Forest City press. (Forest City, Potter County, D.T. [S.D.]) 1883-19??, 1918-12-05
The Zentrale.
Brand WhitIock,
In Everybody's Magazine.

Il used to be one of Dur most cherished
superstitions, a part indeed OF our very
stock in trade, in the old days OF munlcl-
pal reform in America, that German cues
were ideally governed. hao accepted
all that was written about them and never
had any doubts until, myself making Ger
tain studies in Germany. l was told at the
Rathaus in Dresden, when l lnnocently
inquired what salary the mayor was paid.
that my question was indiscreet. founo
some police scandals In Berlin OF the IA
miliar kind, n in another city some
regulation, but 1 assured myself that
these incidents must be exceptional; and,
determined to be orthodox in reform, went
on believing as before. But II there Is any
analogy between the methods employed IN
German cities and those that 1 observed
on the part of certain Geheimrate (privy
councillors) In Belgium, think they
might much better be muck raked than
our OWL.
suppose, now, that German methods
impressed us because they were foreign
and mysterious and we knew nothlng
about them. Any "machine' in an Ameri-
can city will gladly govern the city, and
govern it with more or less efficiency, on
the same terms. We never put our best
foot forward. The slightest isregularity,
the least mistake. is published from the
housetops and cried abroad. the welkin
always ringing with denunciations OF
9Ome one, anu tno atmosphere Odi hSACu
by the flying missiles Of the universal
and recriminatory accusation charge and
indictment that is always going on. NO
doubt it all has its effect as a police
measure and proves us to be a very Vir-
tuous people. either searching out our
own sins with q remorseless and imp.ac-
able conscience, or else searching out the
sins of our neighbors. There was none
of this In German cities, and there was,
none and could be none in occupied g.
GUM. and so the Zentrale had pretty
much their own way.
For such dark, s-ubterranean systems OF
corruption there is no cure anywhere but
in the Illuminating influence of publicity.
and with conditions as they were in Bel
GUM 1t was impossible to let in the puri-
flying. antiseptic light.
had supposed at first that the Ter.
traie was simply another expression of
what has been so widely extolled in the
English speaking world as German eff
cheney and genius for organization, but as
time went OF l learned more about them.
They were a mere adaptation of the
German theory Of mechanical distribu-
ton OF Observation-Disclosures, socialism and
plutocracy working hand in hand. They
were in reality limited companies to which
the government of occupation granted
monopolies. That Is. the Butter Zentraie
had a monopoly Of butter, the kartoffel-
Zentrale had a monopoly of potatoes,
when 1t could get any. and so on as to
all sorts of products.
The Zentraie multiplied: there was a
zentraie for everything. in the end. one
even for jam.
Again and again we made representa-
lions as to the abuses to be attributed
to the ZentraIe. There were in the Ger
man administration those who did not
hesitate privately to recognize their evil,
and, in the limited circle where such
things were known, they became a scam
dal, but nothing was done, and under the
civil administration new Zentraie were
constantly organized.