New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1920-03-28

and a new pair would cost her more
than two months work. Also, she
said, even after paying for materials
to make dress she would have to
pay a full months wages to get
it made in the simplest possible
manner.
The Load of Hay
It is also interesting to note re-
lation between wages and some other
commodities that are not actually
bought by the workingman. Thus
ton Of common meadow hay costs
here the equivalent Of more than
thirty days. work, on the wage basis
l have already assumed; but the
New York workman can buy excel
lent timothy hay at six days work a
ton. The New Yorker could buy
tom Of rye or oat straw in three
days, the Berliner in eighteen days.
In the metals the wage situation
tells heavily against the German.
He can buy only twenty eight pounds
of steel, while the American buys
$50 pounds. He can get only one
and one-half pounds Of copper, but
the American nearly thirty-two
pounds. It would take him nearly
two days, to pay for a pound of
tin; the American can buy twenty
pounds in two days.
The high price Of coal is another
standing complaint in American let
ters. But the American workman,
as compared with the German, is
still in position to be envied. In
New York he probably pays some
what less than two days work for a
ton of coal, but the German must
work about three times as long. In
the vicinity Of Frankfort some fac
tories have begun to use American
coal in limited quantities, costing
$3.50 marks ton. In other words,
more than 100 days Of wages Of the
most skilled workman goes to paying
for one ton.
The figures used here give the
most moderate conception Of Ger
nlany's economic position. The case
is considerably worse than 1 have
stated it, for chose an exceptional
ly high rate of German wages to
compare with rather low Ameri-
can rate. Moreover, l have not
selected commodities with view Of
making out strong case one way
or the other. The wages of general
workers in Berlin probably do not
average more than 20 marks a day;
even many government officials get
less, and teachers considerably less.
How can they live on such earnings
when prices are as already indicat-
ed? How can the woman that 1
know of, working in one of the min
istries, support herself, her invalid
daughter and two sons on her 500
marks month? And there are
thousands in her position.
Growing Harder
And living conditions are steadily
growing harder. The next four
months are looked forward to as
particularly critical period in the
matter Of feeding the German
people. Food is visibly growing
scarcer. The potato ration has been
cut to three pounds week, which
is lower figure than at any time
during the war, except in the spring
of 1917.
The stocks Of food coming in from
abroad are now unusually light, for
the recent heavy drop in the mark
makes it almost impossible for Ger
mans to pay foreign prices; and it is
feared that, after present supplies of
foreign foods shall have been con-.
sumed, the pressure of hunger will
become sharper. Teachers in the
public schools Of Berlin say that
school children never at the worst
period of the war looked more ILL
nourished than now; and Professor
Abderhalden, Of Halle University,
one of the leading German authori-
ties on food and nutriment ques-
tons, has just expressed the opinion
that German children are now suf-
fering as badly as those of Vienna.
Cermany's Handicap
The comparisons which l gave
above are Of tremendous import for
Germany's economic future. They
mean that Germany is heavily handi-
capped as producing and export
ing nation. Where the raw materials
of production are so dear, where so
much labor must be exerted upon
the primal problem of bread and
meat, country can cut no consid-
cradle figure in the markets of the
world Nor ran If occu,,,ulo+o M