American citizen. [volume] (Canton, Miss.) 1864-1890, 1872-11-02
CANTON, MISS, SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 1872
The Real Danger of the German En-.
pire.

The Real Danger of the German En-
| pire.
The increase in the population of Ber-
| lin, Prussia, and the consequent apprecia-
| ton of rental values have been the topics
OF comment on the part of the Press of
| both continents, ana fears have been OK
| pressed that the sufferings entailed by
these misfOrtunes, as well as the general
| increase of the cost of living all over Ger
| many would lead to disorders. and that in
this direction lays the real danger to the
German Empire. Unfortunately. the
great mass the people have not benefit
| ted. but have suffered. by the increase of
national wealth accruing from the French
indemnity. A Berlin correspondent of
the London Telegraph thus describes the
condition of affairs in he Prussan capital.
''Thus matters stand. Short terms of
| lodging-hire, such as obtain here by long
custom, expire for the most part on the
lst of April and the LIST day of October.
For the last two years house owners have
steadily raised their dodgers rents every
| successive term-day, so that the majority
OF shOrt-term tenants are now paying
nearly deAble the rent that they paid in
the summer of 1870. L'Appetit vient en-,
n,anageant, and the house-Owners, finding
| themselves complete masters of the sitlla-
ton, have determined to make hay whilst
the sun shines. They have signified to
their already sufficiently fleeced tenants
rise of rents for the coming semester
that, being utterly beyond the means of n
very large class, win have the effect of
turning thousands of people into the
streets. Rert is always paid in advance
lodgings who will give whatever is de-
manded of them. So the present tenants
have no chance at all of a revul.iOn i'm
their favor. Already hundreds of people
have been compelled to take to the open,
and have built themselves huts or erected
booths on tracts of waste land adjoining the
city. The Thiergarten is dotted with en-
campments, not of gypsies. but of Chris
tain wOrkingmen and small tradesfOlk,
driven from their homes by the rapacity
of house owners. To complicate the pO-
sitiOn, the police has lately received or
derS to evict all these squatters, and has
done so with its usual ruthlessness. tear
ing down their huts and booths, and turn
ing the inmates adrift to seek shelter
where they may. Let me give yOu one
or two instances of the scale upon which
the rent-raising is being carried out for
the coming half-year. An English gen.
tleman of high position has for the last
two years occupied ION lease) small unfur-
nished apartments on the second floor of
a house in the Potsdamerstrasse. at the
exorbitant rent of e240 per annum. His
lease expires this month, and his land
lord gives him the choice of turning out
or of renewing at a rent of ESQ. Re
member that is sum which in itself is
large income here. Out of about 100000
Government officials in Germany doubt
whether LOCO enjoy so much. But from
f4OO to fSOO a year is the rent demanded
and obtained in Berlin for unfinished
apartments, which are. in ten cases out of
twelve, unprOvided with many of the APP
purtenances that are supplied to every EGO
year villa built within the last twenty
years in the neighbnrhoOd of London.
The accommodation is wretched, and it is
actually dearer at the present moment
than in Paris, Vienna, or Rome. London
of course, is out of the question, being
the cheapest and most comfortable capital
in Europe. But house property has lItely
attained value here that would have as
tOnished Haussmann in his halcyOn days.
Men make their fortunes out of single
house those who buy and resell become
hillionaires. Count de Pr bought
house four months ago, on speculation;
he has just resOld it with clear profit OF
G15,O00! And it is not in a fashionable
street by any means. The house live in,
which does not confirm a room twenty
feet long, nor a window four feet high,
nor water-tap, nor the least fixture indi-
cative of civilization. was purchased two
years ago for 10000, resOld this spring
for Ell 900, and has been recently bought
by company-which is going to pull it
down-for e32 800. These figures, which,
reacting upon rent-rates, affect the
wealthy and well-to-do classes only, will
give you an idea of what is required from
the small officials, clerks. petty renters.
and skilled artisans-nOt to mention the
humble wOrkmen, &c, who positively
cannot now afford to live anywhere! 1t
is the despair ofthcse-many of whom are
already in a terrible scrape through the
strikes by the natural riOtous-
ness of the roughs and their hatred OF the
police, that we fear for the time when hum
dreds upon hundreds of decent people
shall be turned into the streets hopeless
of obtaining shelter. Then we are threat
ened with lockout on large scale to
boot. -Ninety-one of our manufacturing
firms have resolved to resist the demands
of their hands, and many of them have
made up their minds. should the men hold
out, to sell their plant, stock, lock. and
barrel, and dispose of the ground on which
their works stand, to building companies,
from which they can obtain prices that
will indemnify them for giving up bust
ness.''