The Birmingham age-herald., 1923-07-26
PANIC SWEEPING
 OVER GERMANY AS' MARK GOES DOWN l
Wild Confusion In Berlin As III Fated Currency Unit
 Hits Level of RubIe
By FERDINAND JAIN Leased Wire to The Age-Herald)

bbh1lN, July zo.-HdnlC swept Germany Wednesday when the ill., fated mark crashed in unprecedented decline to 3,000,00o to the pound and 666,666 to the dollar. passing Aus trian lows and entering the class of the worthless paper Russian rouble. From the government offices of the Wilhelmsplats to the home of the poorest work man the news spread fear and confusion.
 Mad scenes were enacted in Berlin, as the mark, opening at 450,o0o to the dollar, swept downward millions saw profits, salaries and bank ac- counts wiped out before their eyes.
 Berlin was almost without money. Bills of 100000 and 5000O denomina- tions, which are now small change, have been sent to the Ruhr, and the capital was flooded with 10000 and 6,OO0 notes, worth less than a cent. thousand and hundred mark notes disappeared from circulation, not worth a beggar's scramble in the gutter.
 Mobs Jam Streets.
 Streets outside the Reichbank were damned with excited mobs attempt Ing to draw money to meet current expenses. Police herded thousands Of bank messengers into lines that stretched for blocks, clamouring for turn at the cashiers windows where perspiring clerks rationed buckets of bills from truckloads delivered to them.
 No bank could draw from the Reichsbank the sums desired All were placed on rations.
 The motley. horde seeking paper wealth brought wash baskets. trunks, hand carts and baby carriages to take away the sums allotted them.
 Big banks and business houses meeting pay rolls sent motor truck s. Che firm called for five such truck loads to meet a factory pay roll. Fight Way into Stores.
 Through this mob Berlin shoppers fought their way into departme ent stores, buying hastily before prices should rise to meet the new drop. They carried suitcases full of money Messengers hurried to and fro with their arms bulging with loose heaps of bills. the money being divided into bundles of 50O,000 marks each. re- tail shop needing $50 to transact it's days business would need a cubic foot of such money. Men and wom- en dropped bundles of such bills in the streets from bulging pockets and bags. Passers-by stopped to pick up and return heaps of note that consti- tuted a fortune in pre-war days but were now not worth the price of a meal.
 Behind the iron grills of the Reichsbank, clerks worked feverlsh- ly, dushing money to the tellers' win dows in wheelbarrows. Vaults were tT In Cr banked eight feet high along corri- dors; nearby loft buildings, cellars and vacant shops were used to store trillions No thief would tamper with this wealth; a truck you'd Dc necessary to steal enough for weeks good living.
 Live In Mad World.
 Berlin lived in mad world. Beg gers scored gifts that would have been s2,0o0 a few years ago. Tax drivers, insulted tore up tips tha' would have bought their cars in pre- war days.
 Sixty huge printing presses, run: ming at full speed ,u tnree night anc day shifts. turned out money in Der lin. In every large city similar gov arnment plants were working. speed up the production Of money the government ceased to enSraNt five-colored notes. turning out black printed papers, one side ol Whlch Was frequently blank white.
 Business firms, unable to draw money for their needs, clamored TOT permission to print their own money backing 1t with their assets. Iokel money of all kinds is sprlnSlng lhte use. c.or,,.nv
 In agricultural regions Germany has been forced to barter. Farnel :
 
 may depreciate a third In Nalue .o morrow. Commodity exchange ningham dress for bushel or Wheae q shit of clothes for beef IS peih" demanded by them.
 Lortuucs Made And Lost.
 Dailv. thousands tumble from rela tive comfort to poverty; new tnouS ands arise from poverty 10 weal'n, flicker of hope from Paris; ana o many buys money lons' sioo,i, nrophecies from London anu nation hastens to run into oeoI; r,e n1an who Tuesday charged a dollar ,nortb of merchandise at a groceIy ,.tore naid his bill with 66 cents
 Reichshank officials, struggling tc ,one with the smashing decline all bounced Wednesday, that they "ouir shortly t,auc notes of lo'ooV'ooo III" face value, now worth unuS +h1 t"reion ,aluation. This will be the sirhest note in Germany; hait mi jtrn 100000 mark notes VII iiilhe ec diately be thrown into clrcuialioii 'e provide change.
 No person in Germany escaped un- scatbed from Wednesdays crisis. TIC the government it meant the over throw of budgets, dislocation of pay rolls and the threat of bankruptcy
 To the working man 1t meant tha' his hard won wage increases were useless to him. Every nope ISS SoeS for wife and children, doctors for sick babies, his small investment or Lank account his prospects of payins bis rent. meeting bills, buying Clothes all disappear in the man ol