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Show FINANCES OF AUSTRIA WEAK 1 . 1 I People Weigh Paper Money Instead of Counting It by the Bale VIENNA. Jan. 7. Indications are that tho beginning of the new year will find the government facing a deficit de-ficit or 200,000,000,000 crowns It had reached 1G5, 000,000,000 at the end of ' October. The lnrgcst single Item of tho deficit de-ficit Is for subsidized foodstuffs bought outside the country', this alone amounting to S3. 000, 000, 000 crowns. The railways hae been run at a loss of 2S 000,000,000. I Another sei.uus Item of loss has been on foreign exchange, the government govern-ment being forced to sell crowns for foreign values for payments of flour, fnts and various other commodities I under the food subsidy plan. During tho pa,st few months the fall : of the crown against standard values has been unchecked and its purchasing I value has about reached tho vanishing i point. The largest note In circulation In Austria has been 10,000 crowns, but the tremendous volume of circulation has made even that denomination insufficient in-sufficient and an issue of 100,000 crown notes is in preparation. Where 1,000 and lesser notes are handled in quantities they are no longer lon-ger counted, but weighed. A table of weights has been worked out and found to be accurate enough for all ordinary purposes when Jewelers' scales .ire used. In the mind of tho average Austrian Aus-trian there seems to linger some fatuous fa-tuous belief that some day and somehow some-how tho crowns will recover in value nnd he gambles un that hope even in such business deals. Meanwhile, the presses arc turning out nearly 1,000,-000.000 1,000,-000.000 a day. the last week In October Octo-ber the Issue amounted to 10,000,-000.000, 10,000,-000.000, nnd he sees his maximum note of circulation advance from 10.-000 10.-000 to 100.000-crown denomination and even that worth but little more than the tenner was six months ago. |