The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1924-07-14

states, CnaC there is no great
the children here do not need m
national Workers Aid does
much to help, the starvation and
misery Of German workers and
their children is only too true.
Not one of hundred Americans who
come to Berlin or other large cities
here on business or as tourist ever
sees anything that impresses this pain.
full fact on him. The prosperous for.
eigner land the American is now more
than ever symbol of prosperity and
dollars on this side of the water) lives
at good hotel, perhaps the best hotel,
and sees maybe some Germans who
have money also. He hears German
spoken by Germans alone as he thinks,
whereas in Germanys hotels nearly
all foreigners except Frenchmen and
Englishmen speak German too; and
these people are to be seen in thea
tres, riding in taxicabs and at the
bars the American also frequents.
Bar Room Reporters.
The American walks down Inter
Den Linden and Friedrich strasse and
may be along the boulevard of the
West End, known as Kurfustendamn.
He sees pretty girls and well-dressed
men and writes to his friend in Cedar
Rapids that Germans are rich and that
the stories of suffering are untrue.
Even some American newspaper men
who pick up their news at the famous
hotel Adlon bar between cocktails late
in the afternoon send out similar
stories.
But the typical tourist and the news
paper man of convivial habits see little
and know less of the real situation
that they imagine or pretend. Let the
man from Cedar Falls come with me
to the northern woods Of this city of
4 million people, the working mans
districts, and look at the faces on the
streets and the clothes that are worn.
Behold the PoorI
| II he has a heart it can not remain
4
unaffected, for the misery is every
where apaprent,-in the sad eyed old
woman with their bedraggled skirts
consisting mainly of rags, often of
gunnysacking; in the young men who
are looking for work and visibly clad
only in pair of trousers and a coat,
nothing more, with back launched
because it is cold; in the haunted
faces Of old men who have lost hope;
and in the children trying to play as
children do, but with faces that are
thin and look as if they never knew
jollity and natural laughter; children
who are IA and look like children of
8 or 10, who have never had milk in
their infancy, for their parents could
not buy it nor could their undernour-
ished mothers nurse them; young
girls, sometimes pretty, still struggling
to live somewhat decently and the
tragic swarms of those who have
given up finally and migrated to the
center of the city where money and
foreigners may be found perchance.
Children Understood.
Let him go with me to the principal
of one of the big public schools, and
be present at the visits Of the school
physician, and he will discover that
almost without a single exception the
Fchildren are undernourished and I'M
dersized, and he will on investigation
find that often more than half OF these
youngsters are without underwear. II
he is able to go on an inspection trip
with sister of charity to their homes
he will see the coarse dark bread that
is their main food, and that milk, but
ter and meat are seldom tasted--meat
often but once every week or other
week.
Many years ago spent year as a
student at the University of Berlin,
and being interested in social prob
lens l inquired of one of my profess
sors: where are your slums?" I'VE
have none he replied. investigated
(this was in 1909 and found that
there were, OF course, districts where
poor, and indeed quite poor, people
lived; but the streets were clean and
there were many arrangements un.
known in the United States to make
life tolerable and in some measure