Evening star., 1921-07-23
Germans Skimp to Meet Prices
Lou to Americans BY Exchange

war had cost something like thirty
pfennig.
Other Price Changes.
It is the before the-war psychology
Of the mark that is making things
30 hard today for so many people
of the older generation. Before the
war the mark was worth not quite
ing power more nearly approximately
our fifty-cent piece. A man could
buy an excellent suit for seventy or
eighty marks. A dressmaker came
in and worked by the day for mark
fifty or less; at Kempinsky's, the
mammoth wine restaurant on Leip-
ziger strasse, you could buy half q
chicken en- casserole. with veg
etables, for a mark. Eighteen eggs
cost mark; milk was fourteen
pfennig the litre.
Today. milk is 4 marks 80 pfennig.
and one does not buy eggs by the
dozen; one buys them by the piece
/ mark IS. Street car fare in Ber-
lin. where they do not use the zone
system that prevails in many Ger
man cities. used to be 10 ptennig and
is now q mark.
Just as an instance of the petty
sums in which the German has been
accustomed to thinking may be cited
the fact that Hamburg paper made
the announcement a few days ago
that no income tax need be paid on
the amount given by the worker in
riding to and from work every day.
and gave the zone price list which
obtains in that city. I have walked
man pleasure outings. They do not
ride for what they call short dis
tances. And their idea OF a short
distance is not ours.
And so it is with mind trained to
pfennig values. accustomed to a
pfennig that. though only the hun
dredth part Of q mark. which In its
turn. was less than a fourth Of the
American dollar. still had a definite
and respectable purchasing power.
that the German Is trying to adjust
himself to a world Of new values.
He earns more than he used to-from
Ave to ten times as much-but the
things he must buy have increased
ten TO twenty times in price.
Against American Instincts.
He skimps in ways that to the
American. persistently translating the
mark into less than two cents, are
petty. irritating and silly. He tells
you not to buy 80 or so pfennig
newspaper. because you can read the
files in a restaurant or a cafe over a
glass Of beer and save 80 or so
seems SO little worth saving.
He treasures a cigarette and If he
is going into some building in which
smoking is not permitted he does not
throw 1t away: he puts it out and
slows it carefully into his pocket and
smokes the remainder another time.
He impales the last diminutive butt
Of his cigar on a toothpick until it
all but fires the redundancy OF his
mustaches.
Meantime. he sees a younger gen.
GRAFTON that has learned new wis
donor new foolishness. He sees
working girls wearing cobweb silk
stockings who once wore cotton: he
sees dance halls and cinemas and
theaters crowded with men, women.
girls and boys who refuse to save
their money because they believe that.
with new taxes always threatening.
saving is the most expensive thing
they can do. And, occasionally. those
Of the older generation. satiated with
petty economies. break the bonds of
that virtuous pettiness and have
something they want. He goes to a
restaurant or q cafe, and. like the old
lady with the cake. trumpets mag
nificently: ITS expensive. but I'm go
ing to have it-even II it does cost
two marks"