pay fares tares for the higher classes Gradually the third class accommodation was imI improved improved im im- im- im proved until it became as luxuries as I the original first class accommodation Today scarcely anybody in London travels travels trav- trav els first class for long distances I or for short overcrowded routes I class in the universal service service The same development is now taking place on the I Atlantic The nam Atlantic Th Tb name steerage has hast hasI t I been abolished The third class dass I elation dation on the new big ships is more comfortable than the first class accommodation n the ships of ot years i ago People who find that first class class classI i I fare are beyond their reach will not take 1 long ong to discover that they can obtain i comfort good food tood and all the i that they need need- in the third class of to toI today to- to d day y I |