Harvest-Pullers

Farm relief at any price was hectically sought last week by Rumania's peasant-born Prime Minister, smart, beetle-browed Juliu Maniu, once a farmer himself.

Recent surveys convinced M. Maniu that there are not enough locomotives in Rumania to haul the country's crops with effective speed to market. Cried he: "We must have 100 more freight locomotives by harvest time!"

Last week, with the principal Rumanian harvests barely five weeks off, sealed bids were received at Bucharest from leading European locomotive works. Only one concern--a German syndicate--took seriously the Prime Minister's ultrashort time limit. They would supply him with 100 husky harvest-pullers--if Rumania would pay something like twice the normal price. All the other bidders seemed to assume that what Farm Reliever Maniu really wanted was a low price on 100 locomotives for delivery by Christmas or perhaps next Spring.

With eyes snapping Juliu Maniu decreed acceptance of the German bid, well-nigh prohibitive though it was. "Our need for locomotives at this time is basic and fundamental!" said he, as if to rebuke the slow low bidders. Ferreting correspondents learned that a down payment of $5,000 will be made on each German locomotive, successive payments to be on the instalment plan with a carrying charge of 6%.

The first "Made in Rumania" locomotive ran for the first time three years ago, with Queen Marie at the throttle (TIME, July 19, 1926). Since then this infant industry has progressed, though slowly. Last year Rumania made 20 locomotives.