The Tucumcari news and Tucumcari times. [volume] (Tucumcari, N.M.) 1907-1921, 1918-07-18
Cermany's
Treatment of the
Workingman
4.
D. DANIEL LOUIS HANSON
OF Ths YaG1onsss

peautfrul MONIES TOT them, q wtdOws
pensions; also pension for old age,
sickness, loss Of work and Increases In
families. l 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
fences propaganda that Germany COW
cred the whole world with before the
war with the ostensible 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 refutation of Germany's
claims; just a few items from that
valuable document will prove illumk-
uating:
Widows pensions In Germany dur
ing a series Of years averaged 80 cents
a week sick pensions 95 cents a week /;
ipvalidity pension the same; orphans
pensions 81 cents a week. Wages
averaged per day for carpenters s1.45 ;
plumbers Sl.25; railway employees
engineers and conductors on state rail-
ways. 70 cents; shop workers S1.02 /;
mole farm labor " cents female farm
labor AZ cents.
And this In a land where govern
ment statistics placed average cost Of
keeping families at over $500 per year.
How did they make both ends meet?
BY working the whole family every
second woman in Germany worked dur
Ink 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 So per week, In textile and
other lines from IL to Ii per day. In
1911 the big stores Of Berlin kept open
till Q at night and some hours on Sum
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 hote,
worked from Z In the morning to 8 at
night.
Regarding strikes which Germany
claimed to always adjudicate; that
year I saw the beginning Of such a
disturbance In the Moabit section Of
Ber!in-and the end, for the authorities
settled II In true Homestead fashion
by shooting down the ringleaders. It
lasted only two days and the press
was allowed to say nothing about 1t.
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 flthiest city In Europe in
some of its residence sections, will
laugh at Germany's claim to being slum-
less. And what about the foulness OF
Madgeburg and Dantzig? East London
g Paradise alley by comparison. Ber-
lin, the show city Of the empire, looks
like a 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 serried 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 herding In one apart
nent and a hall bathroom doing serv-
Ice for half a dozen such families.
As to land distribution: over q third
Of Germany's farms are less than IA
acres in size; 22.6 per cent between
IN and 8 acres; 17.5 per cent. 8 TO IL
acres; 1876 per cent, IL to so acres
while 23,566 junkers, the land barons
own nearly 25,0O0,OO0 acres, running
from $50 to 500 acres and more each,
The above Is only a small part OF
the picture which Germany actually
presented 10 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. II sounds
inviting to an American workingman
does II not And since then, of course
conditions have gotten even worse with
women doing work that would stooI
the shoulders Of the strongest a
Oppression OF farmers. underpait
workers. enslavement OF women ant
children industrially, shocking housinl
conditions, chronic underfeeding will
resultant fearful infant mortality
counterfeit social insurance-are a few
counts 10 the indictment made by Mr.
Easiey against Germany before thu
war.
German efficiency goes to appalling
lengths, whether II Is breeding German
subjects from the enslaved younI
women OF France and Belgium; or II
Issuing lying propaganda with whicl
10 break down the morale Of tn
worlds democracy. Nothing is too low
nothing too awful for the Potsdan
spawn not to attempt.
Yet fools In America still mouth
sPeace. peace ut any price"
Can q man make peace with HE'LL
II is now possible to mako x-ra,