Bisbee daily review., 1916-01-02
WAR CONDITIONS IN
 HUNGARY DISCUSSED BY GOVERNMENT HEAD
Count Tisza Says German Prices in Times of Peace are Lower than His Own Country; Why Not Now?

BUDAPEST, Jan. 1.-An interest ing review of Hungary's position dur ing the present war. was given today
 by Count Stephan Tisza, the prime minister, before a meeting of members of the Hungarian diet who have been
 formed into committee that is to inquire into the high cost of living problem.
 In commenting upon the memoran, dunn which the committee submitted to him for suitable action, Count Tis- ga, speaking of references made to the satisfactory economic position of Germany, said among other things:
 Tt is not my intention to doubt at all that conditions in Germany are not so bad as with us. Germany has not alone the needed economic factors and organization to prevent this, but it is also so high a social plan that the solution of a question like this becomes much easier. We must also take into consideration that in Ger many living is cheaper than here even in times of peace. Germany, for in- stance, has so greatly developed her kitchen gardening that now she has been able to meet many wants with its products. But if we keep in mind the difference in the cost of living in Germany and Hungary, as it exists in times of peace, it will be found that the war prices here and there are al- most in the same relation"
 Count Tisza denied that he had fav- ored the producer as against the con sumer If such a state of affairs ex- isted then he was not to blame, he said. It was known that the Agra rains had never loved him, and every effort has been made by him to guard against the reproach that he favored one class at the expense of another. Nothingl, what the Hungarian govern ment could have done would have re- suited in bringing more food and oth-
 ernecessities into Hungary from neu- tral countries, said the prime minister. An earlier suspension of import duties would not have helped, because Hun garian importers had been willing to pay this duty themselves, and meat could not be brought from neutral countries, because the enemy was pro ceeding against neutral shipping in the most merciless fashion, and was now regulating the quantities of food that could be imported by such neutral countries from which Hungary in her turn would obtain supplies.
 The application of maximum prices had been made too late. said Count Tisza. But for this two good reasons could be given. In the first place last years crop had been badly over estimated, so that final returns show ed a shortage Secondly, the govern ment had been disinclined to meddle with economic affairs Of the country.
 Count Tisza said that the value of the labor done by prisoners Of war was not very high, had, in fact, been a disappointment. The cost of a prisoner of war working on a farm was from two to three crowns a day, 1 but it had been found that it did not pay On his own properties no pri- ! soners of war had been employed but | he had been obliged, in common-with | others, to pay extravagantly high | prices for the labor of old men, women ] and children. This was one reason | why the cost of living in Hungary had gone up. The agriculturists had net | made the money many people believed | and as the memorandum claimed. The | fact was, that though the Hungarian f owners had usually enough |. money they could not blow theiI acres with it. The soil. owing to the i absence of trained farm-laborers, had not been as well cultivated as it was in. other times. Crop returns had been less, therefore, though owners had paid higher price for the work done