The Bridgeport times and evening farmer., 1922-01-13
BY FRITZ EBERT. JR.

N eVsS SGTV1Ce.l
 1Copyright, 1922, by International
 News Service.)
 Berlin, Jan. 13.-Berlin is seeing
 [ioss fl again ain, Mobs assemble, tear
 lhrough the streets, wreck show win sQoWs and plumber shops and stores.
 Ihese outrages unfortunately are no
 rare Occurrences in Germany. There
 nave been thousands of them; we have almost become accustomed to them, and these latest disturbances
 in Berlin in all probability signify the
 beginning of new grave crisis. a
 It is said that these plunderers are
 haIf-grown youths, misled by Com
 1nunists. That is not incorrect. They
 are, part of them, half-grown youths,
 and the communistic agitation has
 been particularly intense of late. But
 neither the half-grown rufffans nor
 the Communists are the real key to the situation.
 The catastrophaI plunge of the mark, which began in Autumn, has
 led ito tremendous rise in prices. Prices in Germany today have reach ed height which they did not reach even in the worst days of the war in the so-called ''sneak-trade' (schleich- handeD.
 One egg cost five pfennigs before the war-for ten pfennigs you could get three. Today you cannot get O
 good fresh. egg for $50 marks, or seventy times the pre-war price.
 The best way to make the rise clear
 to American readers is to suppose that the price of one egg had jumped II Aihc CeIlS lO 9oOU
 = Similarly a pound of butter used to cost 1.20 marks; now it costs 50 marks.
 Wages Not in Pace.
 2. Needless to say, the wages do not keep pace with this increase in prices.
 The book printer, who formerly be- ionged to the postpaid workers, has long since had a wage which scarcely ! came up to 70 per cent. of the mini mum necessary for his existence.
 There are stiIl numerous workers ! NnIy frNE1n tmarks a, week-S2. Bad as is the position of those working full time. that of the many part-time workers is extraordinarily distressing and that of the jobless, whose number probably will soon grow considerably, ] is hopeless.
 workers is the motor that sets the masses into motion, makes them l wreck stores and fiji their pockets and hands with whatever they can carry. Certainly these people are mistaken if they believe they ameliorate their misery by such ac- | lions On the contrary, they only add to the plight of others.
 But people who haven't a single shirt left, who run around with di- lapidated shoes and through whose . north wind-people who are forced to pawn sell piece by piece their miserable belongings in order to quiet their hungry children for a few brief hours-such people do not think of consequences. They have nothing to lose and in their despair they easily believe unscrupulous agitators, who tell them that they can conquer the whole world and make end to ali suffering if they storm the city walls and tear through the streets bowling and plundering. No exhortations help, no reason obtains where despair drives the masses.
 That is a bitter truth, a warning to the world not to continue to wipe its feet on the German people and make them the butt of avarice and conquest. and solemnly that she will do every- thing to fulfill the obliga tions which she entered into under tremendous pressure. M. Briand. speaking at meritorious mention or the efforts of the Wirth Cabinet to fulfil these ob- legations. Even France seems to be | willing gradually to acknowledge the German will fulfiIlment. But even the frmest will must go l shipwrecked on the rock of grim | reality. Thus we Germans, animated | with the honest will of fulfillment, | look forward with dread to the time when we may be compelled to say: |
 ''We can go no farther"
 It is because we figure with that | probability and because we know that | the day on which it becomes a fact | many alone that we continually de- l mand the revision of the Versailles | treaty and its subsequent arrange | mepts.
 Has that treaty--in spite of the | conscientious fulfillment on the part | of Germany-brought any material advantages to the victorious nations, particularly to their working masses? | One can answer this question almost unconditionally in the negative
 Alarming Unemployment.
 The dumping of German goods up on the world markets caused by the Versailles peace. is the cause of the alarming unemploym situation in the Entente nations, the United States and other countries. American Eng fish, French and Italian workers are cold and hungry because their Ger man comrades--against their own swiH-have become wage-underbid- ders. And in Germany the workers lack work because, owing to the de preciation of money value, Germany cannot adequately supply herself with raw materials v However. Germany is not only to pay every available pen my, but beyond that she is prevented CT. which would help the Allies as much as it would help her. Ten Thousand flying motors have been destroyed, as have other important things which easily could have been converted to purposes of production. and now there is serious talk of com pulsory destruction of gigantic indus trial undertakings. |,
 The Federal German Works. which formerly served only war production. have been long since reconstructed entirely upon a peace basis There are in those works no longer any ma chimes which could be used for the of a single military rifle !. or cannon. Where formerly grenades and guns were made machines are to- day making office furniture. motor E cycles also sport weapOns-but only such articles as never could find any use in warfare
 Four Months to Make Shell.
 In case of mobilization it would E take at least four months 10 manu- facture a single shell, This applies l 10 all of our former war plants, even the biggest
 Yet the master achievements of engineering and technique which are in the Deutschen Werke