GERMANS WORKING HARDER.

Taranaki Daily News, 24 September 1921, Page 10

GERMANS WORKING HARDER.

AND AT LOWER WAGES. A Remarkable Picture of the Reviving Industry of Germany, who Intends to Capture the Industrial Supremacy of Europe. London, July 24. Sir Philip Gibbs gives a remarkable account of the new spirit and the renewal of industry in Germany. “Her people are working harder than any others, at lower wages, and with more efficient organisation. They have been braced 'by defeat, whereas the victor nations, and above all Great Britain, have been slackened by victory,” he writes in the Review of Reviews. THE CHANGE IN THE PEOPLE. “When I went first into Germany after the Armistice the people seemed stupefied by what had befallen them. All their faith had been shattered by ♦i )P downfall of their armies, and they were afraid of revolution. an( { hopelessly uncertain of the future. \i;»nV of them, especially the women and -hiklren, were still suffering from the* pffeds of long under-feeding, prices of food, clothing, and other necessities of life were above the reach of working folk, demobilised soldiers were not yet assimilated into civil life, and the spirit of the people was dejected and despairing. Now in Berlin the general appearance of tin people is not miserable but cheerful, not dejected but alert and confident. One does not see crowds of listless unemployed men hanging about Labor Exchanges or rattling collecting boxes in the faces of the passers-by. One sees crowds of men stepping out briskly, obviously employed, well-dress-ed, well-fed, keen on their jobs, doing good business. KRUPP’S 5S DAY. The German working man in Krupp’s factories and others, is paid 60 marks a day. At the old value of the mark that would 'be £3. At the present value, inside Germany itself, I reckon it as 5 shillings.

For an eight hour day it works out at 7*/ 2 d an hour compared with Is 9d to 2s 6d an hour of the mechanic in Great Britain.

The German working man on 60 marks a day gets almost enough to eat (never enough meat), almost enough to support a wife and small family, almost enough to make himself satisfied with his job. By strict attention to economy he can squeeze out a few marks for the simple pleasures of his leisure hours, which consist mostly in light beer and light music in some public garden or beer-hall.

The professional classes, and the clerical classes (city clerks, typists, etc) are not so well oil’ relatively the mechanics and laborers. Whereas the cost of living has increased from 8 to 10 times, the salaries of professors, teachers, civil servants, and others have only risen from 4 to <5 times. It is they who are most pinched, and reduced to desperate straits in order ‘keep up appearances?

A NEW INDUSTRIAL ORGANISATION.

Now, upon the great mass of cheap labor German capitalists are building up a new and intensive system of industrial organisation, beyond anything the world has previously seen in efficiency and driving power. Hugo Stinnes and his great Trust, controlling a vast monopoly of coal, iron and steel, of whom there has 'been so much talk, because he represents most powerfully this new phase of German energy, is only one of a score of other magnates who practically control the whole industrial life of Germany, and are the real rulers of the State. Their method is what is described as the creation of ‘vertical’ Trusts. That is to say, by a combination and pooling of many companies in possession of raw material and industrial plant they build up an .immense production of manufactured articles which have that raw material as their basis. KRUPP’S PEACEFUL OUTPUT, Thus the great munition works of Krupp, entirely engaged in the production of guns and armaments during the war on a colossal scale, read the

lesson of defeat, and within a few months after the Armistice, adapted their plant and their organising genius in a marvellous way to the requirements of peace. They arc now making engines and machinery of all kinds, agricultural implements, cash registers, safety razors, and any kind of article in iron and steel for which there is a world market. The General Electricity Company is also developing its energy with gigantic strides, reaching out to ‘neutral’ countries and absorbing many industrial concerns of which the basis of activity is coal and iron and electrical power, in Austria, Hungary and other countries. These great Trusts are already capturing the world’s markets, and have already succeeded in recovering some of the pre-war prosperity of German trade —which is almost a miracle considering the ruin of the German economic system by the exhaustion of a bloody and unsuccessful war, the loss of colonies, shipping, and foreign property, the loss of man power, and the deterioration of machinery, railways and rolling stock. IMPORTS FALLING OFF. Amazing as all this is, however, one must not exaggerate the actual results. Germany is not rolling in wealth, as some observers have reported. Apart altogether from her international debts — leaving on one side altogether the gigantic payments of the indemnities which she has undertaken—her industry and commerce are about two-thirds normal compared with the pre-war standard. Her imports of cotton amount to nearly half of those in IQI3. Her coal output during the first four months of this year was 441 million tons compared with 57 million tons in the same period of 1913. Half the amount of pre-war tonnage (largely under foreign flags) is now coming into the port of Hamburg. IF THEY PAY. All this is a sign of industrial and commercial recovery, astounding as a proof of energy, industry, and organised efficiency, after the shock of national defeat. But those German people who have put up such a tremendous fight for their old jjace in the world are now confronted with the cessity of paying indemnities to the v.etor nations which will test their power of recovery to the uttermost and demand new and unprecedented efforts. It is not going to be easy for them to pay. If they succeed, it will be the greatest industrial adventure ever undertaken by any people in the world. To succeed they must increase their volume of exports by at least four times, which would be an achievement unrivalled in the industrial history of the w’orld. Can they do that, and if they do what will be the effect upon other nations? It has already been asked by Mr. Reginald McKenna. What will happen to British trade if Germany pays her indemnities irf the only way possible—by an immense increase of exports? The very fulfilment of her pledges will -ruin the countries receiving payment by the destruction of their own export trade. So we reach the monstrous paradox that in shouting ‘Make Germany pay!’ we were insisting upon our own ruin. The only cure for the present sickness of world trade is to return to normal conditions of imports balancing exports, and of a free and natural of trade. Condensing very briefly the| results of my visit to Berlin, it will ‘be seen that in my opinion Germany will make a serious endeavor to fulfil her pledges, and is in a fair way (if she retains the resources of her raw material in Upper Silesia and elsewhere) to capture the industrial supremacy of Europe.” TOO BAD OF GRANDMOTHER. “Grandmamma, who had fallen asleep and dropped the London Mercury on to the floor, diverted the conversation by waking up and remarking that it seemed a less interesting number than usual, on the whole, though some of the pieces of poetry were pretty.”

—From Rose Macaulay’s Dangerous Ages.