The Poor of Berlin

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXXIII, Issue 16, 20 April 1905, Page 30

The Poor of Berlin

A correspondent of the London ' Daily Mail ' has been investigating the labor conditions in the various cities of Europe. He was especially struck with the rarity of poverty in Berlin. ' Are there no poor in the city ?' he asked a substantial citizen. ' Are you altogether without rags and wretchedness V IMy dear friend,' said the German, winking a heavy eyelid, ' we are a \ery de\er people. We do not show aur dast bins.' Berlin is ruled by municipal experts. It has its wretchedness and its despair, but these things are H(?t permitted to increase. To be out of work in Berlin is a crime, ovon as it is in London, but with this difference— m Berlin the municipality legislates for labor in a fashion whi?ch makes idleness all but indefen;.ibie. f lhe laws to this end may not commend themselves to English minds, for the Germans are soft-hearted in such matters, but they have this engaging recommendation, they succeed. Let a ragged men apl^ear in FriodxkJh-stnasse or the Lindens or any of the numerous open S'jVa.'es, and a policemain is at him in a minute. ' Yo.t pauexs I '!' demands the man of law. The beggar pnMtices his documents. If it is proved that he has slept in an asyham for the homeless more than a cerlam numibcr of nights he is forthwith conducted, wil-ly-nilly, to the workhouse and'niiade to labor for his board and lodging. Now the workhouse in Germany is not a prison, but tihe \agrant would as lief gp to the one as to the other. I>he administration of the workhouse is conducted with iron severity. Every ounce of bread and c . cry drop of thin saup consumed by the workhouse man is ,paid for a thousandfold by the sweat of his brow. So it becomes about that the man least disyioscid to work, the born vagabond, funds it more agrecia'lle to toil for his bread in the market than to fall frito the hands of a paternal government. Berlin takes advantage of the system in Germany which ni.mbcre and tickets every cfliild born in tine fatherland. No man can roam from district to district chanting "his name and lus life's story with e 1 cty fititmg. He is know<n to the police from the hour of his Lirth to the hour of his death. For a few pfennings I can read the history of every person i"n Berlin. Therefore tihe mujnicipaWty has an easy task. Evefcy citizen's life story is l<nown to them, anil eery vagrant is punished for his crime agjunst the community. M,t»ruoi\or, every perstotti of bumble m<}ans is insured by tihe state. Even clerks, shop assistants and servants are compelled to insure against sickness ay/da v /d agiainst oHI age. This insurance is effected by the pa-sting into a book of certain stamps every week, and it is the duty of each employer to see that this contra/'t is faithfully obeyed. And the state has at Beclit/ an enormous sajutorium costing 10,000,000 marikfc (£500,009), whore the individual citi'en is sent with his pension in order to expedite his valuable return to the ran' s of the wage earners. It pays the city of Berlin to nurse it:s sick and ohe/riah its invalids. The whole oh ect of the municipality is to secure the ]lmioal and intellectual well being of its citizens, and <>n this tas'lv it concentrates its labors with amazing energy.