GERMANY AT WORK

Dominion, Volume 14, Issue 173, 18 April 1921, Page 5

GERMANY AT WORK

STRIKES ABOLISHED.

After an extended tour of France, Belgium, and Germany, Mr. G. S. Martin importer, of Sydney, returned to Melbourne recently. "Germany is vapidly reooveHng her commercial position, ckid Mr. Martin in the course of an interview. “There is no division of opinion on the question. . The population is working m unison. orKman and master sem to have tacitly agreed to regain their pre-war commercial supremacy. The transitory stages from war to peace conditions have already been passed, and trade is gitiduallv' expanding. Germany to-day is a huge industrial machine. Food ls still ccarce, otherwise conditions have almost returned to normal. . “The elimination of the Prussian retome ffiad wrought a marked revulsion in public feeling and aspirations. Mr Martin continued. ‘The swashbuckling bombast had entirely disappeared, nnd the dream of world dominion for the time being at any rate had give place to a devotion to hard pork. - Germany was alt work Producing «nd commercialising every availab e asset in the country,” said Mr. Martin. Much more important, from the viewpoint of ke present industrial unrest was i. io fact that there were no strikes, this was not to say, however, that German workmen had forsaken obtaining better wages . and industrial conditions. Trades unionism n Ger many was a very powerful and active organism. When differences arose between the parties a sane course was adopted. 'Shop’ committees met representatives of the owners in conference and conferred until agreement was reached In the meantime, the work vnnt on There were no slop-work meetings' It was realised by umon Wor. workman, capitalist, and manager that production was the only hope of rehabilitating the country, of saving H from chaos; that strike solved no good purpose, either to the individual or the community; and the Germans were taking full advantage cf the industrial conflicts which were affecting their competitors. No stretch of the imagination was needed to re? ult if such conditions as nou exi. ied in G-ermanv were sustained for ay length™ time. While labour umons. Governments, and private el ?P^ ye^ oTl t other countries were wrangling about wages, the German merchant was obtaining control of the new regaining the trade from which he had been entirely cut off during <1