Evening star., 1923-08-05
GERMANY SORROWS
FOR HARDING LOSS
Nation Sympathizes With
U. S. While Hunger Stalks
With Sinister Steps.
BY MAMMALIAN HARDEN.
Germany's Foremost Publicist.

By Wireless to The Star.
BERLIN. August 4.-Sincere sorrow
Is felt in Germany today over the
death of Mr.. Harding and while the
emotions of the German people are
blunted by misfortunes of their own,
they nevertheless feel keen sym
pathy and realize friendly, gentle
spirit has left the world. Trials and
tribulations come with such startling
rapidity in this unhappy country that
the sorrow of today gives way quickly
to the misfortune of the morrow. Ana.
now among Germanys city dwellers,
hunger stalks with stealthy and SIN
lister steps.
Women of the middle class and the
protelariat. for nine years the coun-
try's most pitiful creatures. once more
run about for hours daily with empty
baskets and stand for more hours be-
fore provision shops in order to buy
the barest necessities of life for their
husbands and their children. Despite
the fact that they are told dozens OF
times that everything has been sold
out. they remain, waiting and hoping.
Finally, IL they do secure pitiful little
portions of food, they hurry to their
homes. washing, mending and sewing
until late in the night, worrying
whether they will be able to buy any
thing on the morrow.
Work Long for Bread.
These families have no amuSements.
The little girls can have no dolls. the
hoys are denied the humblest play
things because they would cost hum
dredS and thousands of marks. Meat,
milk, eggs and fats, even margarine,
together with fresh vegetables and
fruits, are not merely unattainably
expensive, but frequently cannot be
obtained at all The average German
&,
utes in order to earn enough to buy
a loaf of bread-bread of much poorer
quality than the average English
workman gets for the money equiva-
lent OF only fifteen minutes labor
This fact illuminates the question of
commercial competition better than
long tables of statistics.
Potatoes. the chief food of the
masses. cost 10000 marks a pound,
at a time. A wise" government
assigned great quantities of potatoes
to the distilleries, with the result
that more drunken people are seen
than ever before. The same was
only the distilleries. the manufac-
turers of liquors and chocolate and
the luxurious restaurants have as
much as they want
The most dangerous period for q
hlockaded or impoverished land is
the time when the old harvest ap-
proaches exhaustion and the new one
is unreaped Cold weather, rain and
nan nave delayed for nearly month
the new harvest. Since grass is good.
farmers are putting their cattle out
10 pasture instead of selling them
for paper marks which may become
Talueless overnight.
Great quantities of the best food
90 to the luxurious summer resorts
The government is senselessly blind
10 its policy of foreign exchange,
which has for weeks partially. if not
entirely, prevented the Importation of
foodstufs. The government might
have imported cheaply from neigh
boring countries and thus shown Ger
man dealers how impossible it would
be for them to dictate prices at will,
but no attempt was made to do this
But the favored persons have been
able to import bales of Persian car
pets
The incouceivably foolish hope that
the value of the mark could be in
creased by holding the dollar quota
ton much lower than in New York
and by printing eight hundred to a
thousand billion marks daily has end
ed as it had to end. The dollar,
which stood for $4,000 marks early
i'm July, now stands for 100000
marks. And only to 4 per cent of
Germany's expenditures are covered
by taxes. The rest must be met by
printing presses, which produced
1851, 100000 marks in the period be-
tween July and 81. 1t is improb-
able that this abyss can be closed by
the new taxes just announced.
Even foreigner must admire the
patience and discipline with which
the much-abused urban popula ton of
Germany endure their hardships. The
revolution. which was feared for the
Last Sunday in July. was feared
without ground. 1t is a fact that
the communists have gained ground
because the socialists. despite their
$50 members in the reichstag accom-
plish nothing, but are split into sects
and without big funds and weapons
would not be able to stir the under
nourished, skeptical and apathetic
workman to revolt overnight.