The Watertown weekly leader. [volume] (Watertown, Jefferson County, Wis.) 1912-1917, 1916-02-22
IN The FATHERLAND.
INTERESTING BITS OF NEWS
FROM THE GREAT GERMAN
EMPIRE.
WHAT'S DOING IN OLD HOME
Summary Of the Most Important Hap
penings in the Land Of the Kaiser
Timely Items for the German
Readers.

1
In Austria the front is at present the
domain of every able-bodied man,
while the woman working for the army
| is the soldier at home. Thousands Of
Austrian women are already doing
work which men formerly did. In the
branches in which they are employed
are many which formerly admitted no
woman. The street car cOnductresses
have been success from the start, as
have also the female postal employees,
including the women drivers and
chaufeurs Of mail vehicles. On the
railroads they have also been very
successful, especially as telegraph OPP
orators, ticket agents and freight de-
partment officials. Most of the cleri-
Cal work 'Of the various governments
is being done by women. Firms whose
male employees were called to the col
ors have been obliged to replace these
by women. In the ammunition fac
tories thousands of women are said to
be doing excellent work. In a plant
visited some time ago by the Asso-
ciated Press correspondent the female
employees formed 60 per cent of the
staff. Even the heavy lathes on which
the large shells were being turned
were manipulated by women. A few
Junos were handling huge ladies' with
molten steel like kitchen spoon.
Women already work in mines, mills,
factories generally, wholesale and re-
tail houses, and this years generous
crop was largely raised by them.
Plans are under way in Prussia for
the establishment in every province
of funds from which returning sol
diers, both during and after the war,
may borrow at low rate of interest
in order to re-establish themselves in
business. No one will be excluded
from borrowing, but the plans have
been drawn up with small merchants
and tradesmen primarily in view. The
ministers Of trade and industry, of
finance and of the interior, after care
full consideration of the situation, and
eral Won Hindenburg, have called the
attention of the presidents of all the
provinces and other authorities to the
need of such funds and have eX-
pressed their willingness to dc all they
can to aiG, General Won Hindenburg
has urged the matter especially be-
cause he feels that such borrowing in
diers feel more secure, and would re-
lieve many Of the worry about what
they and their families are to do in
the future without any capital with
which to start business anew. The
money, it is proposed, will be supplied
in part by the provinces and in part
by the monarchy of Prussia. The
loans will be made at low rate of
interest and will be repayable on easy
terms.
The Frankfurter Zeitung publishes
an article in which vigorous objection
is expressed to the tone adopted by
the press of Berlin in discussing Sec
rotary LanSings note on submarine
warfare and the arming of merchant
men and in particular 10 the state
ments made in Berlin that proposals
are unacceptable to Germany. 1t dis
sents from the position taken by the
Kreuz Zeitung and Professor yon STEM
gel that Germany has no interest in
negotiations regarding the freedom of
the seas, since England, with Amer
icas assistance, is only using the nego-
tiatiOns to wrest from Germany's
hands her submarine weapons To
this the Zeitung rejOins: cit is a gross
offense, not only against international
law, but against the most elementary
conception of good morals to charge
openly that the United States, with
which Germany is not at enmity, is
putting forth efforts in the sphere of
international law merely with the pre-
fidiOus purpose of helping England
Field Marshal Won Mackensen en-
joys social evenings, says a staff Off
Ger in a letter home. I'm the evening""
he wrote, Gen. Field Marshal Won
Mackensen delights to sit with his
staff before a good fire, drink a few
glasses of beer and smoke and talk
st such gatherings the officers tell of
their experiences of the day, some
times amusing, often again tragic.
The other evening, after a most siren
uous day, when there was little or
nothing to eat from morning till night,
the field marshal invited the officers
to his rooms, and there a very nice
cold lunch was spread that delighted
the hungry officers. The field marshal
greeted every man affectionately,
even those who sat far away in the
corners of the ROOM
AS an Indication that speculation
in food articles is rife, the Vossische
Zeitung publishes lists of the retail
prices of food staples showing that
they f1uctuate widely wen in neighbor-
ing localities, and affirms that even
more striking variations exist in the
wholesale trade
Fire has virtually destroyed the Jo-
hannisthal aerodrome just outside of
Berlin. Six of nine new aeroplanes are
reported to have been destroyed in the
blaze, which is said to have been the