Perth Amboy evening news., 1921-06-09
BY MILTON RRONNER

a BeTlln. June J-lHe ptI many VI
today is a bankrupt nation.
1t is bankrupt in more ways thar
the mere matter of an inability
to make its income match it's ex-
penses. Other European nations are
bankrupt in that particular way
France and Italy, for instance.
But Germany is bankrupt in hope
and endeavor. 1t is bankrupt in
vim and zest of living. 1t is bank
rupt Of faith In the future.
The average German of today
the fellow like you and me and
Neizhbor Smith-can hardly see a
gf4am of hope ahead. He is rid of
hA expensive kaiser and the other
Minor kings and grand dukes and
4 bFfnces. He is rid of a great expen-
|Dfve army and navy. He is rid of
A CONSUMPTION. He has a republic in
stead of a monarchy. But nowhere
does he see unity or peace or salts
faction.
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 b~olshevism. Even the
Socialists are subdivided into va
TyOuS parties Win Iith
representatives in the ReichstaS.
Class consciousness has not been
abolished. 1t has been intensified.
It is not now the proletariat against
the aristocrat, but worker against
ire war profiteer 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
a worker, it grabs 10 per cent OF
his wage. If he succeeds In get
ting his earnings increased, he finds
that the cost of food, clothes and
housing has more than kept pace
with the extra money he has armed
He pays six times as much for
his daily paper as before the war.
1t costs him eight times as much to
ride in the street car. His food,
coal, gas and rem have gone up
from five to eight times.
He earns, perhaps. 900 to 500
marks per week, and the cheapest
suit of clothes is 1900 marks. Shoes
cost from 90 marks up; shirts So
marks, socks IL marks.
His glass. of beer, which tastes
TO him like near beer costs 1 mark
Everything he smokes costs much
llOIt. IliV DIV >tit =
p-Ionsea&ld and clothe the
,n whafY1e allows her.
seeks c~Gsissolation in his
Al Ter. the chances are that he
y~f the fresh taxation the gov
INT will have to assess in or
meet the allied demands for
alton payments
Wv have heard many people in
lexington, London, Paris and
Brussels bewail the act that Foch
NAsgreed to- an armistice before the al
Flied ARMIES marched into Berlin.
4 They argued thai only in this way
could the Germans have been thor
pugly convinced that they were
bes/en in the war. But after a
mgnth in Germany, I think every
German knows he vas licked.
Everything the German reads,
~ hears and sees reminds him of 1t.
4 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.
German navy at the bottom of the
sea.
German merchant marine in pos
session of the allies.
Allied commissions all over thu
country.
Germany's future m~ortgaged to th'
allies.
Men like Walter Rathenau. head
of the great electrical trust, or Hugo
SHINES. with his finger In a hun
bred industrial pies, or Arthur Vor
Gwinner, the great banker and ship
ping magnate. have their owr
thoughts and theories. but the future
Is so uncertain that they prefer moi
to discuss things.
big business does not know wha'
may happen in Germany itself. i
faces not only huge taxes and grea'
Z Increases in its payroll. but an in.