Atlanta semi-weekly journal. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1898-1920, 1917-12-21

if she wants to buy a broom she may
not begin the transaction in time-hal-
lowed fashion by looking at swan's-down
cloaks and the more candid theories in
opera wear. The government is rigidly
restricting the temptation to spend
money needlessly.
Before she may look at any article of
apparel she must produce for the shop
keeper a police permit stating that she
may buy it. Sometimes that permit is
limited as to the district and sometimes
even to the shop in which the purchase
may be made
In some cities the hausfrau must be
registered with one department store
or one dry goods store and may not buy
elsewhere. The handicap that puts upon
the woman who enjoys an occasional
afternoon of shopping is readily per-
ceived
If she does buy something she must
carry it home herself, for the stores
no longer deliver parcels. If the pack
age is too big for her to handle, she
must go on the street and strike bar
gain with a push-carter
There are no automobiles on the Ger
man streets now, except those belonging
to the army or dilomat1c services. Many
of these run on tires made of hinged
wooden blocks. There are some anti
quated electric vehicles which run after
a fashion on misfit wheels. The benzol
burned in the few cars that are rum
ming is of such abominable quality that
the air is filled with smoke and stencil
long after the car has gone by.
Naturally, there is no automobile de-
livery. Nor is there delivery by horse
carts, for the few horses which still
stagger about German city streets are
used for the "droskies"-the little car
riages which just hold two people COM
fortably. They are mere racks of bones,
of course. Their food has necessarily
been cut to the last straw, for fodder
is needed for cattle which may later
become food for humans. They began
their term of drosky service as castoff
and spawned wrecks unfit for anything
else. The pushcartS on which all de-
liveries are now made are pushed either
by women or cripples or temporarily
exempt men. The women, for that mat
ter do much of the work in German
streets now. They clean the streets and
run the tramcars and light the lamps.
In no one item of this account is
there actual suffering to be found. But
when one adds the items, an6 reflects
that no relief is to be found in amuse-
ment one begins to comprehend the
grave depression from which the Ger
man eople are suffering. 1t is impor-
tant to understand that the people have
not yet lost hope. The greater part OF
them firmly believe in eventual German
victory They are undergoing these
miseries because they believe this. When
the realization of inevitable defeat
comes to them it seems certain to me
that the collapse will be a sudden and
an overwhelming one.
1t is not precisely accurate to say
there is no amusement. On the other
hand, the theaters and concert halls and
opera houses are reported as Jammed
full for every performance throughout
the empire The morbid Ibsenism of two
years ago has gone out of fashion and
the people demand only Laughing" plays
now, In this the incessant demand felt
by these faded and worn-down nerves
for some relief from the ever present
griefs and privations may be seen. But
all this is relief for the moment only.
They step out of the theaters to face
the reality they had momentarily for
gotten.
This reality is made up of saddening
items such as the people of no other or
the major belligerents are compelled to
meet. The daily report of deaths and
wounds from the front is common to
all. But in Germany there is also the
story of the ravages of the epidemic or
dysentery in the next street, and or
the danger Of a, coal shortage for lack of
man-labor, and of the possibility that
undertaking may be converted into
starvation. The boy of the household
has been called to the war, for boys of
sixteen and one-half years have now
been summoned to the colors. The faith
err of the house is at the war or is
engaged in work affiliated with the war
for men of fifty-five are now liable
to call-or else he has been sent home
to wait the day of his final call.
The moral standards of the people
have been breaking down. Juvenile mis-
behavior, petty theft, illegitimacy, are
all reported as increasing.
AS a people the Germans face indus
trial stagnation and grinding taxation
and practically universal poverty even
if the central powers win the war. If
what the allies believe is inevitable
comes to pass, and the central powers
lose the war. the Germans know they
face national bankruptcy plus individual
bankruptcy plus reputation and con-
fiscation.
IF the very best happens we still
are ruined" said a Berlin banker to
friend of mine in Switzerland this week
This picture has not been painted in
too black colors. There has been under
statement rather than exaggeration.
But from this brief and neutral-tinted
statement of conditions as they seem
to exist from across the line in Switzer-
land. the reader may arrive at an under
standing of the utter depression which
reigns in Germany today. No individual
in all the warning. countries so hopes
and prays for peace today as the Ger
man, / believe.
But it would be both unfair and IN
wise to represent the German as having
lost heart and courage. There is every
reason to believe that he will fight on
for at least another year. He still hopes
for peace on his own terms.
The German plans for next years war
are more sweeping and more scientific
and more murderous than they nave
ben for any of the past years of war.