New-York tribune., 1918-05-20
Allies Must Bear
German War Costs,
Enemy ReviewSays
Admits Shipping Activity
of Entente Gains, De-
spite U-Boats
Tho Ne,u York Tribune

The Ne,U York Tribune
Foreign Press Bureau
Germany will be unable to bear the
burdens imposed upon her by the heavy
taxes necessary to cover her war debts
unless the Allies will pay a consider
able part of Germany's war expenses,
says the "Disconto- o-Gcsellschafft," of
Berlin, in its annual economic and
financial review published in the Ger
man press at the end of last month.
The "Disconto -Gcsellschafft" ascribes
most of Germany's economic difficulties
to the inadcquacy of the railroad trans
portation, but points out that con-
ditions arc improving at present.
Following are some interesting pas
sagcs from the report:
ain the first place, it is we'll to speak
of the regulation of state finances In
this connection, even if we should as
sumo that there will be no taxation of
wealthy which may have evil conse-
quences and is unjust from the point of
incomes. together with the communica-
cation, production and consumption
taxes, will place such heavy burdens
upon the economic existence of our
them only in case q very considerable
part OF our war expenses, which have
become immense, will be rolled down on
the shoulders Of our enemies, which will
us free road to the development Of
our intelligence.
Government Interference Greater
"Since our economic conditions have
undergone very few changes in the past
year, the economic developments show
little variation from the former year.
We only wish to emphasize that the
interference of the state in private
economic affairs has made a further
step. If this condition has to be ac-
cepted for the duration of the war be-
cause we are cut Off from the world,
the attempt to continue such interfer-
ence for any length of time after the
war will be energetically resist
ed. Never has private industry shown
itself so superior to state industry than
during the present war. Therefore we
wish to warn from any further extern
sion of the states interference in pri-
vate affairs.
"The harvest of cereals in the year
1917 was moderately satisfactory, but
the vegetable harvest was satisfactory.
On the other hand, the harvest of fod-
der was far below expectations, and
on account of that the stock Of cattle
had to be decreased. But in general
the food conditions are better than
they had been year ago, in spite of
many justified complaints against the
lack of organization in the distribution
of supplies and in provisioning single
districts or cities
"The rise of prices, however, of all
food supplies and all articles of con-
sumption weighs heavily upon the
people. But the consequences of this
rise in prices have been rendered mild
er for the working classes by the
rising demand for labor and the con-
siderable rise in wages. In addition
the employers have made all efforts by
their own organizations to make it
easier for their workmen to procure
their provisions. How greatly the de-
mand for labor has increased is seen
from the statistics of the labor market.
These show that the demand for help
has been considerably higher than the
demand for employment. This is not
only true of male but also of female
labor. and so while in 1916 the demand
for female labor had been lower than
the supply in 1917, from May till
October the supply of female labor
continually Jagged behind the demand,
Integrating Industries
cone interesting phenomenon of the
times is the unifcation of related or
allied industries, which took place
either thanks to private initiative or
on the request of the state, as. for ex-
ample, in the soap and shoe-manufac-
turing industries, in the banking firms.
in the iron industries, potassium in
dustry, insurance companies and brew
cries.
I'm some sections of our economic
life the war has called out deyelon-
ments of a new order. This is esne-
cially true of the regulations recurring
the establishment of companies and
the raising of the capital as soon as
the 100000 mark is exceeded. This