The Birmingham age-herald., 1922-06-04
Gouging of Foreigners
 Makes Enemies for Germany
Germans Are Making Americans and Other Foreigners
 Pay for Her Low Exchange 'Plucking Golden Goose" Smile of Harden
By MAMMALIAN HARDEN
 Germany's Foremost Publicist Special Dispatch to The Age-Herald (Copyright, 1922, by The Age-Herald)

heaps of complaints from plucked birds of passage, mostly half amused but mostly firious. Hotel keepers raise prices to Americans when the dollar rises but do not lower them when it falls. An American lands at Bremen and suffering from seasick- ness calls doctor who prescrfbes an aspirin tablet and charges 1000 marks for a ten minute visit. An Englishman orders tickets for ball and the messenger reports that only boxes are left at 600 marks. When the Engishman telephones to reserve one the cashier, hearing the accent, says, Oh. an Englishman. then the price is 2,4o0 marks place. In some towns, theatre tickets are four or five times dearer to foreigners than to Germans. The cheaper tick cts for the Germans give admission only when papers are produced prov ing nationality, thus the foreigner cannot avoid the tax by sending German to buy the tickets.
 German Criterion
 Of course, nobody thinks of re- funding the tax when the foreigner, prevented from going, gives his tick cts to a German friend. Worse yet, this thing is approved-by most people and praised as a proper economic de- fense Women. unable to afford but ter and sugar for their husbands and children, become enraged when they learn foreigners can afford these luxuries as the price Is negligible to them when reekoned in their own money and ask why shouldn't they pay more? Because it is wrong 1t is dishonest to steal the same goods r,. a 1fffaFpnf prices according to the purchasers nation ality and also because the state treasury does not profit from such fleecing. Who knows, for instance, that the envied dollar man did not buy marks when they were much dearer than now? I recently met one here who is very poor but came to claim small legacy. Because of his passport he was obliged to pay for eign prices everywhere. The same thing happened to German woman who, during the war married an Eng fish prisoner and now is suing for her mothers estate. Such things oc- cur every day. Who can assert these extra prices always go down in the books of the tax collector2 Who can say that the tailor who charges foreigner 10000 marks for suit of clothing does not enter it at the Ger man price of 5000? The door is opened wide to fraud and helps the demorallzation of all business. which is often shady enough already.
 Diplomatic Problem
 This can effectively be fought through diplomatic channels. No- body would object to a high pass port visa fee not a reasonable tax on foreigners, but everybody com plains against paying four to six times more for the same article be- cause their name is Smith instead of Muller. We must not slip back into the days when a foreigner was re garded as an enemy and fair game for profiteering.
 Only geese submit quietly for plucking.
 The belief that the distress of 300. 100000 people can be alleviated by charging few thousand travel CTS enormous prices is just as child ish as the communist muddle-head's s demand that Amschel Rothschdd of Frankford should divide his fortune with all. This wise banker, when the demand was made. turned to his cashier and said:
 Give this man three marks, that is his exact share"