The Owosso times. (Owosso, Mich.) 1897-1926, 1914-11-27
Germany's Great Growth.

washington, NOV. 20. Some or the
salient facts of Germany's remarkable
growth and development in recent years
are contained in statement given to
the press by Gilbert H. Grosvenor.
director and editor of the National
Geographic society, of Washington.
The statement is as follows:
"Only Belgium, Holland, Japan and
the United Kingdom have denser popu-
lations than Germany. That country
manages to crowd a population of 67,-
600, 600 people into territory so small
that you could add New England to it
and still have an area smaller than the
state of Texas.
Possessing only one Fifteenth of the
area of Europe, Germany produces one
seventh Of Europe's wheat, one.tifth Of
its oats, one-fourth of its rye and one
third of it's potatoes"
THE average farm in Germany is
very small Out of total Of $3.50, 600
farms nearly one half are smaller than
2t acres, and less than 700, 900 are
larger than 25 acres. OF our own s.
1877, 900 farms more than three-ffths
contain upward of fifty acres.
THE Germans use more commercial
fertilizer than any other three nations
on earth, and yet, with all the coaxing
resulting from extensive farming and
small farms, Germany is not able, in
ordinary times. to produce enough food.
stuff to meet the demands of its people.
II imported farm produce to the value
of a quarter OF billion dollars more
than it exported during recent year,
and groceries and confe ctions to the
amount of $l20, 600, GOO above the ex.
ports of those commo3i tiles. The bal
ance of raw materials was 500 100000
against the empire.
'ln the past quarter of a century no
other nation made such wonderful
bid for foreign trade as Germany.
While the trade of the United States
increased 275 per cent in that time and
Great Britain's increased 100 per cent.
Germany's increased 800 per cent. The
secret of this success lies in the efforts
to meet every condition of every market
into which German goods went. Ger
many's merchant marine in % years
rose from negligible quantity to 1850
ships, with net register tonnage of
1853, geo tons, and employing $4,000
sailors
Germany takes a different view of
railroad rebates from that of the United
States. A small shipper is always re-
quired to pay higher rates than big
shipper, and goods passing through
Germany get lower rates than goods
shipped from one German point to an
other. Railroad rates on export mer-
chandise are much lower than domestic
rates. When the Nuremburg toy
makers want to assist the Hamburg
Kriss Kripgle the freight rate is 80. 33
per ton; when they want to assist the
New York Santa Claus it is only So. S3
per ton.
THE theory of the German govern
ment is that every able bodied M is
entitled to work and that the govern
ment must find something for him to
do if he cannot find it himself. Wher'
ever there is disagreement between a
laborer and his employer it must be
settled in court created for that pur
pose Neither party is permitted by
law to offer or to accept compromise.
"The people of German cities live
amid surroundings of the law that are
different in theory and practice from
our own In Berlin, for instance, it Is
forbidden in apartment bouses to water
flowers except between the hours of
and in the morning; no one can play
piano before in the morning or after
8 at night; no bedd ng may lie aired
from front window; bathing at night
is forbidden; one may not employ ser
want without complying with police
regulations or change his residence
without police sanction. The German
justifies these things on the ground tna'
while they may sometimes interfere
with his convenience, by and large they
protect bim from annoyances much
greater than those that they entail
He says, they give him freedom from
annoyances without his household that
are infinitely more bothersome than the
restraints they IMPOSE within his house
hold"