The Chickasha daily express. (Chickasha, Indian Territory [Okla.]) 1899-current, 1916-02-26
LONG BUTTER LINES
Picturesque Scenes Witnessed ir
Berlin Today.
People Resort to All Manner Of Trick'
to Get Extra Supply Of Butter
Working Classes Get It, Well
to-Do Co Without.

what pitiful scenes where long lines
wait at the doors of German butter
shops are described in a dispatch t.
The New Rotterdam Courant from its
Berlin correspondent.
As this newspaper is sympathetic
with Germany, 1t cannot be accused
Of presenting an excitable and exag.
gerated account such as the Germans
complain Of in allied journals.
The correspondent begins by quot
ng from story told him by friend:
Il got in with little persuasion
A line was waiting. They would not
let me go in front, of course, but
pretended ] only wanted vegetables
SO | got through the line and after
securing vegetables, / asked with q
very innocent face for a quarter of
pound of butter. I hid it in my coat,
went out and joined at the end of the
line. Without much more trouble ]
got a second quarter of pound"
The correspondent comments:
THAT is how we get along in Berlin
today; that is what we must do to
capture a little fat or little butter.
Only with cunning or patience can we
butter our bread In long straight
lines the people stand for hours before
the butter shops. Some get nothing,
some welter in butter He who has
no need of butter goes out on the hunt
q ffar fcI
with pleasure and pride how much
butter they have captured /, myself,
with my family had to go without but
ter for days till | tumbled on cum
ming ruse whereby / secured a pound
And how Dragged about It'll
Many butter and cheese shops are
closed practically the whole day A
paper in the window announces when
the sale will begin and long before
the specified time a crowd collects
mostly mothers and children. Some
little ones are there to capture quar-
ter of a pound on their own hook. Did
the salesman know there were several
from one house they would get moth
Ing, so they cheerfully ignore each
other during the long wait.
"A policemen keeps order in the
waiting lines. In the good, old days
such lines collected to buy tickets for
a Caruso concert; now butter or some
other necessity is all we think of.
"The cause of this singular situa.
tion is not far to seek In peace time,
to say nothing of war time, Germany
does not produce enough butter for
home consumption. Lack of fodder
and speculation combined to drive up
prices. A scarcity of fat accompanied
the scarcity of butter To do without
these two would be disaster for the
German working people, so the gov
took the matter up, and, as
butter, like fat, is free from pluto
cratic influences, the government de
cided the butter should be fairly di
yided, and fixed low maximum prices
accordingly.
THE result is that the working
classes get butter and the well-to-do
90 without. The working mans wife
goes herself or sends her children to
stand for hours in line. She has the
now that patience and not
money is the determining factor.
THE social side of this regulation
las thus reached it's goal, but not so
he financial. The prices are so low
hat imports from Denmark and Hol.
and are almost out. of the question
md the government is now faced with
he dilemma; plenty of butter at panic
,rices or little butter at low prices.
In official circles it is hoped that
he situation will soon be easier. |
They hope soon to get the benefit of
/ big potato harvest, the increase in
he farm stocks, and the imported food
rom the Balkans. But how to deal
With the disagreeable fact that the fix.
ng of maximum prices automatically |
iminishes the supply available still
emains an unsolved problem"