Evening star., 1923-10-06
BY WHITING WILLIAMS.

GELSENKIRSHONN, Ruhr, Ger
many, September 15.-"Here for more
than year we miners worked regu-
larly an extra shift and half every
week, just In order to help meet
Frances reparation demands. That
meant an extra million tons every
month. And then, just because they
found US few hundred tons short,
they march in upon us to make us
slaves"
I had hardly got my pick into my
hand, In the guise of a visiting mining
student, before my companions began
TO do precisely what 1 had hoped
for: Tell me their troubles.
would give a lot if somehow I
could paint some of the pictures
which these recent days have given
me down inside" Pictures framed
in the silent darkness of Germany's
second largest mine. Pictures il
Iumlnated by the scanty light of a
half dozen miners safety lamps
hung perhaps from cross-timber
above us as we worked on the shining
face of our black gold" or else
placed securely between our feet as
the entry. while a companion or two
lay on their sides in the narrow two
foot seam which pitched, at an angle
or ffty degrees, down into the dark
Yes. should be working now in
stead of talking" said an old man
who has been digging in these veins
Tor more than thirty years, but. un-
happily. find that I must rest more
often nowadays. The reason is that
I can no longer AFFORD meat every
day, as, of course, l used to, back
in the good old days before that
awful war. Now-ha! Well, if I can
have a little of the precious stuff of
q Sunday I thank the dear God.
Back in those days you could get
n suit of clothes for less than five
shifts of work." broke in a younger
chap. who had left his lamp down by
the chute where he filled his cars
with the coal that came from our
picks. He spoke SO suddenly and SO
rehemently from out of the black
ness that I jumped. but now-now
you must save up all your wages of
81 month-hundreds of millions! And
then by that time the price has dou-
bled. How can one so upon the
street,"
Ten-MilliOn Rise in a Day.
Why. You can stay at home"'
broke in an older man. With me
It's; not a matter of street. but of
work-not of suits but. of pants.
working man. I had two or three
pairs Of trousers besides my Sunday
pair. But now these here are the
last have" And his voice trembled
as he held up his lantern to show
What can do when these are gone,
that know I not"
Pants have and, thank the good
Lord, also a coat, but look here. Can
you discover:any stockings?" inquired
Il husky fellow as he took his bare
feet from the heavy wooden shoes in
which large proportion of the
miners work,
Yesterday" testified another. "I
saw a woman crying in a store. She
mad come in with the fifteen millions
they had asked for the shirt her man
must, have If he was longer to go out
of the house. But she found that the
Sxe shirt had gone up from the day
poor old woman, she just sat down
and cried"
Hard to Keep Back Tears.
confess that more than once in
such discussions have found 1t hard
to keep back the tears.
OF course, 1t is easy to wave all
propaganda. But any one who has
worked deep down underground
knows that somehow when men get
fogether. stripped TO the waist. with
their picks or shovels or sledges in
their handS-when their lamps shine
into each others faces or are re-
1ieCted back from the little streams
OF sweat that flow down their naked
chests-heart somehow contrives to
speak to heart in a voice which leaves
no room for doubling.
So one mystery of the above
ground riddle of peace and war, pow
erty and wealth. became plain. These
crowded cafes are not filed with the
districts coal miners or steel work.
erS.
1--WE Didn't Go In"
Beer? have not known the taste
of 1t for months" the father of sew
eral children burst out one day. "And
like beer. too. Just last night had
Il few hundred thousand marks we
had not contrived to spend. But when
/ said, Let's go in and have a glass;
my wife looked at me. We should
better get little candy for the chill
dren, what?' she said We didn't
go in
mot only beer. but also a cigarette
occasionally I like" came from an
other, but for months both of them
have been far beyond me-"
II there are any miners in these
restaurants, perhaps they are find
ing the excuse of one of my recent
chums.
With me-" he explained, in-between
his showing me how ! could get down
my coal with less handwork and more
xxrr. ABE IrNADv z Tn