BADENERS' FARE

Evening Star, Issue 15907, 13 September 1915, Page 2

BADENERS' FARE

A' German clergyman, writing in the ' Frankfurter Zeituiig,' warns the Government against any further increase in the price of living, and describes the conditions among his flock, a' small community in an industrial district in Baden, but including also a large percent-age of farm people. The latter have not felt the consequences of the war eo severely. True,- most, of the men have gone, but the women work for two. What they have to buy is very much dearer, but they are getting much better prices for their farm produce, so that they can afford to pay the advanced prices, and in any case have sufficient food of their own production to live on. But the industrial classes are very much worse off. They have no reserves "to fall ■back upon, and they have to pinch and suffer dreadfully. The Herr Pastor comi municates the text of a food programme drawn up by the wife of a. laborer who is i a.t the front at Ypres and whose eldest ! son is with the Crown Prince's army. j Meat is wholly lacking. It is quite out of ! reach.' Likewise butter.. On hi s round the clergyman saw children skimming the boiling milk and eating with relish the bkin spread on bread. ' The woman works in a silk factor}', and as she ha 3 two" male relatives at the front she receives a Government allowance of 80 marks (£4) monthly, owing to her large family. Big families are an asset in these times. Her case, therefore, is much more favorable than that of numerous other laboring families. Although there are few complaints, vet things have reached a point when any further Increase of cost in living would mean untold hardship for the -rreat majority of the poorer classes. "In fact/' says the writer, "the wive 3 and children, of those who are fighting for us; whose courago enables us to harvest our crops, without molestation, are already suffering from distress., Further increase in the price of bread will be. fatal."—Renter.