Excerpt from Out of the RuinsFrance has borne the brunt of the war. Over of her best men have been killed - nearly half of the total lost by all of the Allies exclusive of Russia. From being a creditor nation to the extent of thirty billion francs, she has become a debtor nation for a like amount. Her best industrial and agri cultural districts have been held by the enemy. Her foreign loans have yielded nothing, her best internal revenue has been cut off, her fac tories and mines have almost all worked for the war, she has exported little, the foreign ex change has been constantly rising against her. Over half of all the destruction in the allied countries is in France alone and much the most difficult half at that.About the PublisherForgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.comThis book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully, any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.