THE BLOCKADE OF THE TEUTON

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 85, 3 January 1918, Page 6

THE BLOCKADE OF THE TEUTON

ENEMY'S FOOD PROBLEM ANALYSED FALSE CONCEPTIONS REMOVED i (Special Correspondent of tho New York '.'Evening Post.") Zurich, October 3. —Many falso conceptions have been spread outside of Germany concerning the effect of the Allies' - blockade. Of course, an entire absence of somo products is quito impossible, in a country with considerable agriculture allied with another even more agricultural country, Aus-tria-Hungary, ,and having the possibility of smuggling some overseas materials from neighbouring neutrals, and getting other materials, though ill very limited quantities, from Asia, Turkey, and Bulgaria. If Germany and her allied Central Powers were not at war, using the bulk of their male population for non-productivo purposes in the trenches, they would never suffer to any appreciable extent from, tho blockade, as by employing sufficient millions of hands, the territory of the Central Powers,' including Asia Minor and Syria, would eventually be able' to produce practically all that is needed for maintaining economic life. Of course, a blockade without war would ruin Germany, in so far as she is an exporting industrial country; but it would not destroy her in the primitive functions of maintaining the economic life of the population. Under these conditions the principal cause of the scarcity of many goods in Germany is the fact that through the lack of, overseas imports many needs of the population can only be satisfied through waste of human labour. Meanwhile the war creates a scarcity of la-

bour-aiid uses the rest Of it tor producing war material, which is economically valueless. This statement explains why tho Allies' blockado becomes more and more effective al?o in those branches of German economic life, such as coal, iron, transportation, etc., in which Germany was always, quite independent of any foreign country. In principle, every "Ersatz" (substitute) of an artificial product for a natural product means a. waste of labour or at least. a waste of existing raw material for another purpose than for which it was hitherto used. Germany meets the blockade through this famous "Ersatz" system, that is to say, meets the blockade by waste of human labour and existing materials. Therefore, .it happens ill Germany that many articles which, before the war, were never imported in any considerable quantity, have become scarce. That is especially the consequence of the vain attempts of finding substitutes for most of the urgently desired foreign raw materials and foodstuffs.

Feeding the Cattle. A similar processonay be observed in the problem of feeding tho population. German and partly alsti Ausr trian agrarians only produced tliose articles which were most profitably produced in Central Europe. They occupied themselves with breeding and fattening animals, usmg imported lod_der. Thus they had their own 'production of graiii, meat, milk, butter, cheeso, and all kinds of foodstuff for the population. At the moment the blockade lasted longer than anticipated, the problem of feeding the stock became acute.

If Germany bad not been at war,. the blockade would liavo had the-clfect of incraasing prices of meat, milk, and other animal products to sucii an extent that the lower classes would mostly have had to consume vegetarian products. There is no doubt that the German and Austro-Hungarian soil is quite sufficient for feeding 120 million inhabitants, if the majority were largely vegetarians. But Germany is at war. Most of the male population as soldiers or munition workers arc forced to s consume concentrated food, and such concentrated food is, of course, not vegetarian Iflit animal food. Consequently, the commanders of the Army and the directors of the munition factories demanded cattle and animal products, fats especially, for the soldiers and workmen, and offered high prices for them. The soil of Germany and .Austria has not only to sustain 120 millions of 'people, but also 40 pillions of cattle, 3(J millions of pigs, and about 10 millions of other animals; This necessity, caused entirely by the l'aet that practically the whole male population of the.Central Powers is fed by the. Government, which wants to give them concentrated meat- food, destroyed all projects and all_ plans of economists, who calculated quite correctly that tlie German and Austro-Hungarian soil was well fitted for producing sufficient calories io feed t,he population.

At the same time, the scarcity of male labour on the farms caused a preference for cattle-raising to that of other branches of agriculture, as cattleraising needs less men. Considering all these facts, it is seen that the food crisis in Germany is mostly due to the impossibility of maintaining a normal economy in a belligerent country, and further due to the fact that all plans for replacing materials (Ersatzstolfe) and the better organisation of distribution must automatically fail, when it is not possible to waste home raw materials and human labour.

How a Food Crisis is Felt. . The form in which a food crisis is felt by the population is variable. The • system.of organisation and equal distribution was a failure, as there was no possibility of compelling the farmers to produce just these kinds of focdstuffs necessary for the general distribution'. As soon as" a certain foodstuff was requisitioned and equally distributed, the producer turned to the produc- . tion of other articles which were still free. The popular. ironical expression for this is "wegorgamsieren," that is to organise away. People observed that the equal .distribution of any article led automatically to its disappearance from the market. This, of course, applied especially to tiiose foodstuffs produced on smaller farms, where the only male labourer ;s the owner, who ;n 80 per cent, of tiie cases is now a soldier in the field. On the big farms, the cheap labour of two millions of prisoners and all kinds of governmental subventions have prevented the stoppage of production even when the produce was organised. . ... Consequently in spite of organisation, that is, total requisition combined with equal distribution, the prices also of those articles officially regulated ha\e risen enormously, l'or about eighteen months now the food crisis lias consisted of the permanent series or cr.ses in various articles. An article is free, the price is high, and only the ] privileged classes are able to buy it. The populace claims its equal distiiljution. It is requisitioned, the production stops, and several months later the governmental ccntral office m st pay for the article far more than the price before the introduction o. regulation This game is repeated for one article after the other without any oxception. There is no escape from tlio two eventualities, namely, open market, sufficient production, but high prices, which automatically exclude the majority of the people from the consumption, or tfce second eventuality: low prices, equal distribution, but immediate decrease, often even stoppago of the production. In this case, tho office must "stimulate the production and offer enormous prices. The latter happens especially when not only tho central office for rationing tho civil

population) but also wlion the military ! authorities act as buyers for their article. In such a case, the military authorities defeat tho well-meaning intentions of the civil authorities and olfer enormous prices. Violation of Pries Rules. Since tho beginning of tho series of munition strikes in the spring of 1917, not only tho military authorities, but also tho managers ot the big munition factories liavo violated the prico rales of tho civil authorities and. offer nonsensical prices for the articles in order to have food to satisfy their striking workmen. • The greater the percentage of male population led by the military authorities, and the greater tho percentage of the munition workers maintaining their permanent strike threats, tlie more the authorities are obliged to pay higher prices for tiic various articles. In this way, salaries also in I lie non-war industries must be raised and tho increase in tho cost of living becomes general. The high prices aro general, widely spread, but 110 inducement and no cliancc of' prolit is sufficient for increasing tho production, so that tho human population as well as tlie live stock of the Central Powers can live. There is no chance for tho German organisers escaping lrom this terrible dilemma, tho impossibility of maintaining the food supply of the nation.

I add a list of prices of tho annual report of the big co-operntive stores afc Leipzig comparing the prices of foodstuffs bofor.e the war with those of June, 1917. From this list it is also obvious that these articles produced by prisoners on the big farms have not increased so much in pricc as those articles produced by "the owners of small farms and by the provision industry:—

. Before the 1917. war. Mark. Mark. Marmalade I (lb.) 1.40 0.45 Mixed refined sugar (lb.) 0.32 0.20 Artificial honey (lb.) 0.55 0.35 Syrup (lb.) 0.35 0.20 fiauerkraut (lb.) 0.16 0.04 Coffee, E0% genuine (lb.) 2.20 ■ Coffee, 25% genuine (lb.)' 1.40 Coffee, 10% genuino (lb.) 0.92 Coffee, entirely artificial (lb.) 0.60 0.34 Onions (lb.) '• 0.20 O.OJ Salad oil (lb.) 3.50 1.C0 Herrings (lb.) '■■■■■ 1-20 0.20 Bloaters (apiece) ;... 0.90 0.05 Bloaters (apiece) 0.60 0.M S9d-hcrrings lapieccj 0.90 0.15 ried b<;a,n6 (lb.) 0.43 0.21 Condensed milk with eugar (box) J-55 Eggs (apiece) 0.32 0.0/ Soap (lb.) J-j® J-'" Butter I (lb.) 2.90 1.20 Wheat-dour (lb.) 0.26 0.20 Margarine (lb.) 200 0.M Limburger cheese (lb.) 0.90 D.50 Hog's lard (lb.) 4.24 0.90 Grits of wheat (lb.) 0.45 0.20 Macaroni, Wasser Teigwarcn (lb.) 0.51 0.35 Bread (lb.) 545 S'lo Shredded barley (lb.) 0.30 O.ia ! Oat products, open (lb.) 0.44 0.3a 1 Oat products, in packets 0.56 0.45 I Potato-flakes (lb.) J-JJJ Potato-starch flour (lb.) 0.27 0.1b Potatoes (lb.) 0.10 0.03