The Birmingham age-herald., 1915-11-03
HIGH PAID GERMAN WORKERS PROBLEM Are Hand-to-Mouth Livers,
 Not Savers CONDITION UNSTABLE Wages Obliged to Go Down When Millions of Farmers in Army Go Back to Bread Winning-Not
 Enough Money
CONDITION UNSTABLE

Berlin, October a5.--(Correspondene Of the Associated Press.)-The men and the high wages throughout Germany consti- | tute problem that already is occupying | the attention of labor leaders in every part of the empire. The more thoughtful of the workers realize that the days of big pay and unlimited work are not go- ing to last forever and that with peace is going to come a strenuous time of possible hardship. and they are saving their money.
 The bulk of workers, however, are not savers to any degree, but and-to-mouth livers notwithstanding their present fa- vorable circumstances, circumstances which certainly will not improve when several hundred thousand if not several million bread earners now in the army are thrown back on the labor market.
 Though the more optimistic believe that employers will take back their old em- ployes at once, they have to admit never theless that even such desirable solution of the impending problems means the displacement of many now at work, and l, that it presupposes an almost immediate resumption of the old volume of industry and trade
 Male Workers Biggest Problem
 The biggest problem is that of the adult male workers who. with the advent of peace, can easily create an unprecedented non-employment situation. Other prob lens are those of the young men, boys for the most part, who, in the present heyday of much work at high wages, either have hurried through their ap- prenticeships have become fullfledged master workmen at once, and who nat urally will be loathe to relinquish their places even to the heroes of the father land; and, secondly, of the women now filling mems places The majority of the latter will return to their places in the home, but some proportion will have lost their husbands or supporters, and, if forced out of their present occupations, will have to be taken care of elsewhere.
 Leaders of responsible, organized labor organizations have taken advantage of increased wages to swell the treasuries. This has been the easier to accomplish be- cause of the dwindling sums that have had to be paid out to the unemployed When peace does come and the flood be- gins there will be millions on hand, but still not enough, in the estimation of the leaders to take care of matters.
 The government has been brought to realize the seriousness of the impending SlIudUO1lb dCCOTOlu6 tO <AlWlI INoCiotSHl of the trades employment bureau in Ber- lin, and does not look unfavorably on a proposition to retain in service but on fur tough for from eight to F weeks all such soldiers as in the ordinary course of events would be mustered out immediately at the conclusion of hostilities.
 Those behind the movement to have this arrangement made feel sure that the eco homie situation created by the release of many hundreds of thousands of men at once cannot be handled otherwise. but do hope that matters will adjust them- selves within three months just as they adjusted themselves in one month in Ber- lin with a lesser horde of work-seekers at the beginning of the war.
 Berlin and the other large cities of Ger many are bound to suffer most from an excess of workers, it is felt. No matter how often nor how many the warnings there are going to be uncounted thou sands who will feel convinced that op- portunity for employment lies In the big rather than in the little place. and who are going to swarm into 1t accordingly
 Government Is Ready
 MT. Koersten again Is authority for the statement that the government is pre- pared to ease the situation by the use of sums running, if necessary, into the hum dr eds of millions of marks for tho support of the unemployed. If these sums have to be drawn upon, he believes, it will be the equivalent of an extended furlough on pay and will be the solution of the whole matter
 Surveying the whole German field of labor, Dr. o. Becker of the Association of German Employment agencies, hesi- tates to venture forecast until the out come of the war is clearer than at pres ent. He feels that the whole immediate future of the German workingman de- bends on what the ultimate terms of peace may be--that it is by no means dark if Germany wins. but that a tre- mendously difficult problem Is ahead if more completely than it is now.
 The German injured, lightly or seri- ously in the interest of his fatherland, bids fair always to enjoy a preference in the matter of work, and yet Ger many today, so far as labor is concerned is in the anomalous position of mot hay ing enough cripples." The reason today is twofold Whether this will be true in a years time or in two years no one will predict
 At present the crippled soldier has not yet learned a trade sufficiently to be able to fill the place that is open to him. Also he is, thus far, all too intent upon finding job as petty official doorkeeper at some government building, or something
 
 in trade that formerly he thought suf- ficiently dignified but which now he is in- | clined to scorn.
 As a result there are only between sol and 70 applicants for every 060 positions that are on the market for crippled sol | diers, and the proportion seems to get 1 no better as the months go by. Needless to say. there are never going to be | enough official positions to go round l but whether the wounded will revise theip ideas of what is desirable only time will l tell.
 All differences of opinion about how to handle the problem of soldiers returning | to civilian trades are merged when the subject of pensions comes under discuss | sion. Everything thus far indicates that the universal desideratum will be ob- 1 tained through the very cooperation of the pensioners themselves
 The central idea is that the pensions must not be of a size to encourage idle l ness, must not be large enough so that the pensioners will have no need to work. | but that, on the contrary, they must vary 1 in size according to the earning capacity | of each pensioner. that they must in ef- feet be nothing more than a complement to each mans wages, sort of bonus representing the difference between his so that he can be on equal terms with the latter.
 The whole nation is united in the of the uninjured workman soldier when be herded together, iniustrially nor in | Or. CfHo rrrox 11x1t, [ yA~ Al