Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1917-09-28
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500 Per Cent. Profit
There are stories flying thickly
| through these countries of fortunes
amassed by men who "got in first on
| the smuggling across to Germany or
| foodstuffs. There are tales of men
making 500 per cent profit on their
goods. This was while America was
sending food to the neutrals in such
quantities that. have learned since
j came home. the prices here became
eXorbltant.
For months America has been de-
pleting her own resources to feed
Germany through the neutral coun-
tries. l. for one. am heartily glad to
see that this has been stopped AS L
said before. we cannot hope actually
tc starve Germany out. but we can
cause such suffering that peace will
come sooner than 1t would If the
Germans were getting adequate food
supplies.
In Holland food is high priced, al
though not so high as in Germany.
he food in Holland, of course. is CT
the best quality and there is a largo
variety. But Holland. too. is begin
ming to feel the pinch of the en-
barge.
In Denmark the people are hungry
not starving. but the high cost of
living has cut down the supplies on
many tables. All through Denmark
now you can hear the people say how
sorry they are to have sold food to
Germany and thus have gotten them
selves lin wrong" with America.
Bread Cards In eDnmark
Bread cards are being issued in
Denmark. When 1 was going over
there, / was given my bread card on
the boat so l would have no trouble
in getting an immediate supply.
L brought it home with me. pre-
ferring to go a little hungry so l
could keep it.
German money has deprecated in
value all these countries. Ameri-
can money of any kind is as good as
solid gold.
When 1 left Germany I had $500 in
American money. This. of course, l
had to be exchanged into German
money before l could leave. AS soon
as ! got out of Germany 1 had to get
1t exchanged back into the money of
whatever country I was in. In ex-
changing lost about 500 altogether.
The other countries will not give
equal value of their own money for
German money. Also. 1 could not get
any large quantity at a time. 1 had
to get twenty and thirty marks ex-
changed at a place.
From what 1 could see. 1 don't
think there is a country in the world
so solid financially in Europe as the
United States.
Fabulous reports of our wealth are
current there. The old. old stories
told of emigrants picking up money"
III the streets" of the New World al
most have been revived. Reports of
the wages paid our laborers. of the
a n in II, tot,
OIL the money we spend on pleasure,
are exaggerated in Europe to ridicu-
lous proportions. But many of the
people believe these tales.
What Germany Hopes For
Germany, too. has big ideas of our
money and there is not a German
who does not hope for big share in
the wealth of the United States when
the war is over-if Germany wins.
They think, in Europe. that every
American is rich. When you try to
tell them that we have thousands of
poor people here, that we have even
destitution, they do not believe you.
They think that America has been
piling up money through the sale of
munitions. Then they point, also, to
the immense amounts of money sent
over by America for relief to the va
rious countries. They cannot believe
that any person in America made any
sacrifice to send these great sums. In
this way they really depreciate the
good we have done. although they do
1t unwittingly. They simply do not
understand.
Since have come back 1 have seen
a number of newspaper notices that
Germany claims her crops this year
are plentiful. This is not true. Even
before 1 left the people were in de-
spair because of the shortage of crops
to what they had expected. The
weather has been too dry there.
In addition to this, the farms have
been worked by children and inexpe-
rienced women and old men. These
could not bring the results that the
experienced farmers could. And the
farmers all have gone to the war.