DISTRESS IN GERMANY.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 178, 23 April 1908, Page 11

DISTRESS IN GERMANY.

. Tariff-, reformers ■in England have ' seized opon -the slackness of trade, and its cohsequent.effcct on employment, "as reasons for changing-!: tho' fiscal 'system. Tlioy disregard the'/ circumstance that depression and dis-tress;..'-exist- even ; more acutely in highlyprOtpcted ■ countries, such as the United States and Germany. According to the official "Labour Gazette" of Berlin, there-was a further ..--deterioration in the. industrial situation in Germany in January, The trades principally were ironfounding, weaving, toym an' Idlpather glove making. There was also a. dcclinc in the demand for machines, but in .most of the workshops engaged iii theirmanufacture tho slackness of emplovme'iit/was met by a shortening of hours, and dismissals 'were thus avoided.' The mining and electrical and chemical industries maintained tli6ir favourable conditions. Tho iigby the sick funds, which report to. ; the'lmperial Statistical Offieo, showed-ft decline, of 73,700 persons employed, as against, : 'sooo in tho corresponding month last. year. ■ From' tho report of the Central Labour Bureau for Berlin, it would appear that the' situation is considerably worse in the-capital'than in other parts of tho ompirc., As compared with January, 1907, tho demand, for labour fell off by 40 per cent., and; it -also showed, a decline on the previous month.