The Washington herald., 1915-08-22

GERMANY'S FOOD
PRICES ADVANCE
Time Drawing Closer When
Masses Will Be Without
Necessaries.
PORK IS NOW LUXURY
Butter. Cheese. Bread. Meats. and
IL
PORK IS NOW LUXURY
Butter. Cheese. Bread. Meats. and
Other Products Soar-Blockade
Will Tell.
BY FREDERICK WERNER.

perrin. Aug. Z1.-Tfme and again
have heard from the lips of men in
nearly all walks of life expressions
such as this:
IF We lose this war we shall have
been conquered not by the millions OF
soldiers who have surrounded us or
all sides but who have never been
able to pierce the walls of our living
defense. but by the inhuman British
blockade and the refusal of America
to heed our protests against the starv-
ing of an entire nation"
AS matter of fact there is no alb
solute lack of anything here. II you
have money enough you may still get
any luxury your palate may desire
but the time is drawing closer when
the great masses of the German peo-
pie will not have money enough to
buy even the necessaries of life. Neu-
trail travellers who pay an occa sional
visit to Berlin stopping at hotels like
the Adlon or the Kaiserhof, find the
tables there as we'll provided as ever
and the prices about the same as be-
fore the war. but neutral visitors see
but the surface Of things and they
do not know that these hotels whior
made enormous profits before the war
are being run almost at a loss
Below the surface. in the hundreds
of thousands of middle-class homes,
thrifty and experienced housewives are
fighting as desperately against the in
creasing prices as the husbands of
some are fighting the enemies east
and west.
Figures published by the Reich
sanzeiger give a vivid impression of
the enemy the German housewives
have TO fight
Statistics gathered in nifty of Ger
many's largest cities and showing the
upward movement OF prices during the
past twelve months prove that butter
has gone up 43 per cent, potatoes 96
per cent, rice Isl per cent, barley meal
FUSED here much as oatmeal in Amer
ica). los per cent. eggs 81 per cent,
rye meal SIS per cent and peas 200 per
cent These figures show prices on May
1 and many articles have gone up in
price since then.
Butter Prices Soar.
During the same period MAY. 1914.
to May, 1879 meat prices rose as fol-
lows: Beef. 35 per cent: veal IS per
cent: mutton and lamb. As per cent;
pork. 100 per cent
Maximum prices were placed on
pork, the principal meat food Of the
middle and working classes. but these
prices were soon found impossible to
maintain and pork began soaring. I'M
til it is now an absolute luxury. Time
and again the "Vorwaerts" had pointed
out how the high prices of meat tempt
the farmers to disobey the government
order not to give potatoes and grain
to pigs, because they get much more
for their grain using ii in this way
than by selling it.
1t is just the same with milk Prices
of butter and cheese have gone up
so enormously that farmers make all
their milk into butter and cheese and
milk is increasingly difficult to get
This. of course. is fatal to tens Of
thousands of babies. 1t is useless to
keep the price of milk down while
permitting the prices of butter and
cheese to soar. The time is approach.
ing when the making of dairy prod
in part to save the future genera
tons.
In some places. as in Bavaria and
Wuertemberg the military command
ers have stepped in and melted out
severe punishments to the usurers on
foodstuffs, but in Prussia the govern
ment shows hesitation to interfere
with the Junkers and large landed
whose support it cannot
do without
We are now being told that bread
will be dearer yet during the coming
year. owing to the drought and the
partial failure of the har-
vest. and housewives of the working
classes are in despair. They do not
see how they are going to get through
another winter of war and blockade.