The Brattleboro daily reformer. (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1913-1955, 1916-12-18
FOOD SUPPLY Of
GERMANY SHORTENS
Condition Is Growing Worse
Every Day, Says a Swiss
Correspondent
.WORKMEN ARE NOT
PEOPLE WHO SUFFER
They Are Getting Higher Wages Than
Ever Before, and Indulge in Expenses
of Which in the Old Days They Could
Never Dream.

LONDON, Dee. 1S-Germany S food
supply is growing worse every day, ac
cording to q Swiss who has just re-
turned from Berlin and writes his inn
pressions in an article contributed to
the Tribune of Luzernc. These impress
SONS are particularly interesting in
New of the fact that the writer was
not casual visitor to Germany, but
hved there for a long time working at
his trade in an establishment dealing
IL all sorts of necessary foodstuffs.
The economic situation in Berlin,
Ii, says, grows worse from day to day.
livery one .foresees in the coming
spring much more severe prices than
have been experienced in the last
months, and ii is for this reason that
many neutrals living in Berlin have
utterly resolved to return to their own
countries to escape the gloomy future
that threatens Germany.
What is most needed is fat and but
ter, and it is Just these things which
ae controlled by innumerable police
ordinances, which are enforced with al
most ridiculous obstinacy, when one
! secs the results. Thus, when a govern
of butter much less than that which
really prevailed that commodity disap
| pcared from the market in q moment
as if by enchantment. Then when il
! was decided to withdraw the edict the
| precious article reappeared without &
| moment s delay, but at such price
that the women of the people could not
refrain from showing their anger by
! Fillaging the shops. In fact, the situa
ton is insoluble, and all the measures
taken must in the end prove abortive.
THE state of feeling among the PEG
! Pile at large does not correspond, a.
one might suppose, with the generally
| disquieting situation. That is to be ex
| planned by the fact that the working
| class, the men who earn a daily wage
! the only class which in Germany may
| be led to demonstrate and Great,
trouble, and which would, II would
seem, be the first to suffer from tht
arcity of provisions, is less affected
| by the war than other classes of thu
population.
1.-The men in the workshops are paiC
on the average 1.S0 mark per hour
| which is the equivalent of Is mark
| (&4.32) per day of ten hours. They havt
never earned so much before, and the.
indulge in all sorts of expenses o.
which in old days they could neve
dream. Consequently, they make n
complaint of their lot, and they rattle
regard the war as benefit. The tenden
cv to waste became, indeed, such tina
a special law was passed ordering TIL
masters to put aside a portion of TIL
men wages and pay them into saving
| banks.
The lack of metals is making itsel
felt more and more, and has sometime
led to disastrous consequences. In 1911
most German families, having handet
over all the copper utensils which the.
possessed, had replaced them by other
Of zine. In certain cases the employ
ment Of this metal is extremely danger
Gus. During the fruit season in Berlin
when jam is made, there was a sudde
outbreak of illness, and several violen
deaths presenting all the symptoms 0
poisoning. After due medical inquiry
notice was posted up in all direction
warning housekeepers to use only Ell