FRANCE: Catastrophic Coty

Louder than any tenor in Rigoletto, Per fumer François Coty complained last week of the fickleness of women. Women had smiled upon his perfume business, built up his fortune until it reached nearly $35,000,000 in the lush days of 1929, allowed him to buy newspapers, attempt to become Senator from Corsica.

The senatorial campaign was very expensive. Perfumer Coty lost partly be cause, misjudging the people he wished to represent, he dined publicly in Ajaccio with a Corsican bandit. In 1929 came the Wall Street crash and Publisher Coty's divorce. His two papers, the conservative Figaro and blatant Ami du Peuple, have lost money consistently. He lost more in subsidizing the unsuccessful Paris-Tokyo non-stop flight of Aviators Lebrix & Doret. The Coty perfume business has felt Depression. And last week the former Mme Coty obtained a court order forcing François Coty to pay her an additional $5,200,000.

Mme Coty, so said her petition, had been more than a wife to the perfumer. He borrowed money from her brother to set up his first laboratory. She had worked day & night in the laboratory in the early days so that the secret of his smells should not escape. Because there was no marriage contract stating the exact financial rights of the wife, Mme Coty claimed half of M. Coty's fortune at the time of her divorce. Last week Perfumer Coty bitterly protested that his business would not be able to stand the strain of obeying the court's order.

"I have already paid out more than $20,000,000" said he, "and that during hard times. To be forced to pay out an other vast sum at one blow would be catastrophic."