Evening star., 1923-03-11
Germans Financially Ruined But Have Fine Plant Anon

more than three continents has be-
come republic. with the French tied
to its heels. It is Of this new re-
public that we wish to know.
= K X i s,.,
THE Germans claim that they are
i now down on their uppers. This
seems to me true, but II so, their
bare feet are planted upon one OF
the very best pieces Of property on
the European continent. Take your
map and see where they are. They
are in the very heart Of industrial
Europe and in one of the best trad
ing places Of all internationaf mar
kets. Bordered on the north by the
Baltic sea. they have direct sea. access
to Scandinavia and - northeastern
Europe. with the vast possibilities OF
the Russia Of the future. Across the
North sea lies Great Britain, with its
millions of customers. and over every
land border is. hard working ma
tion ready to buy and anxious to sell.
They complain of their territorial
losses during the war. Those losses
were great, but Germany In Europe
has still an area of a quarter OF a
million square miles. It Is more than
thirty times as big as Massachusetts,,
eight times the size Of South Caro-
lima. four times that Of New-England
and bigger than Ohio. Indiana, I'LL
nois, Michigan and Wisconsin COM
bined. Cut it into patches and carry
1t over the ocean. and 1t would cover
California. Pennsylvania and New
York, and fit it down upon Texas and
it would hide the whole of that great
state, excepting q patch about the
size of Delaware and Maryland Even
now. Germany is more than twice as
large as Great Britain and. Ireland
1t is bigger than France by an area
as large rs Hum gary. 1t is one elfth
as large as the main body or the
United States, and it has now over
sixty million live. active souls, or
three-iifths as many as we. Prussia
alone has a population equal to that
vania. New Jersey and Illinois. and
Bavaria. which is about half the size
Of Illinois. has as many people as
that state, including Chicago, with
Cleveland added thereto.
The new republic is one of big cit
les, and its cities are growing faster
than any in the United States. In
1919 Greater Berlin had 3.sO0.00O 1T
has now between four and FIVE mil
lion. 1t is ha1 again as large as
Chicago and more than twice as
large as Philadelphia. an increase of
perhaps three-uuarters Of a million
within the space ef three years. Ham
burg has over million, andit tramps
on the heels Of Detroit. Cologne is
bigger than Boston, Munich than
Pittsburgh and Dresden than Buffalo
Leipzig is crowding Los Angeles.
Dusseldorf outranks Cincinnati. and
Essen, the home of Krupps. which
before the war had four hundred
thouand people. has six hundred
thousand today. Germany has four
other cities each Of which has more
than three hundred thousand inhabit-
ants. It has eight ranging between
two and three hundred thousand and
fifteen more ot one hundred thousand
apiece.
Some of these cities are unknown
to the man on the street. How many
of you could locate Gelsenkirchen
and Duisburg before the French took.
charge Of the Ruhr? The first is Big
ger than Memphis and the second
surpasses Omaha, Atlanta or Toledo.
Every one Of these towns is a live
industrial entity. where every man
works eight hours every day. In none
of them IS the proportion OF unem-
ployed as great as in places OF SINH
lar size in the United States, England
or France.
In all. the population is growing.