South Bend news-times. (South Bend, Ind.) 1913-1938, 1921-06-12
IN MIInON RRONNFR-


and zest of living. 1t is bankrupt OF
faith in the future.
The average German OF today-the
fellow like you and me and Neighbor
smith can hardly see a CLEAN OF
hope ahead. He is rid OF his ex-
pensive kaiser and the other minor
kings and grand dukes and princes.
He is rid OF a great expensive army
and navy He is rid Of conscriptioa.
He has a republic instead OF a mon
archy. But nowhere does he see un-
| ity or peace or satisfaction.
Politically Germany is a house not
only divided against itself, but many
times subdivided.
Dreams at Variance.
Politically Germany is a house not
only divided against itself, but many
times subdivided.
There are politicians who dream
| OF the restoration Of the monarchy.
There are political parties which
dream of bolshevism. Even the So
\ cialists are subdivided into various
parties with their various represent
atives in the reichstag.
Glass consciousness has not been
abolished It has been intensified It
/ is not now the proletariat against the
\ aristocrat, but the worker against
/ the war profteer and, in another
/ sense, the town dweller against the
farmer.
If the German is fairly well off, the
state takes much of his estate and
OF his income in taxes. If he IS
worker, it grabs 10 per cent Of his
wage If he succeeds in getting his
earnings increased. he finds that the
cost Of food. clothes and housing has
more than kept pace with the extra
money he has earned.
He pays six times as much for his
daily paper as before the war. 1t
| costs hi meight times as much TO ride
In the street car. His food. coal, gas
and rent have gone up from five 10
eight times.
He earns. perhaps, 800 TO 500
marks per week. and the cheapest
suit of clothes is !. 500 marks. Shoes
cost from 90 marks up; shirts So
marks. socks II marks.
His glass Of beer, which tastes TO
him like near beers costs one mark.
/ Everything ne smokes costs much
more. His wife complains she can't
run the household and clothe the
children on what he allows her.
All Know They're Licked.
II he seeks consolation in his
newspaper, the chances are that he
reads Of the fresh taxation the gov
ernment Will have 10 assess in order
TO meet the allied demands for repair
alton payments.
have heard many people in
Washington, London. Paris and Brus-
sells bewail the fact that FOch agreed
10 an armistice before the allied arm
les marched into Berlin. They ar
! gued that only in this way could the
GerrnAns have been thoroughly con-
WINGED that they were beaten in the
war. But after a month in Ger
many. I think every German knows
he was licked.
Everything the German reads,
hears and sees reminds him Of 1t:
Bremen a dead seaport.
Allied troops on the Rhine.
Ruhr steel mills closing.
Saxon textile factories on part
time.
Munich's famous gaiety all gone.
German money low-rated.
German army a mere police force.
Germany navy at the bottom of the
sea.
German merchant marine in pos
session OF the allies.
Allied commissions all over the
country.
Germanys future mortgaged to the
allies.
Men like Walter Rathenau, head
Of the great electrical trust. or Hugo
SHINES. with his finger in a hundred
Industrial pies. or Arthur Won Gwin-
ner. the great banker and shipping
magnate. have their own thoughts
and theories. but the future is so un-
certain that they prefer not TO dis
cuss things.
Big business does not know what
may happen in Germany itself II
faces not only huge taxes and great
Increases in its payroll. but an in
creasing difficulty in getting raw ma
terials. not 20 speak Of the difficulty
OF finding markets which will accept
German goods.
The result OF all this pessimism
and depression and even hopelessness
is a slowing down in the national
life.
The trains are slower and fewer.
The street cars run at longer inter
walls. The cities are not as brightly
lighted. The gas IS not Of as high
/ quality. The shops are not as well
stocked.
You wander into the great depart
ment stores OF Essen. Hamburg
| Berlin. Dresden and Leipsic and are
struck by the comparative emptiness
and silence. Only the theaters and
movies and restaurants and beer gar
dens are filled.
And there are many things you
miss in this after the-war Germany.
You never run into the parades OF
troops that you used 20 see. You
miss the military bands which used
20 give daily concerts IN the parks.
You don't see richly dressed women
going around with expensive toy
: dogs
, One thing you do see everywhere
/ 3 me o4l q ~ - cen COob U LA4s GtE
; man soldier. But the men who are
= wearing them are not soldiers now
They are plain citizens who are
: wearing the old arfy jacket because
u IS made OF serviceable cloth and
they can't afford a new coat.
Cities Spotless
One thing is as Il was before the
war. I don't know how they man