BANKING FARCE

Evening Post, Volume CVI, Issue 37, 13 August 1923, Page 7

BANKING FARCE

USELESS PAPER MONEY

PRESSES AGAIN AT WORK.

BERLIN, 11th August. The strike of State printers has been settled, and the printing of bank notes has beea resumed.

The Reichsbank reopened to-day, after a most remarkable Friday. The building was beset in the morning as usual by a crowd of messengers from State and municipal departments, banks, factories, and offices, armed with every kind of bag, sack, and portmanteau. These apparently endless first-comers were told they could have only a proportion of the amounts of their cheques, and must take it portly in million-murk notes and partly iiv 10, 20, and 50 marks, which was meaningless, when an evening paper costs 10,000 marks, and a tiny roll of bread 12,000 marks.

After an hour the cashiers announced the end of their resources and closed the-doors, while the crowd burst out in fierce arguments until dispersed by horse and foot police.

The strangest sight was at lunch-time, when people were seen with five million and teu milliou-n-ark notes frantically trying to obtain change in order to pay for a modest meal. The municipality has received the Government's permission to utilise old paper money of 100, 500, and 1000 mark notes. The great manufacturing firms are beginning to pay their workmen in emergency money, which co-operative stores have agreed to accept, the firms undertaking its redemption a.t the earliest moment '

A s practically all the banks have stopped payment, owing to the shortage of notes, it became impossible to provide the workers with wages. There were amazing scenes before a dramatic climax was reached. Many large employers, anticipating tho suspension, sent to the banks able-bodied men, who remained outside all night. The banks' supplies of currency were quickly exhausted, borne of the largest firms, like the Siemens Electrical Company, employing tens of thousands, were unable to obtain sufficient to pay the wages. Many individuals with private accounts were only able to draw enough to buy a loaf