THE DANGER-CORNER OF GERMANY

Dominion, Volume 14, Issue 61, 6 December 1920, Page 5

THE DANGER-CORNER OF GERMANY

• LIFE IN THE RUHR VALLEY

A SLEEPING REVOLUTION

A flying visit to the' Ruhr Valley, off. tho beaten track,"" gives the traveller, more insight into tho ways of. Communists and their liko than months of' Berlin (write* a. correspondent of tho London "Observer"). In the villages that cluster thicklv nlojnj a . onntrysido that was oncn beautiful, aiid still r.r.ssessos a chnrni peculiar to nothing else ■ when tho blast-furuaees'redden (he evening sky, the plotters of future revolutions stand about between shifts and shtdv Hie lurid picture-palace advertisements with, an interest . that, reveals tnem'as very young indeed. Villages in name only, several thousand inhabitants qo to make up the mining 'population that surrounds each colliery. Poles mid Germans live as peacefully as circumstances pcrinit in the same houses, and "Reds" and "'Whites" arc spoken of in as matter-of-fact a manner as though such factions, were natural to tbe German' Constitution. ~ j Otherwise, things are. much as they ; •were. The houses that suffered in thV fights of last Eastertide are patched up ugam. The approaches: to the collieries proper are still dean ana carefully . swept, with shrubs garnishing cither, side. The older men regret tho times of peace and what must be accounted plenty in comparison with latter-day prices; that still remain in advance of wages. The younger dues are a constant menace to- the peace of the com-. nvnnity, and : it seems absurd to watch these dangerous politician? streaming into-, confcclioners' shops to buy cukes' and ; sweets—often to the e-xten't of 30 • marks at a tittle—with truly child-Mko' enthusiasm. As regards, arms'and men - of revolutionary tendency in the 1 Ruhr, districts, I was not surprised to find : that such immature youths bad carefullv lftriwl , their , weapons with no thought l of their careful' preservation, and* such treasure trovo generally reveals nothing • more than good stuff rusted and spoilt. The lighter side of German homo polities is revealed, more fully thnn elsewhere in the inner workings of Betriots-' Eat (Industrial Councils). In the difficult task of mediation between- mnstora ' •and men much tact and a. sound know-: ledge of human nature is reanirod o£ men with httlo more than- a life of hard work of the least intellectual descrip-; tion behind them. Whereas most of tho: collienes>seem to be peaceful; the rail- ' way workshops present more difficulties..: In ono that I visited tho discovery of a.'. simth who. had'been using Government', time.- aud 1 Government steel to manufnc-' t turo a dozen tnblo knives for his own? uso.liodJust caused,some QKcitonieiit. The ' authorities proposed his dismissal. Tho'-'' Betnebs-Rat forbade it. As a. solution'', ot the j difficulty it .was suggested that ' the delinquent keop and pay for the results of his labour at tho current rate* demanded per hour's work. Tho BetriebsKot saw to it:that this.was carried outto the letter, and the result was that these Government knives cost their maker 50- marks apiece, or 000 marks' (£3O pro-war value.) the dozen. .Of, all councils that of the Parents', ' appointed to watch over fcho inner affairs, of every; school, is at the same rims the most, disliked and l tho- least put in practice. If. in Berlin .complaints in certain quarters have been justified, education, on the whole, is still a serious « «' °SS,. ty™Bh tuo nightmare dread or the liinjahrige" examination tbnt exempted. from a second year of military service is a. thing of tho past, ambition and tho desire for tho offspring to excelaro still characteristics of every normal German- parent. In the Ruhr ' Valley, and many towns on its outskirts complaints of tho negligence of the teaohers as- compared with former limes are heard daily. They have not been. ■?■ . to ,?? ar the interference of tho Socialist Ministers of Education, Parents' Councils and the like, and tho abatement of their own autocratic power in deciding the. child's future has led in - many, caees tp an indifference that can only be regarded as ono of despair. Parents Councils interfere, as a- general rule, only in matters of hygiene-school buildings used as barracks and the liko ■ -and complain now, not of excessive seventy, but of exactly the opposite.