Evening star., 1922-07-04

pening to us in the citv"
Some such remark is heard repeat
ed!y in Germany these days. 1t Is
significant of situation in nearly
every nation east of the Rhine-the
war between town and country. The
cities are suffering for lack of food.
The farms will send food only in re-
turn for manufactured goods and only
when the price offered is high.
Before the war the German peasant
was a hard worker. paying couple
of marks day or less to his help and
rarely in the course of year eating
the meat which he raised. Though he
usually owned a small farm. his land
was generally well mortgaged to city
bankers and he was obliged to scrape
and save to pay the interest.
When the mark began to fall he was
able to pay off his debts. principal and
interest. in deprecated paper. Where
he had borrowed thousand dollars
he paid back a hundred. or even fifty.
He suddenly found himself in COM
plete possession of his farm and mas
ter of all it produced. For years he
had been slave -driben by the city. Now
the city came to him begging for
bread He replied: Give me the
things l want in exchange and give
me plenty of them" 1t was not al
ways the most essential crops for
which he was offered the highest
price. Thus the peasant has been
free to name his price and arrange
his crops to a considerable degree as
he chose.
All this has tended to raise the
price of food The city complains that
the peasant is failing in his patriotic
duty hG
smoke his long. painted pipe and
grunt.
Labor Unions Temporarily ON Top.
The industrial working class is one
of the first to feel the effect. for
wages rise more slowly than prices.
For short time after the 1918 revo-
luton the factory worker was top
dog The trade unions jumped enor-
mously in membership. until 1t be
came almost completely true that
every wage-earning person in Ger
many was a labor union. The eight
hour day was written into the con-
stitution of the German republic. The
industrial boom has abolished unem-
ployment and provided at least for
daily bread if not for daily meat.
Wage demands. stimulated by rising
prices. have usually been readily met
out of the flood of paper money. ana
strikes have become less frequent,
Much confusion exists about the
true condition of the German work
ing class The best figures l have
been able to collect from various
sources. German and allied. would in
dicate that the German workman's
standard of living is distinctly lower
than it was before the war. A skilled
metal worker received in the early
about thirteen times his pre-war
wage: bank clerk about sixteen
times: worker in the building trades
eighteen times: printer about seven
teen times. The lowest figures to
measure the increased number of
marks necessary to maintain life in
January. 1921. on the scale on which
it was maintained in 1913. is twenty
one. This is issued by the German
government. which is interested in
keeping the figure low, since it must
raise the wages of it's innumerabie
forty is often given. but taking thirty
as moderate figure. the workman
would still be from a third to half
below his pre-war standard.
The fact that necessity has taught
him ways of piecing out his income
(by special bonuses in the shop or by
special gardens in which he may raise
his own vegetables). may be offset
bv the fact that his increases come
several jumps behind the rising
prices. Yet he lives. on the whole.
decently and without actual suffer-
ing.
All Workers interests Alike.
Another important fact is that the
wages of skilled and unskilled are
the war. They are now all in the
same boat and may be expected to
act pretty nearly as a unit in case
of social upheaval.
The working class. therefore. is
compact and busy, with a formidable
rower of resistance. But it's active
political power is small. Its political
parties are hopelessly split and bit
terly quarreling. And the chief
function of the social democrats~in
the present coalition government is
to sign on Wirths or Rathenau's
What the. working class is con-
stantiy haunted by ia insecurity.
panic or an industrial depression
would throw it into the streets with
out savings and with bankrupt
government unable long to give as
sistarce.
The aristocracy has had a varied
lot The true junker or gentleman
farmer is better off than before. The
city aristocrat, whose property was
poverty. Ths son of the junker, who
usually had a high government or
army Job is out of luck. But on the
whole it may be said that with some
difficulty the noble class is holding
it's own.
These are some of the tricks which
the paper mark in it's decline has
played with German society. For
Il ese changes of fortune are not
mere matter of bookkeeping; they
represent an actual shifting of wealth
from certain classes to certain other
classes, a new way of dividing the
national income. The shift may be
summarized as follows:
U) The middle class has lest near
ly all it's wealth. which has gone
partly to
-(2) The peasants. who have paid
their debts and are now small in
dependent lordlings; further to
(3) The schieber. an amorphous
class of adventurers. living largely
upon the misfortunes of others. The
working class has ceded a consider
abletpart of it's share of the national
income to others.
Thus the middle class and the
working class have lost; the peasants
anu the schieber have gained. But
ere is still another Sainer-the
most spectacular and in some ways
the most sinister of all-the indus
lrialist.
porrnn pv popr nr pEAprc