DOCILE FRITZ.

Hokitika Guardian, 15 October 1921, Page 4

DOCILE FRITZ.

DISAPPOINTED WORKERS. HER LI N. Aug. 20 •We have had revolutionary muvelIR .,US, dictated by Moscow; we have bad sectional strikes, instigated by .Moscow; we have had disturbances at Socialist meetings, incited by -Moscow," admitted Herr Sassenbacb. - Hat, now,” com|>lacently added the elo(|Uenl Labour leader, "the Hetman workmen have returned to the goo-,! old German charaeler, which does no! like unrest." . llerr l.eipait, the obviously tnlelleetttal successor to Legion in the general .tH ietniysliip of (ionium tiaao umoa-i-m coniiallv concurred in Hen Sassenbaelt’s vimv. which has. moreover, been eonlirmed to me in a dozen talks with working men. Wh.cn the revolution came and brought, a Kormli-* saddler (Herr Kltert) to the Presidency o|- the Republic they expected the millennium. Their hopes ''.ere bilLei.y disappointed, and, under the influence „f the Muscovites, they ' "manifested.” Hut their spasmed,t; strikes failed, their riots latled, am, alas! even Moseow failed; the vety natural result-being tlmt. as llerr Sassenhael, says, they "have now ictuined to the good old Gem.an ehaiuotor.

vouno workman to me at Sp.tndao. when l'-hert to power came. Socialism to power would come. Hat t’ now seems tlmt «e must longer watt. Ebert is a good tellow and does inbest, but the war has made it ilimeut for him to cany out his programme. So we wait, and, to make it eastet t< him. we must. work. Thai is "the good old German char actor”—pugnacious, yot wotulcrt ul!\ docile; hard to arouse easy to placate. Will it uphold the Republic:' I see 1 tie life-size portrait of the Kaiser slid ! truculently conspicuous in the :cm.i iI rants, and picture-postcards id the Kronpiinz in pathetic po-es in the shop windows, and —I wonder. This was * the way of U ranee. in I".”. I’ranee* scrapped Napoleon it nm ; scrapped all records ami tcmimlcts e, him. Rut, was wollen Sic, e G; mans are not Eieneh, nieht v.ahr.- I good old German character does not like unrest. PLACID GRUMBLING. There is some placid grumbling about wages. The workers tell me that thee earnings have been multiplied by t> u ami the cost of living by fourteen or fifteen. When 1 showed alt cm pi.- ‘t the ligures which, in support of >..! statement, had been given to me I workman. with a characteristic expression oi exquisite ttt hauity he denied it. The fact nevertheless remains that butter which was sold at I mark 211 pfennigs before the war non < n.-ts 2s marks • not inti I l.v 2'v-i ; milk has ji-cn from 21' plciittigs per lit * «* to -1 marks till pfennigs; ami though U* rate of exchange makes things cheap for the English visitor, the pi ices commodities to German uoikmeti must he terrible. 11l co m11 i; i-oi i with I'higlaicl, 11**1 I,* inn it ti'lL me. the shilled a .irk-a-e'm.-t ns well pi,id. I*!t: the -"'ml ! ol tin* unskilled stands at somethin'.-: 1j 1 ,,, -It p„r , .*nt .*1 I !■*• skilled men' minimum. Eniplovers tell no* that l' ~f the unskilled ..u, ol a ; I; c,. I** ■ ■ I 101 lto those ol [be -killed wo:ki* e:t and that the cl alt-loco .: c < .:: - * *,gently very discontent. I. lot discontent, said llerr Saiseii iiacli. - | <-out inn:, lly tnldtes; lug moc‘iiic-. Inn jt bn- m-vei In ail meliliom 1

Tiadi* unionism v. as not nearly a • -lye; ill Germany before the oar as with ns. in l!'l r the total nietnhef- -! ;i uas 2.1 million--. AI the mid tic war it had dwindled to about bait. N -.*, it amounts to - millions 1 Wh o I cmigi a t ilia 1 oil lien Sas-enhacb ol! this amazing increase, he shrugged hisliollldcl s, despomleli t Iv. "All il u>! gc.-d iish." he said, "that comes to the a,-t. The nev.comc;s include a gi'iet p.op ftioii ol uoi kers wlai hail pic- * iou-lv refused to join the, unions, cgoi-ts and plm-cseokers, shunter.** and hrau lets, men without cxp-.-i icni-c or i csj am si In 1 1 tv. who, by their loiidnc--. caplilicd tilt- potter. T hex bate been the cause of all our trouble- I not, the workmen an- idarning to l!c good old German cbaiacler. 'I hey >l l > not like unrest.” Il llerr Snssrnbaeli ever meets Mi IHank Hodges, they might to get on.