The Birmingham age-herald., 1923-03-25

in their method, and dlrectnesS IS certainly needed in parliament. ing and official quarters of it's diplo- mats are a disgrace to the United States, except where the diplomat is rich enough and generous enough to pay for respectable office and home out of his own pocket.
 Buying Up Germany.
 In the meantime many foreigners are taking advantage of these low real estate prices. The Americans, Dutch, Swedes, Swiss, English and Danes are purchasing homes or busi- ness building with a view to their own use or investment. Castles on the Rhine have been sold for one tenth of their value. Only last week a New Yoroker telegraphed here the sum of less than -$100 and for it bought three-story building which least s5,000 to put up. One of our army officials has an apartment house which cost him $65. He took it with mortgage of 1.000,000' marks. but that was about $20 at the time of the purcnase.
 was shown yesterday a small apartment house that cost S10,000 to build and which has been sold for $470, and a large American trading company has recently bought one of the best business corners of this city at price less than the cost of con- struction. The building contains 50 rooms and the company wants them all for it's business Forty of the rooms, however. are under leases made before the present rent law was passed and the rent the tenants are paying is tenths of cent where it should be dollars. The company has no means of getting these rooms O lon tJ,a q continue. 4 Investors Beware!
 In this connection, anyone think ing of making a German investment either in real estate, in industrials. or in securities of any description should look into the laws relating to each investment before he puts in his money. The German government and business men have method of controlling certain institutions by legal enactions through what are known as plural voting shares. . These can be held by Germans only, and although only a small number may be issued they may regulate the sale and management of the institu- tion. A single share may be worth ten or twenty votes and a few small German investors may be able to control the machine.
 The laws as to the eviction of ten ants are such that after buying property one may not be able to get possession of it. He can collect the rent at. the legal rates from the peo- pie who now hold the leases. but he cannot raise the rent nor make new leases until the present tenants vol untarily leave.
 This makes all properties now leased speculations which cannot materialize until Germany comes | .I vail. I know of a five-room flat building which brought in last year just enough to buy its owner pair of new shoes, and I have seen build ings torn down because the rental conditions are such that the waste material can be sold for more than the profits of maintaining the Struc- ture. This very day I passed a man sion on one of the principal corners of Charlottenburg, one of the most fashionable parts of Berlin. The masons are at work upon it. and asked if they were making an addi- tion or constructing a new building. The reply was that the man can get more for the material than from the rent fixed by the laws and that he is taking the house to pieces because he needs the money. Besides, he can erect new structure, after he has the lot cleared. and this would not
 
 Indeed, l am now told that many of the landlords are neglecting their buildings. letting them go to ruin with the idea of selling them as junk rather than to put additional money upon them.
 Princess and Her Mess of POttagc.
 I hear all sorts of hard luck stories as to real estate in Berlin. One re- lates to princess who owned a palace worth about a million dollars not far from the Tiergarten. Her taxes were due and she had no money to pay them. She had barely enough for her food, and matters were growing worse every day. So she sold her house on an agreement that the purchaser should pay her 10000 marks month for the term of five years. The mark had then not begun it's mighty slide down the hill and she thought she could live well on this income and save up for the future. It meant that she was erty and her friends thought in the then conditions she was doing quite well. Today she can buy only about a dozen loaves of bread. four pounds of butter. or one yard of woolen cloth for the monthly payment she gets for her palace; and by the time this letter is published in all proba- bility the mark will be lower. In fact her situation reminds me of Esau who sold the birthright to his inheritance to Jacob for a mess of bean pottage.
 From Architect to JnnitOr.
 Another story relates to an archi- foot who had nit all his Savfnus infn