GERMANY TO-DAY

Dominion, Volume 24, Issue 147, 18 March 1931, Page 13

GERMANY TO-DAY

Wage-cuts and Prices A BLACK OUTLOOKGrowth of Hitlerism Outward and visible signs of a deepseated unrest are visible in Germany at the present moment, writes the Berlin correspondent of the London “Observer.” This takes various forms. One can enumerate but few of them. There is the prohibition of all street collections for charity aims, in particular the “keep-the-pot-boiling” efforts of the Salvation Army, which did wonders for Berlin’s poor. This time, says the new police chief, Herr Gryschinski, there are too many who need help, and the streets would be full of authorised beggars if one society were allowed. There is the little red ticket lying on the restaurant and cafe tables, warning consumers that everything drunk comes under the new ten-per-cent tax, to which the serving of all -liquors, save milk, is liable. Ferocious arguments as to whether the thin beef-tea euphemistically called bouillon is a food, as advertisers of patent foods would have it, or a drink, necessitate the threats of police sometimes before bills are settled amicably. In automatic restaurants the slot machines now pour less for the coin tendered, and the proprietors have ordered new, small glasses. In the shops, calls are again heard _ for police intervention to settle prices, which vary now from one corner to another, in answer to the edict which has lowered prices at the same time as wages, but ignored questions of quality and thereby confused both shopkeepers and housewife to the limit of exasperation. The New Tobacco Tax. With the new tobacco and beer tax the unfortunate citizen pays out the few pfennigs he has deducted from the week’s housekeeping for the infinitesimal luxury he permits himself. There is no real reduction In the cost of living, as promised when wages and salaries were cut. There is the introduction of rates, as distinct from taxes, in the German household. In a country where the rent always played as high a part in the householder’s budget as one-fourth (in extreme cases even a third) of the income and rates were paid by the ground landlord, a percentage of income tax to be contributed to the local commune is felt as a sad hardship. There is but little need to recount the weariness of the civil servant at his 6 per cent, cut in salary from February 1; it could not well be done in January, seeing that his insurance premiums fall due then and are deducted by the State at the source. The general changes have all been brought about by Presidential decree, promulgating laws necessary if Germany’s Budget is to balance, which were not likely to find a majority in any Reichstag. j The Sources of Hitlerism. The country is promised more unemployment, more misery, and more unrest during the coming months. In this deeply dissatisfied Germany, whose new financial reforms have touched all classes of . the population, various municipal elections have taken place during the past few weeks. All of them show an increase of Hitlerism, National-Socialism, or Fascism, according to whichever term is preferred for the peculiarly German movement. Something comparable only to a national religious upheaval has taken deep root in the people’s minds. When Adolph Hitler called to his voters to tear up the Treaty of Versailles, not to mention other treaties just as irksome, he was only saying in more turgid terms what the Nationalist magnate Hugenberg had been saying for months before. But Hitler, with no ballast of pre-war prejudice, great fortune and class sentiment scored a signal triumph over the authorised proclaimer of these subversive principles. He caused .Germany’s ex-enemies, her present creditors, to s'it up and take notice. He gained more publicity for his views abroad in as many days than the Nationalists of the old school in as many years. The man himself may arouse misgivings to those looking for a leader for new Germany. But this is the one-eyed man in the country of the blind. The. best analogy is that if a person who is socially impossible until he has a million of money behind him—when all gates are opened as if by magic. Hitler has millions in votes—nearly a quarter of the nation’s voices. No Fear of Revolution. There is absolutely no fear of any sudden over throw of the existing form of government—the average Hitlerite at the moment is well pleased with any form of dictatorship which excludes parliamentarianism—and, on the other hand, the Social Democratic Party is still the firm bulwark of republicanism. It is only the middle classes who have turned Hitlerwards. The present losses of the Socialists in Germany are due solely to the growth of unemployment; the Communist enemy is always present, and Hitler gains no followers from organised Labour. Politicians here consider to-day that Germany is confronted with a crisis at no very distant date! The best financial heads in the country think that Germany may very likely ask for a moratorium ou the Young Plan payments within two or three months. She will not suspend the interest on political debts and indirect payments laid down and guaranteed at home, but the direct payments made into the international bank at Basle may very well cease for some time. Then, it is held, will come the hoped-for revision of the Versailles Treaty and the Young Plan, and a general shaking-up of European conditions..