The Norfolk weekly news-journal. (Norfolk, Neb.) 1900-19??, 1910-01-14

big blank I'm tripicate, giving your
age, color of your eyes name OF your
great grandmother past, present and
future occupations; whether you earn
money or have inherited it, or have 1t
presented to you. The last named
question is put to you so that they can
tell whether to tax you or not, because,
whether you are a German citizen or
native Of the cannibal islands, If you
have any money of your own you have
TO support the government And then
you are registered in countless big
books and depart This naturally taxes
American patience, for such an idea
as card indeXing their records hasn't
yet appealed to them, and as pay is
cheap and lots of people need work,
they prefer fifty books with an equal
number of men to keep them.
The effects of that police system,
however, are admirable. Nobody can
come to Berlin and lose himself. They
know who you are before you know
yourself. 1t is no hiding place for the
scum of the earth, the crooks and des
peradoes and disappointed people who
want to lose themselves, such as Lon.
don or New York. For that reason,
Berlin is pretty clean city as far as
crime is concerned.
However, the police system only has
begun with you when it has registered
you. Suppose you want to rent a
house i'm Berlin. The police regula.
htions provide just how you shall do it,,
presCribes everything about the trans
action. 1t is literally true that you
cannot make a single alteration, no
matter how triflng, without notifying
| the police. You have to have permits
sion to change your front porch or to
| hang q blind, or even to repair shut
| ter. Il is a police regulation. too, that
when you want to move from house
! you must give six months warning,
| Just exactly six months notice To
move out of a boarding house, you
| have to notify on or before the fiji.
| teenth of the month, and can move
only on the first, and so it goes. The
| minutest details of the relation be.
tween landlord and tenant have been
| foreseen and regulated and, Conse.
quently, very few such disputes get
| into the courts. 1t is worthy of no.
| tice, too, that these relations are al
ways in favor of the landlord. The
| tenant has practically no rights. If
| you don't stipulate in your contract
the degree of heat he is to give you in
your fiat, he can give you just enough
to keep you from really suffering and
| your only redress is to notify him that
| you will move next summer.
have never seen the police regula-
| tons of the city of Berlin, but they
must be most interesting reading, for
they govern other things than rela.
lions between landlord and tenant
They govern all building operations
for example, and disastrous fires are
very rare. There hasn't been a fire
entailing $4,000 loss in Berlin since
I've been here-three months. Com.
pare that with New York's record and
you'll see that it pays to have police
regulation. The elevators are we'll in.
spected. The theaters are perfectly
safeguarded and one never reads of
Iroquois disasters here. The height OF
buildings is regulated, and in all Der.
lin there is no building over five sto
ries high, which gives it an unusually
pretty rather, than as might be expect
ed, monotonous appearance.
One of the most interesting police
regulations is that concerning master
and servant. Every servant girl has
her book in which she is described and
| In which her previous experience is
written. From each place that she has
gone the mistress has signed a little
statement as to her capabilities (this
however, can be only negatively bad
for to put in direct criticism of even
dishonest servants is not allowed, or
the assumption that such would SpOi
that persons whole future career
With this book the servant goes tC
her new mistress and on the strength
of it she is employed. This always
comes through bureau, which brings
the unemployed and those seeking hell
together. The lady of the house has
eight days to try the girl, at the end OF
which time she must decide whether
or not she will keep her. If she de
cides to keep her. the girl is assured
of her position for the month, and
likewise, the housewife is assured o.
a girl. If one wants to discharge {
girl one must give her two weeks no
tice and that must come before the
fifteenth of the month, and if a cir
wants to leave she must give her mis-
tress equal notice.
Having hired this servant, the lady
| 'hSh mas W pay ~ plellllSS Wtef
(5c) to the great laborers' insurance
that the government runs in Germany
That means that the servant, if per
: manently disabled, draws a govern
ment pension and also after the age
. of 60 years, If unable to work, is tax
en- care of by the government. More
over the housewife is obliged to in
sure the girl in the hospital insurance
protective association dts almost i'm
possible to translate these names be
cause we in America haven't progress
) ed far enough to have corresponding
| institutiOns). If that servant is taker
Ill she is then cared for by the state
in state hospitals. If the mstres!
fails to insure her, she must pay al
the bills for the servant while sick
: hold the position open and keep payins
the salary. These latter clauses alsC
hold for a certain length of time
: until the first of the following month
in all cases.
Commissioners Proceedings.
: Madison, Neb., Jan. ), 1910, p. M
! Of