The Birmingham age-herald., 1923-07-01

employed in Berlin, and that Ger many has about 100000 men out of work This is nothing in comparison with the million or so of unemployed In Great Britain and l venture there are but few countries in Europe which have so few out of job. Only about one in ten out of work are now receiving a dole. The trouble in keeping the factories going is the lack of raw materials which have to be paid for in gold, and the high cost of coal. Dr. Leymann says that labor of all classes here is much un- derpaid and that the conditions are daily growing more serious.
 Take our government officials, for instance" said pr. Leymann. We do not have enough to support us. 1 have, as you know, an important po- sition and before the war l was earn ing ten times what 1 do now. My salary was then about $4,000 a year. It is now less than $200, owing to the rise and fall of the mark. 1 cannot tell at the beginning of the month what it will be at the end. l have to figure on how much and what food 1 can buy for my family and as to new clothes and shoes, these are out of the question. Indeed, my life has become a mere matter of existence
 I then asked Dr. Leymann how the men in the mines and factories could live on their wages of 20 cents day. He replied:
 They do not live, they exist. None of them is buying new clothes, and the majority are so underfed that their labor is not as efficient as 1t was in the past. We have cut down our hours of work to eight and we are producing much less per hour. In other ways the falling off of our labor supply is enormous. DutihS the war we had 3,000.000 killed and 2,o00, ,OO0 more were so badly wounded that they will never regain their old working capacity. We are short or houses. There are 100000 families without homes. We have hundreuS of thousands who have come pack into Germany from Alsace- e-Lorralhe and three quarters of million have been crowded out'of Poland into this country by the plebescite in upper Silesia."
 smau Factories Dying Out
 "Our small factories are passing away" continued Dr. Leymann' "Cermany is country of home m dustries as well as big factorles' t Dut the small industries are slowly but surely declining. They are feeding upon their surplus, for they have not the capital nor raw materials to Keep them going. They cannot buy the coal they need and they use ies3 and less every month. As the luet fails She production declines, some or the men are laid off and so unem- ployment increases. We are not ape to buy from the outside the things that can be made cheaper there than at home. We have more than l'ooV' 900 men working on stuff we ougnl to buy from foreign countries. we have no gold for this purpose anu are forced to this eXtravagant mahu Recurring to get the necessities ol life. AS it is, we are selling more oi our goods lower than the cost oi production.
 A Talk With n Ship Magnate.
 Germany is rapidly regaining it's place on the ocean. All the shlpEaiuia are busy and the new ships are punt SD that they can be economically run. The labor is cheap and the work IS subsidized, as are also the shipping lines. The sailors are paid in marks and still there is great demand Tor places on the new boats. It IS eN pected that freight and passenger rates will be cut and that a live com petition against the English and our ships will be inaugurated. Last year the port of Hamburg alone cleared more that 12,000 ships of over 13,OOO,- 900 registered tonnage.
 Notwithstanding this the managers of the steamship lines apparently take a gloomy view of affairs. I had an interview in Hamburg last week with one of the greatest of them. He said:
 Before the war I had 100 clerks in my office. I have now 400 and they are the best I can hire. They are not equal to the 100 I had in 1914 They are crazy, so to speak, at the fluctuation of values. They get so many marks every pay day and rush out to spend them, fearing they will be worth less a few days thereafter This deterioration goes on in the shipyards and in the factories. The whole world seems on the down grade. All humanity is crazy. We sit here knowing that in Russia they are eat ing human flesh. 1 have had a talk with a physician who has just re- turned from the Volga. He says there are doctors in that region whose chief business is to decide, when person dies, whether his body is fit for hu- man consumption"
 O O O
 Germany's Big Dividends.
 I here referred to the profits which the snip companies and others are