The Washington herald., 1920-06-13
GERMAN FOOD
STOPS STRIKE
Government Pays Wage In
crease by Feeding Work
ers in Coal Mines.
TO BUILD THEM HOMES
Financial Expert Says Prof
it-Mad Manufacturers
Must Change Ways.
TO BUILD THEM HOMES
(Washington Heraid-Pubiic Ledger
Service-Special Cable Dispatch.)

(Washington HeraId-Public Ledger
Service-Special Cable Dispatch)
Berlin, June 12.-Germany has
just avoided a threatened coal min
ers' strike without the customary
sequence of shifting the burden of
the wage increase upon the con-
sumers by increasing the price of
coal. The government made this
possible by itself assuming the ma
jor part of the wage increase.
Payment of the government share
will be made in food, thereby meet
ing the miners argument that the
sole reason for the demanded in
crease was to obtain more food
without resort to a vicious circle of
increased wages, leading to a higher
coal price, to higher cost of manu-
facture and transit for all commodI-
ties, to higher consequent cost of
living and inevitably to new wage
demands.
Not Added to Price.
Miners of the Westphalian fields
including the noted Ruhr area were
granted the increase which they de-
manded. but the council vetoed the
operatorsN proposal to tack the in
crease 10 the coal price.
The cost will instead be assumed
partly by the operators and partly
by the government, whose share OF
the wage increase will be paid in
orders on the stock of meats, fats
and other food imported for that
purpose.
Money will be appropriated from
the proceeds of the fund raised by
hn oh .url fnI, a
imposed on all coal mined for the
last several months for the purpose
of buying food to induce the min
ers to work extra shifts and to pro-
duce the fuel required for home
consumption and also for deliveries
TO the entente. An additional spe-
cial charge has been imposed on all
coal mined to provide funds with
which to build miners dwellings.
Applies Only to June.
The wage settlement applies only
for June. 1t is hoped that by the
end of the month the downward
trend of prices, on account of the
increased exchange value of the
German mark, will have reached
the retail prices of food and other
necessities.
The increase granted is larger
than the entire pre-war daily
wage. By the end of 1919 wages
had increased from four and a halt
to five times the pre-war scale, these
in turn having been about doubled
! during 1920.
The increase in wages has not
kept pace with the increased prices
| of coal, which today is fourteen
times the pre-war price.
Steel Prices Checked.
: The decision not to increase the
price of coal has headed off the in
creased cost Of iron and steel which
the iron and steel association de
cided to demand if coke prices were
raised. The association instead de
c:essed the June price.
The reduction in June prices
which is the first check in an other
, wise steady upward movement il
! German iron and steel prices, will
I it is believed here, Inevitably h'
/ followed by further cuts If the Ger
i man iron and steel industry is e
/ remain able to compete in the
| world market.
The Berlin Taeeblatt's financia
| expert, Felix Pinner, declared Ger
man manufacturers and producers
| who now are profit mad. must learr
! to content themselves with a nor
! NAL margin of profit instead of thu
( tremendous gains to which the,
! have become accustomed during anC
! since the war, if Germany is to re
cover it's world industrial position
Copyright. 1920. by Public Ledger Coz