Albuquerque morning journal. [volume] (Albuquerque, N.M.) 1903-1926, 1921-07-06

sions of this bill, the German gov
eminent will appropriate, without
payment, a certain percentage OF
the shares of every company.
Through this proposed measure
the German government would be
brought into closer contact than
ever with all forms of business.
The attitude of German business
men towards this extraordinary
proposal OF the finance minister
has not yet been ascertained, as
the bill has not progressed along
its legislative course sufficiently to
have become the subject Of gen.
eral discussion. The finance min
lister. however, believes that as the
credit standing of any German
business concern Is far higher than
the credit standing Of the German
government, the position OF the
German government as snare
holder in all German registered
companies will be greatly i'm
proved.
The German Labor Situation.
The eight-hour day was intro
duced into Germany Immediately
after the revolution and it is still
generally in force, but the intro
duction of piece work on larger
scale than ever before has resulted
in not only the eight-hour day,
hut in some cases a 10, IL, 10 and
14-hour day. The men are losing
interest in the so-called Work
mans Councils, because when
these meetings are called during
working hours they do not desire
to leave their work and thus de-
crease their earning power.
The registered unemployed IN
Germany today numbers about
350. 900, and the German govern
ment paws out every two weeks
To these unemployed from 45 to
20 million marks, each person
receiving from Is to 20 marks
day. In addition, however
there are several hundred thou-
sand of the so-called middle
classes who are out of work, ou'
are too proud to accept govern
mental assistance. The retailer
of Germany has not yet taken
his losses in the general lower
ing of prices of manufactured
goods except in certain kinds OF
linen goods and in boots and
shoes. The German Iaborer has
to pay about 800 marks for a
pair of shoes, and this sum rep
resents his total earning capacity
for three or four days.
German Shipping.
The ship-building industry OF
Germany is in very strong IL
nancial position and we'll equip
ped for the active construction
policy required under the recent
agreement obliging the German
government to pay 11,700,O00,00C
marks compensation to the ship
ping companies. These companies
| in 1920 earned profits ranging
from SO to 100 per cent more
than in 1919, dividends averaging
about Is per cent. There are al
| the present time 80 overseas
services in operation out of Ham
burg, of which IS are to North
America, to Central America,
| 20 to South America, Is to Asia
| 16 to Africa. and to Australia
| Twelve of these services are OPP
Grated by German companies, II
by American, 10 by British, and
by French, while 6 are operated
by companies whose capital is
held jointly by Americans, Dutch
and Scandinavians.
Crops
In regard to the crop situation
it is not generally known that the
number of tobacco plants in Ger
many has grown from S6,953 in
1918 to 815,70O in 1920. This is
an even greater increase than the
figures indicate as those for 1913
of course, included a much larg'
err territory. Statistics compiled
| by the German Association o.
Sugar Manufacturers show tina
11,5SS,300 double centners were
produced in Germany in Novem'
Der. 1920, and 10,760.000 in De-
cember. 1920. More detailed sta.
tistics are not available as yet
Germany is suffering from con-
siderable shortage of phosphates