Denver labor bulletin., 1918-05-25
GERMANY CONCEALS ITS PAUPERISM
By GUSTAVUS MEYERS.
the American Alliance for Labor and Democracy

The idea that pauperism was about
extinct in Germany became more than
an impression, says the investigator.
1t settled in the minds of many peo-
pie here into such a fixed belief that
even after war was declared by the
United States, a prominent socialist
in Minnesota in public speech there
said: "What if the Germans do come
over here and rule us? What do we
care who governs us so long as we are
well fed and happy"
He was simply voicing what others
who had imbibed German propagan-
da were saying in private. They had
absorbed so much of the praise of
the German governments schemes
for the prevention of poverty that
they took it for granted that those
schemes were both genuine and sue
cessful.
The unusually significant fact that
the German government neither pub
lished nor apparently had any COM
prehensive statistics on pauperism in
Germany was unnoticed. Here was a
potent fact that instantly should have
aroused suspicion. Endlessly had the
German government Dragged of its
thoroness and excellence in gathering
the most minute statistical details
about anything and everything. Why
did it or it's states not have the
full facts on pauperism, or if it had
them why did it not publish them?
Had there been such big omission
in the United States German critics
would have been the first to raise an
outcry about official incapacity or de-
nounce official suppression of impor-
tant facts.
German officials knew well enough
that pauperism statistics had a
greater significance than any other
kind. These statistics were the real
test of Germany's boastings. And
why? For several reasons. If con-
ditions in Germany were as ideal as
they were represented, pauperism
should have become nonexistent. If,
also, Germany's compulsory social in
surance schemes had been so sue
cessful as they were Landed in the
Wanted object of removing poverty,
the statistics would have shown the
gradually diminishing number of pau
pers, year by year.
Well informed Germans knew that
there was plenty of pauperism. They
knew that much of it was downright
restitution, and that much more was
the same but disguised from super
fetal view by palliative coverings.
But the mass of Germans were eff
fectively chloroformed by the gov
eminent. With every motion of their
life regulated, their beliefs and views
were also regulated. When they were
told to believe that everything was
going on happily and tremendously
and that the compulsory social in
surance laws were a great benevo-
lence and benefit the most of them be-
lieved it. Officially assured that pau
perism thereby had been immensely
reduced they believed this, too, ac-
cepting the official word against the
evidence of their own observation and
experience. Their national pride was
fiattered by this agreeable misrepre-
sentation.
Germany's compulsory sickness and
workingmen's accident insurance sys-
tenn dates from 18S3-84; its invalidity
and old-age insurance from 1889. The
main convincing argument used in
adopting these compulsory schemes
was that the powerful Intervention
of the state was necessary to force
people to submit to measures that
would protect them against want.
If these laws had brought about
this end, or nearly so, impressive re-
suits would certainly have shown by
as well as other so-called reform"
laws had been in force long enough.
That was the crest of the time, too,
when all over the world the legend
had been adroitly disseminated that
Germany WIS veritable paradise
where contentment dwelt and bliss
all
Turning from legend to fact what
do we find?
That instead of decreasing, pau
perism in Germany increased, not
only absolutely, but relatively.
At hygiene congress in 1913 DR..
Zahn reported that in Berlin the num-
Der of persons receiving poor relief |
from the public funds had increased |
yearly from 81 1853 in 1891 to 55,601 |
in 1909. This was an increase in |
pauperism from 1.99 per 100 inhabi-
tants in 1891 to 2.64 per 100 inhabi-
tants in 1909. Pauper burials were |
frequent.
In Hamburg pauperism was so
that from 1895 to 1909 be-
tween 1900 to 10000 persons annu-
ally were given poor relief from the
public funds. Many paupers were
buried at public expense every year.
The same conditions prevailed in Mu-
nich, Leipsic, Breslau, Frankfort
he Main, Nuremburg, Dusseldorf, Ell
oerfeld and other German cities. These
figures do not include private and
.rade union aids.
DR.. Zahn showed that pauperism
was not confined to large cities. In
richest agricultural state
n the German empire, 230,218 pau
,ers were assisted in 1911.
In order to conciliate the organ