LABOR CONDITIONS IN GERMANY

...Meantime, according to an investigation of the Imperial Statistical Office, wages of tha gTeat mass of working people have on an average barely increased by 50 per cent...

...A Real Tragedy THUS the course of commodity prices and of wages during the war has become a real tragedy for the working class in the widest sense, whether they are wage earners, salaried employes, or officials...

...On the outbreak of the war they began hoarding supplies and thus created a scarcity of supplies and a consequent inflation of prices at a time when actual conditions did not warrant it...

...and this process goes on without end...

...High Wages a Myth ff'T'HESE data demonstrate plainly that the * so-called 'high' wages of workers are a •jyth...

...If In spite of these facts the official organs and secretaries of employers' associations raise the cry that wages must be lowered and intimate that otherwise German industry will go under, it must be characterized as an impudence, which is to be combated with the strongest means at the disposal of the workers...

...in reality it is the great mass of the population which by hard work and privation has raised the sums required for these loans and given to the fortunate owners of the land, of capital, and of the means of production the opportunity to enrich themselves at its expense...

...It, however, can not dare to raise the required sums through direct taxation of the individual citizens...

...Immediately after maximum prices had been decreed a large part of the well-to-do consumers, in conjunction with producers and dealers, set out to evade them...

...In such a case the increase of the price of one article will automatically extend to all other articles without regard to the fact whether tho costs of production justify such an increase or not...

...The workman soon notices that in the long run he can not counterbalance the increase of prices through wage increases granted to him, because during the war the owner of the means of production always has the advantage of him...

...The large subscriptions of war loans by these circles, the unprecedented large deposits in rural savings banks, the extensive lifting of rural mortgages, etc., furnish the best proof of this fact...

...thanks to Germany's isolation from the world's markets he has a monopoly of the sale of these products and he only sells them at prices giving him the same or rather a better profit than in pre-war times...

...but it has done so unwillingly and only proceeded against the worst excesses in this respect...

...But only too soon they discovered that maximum prices are by no means a cure-all...

...Under the pressure of the consuming masses of the population the Government has in some measure counteracted this endeavor through the fixing of maximum prices...

...The value of their labor depreciated during the war in the same ratio in which the income, ground rent, and profits of a large number of capitalists and landowners increased...

...The trade-union leader Hartman estimates that in the tobacco industry wage increases during the period 1913-1915 amounted to 4 per cent and in 1916 to between 10 and 20 per cent...

...This development is based on the facts that one part of the nation has in its hand the means of production required for the entirety of the nation, that another part owns the land which is to provide nourishment for the entirety, and that at present this land does not produce as much as is needed to sustain life in the usual manner, and, finally, that consequent to our isolation from the world's market we can not supplement this deficit from abroad...

...The great mass «f the working people were only able to obtain insignificant wage increases which were entirely Insufficient to make up for the increased cost of living...

...The more scarce and indispensable the goods in question are the more will the prices rise...

...In August, 1917, according to Calwer, the cost of the weekly family ration was 54.67 marks ($13.01), as compared with 25.12 marks ($5.98) in July, 1914, that is to sav, it has risen during the war more than 117 per cent...

...As a matter of fact, industrial magnates, banks, landowners, business men, etc., have only apparently subscribed the greater part of the war loans...

...This increase of prices is tantamount to a depreciation of German money...

...These figures are confirmed by a comprehensive investigation by the Central Council of the Hirsch-Duncker trade-unions as to the increase of wage of male workers in the more important German industries...

...Consumers Partly Responsible "BUT the consumers themselves are partly responsible for the high prices...

...Such a demand is, however, resisted by the employers and often most strongly by those employers who have been doing a flourishing business during the war and have actually profited by the existing high prices...

...In some cases this may be true, but in general this development has naturally resulted from the essential nature of capitalism and the present-dey right of ownership, as well as from the isolation and financial conditions of Germany...

...The present 'high' wages do not benefit them at all...

...The "Monthly Review," an official bulletin published by the U. S. Labor Department, for April gives an interesting sidelight oh labor conditions in Germany, in an abstract from a writer in Neue Zeit, a weekly journal of the social democratic party...

...The Government is partly guilty for this increase of prices in so far as one may speak of guilt in the development of economic matters...

...Moreover, the increase in the cost of fuel, clothing, shoes and household necessities of all kinds has been far more rapid than the increase of the articles represented by the Calwer index numbers...

...Flour, butter, and other foodstuffs sometimes bring in illicit trade five times as much and more as they would bring if acquired legally by means of rational distribution...

...The labor party in Germany contains a much larger proportion of population than in this country...

...Employers, moreover, who have granted wage increases, endeavor, as a rule, to shift them upon the consumer, and if possible, with a profit for themselves...

...Under the capitalistic regime prices will always rise when the demand for goods is greater than the supply...

...It must, moreover, be noted that the commodities on which Calwer bases his calculation are mostly rationed commodities, of which the supply is so inadequate that they do not furnish sufficient sustenance...

...The possibility for such enormous profits as have been witnessed during the war was given through the continuous upward trend of prices since the outbreak of the war...

...Certain goods have increased in price by 500, 800, and even 1,000 per cent, and without exaggeration the average increase of the cost of living may be estimated at between 200 and 300 per cent...

...A relatively large number of capitalists, jaanufacturers,dealers and landowners have doubled and trebled their income and wealth, but *ery small is the number of workers whose wages have been so increased that they were not forced to, lower their standard of living, i. e., whose present-day wages have the same purchasing power as their pre-war wages...

...As set forth here various circumstances, among which should also be mentioned the low quotations abroad of German exchange, contribute to the continuous increase of prices...

...When, after the outbreak of the war, conditions had come to such a point the consume •s began to clamor for maximum prices...

...As to Financial Conditions "I DO not mean to assert that the accumula-tion of immense wealth in the hands of a few is solely due to the profiteering tendencies of the fortunate owners of this wealth, that it is solely the fruit of shameless exploitation ani fraud...

...Today they can not do so in spite of their apparently high wages, and if the prices of foodstuffs remain at their present level or continue to increase it will become the sacred duty of the workmen to themselves and to the German nation to see to it that their wages are still further increased...

...According to an investigation of tho Federation of German Textile Workers the average weekly wage of female workers in the Adorf district was 15.93 marks ($3.79) in July, 1917, while in the same month weekly wages of between 9 and 10 marks |2.14 and $2.38) were still common in Krim-•jitschau...

...It must raise the money through bond issues...

...Whoever raises the question of a reduction of wages should rather make it his first care to bring the cost of living, if only approximately, back to its former level...

...In this manner the individual citizen hardly notices that ultimately it is he who finances the war...

...Among these latter are not only the large contractors of war supplies and industrial magnates who during the war have obtained millions over millions from the state and the masses of the population, but commerce and ag...

...As he is not willing to die of starvation he finds himself facing the necessity of demanding higher wages...

...The workmen are only well off when their wages, be they high or low, enable them to live in a manner fit for human beings...

...The workman, who with his wages must buy the necessities of existence, notices this by the fact that his wages are no longer sufficient to purchase the necessities of life...

...This investigation, which compares the wages paid in January, 1917, with those current before tho outbreak of the war, shows that, although metal workers' wages had increased by 69 per cent in Greater Berlin, in the other provinces of Prussia and in the other States of the Empire wage increases in this trade were much lower, and in some instances did not exceed 16 per cent...

...As such Government loans could never be fully disposed of through sums subscribed by the great mass of the poorer classes of the population, it can only suit the Government if industry, commerce and agriculture extract these sums from the great masses of the population through "good" prices, and put them at its disposal in the form of subscriptions of war loans...

...But even in rationed articles a flourishing trade is sometimes carried on at really exorbitant prices...

...riculture have also greatly profited from the war...

...Even if the employers are reasonable enough to grant wage increases and high-cost-of-living bonuses, these are without exception not sufficient to counterbalance the increase in prices and the depreciation of the German money...

...In the chemical industries of the Bitter-field district time wages had increased by 26 to 35 per cent and piece-work wages by 34 per cent...

...This procedure is in itself entirely comprehensible...

...The daia published by this office shows that in September, 1916, i. e., during the third year of the war, the average wages of male workers had increased by 46 per cent and those of female workers by 54.1 per cent...

...And prices will, of course, rise beyond all bounds if a general scarcity of supplies sets in and the individual can barely satisfy his hunger...

...When this has been accomplished the workmen will be willing to discuss lower wages...

...This, it is true, brought about the transition of German industry from a peace to a war basis, but at the same time it had tha effect of making that part of industry which is not employed in the production of war materials want to reap like profits as the war industry proper...

...Yet much of this article is applicable to conditions with us...

...To this must be added the fact that the quality of a large number of food articles such as flour, bread, potatoes, coffee, etc., has deteriorated...

...Thus it came about that articles for which maximum prices had been fixed disappeared overnight from the market and were obtainable only for those who did not care how high a price they had to pay...

...In order to stop this evasion of the law the rationing of all articles that could be rationed was demanded so that everybody would get some of the available supplies...

...The Government needs money for the conduct of the war...

...We quote: "The longer the war lasts, the more are increasing masses of the nation becoming aware of the fact that these same masses—skilled and unskilled workmen, salaried employes, Government officials, etc.—have to bear the costs of the war and in part are being reduced to extreme poverty while other circles of the population derive great profit from the war and enormously increase their income and their wealth...

...He Is the owner of the .products without which the workman can not live...

...As long as the industries are able to pocket such profits as those which they have reaped during the war German Industry will not perish, but will fatten in a manner dangerous to the public weal, while, on tho other hand, one only needs to take a look at the German workmen in order to perceive that they suffer greatly from under-nutrition, that they are degenerating, and that in spite of their so-called 'high' wages misery looks out of their eyes...

...These combined facts put in a much greater measure the non-possessing classes at the mercy of the possessing classes and render them more tributary to the latter than was the case in normal times...

...For the strength of the nation is based upon the health of the working classes, and thanks to the lessened purchasing power of the wages and the general scarcity of all necessities their health has been undermined to a serious degree...

...This causes a further increase of prices and new wage demands become necessary...

...If the workingman wants barely to survive and retain his working capacity he must buy considerable quantities of non-rationed commodities or else procure rationed commodities through illegal channels, and in both cases he pays far higher prices than Calwer indicates...

...Labor Conditions In Germany United States Government Report Gives Interesting Information—Labor Department Issues Bulletin IF WE want to get real facts concerning the conditions of war existing in any of the belligerent countries we must not look for them inspired articles written for propaganda, but we must turn to the serious reports of various industrial organizations that reflect the real conditions...

...Not only has the government through extensive circulation of paper money contributed to the depreciation of German currency and thereby lessened its purchasing power, but also at the beginning of the war it paid fabulously high prices for war materials in order to accelerate the adaptation of industry to war needs...