Norwich bulletin., 1915-11-02
EHsot on German Workmen.

Effect on German Workmen'
 The huge drains and losses of IS months of war have had the para doxical effect of placing the German yyorkinenan in a position of prosper ity unexampled in his history, of rats- ing his wages by and large to a point they never attained before. and of almost completely solving his non- employment problem
 fallen and holes in the ranks had to be filled. the better has become the situation of the men at home, the higher have mounted the savings banks deposits of the few doing the work of the former many.
 Each month has drawn from the ranks of nearly all trades men whose places have not bene filled, yet whose work has had to be done. The work has been done in part by overtime la bor, in part by workers whose value creased about in proportio nto the withdrawals.
 Yet the very fact that the worker who has stayed at home Is having an unprecedented heyday has created a problem which his leaders, If not he are studying and worrying over-the
 problam of what is to become of hin, and how to take care of him when the war is over, when hundreds Of thou
 oands of his fellows come streaming
 back from the front. when the lucra-
 tive manufacture of war materials suddenly stops.
 Some think the problem is to be solved by kindly employers who will immediately take back their former employees, even though business and
 trade do not at once resume their be- fore-the-war volume. Others, less op- timistic, are far-sightedly negotiatina
 with the government already and are asking that no matter when hostili- ties cease the hundreds of thousands
 not regularly employed as soldiers shall be kept on the rolls for eight oI l twelve weeks till economic matters ad- just themselves and the men can get | back to work.
 The organized trades are piling uT small fortunes in their treasuries | against the time when they shall have to begin again paying out the. non- employment benefits that just now have dwindled to the vanishing point 1 And the government is practically | pledged to supply hundreds of millions
 of marks. if necessary, toward this same end.
 The labor situation in Berlin today | is more than fair measure by whicE | to gauge the situation throughout the empire. More than ever since the be. ginning of the war there has been ar influx of workers from the country attracted by the high wages prevail. T | ing to army needs.
 The country has always had a small.
 CT percentage of men unfit for military service than the city. The needs oi the army therefore. which have called
 for most of the men who are t. ha. created a greater shortage of work.
 men in the small towns than in the cities, and the labor situation. from
 the mems point of view. in the former
 is in general even better than in the | latter.
 In Berlin the situation never wa. rosier-from the standpoint of tho
 worker--as the following figures will | attest.
 At the great Central Employment | bureau maintained by the principa branches of labor in Berlin, betweer
 45 and 50 traes are represented. Al | the end of the first week in September Is of these trades reported that no
 one member was out of employment l 30 others reported from to 1S3 mem. | bers unemployed, and entitled to un.
 employment support. The total mum.
 Der drawing this support was $40 six trades had one man apiece; fouI
 had two men, and three had three
 The unemployment on November 21
 1914 numbered s,4O0 among the trade: represented.