HARD TIMES.

Auckland Star, Volume LVII, Issue 144, 19 June 1926, Page 36

HARD TIMES.

HOW GERMAN STUDENTS __YE. ON SUNDAY THERE WAS CAKE. I have been living with a group of 50 German labour students,, most of them between 18 and 25 years of age, writes Scott bearing, in an American newspaper. They are eager, earnest, striving for an education to nt them for the struggle they see ahead of the German movement. Most of them have belonged to the left of the German Youth Movement. All are members of trade unions. Never have I met a finer group of men. Physically sturdy, they work, sing and play with a will. They would be a credit to any American educational institution. But how many American students would live on their standard? They are -in class 4 to 7 hours a day. They study several hours more. They do a large part of the work about the school. They sleep on cots, 16 in a room. But their diet is the most revealing part of their regimen. I lived on it* for 10 days and took notes on it, meal by meal. Here is a sample. Monday.—Breakfast: Bread with lard; coffee of toasted rye without sugar. Each student had a cup and a spoon (no saucer). The bread was served in a dish. There was nothing else on the wooden table except salt, without which the bread and lard are almost uneatable. Dinner: A large dish of rice, cooked with kohlrabi and a little meat; 'bread and margarine. Each student had a plate and fork. Nothing to drink. Tea: Bread and margarine; coffee made from rye and without sugar. Each student received a cup and a spoon. Bread on a large plate.:- Supper: Soup, a small piece of herring; bread with margarine; rye-coffee without sugar. Soup dish, spoon, fork and cup. Menus on other days were similar. Except where I have indicated it, there were no table utensils supplied. Knives were seldom needed. There were no napkins. On Sunday there was cake. I questioned many of the students as to whether the dfet in the school was worse than at home. Some said it was, but a number admitted bitterly that at home they often, fared .worse,' One student who has been away from school several week's looking for a job-writes that during that time he has lived almost entirely on bread and water. This menu may give some; faint: idea of. the way workers iri many parts of Germany are living. One of the students, told mc he had gone heavily into debt to come.to the school. "How much did you borrow?" I asked. "Ob, a lot", he answered; "50 marks." Since leaving .jschooj he has been out of a Job, and as are nearly a" million and.a half other German workers looking for work, he will be many a long, day paving his 13 dollars debt. : " *