The Bluffton news. [volume] (Bluffton, Ohio) 1875-current, 1948-08-26
Removing Bubble Of Bombed German
Cite Is Slow With Battered Picks, Shovels

home.
Much plowing is done by hand, hay
made with hand rakes, and wedding
by hand.
Our work has been hard labor so
far such as hauling huge 500 ID.
timbers from the camp by horse
drawn wagons, unloading them
and then by means of a pulley haul
them several floors up to be used
as beams, also knocking mortar Oft
old bricks and other such tasks.
Everything in this area is in the
construction stage. We shoveled
rubble and sorted good bricks from
the rubble piles all day.
This rubble is hauled out here from
the city for obtaining bricks from it
and also material for filing in. Every
one has to have permit to do any
thing. You can't build, rent, buy, or
do anything without MG permit and
you can't work without a permit
either.
now understand why the work
of rubble clearing and reconstruc-
ton goes so slowly especially since
most of it has to be done with bat
tered picks and shovels and if you
know how hard it is to shovel a
pile of broken bricks and dirt mixed
together, then you know what l
mean.
What is needed are steam shovels,
bulldozers, and tractor buckers which
are very, very scarce and limited as
is the gasoline to run them.
You can never appreciate recon-
struction and rubbIe clearing until
you've done it once and then you see
the tough and time consuming posi-
tion these people are really in.
But work goes slowly and there's
no need to try and change things be-
cause that is how they are geared-
time doesn't mean thing to them
and at times | have almost lost my
temper as have most If the others,
but / guess that is all in the game.
We get our water from deep wells
by means of crane and bucket. 1t
takes II seconds for US to hear water
hit the bottom so you can get an
| idea of how deep it is and how much
work is involved to get our cooking,
washing and drinking water for the
whole place in a three gallon bucket
"a bigger bucket would simplify
things but where can you buy a
bucket?
In all these villages there are no
signs Of war except for some OF the
one-legged and one-armed men who
have returned from war. Amy town
that has anything Of military inn
portance, however, has been hit.
The countryside also looks normal
except along main roads where
bridge remains and wrecked equip
ment still lie.
The cities are really the places
that look sad although by now al
most all streets are open but the
rubble clearing will take years and
rebuilding, years and years more.
All the important highway bridges
have at least been temporarily re-
paired since transportation is defin-
litely essential to reconstruction.
Without it rebuilding would be inn
possible although it is amazing to
see what they can do with so little,
Since the new money reform only
food is rationed as other things ra-
tion themselves by lack of money.
All Germans got DO new marks if
they turned in 60 old ones. Any
thing over that was given 1919 OF
the old value 10000 marks, now
brings 500 new onesl but the govern
ment gets this money to use since
it was frozen although still theore-
tically belonging to the people.
The people are also promised 2C
more new marks as completion o1
! the balance of the original 60 paid in
You can therefore see that the rich
man lost 900 of his money over 6(
marks and that very thing also hap
pened to many M.C.C. funds.
Even in spite of this situation this
period is called prosperity here be
cause there are at least appearance
of goods in the shops, many of whicl
have been saved up for years, bu
they will be gone soon and then thing
will be even more Psychological tha1
anything else because actually tn
quantity is not very much.
Barter, however, is not as muc
used now as it was during the wa
when that was the only way of get
ting anything.
Cherries and other berries are Yer
plentiful this year and the Germa
crops look good but very little can b
put away because glass jars, ia
rubbers, and jar caps are almost a
scarce as hens teeth so you see ho'
hard put they are.
If any kind of container Is foun
it will be closed some way and use
for fruit or vegetables. The M.C.(
has met quite a few operating cost
90 by selling used tin cans back to th
! factories to be refilled. This is ho'
tight the situation is here All da
long We see two and four motore
bombers coming overhead, one abo,