The Birmingham age-herald., 1923-03-11

been able to read the handwriting which was then on the wall. Now in 1923, twoscores years after my first visit, I am again on the ground The gun of the Kaiser has ruled and set. and the empire which had its possessions in more than three continents has become republic.
 is of this new republic that we wish to know.
 Is Germany a Live Asset1
 The Germans claim that they are now down on their uppers. This seems to me true, but if so their bare feet are planted upon one of the 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 al international mar kets. Bordered on the north by the baltic, they have direct sea access to Scandinavia and northeastern Eu- rope. with the vast possibilities of the Russia of the future Across the North Sea lies Great Britain with it's millions of customers, and over every land border Is a hard work ing nation ready to buy and anxious to sell They complain of their ter ritorial loss during the war. Those losses were great. but Germany in Europe has still an area of quar- ter of million square miles. It is more than thirty times as big as Massachusetts, eight times the size of South Carolina, four times that of New England. and bigger than Ohio, Indiana, Illinois. Michigan, and Wis consin combined. Cut it into patches and carry 1t over the ocean, and 1t would cover California, Penn sylvnaia, and New York, or fit 1t down upon Texas and it would hide the whole of that great state expect ing a patch about the size of Dela- ware and Maryland. Even now large as Great Britain and Ire land. It is bigger thu France by an area as large as Hungary. It Is one twelfth as large as the main body of the United States, and 1t has now over sixty million live. active souls, or three fifti1s as many as we. Prus- sia alone has a population equal to that of New England, New York, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Ill., inois, and Bavaria, which is, about half the size of Illinois, has as many people as that state, including Chi cago with Cleveland added thereto. Big Growing Cities.
 The new republic is one of big cit ies and its cities are growing faster than any in the United States. In 1919 Greater Berlin had 3,s00.000. It has now between four and five mill ion. It is half again as large as Chicago and more than twice as large as Philadelphia. an increase of perhaps three quarters of a million within the space of three years. Ham burg has over million and it logne is bigger than Boston, Munich than Pittsburg and Dreden than Buffalo, Lepizi is crowding Los An neles, Dusseldorf outranks Cincin- natl and Assen, the home of Krupps, which before the war had four hun dr ed thousand people, has six hun dred thousand today. Germany has four other cities each of which has more than three hundred thousand inhabitants. It has eight ranging be- tween two and three hundred thou dred thousand spice. Some of these cities are unknown to the man on tHe Stl CCl. lioW HidHy Ol yOu COulu locate Gelsenkirchen and Duisburg before the French took charge of the Ruhr? The first is bigger than Mem phis and the second Supasses Oma- ha, Atlanta, or Toledo. Every one of these towns is live. industrial entity where every man works eight hours every day. In none of them is the proportion of unemployed as great as in places of similar size in the United States. England or France. In all, the population is growing, although that is largely due to the coming in of the Germans who have been crowded out of Pol ish Upper Silesia and Alsace-Lor- raine. The whole country may be on the way to destruction but as far as I can see it Is still alive and kicking and everywhere outside the Ruhr is
 The Germans complain as to the loss of their territory, and one might think they were crippled for all time agriculturally and minerally. The fact is they still have one of the very best natonal properties in Europe. The greater part of their soil Is equal to that of France, and they have vast mines of potash by which they fertilize it at a compar- atively low cost. They are now talk ing nitrate from the air in such quantities that they promise to sup plant the nitrates of Chile and their production per acre of grain, potatoes and sugar -beets is far higher than outs and equal to that of almos. any other land of the world. Be- fore the war Germany had an average production of 153 million bushels of wheat, 445 million bushels of rye, l,,ch hal -af year. She was then importing 76 million bushels of wheat and it is said she needs 125 million bushels of wheat today. Her people claim they have no money to buy 1t and it is only by some kind of q decision as to their trouble with France that American farmer.
 spoon-fed Nation.
 Until the war began Germany was producing enough grain to last her ten months of the year. She now claims she can raise grain for only eight months and food for only two- thirds of her people. If this Is so, she has twenty million stomachs which will have to be fed from the outside. But she was spoonfeed ing half this number before the war so that the number is not so great as it seems. Germany has long since changed from an agricultural to an industrial nation, and as in Great Britain, the profits of her factories shipping. and foreign investments pered with up-to-date factories in yph ar ipc lac