The Birmingham age-herald., 1918-03-22
Gloomy Pictures Drawn
 of Conditions ill Germany

Gloomy Pictures Drawn
 of Conditions in Germany WNT HILE the Prussian war lords WV are inviting neutral corre- spondents to "see the fun' as their new offensive is launched on the western front and they boast of what hey are going to do to the helpless allies, information from other sources indicates that life in Germany is not all beer and skittles.
 According to a London dispatch, ] "well informed authority" says con- ditions in Berlin at the end of last year were simply awful" A woman who visited Berlin in November and December writes as follows:
 The lower-middle and lower
 classes in Berlin were past caring
 what happens so long as they have
 peace at once. They were suffering
 horribly, and the only word to de-
 scribe conditions in Berlin is
 famine. Berlin was dark, cold and
 unspeakably wretched.
 For most people there was hardly
 any light, warmth, clothing or
 boots, and terrible lack of food,
 while the linen worn by both
 sexes was abominably dirty be-
 cause there was no soap.
 Another significant factor was
 that able bodied men were prohib-
 ited from returning to the capital
 from the front so as to prevent a
 revolution.
 The people hate the government.
 To further the last war loan, the
 whole place was plastered with pie
 lures of Won Hindenburg, but with
 in few hours, all had been torn
 down.
 I went to cinema which was
 crowded with soldiers who burst
 into roars of laughter at sight of
 the crown prince.
 I also heard, from a very good
 source. that the government did not
 know how they would feed the peo-
 pie during March. April and May.
 Reports of this kind, particularly when given out anonymously, are apt to be exaggerated, but no less an au- thority than Cyril Brown, the New York Worlds able correspondent, who is contributing many Illuminating ar bicles from abroad, draws picture of the situation in Germany that is equal ly as dark. MT. Brown states in one of his recent dispatches to the World that nothing but the development of the paper thread industry and the technical triumph of practical wov- en paper materials" prevented an epidemic of nudity" in the father land. He predicts that in time the Ger mans will have to wear paper clothing pr nothing. The German wardrobe has been reduced to the minimum consist ent with decency and with few ex- captions, chiefly articles of luxury, no can be bought without per- mission of the military authorities.
 MT. Brown says, 'It is extremely doubtful if there is a single bale of raw cotton left in all Germany in the manufacturers hands," Wool produc- lion supplies only small part of the army's requirements. There is hardly 3 cake of good laundry soap left in the country and the soap shortage is caus- ing the "aroma of the unwashed" to be more pronounced. It is even envelop- ng people high Tn the social scale. More than half the boot and shoe factories have been closed and wooden shoes will be the fashion for the masses during 1918.
 These conditions doubtless explain Germany's eagerness to make the most of her conquests in Russia or anywhere else that may afford a pound of the raw materials so much needed. The German proletariat may be today in much the same plight the French were before the Revolution. Do conditions in the fatherland portend a similar upheaval? Let us hope so.
 * # <
 World Hungry for
 the South's Staple
 7T HIRTY- -FOUR-CENT cotton re a fleets the vigorous demand that is now in evidence. The world is nun