Evening star., 1925-03-08
Germany Found on Up Grade
After Widespread Sufferings

Now, I am not pretending here to
set down economic statistics, to ar-
que as to Germany's capacity to pay
reparations or as to her political pol
icies. What 1 have sought to do is
report impressions derived from SUI
perficial contact with the population
of the capital. But on the basis of.
this contact l am personally satisfied
as to the fact of Germany ffering'
and as to the reality of its extent It
is impossible to escape a conviction,
of suffering-of extreme suffering,
physical, mental and moral-and also
equally impossible to dodge the COM
viction that this suffering has ter.
minated much later than that OF any
other of the peoples of the great
powers Of the World War. H-
You feel-you are bound to feel
think, once and for all-that there
were no frontiers to the misery and
suffering and privation in the great
struggle and that these wrote the,
same kind of lines upon the faces
of men and women-lines of wretched-
ness, premature age, stunted youth
on all sides of the firing lines. You
will see things in the faces of children
here, which, particularly If you have
children Of your own, you cannot
ever mistake or quite forget.
fTeSeut S1tuat10n Better.
1 do not mean to exaggerate and
do not believe that there is any
present cause for such suffering, gen.
orally speaking. Moreover, every-~
one who went to the war zones in
the years of the conflict saw exactly
the same expressions on faces in
scores of cities and towns in France
and Belgium. Perhaps the German
people have not suffered as much or
as intensely as the French and the
Belgians did am not aiming at COM
parsons. What / am trying to make
clear is that If there is to be any.
understanding Of the mood and mind
Of cotemporary Germany; If, after
all, understanding of these be pos
sible, is it essential to bear in mind
the fact that these people have not in
the main been immune from very
terrible suffering. evidences of which
are plainly to be seen on all sides.
And one should add that the suf4
fering. the strain, the hopelessness
lasted. on the whole, much longer
here than elsewhere.
And so, after all, / return to the
figure which 1 used at the outset OF
this dispatch, the statement that Ger
many today in contrast with Britain
or France, Berlin in contrast with
London or Paris. suggests the con-
trast between the early Spring in
Washington and the late Spring in
northern New Hampshire. Yet, on
the whole, the optimistic conclusion
is that Spring is actually arriving
here.
Perhaps I should add that in CO.
temporary Berlin one is assured of
all the things which contribute to the
comfort and convenience of tha
traveller, and II you were to judge
merely by the display and luxury at
one or two hotels there would be
little to differentiate between conf
ditions here and in other capitals.
But opinions based upon such prem
ises are notorioasly inexact Ger
many and Berlin are long way from
resuming life at the point at which
the war interrupted it. Berlin is
much more like Paris or London the
first year after the armistice than
like those cities now, and even then
one has to make allowances for the
absence of uniforms of the victorious
armies and of the statesmen and their
relatively enormous retinues. which
particularly gave life and color 70
Paris in 1919.
Copyright, 1921