Evening star., 1921-08-03
GERMANY NOT ONLY
COUNTRY AT WORK
"Big Untruth" in Stock
Phrase Brought From Eu-
rope by Americans.
BY GEORGE MIrTE.

BY Cable to The Star and Chicago Daily News
Copyright. 1921.
This Is the first Of a series OF articles by
Mr.. Witte on German business conditions
BERLIN, Germany, August 3.-"Ger-
| many is the only country in Europe that
is really working" That is one of the
stock phrases which Americans who
have visited Europe take home with
| them to spread. Somebody started the
legend about year ago and it has
| been handed down from traveller to
! traveller. Yet this claim contains a big
untruth. First of all, comparative fig
ures show that France, England, Bel
GUM and even some of the new coun-
| tries like Czechoslovakia and Finland
are working just as efficiently as Ger
many.
Labor Federationss influence.
Then, too. as found after thorough
survey of industrial conditions in many
parts Of Germany, the labor federations
| in order to keep down Unemployment
have compelled tine employers to adopt
seven-hour day and in some cases
even six-hour day, thus creating jobs
for from l5 to 20 per cent more persons
who very often belong to the unskilled
class of labor. This naturally cuts down
efhciency. Besides. in view of the fact
| that the cost of living since 1914 has
gone up LOO per cent in Germany and
the workingman very often has to do
without enough nourishng food, his in
terest in the work is merely perfunctory
and he seldom works a minute longer
than he has to-
Germany Forging Ahead.
There is no doubt, however. that
Germany has been forging ahead. es-
pecially since April l of this year,
when the radical elements. which had
been serious stumbling block in
the road of Germanys progress
toward industrial recovery. suffered
their waterloo and the majority of
the workingmen. by their attitude,
demonstrated how bitterly they con-
demned the communist attempt to
make a second Russia out of this
country. Everywhere in Germany one
can hear the ringing blows of the
hammer. see smoke emerging from
the stacks Of factories, and watch
long freight trains roll along heav-
lily loaded with finished products and
raw material. The Hamburg docks
are showing the pre-war hustle and
hustle and thousands of tons of.
loaded aboard ships and sent to all
parts of the world, but particularly
to South America.
Big Difference Cited.
However. there is one big difference
between these scenes of today and
those of the pre-war days. Most of !
IN ships that carry German products |
across the oceans now fly flags other |
than German. whereas seven years !
ago few ships touched at these ports |
that flew other flags than German.
If Germany had enough shipping to |
carry her merchandise to all parts of |
the world, the most serious trade war
in history would now be in progress
Owing to the cheapness of labor and
the condition of her many large in
dustries. Germany underbids the rest
or Europe when competing in the in
market for contracts of
size.
Just week ago large contract
Tor steel goods came to Germany from
one of the British dominions, although
Sheffield made a bid for it, going so
far as to cut it's price 25 per cent, in
order to prevent the work from COM
ng to Germany. But the Germans
quoted figure which was two-fifths
below the British bid.
After Lions share of Trade.
German industrialists have about
made up their minds to concentrate
heir efforts on getting the lions
share of the South American and
Russian markets. and let the rest of
he world. especially the former enc