The Birmingham age-herald., 1916-03-12

permanently they found the industries in a bad way because of a shortage of coal, due to the crippling of the mines by dynamitings and to- the difficulty of get ting freight' cars iii wilfefi coal could be imported. This difficulty was overcome, but coal no sooner began to come in than a shortage of raw materials again tied things up, and, if lit continues, will bring every industry iii Lodz to stand still not later than March, it is esti- mated. If this condition of affairs comes it is feared that the present very great need will increase. and that thousands will face actual starvation
 Lodz in the past has been large inn porter of cotton, both from America and from Turkestan. Neither market is now open to them. The little that re- mains from old supplies is being doled out in quantities. sssffi icient to allow few of the mills to operate three days week. About 40 per cent of the full quota of laborers in the textile mills now work 30 hours a week,
 Iii addition to the food, the fuel short age that exists today everywhere in
 Poland, Lodz was particularly handi- capped from the very start by a shoft- age of cash. The Russians had taken every rouble they could lay their hands on, and such factories as were running could pay off their hands only with diff ficulty.
 The city accordingly was necessitated to issue paper currency in 20 and 90 ko- peks, and 1 and trouble notes. A total
 of 12,O0O0e0 roubles was put out Of this sum, 1,650,0O0 roubles were issued on
 the strength of the promised loan of 100000 roubles from the Russian govern ment This sum had been promised be- fore the German occupation to help LIodS
 bear the expenses of the war, but only 350,OO0 roubiles had been paid.
 The balance of the issue was guaran- teed by industriaf firms and merchants, who were required to back the paper with securities and credit in twice the sum of the issue. This paper flows back and forth and temporarily supplies the needs of the population, but will be taken up gradually by the notes of the proposed national bank which is to be established for all Poland about January l.
 Lodzs debt gradually piled up because with the withdrawal of the Russians all taxation ceased. The Germans found it out of the question to impose taxes for the simple reason that the people haG no money with which to pay them In place of collecting taxes in fact the Ger mans have had to pay out some Se)0,G00 IT arks to the wives of reservists and pen sioners. whose incomes from the Russian government have stopped, and in addi- ton are feeding between 100000 and 150,- 000 of the population. tN
 A force of S0 German speaking Polish policemen has been appointed to take tlfe places of those who fled with the Rus sians. The old force consisted on paper and the pay rolls of l00 men, in actuality of only 100. hardly one of whom re- mained on December 6, 1914. Until February of this year the ad-
 ministration of Lodz was purely mili- tary. Hindenburg at that time ordered the creation of a city government after the German model, with a mayor and a
 city council This latter body, which at the start had to be appointed, eventually Will be elected from the Polish, German and Jewish population There aref at present some 600,000 persons livngl in Lodz and it's suburbs. About third are Jews, 10000 German and the ball. ance Polish.
 The industrial crisis has been helped
 by the emigration of some 3o000 Lodz