The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1919-11-11

cars. and staff. and was closely bound
Up with the coal supply. Minister Won
Breitenbach sacrificed a great deal in
every direction for the needs of the
army.
Both personnel and material were
strained to the utmost, and the loco
motives in par ocular were ill-used. In
the first place, matters were improved
somewhat by returning factories to the
work of locomotive and wagon con-
struction. The supreme army COM
mand also helped the minister of public
| works in other ways, even, although
with great reluctance, by releasing men
| to such an extent as to weaken the
army. This was, however. unaNolaaple.
i In many respects we had prepared
| for short war, and In this and other
matters had to reshape ourselves 10
meet a long one. Military demands on
the railways at home still renamed
very high. We had seized the whoie
of the Belgian locomotives, and also
certain engines and wagons in North
France, but these were not nearly
/ enough The material taken in Rus
STA could not be used. owing TO the
difference of gauge.
Our allies also laid great burdens on
our stock of engines and wagons. On
the Austro- Hungarian railways there
were many hundred German locomo-
| tives and some ten thousand German
wagons. Bulgaria and Turkey. too, re-
| ceved both men and material from us.
/ We had just recently captured material
! in Rumania, but the enemy had, on the
| other hand, taken several thousand
! German wagons to Moldayia and kept
them there The occupied districts,
with their long lines, required an army
of railwaymen and material in cores
ponding scale.
The supreme army command, through
| the director of railways. made series
of proposals to the minister for pro-
/ curing greater moderation in the use or
material at home as e.g., by the limita-
J ton of traffic Similar steps were
] taken in the occupied districts. The
P! limitations, which were impraet1cable,
and, indeed. impossible of full realiza-
ton under the then conditions, had I'LL
timately to be carried into effect UNI
der the oppressive armistice conditions
and the revolution
| 1t may be realized how strained the
| transport situation was at this time
when l state that powder and explosive
| factories, on which everything depend
| ed. were at a standstill for days on
! end, There was coal to be had. but
the railways could not bring 1t to them.
Things became so bad that had to
/ have daily reports on the supplies to
! the powder factories.
| UNITY LACKING IN GERMANY
! The existence of the various Ger
man railway administrations made the
problem essentially more difficult. we
/ suffered for not having achieved
greater unity prior to the war, and for
not having insisted on all the states
keeping to the same standards. BaVa-
ria, for example, had considerably
| fewer heavy locomotives per kilometer
than Prussia. and the spare parts re-
ouired by the two countries were diff
L A al
done to improve matters without any
| alteration of the imperial constitu-
ton. tts+f
Transport difficulties were also in
creased by the fact that there was no
unity of control or management OF
canal and river navigation. UP 10 TINS
time it had not been developed IN ac-
cordance with what was urgently neces-
sary, and these arrears had to be maze
| good A special inland water trans
port department was established, ana
at my request the admiralty assisted US
gby recruiting the necessary men.
| TRANSPORT conditions, which had Deeh
very had in the winter of 1857, i'm
proved later. They were severely
strained in the winter of 1917-1S, but
not SO badly as in the spring Inc
minister of labor for his part made
every effort to do whatever was nee
lessary to meet the situation
Industry. We were able to improve our
position considerably even in our
dealings with the neutrals, by means
of the Longwy and Briey basin tselzed
from France at the beginning OF tne
war;, the Belgian coal fields, and parts
of the coal areas of Northern Francs
and of Poland, which latter we man
LACED Jointly with Austria Hungary. we
lbegan to develop coal in northeast
Serbia and attempted to stimulate Tur-
kew to make a better use of her de-
posits.
We gave our allies coal and received
| in return nothing but Ignite from
iAnstria-Hungary for Saxony and
Bavaria. In return for coal and iron
neutral countries gave US. among other
things. foodstuffs and money to I'M
| nroye our exchange. besides horses.
Thus did coal and iron show their
power
The shortage of coal at home became
considerably more acute in the winter
Iof 1861: it had a serious effect on
morale and called for strong measures.
The coal supply in Germany was not
nronerlv controlled and output had
fallen.
/ proposed to the chancellor in Feb
Iruary 1917, the appointment OF a spe-
| Councillor Etutz was the first person
who succeeded in bringing order into
the coal question, or, at any rate, IN
overcoming the greatest causes of fric-
lion. and achieving fair compromise
| between the demands for coal Ior
domestic fuel, for light and power, 1or
agriculture and industry LOT Inc ia
ways and the navy.
r found it very difficult in May and
JunA 1917. when still suffering from
the great impression made upon me
Nv the great entente offensive In the
lwest and the extraordinary losses wnicn
this caused US, to weaken the army
fu-ther by releasing fifty Thousand
workbench at his request. This snouln
The remembered while reading the MS
tory of that period.
I must emphasize once more the fact
that such a weakening Of the army lad
on the supreme army command q
greater duty than ever to the men
in the fighting line, to continue IN
cessantly pressing for the increase OF
labor output, and the better employ
ment ~ man-power in Germany. Inc
army never recovered the men thus re-
leased and labor output even fell OH
considerable That was, OF course
heavy blow to us. :.
i Iron was not so plentiful as coal. II
was difficult to turn out suIiicien.
Quantities of steel especially OF haro
steel. We obtained large quantities
of iron ore from Sweden. even the ores
at Poti in Transcaucasia were OF vital
Importance to us. Scrap. too was
needed for steel production We re-
moved it from the occupied districts in