The Bridgeport times and evening farmer. (Bridgeport, Conn.) 1918-1924, 1918-02-18

Prussia at the expense OF the :
Prussia on Germany's Shoulders
While Prussia has chosen to manu-
facture munitions and industrial com
I rnodities South Germany's immense
agricultural products are constantly
conscripted by the North, which is the
Imperial government, without the
slightest regard for the daily needs-of
the hard pressed South Germany. l
could make myself more plain II
state that while starvation created in
South Germany is not natural, the in
ordinate luxury one finds in the Ber-
lin district and other Prusslan metro
polises are artificial.
Through the unjust CONSUMPTION OF
the agricultural products of South
Germany, the Imperial government at
Berlin has accumulated enough in
Prussia to feed the upper classes ana
the upper middle classes, who are the
backbone of Germany's military caste.
Thus 1 found that wherever the I'M
perial government was in direct charge
of the food distribution, it played d
sinister favoritism. 1 also noticed
that members of powerful labor I'M
ions and skilled mechanics received
better treatment from the Imperial
Food Distributors than the middle
classes and the lower middle classes.
In truth, the great majority of the
actual starvation is amongst the MD
die classes and the lower middle
middle classes.
Middle Glasses Suffering the Most
- count a provincial bank president
a middle class man, and 1 count the
average educator, lawyer, minister o.
the Gospel, judge, store-keeper, anc
rother lesser magnates or professions
as belonging to the lower middle
classes. The privations amongst these
are indiscribable.
At Munchen I became a sad witness
and a. tortured observer of a German
family's plight and privation. L had
become acquainted with this family
about twenty-eight years ago, when
was an educator, and missionary II
Palestine The head of this family
who is now very near seventy, wa:
then at the head of his Beyrout opal
estine) house. Though he is devou
Roman Catholic and L a. Protestan
Minister of the gospel, at such dis
lance from the Fatherland it was nat
l1,ral that a warm friendship SHOULD
grow between US, and later thi
friendship was extended to our famil
circles. Many years later this friend
ship was again renewed in Variou
rarts- of Germany. So it was natura
that I should seek him at Munich
where he had retired to a comfortabl
home on Macmillan Strasse, to spen
the remaining years at peace with hi
children and grandchildren.
Tragedy of a Family
L cannot find words in describin
my grief on entering his home. Eigt
male members of his own blood an
flesh had been conscripted, by tn
war, only one of whom had bee
spared, and he a totally incapacitate
being as far as future useful serviC
to the fatherland is concerned. H
wife had succumbed to grief in tt
second year of the war. L think
should note here that through my s
months travelling in Germany I a
ways found that the women succuml
ed grief far more Frequently tha
men. Women do give themselves
grief far more frequently than me
do
OF his daughters, two, both
whom are over rs years of age, he
lost their husbands. In the home tn
before the outbreak of the war hi
heen an ideal happy place. there we
flour sallow-faced, half-starved W
1aen, and two incapacitated soldier
Why were they starving?
In the first place while their To-
cards entitled them to a certa
amount of fod each week, it was il
possible to procure their allotment
food shops and provision stores Z
rot have enough food to honor t
cards that were presented.
My friend told me that 90 per ce
of the people of the middle elias,
were actually starving. During !
long stay at the queen metropolis
South Germany 1 visited eighty
homes of the upper middle class a
middle classes. and with the except
OF II found them suffering for 70,
The II exceptional cases were tn
who were either officials or were m
who managed to smugsie food fir
Switzerland regularly at a great CT
During my stay at Munich I W
messed IA food riots. five of VIII
were quite serious and would h;
grown into greater proportions
they been developed in any oil
country but Germany. The sight o
platoon of uniformed men on hor
lack on every one of these occasi
dispersed the would-be rioters. Dur
enc of these riots 1 noticed that tn
we're more Incorporated soldiers Il
civilians, the guards, sabres in ht
were no respectors of ex-soldiers "
iron crosses.
After a through investigation
Munchen I learned that in the NJ
ich district alone there bad tai