Americus times-recorder. [volume] (Americus, Ga.) 1891-current, 1922-12-16

France is demanding Germany live
up to the very letter of the bond
signed at Versailles. There is al
ways the threat that more German
territory will be occupied by French
troops.
Such an occupation would increase
the financial burden of Germany,
seriously cripple industry in the
newly seized territory, and further
palalyze the German mark.
Today there are only three main
currencies which are cheaper than
that Of Germany-Polish, Austrian
and Russian.
Every drop in the value of the
German mark upsets everything in
Germany. Every previous adjust
ment has to be readjusted.
1t forces the issue of more paper
money.
1t causes people to stuff their wal
let's with thousand and ten ten thou
sand mark notes.
1t increases the governments ex-
penditures because its employees get
newly increased wages, and unem-
ployed workmen and disabled SOL
diers get increased pensions.
1t forces UP the cost of everything
people eat and wear-in paper
marks.
1t brings about universal demand
.s for more wages-in paper marks
Y 1t makes 1t ever more difficult for
= the country to buy abroad the food
stuffs and raw materials Germany
must have if people are to be fed
and clothed and if industry is to go
on.
You would think that Germany
IN which the mark had tobogganed
from 250 to the dollar last May, to
about 8006 at one time in Novem-
Der, would be in serious danger of
becoming a second Russia.
But Germany is not a second Rus
sla and not likely to be.
The people are too intelligent and
too well educated.
On the surface things seem to be
going we'll in Germany. There is
little or no unemployment Beggars
are absent. The shops. seems fairly
well stocked. The people seem de-
Gently clothed. The thoroughfares
are cleaner than in the average
American city. The trains take care
Of the traffic and run on schedule.
In Berlin, hotels and restaurants
are jammed. In most theaters a
half day before the performance be-
gins there is the sign "ausverkauft"
sold out"
But much of tis selling prosperity
Is due to foreigners.
1t is the "auslanders" who crowd
the hotels and help fill theaters and
restaurants. 1t is they who patron
ze the taxis at 1900 to 500 marks
per ride. 81. aA
Walk away from the brightly
nghted, well-kept main streets Of
Berlin, Hamburg, Bremen, what city
You will, and go to the dimly lighted
streets and you find another side of
'he German picture.
You find the middle class--the
small tradesmen, the professors, the
"achers, the old people who had re-
'lfed before the war, the doctors
al these people pinched by bard
umes and sometimes almost starv-
ing.
Even the workmen protected by
"er labor unions and thus enabled
u force up their earnings-in paper
4 "arks-find their wages too small
4 10 keep their families in comfort.
= And it is here that the internal
'Oes of Germany get busy. A
s. 20 the left stand the Communists,
60 some extent fortified by Boshevik
saponey.
10 the right stand the Mon
alchlsts, largely financed by the
Sieat sland-owning Junker class.
communist agitators are very
NJ guSy among the city workmen and
|e peasant laborers.
f. Ihey say the present republic is a
Lat failure.
fosters designed to inflame
b%Uugatless b51 minds appear upon*city
m Hamburg saw red sheet
s'Hcn asked the workman how he
aOuld live when bread cost 500
D'fks per loaf and hundreds of thou
Continued on Page p