The Birmingham age-herald., 1923-03-18
DEUTSCHLAND l. W H |RLS IN
 DEATH DANCE
Frank G. Carpenter Tells How the German Nation Has Been Pauperized by Policy of Those Di-
 recting Her
By FRANK C. CARPENTER Special Correspondent. Birmin han
 AEc-Hcrnld Copyright 1923. Carpenters World
 rrn sA

TraveIs)
 BERLIN. March 1.-The bare feet of the whole German nation are OH the red-hot skillet of money imitation, and the people hop to the skies as the mark rises and falls. The issues of the Reichsbank are already more than one thousand billions. and hundreds of millions of new paper arc pouring forth as fast as the presses can run. The people are bankrupt, and their agonized an tics make one think of that Italian church play known as the "Danse Bacabre" or Dance of Death of which there is fresco. made before the days of Columbus, on the walls of the Campo Santo of Pisa. Petrarch and Dante wrote of this dance and Goethe celebrated it in Der Totem tang" ballad In the original play Death led the dance. calling all classes from the pope to the peasant to follow him. and they frantically did so, implorins Gods mercy
 \ Nation of Paupers.
 This is the condition of the Ger many of today Whatever may come i'll the future. most of the people are now practically paupers. By the in- fIation of the mark. whether inten- tional or not. both the classes and masses have been impoverished, and with the exception of a comparative ly few great capitalists like Shines and of other profitcers who have stored away their wealth in foreign banks. all are living from hand to mouth. Before the war there was no nation which had such large ac- cumulations of invested capital as Germany, and in none was the capital so widely distributed. The insurance funds and savings banks were loaded with money. Nearly every man, wom- an and child had some kind of a savings investment. There were tens of thousands living on the interest of bonds and other gilt-edged securities which they had laid up for their old age, and thousands had income bear ing real estate in city and country. ] Certain kinds of insurance were com pulsory. and the insurance policies ran into the hundreds of millions. They included policies against sick ness. against accident and against in validism and old age. Thousa ads had pensions and the government officials , and the employees of many large insti- i tutions were retired on fixed incomes ssafter they had reached a fixed age. .s.All of these funds have been swal- lowed up by the imitation that has succeeded the war, and the most ot them have disappeared as though they had never been in existence.
 o O O
 Tho Printing Press As Cashier.
 During the war Germany was bled white. She was not able to borrow from the outside nations and at it's close she was practically bankrupt with three million soldiers out of q lob These men had to be fed and had to have work. If work could not be created the danger of bolshevism and the conditions of Russia were inn minent At the same time the vast industries built up to make munitions of war had to be transformed to in- dustries of peace or many more mill lions would be out of a job. The only way in which the government could get money to loan for these purposes was to make it's printing press their cashier. They did this and the infla- tion began. They added large num- bers to the official pay rolls and their salaries came from the presses. They did the same. as far as possible. with pubic utilities. loading the street car companies and railways and post of fices with extra men, and paid them by continuing to print
 o O O
 How the Mark Slid.
 As the world began to realize how tho money was made the mark de- clined The outside countries lost faith. and still Germany had to buy food and raw materials and at the same time pay the reparation de- mands All of these were based upon gold and the mark as a representa-
 CYRENE COMMANDERY
 The sir Knights are requested to meet at the Masonic Temple MOndn!