The Watertown weekly leader. [volume] (Watertown, Jefferson County, Wis.) 1912-1917, 1914-12-22
IN. THE FATAERLAND
INTERESTING BITS OF NEWS
FROM THE GREAT GERMAN
EMPIRE.
WHAT'S DOING IN OLD HOME
summary of the Most Important Hap
penings in the Land of the Kaiser
Timely Items for the German
Readers.

The people of Germany annually
need l5.16o,0OO tons of grain for bread
and 43,296,O00 tons of potatoes. The
crop last year, exclusive of the seed.
was: Grain, 1861 900 tons; potatoes.
4S,662,000 tons. This left 1,109,0
tons of grain to be imported and
surplus of S5,366,000 tons of potatoes.
EXPECTATION of foodstuffs is prohibited
and therefore the surplus rye and po-
tato production will go a long way
toward filling up the lack between
production and consumption of wheat
usually covered by imports The use
or grain for feeding animals or for in
dustr1al purposes has been forbidden
Ihere is to be small percentage of
rye flour used i'll making wheat bread
and not less than 5 per cent of pota-
to Hour in rye bread. Many use 10
per cent. Two hundred factories are
being established for the manufacture
OF potato flour There were 1000
tons of grain left from last years
crops. One million tons of grain will
be saved through prohibition of feed
ing it to animals. The mixture of rye
with wheat and potato flour with rye
to make bread means a vast addition
to the bread supply. Less than year
ago there were 20,994,3 44 head of cat
tie, 5,520,837 head of sheep, 25,669,-
140 hogs, and 3,54S,3S4 goats. There
were 3,226,640 horses in Prussia alone
at that time. These figures indicate
that Germany is still far from the
point of starvation.
The German reichstag voted new
war credit Of $1,250,00 900 with but
one dissenting vote, that of Herr
Liebknecht, socialist. Speaker
kaempf in the course of his opening
speech, announced that SO members of
the reichstag were performing active
service. More than 100000 men, he
said, had offerel their services as vol
unteers, but only a small part of this
nun Der had thus far been called to
the colors One of the most important
parts OF Doctor Won Bethmann-Holl-
Wegs address was his declaration of
"Belgium's guilt in surrendering it's
neutrality, of which written proof, he
said, had since come to light These
were not at Germany's disposal on
August 4, he declared, although well
known to British statesmen. This
declaration caused prolonged applause.
The final portion of the chancellors
speech was devoted to an indictment
of British pC Icy as being morally re-
sponsible for the war, although Russia
was directly responsible, the chancel-
lor said, by driving through general
mobilization.
Certain parties saw fit to state that
the Germans are using the food which
the Americans are sending for the
relief of suffering Belgians. Brand
Whitlock, U. S. minister to Belgium,
says: "The German authorities are
respecting our work and are keeping
all their engagements, and the organi-
zation of the commission with it's al
most scientific methods of distribution
is such that it is practically impos-
sible for our food to go to any but the
suffering portion of the population.
Herbert c. Hoover, chairman of the
commission, has all the details of or
ganization, and | am sure he can con-
vince any person that no better method
can be devised to meet this great
that humanitarian end is being sub
served by the system that every morn
ing provides each hungry person with
food sufficient for that days need and
no more"
Sir Ernest Cassel, one of the worlds
most powerful financiers and confiden-
tial financial adviser to the late King
has been barred from Brit
aims privy council by King George.
There is no precedent in British his
tory for such extreme action. Sir
Ernest Cassel, although born in Ger
many, has long been identified with
British royalty, British finance and
British philanthropy. When war was
declared, Sir Ernest Cassel and Sir
Edgar Speyer were both excused from
privy council meetings The
only reason which can be attributed
for this drastic action is the fact that
Sir E. Cassel is a German by birth
Placards are posted nightly in the
suburbs of the German capital de-
peace and containing threats.
The police tear the posters down but
they always appear the next night,
and the authorities do not seem anx-
ious to catch the offenders for fear of
drawing further attention to the peace
agitation.
Six United States army officers, head
ed by Col J. e. Kuhne, are on their
way to Berlin to be official war OBJ
servers with the German armies in
the east and western fields. In the
party are Major Williams, Major Ault-
mann, Captain Sharple, Captain Burtt
and Captain Rockenbach. Colonel
mission from the kaiser, through the
United States embassy, to observe the
lighting with the German armies.
Every branch of our army is repre-
sented in the party.
The Austrian government has con-
fscated the entire output of oil in
Redneries have
been forbidden to supply oil to the