THE CITY WITH NO MONEY.

Dunstan Times, Issue 3144, 20 November 1922, Page 2

THE CITY WITH NO MONEY.

incitement runs high in Berlin I'he banks have been besieged all daj r>y nyen and women begging fen money. Many callers have cheque!* •ii their hands, others have banknote*, ror ten thousand marks, but ini each case the answer has been: "We havfe .10 money." The delugo of paper marks has. ueased, mainly because of the printers strike, which stopped note, production 'ilie printing presses, working Sunday ami week-dav, have since turned out m-arly 3,000,000,000 marks, but m spite of this the supply is not cquai to tne demand. 1 endeavored to change a £5 nott ilus morning, and as a great favor 1 vias given a ten-thousand mark notfc <<n ae.ount and an 1.0. V. for the remainder. Luckily restaurants and shopkeepers come to their customers' rescue. One finds people throughout Herlin paying for meals with paper and pencil. The gambling Cover has nearly reach ed its zenith. Everybody, from office hoy to employer, is gambling. Kmployees ask for an advance of wages tf> enable them to buy a suit of clothes or hoots, fearing tliat prices will jurnf. to-morrow, while the employer asks his customers for advance payments because he wants to purchase .some commodity before the price soars higher. Hamburg dock workers to-day demanded an increase of their daily wage from 650 marks to 900 marks, 'and so It goes on. Prices of practically everything change several times daily—always upwards. Dollars and pounds have fallen considerably, but prices have not been adjusted lyOne hears nothing in the streets and omnibuses but discussion of prices and values, and this feverish excitement is hightened by fear of what tomorrow may bring. All sorts of rumors fly from mouth to month, and these have an effect on prices. Thinking people realise that the national morale is being ruined by what a well-informed man described to-day as "orderly chaos." The possible deflation of the currency is dreaded almost as much as its inflation has been, hecause to-day no railway porter will accept a tip less than what was normally £]., while the usual waiter's tip is equal to £4, A copy of a London dailv costs a little more than £4. Shopkeepers are beginning to hoard money instead of paying it into the banks. They are afraid of trouble if they find themselves without sufficient notes to pay their staffs. It is stated that the Government are preparing to print 500,000-mark notes. Trouble is feared in the provinces unless sufficient money can he printed rapidly. I learn from Essen that the banks require from 4,000,000,000 to 5,000,000,000 notes to pay the weekly wage-bill of Krupp's and oilier factories. The Government promises to print 4,000,000,000 dailv from October Ist.

Doctors at Magdeburg have decided to fix their fees on a broad standard basis, the old price of one mark equalling two loaves. The Government has no policy for coping with the internal situation, and from the highest to the lowest there is a feeling of pessimism. People ask each other "Where can it end?"