The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-11-19
ID HOLD ELECTION FOR NEW RE|CHSTAG Berlin Authorities to Probe
 White Slave Traffic TO TAX UNMARRIED Frau Dutkiewicz Claims to Be Oldest Woman in World-A Berlin Burglar Makes Neat
 Robbery
TO TAX UNMARRIED
Bx MALCOLM CLARK

| progress of business in the house, but 1t Is taken for granted that the dissolution will take place about the end of this month.
 As have stated in previous letters
 there is every indication of great in- crease in the socialistic vote Just how | great this increase will be it is impossi- ble to forecast. There Is reason to be- lieve, however, that despite the inequities
 Of the German election laws the socialistic representation in the reichstag will be I doubled and that they will cast more votes
 than any other single group.
 | How this will effect the naval pro- | gramme is question. It Is believed, ho w. | ever, that the government will be able 10 carry out it's desires for heavy increase in the navy. It is also possible that the 1 new reichstag will insist on a revision of l the tariff in the interest of cheaper food l stuffs. The present German tariff is the | work of the agrarians and the industrial | ists are convinced that it has had much l to do with the great increase in the cost | oe living.
 1 If the socialists and liberals should se- | cure majority in the new reichstag there is little doubt that tariff revision will have a prominent place in their pro- gramme.
 | Following the publication of book en- titled Little White Slaves" of which I | lave previously written, came from the pe: of a former female police assistant. | Sister Henrietta Arendt, who alleges that 1 thousands of German children are yearly | Harmed abroad state of affairs differ | ing little from slavery, the Berlin author- | ities have decided to make a thorough in- vestigation into the charges. Sister Arendt bases her assertions on her professional experiences, and declares that the authorities SIS well as the spri- rate children protection societies. either Intentionally or unintentionally disregard . state of things of which they cannot possibly be ignorant She directs her chief accusations against adoption homes and private maternity hospitals, declaring that every year these concerns, for a stipulated fee. get rid of large numbers of unhappy little mites. The book gives one definite instance after another of cases of which the writer has personal knowledge.
 One of these adoption homes, in reply to letter of inquiry, stated that it was able to send from Germany to France, Belgium, Holland or Switzerland 5000 "discreet' children monthly. This state- ment, says the writer of the book, is prob ably exaggerated for the sake of adver-
 
 sion that the concern in question is pre- pared to negotiate the procuring of chil- dren.
 female employment agent in Ber- lin admitted that she sent children abroad at prices ranging from $75 to $o5O0, a par ticularly large number going to Russia only a few weeks ago a child was sent to Russian "baron" for s25OO but in this case the child came of good stock, frcm aristocratic parents, and was we'll worth the price paid for it. The average buying price for a child of working class parents in Berlin is said to be S75 while Tor children of better class people ilore money is paid. ranging up to s125O and s2500 for children of noble birth
 The publication of the book has created so great scandal that the police au- thorities have been obliged by the pres sure of public opinion to open a thorough investigation into< the alleged trading in children, and are making exhaustive ia- quiries into each single case mentioned in Sister Arendt's book
 The diet of the German prinoipality of Reuse (Elder Line) in Thuringia has passed resolution imposing a surtax on the incomes of unmarried men and women more than 30 years old.
 The father of the measure Is himself a taxable bachelor and wanted to apply the law to childless married couples. widow CTS and widows, but he had to abandon this part of the scheme in consequence Of the fierce opposition of his two chief opponents, who are also bachelors. One member threatened general exodus of well to do bachelors from Reuus, there being 76 of these desirables in Greiz, the capital.
 Another member pleaded the cause of taxable spinsters. who could not be ex- pected to take the initiative in the bus- ness of getting a husband. The surtax is per cent on the income tax on in- comes up to f3O0 and 10 per cent on larger incomes. The population of Reuss is between 7o,00O and S0,OOO.
 Frau Dutkiewicz, residing at Posen, has celebarted her 125th birthday. So far as official records go she is the oldest woman in the world She is tall and thin, but bent and very feeble. although not absolutely bedridden.
 Her face is full of wrinkles of twelve and a half decades. She is almost blind and deaf, and suffers rheumatic pains Long tresses of perfectly white hair give her patriarchal appearance. She is a pensioner on the bounty of the local Ro- man Catholics.
 Her son. aged s9. was priest of the Jesus church in Posen. By a strange coincidence, while celebrating mass be-
  day he fell dead from heart disease.
 Frau Dutkiewicz was married over 90 years ago, and has been a widow for 45 years. She gave birth to 10 children and her descendants now number more than POO. She possesses two great-great-great- grandchildren.
 She distinctly remembers the Na- poleonic wars and the final fall of Na- poleon Those far off events at the begin- ming of the nineteenth century are clear ly impressed on her memory, whereas many incidents of the last quarter of a century have been entirely forgotten. , A Berlin burglar named Starke, with two companions, planned a midnight raid on a large butchering establishment. starke clambered into the building through window, but just as his two companions were about to follow they perceived that they were under the obser- vation of a street watchman and de- camped. Warned by the disappearance of his comrades that something unex- pected had occurred, Starke threw off his jacket, donned bloodstained butchers apron and cap. switched on the electric light, and seizing butchers knife, began to work furiously on the meat When the watchman appeared and asked the supposed butcher whether he had not obs served the suspicious behavior of two men outside, Starke replied nonchalantly that he had seen the rascals but that they had run off on catching sight of him, whereupon the watchman withdrew, sat isfied that everything was in order. Then Starke robbed the cash till, packed up some choice pieces of meat In a parcel, and opening the door with a key which he found on the premises, quietly let him.