The Wanganui Chronicle FRIDAY, AUGUST 14, 1931. STRIFE IN GERMANY.

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 74, Issue 191, 14 August 1931, Page 6

The Wanganui Chronicle FRIDAY, AUGUST 14, 1931. STRIFE IN GERMANY.

r pHE outbreaks of somewhat serious strife in Germany is hardly to be wondered at. The Great War caused Germany to break with her past, but that past was but a recent emergence from a politieai nebula. The German Empire, it must be remembered, was one of the newest things of its kind in Europe. It is hard to realise that the American Commonwealth is twice the age of'the late German Empire, for that came into existence only in 1870. The German Empire was born on a philosophy of force, it went out in consequence of that philosophy. To-day, therefore, Germany is to a large extent the land of a people without a light. The older generation, that is, the generation of Germans who were brought up in pre-war Germany, therefore have no rules to hand on to the younger generation- The conduct of the past has failed, therefore it does not convince young Germany that it contains anything of value. The German who experienced the bitterness of the war years is a disillusioned man. “Of what avail,” he asks, ‘’was all the agony and waste and destruction of the war?” The return from the war was to a broken Germany, a Germany in chains from which there is small hope of release for several generations. Industries languish, unemployment increases, the standard of living sinks lower and lower. For the third time post-war Germany has had to await, cap-in-hand, for release, and even aid from other countries. \V ith the old order went the old gods, with the war went hope. Nothing is done for the old soldier. He lives in an indifferent world. To-day, however, arises the post-war German. This new youth has an empty inheritance. For twelve years there has been a and materially while, nearby, the Soviet experiment has been in progress. The history of the German people during the post-war years has been remarkable evidence of their stability. Hindenburg is still President ■ Stressemann’s foreign policy of conciliation is consistently adhered to; obligations of an onerous character have consistently been met to the point where further fulfilment became impossible and in the present state of the world Germany faces a future wherein a ray of hope is hard to discern. The condition of the German poor must be terrible indeed. Eugen Diesel, in his penetrating study “Germany and the Germans” (Macmillan’s) observed: ‘‘lt is hard to realise that some eighty-one per cent of the population have to live on an income of eighteen hundred marks per annum (under £9O) and that only 5 or 6 per cent earn from three thousand six hundred to five thousand marks (£lBO to £2501. One million seven hundred thousand families are without homes of their own, and a fifth of the whole population live in conditions which are very hotbeds of consumption, incest and every kind ot vice. In Berlin only sixty-six per cent of the severe tubercular eases have beds of their own to sleep in; the rest have to share their beds with healthy children and adults, who do not remain healthy for long in consequence. And only one consumptive in a hundred has a bedroom to himself! Every fifth child of the German cities is without a bed of its own; it has to live in poverty and sickness, immorality, dirt and coarseness. Thus millions of people exist in conditions of utter horror, in half-lit dungeons, where six or eight, or even fourteen or more, human beings are crowded together amid rats and filth. In many parts of the big towns children who do not suffer from venereal disease arc actually the exception- It sometimes happens that children are born in unheated attics only to die of cold there, and in manyslum dwellings the walls drip with damp, and everything gets covered with mould and rot. In thousands of cases one small room has to serve as workshop, kitchen, livingroom and bedroom for rhe whole family. Taking it all round, America has quite four times as much housing room for its population as Germany. The foregoing is the considered statement of a resident in Germany who finished the book, as here quoted, at 1 otsdani in August 1929. Then the German people were turning to technical improvement, and to the rationalisation of industry: in short, they were bowing down to the god of the machine and seeking succour therefrom. But aid arrived not. In December 1929, Germany’s registered unemployed totalled 2,850,849. In December 1930 it was 4,383,843. Tn February of this year ittotalled 4.97.1,843 with 34.5 of its trade unionists unemployed and 19.5 unionists practically unemployed. hi April 31.8 unionists were wholly unemployed; 18.1 partially unemployed; 2,789,627 were in receipt of unemployment benefit, while those on the unemployment register totalled 4,358,153. Devoid of a spiritual inheritance, with an almost hopeless outlook and with poverty increasing and becoming more and more intense is it to be wondered at that sporadic outbreaks do occur in Germany? The marvel is that more do not take place.