Clarksville weekly chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 1873-1890, 1880-04-17

receive work, can scarcely expec
more than thirty-seven and a hal
cents daily. In many places out
side of Berlin the laborers receive
less than twenty-five cents for :
/ days work; as, for example, in i
certain cloth factory near Magde
burg, where the uIlskiIled iaborers
receive one dollar a week. And
wolnen's wages! In America we
1 have heard shocking stories of star
walton wages paid for the life blood
of sewing girls, but doubt if they
have ever sunk so low with us as
they are now in Berlin. A girl
often feceives-the editor of the
Kleine Journal asserts itas a matter
/ of his ewn positive knowledge
making an apron with pockets half
/ a cent, and for one dozen mems
fshirts, five cents. Comment only
weakens the force of these figures.
That socialism spreads despite the
/ severe measures of government is
not surprising. A contented laborer
/ do not remember to have seen in
Germany. The rise clf prices of
4 provisions has faadea great MANY
disatfected with the present condi-
ton of things who before We're un-
tainted by the doctrines of socialism.
A general revival of business has
not made its appearance. Fhe most
anyone can say about it is, g hope"
/ visited, recently one of the largest
manufacturing establishments in
| Berlin, and was sadly impressed TO
see the great rooms almost empty
and three-fourths of the machinery
idle. The gentleman who showed
me about answered, in reply to my
questions, that they had not felt any
traceOf better times; he chopped"
an improvement. might be expert
enced in a not too distant future.
Extensive and long-continued IN
quiries have not in zone single in-
stance resulted, differently. A pro-
prietOr of a celebrated iron establish
Inent in the neighborhood of Berlin
refused to allow a gentleman from
the statistical bureau to visit his
works for fear it should become
generally known how little he had
to do. 9lla aQ4a ~ Ihe saItub
b 1t might be expected that the
government would reap the adj
vantage, as nO one else seems to do
so. We hear, nevertheless, only of
increasing deficits i'm Germany,
which give the Germans occasion
for unpleasant reflections and com
pariscns when they read the report
of the French minister of finance.
The government derives, to be sure,
a certain revenue from the duties,
but a considerable part must be
spent again in the additional cost of
provisions for its army of more than
400,000 men, of materials used in
railroads, buildings, etc There is
beside an army of officers IN the
civil service whose salaries are now
too small, and the government has
given a half-promise to raise them.
The law for dividing certain sur
plus among the separate states still |
looks very pretty on paper, but it !
has only a theoretical value, for the
simple reason that there is no sur
plus to divide. In no one instance
have taxes been lessened; in many
cases the already oppressive burden |
has been increased. In some cities |
on the Rhine the income tax for ]
city and state together is 10 per
centum; in a few it has reached the
enormous figure Of Is per centum.
The wheels of Industry and com |
merce have long been working ill in |
Germany. The new protective pol
icy has simply blocked them firmly. I
F.