The Washington times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1902-1939, 1934-10-24
BUTTER,FL0UR
SUBSTITUTES
ORDERED
Democracy's Flight Has Left
Common Man in ThroeS of
"RaW Material Lack"


gerine made of Dh1le oil, clothing
mired of Dood and chemical fiber.
H. r. Knickerbocker tells the de-
tails of the "erSdtz" Substituted
era Which NasiiSn1 has uShered
into Germany in the tolloUing,
third article of his neD series,
democracy Versus Dictatorship"
BY H. r. KNICKERBOCKER
(CopyriEht, 1884. BY International News
Service, Reproduction In Whole or Part
Strictly Forbidden.)
BERLIN, Oct. 24.-Germany
gave up liberty for the sake of
number of other things she con-
sidered better than liberty, and
one of the most important Of
them was economic security. Ma
tional Socialism, she was told,
would give this country a higher
standard of living.
But what has the common citi-
zen of Germany got out Of Ma.
tional Socialism after 10 months
Of it?
What has the workman. first
Of all in his capacity as a COM
mon citizen, got out Of it?
Have the promises of economic
security been realized?
What He Has Won
The common citizen, in the Sec
ond winter of the third Reich
has won the right to eat bread
of flour weighted with potato
meal and Ightened with bran.
He has won the right to spread
this bread with margarine made
of whale oil, neutral lard" and
what not.
He has won the right to wear
Shoddy clothing mixed Of wood
and chemical fiber.
His bicycle may now be
equipped only with tires of re-
claimed rubber, and his automo-
bile, if he has one, may be fueled
only with gasoline mixed with a
substitute.
His spare time will be partially
devoted to going about picking up
scraps of leather, bits of metal
and wisps of wool for the sake of
adding a few pounds of raw mate
rails to Germany'S dWindling sup
plies.
Housewives are advised not to
throw away careleSsly small ends
of thread, for it is pointed out
that if each of Germany'S 10000
900 households threw away only
one-sixth of an ounce of thread a
year, this would make an annual
total of five tons.
Under q Blockade
This is the economic security
that has resulted after 10 months
of the Nazi dictatorship. To find
a parallel to the prospects of the
coming winter in this country it
would be necessary to 30 back to
the first year Of the war when
Germany under blockade began to.
use up her reserves and entered
the era of "ersatZ," substitution.
For today, Germany is effec'
lively under blockade, and in the
next few months the blockade
will grow tighter. This means
that the common citizen will have
to draw his belt tighter.
How much worse Germany will
suffer than the outside world is
indicated by her position in re.
gard to foreign trade.
Due to four factors, German
foreign trade has declined precipi-
tously since the NaZi regime, and
that during a period when world
trade was beginning to improve.
The four factors are:
First, the continued increase of
restrictions against imports IN
most countries throughout the
world.
Second, the overvalued reichs-
mark.
Third, the Jewish atholic.Lib-
eral boycott against German
goods, and fourth, the rise in the
prices of raw materials Germany
has to import for her export in
dustries.
Exports Take . Drop
Under the influence of these
four factors German exports have
declined from 5,793, 100000 reichs-
marks in 1882, the year before
Hitler, to 4,S71 900 900 in 1888, the
first year of the third reich.
They declined further from
2,989, 100000 in the first half Of
1882, to 2,378, 100000 in the first
half of 1888 and to 2,OS6, OOO, 900
in the first half of 1884.
In other words German exports
under the NaziS are now 80 per
cent less than they were when the
NaziS came to power.
Germany is almost alone in con-
tinuing to lose trade at a rate
comparable with the worst period
of the world crisis. More i'm
portant, the loss now hurts worse
than any of the previous losses,
for it has reached the point
where Germany is not exporting
enough to pay for the raw ma
terials necessary to continue ex.
porting, and worse than that, she
Is not exporting enough to pay
for necessary imports Of goods in.
dispensable to her own popula-
tim