The Fulton County news. [volume] (McConnellsburg, Pa.) 1899-current, 1918-07-04
Germany's
Treatment of the
Workingman
n
By DANIEL LOUIS HANSON
OF The VigiianfeJ


pensions; also pension for old age
sickness, loss Of work and increases In
families. pay high wages, limit work
ing hours, make loans easy TO farmers
have no slums as do America and
Great Britain; l adjudicate all strikes.
Mine Is the land OF the care-free and
happy workingman."
That Is the Observation-Disclosures
tences propaganda that Germany COW
cred the whole world with before the
war with the ostenslble purpose Of
weakening the morale OF her enemies
In the war she then was planning.
Great credit is due to Chairman Eas-
ley Of the National Civic Federation In
his published refutatlon of Germany's
claims; just n few items from that
valuable document will prove illuml-
mating:
Widows pensions In Germany dur
Ing series of years averaged 35 cents
a week; sick pensions 95 cents week |;
invalidity pension the same; orphans
pensions 81 cents a week. Wages
averaged per day for carpenters $1.45 (;
plumbers S1.25; railway employees
engineers and conductors on state rail-
ways, 20 cents; shop workers S1.02;
male farm labor " cents; female farm
labor AZ cents.
And this In land where govern
ment statistics placed average cost OF
keeping families at over $500 per year.
How did they make both ends mect2
BY working the whole family; every
second woman In Germany worked dur
Ing the befOre-the-war period-nearly
100000 all told-and as the writer
can testify from an extended trip
throughout the empire, at the hardest
labor.
As to hours: those of skilled labor
ran about 50 per week, in textile and
other lines from IL to II per day. In
1911 the big stores Of Berlin kept open
till o at night and some hours on Sun
days-though that last was remedied
the following year. The smaller stores
were even worse as to hours. A bank
Ing concern across from my hotel
worked from Z in the morning to o at
night.
Regarding strikes which Germany
claimed 10 always adjudicate; that
year | saw the beginning of such
disturbance in the Moabit section Of
Berlln-and the end, for the authorities
settled II In true Homestead fashion
by shooting down the rlngleadcrs. 1t
lasted only two days and the press
was allowed to say nothing about it.
However, the Vorwaerts referred to 1t
and was suppressed for three days as
punishment. According to Mr.. Eas-
ley's statistics, more than two-thirds
the strikes in 1912 were unsuccessful
and labor unions only allowed to meet
under government supervision.
AS to slums-whoever has smelled
the horrible odors in Cologne-untll
1914 the filthiest city in Europe in
some Of its residence sections, will
laugh at Germanys claim to being slum-
less. And what about the foulness Of
Madgeburg and Dantzlg? East London
Is Paradise alley by comparison. Ber-
lin, the show city Of the empire, looks
like town of palaces with the streets
lined by stuccO-fronted houses, but
back of them-and this condition Is
much worse in Hamburg, Cologne,
Frankfort and other large towns
stand the serricd ranks of poverty's
tenements, row upon row. Berlin has
more one-roOm tenementS than any
other city in the world. Families Of
six and seven hertiing in one apart
ment and hall bathroom doing serv-
ice for half dozen such families.
As to land distribution: over third
of Germany's farms are less than IL
acres in size; 22.6 per cent between
IL and 8 acres; 17.5 per cent, to -
acres; 1876 per cent, u to 80 acres
while 23,566 junkers, the land barons,
own nearly 25O00,000 acres, running
from $50 to 500 acres and more each.
The above is only small part of
the picture which Germany actually
presented to the world in the before
the-war period. Not Of course what
she claimed, but nevertheless collated
from her official records-all except
the filth of her large cities. 1t sounds
inviting to an American workingman,
does It not And since then, of course
conditions have gotten even worse with
women doing work that would stoop
the shoulders Of the strongest man.
Oppression of farmers, underpaid
workers, enSlavement of women and
children induStrially, shocking housing
conditions, chronic underfeeding with
resultant fearful infant mortality,
counterfeit social insurance-are few
counts in the indictment made by Mr..
Easley against Germany before the
war.
German efficiency goes to appalling
lengths, whether 1t is breeding German
subjects from the enslaved young
women Of France and Belgium; or In
issuing lying propaganda with which
to break down the morale of the
worlds democracy. Nothing is too low,
nothing too awful for the Potsdam
spawn not to attempt.
Yet fools in America still mouth,
"Peace, peace at any price,"
Can a man make peace with hell