Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1918-12-29
w 7HILE reconstruction projects in
\" the United States are not de-
pendent upon conditions else

w 1HlAh reconstruction projects IN
Nv the United States are not de-
pendent upon conditions else
where, comparisons between the
situation of the workers here and in other
countries are inevitable in the showing of
needs in this country. Readjustments are
certain to occur in wage scales and living
conditions in practically all the countries
lately at war, and it is expected that no
where else will so positive an effort at
amelioration be made as in Germany.
That the land of the ex-kaiser should
be so urgently in need of economic reform
will doubtless not be readily credited by
many Americans, who, having heard for
years of the supposedly benehcent rule of
the German empire and the many measures
adopted for the betterment of the people,
have formed a mental picture of happy,
prosperous and contented Germany prior
to the war.
In point of fact the condition of the
German people before the war, despite all
the widely advertised schemes for their
benefit and the direct control of the state
over many of the agencies affecting their
welfare, was wretched. Statistics adduced
during the war and published-in part by
the committee on public information-to
counter the belief prevalent in some parts
of. the United States that German rule was
benevolent and helpful and that the people
living under it were happy and prosperous,
leave no room to doubt that the average
German peasant and industrial worker was,
on the eve of hostilities, barely able to
exist; that his wife and children had to
work hard to bring the family revenues up
to the point of inadequately meeting ex-
penses for the poorest of food, shelter and
clothing; that the labor of adults and
minors covered longer hours than in most
other countries; that in consequence crime
and decentralization were rapidly increasing.
IN Germany, up to the beginning of the
l war, the general working hours of the
highly skilled trades were from ffty-seven
to sixty week, and in other trades twelve
to fourteen hours were common. As late
as August, 1917, the workers in the Krupp
and -Horwaldt building yards were unsuc-
cessfully pleading for a nine-hour day.
Piece-work wages in the Saxony textile in
dustries for years have been from less than
l cent to less than cents an hour, general
weekly wages ranging from $1.3O to $2.12.
In August, 1917, the workers petitioned for
betterment and the military officers
charged with the enforcement of the aux
iliary service law rejected the petition.
Textile workers in Silesia who asked
for higher wages were sharply told that
wages were high enough and that if their
demands caused the closing of the mills
the male workers would be put into the
army and the women would be sent to
West Prussia to work on farms.
Before the war there were many more
men than jobs. In Baden, for instance, in
1913, only 1922 applicants out of 278,ol0
obtained work, or III applications for
every 100 jobs. In January, 1914, there were
273 applications for every 100 jobs.
Work hours in skilled trades were
long. In 1908 an official inquiry showed an
average of ffty-four hours week for COM
positors, against an American average of
forty-eight Qess in many places; fifty
nine hours in building trades, American
average, forty-four hours, and ffty-nine
and one-half in engineering trades, Ameri-
can average, forty-four to forty-eight
hours.