Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1918-09-26
THE KAISER AS | KNEW
HIM FOR FOURTEEN YEARS
By ARTHUR n. DAVIS, d. ID. S.
Copyright 1918, by the Mcclure Newspaper Syndcate)

fact that they had captured the
criminals ought to be enough, they
oelleVed, to satisfy the most exact
ing civilian, but they made it a
custom to restore some of the
cheaper articles to the victim of the
robbery, figuring that as he proba-
bly, expected to lose all he would be
welr satisfied if he regained part.
These and other similar cases
suggested the possibility that the
police were working as accomplices
OF the criminal classes. They were
certainly becoming as much of a
menace as the law-breaking class
they were supposed to suppress.
The dissatisfaction of the workers
in factories was becoming greater
every day. The director of one of
the larger army factories, employ
ing more than $4,000 operatives, told
me that conditions were becoming
unbearable
It's just living in a lunatic asy-
lum," he explained to me. "An ex-
plosion the other day in the vicinity
OF our plant blew out $1,000 marks
worth of windowpanes and the
strikers are demanding seven and
one-half, cents an hour increase
What with explosions blowing our
plants to pieces and our hands con-
stantly on strike, the lot of an en-
ployer Is not very happy one these
days, and it looks as if it is going to
be worse!"
The fact that these employers
were making vast profits and that
the landowners, mineowners and
agrarians were using prisoners Of
war to furnish labor at minimum
cost, was embittering the wage
earners to the breaking point. The
longer the war lasted the worse their
lot was becoming. Servants were
taxed not only on their wages, but
on an amount which was supposed
to be equivalent to the value of their
board and the presents they received
at Christmas, while the aristocrats,
living in plenty, went comparatively
tax-free
Civilian patients in the interior
hospitals, especially the older ones,
died in such alarming numbers that
foul play was beginning to be hint
ed at. Less mouths to feed meant
less of a burden on the nation as a
whole, and it was quite in accord
with the German idea that the weak
should be sacrificed for the sake of
the strong.
How much worse internal condi-
tions might get without bringing
about a serious conflict between the
hunger cra7ed, suffering civil
ians and the authorities, it was i'm
possible definitely to say, but it was
quite evident that no disturbance
could ever accomplish anything for
the liberation of the people from the
yoke of militarism while the army
remained loyal. Underfed and un-
equipped, what could the civilian
population, made up as it was of the
aged. the infirm and the immature
youth of the land, accomplish
against the veterans of the German
army? A successful revolt against
the organized military forces would
be out of the question.
Another factor that must be taken
into consideration in connection with
the suffering and privation which
was so general in Germany at this
time is that there was a strong un-
dercurrent of patriotism still work.
ing against the tide of discomfort
that was developing. There was a
feeling that the government was do
ing all that it could to alleviate
conditions, and that civilians ought
to be as willing to suffer for the
Fatherland, just as the soldiers at
the front do.
(TO He Continued.)