Evening star., 1932-09-28
GERMANY FEARS
APATHY Of IDLE
teng Jobless Men Finally
Abandon Hope of Ever
Working Again.
Gpecial Dispatch to The Star.

Special Dispatch to The Star.
BERLIN, September 28.-Moral ef-
fects of prolonged unemployment are
being studied by sociologists, who note
strong tendency among the unem-
ployed to accept their situation as a
normal one and to abandon completely
any thought of returning to work.
Men who had always had jobs in the
past spend the first few weeks or
months of their unemployment looking
for work. They go from one Office or
factory to another. filling out appl1ca-
ton forms, but after repeatedly being
turned down they give up looking for
work altogether. and even refuse to
take any interest in rumors or reports
that jobs are vacant.
Numerous cases have been reported
in which unemployed men have taken
to their beds, having so far sunk into
apathy that they lack the energy to
get up. Still others spend their days
sitting in chair, vacantly gazing into
space. Hundreds of thousands of men
throughout Germany, it is declared,
have totally abandoned any idea OF
ever working again.
Crowd Libraries and Baths.
That many others, however, have not
become wholly apathetic is attended by
library statistics The free libraries of
Berlin are besieged by unemployed men.
In one working class quarter the num-
ber Of readers has more than tripled
since the unemployment crisis began,
and it is calculated that the increase in
readers due to unemployment is be-
tween 60 and 10 per cent in Berlin, as
whole.
Another pastime of the unemployed
Is bathing. Never have the open-alr
bathing establishments in and near
Berlin seen SO many batherS as this
year. Many workless men spend all
their time at the beaches daily. Even
In 1881 the Wannsee, a popular lake in
the suburbs, had more than a million
bathers, whereas in 1924 it had only
$4,000. It is believed that the total
may reach 100000 this year. SINH
1arly the M1ggelsee, which accommo-
dated only $4,000 bathers in 1924, had
$4,000 bathers last year.
Smoking" says the VoSSische lei
tung, in commenting on these facts, "is
the sole real luxury of the unemployed
at least of those who are able to buy
anything to smoke. Many unemployed
who pride themselves on their ability to
Withstand hunger declare that they are
unable to give up cigarettes, saying that
tobacco for them takes the place of eat
ing, drinking and amusement"
Growing Up in Idleness.
AS consequence the tobacco indus
try has undergone veritable revolu-
ton. Cigarettes have always been dear
in Germany, but new types have been
created in response to the demand for
cheaper grades. They are now avail
able at the equivalent of cents for a
package of 10, and the average price of
all cigarettes sold is about 8 cents for
10. In addition there is admittedly a
considerable clandestine trade in to-
bacco sweepings and raw leaf, sold
among the extremely poor at nomi-
nal price.
One of the gravest moral dangers seen
in the unemployment situation Is the
rise of generation Of young men who
have never worked at all and have no
prospect of getting jobs. They live
among older people who have begun to
accept idleness as a normal condition,
and in many cases these boys have be-
gun to draw unemployment relief with
out so much as ever having applied for
a job. They in turn accept the present
situation as entirely natural. If ccndi-
tions should change and jobs become
plentiful, it probably would never occur
to them to ask for one.
Copyright, 1922