The Lancaster news. [volume] (Lancaster, S.C.) 1905-current, 1919-07-15
Swiss Observer Finds Ninety
Per Cent Are Unbalanced
on Account of War.
THEIR EFFICIENCY GONE
Everything Said to Be in Dis
order and No Straight Think
ing is Possible Among the Peo-
pie.

"A ooihS opeCldl 10 the new Ork
Times says: A number Of Swiss mer-
chants. who for years past have regu-
larly attended the famous Leipsig
Fair, have been unable to express
their amazement at what they saw
there. 1t was not that there was
nothing to interest them at the fair.
but that while they were in Germany
they could hardly believe that they
were not in some other country, they
did not quite know which. The mer-
chants, manufacturers and, others at
the fair, with whom they had to deal,
seemed to be mentally unbalanced.
Ninety per cent of the people with
whom l had to deal" said one mer-
chant really did not know what they
were about. In visiting the various
exhibits in Leipsig ] would give an
order for something. would tell the
man in charge that / would take say
500 gross of certain number down
myself. and then, OF course, expect
ed him to write 1t down, too. Then
would order something else. and by
the time l had finished giving my or
ders 1 would ask to compare my notes
with his. Then, to my great aston
ishment, I would find he had either
not written down the orders at all or
had written them down all wrong.
"At first 1 thought l had merely
to do with careless individual, but
afterwards I found that nine out Of
ten persons were in Just the same
state Of mental confusion. I then
talked to some of the other Swiss who
were visiting the fair and found that
they had had similar experiences
Once lost patience and spoke very
sharply to one man, whereupon he
simply broke down, and said he was
sorry. but he had been four years in
the trenches, and that he was no
longer capable of doing his work as
he did It before the war"
Judging by all that these Swiss
merchants observed in Germany, this
mental weakness and incapacity is
affecting not only men who have been
long time in the trenches, but also
civilians-women who were at home
and men who, for one reason or an
other, were never at the front. Some
Germans known to these merchants
before the war as shrewd, energetic,
capable business men, now. they say.
talk like children, as If they knew
nothing whatever of the outside
world, or what has been taking place
during the last four or five years.
Thus not even now do some of
them seem to realize that the value
of German paper money abroad has
fallen. When told that the German
mark is only worth 3 5 cents in Swift
zerland today, instead of franc %
centimes, they asked. "Why?" AS if
they had never heard of such things
as international exchange or a coun-
try's credit being good or bad.
The exhibits at the Leipsig fair
were fairly numerous, but there was
nothing new. The large firms insist
ed either upon payment being made
in francs or upon 10 to 200 per cent
being added to the prices for Ger
many. owing to the German exchange
in Switzerland being so low. So con-
fused were the minds OF the represen-
tatives of the smaller firms. however,
that they asked the same prices from
a Swiss merchant as from their Ger
man customers. Even in the case of
the large firms, however, the Swiss
merchant simply told his agent to
buy up such and such quantities, pay
for them, and export them.
These leading German firms have
a combine, and are supposed to con-
troll prices for export, but as a mat
ter OF fact, so I am assured. they do
nothing OF the kind. In short. the
German merchants seem completely
dazed, bewildered and confused at
present, and do not know what they
are doing.
What particularly struck all these
Swiss merchants, who have known
Germany for many years past, was
the lack OF orderliness everywhere,