Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1931-10-07
BY HENRY J. ALLEN,
Former United States Senator and
Governor OF Kansas

FOTn1ET UWIEGu DIuLeS OCUuLOT uuU
Governor OF Kansas
CWho. after a comprehensive first
hand survey of the development and
present operation of the dole In Eng
land, mas continued that survey in
the Fatherland. Following is the
fourth of a series of articles giving
the results of his study
Certain lessons the United States
might draw from the unemployment
situation, both in England and Ger
many, are obvious One Immediately
applicable Is in the practical abandon
ment by Germany of the elaborate ma
chinery Of her law of 1927 for unem-
ployment insurance, and her shifting of
the care of the unemployed to the conn
munes." This is the German designa-
ton for the local cities, towns and viii
lagos.
Her experience with Federal admins
tration has taught her that the waste.
graft and irregularities have made Fed
eral administration of the problem
burden that even a well nation cannot
meet and remain solvent. Now that the
test need must eventually be applied to
all who come under public care the
practical German mind realizes that
this test can best be applied by the
local communities under charge of local
committees. Not only VIII the test be
but the funds needed will not be bur-
dened by the cost Of Federal admins
tration.
Will Act Like United States.
Therefore Germany will seek to meet
the problem of seven million unem-
ployed in a manner very similar to that
tH,I1i hoc in
Hoover's plan, except. of course, that
the burden in the United States will
rest, very largely, as it should, upon the
contributions of citizens and local COM
munities. In Germany the aid will be
furnished under direction of local gov
ernments from public funds because the
German citizen has had little expert
ence as giver to charitable needs. He
has experienced no appeal on the
ground of his direct personal response
bility for the care of those less favored.
All this has been looked after by Gov
eminent and State in the way of insur-
ance for old age, illness, invalidism and
poor.
Germany officially has raised bill
lion dollars a year for these social obi
cations Now that the social insurance
system as well as the unemployment
insurance scheme are threatened, there
must be a return to the individual re-
sponsibility of those who have to take
care OF those who have not. 1t Is not
strange that thoughtful Germans con-
fronting the present emergency should
feel that there has been an oversociali-
zation of German ~people by govern
ment-it is evident that the coddling OF
the citizen by the government has not
strengthened the individual to meet an
emergency as real as that which now
confronts them.
Moreover, the socialistic trend has led
Germany to invest billions in what at
the present moment has developed into
frozen assets. Inspired by the philos.
ophy that the state should do every
thing for the individual, great sums
were expended during years imme-
mediately following the war, under
state financing. for new buildings. model
industrial villages. model housings. rec
reation centers and educational tnSti-
tutionalism Every dream of the
idealist and the Socialist was worked
out under state direction without refer
ence to expense.
Germans Even MisIed.
The activity of building produced an
appearance of great industrial health.
which led the whole world to conclude
that Germany was in extraordinarily
good shape. when measured by the
usual industrial and economic tests. 1t
even miSled the Germans, who did not
realize that the great sums being spent
upon unproductive property had pro-
duced an energy which was not real.
Now the money is spent and bank
rupt nation contemplates the solemn
fact that the rules of capitalism still
govern a world that lives on credit.
and that pay day cannot be disposed
of by resolutions and socialistic phil
osophies.
There is in Germany no great reser-