Omaha daily bee. (Omaha [Neb.]) 187?-1922, 1915-05-08
GERMANY IN GOOD CONDITION
American Banker in from Berlin As
serts There is Plenty to Eat and
prices Are About Normal.
NOT EVEN A DREAM OF DEFEAT

trrespondence Of the Associated PressA
LONDON. April ~. - An American I
banker who has Just returned from Ber-
liz talked with a party OF English news |
paper men on his arrival in London. He
gave them rather a different idea Of the
state Of affairs In Berlin than that con-
yeyed by most OF the English newspaper
comment. He said:
You English should not be deceived by
newspaper statements reaching you from
various continental points 20 the effect
that Germany Is on the brink OF stsrva-
ton. ! have Just closed my house IN the
fashionable residential part Of Berlin. Ny
household budget was not more than 3
per cent higher March 10 than II was a
year ago. Various staple articles Of food
cost more-as they do in London-but
hardly one is beyond the reach Of the
ordinary middle class householder. or
even OF the humber classes Everybody
must have a bread ticket and there Is
no shortage OF bread. Ny family o. four
snd two servants never used the whole
q our tickets for the week The potato
flour bread is only slightly less palstsble
han the old-time wheaton loaf
Not Dreaming of Defeat.
AT present no German is capable even
Of dreaming OF the possibility OF defeat
Il find also a vast amount OF foolish
misrepresentation in England about indus
trial conditions in Germany Trade does
not seem 20 me 10 have been materially
dislocated. The shops appear 10 have
their regular flow Of customers. The cof-
fee houses. the restaurants. the theaters,
the concert halls. the picture palaces and
other establishments dependant on public
patronage seem 10 be doing as well as
eight months ago The coffee houses
which have esbsrets are always era nmed
rs II generally understood here that
Germany is at the moment short OF arti-
san labor? Unemployment is almost non
existent Wages are high. a skilled man
who used 10 get only 81 or ti.25 a day
IAN now earn $50 or "a Everything con-
rected with the output OF munitions Is
working at utmost capacity day and
night. Sundays and holidays. without ces-
sation. New factories have sprung up
like mushrooms to produce goods here
tofore imported into Germany.
Women Making shrapneI.
a German friend OF mine who used TO
make furniture and found his business
temporarily shelNed by the war il now
making shrapnel. employing women and
girls IN place OF the men who have gone
e the front
1T is also wrong TO conclude as | some
times read in the English newspapers.
that Germany Is so near the dregs Of its
resources that boys OF Is are being dra-
gooned into the army. Nothing OF the
sort a German boy Of my acquaint-
ance, fine athletic fellow Of Is. has not
been summoned. although he Is ready TO
volunteer. They do not need him
I'm short. to the casual observer. there
Is no outward sign that Germany Ia on
the verge of famine in either men, pro-
visions. munitions or money The plenti-
fuiness OF money 10 almost the only bluff
that Germany Is putting up. The money
80 plentifully in circulation Ia paper cur
rency OF value as low as % cents. flow
ing from the imperial treasury like water
The Germans. In my judgment. thanks
10 farsiehted precautionary measures and
natural frugality, can never be starved
into surrender. They can be ineonven.
ienced-they are now-but that 10 diff
Ierent thing"