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diff --git a/40628-0.txt b/40628-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..9aeb41e --- /dev/null +++ b/40628-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,10261 @@ +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 40628 *** + +Note: Project Gutenberg also has an HTML version of this + file which includes the original illustrations. + See 40628-h.htm or 40628-h.zip: + (http://www.gutenberg.org/files/40628/40628-h/40628-h.htm) + or + (http://www.gutenberg.org/files/40628/40628-h.zip) + + + Images of the original pages are available through + Internet Archive. See + http://archive.org/details/ironrationthreey00schriala + + + + + +THE IRON RATION + +by + +GEORGE ABEL SCHREINER + + +[Illustration: Photograph from Henry Ruschin + +AUSTRIAN SOLDIER IN CARPATHIANS GIVING HUNGRY YOUNGSTER SOMETHING TO EAT + +Moved by the misery of the civilian population the soldiers will often +share their rations with them. An Austrian soldier in this case shares +his food with a boy in a small town in the Carpathian Mountains, +Hungary.] + + +THE IRON RATION + +Three Years in Warring Central Europe + +by + +GEORGE ABEL SCHREINER + +Illustrated + + + + + + + +[Illustration] + +Harper & Brothers Publishers +New York and London + +THE IRON RATION + +Copyright, 1918, by Harper & Brothers +Printed in the United States of America +Published February, 1918 + + + + + TO MY FRIEND + DR. JEROME STONBOROUGH + MAN--SCHOLAR--PHILANTHROPIST + + + + +TABLE OF CONTENTS + + + I WAR HITS THE LARDER OF GERMANY 1 + II WHEN LORD MARS HAD RULED THREE MONTHS 22 + III THE MIGHTY WAR PURVEYOR 34 + IV FAMINE COMES TO STAY 56 + V THE FOOD SHARK AND HIS WAYS 70 + VI THE HOARDERS 93 + VII IN THE HUMAN SHAMBLES 115 + VIII PATRIOTISM AND A CRAVING STOMACH 131 + IX SUB-SUBSTITUTING THE SUBSTITUTE 144 + X THE CRUMBS 161 + XI MOBILIZING THE PENNIES 173 + XII SHORTAGE SUPREME 195 + XIII "GIVE US BREAD!" 213 + XIV SUBSISTING AT THE PUBLIC CRIB 245 + XV THE WEAR AND TEAR OF WAR 265 + XVI THE ARMY TILLS 275 + XVII WOMAN AND LABOR IN WAR 293 + XVIII WAR AND MASS PSYCHOLOGY 305 + XIX SEX MORALITY AND WAR 325 + XX WAR LOANS AND ECONOMY 353 + XXI THE AFTERMATH 368 + + + + +ILLUSTRATIONS + + + AUSTRIAN SOLDIER IN CARPATHIANS GIVING + HUNGRY YOUNGSTER SOMETHING TO EAT _Frontispiece_ + + PROVING-GROUND OF THE KRUPP WORKS AT + ESSEN _Facing p._ 30 + + A LEVY OF FARMER BOYS OFF FOR THE + BARRACKS " 66 + + GERMAN CAVALRYMEN AT WORK PLOWING " 66 + + STREET SCENE AT EISENBACH, SOUTHERN + GERMANY " 96 + + CASTLE HOHENZOLLERN " 188 + + TRAVELING-KITCHEN IN BERLIN " 260 + + STREET TRAM AS FREIGHT CARRIER " 260 + + WOMEN CARRYING BRICKS AT BUDAPEST " 296 + + VILLAGE SCENE IN HUNGARY " 296 + + SCENE IN GERMAN SHIP-BUILDING YARD " 378 + + + + +PREFACE + + +"The Iron Ration" is the name for the food the soldier carries in his +"pack" when in the field. It may be eaten only when the commanding +officer deems this necessary and wise. When the iron ration is released, +no command that the soldier should eat is necessary. He is hungry +then--famished. Usually by that time he has been on half, third, and +quarter ration. The iron ration is the last food in sight. There may be +more to-morrow. But that is not the motive of the commander for +releasing the food. What he has to deal with is the fact that his men +are on the verge of exhaustion. + +The population of the states known as the Central Powers group of +belligerents being in a position similar to that of the soldiers +consuming their iron ration, I have chosen the designation of this +emergency meal as title for a book that deals with life in Central +Europe as influenced by the war. + +That life has been paid little attention by writers. The military +operations, on the one hand, and the scarcity of food, on the other, +have been the cynosures. How and to what extent these were related, and +in what manner they were borne by the public, is not understood. Seen +from afar, war and hunger and all that relates to them, form so +bewildering a mosaic in somber colors that only a very general +impression is gained of them. + +I have pictured here the war time life of Central Europe's social and +political aggregates. Of that life the struggle for bread was the major +aspect. The words of the Lord's Prayer--"Give us our daily bread"--came +soon to have a great meaning to the people of Central Europe. That cry +was addressed to the government, however. Food regulation came as the +result of it. What that regulation was is being shown here. + +It will be noticed that I have given food questions a great deal of +close attention. The war-time life of Central Europe could not be +portrayed in any other manner. All effort and thought was directed +toward the winning of the scantiest fare. Men and women no longer strove +for the pleasures of life, but for the absolute essentials of living. +During the day all labored and scrambled for food, and at night men and +women schemed and plotted how to make the fearful struggle easier. + +To win even a loaf of bread became difficult. It was not alone a +question of meeting the simplest wants of living by the hardest of +labor; the voracity of the tax collector and the rapacity of the war +profiteer came to know no bounds. Morsels had to be snatched out of the +mouth of the poor to get revenue for the war and the pound of flesh for +the Shylocks. + +So intense was that struggle for bread that men and women began to look +upon all else in life as wholly secondary. A laxness in sex matters +ensued. The mobilizations and the loss of life incident to the war +aggravated this laxity. + +But these are things set out in the book. Here I will say that war is +highly detrimental to all classes of men and women. When human society +is driven to realize that nothing in life counts when there is no food, +intellectual progress ceases. When bread becomes indeed the irreducible +minimum, the mask falls and we see the human being in all its nakedness. + +Were I presumptuous enough to say so, I might affirm that this book +contains the truth, nothing but the truth, and the whole truth about +Germany and Central Europe. I have the necessary background for so bold +a statement. I know the German language almost perfectly. German +literature, tradition and thought, and I are no strangers. Three years +of contact as newspaper-man with all that is German and Central European +provided all the opportunities for observation and study one could wish +for. And the flare of the Great War was illumining my field, bringing +into bold relief the bad, which had been made worse, and the good, which +had been made better. + +But there is no human mind that can truthfully and unerringly encompass +every feature and phase of so calamitous a thing as the part taken in +the European War by the Central Powers group of belligerents. I at least +cannot picture to myself such a mind. Much less could I claim that I +possessed it. + +What I have written here is an attempt to mirror truthfully the +conditions and circumstances which raised throughout Central Europe, a +year after the war had begun, the cry in city, town, village, and +hamlet, "Give us bread!" + +During the first two months of the European War I was stationed at The +Hague for the Associated Press of America. I was then ordered to Berlin, +and later was given _carte blanche_ in Austria-Hungary, Roumania, +Bulgaria, and Turkey. When military operations, aside from the great +fronts in Central Europe, had lost much of the public's interest, I +returned to Germany and Austria-Hungary, giving thereafter the Balkans +and Turkey such attention as occasional trips made possible. In the +course of three years I saw _every_ front, and had the most generous +opportunities to become familiar with the subject treated in this +book--life in Central Europe as it was amidst war and famine. + +You will meet here most of the personages active in the guiding of +Central Europe's destiny--monarchs, statesmen, army leaders, and those +in humbler spheres. You will also meet the lowly. Beside the rapacious +beasts of prey stand those upon whom they fed. Prussianism is +encountered as I found it. I believe the Prussianism I picture is the +real Prussianism. + +The ways of the autocrat stand in no favor with me, and, being somewhat +addicted to consistency, I have borne this in mind while writing. The +author can be as autocratic as the ruler. His despotism has the form of +stuffing down others' throats his opinions. Usually he thinks himself +quite as infallible as those whose acts he may have come to criticize. +But since the doctrine of infallibility is the mainstay of all that is +bad and despotic in thought as well as in government, we can well afford +to give it a wide berth. If the German people had thought their +governments--there are many governments in Germany--less infallible they +would not have tolerated the absolutism of the Prussian Junker. To that +extent responsibility for the European War must rest on the shoulders of +the people--a good people, earnest, law-abiding, thrifty, unassuming, +industrious, painstaking, temperate, and charitable. + +Some years ago there was a struggle between republicanism and monarchism +on the South African veldt. I was a participant in that--on the +republican side. I grant that our government was not as good as it might +have been. I grant that our republic was in reality a paternal +oligarchy. Yet there was the principle of the thing. The Boers preferred +being _burghers_--citizens--to being subjects. The word _subject_ +implies government ownership of the individual. The word _citizen_ means +that, within the range of the prudently possible, the individual is +co-ordinate instead of subordinated. That may seem a small cause to some +for the loss of 11,000 men and 23,000 women and children, which the +Boers sustained in defense of that principle. And yet that same cause +led to the American Revolution. For that same cause stood Washington, +Jefferson, and Lincoln. For that same cause stands every good American +to-day--my humble self included. + + S. + + NEW YORK, _January, 1918_. + + + + +THE IRON RATION + + + + +THE IRON RATION + + + + +I + +WAR HITS THE LARDER OF GERMANY + + +Press and government in the Entente countries were sure that Germany and +Austria-Hungary could be reduced by hunger in some six months after the +outbreak of the European War. The newspapers and authorities of the +Central Powers made sport of this contention at first, but sobered up +considerably when the flood of contraband "orders in privy council" +began to spill in London. At first conditional contraband became +contraband. Soon non-contraband became conditional contraband, and not +long after that the British government set its face even against the +import into Germany of American apples. That was the last straw, as some +thought. The end of contraband measures was not yet, however. It was not +long before the neutrals of Europe, having physical contact with the +Central Powers, were to find out that they could not export food to +Germany without having to account for it. + +Small wonder then that already in September of 1914 it was asserted that +the elephants of the Berlin Zoo had been butchered for their meat. I was +then stationed at The Hague, as correspondent for an American +telegraphic news service, and had a great deal to do with the "reports" +of the day. It was my business to keep the American public as reliably +informed as conditions permitted. + +I did not publish anything about the alleged butchering of elephants and +other denizens of the Berlin zoological establishments, knowing full +well that these stories were absurd. And, then, I was not in the +necessary frame of mind to look upon elephant steak as others did. Most +people harbor a sort of prejudice against those who depart from what is +considered a "regular" bill of fare. We sniff at those whom we suspect +of being hippophagians, despite the fact that our hairier ancestors made +sitting down to a fine horse roast an important feature of their +religious ceremonies. I can't do that any longer since circumstances +compelled me once to partake of mule. Nor was it good mule. Lest some be +shocked at this seeming perversity, I will add that this happened during +the late Anglo-Boer War. + +The statement, especially as amended, should serve as an assurance that +I am really qualified to write on food in war-time, and no Shavianism is +intended, either. + +Food conditions in Germany interested me intensely. Hunger was expected +to do a great deal of fighting for the Allies. I was not so sure that +this conclusion was correct. Germany had open-eyedly taken a chance with +the British blockade. That left room for the belief that somebody in +Germany had well considered this thing. + +But the first German food I saw had a peculiar fascination for me, for +all that. Under the glass covers standing on the buffet of a little +restaurant at Vaalsplatz I espied sandwiches. Were they real sandwiches, +or "property" staged for my special benefit? It was generally believed +in those days that the Germans had brought to their border towns all the +food they had in the empire's interior, so that the Entente agents would +be fooled into believing that there was plenty of food on hand. + +Vaalsplatz is the other half of Vaals. The two half towns make up one +whole town, which really is not a whole town, because the Dutch-German +border runs between the two half towns. But the twin communities are +very neighborly. I suspected as much. For that reason the presence of +the sandwiches in Vaalsplatz meant nothing. What assurance had I that, +when they saw me coming, the sandwiches were not rushed across the +border and into Germany, so that I might find the fleshpots of Egypt +where the gaunt specter of famine was said to have its lair? + +This is the manner in which the press agents of starvation used to work +in those days. And the dear, gullible public, never asking itself once +whether it was possible to reduce almost overnight to starvation two +states that were not far from being economically self-contained, +swallowed it all--bait, hook, line, and sinker. + +My _modus operandi_ differed a little from this. I bought three of the +sandwiches for ten pfennige--two and a quarter cents American--apiece, +and found them toothsome morsels, indeed. The discovery was made, also, +that German beer was still as good as it always had been. + +My business on that day took me no farther into Germany than the +cemetery that lies halfway between Vaalsplatz and Aix-la-Chapelle. There +I caught on the wing, as it were, the man I was looking for, and then +smuggled him out of the country as my secretary. + +I had seen no other food but the sandwiches, and as I jumped from the +speeding trolley-car I noticed that they were digging a grave in the +cemetery. Ah! Haven of refuge for a famine victim! + +I said something of that sort to the man I was smuggling into Holland. +Roger L. Lewis looked at me with contempt and pity in his eyes, as the +novelist would say. + +"Are you crazy?" he asked. "Why, the Germans have more food than is good +for them. They are a nation of gluttons, in fact." + +With Mr. Lewis going to London I could not very well write of the +sandwiches and the grave in the cemetery. These things were undeniable +facts. I had seen them. But the trouble was that they were not related +to each other and had with life only those connections they normally +have. The famine-booster does not look at things in that light, though. + +Four weeks later I was in Berlin. The service had sent me there to get +at the bottom of the famine yarns. There seemed to be something wrong +with starvation. It was not progressing rapidly enough, and I was to see +to what extent the Entente economists were right. + +In a large restaurant on the Leipzigerstrasse in Berlin I found a very +interesting bill of fare and a placard speaking of food. The menu was +generous enough. It offered the usual assortment of _hors-d'oeuvre_, +soup, fish, _entrée_, _relevée_, roasts, cold meats, salads, vegetables, +and sweetmeats. + +On the table stood a basket filled with dinner rolls. The man was +waiting for my order. + +But to give an order seemed not so simple. I was trying to reconcile the +munificence of the dishes list with the legend on the placard. That +legend said--heavy black letters on white cardboard, framed by broad +lines of scarlet red: + + +--------------------------------------------+ + | | + | SAVE THE FOOD! | + | | + | The esteemed patrons of this establishment | + | are requested not to eat unnecessarily. Do | + | not eat two dishes if one is enough! | + | | + | THE MANAGEMENT. | + | | + +--------------------------------------------+ + +It was my first day in Berlin, and having that very morning, at +Bentheim, on the Dutch-German border, run into a fine piece of German +thoroughness and regard for the law, I was at a loss what to do under +the circumstances. While I knew that the management of the restaurant +could not have me arrested if I picked more than two dishes, I had also +ascertained that the elephant steak was a fable. I was not so sure that +ordering a "regular" dinner might not give offense. That is the sort of +feeling you have on the first day in a country at war. I had seen so +many war proclamations of the government, all in heavy black and red on +white, that the restaurant placard really meant more to me than was +necessary. + +I asked the waiter to come to my assistance. Being a native of the +country, he would know, no doubt, how far I could go. + +"You needn't pay any attention to that sign, sir!" he said. "Nobody does +any more. You can order anything you like--as many dishes as you +please." + +I wanted to know whether the placard was due to a government regulation. + +"Not directly, sir. The government has advised hotels and restaurants to +economize in food. The management here wanted to do its share, of +course, and had these signs printed. At first our patrons minded them. +But now everybody is falling back into the old eating habits, and the +management wants to make all the money it can, of course." + +The war was then about two months old. + +What the waiter said was enough for me. I ordered accordingly and +during dinner had much of the company of the serving-man. It seemed that +to a great deal of natural shrewdness he had added, in the course of +much traveling, a fair general education. When I left the restaurant I +was richer by a good picture of food conditions in Berlin, as these had +been influenced up to that moment by the intentions of the Prussian +government. + +So far the authorities had done very little to "regulate" food +questions, though problems were already in sight and had to be dealt +with by the poor of the city. That economy had to be practised was +certain even then. The government had counseled economy in consumption, +and various patriotic societies and institutions of learning had given +advice. But actual interference in public subsistence matters had so far +not taken place. + +The German government had tried to meet the English "business-as-usual" +with a policy of "eating-as-usual." It was felt that cutting down on +food might put a damper on the war spirit. To be enthusiastic when +hungry may be possible for the superman. It is hard work for the +come-and-go kind of citizen. + +Nor had anybody found cause to abandon the notion that the European War +would not last long. True enough, the western front had been congealed +by Marshal Joffre, but there was then no reason to believe that it would +not again be brought into flux, in which case it was hoped that the +German general staff would give to the world a fine picture of swift +and telling offensive in open-field operations. After that the war was +to be over. + +Of the six months which the war was to last, according to plans that +existed in the mouths of the gossips, two were past now, and still the +end was not in sight. An uncomfortable feeling came upon many when +seclusion undraped reality. That much I learned during my first week at +the German capital. + +I must mention here that I speak German almost perfectly. Armed in this +manner, I invaded markets and stores, ate to-day in the super-refined +halls of the Adlon and shared to-morrow a table with some hackman, and +succeeded also in gaining _entrée_ into some families, rich, +not-so-rich, and poor. + +In the course of three weeks I had established to my own satisfaction, +and that of the service, that while as yet there could be no question of +food shortage in Germany, there would soon come a time when +waists--which were not thin then by any means--would shrink. The +tendency of food prices was upward, and, as they rose, more people +increased the consumption of food staples, especially bread. Since these +staples were the marrow of the country's economic organism, something +would have to be done soon to limit their consumption to the absolutely +necessary. + +The first step in that direction was soon to be taken. +War-bread--_Kriegsbrot_--made its appearance. It was more of a staff of +life than had been believed, despite its name. To roughly 55 per cent. +of rye was added 25 per cent. of wheat and 20 per cent. of potato meal, +sugar, and shortening. The bread was very palatable, and the potato +elements in it prevented its getting stale rapidly. It tasted best on +the third day, and on trips to the front I have kept the bread as long +as a week without noticing deterioration. + +But the German had lived well in the past and it was not easy to break +him of the habits he had cultivated under a superabundance of food. The +thing had gone so far that when somebody wanted to clean an expensive +wall-paper the baker would be required to deliver a dozen hot loaves of +wheat bread, which, cut into halves lengthwise, would then be rubbed +over the wall-paper--with excellent results as regards the appearance of +the room and the swill-barrel from which the pigs were fed. + +On this subject I had a conversation with a woman of the upper class. +She admitted that she herself had done it. The paper was of the best +sort and so pleasing to her eyes that she could not bear having it +removed when discolored from exposure to light and dust. + +"It was sinful, of course," she said. "I believe the Good Book says that +bread should not be wasted, or something to that effect. Well, we had +grown careless. I am ashamed when I think of it. My mother would have +never permitted that. But everybody was doing it. It seems now that we +are about to pay for our transgressions. All Germany was fallen upon +the evil ways that come from too much prosperity. From a thrifty people +we had grown to be a luxury-loving one. The war will do us good in that +respect. It will show us that the simple life is to be preferred to the +kind we have been leading for some twenty years now." + +Then the countess resumed her knitting, and spoke of the fact that she +had at the front six sons, one son-in-law, and four automobiles. + +"But what troubles me most is that my estates have been deprived of so +many of their laborers and horses that I may not be able to attend +properly to the raising of crops," she continued. "My superintendents +write me that they are from two to three weeks behind in plowing and +seeding. The weather isn't favorable, either. What is going to happen to +us in food matters, if this war _should_ last a year? Do you think it +_will_ last a year?" + +I did not know, of course. + +"You ought to know the English very well," said the countess. "Do you +think they really mean to starve us out?" + +"They will if the military situation demands this, madame," I replied. +"Your people will make a mistake if they overlook the tenacity of that +race. I am speaking from actual experience on the South African plains. +You need expect no let-up from the English. They may blunder a great +deal, but they always have the will and the resources to make good their +mistakes and profit by them, even if they cannot learn rapidly." + +The countess had thought as much. + +I gained a good insight into German food production a few days later, +while I was the guest of the countess on an estate not far from Berlin. + +The fields there were being put to the best possible use under intensive +farming, though their soil had been deprived of its natural store of +plant nutriment centuries ago. + +I suppose the estate was poor "farmland" already when the first crops +were being raised in New England. But intelligent cultivation, and, +above all, rational fertilizing methods, had always kept it in a fine +state of production. The very maximum in crops was being obtained almost +every year. Trained agriculturists superintended the work, and, while +machinery was being employed, none of it was used in departments where +it would have been the cause of a loss in production--something against +which the ease-loving farmer is not always proof. + +The idea was to raise on the area all that could be raised, even if the +net profit from a less thorough method of cultivation would have been +just as big. Inquiry showed that the agrarian policy of the German +government favored this course. The high protective tariff, under which +the German food-producer operated, left a comfortable profit margin no +matter how good the crops of the competitor might be. Since Germany +imported a small quantity of food even in years when bumper crops came, +large harvests did not cause a depression in prices; they merely kept +foreign foodstuffs out of the country and thereby increased the trade +balance in favor of Germany. + +Visiting some small farms and villages in the neighborhood of the +estate, I found that the example set by the scientifically managed _Gut_ +of the countess was being followed everywhere. The agrarian policy of +the government had wiped out all competition between large and small +producers, and so well did the village farmers and the estate-managers +get along that the _Gut_ was in reality a sort of agricultural +experiment station and school farm for those who had not studied +agriculture at the seats of learning which the bespectacled +superintendents of the countess had attended. + +I began to understand why Germany was able to virtually grow on an area +less than that of the State of Texas the food for nearly seventy million +people, and then leave to forestry and waste lands a quarter of that +area. There was also the explanation why Germany was able to export +small quantities of rye and barley, in exchange for the wheat she could +not raise herself profitably. The climate of northern Germany is not +well suited for the growing of wheat. If it were, Germany would not +import any wheat, seeing that the area now given to the cultivation of +sugar-beets and potatoes could be cut down much without affecting home +consumption. As it is, the country exported before the war almost a +third of her sugar production, and much of the alcohol won from potatoes +entered the foreign market either in its raw state or in the form of +manufactured products. + +But the war had put a crimp into this fine scheme. Not only was the +estate short-handed and short of animal power, but in the villages it +was no better. Some six million men had then been mobilized, and of this +number 28 per cent. came directly from the farms, and another 14 per +cent. had formerly been engaged in food production and distribution +also. To fill the large orders of hay, oats, and straw for the army, the +cattle had to be kept on the meadows--pastures in the American sense of +the word are but rarely found in overcrowded Europe--and that would lead +to a shortage in stable manure, the most important factor in +soil-fertilizing. + +The outlook was gloomy enough and quite a contrast to the easy war +spirit which still swayed the city population. + +Interviews with a goodly number of German government officials and men +connected with the Prussian Ministry of Agriculture confirmed the +impressions I had gained in the course of my food investigation. For the +time being, there was enough of everything. But that was only for the +time being. + +Public subsistence depends in a large measure on the products of animal +industry. There is the dairy, for instance. While cows can live on +grass, they will not give much or good milk if hay and grass are not +supplemented by fat-making foods. Of such feed Germany does not produce +enough, owing to climatic conditions. Indian corn will not ripen in +northern Europe, and cotton is out of the question altogether. In the +past, Indian corn had been imported from Hungary, Roumania, and the +United States mostly, and cotton-seed products had been brought in from +the United States also. Roumania still continued to sell Indian corn +during the first months of the war, but Great Britain had put +cotton-seed cake and the like under the ban of contraband. If the +bread-basket was not as yet hung high, the crib certainly began to get +very much out of reach. + +One day, then, I found that every advertisement "pillar" in the streets +of Berlin called loudly for two things--the taking of an animal census +throughout Prussia, and the advice that as many pigs as possible should +be killed. Poor porkers! It was to be wide-open season for them soon. + +Gently, ever so gently, the Prussian and other German state governments +were beginning to put the screws on the farming industry--the thing they +had nursed so well. No doubt the thing hurt. But there was no help. +Animal feed was discovered to be short. The authorities interfered with +the current of supply and demand for the first time. Feed Commissions +and Fodder Centrals were established, and after that the farmer had to +show cause why he should get the amount of feed he asked for. The +innovation recoiled on the lowliest first--among them the pigs. + +Into them and upon them had been heaped a great deal of fat by +purposeful feeding with an ulterior motive. The porkers stood well in +the glory for which they are intended. But the lack of fattening feed +would soon cause them to live more or less on their own stores of fat. +That had to be prevented, naturally. By many, a butchered +two-hundred-pound porker is thought to be better than a live razorback. +The knife began its deadly work--the slaughter of the porcine innocents +was on. + +To the many strange cults and castes that exist we must add the German +village butcher. He is busy only when the pork "crop" comes in, but +somehow he seems to defy the law that only continued practice makes +perfect. He works from November to February of each year, but when the +next season comes he is as good as before, seemingly. + +But in 1914 the village butcher was busy at the front. Thus it came that +men less expert were in charge of the conservation of pork products. The +result could have been foreseen, but it was not. The farmers, eager not +to lose an ounce of fat, and not especially keen to feed their +home-raised grain to the animals, had their pigs butchered. That was +well enough, in a way. But the tons of sausages that were made, and the +thousands of tons of pickled and smoked hams, shoulders, sides-of-bacon, +and what not, had been improperly cured in many cases, and vast +quantities of them began to spoil. + +It was now a case of having no pigs and also no pork. + +The case deserves special attention for the reason that it is the first +crevasse that appeared in the levee that was to hold back the high-flood +of inflated prices and food shortage. + +The affair of the porkers did not leave the German farmers in the best +frame of mind. They had needlessly sacrificed a goodly share of their +annual income. The price of pork fell to a lower level than had been +known in twenty years, and meanwhile the farmer was beginning to buy +what he needed in a market that showed sharp upward curves. To this was +being added the burden of war taxation. + +But even that was not all. Coming in close contact with the Berlin +authorities, I had been able to judge the quality of their efforts for +the saving of food. I had learned, for instance, that the Prussian and +other state governments never intended to order the killing of the pigs. +The most that was done by them was to advise the farmers and villagers +to kill off all animals that had reached their maximum weight and whose +keep under the reduced ration system would not pay. + +Zealous officials in the provinces gave that thing a different aspect. +Eager to obey the slightest suggestion of those above, these men +interpreted the advice given as an order and disseminated it as such. +The farmer with sense enough to question this was generally told that +what he would not do on advice he would later be ordered to do. + +I was able to ascertain in connection with this subject that all which +is bad in German, and especially in Prussian, government has rarely its +inception in the higher places. It is the _Amtsstube_--government +bureau--that breeds the qualities for which government in the German +Empire is deservedly odious. At any ministry I would get the very best +treatment--far better, for instance, than I should hope to get at any +seat of department at Washington--but it was different when I had to +deal with some official underling. + +This class, as a rule, enters the government service after having been +professional non-commissioned officers for many years. By that time the +man has become so thoroughly a drill sergeant that his usefulness in +other spheres of life should be considered as ended. Instead of that, +the German government makes him an official. The effect produced is not +a happy one. + +It was a member of this tribe who once told me that I was not to think. +I confess that I did not know whether to laugh or cry when I heard that. + +The case has some bearing on the subject discussed here, and for that +reason I will refer to it briefly. + +At the American embassy at Berlin they had put my passport into proper +shape, as they thought. A Mr. Harvey was positive that such was the +case. But at the border it was found that somebody was mistaken. The +Tenth Army, in whose bailiwick I found myself, had changed the passport +regulations, and the American embassy at Berlin seemed not to have heard +of the change. + +A very snappy sergeant of the border survey service wanted to know how I +had dared to travel with an imperfectly viséd passport. There was +nothing else to say but that I thought the passport was in order. + +"_Sie haben kein Recht zu denken_" ("You have no right to think"), +snarled the man. + +That remark stunned me. Here was a human being audacious enough to deny +another human being the right to think. What next? + +The result of some suitable remarks of mine were that presently I was +under arrest and off for an interview with the _Landrat_--the county +president at Bentheim. + +The _Landrat_ was away, however--hunting, as I remember it. In his stead +I found a so-called assessor. I can say for the man that he was the most +offensive government official or employee I have ever met. He had not +said ten words when that was plain to me. + +"Ah! You _thought_ the passport was in order," he mocked. "You _thought_ +so! Don't you know that it is dangerous to _think_?" + +There and then my patience took leave of me. I made a few remarks that +left no doubt in the mind of the official that I reserved for myself the +right to think, whether that was in Germany or in Hades. + +Within a fortnight I was back in Berlin. I am not given to making a +mountain out of every little molehill I come across, but I deemed it +necessary to bring the incident at Bentheim to the attention of the +proper authorities. + +What I wanted to know was this: Had the race which in the past produced +some of the best of thinkers been coerced into having thinking +prohibited by an erstwhile sergeant or a _mensur_-marked assessor? + +Of course, that was not the case, I was told. The two men had been +overzealous. They would be disciplined. I was not to feel that I had +been insulted. An eager official might use that sort of language. After +all, what special harm was there in being told not to think? Both the +sergeant and the assessor had probably meant that I was not to surmise, +conclude, or take things for granted. + +But I had made up my mind to make myself clear. In the end I succeeded, +though recourse to diagrams and the like seemed necessary before the +great light dawned. That the German authorities had the right to watch +their borders closely I was the last to gainsay. Nor could fault be +found with officials who discharged this important duty with all the +thoroughness at their command. If these officials felt inclined to warn +travelers against surmise and conjecture, thanks were due them, but +these officials were guilty of the grossest indecency in denying a +rational adult the right to think. + +Those who for years have been hunting for a definition of militarism may +consider that in the above they have the best explanation of it. The +phrase, "You have no right to think," is the very backbone of +militarism. In times of war men may not think, because militarism is +absolute. For those that are anti-militarist enough to continue thinking +there is the censorship and sedition laws, both of which worked smoothly +enough in Germany and the countries of her allies. + +The question may be asked, What does this have to do with food and such? +Very much, is my answer. + +The class of small officials was to become the machine by which the +production, distribution, and consumption of food and necessities were +to be modified according to the needs of the day. This class was to +stimulate production, simplify distribution, and restrict consumption. +No small task for any set of men, whether they believed in the God-given +right of thinking or not. + +It was simple enough to restrict consumption--issue the necessary +decrees with that in view, and later adopt measures of enforcement. The +axiom, You have no right to think, fitted that case well enough. But it +was different with distribution. To this sphere of economy belongs that +ultra-modern class of Germans, the trust and _Syndikat_ member--the +industrial and commercial kings. These men had outgrown the inhibitions +of the barrack-yard. The _Feldwebel_ was a joke to them now, and, +unfortunately, their newly won freedom sat so awkwardly upon their minds +that often it would slip off. The class as a whole would then attend to +the case, and generally win out. + +A similar state of affairs prevailed in production. To order the farmer +what he was to raise was easy, but nature takes orders from nobody, a +mighty official included. + + + + +II + +WHEN LORD MARS HAD RULED THREE MONTHS + + +Germany had reared a magnificent economic structure. Her prosperity was +great--too great, in fact. + +The country had a _nouveau-riche_ aspect, as will happen when upon a +people that has been content with little in the past is suddenly thrust +more than it can assimilate gracefully. The Germany I was familiar with +from travel and literature was a country in which men and women managed +to get along comfortably by the application of thoroughness and +industry--a country in which much time was given to the cultivation of +the mind and the enjoyment of the fruits that come from this +praiseworthy habit. + +Those were the things which I had grouped under the heading, _Kultur_. +Those also were the things, as I was soon to learn from the earnest men +and women of the country, for which the word still stood with most. But +the spirit of the _parvenu_--_Protzentum_--was become rampant. The +industrial classes reeked with it. + +From the villages and small towns, still the very embodiment of thrift +and orderliness, I saw rise the large brick barracks of industry, topped +off with huge chimneys belching forth black clouds of smoke. The +outskirts of the larger towns and cities were veritable forests of +smoke-stacks--palisades that surrounded the interests of the thousands +of captains of industry that dwelt within the city when not frequenting +the international summer and winter resorts and making themselves +loathed by their extremely bad manners--the trade-mark of all +_parvenus_. + +I soon found that there were two separate and distinct Germanys. + +It was not a question of classes, but one of having within the same +borders two worlds. One of them reminded me of Goethe and Schiller, of +Kant and Hegel, and the other of all that is ultra-modern, and cynical. +The older of these worlds was still tilling the fields on the principle +that where one takes one must give. It was still manufacturing with that +honesty that is better than advertising, and selling for cost of raw +material and labor, plus a reasonable profit. + +In the new world it was different. Greed was the key-note of all and +everything. The kings of industry and commerce had forgotten that in +order to live ourselves we must let others live. These men had been wise +enough to compete as little as possible with one another. Every +manufacturer belonged to some _Syndikat_--trust--whose craze was to +capture by means fair or foul every foreign field that could be +saturated. + +I have used the word "saturated" on purpose. Germany's industrials do +not seem to have been content with merely entering a foreign market and +then supplying it with that good tact which makes the article and its +manufacturer respected. Instead of that they began to dump their wares +into the new field in such masses that soon there was attached to really +good merchandise the stigma of cheapness in price and quality. A proper +sense of proportions would have prevented this. There is no doubt that +German manufacturers and exporters had to undersell foreign competitors, +nor can any reasonable human being find fault with this, but that, for +the sake of "hogging" markets, they should turn to cheap peddling was +nothing short of being criminally stupid--a national calamity. + +I have yet to be convinced that Germany would not have been equally +prosperous--and that in a better sense--had its industry been less +subservient to the desire to capture as many of the world's markets as +possible. That policy would have led to getting better prices, so that +the national income from this source would have been just as great, if +not greater, when raw material and labor are given their proper +socio-economic value. + +Some manufacturers had indeed clung to that policy--of which the old +warehouses and their counting-rooms along the Weser in Bremen are truly +and beautifully emblematic. But most of them were seized with a mania +for volume in export and ever-growing personal wealth. + +Germany's population had failed to get its share of this wealth. Though +the _Arbeiter-Verbände_--unions--had seen to it that the workers were +not entirely ignored, it was a fact that a large class was living in +that peculiar sort of misery which comes from being the chattel of the +state, on the one hand, and the beast of burden of the captains of +industry, on the other. The government has indeed provided sick benefits +and old-age pensions, but these, in effect, were little more than a +promise that when the man was worked to the bone he would still be able +to drag on existence. The several institutions of governmental +paternalism in Germany are what heaven is to the livelong invalid. And +to me it seems that there is no necessity for being bedridden through +life when the physician is able to cure. In this instance, we must doubt +that the physician was willing to cure. + +The good idealists who may differ with me on that point have probably +never had the chance to study at the closest range the sinister purpose +that lies behind all governmental effort that occupies itself with the +welfare of the individual. The sphere of a government should begin and +end with the care for the aggregate. The government that must care for +the individual has no _raison d'être_, and the same must be said of the +individual who needs such care. One should be permitted to perish with +the other. + +The deeper I got into this New Germany, the less I was favorably +impressed by it. I soon found that the greed manifested had led to +results highly detrimental to the race. The working classes of the large +industrial centers were well housed and well fed, indeed. But it was a +barrack life they led. At best the income was small, and usually it was +all spent, especially if a man wanted to do his best by his children. It +was indeed true that the deposits in the German savings-banks were +unusually high, but investigation showed that the depositors were mostly +small business people and farmers. These alone had both the incentive +and the chance to save. For all others, be they the employees of the +government or the workers of industry, the sick benefit and old-age +pension had to provide if they were not to become public charges when +usefulness should have come to an end. + +I found that Germany's magnificent socio-economic edifice was inhabited +mostly by members of the _parvenu_ class, by men and women who dressed +in bad taste, talked too much and too loud, and were forever painfully +in evidence. + +For the purpose of illustrating the relative position of the two worlds +I found in Germany, I may use the simile that the new world inhabited +all the better floors, while the old was content with the cellar and the +attic. In the cellar lived the actual producers, and in the garret the +intellectuals, poor aristocracy, government officials, professional men, +and army officers. + +Food being the thing everybody needs, and, which needing, he or she must +have at any price, the men who in the past had "saturated" foreign +markets turned of a sudden their attention to matters at home. The +British blockade had made exports impossible. The overseas channel of +income was closed. Exploitation had to be directed into other fields. + +The German government saw this coming, and, under the plea of military +necessity, which really existed, of course, began to apply a policy of +restriction in railroad traffic. More will be said of this elsewhere. +Here I will state that from the very first military emergency was well +merged with socio-economic exigency. + +The high priest of greed found that the government, by virtue of being +the owner of the railroads, was putting a damper on the concentration of +life's necessities and commodities. But that, after all, was not a +serious matter. So long as the food shark and commodity-grabber owned an +article he would always find the means to make the public pay for it. +Whether he sold a thing in Cologne, Hanover, Berlin, or Stettin made +little difference in the end, so long as prices were good. All that was +necessary was to establish a _Filiale_--a branch house--at the point and +all was well. + +But as yet there was no actual shortage. Things were only beginning to +be scarce at times and intervals. + +The population had begun to save food. The counters and shelves of the +retailers were still full, and the warehouses of the wholesalers had +just received the harvest of the year. + +Hoarding had as yet not been thought of to any extent. Germany had not +been at war for forty-three years, and normally the food-supply had been +so generous that only a few pessimists, who saw a long war ahead, +thought it necessary to store up food for the future. + +It was not until the fourth month of the war that prices of food showed +a steady upward tendency. That this should be so was not difficult to +understand, and the explanation of the authorities appeared very +plausible indeed. Whenever the possibility of a shortage had at all to +be intimated, the government took good care to balance its statement +with the assertion that if everybody did what was fit and proper under +the circumstances there would never be a shortage. If people ate +war-bread, a lack of breadstuffs was said to be out of the question. + +That was very reassuring, of course. Not a little camouflage was used by +the merchants. I never saw so much food heaped into store windows as in +those days. On my way back and forth from my hotel to the office of the +service, I had to pass through the Mauerstrasse. In that street four +food-venders outdid one another in heaping their merchandise before the +public gaze. One of them was a butcher. His window was large and +afforded room for almost a ton of meat products. + +I do not wonder that those who passed the window--and they had to be +counted in thousands--gained from it the impression that food would +never be scarce in Germany. Farther on there was another meat-shop. Its +owner did the same. Next door to him was a bakery. War-bread and rolls, +cakes and pastry enough to feed a brigade, were constantly on +exhibition. The fourth store sold groceries and what is known in Germany +as _Dauerware_--food that has been preserved, such as smoked meat, +sausages, and canned foods. The man was really doing his best. For a +while he had as his "set piece" a huge German eagle formed of cervelat +sausages each four feet long and as thick as the club of Hercules. I +thought the things had been made of papier-mâché, but found that they +were real enough. + +But camouflage of that sort has its good purposes. Men are never so +hungry as when they know that food is scarce. + +The several state governments of Germany employ the ablest economic +experts in the world. These men knew that in the end show would not do. +The substance would then be demanded and would have to be produced if +trouble was to be avoided. How to proceed was not a simple matter, +however. From the food of the nation had to come the revenue of the +government and the cost of the war. This had to be kept in mind. + +The assertions of the Entente press that Germany would be starved into +submission within six months had been amply ridiculed in the German +newspapers. That was all very well. Everybody knew that it could not be +done in six months, and my first survey of the food situation proved +that it could not be done in a year. But what if the war lasted longer? +Nothing had come of the rush on Paris. Hindenburg had indeed given the +Russians a thorough military lesson at Tannenberg. But this and certain +successes on the West Front were not decisive, as everybody began to +understand. The Russians, moreover, were making much headway in Galicia, +and so far the Austro-Hungarian army had made but the poorest of +showings--even against the Serbs. + +Thus it came that the replies in the German press to the Entente famine +program caused the German public to take a greater interest in the food +question. Propaganda and the application of ridicule have their value, +but also their drawbacks. They are never shell-proof so far as the +thinker is concerned, and ultimately will weaken rather than strengthen +the very thing they are intended to defend. + +"_Qui s'excuse s'accuse_," say the French. + +The Prussian government inaugurated a campaign against the waste of food +as associated with the garbage-pail. Hereafter all household offal had +to be separated into food-remains and rubbish. Food-leavings, potato +peels, fruit skins, the unused parts of vegetables, and the like, were +to be used as animal feed. + +A week after the regulations had been promulgated and enforced, I took a +census of the results obtained. These were generous enough and showed +that as yet the Berliners at least were not stinting very much, despite +the war-bread. + +[Illustration: Photograph by Underwood & Underwood, N. Y. + +PROVING-GROUND OF THE KRUPP WORKS AT ESSEN + +The guns shown represent types of artillery used in modern warfare on +land and sea.] + +About the same time I was able to ascertain that in the rural districts +of Germany little economy of any sort was being practised so far, though +the establishing by the government of Fodder Centrals was warning +enough. The farmers sat at the very fountainhead of all food and pleased +themselves, wasting meanwhile much of their substance by sending to +their relatives at the front a great deal of food which the men were in +no need of. The German soldier was well fed and all food sent to him was +generally so much waste. It was somewhat odd that the government should +not only permit this practice, but actually encourage it. But the +authorities knew as little yet of food conservation as did the populace. + +So far the traffic incident to supplying large population centers with +food had moved within its regular channels, the interference due to the +mobilization duly discounted, of course. The ability of the Germans as +organizers had even overcome that to quite an extent. There were delays +now and then, but the reserve stores in the cities counteracted them as +yet. + +Normally, all men eat too much. The Germans were the rule rather than +the exception in this respect. Most men weighed anything from twenty to +sixty pounds more than they should, and the women also suffered much in +appearance and health from obesity. The _parvenu_ class, especially, was +noted for that. The German aristocrat is hardly ever stout--hallmark of +the fact that he knows how to curb his appetites. + +Before the war most Germans ate in the following manner: + +Coffee and rolls early in the morning. A sort of breakfast about nine +o'clock. Luncheon between twelve and one. Coffee or tea at about four in +the afternoon. Dinner at from seven to eight, and supper at eleven or +twelve was nothing unusual. That made in many cases six meals, and these +meals were not light by any means. They included meat twice for even the +poorer classes in the city. + +Six meals as against three do not necessarily mean that people addicted +to the habit eat twice as much as those who are satisfied with sitting +at table thrice each day. But they do mean that at least 35 per cent. of +the food is wasted. Oversaturated, the alimentary system refuses to work +properly. It will still assimilate those food elements that are the more +easily absorbed, which then produce fat, while the really valuable +constituents are generally eliminated without having produced the effect +that is the purpose of proper diet. + +It was really remarkable to what extent in this case an indulgence +became a reserve upon which the German government could draw. A good 35 +per cent. of all food consumed need not be consumed and would to that +measure increase the means of public subsistence available. + +I am inclined to believe that the enemies of Germany overlooked this +fact in the computation of elements adduced to show that, within six +months from the outbreak of the war, famine would stalk the land. The +Entente economists and politicians counted on actual production and +consumption in times of peace and failed to realize that a determined +people, whose complete discipline lacked but this one thing--economy in +eating--would soon acquire the mind of the ascetic. + +It was not easy to forego the pleasures of the full stomach, since in +the past it had generally been overfilled. But, as the Germans say, +"When in need, the devil will eat flies." + +Upon this subject the Prussian and other German state governments +concentrated all their efforts in November of 1914. A thousand methods +of propaganda were used. "Eat less," was the advice that resounded +through the empire. I do not think that, unsustained by government +action, the admonition would have helped much in the long run, though +for the time being it was heeded by many. It was the fact that the end +of the war seemed not so imminent any longer which furnished the _causa +movens_ for the saving of food. The war spirit was still very strong and +the Germans began to resent the assertion of their enemies that they +would be defeated by their stomachs, as some learned university +professors insisted at the time. Not the least value of the propaganda +was that it prepared the German public for the sweeping changes in food +distribution which were to come before long. + + + + +III + +THE MIGHTY WAR PURVEYOR + + +Three months had sufficed to enthrone the _Kriegslieferant_--war +purveyor. He was ubiquitous and loud. His haying season was come. For a +consumer he had a government that could not buy enough, and the things +he sold he took from a public that was truly patriotic and willing to +make sacrifices. It was a gay time. Gone were the days in which he had +to worry over foreign markets, small profits, and large turnover. He +dealt no longer with fractions of cents. Contracts for thousands did not +interest him. At the Ministry of War he could pick up bits of business +that figured with round millions. + +I attended once a funeral that was presided over by an undertaker who +believed in doing things on a large scale. The man in the coffin had +always earned a large salary and the family had lived up to it. There +was nothing left when he died. But the undertaker and the widow decided +that the funeral should be a large one. It was, and when it was over and +paid for the woman was obliged to appeal to her relatives for financial +aid. The activity of the war purveyor was of the same quality. + +The Berlin hotels were doing a land-office business. The Adlon, Bristol, +Kaiserhof, and Esplanade hotels were crowded to the attic--with war +purveyors. When his groups were not locked up in conference, he could be +seen strutting about the halls and foyers with importance radiating from +him like the light of an electric arc. In the dining-rooms his eating +could be heard when his voice was not raised in vociferous ordering in +the best drill-sergeant style. Managers and waiters alike danced +attention upon him--the establishment, the city, the country were his. + +"_Wir machen's_" ("We'll do it"), was his parole. The army might do its +share, but in the end the war purveyor would win the war. + +The express in which I was traveling from Osnabrück to Berlin had pulled +up in the station of Hanover. The train was crowded and in my +compartment sat three war purveyors, who seemed to be members of the +same group, despite the fact that their conversation caused me to +believe that they were holding anything from a million tons of hay to a +thousand army transport-wagons. Business was good and the trio was in +good humor, as was to be expected from men of such generous dimensions +and with so many diamonds on the fleshy fingers of ill-kept hands. One +of them was the conspicuous owner of a stick-pin crowned with a +Kimberley that weighed five carats if not more. He was one of the +happiest men I have ever laid eyes upon. + +I was sitting next to the window, a place that had been surrendered to +me because there was a draught from the window. But I can stand such +discomfort much better than perfume on a fat man, and I didn't mind. + +After a while my attention was attracted by a tall young woman in black +on the platform. She was talking to somebody on my car, and +surreptitious passes of her hand to her throat caused me to conclude +that some great emotion had seized her. No doubt she was saying good-by +to somebody. + +I had seen that a thousand times before, so that it could not be mere +and superficial curiosity that induced me to leave my seat for the +purpose of seeing the other actor in this little drama. The woman was +unusually handsome, and the manner in which she controlled her great +emotion showed that she was a blue-blood of the best brand. I was +anxious to learn what sort of man it was upon whom this woman bestowed +so much of her devotion. + +A tall officer was leaning against the half-open window in the next +compartment. I could not see his face. But the cut of his back and +shoulders and the silhouette of the head proclaimed his quality. + +The two seemed to have no words. The woman was looking into the face of +the man, and he, to judge by the fixed poise of his head, was looking +into hers. + +I had seen enough and returned to the compartment. Presently the +conductor's cry of "_Bitte, einsteigen!_" ("Please! All aboard!") was +heard. The woman stepped to the side of the car and raised her right +hand, which the officer kissed. She said something which I could not +hear. Then she set her lips again, while the muscles of her cheek and +throat moved in agony. It was a parting dramatic--perhaps the last. + +The train began to move. The war purveyor opposite me now saw the woman. +He nudged his colleague and drew his attention to the object that had +attracted him. + +"A queen!" he said. "I wonder what she looks like in her boudoir. I am +sorry that I did not see her before. Might have stayed over and seen her +home." + +"Would have been worth while," said the other. "I wonder whom she saw +off." + +"From the way she takes it I should say that it was somebody she cares +for. Class, eh, what?" + +The man rose from the seat and pressed his face against the window, +though he could see no more of the woman in that manner than he had seen +before. + +I think that is the very extreme to which I ever saw hideously vulgar +cynicism carried. + +In a way I regretted that the war purveyor had not been given the chance +to stay over. I am sure that he would have had reason to regret his +enterprise. + +A few days later I was on my way to Vienna, glad to get away from the +loud-mouthed war purveyors at the German capital. The ilk was +multiplying like flies in summer-time, and there was no place it had not +invaded. + +Though it was really not one of my affairs, the war purveyor had come to +irritate me. I was able to identify him a mile off, and good-natured +friends of mine seemed to have made it their purpose in life to +introduce me to men who invariably turned out to have contracts with the +government. Fact is that, while the war was great, the _Kriegslieferant_ +was greater. When I found it hard to see a high official, some kind +friend would always suggest that I take the matter up with Herr +Kommerzienrat So-and-so, whose influence was great with the authorities, +seeing that he had just made a contract for ever so many millions. + +And the "commercial counselor" would be willing, I knew. If he could +introduce a foreign correspondent of some standing here and there, that +would be water for his mill. The official in question might be +interested in propaganda, and the war purveyor was bound to be. The +inference was that the cause of Germany could be promoted in that +manner. In some cases it was. Now and then the war purveyor would spend +money on a dinner to foreign and native correspondents. His name would +not appear in the despatches, but the _Kriegslieferant_ saw to it that +the authorities learned of his activities. After that the margin of +profit on contract might go up. + +For a man who had conceived a violent prejudice against war purveyors, +Berlin was not a comfortable place. + +I was either playing in bad luck or half the world had turned into war +purveyors. At any rate, I had one of them as travel companion _en route_ +to Vienna. The man dealt in leather. He had a contract for the material +of 120,000 pairs of army boots and was now going to Austria and Hungary +for the purpose of buying it. He was a most interesting person. Before +the war he had dealt in skins for gloves, but now he had taken to a +related branch in order that he might "do his bit." The Fatherland, in +its hour of need, depended upon the efforts of its sons. So far as he +was concerned no stone would be left unturned to secure victory. He +could be home attending to his regular business, instead of racing +hither and thither in search of leather. But duty was duty. + +I might have gotten the man to admit that he made a _small_ profit on +his patriotic endeavor. But that could serve no purpose. I feared, +moreover, that this would needlessly prolong the conversation. When the +war purveyor finally tired of my inattention, he took up his papers and +I surveyed the country we were passing through. + +For the finest rural pictures in Central Europe we must go to Austria. +The houses of the peasants, in villages and on farms alike, had a very +inviting appearance. I noticed that the walls had been newly +whitewashed. There was fresh paint on the window shutters, and new +tiles among the old showed that the people were keeping their roofs in +good repair, which was more than the government was doing with the state +edifice just then. Prosperity still laughed everywhere. + +The train raced through small towns and villages. At the railroad +crossings chubby youngsters off for school were being detained by the +gateman. A buxom lass was chasing geese around a yard. Elsewhere a man +was sawing wood, while a woman looked on. From the chimneys curled +skyward the smoke of the hearth. + +It was hard to believe that the country was at war. But the groups of +men in uniform at the stations, and the recruits and reservists herded +in by men-at-arms over the country roads, left no doubt as to that. If +this had not been sufficient proof for me, there was the war purveyor. + +In Austria, as well as in Germany, the fields had had the closest +attention. And that attention was kind. Exploitation had no room in it. +Though it was late in the season, I could still discern that plowing and +fertilizing were most carefully done. The hedges and fences were in good +repair. In vain did I look for the herald of slovenly farming--the rusty +plow in the field, left where the animals had been taken from under the +yoke. Orderliness was in evidence everywhere, and, therefore, human +happiness could not be absent. + +There was a great deal of crop traffic on the good roads, and the many +water-mills seemed very busy. Potatoes and sugar-beets were being +gathered to add their munificence to the great grain- and hay-stacks. I +ran over in mind some population and farm-production statistics and +concluded that Austria was indeed lucky in having so large a margin of +food production over food consumption. + +What I had settled to my own satisfaction on the train was seemingly +confirmed at Vienna. Not even a trace of food shortness could I find +there. There had been a slight increase in food prices, but this was a +negligible quantity in times such as these. + +The Vienna restaurants and cafés were serving wheat bread, butter, and +cream as before. In a single place I identified as many as thirty-seven +different varieties of cakes and pastry. Everybody was drinking coffee +with whipped cream--_Kaffee mit Obers_--and nobody gave food +conservation a thought. While the Berlin bills of fare had been +generous, to say the least, those of Vienna were nothing short of +wasteful. Even that of the well-known Hardman emporium on the Kärntner +Ring, not an extravagant place by any means, enumerated no less than one +hundred and forty-seven separate items _à la carte_. + +I thought of the elephant steak and marveled at the imagination of some +people. It seemed that in Austria such titbits were a long way off. A +_mêlée_ of Viennese cooking, Austrian wine, and Hungarian music would +have left anybody under that impression. + +But all is not gold that glitters! + +At the hotel where I was staying, a small army of German food-buyers +was lodged. From some of them I learned what food conditions in Germany +might be a year hence. These men were familiar with the needs of their +country, and thought it out of place to be optimistic. The drain on farm +labor and the shortage of fertilizer were the things they feared most. +They were buying right and left at almost any price, and others were +doing the same thing in Hungary, I was informed. + +These men were not strictly war purveyors. Most of them bought supplies +for the regular channels of trade, but they were buying in a manner that +was bound to lead to high prices. It was a question of getting +quantities, and if these could not be had at one price they had to be +bought at a higher. + +Within two days I had established that the war purveyors at Vienna were +more rapacious than those at Berlin. But I will say for them that they +had better manners in public places. They were not so loud--a fact which +helped them greatly in business, I think. Personally, I prefer the +polished Shylock to the loutish glutton. It is a weakness that has cost +me a little money now and then, but, like so many of our weaknesses, it +goes to make up polite life. + +Vienna's hotels were full of _Kriegslieferanten_. The _portiers_ and +waiters addressed them as "_Baron_" and "_Graf_" (count), and for this +bestowal of letters-patent nobility were rewarded with truly regal tips. +But there the matter ended. + +I was holding converse with the _portier_ of the Hotel Bristol when a +war purveyor came up and wanted to know whether telegrams had arrived +for him--the war purveyor never uses the mail. + +"_Nein, Herr Graf_," replied the _portier_. + +The war purveyor seemed inclined to blame the _portier_ for this. After +some remarks, alleging slovenliness on the part of somebody and +everybody in so impersonal a manner that even I felt guilty, he turned +away. + +The _portier_--I had known him a day--seemed to place much confidence in +me, despite the fact that so far he had not seen the color of my money. + +"That fellow ought to be hung!" he said, as he looked at the revolving +door that was spinning madly under the impulse which the wrathful war +purveyor had given it. "He is a pig!" + +"But how could a count be a pig?" I asked, playfully. + +"He isn't a count at all," was the _portier's_ remark. "You see, that is +a habit we easy-going Viennese have. The fellow has engaged one of our +best suites and the title of count goes with that. It may interest you +to know that years ago the same suite was occupied by Prince Bismarck." + +There is no reason why in tradition-loving and nobility-adoring Austria +the title of count should not thereafter attach to any person occupying +a suite of rooms so honored. For all that, it is a peculiar mentality +that makes an honorary count an animal of uncleanly habits within the +space of a few seconds. + +The Grand Hotel was really the citadel of the Austro-Hungarian war +purveyors. Every room was taken by them, and the splendid dining-room of +the establishment was crammed with them during meal-hours. Dinner was a +grandiose affair. The _Kriegslieferanten_ were in dinner coats and +bulging shirt-fronts, and the ladies wore all their jewels. Two of the +war-purveyor couples were naturalized Americans, and one of them picked +me up before I knew what had happened. + +While I was in Vienna I was to be their guest. It seems that the man had +made a contract with the Austrian Ministry of War for ever so many +thousands of tons of canned meat. He thought that his friends "back +home" might be interested in that, and that there was no better way of +having the news broken to them than by means of a despatch to my +service. There is no doubt whatever that being a war purveyor robs a man +of his sense of proportions. + +To see the Vienna war purveyor at his best it was necessary to wait +until midnight and visit the haunts he frequented, such as the Femina, +Trocadero, Chapeau Rouge, Café Capua, and Carlton cabarets. Vienna's +_demi-monde_ never knew such spenders. The memory of certain harebrained +American tourists faded into nothingness. Champagne flowed in rivers, +and the hothouses were unable to meet the demand for flowers--at last +one shortage. The gipsy fiddlers took nothing less than five crowns, +and the waiters called it a poor evening when the tips fell below what +formerly they had been satisfied with in a month. + +All of this came from the pockets of the public, and when these pockets +began to show the bottom the government obligingly increased the +currency by the products of the press. More money was needed by +everybody. The morrow was hardly given a thought, and the sanest moment +most people had was when they concluded that these were times in which +it was well to let the evils of the day be sufficient thereof. One never +knew when the Russians might spill over the Tartra and the Carpathians, +in which case it would be all over. The light-heartedness which is so +characteristic of the Austrians reached degrees that made the serious +observer wonder. _Après nous le déluge_, was the motto of the times. So +long as there was food enough, champagne to be had, and women to share +these, the Russians could have the rest. + +I speculated how long this could go on. The military situation could be +handled by the Germans, and would be taken in hand by them sooner or +later. That much I learned in Berlin. But the Germans were powerless in +the Austro-Hungarian economic departments. Though the Dual Monarchy had +been self-contained entirely in food matters before the war, it seemed +certain that the squandering of resources that was going on could in the +end have but one result--shortage in everything. + +Despite that, Austrian government officials were highly optimistic. +Starve out Austria and Hungary! Why, that was out of the question +entirely--_ausgeschlossen_! At some statistical bureau on the +Schwarzenbergstrasse I was given figures that were to show the +impossibility of the Entente's design to reduce the country by hunger. +These figures were imposing, I will admit, and after I had studied them +I had the impression that famine was indeed a long way off. It seemed +that the Stürgkh régime knew what it was doing, after all, as I had been +told at the government offices. Everything would be well, even if the +war should be long. + +Two weeks later I was at the Galician front. Going there I passed +through northern Hungary. The barns of that district were bursting. The +crops had been good, I was told. Every siding was crowded with cars +loaded with sugar-beets and potatoes, and out in the fields the sturdy +women of the race, short-skirted and high-booted, were taking from the +soil more beets and more potatoes. The harvesting of these crops had +been delayed by the absence of the men, due to the mobilizations. By the +time I reached Neu-Sandez in Galicia, then seat of the Austro-Hungarian +general headquarters, I had fully convinced myself that the Entente's +program of starvation was very much out of the question. + +I found that the soldiers were well fed. The wheeled field kitchens were +spreading appetizing smells over the countryside, and that their output +was good was shown by the fine physical condition of the men. + +Having established this much, and the Russians coming altogether too +close, I had occasion a week later to visit Budapest. In that city +everybody was eating without a thought of the future, and that eating +was good, as will be attested by anybody who has ever sat down to a +Budapestian lamb _pörkölt_, of which the American goulash is a sort of +degenerate descendant. The only other thing worth mentioning is that the +Astoria Hotel was the only place in town not entirely occupied by the +war purveyors. + +A trip through central and southern Hungary served merely to complete +and confirm what I have already said here, and when later I took a look +at Croatia, and the parts of Serbia known to-day as the Machwa, I began +to realize why the Romans had thought these parts so necessary to them. +Soil and climate here are the best any farmer could wish for. The +districts are famous for their output in pork and prunes. + +With the Russians firmly rooted in Galicia, and with the +Austro-Hungarian troops driven out of Serbia, my usefulness as a war +correspondent was temporarily at an end. I returned to Budapest and +later visited Vienna and Berlin. The food situation was unchanged. +Austria and Hungary were consuming as before, and Germany was buying +right and left. The course of the German mark was still high, despite +the first issuance of Loan-Treasury notes, supported as it was by the +generous surrender of much gold by the German people. Purchasable +stores were still plentiful throughout southeast Europe. + +Despite that, the subject of food intruded everywhere. More concerned +than it was willing to admit, the German government was gathering every +morsel. Several neutral governments, among them the Dutch, Danish, +Swiss, and Norwegian, had already declared partial embargoes on food, +and these the German government had made up its mind to meet. It had in +its hands the means to do this most effectively. + +There was Holland, for instance. Her government had reduced the export +of food to Germany to a veritable minimum even then, as I learned on a +trip to The Hague in December. That was well enough, but not without +consequences. Holland has in Limburg a single mine of lignite coal. The +output is small and suited for little more than gas production. But the +country had to get coal from somewhere, if her railroads were to run, +the wheels of industry to turn; if the ships were to steam and the +cities to be lighted and heated. + +Much of the coal consumed in Holland in the past had been imported from +Belgium. But that country was in the hands of the Germans. The British +government had made the taking of bunker coal contingent upon conditions +which the Dutch government thought unreasonable. The Dutch were between +the devil and the deep blue sea. Coal they had to get, and Germany was +the only country willing to supply that coal--provided there was a _quid +pro quo_ in kind. There was nothing to do but accept the terms of the +Germans, which were coal for food. + +The bartering which had preceded the making of these arrangements had +been very close and stubborn. The Dutch government did not want to +offend the British government. It could not afford, on the other hand, +to earn the ill-will of the Germans. I had occasion to occupy myself +with the case, and when my inquiry had been completed I had gained the +impression that the German government had left nothing undone to get +from the Dutch all the food that could be had. The insistency displayed +and applied was such that it was difficult to reconcile with it the easy +manner in which the subject of food had been discussed in Berlin. It +seemed that the food and live-stock enumerations that had been made +throughout the German Empire had given cause for anxiety. + +In January of 1915 I was sent to the Balkans for the purpose of +surveying the political situation there. While in transit to Roumania I +had once more taken stock in Berlin. No great change in food-supply +conditions could be noticed. The war-bread was there, of course. But +those who did not care to eat it did not have to do so. In Vienna they +lived as before, and in Budapest they boastfully pointed to their full +boards. + +But in Bucharest I once more ran into food actualities. Thousands of +German commission-men were buying everything they could lay hands on, +and with them co-operated hundreds of Austro-Hungarians who had long +been residents of Roumania, and many of whom stood high on the grain +exchange of Braila. + +Accident caused me to put up at the Palace Hotel, which was the +headquarters of the grain-buyers. In the lobby of the establishment +thousands of tons of cereals changed hands every hour. + +I evinced some interest in the trading in speaking to the man behind the +desk. + +"Yes, sir! All these men are German grain-dealers," explained the +Balkanite _portier_ to me. "This hotel is their headquarters. If you +don't happen to sympathize with them, no harm will be done if you move +to another hotel. There are many in town." + +But I don't mind being spoken to frankly, and since I had no special +interests in grain-dealers of any sort, there was no reason why I should +move, especially since the _portier_ had invited me to do that. By that +time, also, I had traveled enough in Europe at war to know that +discretion is always the better part of valor, and that being +unperturbed was the best insurance against trouble. The German +grain-dealers were doing a good business. + +It was easy to buy, but not so easy to export. Premier Bratianu did not +like the transactions that were going on, and had passed the word to the +management of the Roumanian state railroads that the traffic was to move +as slowly as possible. There are ways and means of overcoming that sort +of instruction, and the German grain-dealers found them. Far be it from +me to run here a full record of bribery in Bucharest. I may state, +however, that money left deep scars on many a fairly good character in +those days. The influence and persuasion of the _chanteuses et +danseuses_ of the cabarets on the Calea Victoriei played often a great +rôle in cereal exports. I gained personal knowledge of a case in which a +four-karat diamond secured the immediate release of eight thousand tons +of wheat, and in that wheat was buried a large quantity of crude rubber, +the slabs of which carried the name of a large automobile-tire +manufacturer in Petrograd. Such things will happen when the ladies take +a hand in war subsistence. + +My special mission now was to study the political situation on the +Balkan peninsula and finally end up somewhere in Turkey. I did both. + +In Sofia the government was painfully neutral in those days. There was +as yet no reason why the Germans should buy grain there, but contracts +were being made for the next crop. Wool was also being bought, and many +hides moved north into Germany and Austria-Hungary. But the deals were +of an eminently respectable sort. Bribery was out of the question. + +The trouble was that the shipments secured in Bulgaria never reached +their destination unless bribes moved the trains. The Serbs held the +central reaches of the Danube, which, in addition to this, was ice-bound +just then, and all freight from Bulgaria, going north, had to be taken +through Roumania. To get them into that country was simple enough, but +to get them out took more cash, more diamonds, and considerable +champagne. In a single month the price of that beverage in Bucharest +jumped from eighteen to forty francs, and, as if to avenge themselves, +the Germans began shortly to refill the shelves with "champus" made +along the Rhine. + +With Bulgaria explored and described, I set out for Turkey, where, at +Constantinople, in July of that year, I ran into the first bread-line +formed by people "who had the price." + +The Ottoman capital gets its food-supplies normally over the waterways +that give access to the city--the Bosphorus from the north and the Black +Sea and the Dardanelles from the south and the Mediterranean. Both of +these avenues of trade and traffic were now closed. The Russians kept +the entrance to the Bosphorus well patrolled, and the French and British +saw to it that nothing entered the Dardanelles, even if they themselves +could not navigate the strait very far, as some eight months' stay with +the Turkish armed forces at the Dardanelles and on Gallipoli made very +plain to me. + +The Anatolian Railroad, together with a few unimportant tap lines, was +now the only means of reaching the agricultural districts of Asia +Minor--the Konia Vilayet and the Cilician Plain, for instance. But the +line is single-tracked and was just then very much overloaded with +military transports. The result of this was that Constantinople ate up +what stores there were, and then waited for more. + +There was more, of course. The Ottoman Empire is an agricultural state, +and would be more of one if the population could see its way clear to +doing without the goat and the fat-tailed sheep. That its capital and +only large city should be without breadstuff as early as July, 1915, was +hard to believe, yet a fact. + +In May of that year I had made a trip through Anatolia, Syria, and +Arabia. By that time the crops in Asia Minor are well advanced and wheat +is almost ripe. These crops were good, but, like the crops of the +preceding season, which had not yet been moved, owing to the war, they +were of little value to the people of Constantinople. They could not be +had. + +I hate estimates, and for that reason will not indulge in them here. But +the fact is that from Eregli, in the Cappadocian Plain, to Eski-Shehir, +on the Anatolian high plateau, I saw enough wheat rotting at the +railroad stations to supply the Central Powers for two years. Not only +was every shed filled with the grain, but the farmers who had come later +were obliged to store theirs out in the open, where it lay without +shelter of any sort. Rain and warmth had caused the grain on top to +sprout lustily, while the inside of the heap was rotting. The railroad +and the government promised relief day after day, but both were unable +to bring it over the single track, which was given over, almost +entirely, to military traffic. + +Thus it came that the shops of the _ekmekdjis_ in Constantinople were +besieged by hungry thousands, the merest fraction of whom ever got the +loaf which the ticket, issued by the police, promised. That was not all, +however. Speculators and dealers soon discerned their chance of making +money and were not slow in availing themselves of it. Prices rose until +the poor could buy nothing but corn meal. A corner in olives added to +the distress of the multitude, and the government, with that ineptness +which is typical of government in Turkey, failed to do anything that had +practical value. Though the Young Turks had for a while set their faces +against corruption, many of the party leaders had relapsed, with the +result that little was done to check the rapacity of the dealer who +hoarded for purposes of speculation and price-boosting. + +Yet those in the Constantinople bread-lines were modest in their normal +demands. Turk and Levantine manage to get along well on a diet of bread +and olives, with a little _pilaff_--a rice dish--and a small piece of +meat, generally mutton, once a day thrown in. With a little coffee for +the Turk, and a glass of red wine for the Levantine, this is a very +agreeable bill of fare, and a good one, as any expert in dietetics will +affirm. + +I had occasion to discuss the food shortage in Turkey with Halideh Edib +Hannym Effendi, Turkey's leading feminist and education promoter. + +She assigned two causes. One of them was the lack of transportation, to +which I have already referred as coming under my own observation. The +other was found in the ineptness of the Ottoman government. She was of +the opinion that there was enough food in the Bosphorus region, but that +the speculators were holding it for higher prices. This, too, was +nothing new to me. But it was interesting to hear a Turkish woman's +opinion on this nefarious practice. To the misfortune of war the greedy +were adding their lust for possession, and the men in Stamboul lacked +the courage to say them nay. That men like Enver Pasha and Talaat Bey, +who had taken upon themselves the responsibility of having Turkey enter +the lists of the European War, were now afraid to put an end to food +speculation, showed what grip the economic pirate may lay upon a +community. What the Allied fleet and military forces at the Dardanelles +and on Gallipoli had not accomplished the food sharks had done. Before +them the leaders of the Young Turks had taken to cover. + + + + +IV + +FAMINE COMES TO STAY + + +That the food question should have become acute first in a state as +distinctly agricultural as the Ottoman Empire furnishes an apt +illustration of the fact that in the production of food man-power is +all-essential. The best soil and climate lose their value when farming +must be neglected on account of a shortage of labor. The plants +providing us with breadstuff are the product of evolution. At one time +they were mere grasses, as their tendency to revert to that state, when +left to themselves, demonstrates in such climates as make natural +propagation possible. It is believed that the "oat grass" on the South +African veldt is a case of that sort. + +But apart from all that, every cropping season shows that man, in order +to have bread, must plow, sow, cultivate, and reap. When the soil is no +longer able to supply the cereal plants with the nutriment they need, +fertilizing becomes necessary. + +I have shown that bread-lines formed in Constantinople when out in the +Anatolian vilayets the wheat was rotting at the side of the railroad +track. This was due to defects and handicaps in distribution. But there +was also another side to this. I made several trips through Thrace, that +part of the Ottoman Empire which lies in Europe, and found that its rich +valleys and plains could have supplied the Turkish capital with all the +wheat it needed had the soil been cultivated. This had not been done, +however. The mobilizations had taken so many men from the +_tchiftliks_--farms--that a proper tilling of the fields was out of the +question. A shortage in grain resulted, and the food sharks were thus +enabled to exact a heavy tribute from the public. + +It is a case of hard times with the speculator when things are +plentiful. He is then unable to gather in all of the supply. There is a +leakage which he does not control and that leakage causes his defeat in +the end. It is a well-known fact that a corner in wheat is impossible, +and a dangerous undertaking, so long as from 15 to 30 per cent. of the +grain remains uncontrolled. That quantity represents the excess profit +which the speculator counts upon. Not to control it means that the +supply available to the consumer is large enough to keep the price near +its normal curves, to which the speculator must presently adhere if he +is not to lose money on his corner. + +But a great deal depends upon how corrupt the government is. The +Turk-Espaniole clique in Stamboul and Pera had cornered the Thracian +wheat crop in 1915, and the Anatolian Railroad was unable to bring in +enough breadstuff from Anatolia and Syria. The bread-lines were the +result. + +It was not much better in Austria and Hungary. Here, too, production had +fallen off about one-fifth, and the many war purveyors, who had been +driven out of business by saner systems of army purchasing, had turned +their attention to foods of any sort. In Germany the same thing happened +in a slightly less degree. + +Since in the Central states the bread ticket had meanwhile been +introduced, and the quality and price of bread fixed, one may ask the +question: Why was bread short in those countries when formerly they +produced fully 95 per cent. of their breadstuffs? + +The answer is that, firstly, production had fallen off, and, secondly, +there was much cornering by the speculators. + +It must be borne in mind that bread regulation so far consisted of +attempts by the government to provide for the multitude bread at a +reasonable price, without distribution being placed under efficient +control. The rapacity of the food shark had forced up the price of +breadstuffs, and nothing but government interference could check the +avarice of the dealers. But the population had to have cheap bread, and +attention had to be given the paucity of the supply. Fixed prices were +to make possible the former, and a limitation in consumption was to +overcome the latter. + +It will be seen that this procedure left the food shark a free hand. He +could buy as before and sell when and to whom he pleased. Thus it came +that, while the masses of Germany and Austria-Hungary had to eat +war-bread in prescribed quantities, those better off materially still +had their wheat-flour products. The authorities were not ignorant of +this, but had good reason not to interfere. The time was come when the +financial resources of the country had to be "mobilized," and this was +being done by extracting from the population all the spare coin and +concentrating it in the hands of the food speculators so that these +could be taxed and enabled to buy war loans. These men were easily dealt +with. Very often they were bankers, and kings of industry and commerce. +To provide the government with funds for the war was to them a question +of profit. + +The bread ticket did not favor an equitable distribution, nor was it +ever intended to do that. Its sole purpose at first was to tax food in +such a manner that those who were willing to buy more food than the +bread ticket prescribed had to pay heavily for this indulgence. That +this was a socio-economic injustice was plain to those who reasoned far +enough. But the patient rabble accepted the thing at its face value, as +it will accept most things that bear the stamp of authority. + +I had no difficulty anywhere in getting all the wheat bread and +farinaceous dishes I wanted. It was not even necessary to ask for them. +It was taken for granted that I belonged to the class that did not have +to eat war-bread and do without pudding and cake, and that was enough. +While I was supposed to have a bread ticket, few ever asked for it. In +the restaurants which I frequented I generally found a dinner roll +hidden under the napkin, which for that purpose was as a rule folded in +the manner known as the "bishop's miter." + +But gone for the many was the era of enough food. The bread ration in +Berlin was three hundred grams (ten and a half ounces) per day, and in +Vienna it was two hundred and ten grams (seven and two-fifths ounces). +Together with a normal supply of other eatables, flour for cooking, for +instance, these rations were not really short, and in my case they were +generous. But with most it was now a question of paying abnormally high +prices for meat and the like, so that enough bread was more of a +necessity than ever. + +It was rather odd that in Austria the bread ration should be smaller +than in Germany. That country had in the past produced more breadstuff +per capita than her ally, and would have been able to import from +Hungary had conditions been different. Hungary had in the past exported +wheat flour to many parts, due largely to the fine quality of her grain. +Now, of a sudden, it, too, faced a shortage. + +The fact is that Austria-Hungary had mobilized a large part of her male +population and had for that reason been extremely short of farm labor +during the season of 1915. The large reserve stores had been exhausted +by improvidence, and, to make things worse, the crops of that year were +not favored by the weather. Meanwhile, much of the wheat had passed into +the hands of the speculators, who were releasing it only when their +price was paid. In Austria the bread ticket was the convenient answer to +all complaints, and in Hungary, where the bread ticket was not generally +introduced as yet, the food shark had the support of the government to +such an extent that criticism of his methods was futile. Now and then an +enterprising editor would be heard from--as far as his press-room, where +the censor caused such hardihoods to be routed from the plate. + +The food outlook in Austria-Hungary was no pleasant one. Drastic +regulation would be needed to alleviate conditions. + +It was no better in Germany, as a trip to Berlin showed. Food had indeed +become a problem in the Central states of Europe. + +The same area had been put under crops in 1915; the area had even been +somewhat extended by advice of the governments that all fallow lands be +sown. But the harvest had not been good. The shortage of trained +farmers, lack of animal-power, and the paucity of fertilizers had done +exactly what was to be expected. Then, the growing season had not been +favorable. The year had been wet, and much of the grain had been ruined +even after it was ripe. + +For the purpose of investigating conditions at close range I made a few +trips into the country districts. The large landowners, the farmers, and +the villagers had the same story to tell. Not enough hands, shortage of +horses and other draft animals, little manure, and a poor season. + +One of the men with whom I discussed the aspects of farming under the +handicaps which the war was imposing was Joachim Baron von +Bredow-Wagenitz, a large landowner in the province of Brandenburg. As +owner of an estate that had been most successful under scientific +methods of farming, he was well qualified to discuss the situation. + +He had tried steam-plowing and found it wanting. The man was on the +verge of believing that Mother Earth resented being treated in that +manner. The best had been done to make steam-plowing as good as the +other form. But something seemed to have gone wrong. There was no life +in the crops. It was a question of fertilizing, my informant concluded. +The theory, which had been held, that there was enough reserve plant +nutriment in the soil to produce a good crop at least one season with +indifferent fertilization, was evidently incorrect, or correct only in +so far as certain crop plants were concerned. + +Baron Bredow had employed some threescore of Russian prisoners on his +place. Some of the men had worked well, but most of them had shown +ability only in shirking. + +The older men and the women had done their best to get something out of +the soil, but they were unable, in the first place, to stand the +physical strain, and, secondly, they lacked the necessary experience in +the departments which the men at the front had looked after. + +Elsewhere in Germany it was the same story. It simply was impossible to +discount the loss of almost four million men who had by that time been +withdrawn from the soil and were now consuming more than ever before +without producing a single thing, as yet. + +To show what that really meant let me cite a few factors that are easily +grasped. The population of the German Empire was then, roundly, +70,000,000 persons. Of this number 35,000,000 were women. Of the +35,000,000 men all individuals from birth to the age of fifteen were +virtually consumers only, while those from fifty years onward were more +or less in the same class. Accepting that the average length of life in +Central Europe is fifty-five years, we find that the male producers in +1915 numbered about 20,000,000, and of this number about one-half was +then either at the fronts or under military training. Of these +10,000,000 roughly 4,200,000 had formerly occupied themselves with the +production and distribution of food. I need not state that this army +formed quite the best element in food production for the simple reason +that it was composed of men in the prime of life. + +A survey in Austria showed not only the same conditions, but also +indicated that the worst was yet to come. Austria and Hungary had then +under the colors about 5,000,000 men, of whom, roundly, 2,225,000 came +from the fields and food industries, so that agriculture was even worse +off in the Dual Monarchy than it was in Germany. + +The large landowners in Austria and Hungary told the same story as Baron +Bredow. Experiences tallied exactly. They, too, had found it impossible +to get the necessary labor, for either love or money. It simply was not +in the country, and with many of the Austrian and Hungarian +land-operators the labor given by the Russian prisoner of war was next +thing to being nothing at all. The Russians felt that they were being +put to work against the interest of their country, and many of them +seemed to like the idleness of the prison camp better than the work that +was expected of them on the estates, though here they were almost free. + +I remember especially the experiences of Count Erdödy, a Hungarian +nobleman and owner of several big estates. After trying every sort of +available male labor, he finally decided to cultivate his lands with the +help of women. The thing was not a success by any means, but when he +came to compare notes with his neighbors he found that, after all, the +women had done much better than the men on his neighbors' estates. As a +sign of the times I should mention here that Count Erdödy, no longer a +young man, would spend weeks at a stretch doing the heaviest of farm +work, labor in which he was assisted by his American wife and two +daughters, one of whom could work a plow as well as any man. + +The war had ceased to be an affair that would affect solely the masses, +as is often the case. Men who never before had done manual labor could +now be seen following the plow, cultivating crops, operating reapers, +and threshing the grain. The farm superintendents, most of them young +and able-bodied men of education, had long ago been called to the colors +as reserve officers, so that generally the owner, who in the past had +taken it very easy, was now confronted with a total absence of +executives on his estates, in addition to being short of man-power and +animals of labor. + +But the large farm-operators were not half so poorly off as the small +farmer. I will cite a case in order to show the conditions on the small +farms and in the villages. + +The land near Linz in Austria is particularly fertile and is mostly held +by small owners who came into possession of it during the Farmer +Revolution in the 'forties. I visited a number of these men and will +give here what is a typical instance of what they had to contend with in +the crop season of 1915. + +"It is all right for the government to expect that we are to raise the +same, if not better, crops during the war," said one of them. "For the +fine gentlemen who sit in the Ministerial offices that does not mean +much. Out here it is different. Their circulars are very interesting, +but the fact is that we cannot carry out the suggestions they make. + +"They have left me my youngest son. He is a mere boy--just eighteen. +The other boys--three of them--who helped me run this place, I have +lost. One of them was killed in Galicia, and the other two have been +taken prisoners. I may never see them again. They say my two boys are +prisoners. But I have heard nothing of them. + +"My crops would have been better if I hadn't tried to follow some of the +advice in the government circulars. It was my duty to raise all I could +on my land, they said. I doubted the wisdom of putting out too much, +with nobody to help me. + +"It would have been better had I followed my own judgment and plowed +half the land and let the other lie fallow, in which case it would have +been better for the crops next year. Instead of that I planted all the +fields, used a great deal of seed, wasted much of my labor, first in +plowing, then in cultivating, and later in harvesting, and now I have +actually less return than usually I had from half the land." + +The records of the man showed that from his thirty acres he had +harvested what normally fifteen would have given him. Haste makes waste, +and in his instance haste was the equivalent of trying to do with two +pairs of weak hands what formerly three pairs of strong arms had done. +The farmer explained that for several years before the war he had done +little work, feeling that he was entitled to a rest. + +Nor had his heart been in the work. One of his sons had been killed. Two +others were in captivity, and the fourth, Franz, might be called to the +colors any day. It seemed to him futile to continue. What was the use of +anything, now that his family had been torn apart in that manner? + +[Illustration: Photograph from Brown Brothers, N. Y. + +A LEVY OF FARMER BOYS OFF FOR THE BARRACKS + +The fact that millions of food-producers of this type were taken from +the soil caused Central Europe to run short of life's necessities.] + +[Illustration: Photograph from Brown Brothers, N. Y. + +GERMAN CAVALRYMEN AT WORK PLOWING + +As food grew scarcer the German army began to cultivate the fields in +the occupied territories to lessen the burden of the food-producer at +home.] + +Taxes were higher, of course. On the other hand, he was getting a little +more for his products, but not enough to make good the loss sustained +through bad crops. While the production of his land had fallen to about +one-half of normal, he was getting on an average 15 per cent. more for +what he sold, which was now a bare third of what he had sold in other +years, seeing that from the little he had raised he had to meet the +wants of his family and the few animals that were left. + +Neighbors of the man told a similar story. Some of them had done a +little better in production, but in no instance had the crop been within +more than 80 per cent. of normal. They, too, were not satisfied with the +prices they were getting. The buyers of the commission-men were guided +by the minimum-price regulation which the government was enforcing, and +often they would class a thing inferior in order to go below that +price--as the regulations permitted. These people felt that they were +being mulcted. But redress there was none. If they refused to sell, the +authorities could compel them, and rather than face requisition they +allowed the agents of the food sharks to have their way. The thought +that the government was exploiting them was disheartening, and was +reflected in their production of food. + +This was the state of affairs almost everywhere. The able-bodied men had +been taken from the soil, just as they had been taken from other +economic spheres. Labor was not only scarce, but so high-priced that the +small farmer could not afford to buy it. + +And then, I found that in the rural districts the war looked much more +real to people. There it had truly fostered the thought that all in life +is vain. The city people were much better off in that respect. They also +had their men at the front. But they had more diversion, even if that +diversion was usually no more than meeting many people each day. They +had, moreover, the exhilarating sensation that comes from playing a game +for big stakes. When the outlook was dreary they always found some +optimist who would cheer them up; and the report of some victory, +however small and inconsequential, buoyed them up for days at a time. +Out in the country it was different. The weekly paper did its best to be +cheerful. But its sanguine guesses as to the military future were seen +by eyes accustomed to dealing with the realities of nature. + +I visited many Austrian villages and found the same psychology +everywhere. The Austrian farmer was tired of the war by December of +1914. When I occupied myself again with him a year later he was +disgusted and had come to care not a rap who governed in Budapest. Of +course, it was different should the Russians get to Vienna. In that case +they would take their pitchforks and scythes and show them. + +The Hungarian farmer was in the same mood. If the war could have been +ended with the Italians getting no farther than Vienna things would have +been well enough, but to have the Russians in Budapest--not to be +thought of; not for a minute. + +Meanwhile, the Austrian and Hungarian governments, taking now many a +leaf from the book of the Germans, were urging a greater production of +food next season. Highly technical books were being digested into the +every-day language of the farmer. It was pointed out what sorts of +plowing would be most useful, and what might be omitted in case it could +not be done. How and when to fertilize under prevailing conditions was +also explained. + +The leaflets meant well, but generally overlooked the fact that each +farm has problems of its own. But this prodding of the farmer and his +soil was not entirely without good results. It caused a rather thorough +cultivation of the fields in the fall of 1915, and also led to the +utilization of fertilizing materials which had been overlooked before. +The dung-pits were scraped, and even the earth around them was carted +into the fields. Though animal urine had already been highly valued as a +fertilizer, it was now conserved with greater care. Every speck of wood +ash was saved. The humus on the woodland floors and forests was drawn +on. The muck of rivers and ponds was spread over the near-by fields, and +in northern Germany the parent stratum of peat growth was ground up and +added to the soil as plant food. + + + + +V + +THE FOOD SHARK AND HIS WAYS + + +There were two schools of war economists in Central Europe, and they had +their following in each of the several governments that regulated +food--its production, distribution, and consumption. The two elements +opposed each other, naturally, and not a little confusion came of this +now and then. + +The military formed one of these schools--the radical. These men wanted +to spread over the entire population the discipline of the barrack-yard. +For the time being they wanted the entire state to be run on military +principles. All production was to be for the state; all distribution was +to be done in the interest of the war, and all consumption, whether that +of the rich or the poor, was to be measured by the military value of the +individual. It was proposed that every person in the several states +should get just his share of the available food and not a crumb more. +The rich man was to eat exactly, to the fraction of an ounce, what the +poor man got. He was to have no greater a share of clothing, fuel, and +light. + +That seemed very equitable to most people. It appealed even to the other +school, but it did not find the approval of those who were interested in +the perpetuation of the old system of social economy. What the military +proposed was more than the socialists had ever demanded. The enforcement +of that measure would have been the triumph absolute of the +Social-Democrats of Central Europe. + +But for that the Central European politician and capitalist was not +ready. With the capitalist it was a question of: What good would it do +to win the war if socialism was thus to become supreme? It would be far +better to go down in military defeat and preserve the profit system. + +The struggle was most interesting. I had occasion to discuss it with a +man whose name I cannot give, for the reason that it might go hard with +him--and I am not making war on individuals. At any rate, the man is now +a general in the German army. He was then a colonel and looked upon as +the ablest combination of politician, diplomatist, and soldier Germany +possessed, as he had indeed proved. + +"You are a socialist," I said to him. "But you don't seem to know it." + +"I am a socialist and do know it," said the colonel. "This war has made +me a socialist. When this affair is over, and I am spared, I will become +an active socialist." + +"And the reason?" I asked. + +That question the colonel did not answer. He could not. But I learned +indirectly what his reasons were. Little by little he unfolded them to +me. He was tired of the butchery, all the more tired since he could not +see how bloody strife of that sort added anything to the well-being of +man. + +"When war reaches the proportions it has to-day it ceases to be a +military exercise," he said on one occasion. "The peoples of Europe are +at one another's throat to-day because one set of capitalists is afraid +that it is to lose a part of its dividends to another. The only way we +have of getting even with them is to turn socialist and put the curb on +our masters." + +There would seem to be no direct connection between this sentiment and +the economic tendency of the military in food regulation. Yet there is. +The men in the trenches knew very well what they were fighting for. They +realized that, now the struggle was on, they had to continue with it, +but they had also made up their mind to be heard from later on. + +The case I have quoted is not isolated. I found another in the general +headquarters of General von Stein, then commanding a sector on the +Somme. + +In the camp of the military economists was also that governing element +which manages to drag out an existence of genteel shabbiness on the +smallest pay given an official of that class anywhere. This faction also +favored the most sweeping measures of war economy. + +But it was in the end a simple matter of holding these extremists down. +Their opponents always had the very trenchant argument that it took +money to carry on the war, and that this money could not be had if the +old system was completely overthrown. There was little to be said after +that. To do anything that would make war loans impossible would be +treason, of course, and that was considered going too far. + +Regulation thereafter resolved itself into an endeavor by the +anti-capitalists to trim their _bête noire_ as much as was possible and +safe, and the effort of the economic standpatters to come to the rescue +of their friends. Now the one, then the other, would carry off the +honors, and each time capital and public would either gain or lose. It +depended somewhat on the season. When war loans had to be made, the +anti-capitalist school would ease off a little, and when the loan had +been subscribed it would return to its old tactics, to meet, as before, +the very effective passive resistance of the standpatters. + +I may mention here that much of what has been said of the efficient +organization of the German governments is buncombe--rot pure and simple. +In the case of the Austrian and Hungarian governments this claim has +never been made, could never have been made, and no remark of mine is +necessary. The thing that has been mistaken for efficient organization +is the absolute obedience to authority which has been bred into the +German for centuries. Nor is that obedience entirely barrack bred, as +some have asserted. It is more the high regard for municipal law and +love of orderliness than the fear of the drill-sergeant that finds +expression in this obedience. How to make good use of this quality +requires organizing ability, of course. But no matter how the efficient +organization of the Germans is viewed, the fact remains that the German +people, by virtue of its love of orderliness, is highly susceptible to +the impulses of the governing class. To that all German efficiency is +due. + +There had been some modification of distribution early in 1915. That, +however, was entirely a military measure. The traffic on the German +state railroads was unusually heavy, and trackage, rolling-stock, and +motive power had to be husbanded if a breakdown of the long lines of +communication between the French and Russian fronts was to be avoided. +There was no thought of social economy. The thing aimed at was to keep +the railroads fit for military service. + +But by August of 1915 the military economists had managed to get their +hands into economic affairs. It cannot be said that their efforts were +at first particularly fortunate. But the German general staff was and is +composed of men quick to learn. These men had then acquired at least one +sound notion, and this was that, with the railroads of the several +states under military control, they could "get after" the industrial and +commercial barons whom they hated so cordially. + +"In the interest of the military establishment" a number of +socio-economic innovations were introduced. The first of them was the +distribution zone. There is no doubt that it was a clever idea. It was +so sound, at the same time, that the friends of the trade lords in the +government had to accept it. + +The arrangement worked something like this. A wholesaler of flour in +western Hanover might have a good customer in the city of Magdeburg. Up +to now he had been permitted to ship to that customer as he desired. +That was to cease. He could now ship only to that point when he could +prove that the flour was not needed nearer to where it was stored. But +to prove that was not easy--was impossible, in fact. + +Since the German state railroads had in the past provided much of the +revenue of the several governments, this was no small step to take. But +it was taken, and with most salutary effects. The trundling of freight +back and forth ceased, and the food shark was the loser. + +Ostensibly, this had been done in order to conserve the railroads. Its +actual purpose was to check the trade lords by depriving them of one of +their arguments why the price of necessities should be high. + +What was accomplished in this instance should interest any community, +and for that reason I will illustrate it with an example of "economic +waste" found in the United States. + +You may have eaten a "Kansas City" steak in San Antonio, Texas, if not +at Corpus Christi or Brownsville. (I am an adopted "native" of that +region and inordinately proud of it.) If you had investigated the +history of that steak I think you would have been somewhat surprised. +The steer which produced that steak might have been raised in the valley +of the Rio Grande. After that the animal had taken a trip to Oklahoma, +where better pasture put more meat on its back. Still later a farmer in +Missouri had fattened the steer on the very cream of his soil, and after +that it had been taken to Kansas City or Chicago to be butchered and +"storaged." + +It might then have dawned upon you that a great deal of wasted effort +was hidden in the price of that steak, though no more than in the +biscuit that was wheat in North Dakota, flour in Minneapolis, biscuit in +San Francisco, and a toothsome morsel to follow the steak. You would be +a dull person indeed if now some economic short cut had not occurred to +you. The steak might have been produced by Texas grass and North Texas +corn, and the like, and it need never have traveled farther than San +Antonio. The biscuit might have been given its form in Minneapolis. + +It was so in Germany before the military social economists took a hand +in the scheme, though the waste was by no means as great as in the cases +I have cited, seeing that all of the empire is a little smaller than the +Lone Star State. + +But the little trundling there was had to go. + +In the winter of 1915-16 this budding economic idea was still in +chrysalis, however. The several governments still looked upon it +entirely as a measure for the conservation of their railroads. What is +more, they were afraid to give the principle too wide an application. In +the first place, the extension of the scheme into the socio-economic +structure seemed difficult technically. It was realized that the +reduction of traffic on the rails was one thing, and that the +simplifying of distribution was quite another. To effect the first the +Minister of Railroads had merely to get in touch with the chiefs of the +"direction," as the districts of railroading are called. The chiefs +would forward instruction to their division heads, and after that +everything was in order. + +But distribution was another thing. In that case the several governments +did not deal with a machine attuned to obey the slightest impulse from +above, and which as readily transmitted impulses from the other end. Far +from it. Not to meddle with distribution, so long as this was not +absolutely necessary, was deemed the better course, especially since all +such meddling would have to be done along lines drawn a thousand times +by the Central European socialist. + +But the food shark had to be checked somehow. The unrest due to his +sharp practices was on the increase. The minimum-maximum price decrees +which had been issued were all very well, but so long as there was a +chance to speculate and hoard they were to the masses a detriment rather +than a benefit. + +Let me show you how the food shark operated. The case I quote is +Austrian, but I could name hundreds of similar instances in Germany. I +have selected this case because I knew the man by sight and attended +several sessions of his trial. First I will briefly outline what law he +had violated. + +To lay low what was known as chain trade throughout Central Europe, +_Kettenhandel_, the governments had decreed that foodstuffs could be +distributed only in this manner: The producer could sell to a +commission-man, but the commission-man could sell only to the +wholesaler, and the wholesaler only to the retailer. + +That appears rational enough. But neither commission-man nor wholesaler +liked to adhere to the scheme. Despite the law, they would pass the same +thing from one to another, and every temporary owner of the article +would add a profit, and no small one. To establish the needed control +the retailer was to demand from the wholesaler the bill of sale by which +the goods had passed into his hands, while the wholesaler could make the +commission-man produce documentary evidence showing how much he had paid +the producer. Under the scheme a mill, or other establishment where +commodities were collected, was a producer. + +Mr. B. had bought of the Fiume Rice Mills Company a car-load of best +rice, the car-load in Central Europe being generally ten tons. He had +brought the rice to Vienna and there was an eager market for it, as may +be imagined. But he wanted to make a large profit, and that was +impossible if he went about the sale of the rice in the manner +prescribed by the government. The wholesaler or retailer to whom he sold +might wish to see the bill of sale, and then he was sure to report him +to the authorities if the profit were greater than the maximum which the +government had provided. To overcome all this he did what many others +were doing, and in that manner made on the single car of rice which he +sold to a hunger-ridden community the neat little profit of thirty-five +hundred crowns. + +Something went wrong, however. Mr. B. was arrested and tried on the +charge of price-boosting by means of chain trade. When the rice got to +Vienna he had sold it to a dummy. The dummy sold it to another dummy, +and Mr. B. bought it again from the second dummy. In this manner he +secured the necessary figures on the bill of sale and imposed them on +the wholesaler. The court was lenient in his case. He was fined five +thousand crowns, was given six weeks in jail, and lost his license to +trade. _Preistreiberei_--to wit--price-boosting did not pay in this +instance. + +After all, that sort of work was extremely crude when compared with some +other specimens, though the more refined varieties of piracy needed +usually the connivance of some public official, generally a man +connected with the railroad management. Many of these officials were +poorly paid when the war began and the government could not see its way +clear to paying them more. The keen desire of keeping up the shabby +gentility that goes with Central European officialdom, and very often +actual want, caused these men to fall by the roadside. + +There was a little case that affected three hundred cars of wheat +flour. Though Hungary and Austria had then no wheat flour to spare for +export, the flour was actually exported through Switzerland into Italy, +though that country was then at war with the Dual Monarchy! Thirty-two +men were arrested, and two of them committed suicide before the law laid +hands on them. The odd part of it was that the flour had crossed the +Austro-Hungarian border at Marchegg, where the shipment had been +examined by the military border police. It had then gone across Austria +as a shipment of "cement in bags," had passed as such into Switzerland, +and there the agents of the food sharks in Budapest had turned it over +to an Italian buyer. Nobody would have been the wiser had it not been +that a shipment of some thirty cars was wrecked. Lo and behold, the +cement was flour! + +They had some similar cases in Germany, though most of them involved +chain trading in textiles. The unmerciful application of the law did not +deter the profiteer at all, any more than capital punishment has ever +succeeded in totally eradicating murder. There was always somebody who +would take a chance, and it was the leakage rather than the general +scheme of distribution that did all the damage. Whatever necessity and +commodity had once passed out of the channel of legitimate business had +to stay out of it if those responsible for the deflection were not to +come in conflict with the law, and there were always those who were only +too glad to buy such stores. The wholesaler received more than the +maximum price he could have asked of the retailer, and the consumer was +glad to get the merchandise at almost any price so that he could +increase his hoard. + +But the governments were loth to put the brake on too much of the +economic machinery. They depended on that machinery for money to carry +on the war, and large numbers of men would be needed to supervise a +system of distribution that thwarted the middleman's greed effectively. +These men were not available. + +The minimum-maximum price scheme had shown itself defective, moreover. +In theory this was all very well, but in food regulation it is often a +question of: The government proposes and the individual disposes. The +minimum price was the limit which any would-be buyer could offer the +seller. In the case of the farmer it meant that for a kilogram (2.205 +pounds) of potatoes he would get, let us say, five cents. Nobody could +offer him less. The maximum price was to protect the consumer, who for +the same potatoes was supposed to pay no more than six and one-half +cents. The middlemen were to fit into this scheme as best they could. +The one and one-half cents had to cover freight charges, operation cost, +and profit. The margin was ample in a farm-warehouse-store-kitchen +scheme of distribution. But it left nothing for the speculator, being +intended to stimulate production and ease the burden which the consumer +was bearing. Not the least purpose of the scheme was to keep the money +out of the hands of food-dealers, who would hoard their ill-gotten +gain. The government needed an active flow of currency. + +All of which was well enough so long as the supply of food was not +really short. But when it grew short another factor entered the arena. +Everybody began to hoard. The quantities which the authorities released +for consumption were not intended to be stored, however. Storing food by +incompetents is most wasteful, as the massacre of the pigs had shown, +and hoarding, moreover, gave more food to the rich than to the poor; so +for the time being it could not be encouraged too openly, despite the +revenues that came from it. + +But the hoarder is hard to defeat. The consumer knew and trusted the +retailer, the retailer was on the best of terms with the wholesaler, and +the rapacious commission-man knew where to get the goods. + +He made the farmer a better offer than the minimum price he usually +received. He paid six cents for the kilogram of potatoes, or even seven. +Then he sold in a manner which brought the potatoes to the consumer for +eleven cents through the "food speak-easy." The middleman and retailer +had now cleared four cents on the kilogram, instead of one and one-half +cents; their outlay deducted, they would make a net profit running from +two and one-half cents to three and one-half cents per 2.205 American +pounds of potatoes. This sort of traffic ran into the tens of thousands +of tons. The food shark was making hay while the weather was good. The +entire range of human alimentation was at his mercy, and often the +government closed an eye because the food shark would subscribe +handsomely to the next war loan. + +In the winter of 1915-16 I made several trips into the country to see +how things were getting along. On one occasion I was in Moravia. I had +heard rumors that here the food shark had found Paradise. It was a fact. +Near a freight-yard in Brünn a potato-dealer was installed. He bought +potatoes in any quantity, being in effect merely the agent of the Vienna +Bank Ring that was doing a food-commission business as a side line. I +don't know why the government permitted this, except that this +"concession" was a _quid pro quo_ for war-loan subscriptions. + +A little old Czech farmer drove up. He had some thirty bags of potatoes +on his sleigh, all well protected by straw and blankets. The food shark +looked the load over and offered the minimum price for that grade, which +on that day was eighteen hellers the kilogram, about one and +three-fourths cents American per pound avoirdupois. + +The farmer protested. "My daughter in Vienna tells me that she has to +pay thirty-six hellers a kilogram," he said. + +"Not according to the maximum price set by the government, which is +twenty-one hellers just now," was the bland remark of the agent. + +"That is all very well, sir!" returned the farmer. "But you know as well +as I do that when my daughter wants potatoes she must pay thirty-six +hellers or whatever the retailer wants. She writes me that when she +stands in the food-line she never gets anything. So she does business +with a man who always has potatoes." + +The food shark had no time to lose. Other farmers came. + +"Eighteen hellers or nothing," he said. + +The farmer thought it over for a while and then sold. + +The reader uninitiated in war-food conditions may ask: Why didn't that +farmer ship his daughter the potatoes she needed? He couldn't, of +course. The economic-zone arrangement prevented him. That zone was the +means which the government employed to regulate and restrict +distribution and consumption without giving money an opportunity to +tarnish in the hands of people who might not subscribe to war loans. The +zone "mobilized" the pennies by concentrating them in the banks and +making them available _en masse_ for the war. + +Yet the fact was that the daughter of the farmer, buying potatoes +clandestinely, may have bought the very product of her father's land. +Who in that case got the eighteen hellers difference? The middlemen, of +course. That the poor woman, in order to feed her children, might have +been able to use to good advantage two kilograms at thirty-six hellers, +instead of one, is very likely, but this consideration did not bother +the food sharks known as the Vienna Bank Ring. + +On one occasion the same group of food speculators permitted two +million eggs to spoil in a railroad yard at Vienna because the price was +not good enough. The Bank Ring was just then agitating for a better +price for eggs and hoped that the maximum would be raised. But the +government was a little slow on this occasion, and before the price went +up, "according to regulation," the eggs were an unpleasant memory to the +yard-hands. Naturally, nobody was prosecuted in this case. I understood +at the time that the Bank Ring presented to the Austrian government a +sort of ultimatum, which read: "No profits, no war loans." The +government surrendered. + +The fact that many of these speculators were of the Jewish persuasion +caused a revival of a rather mild sort of anti-Semitism. Several of the +Christian newspapers made much of this, but the government censors soon +put an end to that. This was no time for the pot to call the kettle +black. The food shark came from all classes, and the Austrian nobility +was not poorly represented. + +There was the case of the princely house of Schwarzenberg, for instance. +The family is not of German blood to any extent, as the name would seem +to imply. Nowadays it is distinctly Bohemian, and in Bohemia its vast +estates and properties are located. The managers of the Schwarzenbergs +had a corner on almost everything that was raised in the localities of +the family's domains. In the winter of 1915-16 they forced up, to +unheard-of heights, the price of prunes. The prune was a veritable +titbit then, and with most people in Central Europe it had come to be +the only fruit they could get in the winter. Its nutritive value is +great, and since every pfennig and heller had to buy a maximum in food +values the demand for prunes soon exceeded greatly the supply--so +everybody thought. + +But the trouble was not a shortage. The crop had been good, in fact. +Orchards, so far as they had not been harmed by the paucity of copper +for the manufacture of vitriol and Bordeaux mixture for the +extermination of tree parasites, had not suffered by the war. The trees +bore as usual, and fruit crops were generally what they had been before. +Nor had there been an increase in operation expenses, aside from what +little extra pay there was given those who gathered the crop. + +But the Schwarzenbergs and a few others made up their minds that they, +too, would get a little of the war profits. They also were heavy +investors in war loans. + +So long as this corner was confined to prunes and other fruits the thing +presented no great problem--as problems went then. But the activity of +this particular ring did not stop there. Its members dealt in everything +the soil produced. + +During the first months of the war there had been set aside by the +several military authorities certain agricultural districts from which +the armies were to be supplied with food, forage, and the like. The +idea was not a bad one. The armies were voracious consumers, and a +scheme which would concentrate over as small an area as possible the +supplies needed meant a great saving of time and effort when shipments +had to be made. + +That would have been very well had the several governments bought all +supplies from the producer direct through the medium of a purchasing +branch of the commissary department. Such was not the case, however. The +government continued to buy through war purveyors, who had, indeed, been +curbed a little, but only in exchange for other privileges. Standing in +well with the military, these men were able to sell out of the +commissary-supply zones what the armies did not need--poultry, butter, +fats, and eggs, for instance. These little side lines paid very well. I +remember discovering on one trip that near Prague could be bought a +whole goose for what in Vienna two pounds would cost. Since the Bohemian +geese are never small birds, and weigh from nine to twelve pounds, this +was a case of five to one. When in the cities butter was almost a thing +unknown, I was able to buy in Bohemia any quantity at the very +reasonable price of twenty-seven cents American a pound. In Vienna it +cost one dollar and thirty cents a pound after the food shark had been +satisfied. + +The military-supply-zone arrangement made exports from districts +affected to the large population centers impossible, except upon +special permit, which was not easy to get by the man who had no +"protection," as they put it in Austria. The food shark always +interfered. In doing that he had a sort of double objective. Scarcity +was forcing up the prices in the cities, and when the government had +been persuaded that the prevailing maximum price was not "fair to the +farmer" the shark had a reservoir to draw upon. + +I found a similar state of affairs in Galicia. On the very outskirts of +Cracow I ran into a veritable land of plenty. The military zone had +completely isolated this district, and while elsewhere people had not +seen butter in weeks, it was used here for cooking, and lard served as +axle-grease. Finally the zone was opened to the civilian consumer. But +this concession benefitted only the food sharks. In the population +centers prices remained what they had been. + +I found similar conditions in Germany, though the cause was not entirely +the same. + +The Mecklenburg states still have a government and public administration +scheme that has come down to our day from the Middle Ages without much +modification. They have no constitution as yet, and they would have no +railroads, I suppose, were it not that their neighbors had to get access +to one another through these principalities. The two countries are +hard-boiled eggs indeed. And the Mecklenburgers are like their +government. I understand that some enlightened ruler once offered his +people constitutional government, but had a refusal for his pains. + +Enough food had been hoarded in Mecklenburg to meet all Germany's +shortage three months. But nobody could get it out. The Imperial German +government had no say in the matter. The several German states are as +jealous of their vested rights as any American State could possibly be. +And the Mecklenburg government had little influence with its farmers. +The case was rather interesting. Here was an absolute government that +was more impotent in its dealings with its subjects than constitutional +Austria was. But the Mecklenburg farmers were of one mind, and that +quality is often stronger than a regularly established constitution--it +is stronger for the reason that it may be an unwritten constitution. + +The cellars and granaries of Mecklenburg were full to overflowing. But +there the thing ended, until one day the screws were put on by the +Imperial German government. The Mecklenburgers had been good war-loan +buyers, however. Hard-headed farmers often prefer direct methods. + +In Westphalia they had similar food islands, and from Osnabrück to the +North Sea victuals had generally to be pried loose with a crowbar. There +the farmer was the peasant of the good old type; he was generally a hard +person to deal with. It was shown that while he did not mind being +classed as low-caste--_Bauernstand_--he also had cultivated a castal +independence. He would doff his cap to the government official, and all +the time resolve the firmer not to let his crops get out of his hands +in a manner not agreeable to him. + +Passive resistance is too much for any government, no matter how +absolute and strong it may be. It can be overcome only by cajolery. + +The clandestine food-buyer had better luck, of course. He knew how to +impress and persuade the thickhead, and then made the dear general +public pay for this social accomplishment, which may be as it should be. +He also frustrated the plan of the government. Pennies so mobilized did +not always go into war loans. + +To the men in high places this was not unknown, of course. They realized +that something would have to be done soon or late to put this department +of war economics on a smooth track. Appeals not to hoard and not to +speculate in the interest of the nation were all very well, but they led +to nothing. + +Still, it would not do to undertake the major operation on the vitals of +the socio-economic organism which alone could set matters right. More +doctoring was done during the summer of 1916. Those who did it were +being misled by the will-o'-the-wisp of a good crop prospect. + +In August of that year I had an interview with Dr. Karl Helfferich, the +first German food-dictator. He was averse just then to more food +regulation. He had done wonders as it was. Everybody knew that, though +he was most modest about it. More regulation of the economic machine +seemed undesirable to him. He did not want to wholly unmake and remodel +the industrial and commercial organism of the state, and preliminary +crop reports were such that further interference seemed unnecessary at +that moment. + +As it was, the rye crop of Germany met expectations. Wheat fell short, +however, Oats were good, but the potatoes made a poor showing, as did a +number of other crops that year. + +Crop returns in Austria were disappointing on the whole. The spring had +been very wet and the summer unusually dry. When the harvesting season +came a long rainy spell ruined another 10 per cent. of the cereals. +Potatoes failed to give a good yield. In Hungary the outlook was equally +discouraging, and reports from the occupied territories in Poland, +Serbia, and Macedonia showed that what the "economic troops" and +occupation forces had raised would be needed by the armies. + +To fill the cup of anxiety to the brim, Roumania declared war. The +several governments had made arrangements to give furlough to as many +farm-workers as possible, that the crops might be brought in properly. +The entry of Roumania into the war made that impossible. And the moment +for entry had been chosen well indeed. By reason of its warmer climate, +Roumania had been able to harvest a good three-quarters of her crops by +August, and the Indian corn could be left to the older men, women, and +children to gather. But in the Central states it was different. Much of +the wheat had been harvested, and some rye had also been brought in, +but the bulk of the field produce, upon which the populations depended +for their nourishment, was still in the fields. + +I have never experienced so gloomy a time as this. There was a new +enemy, and this enemy was spreading all over Transylvania. The shortage +of labor was greater than ever before, with the weather more +unfavorable. + +What the conditions in Austria and Hungary were at that time I was able +to ascertain on several trips to the Roumanian front. Cereals that +should have been under roof long ago were standing in the fields, +spilling their kernels when rain was not rotting them. Those who were +left to reap struggled heroically with the huge task on their hands, but +were not equal to it. If ever the specter of famine had stalked through +the Central states, those were the days. + +All this left the food shark undisturbed. He laid hands on all he could +and was ready to squeeze hard when the time came. + + + + +VI + +THE HOARDERS + + +The fact that business relations in Central Europe are very often family +and friendship affairs was to prove an almost insuperable obstacle in +government food regulation. It led to the growth of what for the want of +a better term I will call: The food "speak-easy." + +The word _Kundschaft_ may be translated into English as "circle of +customers." The term "trade" will not fit, for the reason that relations +between old customers and storekeeper are usually the most intimate. The +dealer may have known the mother of the woman who buys in his shop. He +may have also known her grandmother. At any rate, it is certain that the +customer has dealt at the store ever since she moved into the district. +Loyalty in Central Europe goes so far that a customer would think twice +before changing stores, and if a change is made it becomes almost a +matter of personal affront. The storekeeper will feel that he has done +his best by the customer and has found no appreciation. + +Not versed in the ways of Europe, I had several experiences of this +peculiarity. + +While in Vienna I used to buy my smoking materials of a little woman who +kept a tobacco "_Traffic_" on the Alleestrasse. I did not show up when +at the front, of course, and, making many such trips, my custom was a +rather spasmodic affair. The woman seemed to be worried about it. + +"It is very odd, sir, that you stay away altogether at times," she said. +"Is it possible that you are not satisfied with my goods? They are the +same as those you get elsewhere, you know." + +That was true enough. In Austria trade in tobacco is a government +monopoly, and one buys the same brands at all the stores. + +"I am not always in town," I explained. + +I was to get my bringing-up supplemented presently. Those who know the +Viennese will best understand what happened. + +"You are a foreigner, sir," continued the woman, "and cannot be expected +to know the ways of this country. May I give you a little advice?" + +I said that I had never been above taking advice from anybody. + +"You will get much better service from storekeepers in this country if +you become a regular customer, and especially in these days. You see, +that is the rule here. Smoking material, as you know, is already short, +and I fear that in a little while there will not be enough to go +around." + +The tip was not lost on me, especially since I found that the woman +really meant well. She had counted on me as one of those whom she +intended to supply with smokes when the shortage became chronic, which +it soon would be. And that she proposed doing because I was such a +"pleasant fellow." After that I took pains to announce my departure +whenever I had occasion to leave the city, and I found that, long after +the "tobacco-line" was one of the facts of the time, the woman would lay +aside for me every day ten cigarettes. My small trade had come to be one +of the things which the woman counted upon--and she wanted no fickleness +from me in return for the thought she gave my welfare. + +What a food shortage would lead to under such conditions can be +imagined. The storekeeper would look out for his regular customers, +before any other person got from him so much as sight of the food. + +The government regulations were less partial, however. The several food +cards, with which would-be purchasers were provided, were intended to be +honored on sight so long as the quota they stipulated was there. + +The food "speak-easy" had its birth in this. The storekeeper would know +that such and such customer needed sundry items and would reserve them. +The customer might never get them if she stood in line, so she called +afterward at the back door, or came late of nights when the sign +"Everything Sold" hung in the window. + +Had this illicit traffic stopped there and then things would have been +well enough. But it did not. Before very long it degenerated into a wild +scramble for food for hoarding purposes. + +As yet the several governments were not greatly interested in +distribution methods that really were of service. The avenue from +wholesaler to retailer was still open. The food cards were issued to the +public to limit consumption, and the law paragraph quoted on them called +attention to the fact that infraction of the regulations would be +punished no matter by whom committed. + +Most of the little coupons were half the size of a postage stamp, and so +many of them were collected by a storekeeper in the course of a week +that an army of men would have been needed if the things were to be +counted. So the governments took a chance with the honesty of the +retailers. That was a mistake, of course, but it was the only way. + +There was at first no control of any sort over the quantities bought by +the retailer. In fact, he could buy as much as he liked so long as the +wholesaler did not have another friend retailer to keep in mind. The +other retailer was doing business along the same lines, and could not be +overlooked; otherwise there would be the danger of losing him as soon as +the war was over; in those days it was still "soon." + +The wholesaler maintained the best of relations with the retailer, +despite the fact that he was of a superior class. The two would meet now +and then in the cafés, and there the somewhat unequal business +friendship would be fostered over the marble-topped table. + +The customer of the retailer was already hoarding food. The retailer +tried to do all the business he could, of course, and in the pursuit of +this policy bought from the wholesaler all he could possibly get for +money or love. + +[Illustration: Copyright by Underwood & Underwood, N. Y. + +STREET SCENE AT EISENBACH, SOUTHERN GERMANY + +From the villages and small towns is recruited sixty per cent. of the +German army.] + +Commission-men were licensed by the government, and when food regulation +became a little more stringent they were obliged to make some sort of a +slovenly report on the quantities they handled. But the government food +commissions did not have the necessary personnel to keep close tally of +these reports. This led to partial returns by the middlemen, a practice +which entailed no particular risk so long as the government did not +actually control and direct the buying of foodstuffs in the country and +at the mills. + +Business moved smartly as the result of this combination of +circumstances. The wholesaler bought twice as much from the +commission-man, and the latter had to buy, accordingly, in the country. + +The maximum prices which the government set upon foods about to enter +into possession of the consumer were invariably accompanied by minimum +prices which the producer was to get. Reversely, the arrangement meant +that the customer could not offer less for food than the government had +decided he should pay, nor could the farmer or other producer demand +more. + +That was well enough in a way. The farmer was to get for a kilogram +(2.205 pounds) of wheat not less than four and one-half cents, and the +middleman selling to the mill could not ask more than five and one-half +cents. Labor and loss in milling taken into consideration, the mill was +to be satisfied with seven cents, while the consumer, so said the +regulations, was to get his flour for eight and one-quarter cents per +kilogram. + +That was all very well, but it came to mean little in the end. + +The customer thought he would lay in two hundred pounds of wheat flour +for the rainy day. The retailer could not see it in that way. That was +just a little too much. There were other worthy customers who might have +to go short of their regular quota if he sold in amounts of that size. +But the customer wanted the flour and was willing to pay more than the +regulation or maximum price for it. It took but little tempting to cause +the fall of the retailer. + +The wholesaler would do the same thing. The commission-man was willing, +since part of, let us say, a 20-per-cent. increase was being handed +along the line. The mill got a few crowns more per hundred kilograms, +and a little of the extra price would get as far as the farmer. + +That _l'appétit vient en mangeant_ is a notorious fact. A dangerous +practice had been launched, nor was it always inaugurated by the +consumer. No class of dealers was averse to doing business that might be +illicit, but which brought large profits. + +A first result was that the farmer was spoiled, as the consumer and the +government looked at it. While purchases from the farmer were bounded +in price by a minimum, there was no prohibition of paying him as much +more as he would take. The government's duty was to stimulate +production, and that was the purpose of the minimum price. + +The government, learning that a certain farmer had been getting six +cents for his wheat, might wonder how much the consumer paid and get +after the middlemen, but it could not hold the farmer responsible. + +As a matter of fact, the government hardly ever heard of such +transactions. They did not talk at the gate of the food "speak-easy." +When questioned the farmer would always protest that he had all he could +do to get the minimum price. + +Not only was the first excess in price passed along, but large profits +attached themselves to the article as it progressed cityward. The +commission-men got theirs, the miller did not overlook himself, the +wholesaler was remembered, naturally, and the retailer, as +factotum-general in the scheme, saw to it that he was not deprived of +his share. + +As is always the case, the consumer paid the several pipers. And the +special consumer to whom the food, thus illicitly diverted from the +regular channels, meant the assurance that he would not starve although +others might, paid cheerfully. What was the good of having money in the +bank when soon it might not buy anything? + +The lines in front of the food-shops lengthened, and many retailers +acquired the habit of keeping open but part of the day. But even that +part was usually too long. When the card in the window said, "Open from +8 to 12," it usually meant that at nine o'clock there would not be a +morsel of food on the counters and shelves. The members of the food-line +who had not managed to gain access to the store by that time would get +no food that day. + +At first the retailer would regret this very much. But he soon began to +feel his oats. Women, who had stood in line for several hours, wanted to +know why he had so small a quantity on hand. The man would often become +abusive and refuse an explanation. + +Now and then some resolute woman would complain to the police. The +retailer was arrested and fined. But the woman would never again get any +food from him. That was his way of getting even and disciplining the +good customers upon whom at other times he had waited hand and foot. + +The fine relations between customer and retailer of yore were gone by +the board. The era of hoarding and greed was on. The good-natured Vienna +and Berlin _Kleinkrämer_ grew more autocratic every time he opened his +store. People had to come to him or go hungry, and it was ever hurtful +to put the beggar on horse-back. + +Occasional visits to the lower courts proved very interesting and +entertaining, though the story that was told was always the same. The +retailer had lost his sense of proportions completely. No sergeant of +an awkward squad ever developed so fine a flow of sarcastic billingsgate +as did the butchers, bakers, and candlestick-makers of the Central +states in those days. Almost every case had its low-comedy feature, and +often I came away with the impression that the sense of humor in some +people is hard to kill, especially when some serious judge pronounced +the maximum sentence for an offense about whose quaint rascality he was +still chuckling. + +But the dear public was not as stupid as the retailers and their ilk +thought. Almost everybody had a relative, friend, or acquaintance in the +country, and when this was not the case one had a city friend who had +such a country connection. + +Sunday excursions into the country became very popular, and week-days +could not be put to better use. The many holidays called for by +religious observance, and now and then a victory over the enemy, came to +be a severe strain upon the country's food reserve. The trains coming +into the city often carried more weight in food than in passengers. + +After all, that was the best way of laying in supplies. Why go to the +retailer and stand in line when the farmers were willing to sell to the +consumer direct? + +A high tide in hoarding set in. Everybody filled garret and cellar with +the things which the farm produces. Flour was stowed away in all +possible and impossible places. Potatoes were accumulated. Butter and +eggs were salted away, and so much fruit was preserved that sugar ceased +to be obtainable in countries which had formerly exported much of it. + +The authorities knew full well what would happen if the private route +from farm to kitchen direct was not made impossible. Existing +regulations already permitted the searching of trains. When the +inspectors descended upon the hoarding holidayers there was much +surprise, gnashing of teeth, and grumbling. But that did not help. The +food illicitly brought in was confiscated, and the slightest resistance +on the part of those having it in their possession brought a liberal +fine and often a day or two in jail. + +The parcel post was used next by the private food-hoarders. The +government wanted to be easy on the population and had for this reason +closed its eyes to the packages of butter and other concentrated foods +that went through the mails. But the good consumers overreached +themselves. The result was that the postal authorities turned over all +food found in the mails to the Food Commissions and Centrals. + +Next thing was that the farmer who came to market had to be curbed. That +worthy man would enter town or city with a good load of eatables. By the +time he had gone a few blocks he had disposed of everything. It was like +taking up a drop of ink with a blotter. + +The first measures against this resulted in smuggling. Every load of +produce that came into a population center had in it packages of other +good things, especially butter and lard, and later eggs, when these fell +within the scope of regulation. + +But the hoarding that was going on would have to be stopped if the +food-supply was to last. Those who hoarded lost no chance to buy for +their current consumption in the legal market, drawing thus doubly on +the scant food-supplies. The authorities began to exercise their right +of search. The food-inspector became an unwelcome visitor of households. + +The practice of hoarding was well enough for the well-to-do. But it left +the poor entirely unprovided. The average wage-earner did not have the +means to buy food at the fancy prices that governed the illicit food +market, and the food that went to the hoarder cut short the general +supply upon which the poor depended for their daily allowance. It was +quite the regular thing for the wife of a poor man to stand in line +three hours and then be turned away. The retailer would still have food +in the cellar, but that was to go out by private delivery. The food +cards held by the women were no warrant on the quantities they +prescribed, but merely the authorization to draw so and so much if the +things were to be had. The woman had to take the retailer's word for it. +When that august person said, "Sold out," there was nothing to do but go +home and pacify the hungry children with whatever else the depleted +larder contained. + +Meanwhile much food was spoiling in the cellars and attics of the +hoarders. People who never before in their lives had attempted to +preserve food were now trying their hand at it--with unfortunate and +malodorous results. + +An acquaintance of mine in Vienna had hoarded diligently and amply. The +man had on hand wheat flour, large quantities of potatoes, butter in +salt, and eggs in lime-water, and conserved fruits and vegetables which +represented an excess consumption in sugar. He had also laid in great +quantities of honey, coffee, and other groceries. There was food enough +to last his family two years, so long as a little could be had in the +legal market each day. + +Though the store on hand was ample, the man continued to buy where and +whenever he could. One day he shipped from Agram several mattresses--not +for the sake of the comfort they would bring of nights, but for the +macaroni he had stuffed them with. I think that of all the hoarders he +was the king-pin. + +The man had three growing boys, however, and allowance has to be made +for that. He did not want those boys to be stunted in their growth by +insufficient nourishment. Obliged to choose between paternal and civic +duty, he decided in favor of the former, for which we need not blame him +too much, seeing that most of us would do precisely that thing in his +position. But to understand that fully, one must have seen hungry +children tormenting their parents for food. Description is wholly +inadequate in such cases. + +That there were others who had growing children may have occurred to the +man, but meant nothing to him. So he continued to buy and hoard. + +The storage methods employed were wrong, of course, and facilities were +very limited. The potatoes froze in the cellar and sprouted in the warm +rooms. Weevils took birth in the flour, because it was stored in a +wardrobe only some four feet away from a stove. The canned goods stood +on every shelf in the place, littered the floors and filled the corners. +Faulty preserving methods or the constant changes of temperature caused +most of them to ferment and spoil. Every now and then something about +the apartment would explode. The man had bought up almost the last of +olive-oil that could be had in Central Europe. That, too, turned rancid. + +As I remember it now, he told me that of all the food he had +bought--that he had hoarded it he never admitted--he had been able to +use about one-third, and the annoyance he had from the spoiled +two-thirds killed all the joy there was in having saved one-third. +Hoarding in this case was an utter failure. + +So it was in most cases. To preserve food is almost a science, and +suitable storage facilities play an important rôle in this. The private +hoarder had no proper facilities. That it was unlawful to hoard food +caused him to go ahead storing without asking advice of people familiar +with the requirements; and the possibility that agents of the food +authorities might come to inspect the quarters of the hoarder made +hiding imperative. Often the servants would become informers, so that +the food had to be hidden from them in barrels, trunks, and locked +chests. The result of this can be easily imagined. There was a time when +more food was spoiled in Central Europe by hoarding than there was +consumed. The thing was extremely short-sighted, but everybody was +taking care of himself and his own. + +There was no reason why food should spoil on the hands of the retailer. +He never had enough to go around. But it was different with the +wholesaler. This class was eternally holding back supplies for the +purpose of inducing the government to increase the maximum prices. As +time went on, the authorities had to do that, and the quantities then +held in the warehouses benefited. The agitation of the producers for +better minimum prices was water on the mill of the wholesaler. The +government was eternally solicitous for the welfare of the farmer, and +lent a ready ear to what he had to say. The minimum price was raised, +and with it the consumer's maximum price had to go up. All quantities +then held by the wholesalers were affected only by the increase in food +prices that was borne by the consumer, not the increase that had to be +given the farmer. It was the finest of business, especially since an +increase of 5 per cent. in legitimate business meant an increase of +another 15 per cent. in illicit traffic. + +In the spring of 1916 I made a canvass of the situation, and found that +while the farmers were getting for their products from 10 to 15 per +cent. more than they had received in 1914, food in the cities and towns +was from 80 to 150 per cent. higher than it had been normally during +five years before the war. I found that the dealers and middlemen were +reaping an extra profit of approximately 80 per cent. on the things they +bought and sold, after the greater cost of operation had been deducted. +Small wonder that jewelers in Berlin and Vienna told me that the +Christmas trade of 1915 was the best they had ever done. These good +people opined that their increase in business was due to the general war +prosperity. They were right, but forgot to mention that this prosperity +was based on the cents wrung from the starving population by the buyers +of the diamonds and precious baubles. + +Naturally, the dear farmer was not being left just then. He sold when he +pleased for a time--until the government took a hand in moving his +crops. But this interference with the affairs of the farmer was not +entirely a blessing by any means. The brave tiller of the soil began to +hoard now. Little actual loss came from this. The farmer knew his +business. No food spoiled so long as he took care of it. All would have +been well had it not been that the farmer was the very fountainhead of +the hoarding which in the cities resulted in the loss of foodstuffs. + +There were still many loose ends in the scheme of food regulation. While +the farmer was obliged to sell to the middleman, under supervision of +the government Food Centrals, all cereals and potatoes which he would +not need for his own use and seeding, the estimates made by the Food +Central agents were generally very conservative. This they had to be if +the government was not to run the risk of finding itself short after +fixing the ration that seemed permissible by the crop returns +established in this manner. The farmer got the benefit of the doubt, of +course, and that benefit he invariably salted away for illicit trading. + +But illicit trading in breadstuffs was becoming more and more difficult. +The grain had to go into a mill before it was flour. The government +began to check up closely on the millers, which was rather awkward for +all concerned in the traffic of the food "speak-easy." + +A way out was found by the farmers. They were a rather inventive lot. I +am sure that these men, as they followed the plow back and forth, +cudgeled their brains how the latest government regulation could be met +and frustrated. + +Butter and fat were very short and were almost worth their weight in +silver. They sold in the regulated market at from one dollar and sixty +to one dollar and eighty cents a pound, and in the food "speak-easy" +they cost just double that. + +Why not produce more butter? thought the farmer. He had the cows. And +why not more lard? He had the pigs. A bushel of grain sold at minimum +price brought so much, while converted into butter and lard it was worth +thrice that much. Grain was hard to sell surreptitiously, but it was +easy to dispose of the fats. + +In this manner hoarding took on a new shape--one that was to lead to +more waste. + +None of the Central European governments had reason to believe that its +food measures were popular. Much passive resistance was met. The +consumer thought of himself in a hundred different ways. To curb him, +the secret service of the police was instructed to keep its eyes on the +family larder. Under the "War" paragraphs of the constitutions the +several governments of Central Europe had that power. In Austria it was +the famous "§14," for instance, under which any and all war measures +were possible. + +Government by inspection is not only oppressive; it is also very +expensive. It is dangerous in times when authorities are face to face +with unrest; at any time it is the least desirable thing there is. It +was not long before both government and public discovered that. To +inspect households systematically was impossible, of course. The +informer had to be relied upon. Usually, discharged servants wrote +anonymous letters to the police, and often it was found that this was no +more than a bit of spite work. If a servant-girl wanted to give a former +mistress a disagreeable surprise she would write such a letter. Some +hoards were really uncovered in that manner, but the game was not worth +the candle. + +To get at the men who were hoarding _en masse_ for speculation and +price-boosting purposes, an efficient secret service was needed. But +this the Central European governments do not possess. The police of +Germany and Austria-Hungary plays an important part in the life of man. +But it does this openly. The methods employed are bureaucratic routine. +The helmet shows conspicuously. Wits have no place in the system. + +One cannot move from one house to another without being made the subject +of an entry on the police records. To move from one town to another was +quite an undertaking during the war. Several documents were required. A +servant or employee may not change jobs without notifying the police +authorities. All life is minutely regulated and recorded on the books of +the minions of the law. + +In matters of that sort the Central European police is truly efficient, +because the system employed has been perfected by the cumulative effort +and experience of generations. Detective work, on the other hand, is out +of the reach of these organizations. The German detective is as poor a +performer and as awkward as certain German diplomatists. He is always +found out. + +Why the German and Austro-Hungarian detective services did not succeed +in finding the commercial hoards I can readily understand. One could +recognize the members of the services a mile off, as it were. It seemed +to me that they were forever afraid of being detected. In the detective +that is a bad handicap. Now and then the German detective could be +heard. + +As a foreigner I received considerable attention from the German, +Austrian, and Hungarian police forces in the course of three years. My +case was simple, however. I looked outlandish, no doubt, and since I +spoke German with a foreign accent it really was not difficult to keep +track of me. In the course of time, also, I became well known to +thousands of people. That under these circumstances I should have known +it at once when detectives were on my trail can be ascribed only to the +clumsy work that was being done by the secret-service men. In Berlin I +once invited a "shadow" of mine to get into my taxicab, lest I escape +him. He refused and seemed offended. + +But there is a classic bit of German detective work that I must give in +detail, in order to show why the food speculator and his ilk were immune +in spite of all the regulations made by the government. + +I had been in Berlin several times when it happened. I knew many men in +the Foreign Office, and in the bureaus of the German general staff, +while to most of the Adlon Hotel employees I was as familiar a sight as +I well could be without belonging to their families. + +I had come over the German-Dutch border that noon, and had been +subjected to the usual frisking. There had also been a little +trouble--also as usual. + +The clerk at the desk in the Adlon did not know me. He was a new man. He +had, however, been witness to the very effusive welcome which the _chef +de réception_ gave me. + +That did not interest me until I came down from my room and approached +the desk for the purpose of leaving word for a friend of mine where I +could be found later. + +The clerk was engaged in earnest conversation with a stockily built man +of middle age. I had to wait until he would be through. + +After a second or so I heard my room number mentioned--237. Then the +sound of my name fell. I noticed that the clerk was fingering one of the +forms on which a traveler in Central Europe inscribes his name, +profession, residence, nationality, age, and what not for the +information of the police. + +"He is a newspaper correspondent?" asked the stocky one. + +"So he says," replied the clerk. + +"You are sure about that?" + +"Well, that is what it says on the form." + +"What sort of looking fellow is he?" inquired the stockily built man. + +"Rather tall, smooth shaven, dark complexion, wears eye-glasses," +replied the clerk. + +I moved around the column that marks the end of one part of the desk and +the beginning of another part that runs at right angles to the first. + +The clerk saw me and winked at the man to whom he had been talking. The +detective was in the throes of embarrassment. He blushed. + +"Can't I be of some assistance to you?" I remarked in an impersonal +manner, looking from clerk to detective. "You seem to be interested in +my identity. What do you wish to know?" + +There was a short but highly awkward pause. + +"I am not," stammered the detective. "We were talking about somebody +else." + +"I beg your pardon," said I and moved off. + +I have always taken it for granted that the detective was a new man in +the secret service. Still, I have often wondered what sort of detective +service it must be that will employ such helpless bunglers. + +It may be no more than an _idée fixe_ on my part, but ever since then I +have taken _cum grano salis_ all that has been said for and against the +efficiency of the German secret service, be it municipal or +international. At Bucharest there was maintained for a time, allegedly +by the German foreign service, a man who was known to everybody on the +Calea Victoriei as the German _Oberspion_--chief spy. The poor devil cut +a most pathetic figure. All contentions to the contrary notwithstanding, +I would say that secret service is not one of the fortes of the Germans. +They really ought to leave it alone. That takes keener wits and quicker +thinking on one's feet than can be associated with the German mind. + +The Austrians were rather more efficient, and the same can be said of +the Hungarian detective forces. In both cases the secret-service men +were usually Poles, however, and that makes a difference. There is no +mind quite so nimble, adaptive, or capable of simulation as that of the +Pole. In this the race resembles strongly the French, hence its success +in a field in which the French are justly the leaders. + +For the food sharks the German detective was no match. He might impress +a provident _Hausfrau_ and move her to tears and the promise that she +would never do it again. The commercial hoarder, who had a regular +business besides and kept his books accordingly, was too much for these +men. So long as no informer gave specific details that left no room for +thinking on the part of the detective, the food shark was perfectly +safe. The thousands of cases that came into the courts as time went on +showed that the detectives, and inspectors of the Food Authorities, were +thoroughly incorruptible. They also showed that they at least were doing +no hoarding--in brains. + + + + +VII + +IN THE HUMAN SHAMBLES + + +Somber as this picture of life is, its background was nothing less than +terrifyingly lurid. + +For some minutes I had stood before a barn in Galicia. I was expected to +go into that barn, but I did not like the idea. Some fourscore of +cholera patients lay on the straw-littered earthen floor. Every hour or +so one of them would die. Disease in their case had progressed so far +that all hope had been abandoned. If by any chance one of the sick +possessed that unusual degree of bodily and nerve vigor that would +defeat the ravages of the germ, he would recover as well in the barn as +in a hospital. + +The brave man wishes to die alone. Those in the barn were brave men, and +I did not wish to press my company upon them in the supreme hour. Still, +there was the possibility that some might question my courage if I did +not go into the barn. Cholera is highly contagious. But when with an +army one is expected to do as the army does. If reckless exposure be a +part of that, there is no help. + +I stepped into the gloom of the structure. There was snow on the ground +outside. It took a minute or two before my eyes could discern things. +Some light fell into the interior from the half-open door and a little +square opening in the wall in the rear. + +Two lines of sick men lay on the ground--heads toward the wall, feet in +the aisle that was thus formed. Some of the cholera-stricken writhed in +agony as the germ destroyed their vitals. Others lay exhausted from a +spasm of excruciating agony. Some were in the coma preceding death. Two +were delirious. + +There was an army chaplain in the barn. He thought it his duty to be of +as much comfort to the men as possible. His intentions were kind enough, +and yet he would have done the patients a favor by leaving them to +themselves. + +As I reached the corner where the chaplain stood, one of the sick +soldiers struggled into an upright position. Then he knelt, while the +chaplain began to say some prayer. The poor wretch had much difficulty +keeping upright. When the chaplain had said "Amen" he fell across the +body of the sick man next to him. + +The exertion and the mental excitement had done the man no good. Soon he +was in a paroxysm of agony. The chaplain was meanwhile preparing another +for the great journey. + +The dead had been laid under one of the eaves. A warm wind had sprung up +and the sun was shining. The snow on the roof began to melt. The +dripping water laved the faces of the dead. Out in the field several +men were digging a company grave. + +So much has been written on the hardships endured by the wounded at the +front that I will pass by this painful subject. What tortures these +unfortunates suffered is aptly epitomized by an experience I had in the +hospital of the American Red Cross in Budapest. + +The man in charge of the hospital, Dr. Charles MacDonald, of the United +States Army, had invited me to see his institution. I had come to a +small room in which operations were undertaken when urgency made this +necessary. During the day a large convoy of very bad cases had reached +Budapest. Many of them were a combination of wounds and frostbite. + +In the middle of the room stood an operation-table. On it lay a patient +who was just recovering consciousness. I saw the merciful stupor of +anesthesia leave the man's mind and wondered how he would take it. For +on the floor, near the foot end of the operation-table, stood an +enameled wash-basin, filled with blood and water. From the red fluid +protruded two feet. They were black and swollen--frostbite. One of them +had been cut off a little above the ankle, and the other immediately +below the calf of the leg. + +The amputation itself was a success, said the nurse. But there was +little hope for the patient. He had another wound in the back. That +wound itself was not serious, but it had been the cause of the man's +condition, by depriving him temporarily of the power of locomotion. +When he was shot, the man had fallen into some reeds. He was unconscious +for a time, and when he recovered his senses he found that he could no +longer move his legs. + +He was lying in a No Man's Land between the Austro-Hungarian and Russian +lines. For two days his feeble cries were unheard. Finally, some +ambulance-men came across him. By that time his feet had been frozen. +The wound in his back was given some attention at a first-aid station +behind the line. The surgeons decided that the amputation of the feet +could wait until Budapest was reached. Meanwhile the poison of gangrene +was gaining admission to the blood. + +The man's face was yellow. His whole body was yellow and emaciated. The +lips no longer served to cover the teeth. + +He was breathing pantingly--in short, quick gasps. + +Slowly his mind shook off the fetters of the ether. A long breath--a +faint sigh. The eyes opened. + +They were Slav eyes of blue-gray. I saw in them the appeal of the +helpless child, the protest of a being tortured, the prayer for relief +of a despairing soul. + +The man's lips moved. He wanted to say something. I bent over to catch +the sibilant tones. + +I had not caught them, and indicated that by a shake of the head. The +man repeated. He spoke in Polish, a language I do not know. To assure +the man that I would find means of understanding him, I patted his +cheek, and then called an orderly. + +"He says that he would like you to fetch his wife and his children," +said the orderly-interpreter, as he righted himself. "He says he is +going to die soon, and wants to see them. He says that you will have to +hurry up. He says that he will say a good word to the Lord for you if +you will do him this favor." + +"Ask him where they live," I said to the orderly. If it were at all +possible I would do the man this kindness. + +It was some village near Cracow. That was a long way off. If the man +lived for two days his wish could be met. + +"Tell the man that I will telegraph his wife to come as quickly as +possible, but that she can't be here for a day or so," I instructed the +interpreter. + +A shadow of disappointment swept over the patient's face. + +"Ask him if he knows where he is," I said. + +The man did not know. I told the orderly to make it clear to him that he +was in Budapest, and that his home in Galicia was far away. He was to be +patient. I would bring his wife and children to him, if it could be done +at all. Did the wife have the money to pay the railroad fare? + +The patient was not sure. I read in his eyes that he feared the woman +would not have the money. I eased his mind by telling him that I would +pay the fares. + +Deeper gratitude never spoke from any face. The poor fellow tried to +lift his hands, but could not. To assure him that his wish would be +granted I once more patted his cheeks and forehead and then left the +room, followed by the orderly and the wash-basin. + +"There is no use telegraphing," said Doctor MacDonald. "He won't live +longer than another hour, at the most." + +Ten minutes later the man was dead. The operation-table was being +wheeled down the corridor by the orderly. I had just stepped out of a +ward. + +The orderly stopped. + +"You won't have to bring the woman here," he said, as he lifted the end +of the sheet that covered the face. + +As reward for my readiness to help the poor man, I have still in my mind +the expression of relief that lay on the dead face. He had passed off in +gladsome anticipation of the meeting there was to be. + +I covered up the face and the orderly trundled the body away. + +Some months later I sat in a room of the big military hospital in the +Tatavla Quarter of Constantinople. On a bench against the wall opposite +me were sitting a number of men in Turkish uniform. They were blind. +Some of them had lost their eyes in hand-to-hand combat, more of them +had been robbed of their sight in hand-grenade encounters. + +Doctor Eissen, the oculist-surgeon of the hospital, was about to fit +these men with glass eyes. In the neat little case on the table were +eyes of all colors, most of them brownish tints, a few of them were +blue. + +One of the Turks was a blond--son of a Greek or Circassian, maybe. + +"These things don't help any, of course," said Doctor Eissen, as he laid +a pair of blue eyes on a spoon and held them into the boiling water for +sterilization. "But they lessen the shock to the family when the man +comes home. + +"Poor devils! I have treated them all. They are like a bunch of +children. They are going home to-day. They have been discharged. + +"Well, they are going home. Some have wives and children they will never +see again--dependents they can no longer support. Some of them are +luckier. They have nobody. The one who is to get these blue eyes used to +be a silk-weaver in Brussa. He is optimistic enough to think that he can +still weave. Maybe he can. That will depend on his fingers, I suppose. +It takes often more courage to live after a battle than to live in it." + +The dear government did not provide glass eyes. Doctor Eissen furnished +them himself, and yet the dear government insisted that a report be made +on each eye he donated. The ways of red tape are queer the world over. + +"And when the blind come home the relatives weep a little and are glad +that at least so much of the man has been returned to them." + +In the corridor there was waiting a Turkish woman. Her son was one of +those whom Doctor Eissen was just fitting with eyes. When he was through +with this, he called in the woman. The young blind _asker_ rose in the +darkness that surrounded him. + +Out of that darkness came presently the embrace of two arms and the sob: + +"_Kusum!_" ("My lamb!"). + +For a moment the woman stared into the fabricated eyes. They were not +those she had given her boy. They were glass, immobile. She closed her +own eyes and then wept on the broad chest of the son. The son, glad that +his _walideh_ was near him once more, found it easy to be the stronger +of the two. He kissed his mother and then caressed the hair under the +cap of the _yashmak_. + +When the doctor had been thanked, the mother led her boy off. + +Blind beggars are not unkindly treated in Constantinople. There is a +rule that one must never refuse them alms. The least that may be given +them are the words: + +"_Inayet ola!_" ("God will care for you!"). + +Not long after that I sat on the shambles at Suvla Bay, the particular +spot in question being known as the Kiretch Tépé--Chalk Hill. + +Sir Ian Hamilton had just thrown into the vast amphitheater to the east +of the bay some two hundred thousand men, many of them raw troops of the +Kitchener armies. + +Some three thousand of these men had been left dead on the slopes of the +hill. As usual, somebody on Gallipoli had bungled and bungled badly. A +few days before I had seen how a British division ate itself up in +futile attacks against a Turkish position west of Kütchük Anafarta. The +thing was glorious to look at, but withal very foolish. Four times the +British assailed the trenches of the Turks, and each time they were +thrown back. When General Stopford finally decided that the thing was +foolish, he called it off. The division he could not call back, because +it was no more. + +It was so on Chalk Hill. + +A hot August night lay over the peninsula. The crescent of a waning moon +gave the dense vapors that had welled in from the Mediterranean an +opalescent quality. From that vapor came also, so it seemed, the stench +of a hundred battle-fields. In reality this was not so. The Turkish +advance position, which I had invaded that night for the purpose of +seeing an attack which was to be made by the Turks shortly before dawn, +ran close to the company graves in which the Turks had buried the dead +foe. + +There is little soil on Gallipoli. It is hardly ever more than a foot +deep on any slope, and under it lies lime that is too hard to get out of +the way with pick and shovel. The company graves, therefore, were cairns +rather than ditches. The bodies had been walled in well enough, but +those walls were not airtight. The gases of decomposition escaped, +therefore, and filled the landscape with obnoxious odor. + +I had been warned against this. The warning I had disregarded for the +reason that such things are not unfamiliar to me. But I will confess +that it took a good many cigarettes and considerable will-power to keep +me in that position--so long as was absolutely necessary. + +When I returned to Constantinople everybody was speaking of the stench +in the Suvla Bay terrain. There were many such spots, and returning +soldiers were never slow in dwelling on the topic they suggested. The +war did not appear less awesome for that. + +But the shambles that came closest to the general public was the +casualty lists published by the German government as a sort of +supplement to the Berlin _Norddeutsche Allgemeine Zeitung_, the +semi-official organ of the German Imperial Government. At times this +list would contain as many as eight thousand names, each with a letter +or several after it--"t" for dead, "s v" for severely wounded, "l v" for +lightly wounded, and so on. + +It was thought at first that the public would not be able to stand this +for long. But soon it was shown that literally there was no end to the +fortitude of the Germans. + +I was to spend some time on the Somme front. I really was not anxious to +see that field of slaughter. But certain men in Berlin thought that I +ought to complete my list of fronts with their "own" front. Hospitals +and such no longer interested me. Wrecked churches I had seen by the +score--and a ruined building is a ruined building. I said that I would +visit the Somme front in case I was allowed to go wherever I wanted. +That was agreed to, after I had signed a paper relieving the German +government of all responsibility in case something should happen to me +"for myself and my heirs forever." + +The front had been in eruption three weeks and murder had reached the +climax when one fine afternoon I put up at a very unpretentious +_auberge_ in Cambrai. + +The interior of the Moloch of Carthage never was so hot as this front, +nor was Moloch ever so greedy for human life. Battalion after battalion, +division after division, was hurled into this furnace of barrage and +machine-gun fire. What was left of them trickled back in a thin stream +of wounded. + +For nine days the "drum" fire never ceased. From Le Transloy to south of +Pozières the earth rocked. From the walls and ceilings of the old +citadel at Cambrai the plaster fell, though many miles lay between it +and the front. + +Perhaps the best I could say of the Somme offensive is that none will +ever describe it adequately--as it was. The poor devils really able to +encompass its magnitude and terrors became insane. Those who later +regained their reason did so only because they had forgotten. The others +live in the Somme days yet, and there are thousands of them. + +I could tell tales of horror such as have never before been heard--of a +British cavalry charge near Hebuterne that was "stifled" by the barbed +wire before it and the German machine-guns in its rear and flanks; of +wounded men that had crawled on all-fours for long distances, resting +occasionally to push back their entrails; of men cut into little pieces +by shells and perforated like sieves by the machine-guns; and again of +steel-nerved Bavarians who, coming out of the first trenches, gathered +for a beer-drinking in an apple orchard not far from Manancourt. + +But that seems _de trop_. I will leave that to some modern Verestchagin +and his canvases. + +There is a "still-life" of death that comes to my mind. + +Not long after that I was in the Carpathians. General Brussilow was +trying out his mass tactics. + +The slaughter of man reached there aspects and proportions never before +heard of. It was not the machine murder of the West Front--that is to +say, it was not so much a factory for the conversion of live men into +dead as it was a crude, old-fashioned abattoir. + +On the slope of a massive mountain lies an old pine forest. In the +clearings stand birches, whose white trunks pierce the gloom under the +roof of dense, dark-green pine crowns. Where the clearings are, patches +of late-summer sky may be seen. Through the pale blue travel leisurely +the whitest of clouds, and into this background of soft blue and white +juts the somber pine and the autumn-tinged foliage of the birch. + +The forest is more a temple of a thousand columns than a thing that has +risen from the little seeds in the pine cones. The trunks are straight +and seem more details of a monument than something which has just grown. +There is a formal decorum about the trees and their aggregate. But the +soft light under the crowns lessens that into something severely +mournful. + +The forest is indeed a sepulcher. On its floor lie thousands of dead +Russians--first as close together as they can be packed, and then in +layers on top of one another. It would seem that these bodies had been +brought here for burial. That is not the case, however. The wounds in +the tree trunks, cut by the streams of machine-gun bullets from the red +trenches at the edge of the forest, indicate what happened. The first +wave of Russians entered the forest, was decimated, and retreated. The +second one met a similar fate. The third fared no better. The fourth +came. The fifth. The sixth--twice more the Russian artillery urged on +the Russian infantry. + +Here they lie. Their bodies are distended by progressing dissolution. +Narrow slits in the bloated faces show where once the merry and dreamy +Slav eye laughed. Most mouths are open, still eager for another breath +of air. Distended nostrils tell the same tale. From one mouth hangs a +tongue almost bitten off. A face close by is but a mask--a shell +splinter has cut off the back of the head, which now rests on the +shoulder of the man. + +To-morrow will come the Austro-Hungarian burial parties, dig holes and +bury these human relics. Meanwhile the pines sough sorrowfully, or maybe +they soughed like this before. + +Still a little later I was standing at an ancient stone bridge in the +Vörös Torony defile in the Transylvanian Alps. It was a late afternoon +in the late fall. In the defile it was still, save for an occasional +artillery detonation near the Roumanian border, where the fight was +going on. + +The red of the beeches and oaks fitted well into the narrative I heard, +and the song of the Alt River reminded that it, too, had played a part +in the drama--the complete rout of the Second Roumanian army, a few days +before. The breeze sweeping through the defile and along its wooded +flanks brought with it the odor of the dead. The underbrush on each side +of the road was still full of dead Roumanians. The gutter of the road +was strewn with dead horses. Scores of them hung in the tree forks below +the road. On a rock-ledge in the river dead men moved about under the +impulse of the current. + +The narrative: + +"Do you see that little clearing up there?" + +"The one below the pines?" + +"No. The one to the left of that--right above the rocks." + +"Yes." + +"I was stationed there with my machine-guns," continued the Bavarian +officer. "We had crept through the mountains almost on our bellies to +get there. It was hard work. But we did it. + +"At that we came a day too soon. We were entirely out of reach of +Hermannstadt, and didn't know what was going on. For all we knew the +Roumanians might have turned a trick. They are not half-bad soldiers. We +were surprised, to say the least, when, on arriving here, we found that +the road was full of traffic that showed no excitement. + +"We heard cannonading at the head of the gorge, but had no means of +learning what it was. We had been sent here to cut off the retreat of +the Roumanians, while the Ninth Army was to drive them into the defile. + +"For twenty-four hours we waited, taking care that the Roumanians did +not see us. It was very careless of them, not to patrol these forests in +sufficient force, nor to scent that there was something wrong when their +small patrols did not return. At any rate, they had no notion of what +was in store for them. + +"At last the thing started. The German artillery came nearer. We could +tell that by the fire. At noon the Roumanians began to crowd into the +defile. A little later they were here. + +"We opened up on them with the machine-guns for all we were worth. The +men had been told to sweep this bridge. Not a Roumanian was to get over +that. We wanted to catch the whole lot of them. + +"But the Roumanians couldn't see it that way, it seems. On they came in +a mad rush for safety. The artillery was shelling the road behind them, +and we were holding the bridge almost airtight. Soon the bridge was full +of dead and wounded. Others came and attempted to get over them. They +fell. Still others pressed on, driven ahead by the maddened crowd in +the rear. + +"The machine-guns continued to work. Very soon this bridge was full of +dead and wounded as high as the parapet. And still those fools would not +surrender. Nor did they have sense enough to charge us. There were heaps +of dead in front of the bridge, as far as the house over there. + +"That should have been a lesson to them. But it wasn't. On they came. +Some of them trampled over the dead and wounded. Those more considerate +tried to walk on the parapet. The machine-guns took care that they did +not get very far. + +"By that time those shot on top of the heap began to slide into the +river. Those not under fire scrambled down to the river and swam +it--those who could swim; the others are in it yet. You can see them +down there and wherever there is sand-bank or rock-ledge. But those who +swam were the only ones that escaped us. That crowd was so panicky that +it didn't have sense enough even to surrender. That's my theory. + +"It was an awful sight. Do you think this war will end soon?" + +In private life the narrator is a school-teacher in a little village in +the Bavarian highlands. + + + + +VIII + +PATRIOTISM AND A CRAVING STOMACH + + +Napoleon had a poor opinion of the hungry soldier. But it is not only +the man-at-arms who travels on his belly--the nation at war does the +same. + +I have found that patriotism at a groaning table in a warm room, and +with some other pleasant prospects added, is indeed a fine thing. The +amateur strategist and politician is never in finer mettle than when his +belt presses more or less upon a grateful stomach and when the mind has +been exhilarated by a good bottle of wine and is then being tickled by a +respectable Havana. + +But I have also sat of nights--rainy nights at that--in the trenches and +listened to what the men at the front had to say. They, too, were +reasonably optimistic when the stomach was at peace. Of course, these +men had their cares. Most of them were married and had in the past +supported their families with the proceeds of their labor. Now the +governments were feeding these families--after a fashion. What that +fashion was the men came to hear in letters from home. It made them +dissatisfied and often angry. + +I sat one night in the bombproof of an advanced position on the Sveta +Maria, near Tolmein. My host was an Austrian captain whose ancestry had +come from Scotland. A certain Banfield had thought it well to enter the +Austro-Hungarian naval service many years ago, and the captain was one +of his descendants. + +Captain Banfield was as "sore" as the proverbial wet hen. He hadn't been +home in some fourteen months, and at home things were not well. His wife +was having a hard time of it trying to keep the kiddies alive, while the +good Scotchman was keeping vigil on the Isonzo. + +That Scotchman, by the way, had a reputation in the Austrian army for +being a terrible _Draufgänger_, which means that when occasion came he +was rather hard on the Italians. He would have been just as ruthless +with the profiteers had he been able to get at them. Most +uncomplimentary things were said by him of the food sharks and the +government which did not lay them low. + +But what Captain Banfield had to complain of I had heard a thousand +times. His was not the only officer's wife who had to do the best she +could to get along. Nor was that class worse off than any other. After +all, the governments did their best by it. The real hardships fell upon +the dependents of the common soldier. + +I had made in Berlin the acquaintance of a woman who before the war had +been in very comfortable circumstances. Though a mechanical engineer of +standing, her husband had not been able to qualify for service as an +officer. He was in charge of some motor trucks in an army supply column +as a non-commissioned officer. The little allowance made by the +government for the wife and her four children did not go very far. + +But the woman was a good manager. She moved from the expensive flat they +had lived in before the mobilization. The quarters she found in the +vicinity of the Stettiner railroad station were not highly desirable. +But her genius made them so. + +The income question was more difficult to solve. A less resourceful +woman would have never solved it. But this one did. She found work in a +laundry, checking up the incoming and outgoing bundles. Somebody had to +suffer, however. In this case the children. They were small and had to +be left to themselves a great deal. + +I discussed the case with the woman. + +"My children may get some bad manners from the neighbors with whom I +have to leave them," she said. "But those I can correct later on. Right +now I must try to get them sufficient and good food, so that their +bodies will not suffer." + +In that kind of a woman patriotism is hard to kill, as I had ample +opportunity to observe. + +At Constantinople I had made the acquaintance of the Baroness +Wangenheim, widow of the late Baron Wangenheim, then ambassador at the +Sublime Porte. Hearing that I was in Berlin, the baroness invited me to +have tea with her. + +Tea is a highly socialized function, anyway, but this one was to be the +limit in that respect. The repast--I will call it that--was taken in one +of the best appointed _salons_ I ever laid eyes on. Taste and wealth +were blended into a splendid whole. + +The maid came in and placed upon the fine marquetry taboret a heavy old +silver tray. On the tray stood, in glorious array, as fine a porcelain +tea service as one would care to own. + +But we had neither milk nor lemon for the tea. We sweetened it with +saccharine. There was no butter for the war-bread, so we ate it with a +little prune jam. At the bottom of a cut-glass jar reposed a few +crackers. I surmised that they were ancient, and feared, moreover, that +the one I might be persuaded to take could not so easily be replaced. So +I declined the biscuit, and, to make the baroness understand, offered +her one of my bread coupons for the slice of bread I had eaten. This she +declined, saying that the day was yet long and that I might need the +bread voucher before it was over. + +"I am no better off than others here," the baroness explained to me in +reply to a question. "I receive from the authorities the same number of +food cards everybody gets, and my servants must stand in line like all +others. The only things I can buy now in the open market are fish and +vegetables. But that is as it should be. Why should I and my children +get more food than others get?" + +I admitted that I could not see why she should be so favored. Still, +there was something incongruous about it all. I had been the guest of +the baroness in the great ambassadorial palace on the Boulevard Ayas +Pasha in Pera, and found it hard to believe that the woman who had then +dwelt in nothing less than regal state was now reduced to the necessity +of taking war-bread with her tea--even when she had visitors. + +"If this keeps up much longer the race will suffer," she said, after a +while. "I am beginning to fear for the children. We adults can stand +this, of course. But the children...." + +The baroness has two small girls, and to change her thoughts I directed +the conversation to Oriental carpets and lace. + +Her patriotism, too, is of the lasting sort. + +But the very same evening I saw something different. The name won't +matter. + +I had accepted an invitation to dinner. It was a good dinner--war or +peace. Its _pièce de résistance_ was a whole broiled ham, which, as my +hostess admitted, had cost in the clandestine market some one hundred +and forty marks, roughly twenty-five dollars at the rate of exchange +then in force. There was bread enough and side dishes galore. It was +also a meatless day. + +The ham was one of several which had found the household in question +through the channels of illicit trade, which even the strenuous efforts +of the Prussian government had not been able to close as yet. The family +had the necessary cash, and in order to indulge in former habits as +fully as possible, it was using that cash freely. + +After living for several days in plenty at the Palads in Copenhagen, and +ascertaining that _paling_--eel--was still in favor with the Dutch of +The Hague, I returned to Vienna. Gone once more were the days of wheat +bread and butter. + +One rainy afternoon I was contemplating the leafless trees on the Ring +through the windows of the Café Sacher when two bodies of mounted police +hove into view on the bridle path, as if they were really in a great +hurry. I smelled a food riot, rushed down-stairs, caught a taxi on the +wing, and sped after the equestrian minions of the law. Police and +observer pulled up in the Josephstadt in the very center of a food +disturbance. + +The riot had already cooled down to the level of billingsgate. Several +hundred women stood about listening to the epithets which a smaller +group was flinging at a badly mussed-up storekeeper, who seemed greatly +concerned about his windows, which had been broken by somebody. + +The police mingled with the crowd. What had happened? Nothing very much, +said the storekeeper. That remark fanned the flame of indignation which +was swaying the women. Nothing much, eh? They had stood since high noon +in line for butter and fat. Up to an hour ago the door of the shop had +been closed. When finally it was opened the shopkeeper had announced +that he had supplies only for about fifty fat coupons. Those who were +nearest his door would be served and the others could go home. + +But somehow the crowd had learned that the man had received that morning +from the Food Central enough fat to serve them all with the amount +prescribed by the food cards. They refused to go away. Then the +storekeeper, in the manner which is typically Viennese, grew +sarcastically abusive. Before he had gone very far the women were upon +him. Others invaded the store, found the place empty, and then vented +their wrath on the fixtures and windows. + +I was greatly interested in what the police would do with the rioters. +But, instead of hauling the ringleaders to headquarters, they told them +to go home and refrain in future from taking the law into their own +hands. Within ten minutes the riot resolved itself into good-natured +bantering between the agents of the law and the women, and the incident +was closed, except for the shopkeeper, who in court failed to clear up +what he had done with the supplies of butter and fat that had been +assigned him for distribution. He lost his license to trade, and was +fined besides. + +Talking with several women, I discovered that none of them held the +government responsible. The "beast" of a dealer was to blame for it all. +This view was held largely because the police had gone to work in a most +considerate manner, according to the instructions issued by an anxious +government. + +In a previous food riot, in the Nineteenth Municipal District, the +gendarmes had been less prudent, with the result that the women turned +on them and disfigured with their finger-nails many a masculine face--my +visage included, because I had the misfortune of being mistaken for a +detective. A muscular _Hausmeisterin_--janitress--set upon me with much +vigor. Before I could explain, I was somewhat mussed up, though I could +have ended the offensive by proper counter measures. It is best to +attend such affairs in the Austrian equivalent for overalls. + +Some weeks before, the Austrian premier, Count Stürgkh, had been shot to +death by a radical socialist named Adler. In his statements Adler said +that he had done this because of his belief that so long as Stürgkh was +at the helm of the Austrian ship of state nothing would be done to solve +the food situation. + +There is no doubt that Adler had thoroughly surveyed the field of public +subsistence. It is also a fact that he did the Austrian government a +great service by killing the premier. The right and wrong of the case +need not occupy us here. I am merely concerned with practical effects. + +Count Stürgkh was an easy-going politician of a reactionary type. He +gave no attention of an intelligent sort to the food problem, and did +nothing to check the avarice of the food sharks, even when that avarice +went far beyond the mark put up by the war-loan scheme. His inertia led +during the first months of the war to much waste and later to +regulations that could not have been more advantageous to the private +interests of the food speculators had they been made for them expressly. +No statesman was ever carried to his grave with fewer regrets. In the +Austrian government offices a sigh of relief was heard when it became +known that Adler had shot the premier. + +A revolution could not have been averted in Austria had Stürgkh +continued at his post much longer. At first he was attacked only by the +_Wiener Arbeiter Zeitung_, a socialist daily controlled by the father of +Adler, who, in addition to being the editor-in-chief of the publication, +is a member of the Austrian Reichsrath and the leader of the Austrian +Socialist party. But later other papers began to object to Stürgkh's +_dolce far niente_ official life, among them the rather conservative +_Neue Freie Presse_. Others joined. Ultimately the premier saw himself +deserted even by the _Fremdenblatt_, the semi-official organ of the +government. + +Though charged with incompetency by some and with worse by others, Count +Stürgkh refused to resign. Emperor Francis Joseph was staying his hands +and this made futile all endeavor to remove the count from his high +office. The old emperor thought he was doing the best by his people, and +had it not been that the Austrians respected this opinion more than they +should have done, trouble would have swept the country. + +A new era dawned after Count Stürgkh's death. But his successors found +little they could put in order. The larder was empty. Premier Körber +tried hard to give the people more food. But the food was no longer to +be had. + +The loyalty of the Austrian people to their government was given the +fire test in those days. Now and then it seemed that the crisis had +come. It never came, however. + +Other trips to the fronts presented a new aspect of the food situation. +It was an odd one at that. The men who had formerly complained that +their wives and children were not getting enough to eat had in the +course of time grown indifferent to this. It was nothing unusual to have +men return to the front before their furloughs had expired. At the front +there were no food problems. The commissary solved them all. At home the +man heard nothing but complaints and usually ate up what his children +needed. Little by little the Central Power troops were infected with the +spirit of the mercenary of old. Life at the front had its risks, but it +also removed one from the sphere of daily cares. The great war-tiredness +was making room for indifference and many of the men had truly become +adventurers. So long as the _Goulaschkanone_ shot the regular meals +every day all was well. The military commissaries had succeeded by means +of the stomach in making the man at the front content with his lot. Food +conditions in the rear always offered a good argument, inarticulate but +eloquent, nevertheless, why the man in the trenches should think he was +well off. In the case of the many husbands and fathers no mean degree +of indifference and callousness was required before this frame of mind +was possible. But the war had taken care of that. War hardly ever +improves the individual. Out of sight, out of mind! + +It was the craving stomach of the civil population that caused the +several Central European governments most concern. + +In the past, newspapers had been very careful when discussing the food +question. They might hint at governmental inefficiency and +double-dealing, but they could not afford to be specific. The censors +saw to that. When the food situation was nearing its worst the several +governments, to the surprise of many, relaxed political censorship +sufficiently so that newspapers could say whatever they pleased on food +questions. First came sane criticism and then a veritable flood of +abuse. + +But that was what the authorities wanted. Hard words break no bones, and +their use is the only known antidote for revolution. Abuse was in the +first place a fine safety valve, and then it gave the authorities a +chance to defend themselves. To-day some paper would print an article in +which, to the satisfaction of the reader, it was shown that this or that +had been badly managed, and to-morrow the food authorities came back +with a refutation that usually left a balance in favor of the +government. The thing was adroitly done and served well to pull the wool +over the eyes of the public. + +Free discussion of the food problem was the order of the day. The light +was let in on many things, and for the first time since the outbreak of +the war the food shark had to take to cover. The governments let it be +known that, while it was all very convenient to blame the authorities +for everything, it would be just as well if the public began to +understand that it had a share of responsibility. Informers grew like +toadstools after a warm rain in June. The courts worked overtime and the +jails were soon filled. The food situation was such that the lesser fry +of the speculators had to be sacrificed to the wrath of the population. +The big men continued, however, and pennies were now to be mobilized +through the medium of commodities. It was no longer safe to squeeze the +public by means of its stomach if patriotism was to remain an asset of +the warring governments. The masses had been mulcted of their last by +this method. Others were to supply the money needed for the war. + +I feel justified in saying that the craving stomach of the Central +states would have served the Allied governments in good stead in the +fall of 1916 had their militaro-political objectives been less extensive +and far-reaching. The degree of hunger, however, was always counteracted +by the statements of the Allied politicians that nothing but a complete +reduction of Germany and Austria-Hungary would satisfy them. I noticed +that such announcements generally had as a result a further tightening +of the belts. Nor could anybody remain blind to the fact that the lean +man is a more dangerous adversary than the sleek citizen. Discipline of +the stomach is the first step in discipline of the mind. There is a +certain joy in asceticism and the consciousness that eating to live has +many advantages over living to eat. + +The Central Power governments did not lose sight of this truth. + + + + +IX + +SUB-SUBSTITUTING THE SUBSTITUTE + + +Much nonsense has been disseminated on the success of the Germans, +Austrians, and Hungarians in inventing substitutes for the things that +were hard to get during the war. A goodly share of that nonsense came +from the Germans and their allies themselves. But more of it was given +to the four winds of heaven by admiring friends, who were as +enthusiastic in such matters as they were ignorant of actual +achievements. + +That much was done in that field is true enough. But a great deal of +scientific effort resulted in no more than what, for instance, synthetic +rubber has been. + +The first thing the German scientists did at the outbreak of the war was +to perfect the system of a Norwegian chemist who had succeeded two years +before in condensing the nitrogen of the air into the highly tangible +form of crystals. + +Many are under the impression that the process was something entirely +new and distinctly a German invention. I have shown that this is not so. +Even the Norwegian cannot claim credit for the invention as in itself +new. His merit is that he made the process commercially possible. + +The thing was a huge success. The British blockade had made the +importation of niter from overseas impossible. There is no telling what +would have happened except for the fact that the practically +inexhaustible store of nitrogen in the air could be drawn upon. It kept +the Central Powers group of belligerents in powder, so long as there was +vegetable fiber and coal-tar enough to be nitrated. Incidentally, some +of the by-products of the nitrogen process served in good stead as +fertilizer. The quantity won was not great, however. + +I am not dealing with war as such, and for that reason I will pass by +the many minor inventions of a purely military character that were made, +nor would it be possible to do more than a cataloguing job if I were to +attempt to refer here to all the innovations and substitutions that were +undertaken as time went on. + +Science multiplied by three the store of textiles held in the Central +states at the outbreak of the war. This was done in many ways and by +various means. Take cotton, for instance. + +That almost anything could be converted into explosives by nitration has +been known ever since Noble made nitroglycerine a commercial product. +Any fat or fiber, even sugar, may be nitrated. That generally we use +glycerine and cotton for the purpose is due to the fact that these +materials are best suited for the process. + +But the fats that go into glycerine, and the cotton that becomes +trinitrocellulose, could be put to better use by the Central states. In +a general way coal-tar took the place of the former, and wood pulp that +of cotton. That meant a tremendous saving in food and clothing. + +I remember well the shiver that went through Germany when Great Britain +declared cotton to be contraband. The Entente press was jubilant for +weeks. But any chemist familiar with the manufacture of explosives could +have told Sir Kendall that he was too optimistic. It was known even then +that birch pulp and willow pulp made most excellent substitutes for +cotton, if the process, or "operation," as the thing is known +technically, is suitably modified. Coal-tar explosives were already _un +fait accompli_. + +Having attended to that little affair, the German scientists turned +their attention to the winning of new textiles. There was the nettle in +the hedges. Anciently, it had been to Europe what cotton was to the +Mexico of the Aztecs. Times being hard, the nettle, now looked upon as a +noxious weed fit only for goose fodder, was brought into its place. Very +soon it was in the market as a textile, which often aspired to as +imposing a name as "natural silk," a name the plant and its fiber well +deserve. + +The chemist had very little to do with that. The process was known and, +being in the main similar to the production of flax fiber, presented no +difficulties. The plant is cut, packed tightly under water so that the +vegetable pulp may decay, and is then dried in the sun and prepared for +spinning. + +Though the Central states were now importing annually from Turkey in +Asia some eighteen thousand bales of cotton, considerable silk and wool, +and were getting wool also in the Balkan countries, there continued to +be felt a shortage in textiles and their raw materials. The situation +was never serious. The fiber of worn materials was being used again, and +so long as enough new material was added the shoddy produced gave ample +satisfaction. + +The paucity of textiles, however, gave rise to the paper-cloth industry. +It was realized that for many purposes for which textiles were being +used the paper cloth was well suited. That applied especially to all the +uses manila and jute had been given in the past. + +Even here it was not a question of inventing something. Paper twine had +been in use in Central Europe for many years; it had, in fact, been laid +under ban by the Austrian government--I don't know for what reason. + +From paper twine to paper cloth was quite a step, however. Anybody can +twist a piece of tissue-paper into a rope, but to make a reasonably +strong thread or yarn of it is another matter. + +The pulp for paper cloth must be tough and not pack too tightly while +the stuff is being made. In this first form the product much resembles +an unbleached tissue-paper. Since the paper has to be in rolls, its +manufacture was undertaken by the mills which in the past had turned +out "news print." + +The rolls are then set into a machine, the principal feature of which is +an arrangement of sharp rotary blades that will cut the sheet into +strips or ribbons a quarter-inch wide--or wider, if that be desired. The +ribbons are gathered on spools that revolve not only about their axes, +but also about themselves, at a speed that will give the paper ribbon +the necessary twist or spinning. Raw paper yarn has now been produced. + +For many purposes the yarn can be used in the condition it is now in. +For others it must be chemically treated. The process is not dissimilar +to "parchmenting" paper. During the treatment the yarn hardens quite a +little. When intended to make bagging and other textiles of that sort, +this will not matter. The yarn must be softened again if intended for +the paper cloth that is to take the place of serge, possibly. This is +done mechanically, by means of beating. + +The yarn does not have the necessary strength to form a fabric when not +reinforced by a tougher fiber. As a rule, it becomes the warp of the +cloth, flax, cotton, and even silk being employed as the weft. When +intended for military overcoats a wool yarn is used. In this case the +cloth is given a water-proofing treatment. A warm garment that is +thoroughly water-proof without being airtight results. + +Paper cloth does not have the tensile qualities of good shoddy even, and +for that reason it is mostly used for purposes to which severe usage is +not incident. For instance, it will make splendid sweater coats for +ladies and children. It will also take the place of felt for hats. + +The endeavor to find a substitute for sole leather was not so +successful, even when finally it was decided that leather soles could be +made only of animal tissue. There was leather enough for uppers always, +and I am inclined to think that the supply of hides was large enough +also to fill all reasonable demands for soles. The trouble lay in the +nature of the hides, not in their scarcity. Horned cattle in Central +Europe are stabled almost throughout the year and in this manner +protected against the inclemency of the weather. A tender hide has been +the result of this--a hide so tender that, while it will make the finest +uppers, is next to useless as a sole. + +A very interesting solution was found in the use of wooden soles. A +thousand capable brains had been occupied with the sole-leather +substitutes, and finally they ruled that wood in its natural state was +the next best thing. So far as the rural population was concerned, that +was well enough. But wooden soles and city pavements are irreconcilable. +How to make that wooden sole bend a little at the instep was the +question. + +A sole was tried whose two halves were held together under the instep by +a sort of specially designed hinge. That seemed an improvement over the +single piece of wood, but soon it was found that it had the dangerous +tendency to break down arches, which the hinged sole left unsupported at +the very point where the support should have been. + +The experiments were continued. Inventors and cranks worked at them for +nearly two years. The best they ever did was to displace the hinge for a +flexible bit of steel plate. Common sense finally came to the rescue. +The best shoe with a wooden sole was the one that gave the foot lots of +room about the ankle, held the instep snug, and made up for the +flexibility of the leather sole by a rounding-off of the wooden sole +under the toes. A good and very serviceable wooden-sole shoe with +leather uppers had been evolved. The scientists had nothing to do with +it. + +It was the department of food substitution that was really the most +interesting. For decades food in tabloid form has interested the men in +the chemical laboratories. Some of them have asserted that man could be +fed chemically. Theoretically that may be done; in practice it is +impossible. If the intestinal tracts could be lined with platinum men +might be able to live on acids of almost any sort. Such is not the case +at present, however. + +The very wise pure-food laws of the Central states were thrown on the +rubbish-heap by the governments when stretching the food-supply became +necessary. They were first knocked into the proverbial cocked hat by the +food sharks. What these men were doing was known to the governments, +but these were not times to be particular. If it were possible to +adulterate flour with ground clover there was no reason why this should +not be done, even if the profit went into the pockets of the shark, so +long as the same individual would later subscribe to the war loans. It +was merely another way of mobilizing the pennies and their fractions. + +But to much of this an end had to be put. Too much exploitation of the +populace might cause internal trouble. It might also lead to ruining the +health of the entire nation, and that was a dangerous course. + +How to substitute flour was indeed a great and urgent problem. There +were those enthusiasts who thought that it could be done chemically. Why +leave to the slow and uncertain process of plant conversion that which +chemistry could do quickly and surely? If certain elements passing +through plant life made flour in the end, why not have them do that +without the assistance of the crop season? + +I read some very learned articles on that subject. But there was always +an _if_. If this and that could be overcome, or if this and that could +be done, the thing would be successful. + +It never was, of course. Organic life rests on Mother Earth in layers, +and the more developed this life is the farther it lies above the mere +soil--the inorganic. The baby needing milk is above the cow, the cow +needing vegetable food is above the plants, and even the plants do not +depend on inorganic elements alone, as can be learned by any farmer who +tries to raise alfalfa on soil that does not contain the cultures the +plant must have. These cultures again feed on organic life. + +This was the rock on which the efforts of the chemical-food experts were +wrecked. Soon they began to see that substitution would have to take the +place of invention and innovation. + +They used to sell in the cafés of Vienna, and other large cities, a cake +made mostly of ground clover meal, to which was added the flour of +horse-chestnuts, a little rice, some glucose, a little sugar and honey, +and chopped prunes when raisins could not be had. The thing was very +palatable, and nutritious, as an analysis would show. There were enough +food units in it to make the vehicle, which here was clover meal, really +worth while. + +I mention this case to show what are the principal requirements of food +for human consumption. There must be a vehicle if alimentation is to be +normal. This vehicle is generally known as ashes. It is to the human +alimentary system what bread is to butter and meat in the sandwich. +Through it are distributed the actual food elements, and in their +preparation for absorption it occupies the place of the sand and grit we +find in the crop of the fowl. In the toothsome cake I have described, +these factors had been duly honored, and for that reason the cake was a +success even at the price it sold for--an ounce for three cents. + +The first war-bread baked was a superior sort of rye bread, containing +in proportions 55, 25, 20, rye flour, wheat flour, and potato meal or +flakes, sugar, and fat. That was no great trick, of course. Any baker +could have thought of that. But rye and wheat flour were not always +plentiful, even when government decree insisted that they be milled to +85 per cent. flour, leaving 15 per cent, as bran--the very outer hull. +Oats, Indian corn, barley, beans, peas, and buckwheat meal had to be +added as time went on. + +That was a more difficult undertaking and afforded the scientist the +chance to do yeoman service. He was not found wanting. + +Imports of coffee had become impossible in 1916. The scant stores on +hand had been stretched and extenuated by the use of chicory and similar +supplements. I used to wonder how it was possible to make so little go +so far, despite the fact that the _demi-tasse_ was coffee mostly in +color by this time. + +A period of transition from coffee to coffee substitutes came. + +The first substitute was not a bad one. It was made mostly of roasted +barley and oats and its flavor had been well touched off by chemicals +won from coal-tar. The brew had the advantage of containing a good +percentage of nutritive elements. Taken with a little milk and sugar it +had all the advantages of coffee, minus the effect of caffeine and plus +the value of the food particles. It was palatable even when taken with +sugar only. Without this complement it was impossible, however. + +But the grain so used could be put to better purpose. This led to the +introduction of the substitute of a substitute. The next sort of +artificial coffee--_Kaffee-ersatz_--was made of roasted acorns and +beechnuts, with just enough roasted barley to build up a coffee flavor. +This product, too, was healthful. It may even be said that it was a +little better than the first substitute. It certainly was more +nourishing, but also more expensive. + +There were not acorns and beechnuts enough, however. Much of the store +had been fed to the porkers, and before long the excellent +acorn-beechnut coffee disappeared. + +A third substitute came in the market. Its principal ingredients were +carrots and yellow turnips. + +To find substitutes for tea was not difficult. The bloom of the +linden-tree, mixed with beech buds, makes an excellent beverage, and +those who dote on "oolong" can meet their taste somewhat by adding to +this a few tips of pine. If too much of the pine bud is used a very +efficacious emetic will result, however. + +The mysteries of cocoa substitutions are a little above me. I can say, +however, that roasted peas and oats have much to do with it. Some of the +materials employed were supplied by coal-tar and synthetic chemistry. + +It was really remarkable what this coal-tar would do for the Germans and +their allies. It provided them with the base for their explosives, made +their dyes, and from it were made at one period of the war, by actual +enumeration, four hundred and forty-six distinct and separate chemical +products used in medicine, sanitation, and food substitution. If there +be such a thing as an elixir of life, coal-tar may be expected to +furnish it. + +But the net gain in this casting about for substitutes was slight +indeed. The grains, nuts, and vegetables that were used as substitutes +for coffee would have had the same food value if consumed in some other +form. The advantage was that their conversion served to placate the old +eating habits of the public. To what extent these had to be placated was +made plain on every meatless, fatless, or wheatless or some other "less" +day or period. + +There was the rice "lamb" chop, for instance. The rice was boiled and +then formed into lumps resembling a chop. Into the lump a skewer of wood +was stuck to serve as a bone, and to make the illusion more complete a +little paper rosette was used to top off the "bone." All of it was very +_comme il faut_. Then the things were fried in real mutton tallow, and +when they came on the table its looks and aroma, now reinforced by green +peas and a sprig of watercress, would satisfy the most exacting. Nor +could fault be found with the taste. + +The vegetable beefsteak was another thing that gave great satisfaction, +once you had become used to the color of the thing's interior, which was +pale green--a signal in a real steak that it should not be eaten. The +steak in question was a synthetic affair, composed of cornmeal, +spinach, potatoes, and ground nuts. An egg was used to bind the mass +together, and some of the culinary lights of Berlin and Vienna succeeded +in making it cohesive enough to require the knife in real earnest. + +What I have outlined here so far may be called the private effort at +substitution. But substitution also had a governmental application. Its +purpose was to break the populace of its habit of eating highly +concentrated foods, especially fats. + +The slaughter of the porkers in 1914 had accidentally led the way to +this policy. The shortage in fats caused by this economic error was soon +to illustrate that the masses could get along very well on about a +quarter of the fat they had consumed in the past. Soon it was plain, +also, that the health of the public could be improved in this manner by +the gradual building up of a stronger physique. + +It would have been easy to again crowd the pigsties. The animal is very +prolific, and a little encouragement of the pig-raisers would have had +that result inside of a year had it been desired. But it was not done. +It was difficult to get the necessary feed for these animals, and the +small quantities that could be imported from Roumania were never a +guarantee that the farmers would not feed their pigs with home-raised +cereals and other foods that were of greater value to the state in the +form of cereal and vegetable food for the population. The prices of fats +and meats were well up. A hundred pounds of wheat converted into animal +products would bring nearly three times what the farmer could get for +the grain. Illicit trading in these articles, moreover, was easier +carried on than in breadstuffs. + +Since no animal fats, be they butter, lard, or suet, could be produced +without sacrificing a goodly share of the country's cereal supply, it +was necessary to keep the animal-product industry down to its lowest +possible level. It was easier to distribute equitably the larger masses +of cereals and vegetables than the concentrated foods into which animal +industry would convert them. To permit that would also have led to more +hardship for the lower classes at a time when money was cheap and prices +correspondingly high. + +The crux of the situation was to fill the public stomach as well as +conditions permitted, and the consumption of fats could have no place in +that scheme under the circumstances. It was decided, therefore, to have +the human stomach do what heretofore had largely been attended to by the +animal industries. An entire series of frictional waste could in that +manner be eliminated, as indeed it was. + +The same policy led to a reduction in the supply of eggs. To keep the +human stomach occupied had become as much a necessity as furnishing +nutriment to the body. + +I doubt whether without this happy idea the Central states would have +been able to carry on the war. The saving due to the policy was +immense--so stupendous, in fact, that at the same time it discounted +the impossibility of importing foodstuffs and took ample care of the +losses in food production due to the shortage of labor and fertilizers. +It was the one and only thing that stood between the Central Powers and +swift defeat. + +It is needless to say that the effect upon certain classes of population +was not so propitious. The lack of sufficient good milk caused an +increase in infant mortality. The feeble of all ages were carried off +quickly when concentrated foods could no longer be had to keep them +alive, and persons of middle age and old age suffered so much that death +was in many cases a welcome relief. While the healthy adult men and +women did not suffer by this sort of rationing--grew stronger, in +fact--those past the prime of life could not readjust themselves to the +iron food discipline that was enforced. The alimentary system in that +case had entered upon its downward curve of assimilation over +elimination, and, constitutionally modified by the ease afforded by +concentrated foods, it declined rapidly when these foods were withdrawn. +Driven by necessity, the several states practised wholesale manslaughter +of the less fit. + +I was greatly interested in these "home" casualties, and discussed them +with many, among them life-insurance men, educators, and government +officials. The first class took a strictly business view of the thing. +The life-insurance companies were heavy losers. But there was no way +out. Nothing at all could be done. It was hoped that the better +physical trim of the young adults, and the resulting longevity, would +reimburse the life-insurers. If the war did not last too long this would +indeed happen. Premiums would have to be increased, however, if it +became necessary for the government to apply further food restrictions. + +Some of the educators took a sentimental view of the thing. Others were +cynically rational. It all depended upon their viewpoint and age. Those +who believed in the theories of one Osler could see nothing wrong in +this method of killing off the unfit aged. Their opposites thought it +shameful that better provisions were not made for them. + +The attitude of the government was more interesting. It took cognizance +of the individual and social aspects involved--of sentiment and reality. +That manslaughter of the aged and unfit was the result of the food +policy was not denied. But could the state be expected to invite +dissolution because of that? + +"I understand you perfectly," said a certain food-dictator to me once. +"My own parents are in that position, or would be, were it not that they +have the means to buy the more expensive foods. That thousands of the +poor aged are going to a premature death is only too evident. But what +are we to do? We cannot for their sake lay down our arms and permit our +enemies to impose upon us whatever conditions they please. Quite apart +from the interests of the state as a political unit, there is here to be +considered the welfare of the fit individuals. Being fit, they have the +greatest claim to the benefits that come from the social and economic +institutions which political independence alone can give. That the less +fit must make sacrifices for that is to be expected, for the very good +reason that it is the fit class which is carrying on the war and +shedding its blood for the maintenance of the state. By the time we have +provided for the infants and babies there is nothing left for the aged +over and above what the adult individual gets. Of the babies we must +take care because they are the carriers of our future. Of the aged we +should take care because they have given us our past. But when it comes +to choose which class to preserve, I would say the young every time." + +For live-stock-owning governments that is indeed the proper view to +take; and since all governments belong to that class, more or less, it +seems futile to find fault with this food-dictator. The man forced to +decide whether he would give the last morsel to his old father or his +young son might select to divide that morsel evenly between them. But if +the old man was worth his salt at all he would insist that the boy be +given all the food. A social aggregate that cannot act in accordance +with this principle is shortening its own day. + + + + +X + +THE CRUMBS + + +October, 1916, marked the high water of the Central European +public-subsistence problems. Misery had reached the limits of human +endurance. For the next seven months the strain caused by it tore at the +vitals of the Central states. The measures then conceived and applied +would prove whether or no the collapse of Germany and her allies could +be averted. So serious was the situation that the several governments +felt compelled to send out peace-feelers, one or two of them being +definite propositions of a general nature. + +The crumbs and scraps had been saved for a long time even then. As far +back as November, 1914, all garbage had been carefully sorted into +rubbish and food remnants which might serve as animal feed. But that was +no longer necessary now. Food remnants no longer went into the +garbage-cans. Nor was it necessary to advise the public not to waste old +clothing and other textiles. The ragman was paying too good a price for +them. Much of the copper and brass complement of households had been +turned over to the government, and most copper roofs were being +replaced by tin. The church bells were being smelted. Old iron fetched a +fancy price. In the currency iron was taking the place of nickel. Old +paper was in keen demand. The sweepings of the street were being used as +fertilizer. During the summer and fall the hedges had been searched for +berries, and in the woodlands thousands of women and children had been +busy gathering mushrooms and nuts. To meet the ever-growing scarcity of +fuel the German government permitted the villagers to lop the dead wood +in the state forests. To ease the needs of the small live-stock-owner he +was allowed to cut grass on the fiscal woodlands and gather the dead +leaves for stable bedding. + +It was a season of saving scraps. The entire economic machinery seemed +ready for the scrap-heap. Much of the saving that was being practised +was leading to economic waste. + +The city streets were no longer as clean as they used to be. During the +summer much light-fuel had been saved by the introduction of "summer +time." The clocks were set ahead an hour, so that people rose shortly +after dawn, worked their customary ten hours in the shops and factories, +and then still had enough daylight to work in their gardens. When dusk +came they went to bed. Street traction had been limited also. The early +closing of shops, cafés, and restaurants effected further savings in +light, and, above all, eatables. + +The countryside presented a dreary picture. Nobody had time to +whitewash the buildings, and few cared about the appearance of their +homes. What is the use? they said. They could wait until better times +came. The dilapidated shutter kept fit company with the rain-streaked +wall. The untidy yard harmonized with the neglected garden in a +veritable diapason of indifference. The implements and tools of the farm +were left where they had been used last. The remaining stock had an +unkempt look about it. + +I remember how during a trip in Steiermark I once compared the +commonwealth with a lonely hen I saw scratching for food in a yard. The +rusty plumage of the bird showed that nobody had fed it in months. There +was no doubt, though, that somebody expected that hen to lay eggs. + +It was now a question, however, of saving the scraps of the state--of +the socio-economic fabric. The flood of regulation which had spilled +over Central Europe had pulled so many threads out of the socio-economic +life that, like a thin-worn shawl, it had no longer the qualities of +keeping warm those under it. The threads had been used by those in the +trenches, and the civilian population had been unable to replace them. + +It would be quite impossible to give within the confines of a single +volume a list of these regulations, together with a discussion of their +many purposes, tendencies, and effects. I would have to start with the +economic embryo of all social economy--the exchange of food between the +tiller of the soil and the fisherman--to make a good job of that. + +A little intensive reasoning will show what the processes applied in +Central Europe had been up to the fall of 1916. Regulated was then +almost everything man needs in order to live: bread, fats, meat, butter, +milk, eggs, peas, beans, potatoes, sugar, beer, fuel, clothing, shoes, +and coal-oil. These were the articles directly under control. Under the +indirect influence of regulation, however, lay everything, water and air +alone excepted. + +Now, the purpose of this regulation had been to save and to provide the +government with the funds needed for the war. That was well enough so +long as there was something to save. But the time was come in which the +governmental effort at saving was futile endeavor. There was nothing +that could be saved any more. Surpluses had ceased to be. Production no +longer equaled consumption, and when that state of things comes crumbs +and scraps disappear of themselves. + +Once I had to have a pair of heels straightened. I had no trouble +finding a cobbler. But the cobbler had no leather. + +"Surely," I said, "you can find scraps enough to fix these heels!" + +"But, I can't, sir!" replied the man. "I cannot buy scraps, even. There +is no more leather. I am allowed a small quantity each month. But what I +had has been used up long ago. If you have another old pair of shoes, +bring them around. I can use part of the soles of them to repair the +heels, and for the remainder I will pay with my labor. I won't charge +you anything for mending your shoes." + +I accepted the proposal and learned later that the cobbler had not made +so bad a bargain, after all. + +A similar policy had to be adopted to keep the Central populations in +clothes. Germany, Austria-Hungary, Bulgaria, and Turkey produce +considerable quantities of wool, flax, silk, and cotton. But what they +produce was not enough to go around, and the men at the front were +wearing out their uniforms at an alarming rate. The military authorities +felt that nothing would be gained by making the uniforms of poor cloth. +The wear and tear on the fabric was severe. Labor in the making and +distribution of the uniforms could be saved only by using the best +materials available. + +For the civilians it became necessary to wear shoddy. And to obtain +shoddy every scrap must be saved. The time came when an old all-wool +suit brought second-hand as good a price as a new suit fresh from the +mill and the tailor shop. With the addition of a little new fiber that +old suit might make two new ones. The old material was "combed" into +wool again, and to this was added some new wool, cotton, or silk, and +"new" goods appeared again on the counter. + +The "I-cash" never had done such business before. The attics and cellars +were ransacked, and since those who had most old clothing to sell bought +hardly any at all now, the pinch of the war in clothing was really +never felt very much by the poor. To prevent the spread of contagious +diseases the several governments saw to it that the shoddy was +thoroughly sterilized. + +But economies of that sort are more or less automatic and lie within the +realm of supply and demand. Unchecked, they may also become the cause of +economic waste. The time comes when shoddy is an absolute loss. When +fibers are used over and over, together with new elements, the oldest of +them finally cease to have value. That means that the fabric does not +have the wearing qualities which will give economic compensation for the +labor spent on it and the price asked from the consumer. The stuff may +be good to look upon, but in times of war that is not essential. + +The profiteer found a fine field in the manufacture of shoddy. All +first-hand shoddy he would sell as new material, and before he admitted +that a certain piece of cloth was "indifferent" in quality, it had to be +poor indeed. He would ask a good price for a suit that might fall to +pieces in the first rain, and the consumer was left to do the best he +could with the thing. When the consumer complained he would be told that +the "war" was responsible, and the consumer, knowing in a general and +superficial manner that things were indeed scarce, would decide to be +reasonable. + +But the government could not take that easy view. Labor which might have +been put to better use had been expended in the making of that shoddy, +and now the fabric served no good purpose. That had to be avoided. It +was far better to abandon fiber of this sort than to have it become the +cause of waste in labor and the reason for further discontent. Labor +that results in nothing more than this is non-productive, and the +governments of Central Europe knew only too well that they had no hands +to spare for that kind of unavailing effort. + +I ran into a case of this sort in Bohemia. A large mill had turned out a +great deal of very poor shoddy. The cloth looked well, and, since wool +fiber newly dyed makes a good appearance even long after its wearing +qualities have departed forever, the firm was doing a land-office +business. All went well until some of the fine cloth got on the backs of +people. Then trouble came. Some of the suits shrank when wet, while +others did the very opposite. The matter came to the attention of the +authorities. + +Experts in textiles examined the cloth. Some of the output was found to +contain as much as 60 per cent. old fiber, and there was no telling how +many times this old fiber had been made over. It was finally shown that, +had the manufacturer been content with a little less profit, he could +have converted the new fiber--which, by the way, he had obtained from +the government Fiber Central--into some thirty thousand yards of +first-class shoddy under a formula that called for 65 per cent. new +fiber and 35 per cent. old. As it was, he had turned the good raw +material into nearly fifty-two thousand yards of fabrics that were not +worth anything and he had wasted the labor of hundreds of men and women +besides. + +The man had been trying to make use of crumbs and scraps for his own +benefit. Personal interests had led, in this instance, to an attempt to +convert an economic negative into a positive. The useless fiber was a +minus which no effort in plus could cause to have any other value than +that which this profit-hunter saw in it. By the rational economist the +shoddy had been abandoned, and all effort to overcome the statics of +true economy, as here represented by the unserviceableness of the fiber +for the use to which it had been assigned, was bound to be an economic +waste. + +Cases such as these--and there were thousands of them--showed the +authorities that there was danger even in economy. The crumbs and scraps +themselves were useless in the end. Beyond a certain point all use of +them resulted in losses, and that point was the minimum of utility that +could be obtained with a maximum of effort. The economic structure could +not stand on so poor a sand foundation. + +But the several governments were largely responsible for this. They had +regulated so much in behalf of economy that they had virtually given the +economic shark _carte blanche_. + +There was a season when I attended a good many trials of men who had run +afoul of the law in this manner. They all had the same excuse. Nothing +had been further from their minds than to make in times such as these +excessive profits. They would not think of such a thing. If they had +used poor materials in the things they manufactured, it was due entirely +to their desire to stretch the country's resources. In doing that they +had hoped to lighten the burden of the government. Conservation had +become necessary and everybody would have to help in that. They had been +willing to do their bit, and now the authorities were unreasonable +enough to find fault with this policy. + +At first many a judge had the wool pulled over his eyes in that manner. +But in the end the scheme worked no longer. Usually the limit of +punishment fell on the offender. + +Abuses of this sort had much to do with an improvement in conservation +methods. So far as the textile industry was concerned it led to the +control by the government Raw-Material Centrals, which were established +rather loosely at the beginning of the war, of all fibers. The ragman +thereafter turned over his wares to these centrals, and when a spinner +wanted material he had to state what he wanted it for and was then given +the necessary quantities in proportions. That helped, and when the +government took a better interest in the goods manufactured this avenue +of economic waste was closed effectively. With these measures came the +clothing cards for the public. After that all seemed well. The poorer +qualities of cloth disappeared from the market overnight, and a suit of +clothing was now sure to give fair value for the price. + +I have made use of this example to illustrate what the factors in +regulation and conservation were at times, and how difficult it was to +unscramble the economic omelet which the first conservation policies had +dished up. + +There were other crumbs and scraps, however. Not the least of them was +the socio-economic organism itself. That sensitive thing had been +doctored so much that only a major operation could again put it on its +feet. Economy faddists and military horse-doctors alike had tried their +hands on the patient, and all of them had overlooked that the only thing +there was wrong with the case was malnutrition. Everybody was trying to +get the usual quantities and qualities of milk from a cow that was +starving. Poor Bossy! + +Man lives not by food alone; nor does society. It takes a whole lot of +things to run a state. While the government had already in its grasp all +the distribution and consumption of food, there were many things it did +not care to interfere with, even if they were almost as important as +food. These things were the products of industry, rather than the fruits +of the fields, though usually, as is natural, it was difficult to draw a +strong line of demarcation in the division of spheres. In social economy +that has always been so. To get the true perspective, take a dozen +pebbles, label them food, fuel, clothing, and whatever else occurs to +you, and then throw the pebbles in the pond. You will find that the +circular wavelets caused by the pebbles will soon run into and across +one another, and if by chance you have followed the waves of food you +will notice that while they have been broken by the impact of the others +they still remain discernible. + +Into the rippling pond the several governments had each thrown the +cobblestones of regulation. The food, fuel, and clothing ripples were +still there, of course, but they had been so obliterated that it was now +difficult to trace them on the regulation waves. + +But the waves, too, subsided, and on the backwash of them the +authorities read lessons which suggested saner methods--methods whose +conception and application were attended by a better regard for the +nature of the operation, be this production, distribution, or +consumption. + +The saving of crumbs and scraps had not been without its value. It +tended to make men short-sighted, however. The governments of Central +Europe wanted to limit consumption to the absolutely necessary, but +overlooked that their _modus operandi_ gave cause to serious losses. The +various authorities did not wish to interfere too much with normal +currents of economic life. That was well enough in a way, but had +disastrous consequences. A shortage in the necessities of life was the +great fact of the day. It could be met only by restricting consumption. +But the machinery of this restriction was a haphazard thing. It promoted +hoarding. + +There have been those who have condemned the hoarder in the roundest of +terms. I am not so sure that he deserves all of the anathemas that have +been hurled at him. When a government shouts day in and day out that +the worst will come to pass if everybody does not save the crumbs, the +more easily alarmed are bound to think only of themselves and of their +own. High prices will cease to be a deterrent, for the reason that war +brings only too many examples of the fact that only food and not money +will sustain life. To act in accordance with this may be a weakness, but +it is also along the lines of a natural condition, if self-preservation +be indeed the first law of nature. Soon there are found those who +promote and pamper this weakness for a profit. Food is then stored away +by the majority. Some will waste much of it in over-consumption, while +more will permit the food to spoil by improper storage methods, +especially when the food has to be secreted in cellars and attics, +wardrobes and drawers, as happens when government by inspection becomes +necessary. But of this I have spoken already in its proper place. + + + + +XI + +MOBILIZING THE PENNIES + + +Food-regulators will be wroth, I suppose, if I should state that the +consumption of life's necessities can be regulated and diminished for +its own sake, and that high prices are not necessarily the only way of +doing this. At the same time I must admit that prices are bound to rise +when demand exceeds supply. In our system of economy that is a natural +order of affairs. But this tendency, when not interfered with, would +also result in a quick and adequate betterment in wages. In Central +Europe, however, the cost of living was always about 50 per cent. ahead +of the slow increase in earnings. That 50 per cent. was the increment +which the government and its economic minions needed to keep the war +going. What regulation of prices there was kept this in mind always. In +order that every penny in the realm might be mobilized and then kept +producing, no change in these tactics could be permitted. + +The food shark and price-boosting middleman were essential in this +scheme, and when these were dropped by the government, one by one, it +was nothing but a case of: + + The Moor has done his duty, the Moor can go. + +Elimination of the middleman worked upward, much as does a disease that +has its bed in the slums. When the consumer had been subjected to the +limit of pressure, the retailer felt the heavy hand of the government. +It got to be the turn of the wholesaler and commission-man, and in +October of 1916, the period of which I speak here, only the industrial +and commercial kings and the banking monarchs were still in favor with +the government. The speculators then operating were either the agents of +these powers or closely affiliated with them. + +In the fall of 1916 the war system of national economy had taken the +shape it has to-day. Food had become the irreducible minimum. Not alone +was the quantity on hand barely sufficient to feed the population, but +its price could no longer be increased if the masses were not to starve +for lack of money instead of lack of food. The daily bread was now a +luxury. Men and women had to rise betimes and work late into the night +if they wanted to eat at all. + +Let me now speak of the sort of revision of economic regulations that +was in vogue before the adoption of the new system. + +That revision started with the farmer--the producer of food. Some +requisitioning had been done on the farms for strictly military +purposes. Horses and meat animals had been taken from the farmer for +cash at the minimum prices established by the authorities. Forage and +grain for the army had been commandeered in a like manner, and in a few +cases wagons, plows, and other implements. Further than that (taking +into account the minimum prices, which were in favor of the farmer and +intended to stimulate production), the government had not actually +interfered with the tiller of the soil. He had gone on as before, so far +as a shortage of labor, draft animals, and fertilizers permitted. He had +not prospered, of course, but on the whole he was better off than the +urbanite and industrial worker, for the reason that he could still +consume of his food as much as he liked. The government had, indeed, +prescribed what percentage of his produce he was to turn over to the +public, but often that interference went no further. + +But in the growing and crop season of 1916 the several governments went +on a new tack. Trained agriculturists, employees of the Food Commissions +and Centrals, looked over the crops and estimated what the yield would +be. From the total was then subtracted what the establishment of the +farmer would need, and the rest had to be turned over to the Food +Centrals at fixed dates. + +The farmers did not take kindly to this. But there was no help. Failure +to comply with orders meant a heavy fine, and hiding of food brought +similar punishment and imprisonment besides. + +With this done, the food authorities began to clear up a little more in +the channels of distribution. The cereals were checked into the mills +more carefully, and the smaller water-mills, which had in the past +charged for their labor by retaining the bran and a little flour, were +put on a cash basis. For every hundred pounds of grain they had to +produce so many pounds of flour, together with by-products when these +latter were allowed. + +The flour was then shipped to a Food Central, and this would later issue +it to the bakers, who had to turn out a fixed number of loaves. To each +bakery had been assigned so many consumers, and the baker was now +responsible that these got the bread which the law prescribed. + +Potatoes and other foods were handled in much the same manner. The +farmer had to deliver them to the Food Central in given quantities at +fixed dates, and the Central turned them over to the retailers for sale +to the public in prescribed allotments. Now and then small quantities of +"unrestricted" potatoes would get to the consumer through the municipal +markets. But people had to rise at three o'clock in the morning to get +them. This meant, of course, that only those willing to lose hours of +needed sleep for the sake of a little extra food got any of these +potatoes. + +The ways of the efficient food-regulator are dark and devious but +positive in their aim. + +The meat-supply was not further modified. The meatless days and +exorbitant prices had made further regulation in that department +unnecessary. Milk and fat, however, as well as eggs, were made the +subject of further attention by the Food Commissions. All three of them +were as essential to the masses as was bread, and for that reason they +passed within the domain of the food zone--_Rayon_. + +In their case, however, the authorities left the supply uncontrolled. +The farmer sold to the Food Central what milk, butter, lard, suet, +tallow, vegetable-oil, and eggs he produced, and the Central passed them +on to the retailers, who had to distribute them to a given number of +consumers. The same was done in the case of sugar. + +Such a scheme left many middlemen high and dry. Those who could not be +of some service in the new system, or found it not worth while to be +connected with it, took to other lines of industry. + +The government had left a few such lines open. That, however, was not +done in the interest of the middlemen. The better-paid working classes +still had pennies that had to be garnered, and these pennies, now that +food was surrounded by cast-iron regulations and laws, went into the +many other channels of trade. + +I made the acquaintance of a man who in the past had bought and sold on +commission almost anything under the heading of food. Now it would be a +car-load of flour, then several car-loads of potatoes, and when business +in these lines was poor he would do a legal or illicit business in +butter and eggs. Petroleum was a side line of his, and once he made a +contract with the government for remounts. I don't think there was +anything the man had not dealt in. But the same can be said of every one +of the thousands that used to do business in the quiet corners of the +Berlin and Vienna cafés. + +I should mention here that the Central European commission-man does not +generally hold forth in an office. The café is his place of +business--not a bad idea, since those with whom he trades do the same. +There are certain cafés in Vienna, Berlin, and Budapest, and the other +cities, that exist almost for that purpose. In any three of them one can +buy and sell anything from a paper of pins to a stack of hay. + +My acquaintance found that the new order of things in the food +department left him nothing but the pleasant memory of the "wad" he had +made under the old régime. He took to matches. + +Matches were uncontrolled and rather scarce. Soon he had a corner in +matches. He made contracts with the factories at a price he could not +have paid without a large increase in the selling price of the article. +But he knew how to bring that condition about. + +Before long the price of matches went up. They had been selling at about +one-quarter cent American for a box of two hundred. The fancier article +sold for a little more. + +When the price was one cent a box, my acquaintance began to unload +judiciously. Merchants did not want to be without matches again, and +bought with a will. The speculator cleared one hundred and twenty +thousand crowns on his first release, I was told. His average monthly +profit after that was something like forty thousand crowns. + +Somehow he managed to escape prosecution under the anti-high-profit +decree then in force. No doubt that was due to his connections with the +Vienna Bank Food Ring. At any rate, his name appeared as one of the +large subscribers to the fifth Austrian war loan, and, needless to say, +he paid his share of the war-profit tax. + +In this case fractions of pennies were mobilized. I suppose almost +anybody who can afford fuel can afford to light a fire with a match that +costs the two-hundredth part of a cent. No doubt the government thought +so. Why not relieve the population of that little accumulation of +economic "fat"? + +Another genius of that sort managed to get a corner in candles. How he +managed to get his stock has never been clear to me, since the food +authorities had long ago put a ban on the manufacture of candles. I +understand that some animal fats, suet and tallow, are needed to make +the paraffin "stand" up. Those animal fats were needed by the population +in the form of food. + +But the corner in candles was _un fait accompli_. The man was +far-sighted. He held his wares until the government ordered lights out +in the houses at eleven o'clock, and these candles were then welcome at +any price, especially in such houses where the janitor would at the +stroke of the hour throw off the trunk switch in the cellar. + +Here was another chance to get pennies from the many who could afford to +buy a candle once or twice a week. The government had no reason to +interfere. Those pennies, left in the pockets of the populace, would +have never formed part of a war loan or war-profit taxes. + +Sewing-thread was the subject of another corner. In fact, all the little +things people must have passed one by one into the control of some +speculator. + +Gentle criticism of that method of mulcting the public was made in the +press that depended more than ever on advertising. But that fell on deaf +ears. And usually a man had not to be a deep thinker to realize that the +government must permit that sort of thing in order to find money for the +prosecution of the war and the administration of the state. To serious +complaint, the government would reply that it had done enough by +regulating the food, and that further regulation would break down the +economic machine. That was true, of course. To take another step was to +fall into the arms of the Social Democrats, and that responsibility +nobody expected the government to take. + +The attitude of the public toward the governmentally decreed system of +social economy is not the least interesting feature of it. + +The authorities took good care to accompany every new regulation with +the explanation that it had to be taken in the interest of the state +and the armies in the field. If too much food was consumed in the +interior, the men in the trenches would go hungry. That was a good +argument, of course. Almost every family had some member of it in the +army; that food was indeed scarce was known, and not to be content with +what was issued was folly in the individual--at one time it was treason. +As an antidote against resentment at high prices, the government had +provided the minimum-maximum price schedules, and occasionally some +retailer or wholesaler was promptly dealt with by the court, whose +president was then more interested in fining the man than in putting him +in jail. The government needed the money and was not anxious to feed +prisoners. If some favorite was hit by this, the authorities had the +convenient excuse that it was "war." + +It is difficult to see how the attitude of the several governments could +have been different. The authorities of a state have no other power, +strength, and resources than what the community places at their disposal +wittingly or unwittingly. The war was here and had to be prosecuted in +the best manner possible, and the operations incident to the struggle +were so gigantic that every penny and fraction thereof had to be +mobilized. There was no way out of this so long as the enemy was to be +met and opposed. Even the more conservative faction of the Social +Democrats realized that, and for the time being the "internationalist" +socialists had no argument they could advance against this, since +elsewhere the "internationalists" had also taken to cover. The Liberals +everywhere could demand fair treatment of the masses, but that they had +been given by the government to the fullest extent possible under the +circumstances. The exploitation of the public was general and no longer +confined to any class, though it did not operate in all cases with the +same rigor. + +To have the laws hit all alike would have meant embracing the very +theories of Karl Marx and his followers. Apart from the fact that the +middle and upper classes were violently opposed to this, there was the +question whether it would have been possible in that case to continue +the war. The German, German-Austrian, and Hungarian public, however, +wanted the war continued, even when the belt had been tightened to the +last hole. What, under these circumstances, could be done by the several +governments but extract from their respective people the very last cent? +Discussion of the policy was similar to a cat chasing its tail. + +We may say the same of the motive actuating the authorities when in the +fall of 1916 they established municipal meat markets where meat could be +obtained by the poor at cost price and often below that. Whether that +was done to alleviate hunger or keep the producer in good trim is a +question which each must answer for himself. It all depends on the +attitude one takes. The meat was sold by the municipality or the Food +Commission direct, at prices from 15 to 25 per cent. below the day's +quotation, and was a veritable godsend to the poor. Whether the +difference in price represented humaneness on the part of the +authorities or design would be hard to prove. Those I questioned +invariably claimed that it was a kind interest in the masses which +caused the government to help them in that manner. Had I been willing to +do so I could have shown, of course, that the money spent in this sort +of charity had originally been in the pockets of those who bought the +cheaper meat. + +But that is a chronic ailment of social economy, and I am not idealist +enough to say how this ailment could be cured. In fact, I cannot see how +it can be cured if society is not to sink into inertia, seeing that the +scramble for a living is to most the only leaven that will count. That +does not mean, however, that I believe in the maxim, "The devil take the +hindmost"--a maxim which governed the distribution of life's necessities +in Central Europe during the first two years of the war. + +The zonification of the bread, milk, fats, and sugar supply, and the +municipal meat markets began to show that either the government had come +to fear the public or was now willing to co-operate with it more closely +than it had done in the past. At any rate, this new and better policy +had a distinctly humane aspect. Some of the food-lines disappeared, and +with them departed much of that brutality which food control by the +government had been associated with in the past. The food allowance was +scant enough, but a good part of it was now assured. It could be +claimed at any time of the day, and that very fact revived in many the +self-respect which had suffered greatly by the eternal begging for food +in the lines. + +Having made a study of the psychology of the food-liner, I can realize +what that meant. Of a sudden food riots ceased, and with them passed all +danger of a revolution. I am convinced that in the winter of 1915-16 it +was easier to start internal trouble in the Central states than it was a +year later. A more or less impartial and fairly efficient system of food +distribution had induced the majority to look at the shortage in +eatables as something for which the government was not to blame. That, +after all, was what the government wanted. Whether or no it worked +consciously toward that end I am not prepared to say. + +By that time, also, the insufferable small official had been curbed to +quite an extent. As times grew harder, and the small increases in pay +failed more and more to keep pace with the increase in the cost of +living, that class became more and more impossible. Toward its superiors +it showed more obsequiousness than before, because removal from office +meant a stay at the front, and since things in life have the habit of +balancing one another, the class became more rude and oppressive toward +the public. Finally the government caused the small official to +understand that this could not go on. He also learned in a small degree +that bureaucratism is not necessarily the only purpose of the +officeholder, though much progress in that direction was yet necessary. + +It has often been my impression that government in Central Europe would +be good if it were possible to put out of their misery the small +officials--the element which snarls at the civilian when there is no +occasion for it. It seems to me that the worst which the extremists +in the Entente group have planned for the Central Powers is still +too good for the martinet who holds forth in the Central European +_Amtsstube_--_i. e._, government office. Law and order has no greater +admirer than myself, but I resent having some former corporal take it +for granted that I had never heard of such things until he happened +along. Yet that is precisely what this class does. It has alienated +hundreds of thousands of friends of the German people. It has stifled +the social enlightenment and political liberty which was so strong in +Central Europe in the first four decades of the nineteenth century. + +It is not difficult to imagine what that class did to a population which +had been reduced to subsisting at the public crib. The bread ticket was +handed the applicant with a sort of by-the-grace-of-God mien, when rude +words did not accompany it. The slightest contravention brought a flood +of verbal abuse. Pilate never was so sure that he alone was right. +Between this official insolence, food shortage, and exploitation by the +government and its economic minions, the Central European civilian had a +merry time of it. + +But, after all, no people has a better government than it deserves, just +as it has no more food than it produces or is able to secure. The +martinets did not mend their ways until women in the food-lines had +clawed their faces and an overwhelming avalanche of complaints began to +impress the higher officials. Conditions improved rapidly after that and +stayed improved so long as the public was heard from. It may not be +entirely coincidence that acceptable official manners and better +distribution of food came at the same time. In that lies the promise +that the days of the autocratic small official in Central Europe are +numbered. + +It was futile, however, to look for a general or deep-seated resentment +against the government itself. Certain officials were hated. Before the +war that would have made little difference to the bureaucratic clans, +and even now they were often reluctant to sacrifice one of their ilk, +but there was no longer any help for it. There was never a time when a +change in the principle of government was considered as the means to +effect a bettering of conditions. The Central European prefers +monarchical to republican government. He is not inclined to do homage to +a ruler who is a commoner--a tribute he still pays his government and +its head. + +In the monarchy the ruler occupies a position which the average +republican cannot easily understand. In the constitutional monarchy, +having a responsible ministry, the king is generally little better than +what is known as a figurehead. He is hardly ever heard from, and when +he is the cause of his appearance in the spotlight may be some act that +has little or nothing to do with government itself. He may open some +hospital or attend a maneuver or review of the fleet, or convene +parliament with a speech prepared by the premier, and there his +usefulness ends--seemingly. But that is not quite so. In such a realm +the monarch stands entirely for that continuation of policy and +principle which is necessary for the guidance of the state. He becomes +the living embodiment of the constitution, as it were. He is the +non-political guardian thereof. Political parties may come and go, but +the king stays, seeing to it, theoretically at least, that the +parliamentary majority which has put its men into the ministry does not +violate the ground laws of the country. + +In his capacities of King of Prussia and German Emperor, William II. has +been more absolute than any of the other European monarchs, the Czar of +Russia alone excepted. The two constitutions under which he rules, the +Prussian and the German federative, give him a great deal of room in +which to elbow around. When a Reichstag proved intractable he had but to +dissolve it, and in the Prussian chambers of Lords and Deputies he was +as nearly absolute as any man could be--provided always he did what was +agreeable to the Junkers. They are a strong-minded crew in Prussia, and +less inclined to be at the beck and call of their king than Germans +generally are in the case of their Emperor. In Prussia the King is far +more the servant of the state than the Kaiser is in Germany. But this is +one of those little idiosyncrasies in government that can be found +anywhere. + +Three years of contact with all classes of Germans have yet to show me +the single individual, not a most radical socialist, who had anything +but kind words for the King-Emperor and his family. What the Kaiser had +to say went through the multitude like an electric impulse. No matter +how uninteresting I might find a statement, because I could not see it +from the angle of the German, the public always received it very much as +it might the word of a prophet. It was conceded that the Emperor could +make mistakes, that, indeed, he had made not a few of them; but this did +not by any means lessen the degree of receptiveness of his subjects. +Against the word of Kaiser Wilhelm all argument is futile, and will +always remain futile. + +It was this sentiment which caused the German people to accept with +wonderful patience whatever burden the war brought. Had it ever been +necessary to cast into the government's war treasury the last pfennig, +the mere word from the Kaiser would have accomplished this. What +Napoleon was to his soldiers Emperor William II. is to his people. + +And then it must not be overlooked that the Emperor possesses marked +ability as a press agent. He was always the first to conform to a +regulation in food. Long before the rich classes had so much as a +thought of eating war-bread, Emperor William would tolerate nothing else +on his table. The Empress, too, adhered to this. All wheat bread was +banished from the several palaces of the imperial _ménage_. Every court +function was abandoned, save coffee visits in the afternoon for the +friends of the Empress. + +[Illustration: Copyright by Underwood & Underwood, N. Y. + +CASTLE HOHENZOLLERN + +Ancestral seat of the Hohenzollern dynasty. The men and women in the +foreground are good types of Germany's peasantry.] + +I saw the Emperor a good many times. At the beginning of the war he was +rushed past me in the Unter den Linden in Berlin. The crowds were +cheering him. He seemed supremely happy, as he bowed to right and left +in acknowledgment of the fealty voiced. Since I am not so +extraordinarily gifted as some claim to be, I could not say that I saw +anything in his face but the expression of a man happy to see that his +people stood behind him. + +Later I saw him in Vienna. He had come to the capital of his ally to +view for the last time the face of his dead comrade-in-arms, the late +Emperor Francis Joseph. He stepped out of the railroad carriage with a +grave face and hastened toward the young Emperor of Austria to express +his condolences. The two men embraced each other. I was struck by the +apparent sincerity of the greeting. What impressed me more, perhaps, was +the alacrity of the older man. For several minutes the two monarchs +paced up and down on the station platform and conversed on some serious +subject. I noticed especially the quick movements of the German +Emperor's head, and the smart manner in which he faced about when the +two had come to the end of the platform. + +The streak of white hair, visible between ear and helmet, accentuated in +his face that expression which is not rare in old army officers, when +the inroads of years have put a damper on youthful martial enthusiasm. +The man was still every inch a soldier, and yet his face reminded me of +that of Sir Henry Irving, despite the fact that there is little +similarity to be seen when pictures of the two men are compared, as I +had shortly afterward opportunity of doing. I should say that in +civilian clothing I would take the Emperor for a retired merchant-marine +captain, in whose house I would expect to find a fairly good library +indiscriminately assembled and balanced by much bric-à-brac collected in +all parts of the world without much plan or design. + +Such a retired sea-dog would be a very human being, I take it. His crews +might have ever stood in fear of him, but his familiars would look upon +him with the respect that is brought any man who knows that friendship's +best promoter is usually a judicious degree of reserve. + +That was the picture I gained of the Emperor as he marched up and down +the station platform in a Vienna suburb. The same afternoon he was taken +over the Ring in an automobile. There was no cheering by the vast throng +which had assembled to see the mighty War Lord from the north. The old +emperor was dead. The houses were draped in black. Many of the civilians +had donned mourning. To the hats that were lifted, Kaiser William bowed +with a face that was serious. He was all monarch--King and Emperor. + +I can understand why a man of the type of Czar Nicholas should lose his +throne in a revolution brought on by the shortage of food and the +exploitation incident to war. How a similar fate could overtake a man of +the type of William II. is not clear to me. For that he is too ready to +act. His adaptiveness is almost proverbial in Germany. I have no doubt +that should the impossible really occur in Germany becoming a republic +William II. would most likely show up as its first president. + +In Germany nothing is really ever popular--the works of poets excluded. +For that reason the Emperor is not popular in the sense in which Edward +VII. could be popular. But Emperor William II. is a fact to the German, +just as life itself is that. For the time being the Emperor is the state +to the vast majority, and, incongruous as it may seem at a time when +conditions in Germany are making for equipollence between the +reactionary and the progressive, there is no doubt that no throne in +Europe is more secure than that of the Hohenzollerns. + +To understand that one must have measured in Germany the patience and +determination of those who bore the burden of the war as imposed by +scant rations on the one hand and ever-increasing expenditures in +warfare on the other. + +Since King Alfonso of Spain is better known than the German +crown-prince, I will refer to him as the ruler whom the latter +resembles most. The two men are of about the same build, with the +difference in favor of the crown-prince, who is possibly a little taller +and slightly better looking in a Teutonic fashion. Both are alike in +their unmilitariness. One looks as little the soldier as the other, +despite the fact that the interested publics have but rarely the +opportunity to see these men in mufti. + +After all, that is scant reason for the comparison I have made. The +better reason is that both are alike in their attitude toward the +public. Alfonso is no more democratic than Frederick, nor would he be +more interested in good government. + +To my friend Karl H. von Wiegand, most prominent of American +correspondents in Berlin, the German crown-prince said on one occasion: + +"I regret that not more people will talk to me in the manner you have +done. I appreciate frankness, but cannot always get it. The people from +whom I expect advice and information make it their business to first +find out what I might expect to hear and then talk accordingly. It is +very disheartening, but what can I do?" + +Those who remember the last act of "_Alt-Heidelberg_" will best +understand what the factors are that lead to this. We may pity the mind +that looks upon another human being as something infinitely superior +because accident suddenly places him in a position of great power. I am +not so sure that he who becomes the object of that sort of reverence is +not to be pitied more. Our commiseration is especially due the prince +whom the frailties of human flesh cause to thus lose all contact with +the real life by accepting _ipso facto_ that he is a superior being +because others are foolish enough to embrace such a doctrine. + +A very interesting story is told in that connection of Emperor Charles +of Austria. As heir-apparent he had always been very democratic. In +those days he was little more to his brother officers than a comrade, +and all of them, acting agreeably to a tradition in the Austro-Hungarian +army, addressed him by the familiar _Du_--thou. + +After he had become Emperor-King, Charles had occasion to visit the east +front, spending some time with the Arz army, at whose headquarters he +had stayed often and long while still crown-prince. + +The young Emperor detected a chilling reserve among the men with whom he +had formerly lived. Some of his comrades addressed him as "Your +Majesty." Charles stood this for a while, and then turned on a young +officer with whom he had been on very friendly terms. + +"I suppose you must say majesty now, but do me the favor of saying '_Du +Majestät_.' I am still in the army; or are you trying to rule me out of +it?" + +This may be considered a fair sample of the cement that has been keeping +the Central states from falling apart under the stress of the war. To us +republicans that may seem absurd. And still, who would deny that the +memory of Washington, Jefferson, and Lincoln is not a thing that binds +together much of what is Americanism? In the republic the great men of +the past are done homage, in the monarchy the important man of the hour +is the thing. Were it otherwise the monarchy would not be possible. It +is this difference which very often makes the republic seem ungrateful +as compared with the monarchy. But in the aggregate in which all men are +supposedly equal nothing else can be looked for. + +We must look to that condition for an answer to the question which the +subject treated here has suggested. And, after all, this is half a dozen +of one and six of the other. In the end we expect any aggregate to +defend its institutions, whether they be republican or monarchical. In +the republic the devotion necessary may have its foundation in the +desire to preserve liberal institutions, while in the monarchy +attunement to the great lodestar, tradition, may be the direct cause of +patriotism. In England, the ideal monarchy, we have a mixture of both +tendencies, and who would say that the mixture, from the British +national point of view, has been a bad one? + + + + +XII + +SHORTAGE SUPREME + + +A hundred and twelve million people in Central Europe were thinking in +terms of shortage as they approached the winter of 1916-17. Government +and press said daily that relief would come. The public was advised to +be patient another day, another week, another month. All would be well +if patience was exercised. That patience was exercised, but in the mind +of the populace the shortage assumed proportions that were at times hard +to understand. + +The ancestors of Emperor Francis Joseph had been buried in a rather +peculiar manner. From the body were taken the brain, heart, and viscera +in order to make embalming possible. The heart was then put away in a +silver vessel, while the other parts were placed in a copper urn. In the +funeral processions these containers were carried in a vehicle following +the imperial hearse. + +The funeral cortège of Francis Joseph was without that vehicle. The old +man had requested that he be buried without the dissection that had been +necessary in other instances. That being the case, the vehicle was not +needed. + +But its absence was misinterpreted by the populace. It gave rise to the +belief that the copper for the urn could not be spared, seeing that the +army needed all of that metal. That little copper would have been +required to fashion the urn does not seem to have occurred to them. It +was enough to know that the church bells had been melted down and that +in the entire country there was not a copper roof left. + +The phantom of shortage waxed when it became known that the lack of the +necessary chemicals had led to the embalming of the Emperor's body with +a fluid which had so discolored the body and face that the coffin had to +be closed during the lying-in-state of the dead ruler. It grew again +when it became known that, owing to a lack of horses, many changes had +to be made in the funeral arrangements, and that most of the pomp of the +Spanish court etiquette of funerals would have to be abandoned. What had +anciently been a most imposing ceremony became in the end a very quiet +affair. With one half of the world at war with the other half, there was +a dearth even in monarchs, nobility, and diplomatists to attend the +funeral. + +Somehow I gained the impression that the word "Want" was written even on +the plain coffin which they lifted upon the catafalque in St. Stefan's +Cathedral in Vienna, twenty feet away from me. To get into the church I +had passed through a throng that showed want and deprivation in clothing +and mien. It was a chilly day. Through the narrow streets leading to +the small square in which the cathedral stands a raw wind was blowing, +and I remember well how the one bright spot in that dreary picture was +the tall spire of the cathedral upon which fell the light of the setting +winter sun. The narrow streets and little square lay in the gloom that +fitted the occasion. The shadow of death seemed to have fallen on +everything--upon all except the large white cross which presently moved +up the central aisle. Under the pall which the cross divided into four +black fields lay the remains of the unhappiest of men. His last days had +been made bitter by his people's cry for bread. + +Since coal was scarce, the church had not been heated. But that night, +as if in honor of the funeral guests, a few more lights burned on the +principal thoroughfares of Vienna. Even that was reckless extravagance +under the circumstances. + +Hundreds of thousands of women and children were sitting in cold rooms +at that time. The coal-lines brought usually disappointment, but no +fuel. Even the hospitals to which many of these unfortunates had to be +taken found it difficult to get what coal they needed. The street-car +service had been curtailed to such an extent that many were unable to +reach their place of work. In Austria that was especially the fault of +the Stürgkh régime, whose mad career in burning the candle at both ends +the dead emperor had failed to check. + +To keep certain neighbors good-natured and get from them such foods as +they could spare, the Central states of Europe had in 1916 exported +roughly three million two hundred thousands tons of coal. Another +million tons had been shipped into the territories occupied by the +Centralist troops. This was no great coal business, of course, +especially when we come to consider that some of this fuel came from +Belgium. But the four million tons could have been used at home without +a lump going begging. When Christmas came coal was as scarce in Germany, +Austria, and Hungary as was food. And that is saying a great deal. + +Much economy had been already practised during the summer. "Summer time" +meant the saving each day of one hour's consumption of fuel in city +traction and lighting street, house, and shop. The saving was not great, +when compared with the fuel a population of roundly one hundred and +twelve millions will consume when given a free hand. But it was +something, anyway. + +That something was an easement of conditions in the coal market during +the summer months. It did not make available for the cold season so much +as a shovelful of coal. Whatever the mines put out was carted off there +and then. When winter came the bunkers were empty. + +The prospect of having to bear with an ever-craving stomach the +discomforts of the cold and poorly lighted rooms was not pleasant. + +The government saw this and tried a little belated regulation. + +I say belated regulation because the measures came too late to have much +value. That there would be a shortage in coal had been foreseen. Nothing +could be done, however, to ward off the _Knappheit_. + +Among my many acquaintances is the owner of several coal-mines in +Austrian Silesia. His handicaps were typical of what every mine-operator +had to contend with. + +"The coal is there, of course," he would say. "But how am I to get it +out? My best miners are at the front. Coal-mining may be done only by +men who are physically the fittest. That is the very class of man the +government needs at the front. I am trying to come somewhere near my +normal output with men that are long past the age when they can produce +what is expected of the average miner. + +"It can't be done, of course. + +"Women are no good underground. So I have tried Russian +prisoners-of-war. I went to a prison camp and picked out seventy-five of +the most likely chaps. I made willingness to work in a mine one of the +conditions of their furlough. They all were willing--so long as they did +not know what the work was. Right there the willingness of half the crew +ended. I sent them back and tried my luck with the rest. + +"To get some work out of the men, I made arrangements with the +government that I was to pay them four-fifths of the regular scale. It +isn't a question of money. It's a question of getting at the coal. To +make a long story short: Out of the seventy-five Russians seventeen +have qualified. I can't afford to repeat the experiment, for the reason +that apprentices litter up the works and interfere with the few miners I +have left." + +The man was short then nearly two hundred workers at the mine shafts. He +had underground most of his surface hands. With overtime and some other +makeshifts he was able to produce about four-fifths of his normal +output. The demand for fuel was such that he would have been able to +sell twice as much coal as formerly. + +Natural resources mean nothing to a state so long as they cannot be made +available. This was the case with Central Europe. + +More economy, more restrictions. Industries not contributing directly to +the military strength of the Central Powers were ordered to discontinue +all night work and overtime. Shops, cafés, hotels, restaurants, and +other public places had to limit the consumption of fuel for heating and +lighting purposes to one-third their usual quota. The lighting of +shop-windows was cut down to almost nothing. Stores had to close at +seven o'clock, eating- and drinking-places first at twelve and later at +eleven. No light was to be used in the hotels after twelve. All +unnecessary heating was prohibited, and the warm-water period in hotels +shrank from four to two hours per day. On each stretch of corridor and +at each stair-landing or elevator door one small light was allowed. + +In Vienna all places of amusement "not contributing to the cultivation +of art for art's sake" were closed. This hit the cheaper theaters and +every moving-picture house. + +A city of such restrictions would need no street lights at any time. But +up to eleven o'clock two lights for each block were allowed. After that +Stygian black reigned. Street traction ceased on some lines at eight +o'clock; on all lines at nine, though arrangements were made for a few +cars to run when the playing theaters closed. + +But the regulations came near spilling the baby with the bath. They were +well meant, but poorly considered. Economic waste came from them. + +The several governments did their very best to get coal to the +consumers. In Vienna, for instance, Emperor Charles took a personal +interest in the matter. He issued an order that as many miners as +possible be returned immediately from the front. For the workers at the +mines, who had been living none too well so far as food went, he +prescribed the subsistence given the men in the trenches and placed +military commissaries in charge of the kitchens. Men from the military +railroad organizations were given the running of coal-trains. For +certain hours each day the passenger service of the city street traction +systems was suspended in favor of the coal traffic, which often gave +rise to the unusual sight of seeing an electric street-car drag behind +it, over the pavement, from three to five ordinary coal-wagons, which +later were towed to their destination by army tractors. + +It was a herculean labor that would have to be done in a few days, if a +part of the population were not to perish in the cold spell that had +come over Central Europe. The work of a whole summer was now to be done +in a few days. + +From the front came whole columns of army motor trucks. These took a +hand at coal distribution. And finally Emperor Charles gave over to the +work every horse in the imperial stables. + +I will never forget the sight of the imperial coachmen in their +yellow-and-black uniforms hauling coal all over Vienna. Their cockaded +top-hats looked out of place on the coal-wagons, though no more so than +the fine black and silver-adorned harness of the full-blooded horses +that drew the wagons. + +The press was freer now. Political censorship had been reduced to a +minimum. Criticism changed with valuable tips, and one of them was that +the government had done a very foolish thing in closing the +_Kinos_--movies. It was pointed out that their closing resulted in so +small a saving of fuel for heating and lighting that, compared with the +wasteful result of the regulation, it stood as one to hundreds. + +Such was the case. The men, women, and families who had formerly spent +their evenings in the movies were now obliged to frequent the more +expensive cafés or sit home and use light and fuel. Some man with a +statistical mind figured out that the closing of a movie seating five +hundred people and giving two performances in the evening, meant an +increase in fuel consumption for heating and lighting purposes sixty +times greater than what the movie used. + +That was simple enough, and a few days later the movies and cheap +theaters resumed business. More than that followed. The government +decided that this was a fine method of co-operation. It gave the cafés +permission to use more fuel and light in return for a more liberal +treatment of patrons not able to spend much money. In harmony with this +policy the passenger service of the car lines was extended first to nine +and later to ten o'clock, so that people were not obliged to spend every +evening in the same café or other public place. + +The case was a fine example of co-operation between government and +public, with the press as the medium of thought exchange. A twelve-month +before, the reaching of such an understanding would have been next to +impossible. The editor who then mastered the courage of criticizing a +government measure had the suspension of his paper before his eyes. He +no longer had to fear this. The result was a clearing of the political +atmosphere. Government and people were in touch with one another for the +first time in two years. + +For over a year all effort of the upper classes had lain fallow. The +women who had done their utmost at the beginning of the war had not met +enough encouragement to keep their labor up. It had been found, +moreover, that charity concerts and teas "an' sich" were of little +value in times when everything had to be done on the largest of scales. +What good could come from collecting a few thousand marks or crowns, +when not money, but food, was the thing? + +The fuel conjunction offered new opportunities. Free musical recitals, +concerts, theatrical performances, and lectures were arranged for in +order that thousands might be attracted away from their homes and thus +be prevented from using coal and light. + +One of the leaders in this movement in Vienna was Princess Alexandrine +Windisch-Graetz. + +The lady is either the owner or the lessee of the Urania Theater. In the +past she had financed at her house free performances and lectures for +the people in order that they might not be without recreation. A washed +face and clean collar were the admission fee. Under her auspices many +such institutions sprang up within a few weeks. + +"We are saving coal and educating the masses at the same time," she +would say to me. "There are times when making a virtue of necessity has +its rewards." + +And rewards the scheme did have. Lectures on any conceivable subject +could be heard, and I was glad to notice that not a single one dealt +with the war. The public was tired of this subject and the promoters of +the lectures were no less so. + +Those whom lectures did not attract could go to the free concerts, and, +when the cheaper music palled, payment of twelve cents American brought +within reach the best Vienna has to offer in symphony and chamber music. + +At the same time "warming"-rooms were established in many cities. These +were for unattached women and the wives of men at the front. Care was +taken to have these places as cozy as circumstances permitted. +Entertainment was provided. Much of it took the form of timely lectures +on food conservation, care of the children, and related topics. Many of +the women heard for the first time in their lives that there were more +than two ways of cooking potatoes, and other manners of putting baby to +sleep than addling its brain by rocking it in a cradle or perambulator. + +I must say that this solution of the coal problem was an unqualified +success. + +The well-to-do also felt the pinch. Money no longer bought much of +anything. The word "wealth" had lost most of its meaning. In the open +food market it might buy an overlooked can of genuine Russian caviar or +some real _pâté de foie gras_, and if one could trust one's servants and +was willing to descend to illicit trading with some hoarding dealer, +some extra food could be had that way. In most other aspects of +subsistence rich and poor, aristocrat and commoner, fared very much +alike. But I cannot say that this "democracy of want" was relished by +the upper classes. + +By this time every automobile had been requisitioned by the government. +That was painful, but bearable so long as taxis could be had. Of a +sudden it was found that most of the taxicabs were being hired by the +day and week, often months, by those who could afford it. That was +contrary to the purpose for which the government had left the machines +in town. They were intended mainly to take officers and the public from +the railroad stations to the hotels, and _vice versa_. As an aid to +shopping they had not been considered, nor had it been borne in mind +that some war purveyor's family would wish to take the air in the park +by being wheeled through it. Regulation descended swiftly. + +Hereafter taxicab-drivers could wait for a passenger five minutes if the +trip from starting-point to destination had to be interrupted. If the +passenger thought it would take him longer he was obliged to pay his +fare and dismiss the taxi. Policemen had orders to arrest any +taxi-driver who violated this rule; and since the two do not seem to get +along well together anywhere, there was much paying of fines. + +Regulation being still somewhat piecemeal, the hacks had been +overlooked. Those who had to have wheel transportation at their beck and +call hired these now by the day and week. Another order came. The +hack-driver could wait in front of a store or any place ten minutes and +then he had to take another "fare." + +The upper classes had retained their fine equipages, of course. The +trouble was that the government had taken away every horse and had even +deprived the wheels of their rubber tires. With taxis and hacks not to +be had, especially when the government ruled later that they could be +used between railroad stations only, and not to points, even in that +case, that could be reached with the street-cars, social life of the +higher order took a fearful slump. Though a season of very quiet +dressing was at hand, one could not go calling in the evening in the +habiliment impervious to rain. Simple luncheons and teas were the best +that society could manage under the circumstances. + +The theater remained a little more accessible. Street-cars were provided +to take the spectators home. With the show over, everybody made a wild +scramble for the cars. Central Europe was having democracy forced down +its throat. The holder of a box at the Royal Opera had indeed abandoned +the evening dress and _chapeau claque_. His lady had followed his +example in a half-hearted manner. But all this did not make the ride +home easier. The gallery angel in Central Europe is well-behaved and not +inclined to be conspicuous or forward. But he takes up room, and one was +elbowed by him. When soap was scarce he also was not always washed all +over, and that made a difference. + +But the theaters did a fine business, for all that. The better +institutions were sold out three weeks ahead, and the cheaper shows were +crowded by the overflow. + +Admission to the theater was the one thing that had not gone up in price +very much. The artists had agreed to work for a little less, and those +to whom royalties were due had acted in a like public spirit. Managers +were content with being allowed to run on about a 5-per-cent.-profit +basis. I suppose they thought that half a loaf was better than none. +There would have been none had they gone up in their prices. + +The performances were up to standard. A great deal of Shakespeare was +being given. Two of the Vienna theaters played Shakespeare twice a week, +and at Berlin as many as three houses had a Shakespearian program. Oscar +Wilde and George Bernard Shaw plays were occasionally given and also +some by the older French playwrights. Modern French authors seemed to be +taboo. No changes were made in the play-lists of the operas, nor was +prejudice manifested on the concert programs. All performances were in +German, however--Hungarian in Budapest. In other parts of the Dual +Monarchy they were given in the language of the district; Italian, for +instance, in Trieste, where I heard a late Italian _opéra comique_ just +imported _via_ Switzerland. + +The stage was not fallow by any means during the war. In Berlin, Vienna, +and Budapest it was a poor week that did not have its two or three +_premières_. It is rather odd that nobody wrote plays about the war. Of +some twoscore new plays I saw in three years not a single one occupied +itself with a theme related to the struggle that was going on. It +seemed, too, that the playwrights had turned their attention to +psychological study. One of these efforts was a phenomenal success. I +refer to Franz Molnar's "_Fasching_." + +About twenty new "Viennese" operas made their _début_ during the war. +Just two of them touched upon the thing that was uppermost in the mind +of man. The others dealt with the good old days of long ago; the happy +days of our great-grandfathers, when soldiers still wore green uniforms +with broad lapels of scarlet and lapped-over swallowtails that showed +the same color; when soldiers carried a most murderous-looking sidearm +on "clayed" leather sashes hung rakishly over the shoulder. How happy +those fellows looked as they blew imaginary foam from their empty steins +in front of the inn! + +Ten operas were turned out in the three years. I give credit for much +vitality to only one of them. It is known as "_Der Heiland_"--"The +Saviour." It was voted the one addition to lasting music. + +With concert-composers also busy, there was no dearth of musical +enjoyment. The art world did yeoman service to keep the population from +going insane. As to that there can be no doubt. It was fortunate that +the Central European public can find so much mental nourishment in the +theater and concert-hall. Otherwise there would have been a lack of room +in the asylums for the insane. + +Society, however, did not go to sleep entirely. The luncheons were +simple repasts, but lasted all the longer. Usually one left in time to +reach tea somewhere else. For dinner only the closest friends of the +family were invited, and when others had to be entertained in that +manner there was the hotel. Balls and similar frivolities were under +the ban, of course. + +After listening all day long to what the people in the cafés and +restaurants had to say of the war, it was really refreshing to hear what +the aristocrats thought. Most of them were severely objective in their +opinions, some verged on neutrality, and a small number took the tragedy +of the war to heart. + +Among the latter was a princess related to Emperor Francis Joseph by +marriage. She was a motherly old woman. The very thought of warfare was +unwelcome to her. She had one expression for what she thought of the +calamity: + +"Civilization has declared itself bankrupt in this war." + +What she meant was that a civilization that could lead to such a +catastrophe had shown itself futile. She was plain-spoken for one of her +station, and the American ambassador at Vienna was her _bête noire_. +This will suffice to identify the lady to all whom her identity could +interest. + +Much of the food shortage was laid at the door of the United States +government. Why didn't the American government see to it that the +Central states civilian populations received that to which international +law and the recent The Hague and London conventions entitled them? + +I was asked that question a thousand times every week. With the male +questioners I could argue the point, but with the ladies ... it was +another matter. As many as ten at a time have nailed me down to that +question. At first that used to ruin many a day for me, but finally one +gets used to anything. + +The question was not so easily answered in Central Europe. The best +reply was that I was not running anything aside from myself, in which I +followed the ways of the diplomatist who is never responsible for the +acts of his government so long as he wishes to remain _persona grata_. + +On the whole, Central European society was leading a rather colorless +life when the war was three years old. Even their charity work had no +longer much of a sphere. It was still possible to collect money by means +of concerts, teas, and receptions--bazaars had to be abandoned because +everybody had tired of them--but there was so little that money could +buy. Government control had gradually spread over everything, and, with +everybody working hard, nobody needed much assistance, as everybody +thought. That was not the case by any means, but such was largely the +popular impression. + +The truth was that everybody was tired of working at the same old +charities. The shortage of fuel gave a new opportunity, but did not +occupy many. It was one thing to pin a paper rosette to a lapel in +return for an offering willingly made, and quite another to preside over +a co-operative dining-room or a place where the women and children could +warm themselves and pass the time with pleasure and profit to +themselves. Not many were equal to that. Few had the necessary +experience. + +The worst of it was that travel to the international summer and winter +resorts was out of the question. And to move about in one's own country +meant passes, visées, authorizations, health certificates, documents +attesting good conduct and a clean slate with the police; and if by +chance the trip should take one into an inner or outer war zone, the +home authorities had to go on record as having established that he or +she was not plagued by insects. It is remarkable what the Central +governments would do in the interest of law and order, public security, +and sanitation. But it was more remarkable that the highest nobility had +to conform to the same rules. The only persons who had the right to +sidestep any of these multifarious regulations were officers and +soldiers whose military credentials answered every purpose. Since I +traveled only on _Offene Order_--open order--the marching order of the +officer, I was one of the few civilians exempt from this annoyance. + +That and the state of the railroads kept the upper classes at home. Many +of them were thus afforded their first good chance to know where they +lived. + +Shortage had even come to rule the day for the aristocrats. It was a +bitter pill for them, but I will say that they swallowed it without +batting an eye. + + + + +XIII + +"GIVE US BREAD!" + + +The food situation in Central Europe became really desperate in the +third year of the war. The year's wheat crop had been short in quantity +and quality. Its nutritive value was about 55 per cent. of normal. The +rye crop was better, but not large enough to meet the shortage in +breadstuffs caused by the poor wheat yield. Barley was fair under the +circumstances. Oats were a success in many parts of Germany, but fell +very low in Austria and Hungary. The potato crop was a failure. The +supply of peas and beans had been augmented by garden culture, but most +people held what they had raised and but little of the crop reached the +large population centers. To make things worse, the Hungarian Indian +corn crop was very indifferent. Great losses were sustained when the +Roumanian army in September and October overran much of Transylvania, +drove off some twenty thousand head of cattle, and slaughtered about +fifty thousand pigs. Large quantities of cereals were also ruined by +them, as I was able to ascertain on my trips to the Roumanian front. + +Up to this time the war-bread of the Central states had been rather +palatable, though a steady loss in quality had been noticeable. Soon it +came to pass that the ration of bread had to be reduced to about +one-quarter of a pound per day. And the dough it was made of was no +longer good. + +The 55-25-20 war-bread was good to eat and very nutritious. The stuff +now passing for bread was anything but that, so far as Austria was +concerned. Its quality fluctuated from one week to another. I was unable +to keep track of it. Indian corn was already used in the loaf, and +before long ground clover hay was to form one of its constituents. Worst +of all, the bread was not always to be had. At the beginning of November +the three slices of bread into which the ration was divided, as a rule, +fell to two, so that the daily allowance of bread was not quite four +ounces. On one occasion Vienna had hardly any bread for four days. + +In Hungary conditions were a little better, for the reason that the +Hungarian government had closed the border against wheat and cereal +exports. But the large population centers were also poorly provided with +flour. + +Germany, on the other hand, was better off than either Austria or +Hungary. The rye crop had been fairly good, and food regulation was +further advanced there. It was, in fact, close to the point of being +perfect. But the quantity allotted the individual was inadequate, of +course. + +Throughout Central Europe the cry was heard: + +"Give us bread!" + +So far the several populations had borne all hardships in patience and +stoical indifference. The limit of endurance was reached, however. +Colder weather called for a greater number of calories to heat the body. +The vegetable season was over. The hoardings of the poorer classes had +been eaten up. The cattle were no longer on pasture, and, fed with hay +only, gave now less milk than ever. + +It was a mournful season. + +All food was now regulated. While there had been no meat cards in +Austria and Hungary as yet, there were two, and at times three, meatless +days; though when on three days no beef, veal, or pork could be eaten, +it was permitted to consume mutton and fowl on one of them. + +But the consumption of meat regulated itself, as it were. Meat has +always been proportionately expensive in Central Europe, and but a small +percentage of people ever ate it more than once a day. The majority, in +fact, ate meat only three times a week, as was especially the case in +the rural districts, where fresh meat was eaten only on Sundays. There +was no inherent craving for this food, on this account, and beef at +seventy cents American a pound was something that few could afford. + +Animal fat had in the past taken the place of meat. In the summer not +much was needed of this, for the reason that the warm weather called for +less body heat, to supply which is the special mission of fats. But with +clothing worn thin, shoes leaking, and rooms poorly heated, the demand +for heat-producing food grew apace. + +This was reflected by the longer potato-lines. + +On one occasion I occupied myself with a potato-line in the Second +Municipal District of Vienna. It was ten o'clock in the morning. +Distribution was going on. Those then served had been standing in that +line since six o'clock. The first who had received their quota of the +eight pounds of potatoes, which was to last for three days, had appeared +in front of the shop at three o'clock in the morning. It had rained most +of that time and a cold wind was blowing. + +I engaged one of the women in conversation. + +She had arrived at the store at about seven o'clock. There were three +children she had to take care of. She had given them a breakfast of +coffee and bread for the oldest, and milk for the two others. + +"I have nobody with whom I could leave the children," she said. "My +neighbors also have to stand in the food-line. So I keep them from the +stove by placing the table on its side in front of it. Against one end +of the table I move the couch. The children can't move that, and against +the other end I push my dresser." + +It appears that the woman had come home once from the food-line and had +found her rooms on the verge of going up in a blaze. One of the children +had opened the door of the stove and the live coals had fallen out. They +had set fire to some kindlings and a chair. The children thought that +great fun. + +I complimented the woman on her resourcefulness. + +Her husband, a Bohemian, was then at the front in Galicia. For the +support of the family the woman received from the government monthly for +herself 60 crowns ($12) and for each child 30 crowns, making a total of +150, of which amount she paid 48 crowns for rent every month. I could +not see how, with prevailing prices, she managed to keep herself alive. +Coal just then was from 3 to 5 crowns per hundredweight ($12 to $20 per +ton), and with only one stove going the woman needed at least five +hundred pounds of coal a month. After that, food and a little clothing +had to be provided. How did she manage it? + +"During the summer I worked in an ammunition factory near here," she +said. "I earned about twenty-six crowns a week, and some of the money I +was able to save. I am using that now. I really don't know what I am +going to do when it is gone. There is work enough to be had. But what is +to become of the children? To get food for them I must stand in line +here and waste half of my time every day." + +The line moved very slowly, I noticed. I concluded that the woman would +get her potatoes in about an hour, if by that time there were any left. + +Since I used to meet the same people in the same lines, I was able to +keep myself informed on what food conditions were from one week to +another. They were gradually growing worse. Now and then no bread could +be had, and the potatoes were often bad or frozen. + +The cry for food became louder, although it was not heard in the hotels +and restaurants where I ate. My waiters undertook to supply me with all +the bread I wanted, card or no card--but who would eat the concoction +they were serving? I was able to buy all the meat I needed and generally +ate no other flour products than those in the pastry and puddings. + +It was a peculiar experience, then, to eat in a well-appointed +dining-room of supplies that were rather plentiful because the poor, who +really needed those things, could not afford to buy them. The patrons of +the place would come in, produce such cards as they had to have, and +then order as before, with all the cares left to the management--which +cares were comparatively slight, seeing that the establishment dealt +with wholesalers and usually did much of its buying clandestinely. + +Somewhere the less fortunate were eating what the luck of the food-line +had brought that day, which might be nothing for those who had come late +and had no neighbors who would lend a little bread and a few potatoes. +Suicides and crime, due to lack of food, increased alarmingly. + +There was a shocking gauntness about the food-lines. Every face showed +want. The eyes under the threadbare shawls cried for bread. But how +could that bread be had? It simply was not there. And such things as a +few ounces of fats and a few eggs every week meant very little in the +end. + +Perhaps it was just as well that those in the food-lines did not know +that a large number of co-citizens were yet living in plenty. There were +some who feared that such knowledge might lead to riots of a serious +nature. But I had come to understand the food-lines and their psychology +better. With the men home, trouble might have come--could not have been +averted, in fact. But the women besieging the food-shops were timid and +far from hysterical. Most of them were more concerned with the welfare +of their children than with their own troubles, as I had many an +occasion to learn. Not a few of them sold their bodies to get money +enough to feed their offspring. Others pawned or sold the last thing of +value they had. The necessity of obtaining food at any price was such +that many a "business" hoard entered the channels of illicit trade and +exacted from the unfortunate poor the very last thing they had to give. +The price of a pound of flour or some fat would in some cases be 800 per +cent. of what these things normally cost. + +The several governments were not ignorant of these things. But for a +while they were powerless, though now they had abandoned largely their +policy of "mobilizing" the pennies of the poor. To apply the law to +every violator of the food regulations was quite impossible. There were +not jails enough to hold a tenth of them, and a law that cannot be +equitably enforced should not be enforced at all. The very fact that its +enforcement is impossible shows that it is contrary to the interest of +the social aggregate. + +In Germany a fine disregard for social station and wealth had marked +almost every food-regulation decree of the government from the very +first. The several state governments were concerned with keeping their +civil population in as good a physical condition as the food situation +permitted. The financial needs of the government had to be considered, +but it was forever the object to make the ration of the poor as good as +possible, and to do that meant that he or she who had in the past lived +on the fat of the land would now have to be content with less. As the +war dragged on, pauper and millionaire received the same quantity of +food. If the latter was minded to eat that from expensive porcelain he +could do so, nor did anybody mind if he drank champagne with it, for in +doing so he did not diminish unnecessarily the natural resources of the +nation. + +Food regulation in Austria had been less efficacious. In Hungary it was +little short of being a farce. In both countries special privilege is +still enthroned so high that even the exigencies of the war did not +assail it until much damage had been done. + +It was not until toward the end of December that the two governments +proceeded vigorously to attack the terrible mixture of food shortage and +chaotic regulation that confronted them. + +The new ruler of the Dual Monarchy, Emperor-King Charles, was +responsible for the change. + +While Emperor Francis Joseph lived, the heir-apparent had not occupied +much of a place in government. The camarilla surrounding the old man +saw to that. But by depriving the young archduke of his rightful place, +which the incapacity of the Emperor should have assigned him, the court +clique gave him the very opportunities he needed to understand the food +situation he was to cope with presently--had to cope with if he wanted +to see the government continued. + +The removal of Premier Stürgkh by the hand of the assassin had been +timely; the death of Francis Joseph was timelier yet. The old monarch +had ceased to live in the times that were. He came from an age which is +as much related to our era as is the rule of the original patriarch, one +Abraham of Chaldea. Food conditions might be brought to his attention, +but the effort served no purpose. The old man was incapable of +understanding why the interests of the privileged classes should be +sacrificed for the sake of the many. + +At the several fronts, at points of troop concentration, and in the very +food-lines, the young Emperor had heard and seen what the ailments and +shortcomings of public subsistence were. One of the first things he did +when he came into power was to take a keen and active interest in food +questions. For one thing, he decided to regulate consumption downward. +It was a great shock to the privileged class when it heard that the +Emperor would cut down the supply of those on top in order that more be +left for those beneath. + +To do that was not easy, however. The young man thought of the force of +example. He prohibited the eating at court of any meals not in accord +with the food regulations. Wheat bread and rolls were banished. Every +servant not actually needed was dismissed so that he might do some +useful work. Several of the imperial and royal establishments were +closed altogether. The _ménage_ at Castle Schönbrunn was disbanded. The +personnel of the Hofburg in Vienna was reduced to actual needs. It was +ordered that only one suite in the palace be lighted and heated--a very +simple apartment which the Emperor and his family occupied. + +Some very amusing stories are told in connection with the policy the +Emperor had decided to apply. I will give here a few of them--those I +have been able to verify or which for some other reason I may not doubt. + +They had been leading a rather easy life at the Austro-Hungarian general +headquarters. The chief of staff, Field-Marshal Conrad von Hötzendorff, +was rather indulgent with his subordinates, and had never discouraged +certain extravagances the officers of the establishment were fond of. +One of them was to have wheat dinner-rolls. + +A few days after the new Emperor's ascension of the Austrian throne he +happened to be at Baden, near Vienna, which was then the seat of the +general headquarters. After a conference he intimated that he would stay +for dinner at the general mess of the staff. That was a great honor, of +course, though formerly the influence of the archducal party had made +the heir-apparent more tolerated than respected in that very group. + +After a round of introductions Emperor Charles sat down at the head of +the table. On each napkin lay a roll and in a basket there were more. +The Emperor laid his roll to one side and ate the soup without any +bread. When the next dish was being served, and those at table had made +good inroads upon their rolls, the Emperor called the orderly. + +"You may bring me a slice of war-bread, and mind you I do not want a +whole loaf, but just the third of a daily ration, such as the law +entitles me to. No more, no less!" + +Some of the officers almost choked on the morsel of wheat roll they were +about to swallow. The Emperor said no more, however, and his +conversation continued with all the _bonhomie_ for which he is known. +But henceforth no more wheat bread in any form was to be seen in any +officers' mess. A few days later came an order from the civil +authorities that all patrons of hotels and restaurants were to bring +their bread, issued to them in the morning, to their meals if they were +not to go without it. The eating-house manager who gave bread to patrons +would be fined heavily once or twice and after that would lose his +license to do business. + +A few days after that I saw a rather interesting thing in the cloak-room +of the Court Opera. A well-dressed couple came in. The lady was attired +in quite the latest thing made by some able _couturier_, and the man +was in evening dress, a rare sight nowadays. As he pushed his fur coat +across the counter a small white parcel fell to the floor. The paper +wrapping parted and two slices of very black war-bread rolled among the +feet of the throng. + +"There goes our supper bread!" cried the woman. + +"So it seems," remarked the man. "But what is the use of picking it up +now? It's been rolling about on the floor." + +"But somebody can still eat it," said the woman. + +Just then two men handed back the bread. Its owner wrapped it up again +and put the parcel into a pocket. I suppose the servants of the +household ate next day more bread than usual. + +Shortly after that I had tea at the residence of Mrs. Penfield, wife of +the American ambassador at Vienna. Among other guests was a princess of +the house of Parma. There are several such princesses and I have +forgotten which one it was, nor could I say whether she was a sister or +a cousin of Empress Zita. + +At any rate, the young woman had a son of an age when good milk is the +best food. She said that the recent regulations of the government were +such that not even she could transgress upon them, though that does not +seem to have been her intention. + +How to get enough milk for her boy was a great problem, or had been. The +problem had on that very day been solved by her, however. + +"I bought a good cow two weeks ago," said the princess. + +"That was certainly the best way of getting good milk," commented the +American ambassadrice. + +"Yes, it was," remarked the Princess Parma. "But it did not end my +troubles. I had the milk shipped here, and found that the food +authorities would not allow it to be delivered to me, except that +portion which the law prescribes for children and adults. That much I +got. The remainder was turned over to the Food Central, and I got a +letter saying that I would be paid for the milk at the end of the +month." + +"But the allowance is too small, your Highness," suggested somebody, +sympathetically. + +"That is the trouble, of course," returned the princess. "It is too +small for a growing child. But what could I do? The authorities say that +the law is the law. I spoke to the Emperor about it. He says that he is +not the government and has nothing to do with it. Nor can he intercede +for me, he says, because he does not want to set a bad example." + +"Then the buying of the cow did not solve the problem," I ventured to +remark. "The solution is only a partial one, your Highness!" + +The princess smiled in the manner of those who are satisfied with +something they have done. + +"The problem is solved, monsieur!" she said. "This morning I shipped my +boy to where the cow is." + +There was no longer any doubt that food regulation was on in real +earnest. When a woman allied to the imperial house was unable to get for +her child more milk than some other mother could get, things were indeed +on the plane of equity. That every person should thereafter get his or +her share of the available store of bread is almost an unnecessary +statement. + +The Austrian civil authorities had not made a good job of food +administration. They were too fond of the normal socio-economic +institutions to do what under the circumstances had to be done, and were +forever afraid that they would adopt some measure that might bring down +the entire economic structure. And that fear was not unwarranted, by any +means. The drain of the war had sapped the vitality of the state. Though +Austria was for the time being a dead tree, the civil administrators +thought that a dead tree was still better upright than prostrate. + +Emperor Charles had surrounded himself with young men, who were +enterprising, rather than attached to the interests of the privileged. +Among them was a man known as the "Red Prince." It was not the color of +hair that gave this name to Prince Alois Lichtenstein. Odd as it may +sound, this scion of one of the most prominent families in Europe is an +ardent socialist in theory and to some extent in practice, though not +anxious to be known as one. He holds that the chief promoters of +socialism the world over are professional politicians who have seized +upon a very valuable socio-economic idea for the purpose of personal +promotion, and that under these circumstances he cannot support them. + +His influence with the new Emperor was great, and led to a rather +"unsocialist" result--the appointment of a military food-dictator, +General Höfer, a member of the Austro-Hungarian general staff. + +It was argued that equity in food distribution could be effected only by +placing it in charge of a man who would treat all classes of the +population as the drill-sergeant does his men. The military +food-dictator had no favors to grant and none to expect. General Höfer +acted on this principle, and despite the fact that he was handicapped by +a top-heavy regulation machine and a shortage in all food essentials, he +was shortly able to do for Austria what Dr. Karl Helfferich had done for +Germany. + +In speaking here particularly of Austrian regulations when the crisis +came I have a special objective. I am able to give in this manner a +better picture of what was done throughout Central Europe. The necessity +for a certain step in food regulation and the _modus operandi_ move in a +narrower sphere. In Germany the situation had been met more or less as +its phases developed; in Austria and Hungary this had not been done. +There had been much neglect, with the result that all problems were +permitted to reach that concrete form which extremity was bound to give +them. So many threads had been pulled from the socio-economic fabric +that holes could be seen, while the Germans had always managed in time +to prevent more than the thinness of the thing showing. + +The profit system of distribution manages to overlook the actual +time-and-place values of commodities. Under it things are not sold where +and when they are most needed, but where and when they will give the +largest profit. That the two conditions referred to are closely related +must be admitted, since supply and demand are involved. But the +profit-maker is ever more interested in promoting demand than he is in +easing supply. He must see to it that the consumer is as eager to buy as +the farmer is anxious to sell, if business is to be good. This state of +affairs has its shortcomings even in time of peace. What it was to be in +war I have sufficiently shown already. + +The regulations to which the food crisis of the fall of 1916 gave +justification laid the ax to the middleman system of distribution. The +several governments empowered their Food Commissions and Centrals to +establish shortcuts from farm to kitchen that were entirely in the hands +of the authorities. Though the Purchasing Central was even then not +unknown, it came now to supplant the middleman entirely. + +The grain was bought from the farmer and turned over to the mills, where +it was converted into flour at a fixed price. The miller was no longer +able to buy grain for the purpose of holding the flour afterward until +some commission-man or wholesaler made him a good offer. He was given +the grain and had to account for every pound of it to the Food +Commissioners. + +Nor was the flour turned loose after that. The Food Centrals held it and +gave it directly to the bakers, who meanwhile had been licensed to act +as distributors of bread. From so many bags of flour they had to produce +so many loaves of bread, and since control by means of the bread-card +coupon would have been as impossible as it was before, the Food +Commissions assigned to each bakeshop so many consumers. The bread cards +were issued in colored and numbered series. The color indicated the week +in which they were valid, while the number indicated the bakeshop at +which the consumer had to get his bread--had to get it in the sense that +the baker was responsible for the amount the card called for. The Food +Central had given the baker the necessary flour, and he had no excuse +before the law when a consumer had cause for complaint. If there were +one thousand consumers assigned to a bakeshop the authorities saw to it +that the baker got one thousand pounds of flour, and from this one +thousand loaves of bread had to be made and distributed. + +The system worked like the proverbial charm. It was known as +_Rayonierung_--zonification. Within a few days everybody managed to get +the ration of bread allowed by the government. The bread-lines +disappeared of a sudden. It made no difference now whether a woman +called for her bread at eight in the morning or at four in the +afternoon. Her bread card called for a certain quantity of bread and +the baker was responsible for that amount. It was his duty to see that +the consumer did not go hungry. + +Much of the socio-economic machine was running again--not on its old +track, but on a new one which the government had laid for it. And the +thing was so simple that everybody wondered why it had not been done +before. + +But the greed of the profiteer was not yet entirely foiled. Bakers +started to stretch the flour into more loaves than the law allowed, and +some of them even went so far as to still turn consumers away. These +were to feel the iron hand of the government, however. + +I remember the case of a baker who had been in business for thirty +years. His conduct under the new regulations had led to the charge that +he was diverting flour, turned over to him by the Food Centrals, into +illicit trading channels. The man was found guilty. Despite the fact +that he had always been a very good citizen and had been reasonable in +prices even when he had the chance to mulct an unprotected public, he +lost his license. The judge who tried the case admitted that there were +many extenuating circumstances. + +"But the time has come when the law must be applied in all its +severity," he said. "That you have led an honorable life in the past +will not influence me in the least. You have obviously failed to grasp +that these are times in which the individual must not do anything that +will cause suffering. There is enough of that as it is. I sentence you +to a fine of five thousand crowns and the loss of your license to +operate a bakery. Were it not for your gray hairs I would add +confinement in prison with hard labor for one year. I wish the press to +announce that the next offender, regardless of age and reputation, will +get this limit." + +The baker paid enough for the ten loaves he had embezzled. His fate had +a most salutary effect upon others. + +What bread is for the adult milk is for the baby. It, too, was zonified. +The milk-line disappeared. A card similar to that governing the +distribution of bread was adopted, and dealers were responsible for the +quantities assigned them. The time which mothers had formerly wasted +standing in line could now be given to the care of the household, and +baby was benefited not a little by that. + +Simple and effective as these measures were, they could not be extended +to every branch of distribution. In the consumption of bread, milk, and +fats known quantities could be dealt with. What the supply on hand was +could be more or less accurately established, and the ration issued was +the very minimum in all cases. Waste from needless consumption was out +of the question. + +It was different in other lines. The governments wanted to save as much +food as was possible, and this could best be done by means of the +food-line. The line had boosted prices into the unreasonable for the +profiteer, but was now used by the several governments to limit +consumption to the strictly necessary. To issue potatoes and other foods +in given quantities was well enough, but not all that could be done. In +some cases half a pound of potatoes per capita each day was too little; +in others it was too much, though taken by and large it was a safe +average ration. The same was true of cooking-flour and other foods. +Those able to buy meat and fish stood in no need of what the government +had to allow those who could not include these things in their bill of +fare. On the other hand, it was impossible to divide consumers into +classes and allow one class a quarter of a pound and another half a +pound of potatoes each day. That would have led to confusion and waste. + +A scheme of equalization that would leave unneeded food in the control +of the government became necessary. The food-line provided that in a +thorough manner. The woman not needing food supplies on a certain day +was not likely to stand in a food-line, especially when the weather was +bad. She would do with what she had, so long as she knew that when her +supply was exhausted she could get more. The cards she had would not be +good next week, so that she was unable to demand what otherwise would +have been an arrear. The green card was good for nothing during a week +of red cards. Nor was there anything to be gained by keeping the green +card in the hope that some time green cards would again be issued and +honored. By the time all the color shades were exhausted the government +changed the shape of the card and later printed on its head the number +of the week. + +Hoarding was out of the question now. In fact, the remaining private +hoard began to return to the channels of the legitimate scheme of +distribution. Those who had stores of food drew upon them, now that the +future seemed reasonably assured, leaving to others what they would have +called for had the food-line been abolished altogether and supplies +guaranteed, as in the case of bread, milk, and fats. + +It must not be accepted, however, that the war-tax and war-loan policy +was abandoned in favor of this new scheme. The state was still exacting +its pound of flesh and the officials were too bureaucratic to always do +the best that could be done. To illustrate the point with a story, I +will give here another instance of how Emperor Charles interfered now +and then. + +He is an early riser and fond of civilian clothing--two things which +made much of his work possible. + +He was looking over the food-lines in the Nineteenth Municipal District +of Vienna one fine morning in December of 1916. Finally he came to a +shop where petroleum was being issued. The line was long and moved +slowly. Charles and the "Red Prince" wondered what the trouble could be. +They soon found out. + +At first the shopkeeper resented the interest the two men were showing +in his business. He wanted to see their authority in black on white. + +"That is all right, my dear man!" said the "Red Prince." "This man +happens to be the Emperor." + +The storekeeper grew very humble of a sudden. + +"It is this way, your Majesty," he explained. "The authorities have +limited the allowance of coal-oil for each household to one and one-half +liters [2.14 pints] per week. This measuring apparatus [a pump on the +petroleum-tank whose descending piston drives the liquid into a +measuring container] does not show half-liters, only one, two, three, +four, and five whole liters. The customers want all they are entitled +to, and usually think that I am not giving them the proper measure when +I guess at the half-liter between the lines showing one and two liters. +To overcome the grumbling and avoid being reported to the authorities I +am measuring the petroleum in the old way by means of this half-liter +measure. That takes time, of course. While I am serving one in this +manner I could serve three if I could use the pump." + +"Do these people have the necessary containers for a larger quantity +than a liter and a half?" asked the Emperor. + +"Yes, your Majesty," replied the storekeeper. "Nearly all of them have +cans that hold five liters. Before the war petroleum was always bought +in that quantity." + +An hour afterward the burgomaster of Vienna, Dr. Weisskirchner, to whose +province the fuel and light supply belonged, was called up by the +Emperor on the telephone. + +The conversation was somewhat emphatic. The mayor felt that he was +elected by the people of Vienna and did not have to take very much from +the young man whom accident had made Emperor. He offered to resign if he +could not be left a free hand in his own sphere. + +"You can do that any time you are ready!" said the young man at the +other end of the wire. "But meanwhile see to it that petroleum in the +city of Vienna is issued in lots of three liters every two weeks. The +food-line is necessary as a disciplinary measure to prevent waste, but I +do not want people to stand in line when it is unnecessary. I understand +that nearly every shop selling petroleum uses these pumps. Kindly see to +it that they can be used. Three liters in two weeks will do that." +Thereafter petroleum was so issued. + +The case led to a general clean-up in every department of food +administration and regulation. In a single week more than eight hundred +men connected with it were dismissed and replaced. And within a month +food distribution in Austria and Hungary was on a par with that of +Germany. + +The question has often been asked, To what extent is the scarcity of +food in Central Europe the cause of the ruthless submarine warfare? + +Dr. Arthur Zimmermann, the former German Secretary of State for Foreign +Affairs, discussed that subject with me several times while I was +interviewing him. + +On one occasion he was very insistent that Germany would have to shorten +the war. Though there was no reason why in 1916 that statement should +have seemed unusual to me, since the Central European public was +thoroughly tired of the war and all it gave rise to, I was nevertheless +struck by the insistence which the Secretary of State put into his +remarks. I framed a question designed to give me the information I +needed to throw light on this. + +"England has been trying to starve us," said Mr. Zimmermann. "She has +not succeeded so far. In the submarine we have an arm which, as our +naval experts maintain, is capable of letting England feel the war a +little more in food matters. I am not so sure that it is a good idea to +use this weapon for that purpose, seeing that the measures incident to +its use would have to be sweeping. So far as I am concerned, I am not +for a policy that would make us more enemies. We have enough of them, +God knows." + +I may say that this was in a general way the policy of the Chancellor, +von Bethmann-Hollweg. I have been reliably informed that even Emperor +William was at first an opponent of the ruthless-submarine-warfare idea. +Much of his gray hair is due to criticism heaped upon Germany for acts +which were thought justified, but which others found nothing short of +outlawry. He had always been very sensitive in matters of honor +affecting his person and the nation, and, like so many of those around +him, had come to believe that Germany and the Germans could do no wrong. + +Emperor Francis Joseph had been a consistent opponent of the ruthless +submarine war. The _Ancona_ and _Persia_ cases, with which I occupied +myself especially, convinced the old man and those near him that a +recourse to the submarine, even if it were to end the war more rapidly, +was a double-edged sword. The old monarch, moreover, did not like the +inhuman aspects of that sort of war, whether they were avoidable or not. +He came from an age in which armies still fought with chivalry--when a +truce could be had for the asking. From his familiars I learned that +nothing pained the old man more than when a civilian population had to +be evacuated or was otherwise subjected to hardship due to the war. + +His successor, Emperor Charles, held the same view. One has to know him +to feel that he would not give willingly his consent to such a measure +as the ruthless submarine war. His sympathies are nothing short of +boyish in their warmth and sincerity. When he ascended the throne, he +was an easy-going, smart lieutenant of cavalry rather than a ruler, +though the load he was to shoulder has ripened him in a few months into +an earnest man. + +In January of 1917 Emperor Charles went for a long visit to the German +general headquarters in France. He was gone three days, despite the fact +that he had lots of work to do at home in connection with the +public-subsistence problems. + +Connections informed me that the submarine warfare was the business +which had taken him into the German general headquarters. Count Ottokar +Czernin, I learned, had also quietly slipped out of town, as had a +number of Austro-Hungarian naval staff men and experts. + +It was Count Czernin who, a few weeks later, gave me an all-sufficient +insight into the relations between the ruthless submarine warfare and +the food question. + +It would not have been proper, under the circumstances, to publish +without some words of comment even so detailed a statement as that +contained in the joint German-Austro-Hungarian note announcing the +advent of the ruthless submarine war. Something had to be said to show +the public why the risks involved were being taken. + +The German public was taken into the confidence of the government in a +speech made by Chancellor von Bethmann-Hollweg in the Reichstag. That +was a convenient method. In Austria-Hungary that way was not open. The +Reichsrath was not in session. Count Czernin decided that I should be +the medium of bringing before the world why the Austro-Hungarian +government had decided to adhere to Germany's new submarine policy. + +Although knowing what was coming, the actual announcement that the +crisis was here was somewhat of a shock to me. + +Count Czernin was seated at his big mahogany roll-top desk as I entered +the room. He rose to meet me. I noticed that there was a very serious +expression on his face. + +"We have notified the neutral governments, and through them our enemies, +that the submarine war zone has been extended and shipping to Great +Britain and her allies laid under new restrictions," said the Foreign +Minister, after I had taken a seat. + +With that he handed me a copy of the _note diplomatique_ with the +request that I read it. This done, he placed before me a statement which +he wished me to publish. + +"I should like you to publish that," he said. "If you don't care for the +text the way it is written change it, but be sure that you get into your +own version what I say there. At any rate, you will have to translate +the thing. Be kind enough to let me see it before you telegraph it." + +I found that the remarks of the Foreign Minister were a little too +formal and academic, and said so. So long as he could afford to take the +public of the world into his confidence through my efforts, I could +venture to suggest to him how to best present his case. + +"I will use the entire statement," I said. "But there is every reason +why it should be supplemented by a better picture of the food situation +here in Austria." + +Count Czernin rose and walked toward a corner of the room, where on a +large table were spread out several maps executed in red and blue. I +followed him. + +"These are the charts the note refers to," he said. "This white lane has +been left open for the Greeks and this for the Americans. What is your +opinion?" + +My opinion does not matter here. + +"Well, if the worst comes to pass, we can't help it," said Count +Czernin, returning to his desk. "We have to use the submarine to +shorten the war. There is such a thing as being victorious at the front +and defeated at home. The food situation here is most pressing. Our +people are half starved all the time. Babies perish by the thousands +because we cannot give them enough milk. Unless this war comes to an end +soon, the effects of this chronic food shortage will impair the health +of the entire nation. We must try to prevent that. It is our duty to +prevent that by all means. + +"I grant that there are certain technicalities of international law +involved here. But we can no longer regard them. It is all very well for +some men to set themselves up as sole arbiters of international law, nor +would we have any objection against that if these arbiters dealt as +fairly with one side as they have dealt with the other. But they have +not. The Central governments could not do anything right for some of +their friends--the American government included, by the way--if they +stood on their heads. + +"We have made peace offers. I have told you several times that we do not +want any of our enemies' territory. We have never let it be understood +that we wanted so much as a shovelful of earth that does not belong to +us. At the same time, we do not want to lose territory, nor do we want +to pay a war indemnity, since this war is not of our making. + +"We have been willing to make peace and our offer has been spurned. The +food question, as you know, is acute. We simply cannot raise the food +we need so long as we must keep in the field millions of our best +farmers. That leaves but one avenue open. We must shorten the war. We +believe that it will be shortened by the use of the submarine. For that +reason we have decided to use the arm for that purpose. + +"I hope that our calculations are correct. I am no expert in that field. +I also realize that a whole flood of declarations of war may follow our +step. All that has been considered, however--even the possibility of the +United States joining our enemies. At any rate, there was no way out. It +is all very well for some to say what we are to do and are not to do, +but we are fighting for our very existence. To that fight has been added +the food shortage, whose aspects have never been graver than now. + +"I feel that I must address myself especially to the American public. +The American government has condemned us out of court. I would like to +have an American jury hear this case. The American government has denied +us the right of self-defense by taking the stand that we must not use +the submarine as a means against the enemy merchant fleet and such +neutral shipping as supplies Great Britain and her allies with +foodstuffs." + +Count Czernin grew more bitter as he progressed. He is an able speaker +even in the English tongue. + +That afternoon I had on the wires one of the greatest newspaper stories, +in point of importance, that have ever been despatched. + +I spoke to Count Stefan Tisza on the food question and its bearing upon +the submarine warfare. We discussed the subject for almost two hours. +When the interview ended I asked the Hungarian Premier how much of it I +could use. + +"Just say this much for me," he remarked. "For the United States to +enter the European War would be a crime against humanity." + +That is the shortest interview I ever made out of so long a session. As +a matter of fact, Count Tisza said enough for a book. + +I may say, however, that Count Tisza found in the food question whatever +justification there would be needed for anything the Central governments +might do. + +In Constantinople I had made the acquaintance of Dr. Richard von +Kühlmann, the present German Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs. +Doctor von Kühlmann was then the _conseiller_ of the German embassy at +that point. He was somewhat of an admirer of the British and their ways, +a fact which later caused his promotion to minister at The Hague. In all +things he was delightfully objective--one of the few people I have met +who did not mistake their wishes and desires for the fact. + +I met Doctor von Kühlmann again in Vienna, while he was ambassador at +Constantinople. But ambassadors are not supposed to talk for +publication. Be that as it may, Doctor von Kühlmann had not even then +made up his mind that recourse to the submarine warfare was the proper +thing under the circumstances, no matter how great the prospect of +success might appear. I had found him in Constantinople, as well as in +The Hague, a consistent opponent of the submarine as a means against +merchantmen. He was wholly opposed to the ruthless submarine warfare, +but had no say in the decision finally reached. + +The British _Aushungerungspolitik_--policy of starvation--was well in +the limelight in those days. It had been discussed in the Central +European press _ad nauseam_ before. Now, however, it was discussed from +the angle of actual achievement. Shocking conditions were revealed--they +were shocking to the better classes, not to me, for I had spent many an +hour keeping in touch with public-subsistence matters. + +After all, this was but a new counter-irritant. The Austrian and +Hungarian public, especially, did not fancy having the United States as +an enemy. Though newspaper writers would belittle the military +importance of the United States, many of the calmer heads in the +population did not swallow that so easily. In the course of almost three +years of warfare the public had come to understand that often the +newspapers were woefully mistaken, and that some of them were in the +habit of purposely misleading their readers, a natural result of a +drastic censorship. There is no greater liar than the censor--nor a more +dangerous one. By systematically suppressing one side of an issue or +thing, the unpleasant one, he fosters a deception in the public mind +that is as pitiful to behold as it is stupendous. + +Now the conjuncture was such, however, that a discussion in the +newspapers of the hardship suffered and the damage done by Great +Britain's starvation blockade could not but fan the Central states +population into a veritable frenzy. The British were to experience +themselves what it was to go hungry day after day. That thought +overshadowed the possibility that the United States might soon be among +the open enemies of the Central states. A secret enemy the United States +had long been regarded. + + + + +XIV + +SUBSISTING AT THE PUBLIC CRIB + + +To eat under government supervision is not pleasant. It is almost like +taking the medicine which a physician has prescribed. You go to the food +authorities of your district, prove that you are really the person you +pretend to be, and thereby establish your claim to food, and after that +you do your best to get that food. + +Living at hotels, I was able to let others do the worrying. Each morning +I would find at my door--provided nobody had stolen it--my daily ration +of bread, of varying size--300 grams (10.5 ounces) in Germany, 240 grams +(8.4 ounces) in Budapest, and 210 grams (7.3 ounces) in Vienna. At the +front I fared better, for there my allowance was 400 grams (14 ounces) +and often more if I cared to take it. + +For the other eatables I also let the manager worry. That worry was not +great, though, so long as the food "speak-easy" was in operation. The +hotel could afford to pay good prices, and the patrons did not mind if +the dishes were from 150 to 300 per cent. dearer than the law allowed. +The law, on the other hand, saw no reason why it should protect people +who live in hotels--until it was seen that this policy was not wise on +account of the heavy drafts it made on the scant stores. Whether a small +steak costs 8 marks or 20 makes no difference to people who can afford +to eat steak at 8 marks and lamb cutlets at 15. And to these people it +also makes no difference whether they consume their legal ration or two +such rations. + +[Illustration: ONE OF THE BREAD CARDS USED IN VIENNA AND LOWER AUSTRIA +(transciption follows)] + + Niederösterreich. + Tages-Ausweis über den Verbrauch von 210 _g_ Brot + Gültig nur am ---- 1915 + + Verkauf nur nach Gewicht gegen Vorlegung der Ausweiskarte und + Abtrennung eines entsprechenden Abschnittes zulässig. + + Nicht übertragbar! + Sorgfältig aufbewahren! + Nachdruck verboten! + + Strafbestimmungen. Zuwiderhandlungen werden an dem Verkäufer wie + an dem Käufer mit Geldstrafen bis zu 5000 K oder mit Arrest bis + zu 6 Monaten geahndet. Bei einer Verurteilung kann auf den + Verlust einer Gewerbeberechtigung erkannt werden. Fälschung der + Ausweiskarte wird nach dem Strafgesetze bestraft. + + K. k. n. ö. Statthalterei. + +Many months of war passed before that element began to feel the war at +all. But it had to come to that in the end. + +Two people feeling the same degree of hunger are far better company than +two who form opposite poles in that respect. Magnetic positive and +negative never could be so repellent. Nor is this all one-sided. One +would naturally expect that in such a case the underfed would harbor +hard feelings toward the overfed. That is not always the case, however. + +One day a lady belonging to Central Europe's old nobility said to me: + +"Well, it is getting worse every day. First they took my automobiles. +Now they have taken my last horses. Taxis and cabs are hard to get. I +have to travel on the street-cars now. It is most annoying." + +[Illustration: THE BREAD CARD ISSUED BY THE FOOD AUTHORITIES OF BERLIN +(transciption follows)] + + Nicht Nicht + übertragbar übertragbar + + Berlin und Nachbarorte. + + Tages-Brotkarte + + Nur gültig für den + ---- 1916 + + Ohne Ausfüllung des Datums + ungültig. + + Rückseite beachten! + +I ventured the opinion that street-car travel was a tribulation. The +cars were always overcrowded. + +"It is not that," explained the lady. "It is the smell." + +"Of the unwashed multitude?" + +"Yes! And--" + +"And, madame?" + +"Something else," said the woman, with some embarrassment. + +"I take it that you refer to the odor that comes from underfed bodies," +I remarked. + +"Precisely," assented the noble lady. "Have you also noticed it?" + +"Have you observed it recently?" I asked. + +"A few days ago. The smell was new to me." + +"Reminded you, perhaps, of the faint odor of a cadaver far off?" + +The light of complete understanding came into the woman's eyes. + +"Exactly, that is it. Do you know, I have been trying ever since then to +identify the odor. But that is too shocking to think of. And yet you are +right. It is exactly that. How do you account for it?" + +"Malnutrition! The waste of tissue due to that is a process not wholly +dissimilar to the dissolution which sets in at death," I explained. + +I complimented the woman on her fine powers of discernment. The smell +was not generally identified. I was familiar with it for the reason that +I had my attention drawn to it first in South Africa among some underfed +Indian coolies, and later I had detected it again in Mexico among +starving peons. + +"Good God!" exclaimed the lady, after a period of serious thought. "Have +we come to that?" + +I assured her that the situation was not as alarming as it looked. In +the end the healthy constitution would adjust itself to the shortage in +alimentation. No fit adult would perish by it, though it would be hard +on persons over fifty years of age. There could be no doubt that many of +them would die of malnutrition before the war was over. Babies, also, +would cease to live in large numbers if their diet had to be similarly +restricted. + +The smell had a repellent effect upon the woman. I met her many times +after that and learned that it was haunting her. Her desire to keep it +out of her palatial residence caused her to pay particular attention to +the food of her servants. The case was most interesting to me. I had sat +for days and nights in the trenches on Gallipoli, among thousands of +unburied dead, and there was little that could offend my olfactory +nerves after that, if indeed it had been possible before, seeing that I +had for many weary months followed the revolutions in Mexico. Thus +immune to the effects of the condition in question, I was able to watch +closely a very interesting psychological phenomenon. + +I found that it was torture for the woman to get near a crowd of +underfed people. She began to shrink at their very sight. + +"I take it that you fear death very much, madame," I said, one day. + +"I dread the very thought of it," was the frank reply. + +"But why should you?" I asked. "It is a perfectly natural condition." + +"But an unjust one," came the indignant answer. + +"Nothing in nature is unjust," I said. "Nature knows neither right nor +wrong. If she did, she would either cease to produce food altogether for +your people and state, or she would produce all the more--if war can be +laid at the door of nature in arguments of right and wrong." + +"But that has nothing to do with the smell--that awful smell," insisted +the woman. + +"It has not, to be sure. Our conversation was side-tracked by your +remark that death was an unjust natural condition. Your words show that +you are living in illusions. You have an inherent loathing for the +underfed, because your instincts associate the smell of their bodies +with dissolution itself. But you are not the only one so affected. +Thousands of others feel the same discomfiture." + +The long and short of the discussion was that I proved to my own +satisfaction that the woman was one of those self-centered creatures to +whom pity is merely known as a noun. I suggested discreetly that a +little more sympathy for the afflicted, a little more love for her kind, +would prove a first-class deodorant. + +Let us examine what the diet of the Central states population then was. +In doing this, it must be borne in mind that the rural population, +always at the fountainhead of food, fared much better. The conditions +pictured are essentially those of the industrial classes in the towns +and cities. + +The adult, after rising in the morning, would drink a cup or two of some +substitute for coffee, or very bad tea, without milk, if there were +children, and with very little sugar. With this would be eaten a third +of the day's ration of bread, about two and one-half ounces. That meal +had to suffice until noon, when a plate of soup, a slice of bread, two +ounces of meat, and two ounces of vegetables were taken, to be +supplemented by a small quantity of farinaceous food in the form of some +pudding or cake. A cup of coffee substitute would go with this meal. At +four in the afternoon another cup of substitute coffee or poor tea would +be taken by those who could afford it, usually together with cake equal +to a half-ounce of wheat flour and a quarter-ounce of sugar. The evening +meal would be the same as dinner, without soup and pudding, a little +cheese and the remaining seventy grams of bread taking their place. As a +rule, a glass of beer was drunk with this. But the nutritive value of +that was small now. It was more a chemical than a malt product, and +contained at best but 4 per cent. of alcohol. + +That was the meal allowed by the government. Those who had the +opportunity never allowed themselves to be satisfied with it. But the +vast majority of people received that and nothing more, especially later +when fish and fruit had soared skyward in price. + +A chemical analysis of this bill of fare would probably show that it was +ample to sustain human life. Some American food crank might even +discover that there was a little to spare. But the trouble is that often +the scientific ration is compounded by persons who lead an inactive life +and who at best make exercise the purpose of special study and effort. +The bulk of any population, however, must work hard, and must eat more +if elimination is not to exceed assimilation. + +The food scientist has his value. But he generally overestimates that +value himself. Thus it happened that the Central states governments were +soon obliged to allow a larger ration of bread, sugar, and fat to all +persons engaged in heavy labor. At first this was overlooked here and +there, and, bureaucratism being still strong then, strikes were +necessary to persuade the governments to meet the reasonable demands of +the hard-labor classes. + +[Illustration: THE BUTTER AND FAT CARD OF DRESDEN +(transciption follows)] + + Der Rat zu Dresden. + + Bezugskarte für ¼ kg (½ Pfd.) + Butter oder Margarine + oder Speisefett oder + Kunstspeisefett + in der Zeit vom 30.11. bis 27.12.15. + +Scant as this daily fare was, it was not everybody who could add to it +the allowance of meat. The unskilled laborer, for instance, did not earn +enough to buy beef at from sixty to seventy-five cents American a pound, +the cheapest cut being sold at that price. As a rule, he tried to get +the small quantity of animal fat, lard, suet, or tallow which the +authorities allowed him. But often he failed to get it. Potato soup and +bread, and maybe a little pudding, would in that case make up the meal. +If luck had been good there might also be a little jam or some dried +fruit to go into the "pudding," which otherwise would be just plain +wheat flour, of which each family was then given five ounces daily. If +there were children to take care of, the wheat flour had to be left to +them, for the reason that the quantity of milk allowed them was entirely +too small, amounting in the case of children from three to four years to +seven-eighths of a pint daily, with 1.76 pints the limit for any infant. + +[Illustration: MILK CARD ISSUED TO NURSING MOTHERS AND THE SICK AT +NEUKOLLN, A SUBURB OF BERLIN (transciption follows)] + + Lfd. Nr. + + Vor-u. Zuname: Straße Nr. + + Milchkarte für stillende Mütter und Kranke + Giltig für den Monat November 1915 + + Der Inhaber dieser Karte ist während der Gültigkeitsdauer + berechtigt, aus einem der auf der Rückseite bezeichneten + Geschäfte der + + Meierei J. Schmidt Söhne + zum Preise von 28 Pf. täglich 1 Liter Vollmilch zu beziehen. + + Die Karte ist an jedem Tage beim Kauf der Milch vorzulegen und + wird nach erfolgter Ausgabe der Milch durchlocht. + + Am letzten Gültigkeitstage ist die Karte gegen Umtausch einer + neuen Karte in den Milchgeschäften zurückzugeben. Sind die + Voraussetzungen für die Berechtigung der Milchentnahme + fortgefallen, wird die Karte eingezogen. + + Neukölln, den ---- 1915 Der Magistrat + +Even this fare might have been bearable had it been supplemented by the +usual amount of sugar. In the past this had been as much as six pounds +per month and person; now the regulations permitted the consumption of +only 2.205 pounds per month and capita for the urban and 1.65 pounds +for the rural population, while persons engaged at hard labor were +allowed 2.75 pounds. Parents who were willing to surrender all to their +children went without sugar entirely. + +How these victuals were obtained by the woman of the household has +already been indicated. Heretofore it had been necessary to stand in +line for bread, fat, and milk, the latter two being usually obtained +simultaneously at the Fat Central. The establishing of food +zones--_Rayons_--had obviated that. The measure was a great relief, but +since it governed no more than the distribution of these articles, much +standing in line was still necessary. The disciplinary value of the +food-line was still kept in mind in the distribution of potatoes, beets +(_Wrucken_), wheat flour; now and then other cereal products, such as +macaroni, biscuits, buckwheat flour, and oatmeal; meat when the city +distributed it at or below cost price; fuel, coal-oil, sugar, and all +groceries; soap and washing-powder; shoes, clothing, textiles of any +sort, thread, and tobacco. Now and then dried fruits would be +distributed, and occasionally jam, though with the ever-increasing +shortage in sugar little fruit was being preserved in that manner. Once +a week the solitary egg per capita would have to be waited for. One egg +was not much to waste hours for, and usually people did not deem it +worth while to claim it, if they had no children. The woman who had +children was glad, however, to get the four, five, or six eggs to which +her family was entitled. It might mean that the youngest would be able +to get an egg every other day. Such, indeed, was the intention of the +government, and such was the purpose of the food-line. It would happen +now and then that there were so many who did not claim their weekly egg +that the woman with children got a double ration! + +For many of these things certain days had been set aside. Potatoes could +be drawn every other day, for instance, while wheat flour was issued +every fourth day, meat on all "meat" days, fuel once a week, petroleum +every two weeks, and sugar once a month. Shoes and clothing were issued +only after the Clothing Central had been satisfied that they were +needed. It was the same with thread, except silk thread, and with +tobacco one took a chance. Other articles were distributed when they +were available, a notice of the date being posted near some shop where +the food-liners could see it. The arrival of "municipal" beef and pork +was generally advertised in the newspapers. + +In this manner, then, was the government ration obtained. To it could be +added fresh, salted, and dried fish, when available, and all the green +vegetables and salads one wanted--peas and beans in season; in their dry +form they were hard to get at any time. For a while, also, sausage could +be bought without a ticket. The government put a stop to that when it +was found that much illicit trading was done with that class of food. + +Many hours were wasted by the women of the household in the course of a +month by standing in line. The newspapers conducted campaigns against +this seemingly heartless policy of the food authorities, but without +result. The food-line was looked upon as essential in food conservation, +as indeed it was. In the course of time it had been shown that people +would call for food allotted them by their tickets, whether they needed +it or not, and would then sell it again with a profit. To assure +everybody of a supply in that manner would also lead to waste in +consumption. Those who did not absolutely need all of their ration did +not go to the trouble of standing in a food-line for hours in all sorts +of weather. + +Subsisting at the public crib was unpleasant business under such +conditions, but there was no way out. The food "speak-easy" was almost +as much a thing of the past as was the groaning board of ante-bellum +times, though it was by no means entirely eradicated, as the trial of a +small ring of food sharks in Berlin on October 10, 1917, demonstrated. +How hard it was for the several governments to really eradicate the +illicit trading in food, once this had been decided upon, was shown in +this case, which involved one of the largest caches ever discovered. +There were hidden in this cache 27,000 pounds of wheat flour, 300 pounds +of chocolate, 15,000 pounds of honey, 40,000 cigars, and 52,000 pounds +of copper, tin, and brass. The odd part of the case was that to this +hoard belonged also 24 head of cattle and 9 pigs. + +On the same day there was tried in a Berlin jury court a baker who had +"saved" 6,500 pounds of flour from the amounts which the food +authorities had turned over to him. It was shown that the baker had sold +the loaves of bread he was expected to bake from the flour. Of course he +had adulterated the dough to make the loaves weigh what the law required +and what the bread tickets called for. A fine profit had been made on +the flour. The food authorities had assigned him the supply at $9 for +each 200-pound bag. Some of it he sold illicitly at $55 per sack to a +man who had again sold it for $68 to another chain-trader, who later +disposed of it to a consumer for $80 a bag. There can be no doubt that +this flour made expensive bread, but it seems that there were people +willing to pay the price. + +But forty cents for a pound of wheat flour was something which only a +millionaire war purveyor could afford. All others below that class, +materially, ate the government ration and stood in line. + +Sad in the extreme was the spectacle which the food-lines in the workman +quarters of Berlin, Vienna, and Budapest presented. Upon the women of +the households the war was being visited hardest. To see a pair of good +shoes on a woman came to be a rare sight. Skirts were worn as long as +the fabric would keep together, and little could be said of the shawls +that draped pinched faces, sloping shoulders, and flat breasts. There +were children in those food-lines. Thin feet stuck in the torn shoes, +and mother's shawl served to supplement the hard-worn dress or patched +suit. Everything had to go for food, and prices of apparel were so high +that buying it was out of the question. + +Once I set out for the purpose of finding in these food-lines a face +that did not show the ravages of hunger. That was in Berlin. Four long +lines were inspected with the closest scrutiny. But among the three +hundred applicants for food there was not one who had had enough to eat +in weeks. In the case of the younger women and the children the skin was +drawn hard to the bones and bloodless. Eyes had fallen deeper into the +sockets. From the lips all color was gone, and the tufts of hair that +fell over parchmented foreheads seemed dull and famished--sign that the +nervous vigor of the body was departing with the physical strength. + +I do not think sentimentalism of any sort can be laid at my door. But I +must confess that these food-lines often came near getting the best of +me. In the end they began to haunt me, and generally a great feeling of +relief came over me when I saw that even the last of a line received +what they had come for. + +The poorer working classes were not getting enough food under the +system, nor were they always able to prepare the little they got in the +most advantageous manner. While the effort had been made to instruct +women how to get the maximum of nutriment from any article, and how to +combine the allowances into a well-balanced ration, results in that +direction were not satisfying. Many of the women would spend too much +money on vegetable foods that filled the stomach but did not nourish. +Others again, when a few extra cents came into their hands, would buy +such costly things as geese and other fowl. Cast adrift upon an ocean of +food scarcity and high prices, these poor souls were utterly unable to +depart from their cooking methods, which had tastiness rather than +greatest utility for their purpose. The consequence was that the ration, +which according to food experts was ample, proved to be anything but +that. + +In Berlin the so-called war kitchens were introduced. A wheeled boiler, +such as used by the army, was the principal equipment of these kitchens. +Very palatable stews were cooked in them and then distributed from house +to house against the requisite number of food-card checks. The +innovation would have been a success but for the fact that most people +believed they were not getting enough for the coupons they had +surrendered. The stew could not be weighed, and often there would be a +little more meat in one dipperful than in another. There was grumbling, +and finally the women who were giving their time and labor to the war +kitchens were accused of partiality. The kitchens were continued a while +longer. They finally disappeared because nobody cared to patronize them +any more. It is possible, also, that people had grown tired of the stew +eternal. + +The _Volksküchen_--people's kitchens--and those war kitchens which were +established when the war began, operated with more success. The public +was used to them. They were located in buildings, so that one could eat +the food there and then, and their bill of fare was not limited to +stews. Being managed by trained people, these kitchens rendered splendid +service to both the public and the food-regulators. I have eaten in +several of them and found that the food was invariably good. + +A class that had been hit hard by the war was that of the small +office-holders and the less successful professionals, artists included. +They were a proud lot--rather starve than eat at a war kitchen or accept +favors from any one. The hardships they suffered are almost +indescribable. While the several governments had made their small +officials a war allowance, the addition to the income which that gave +was almost negligible. At an average it represented an increase in +salary of 20 per cent., while food, and the decencies of life, which +this class found as indispensable as the necessities themselves, had +gone up to an average of 180 per cent. The effect of this rise was +catastrophic in these households. Before the war their life had been the +shabby genteel; it was now polite misery. Yet the class was one of the +most essential and deserved a better fate. In it could be found some of +the best men and women in Central Europe. + +Devoted to the régime with heart and soul, this class had never joined +in any numbers the co-operative consumption societies of Germany and +Austria-Hungary, because of their socialistic tendencies. This delivered +them now into the hands of the food shark. Finally, the several +governments, realizing that the small official--_Beamte_--had to be +given some thought, established purchasing centrals for them, where food +could be had at cost and now and then below cost. Nothing of the sort +was done for the small professionals, however. + +[Illustration: Photograph from Henry Ruschin + +TRAVELING-KITCHEN IN BERLIN + +A food-conservation measure that failed, because the people grew tired +of the stew dispensed by the "Food Transport Wagon."] + +[Illustration: Photograph from Henry Ruschin + +STREET TRAM AS FREIGHT CARRIER + +As horses and motor fuel became scarce the street traction systems were +given over part of each day to transporting merchandise.] + + +Men and women of means came to the rescue of that class in the very nick +of time. But a great deal of tact had to be used before these war +sufferers could be induced to accept help. It was not even easy to +succor them privately, as Mrs. Frederick C. Penfield, wife of the +American ambassador at Vienna, had occasion enough to learn. To +alleviate their condition en masse, as would have to be done if the +means available were to be given their greatest value, was almost +impossible. Shabby gentility is nine-tenths false pride, and nothing is +so hard to get rid of as the things that are false. + +But there were those who understand the class. Among them I must name +Frau Doctor Schwarzwald, of Vienna, whose co-operative dining-room was a +great success, so long as she could get the necessary victuals, +something that was not always easy. + +I had taken a mild interest in the charities and institutions of Frau +Schwarzwald, and once came _near_ getting a barrel of flour and a +hundred pounds of sugar for the co-operative dining-room and its frayed +patrons. I announced the fact prematurely at a gathering of the patron +angels of the dining-room, among whom was Frau Cary-Michaelis, the +Danish novelist and poetess. Before I knew what was going on the +enthusiastic patron angels had each kissed me--on the cheek, of course. +Then they danced for joy, and next day I was forced to announce that, +after all, there would be no flour and no sugar. The owner of the +goods--not a food shark, but an American diplomatist--had disposed of +them to another American diplomatist. I thought it best to do penance +for this. So I visited a friend of mine and held him up for one thousand +crowns for the co-operative dining-room. That saved me. I was very +careful thereafter not to make rash promises. After all, I was sure of +the flour and sugar, and so happy over my capture that I had a hard time +keeping to myself the glad news as long as I did, which was one whole +day. In that dining-room ate a good percentage of Vienna's true +intellectuals--painters, sculptors, architects, poets, and writers all +unable just then to earn a living. + +I was not always so unsuccessful, however. For another circle of +down-at-the-heels I smuggled out of the food zone of the Ninth German +Army in Roumania the smoked half of a pig, fifty pounds of real wheat +flour, and thirty pounds of lard. Falkenhayn might command that army at +the front, but for several days I was its only hero, nevertheless. But +in food matters I had proved a good _buscalero_ before. + +The food craze was on. Women who never before in their lives had talked +of food now spoke of that instead of fashions. The gossip of the _salon_ +was abandoned in favor of the dining-room scandals. So-and-so had eaten +meat on a meatless day, and this or that person was having wheat bread +and rolls baked by the cook. The interesting part of it was that usually +the very people who found fault with such trespass did the same thing, +but were careful enough not to have guests on that day. + +In the same winter I was to see at Budapest an incident that fitted well +into the times. + +I was one of the few non-Magyars who attended the coronation dinner of +King Charles and Queen Zita. + +The lord chief steward brought in a huge fish on a golden platter and +set it down before the royal couple. The King and Queen bowed to the +gorgeously attired functionary, who thereupon withdrew, taking the fish +with him. + +We all got the smell of it. I had eaten breakfast at four in the +morning. Now it was two in the afternoon and a morsel of something would +have been very much in order. Since seven I had been in the coronation +church. It was none too well heated and I remember how the cold went +through my dress shirt. But the fish disappeared--to be given to the +poor, as King Stefan had ordained in the year A.D. 1001. + +In a few minutes the lord chief steward--I think that is the man's +title--reappeared. This time he carried before him a huge roast. +(Business as before.) For a third, fourth, fifth, and sixth time the +high functionary paraded enticing victuals through the hall without +coming down to business. It was a lonesome affair, that dinner, and +everybody was glad when the King had taken a sip of wine and the cries +of, "_Eljen a kiralyi_," put a period to that phase of the coronation. + +How well that ceremony fitted into the times! + +King Charles wanted to be impartial, and a few days later he inspected +the dining-car attached to the train that was to take his brother +Maximilian to Constantinople. In the kitchen of the car he found some +rolls and some wheat flour. He had them removed. + +"I know, Max, that you didn't order these things," he said to his +brother. "The dining-car management has not yet come to understand that +no favors must be shown anybody. If the steward of the car should by any +chance buy flour in Bulgaria or Turkey, do me the favor to pitch him out +of the window when the car is running, so that he will fall real hard. +That is the only way in which we can make a dent into special eating +privileges." + +By the way, there was a time when the present Emperor-King of +Austria-Hungary and his Empress-Queen had to live on a sort of sandwich +income, and were glad when the monthly allowance from the archducal +exchequer was increased a little when the present crown-prince was born. + +But that is another story. + + + + +XV + +THE WEAR AND TEAR OF WAR + + +It never rains but it pours. + +It was so in Central Europe. Not alone had the production of food by the +soil been hamstrung by the never-ending mobilizations of labor for +military purposes, but the means of communication began to fail from the +same cause. + +If it takes a stitch in time to save nine in ordinary walks of life, it +takes a stitch in time to save ninety, and often all, in railroading. +The improperly ballasted tie means too great a strain in the fish-plate. +It may also mean a fractured rail. Both may lead to costly train wrecks. + +But the makeshifts employed in Central Europe averted much of this. +Where the regular track gangs had been depleted by the mobilizations, +women and Russian prisoners-of-war took their places. But the labor of +these was not as good as that given by the old hands. There is a knack +even in pushing crushed rock under a railroad tie. Under one tie too +much may be placed and not enough under another, so that the very work +that is to keep the rail-bed evenly supported may result in an entirely +different state of affairs. Two ties lifted up too much by the +ballasting may cause the entire rail to be unevenly supported, so that +it would have been better to leave the work undone altogether. + +Thus it came that all railroad traffic had to be reduced in speed. +Expresses were discontinued on all lines except the trunk routes that +were kept in fairly good condition for that very purpose. +Passenger-trains ran 20 miles an hour instead of 40 and 45, and +freight-trains had their schedules reduced to 12. That meant, of course, +that with the same motive power and rolling stock about half the normal +traffic could be maintained. + +But that was not all. The maintenance departments of rolling stock and +motive power had also been obliged to furnish their quota of men for +service in the field. At first the several governments did not draw +heavily on the mechanicians in the railroad service, but ultimately they +had to do this. The repair work was done by men less fitted, and +cleaning had to be left to the women and prisoners-of-war. + +Soon the "flat" wheels were many on the air-braked passenger-cars. It +came to be a blessing that the freight-trains were still being braked by +hand, for otherwise freight traffic would have suffered more than it +did. + +I took some interest in railroading, and a rather superficial course in +it at the military academy had made me acquainted with a few of its +essentials. Close attention to the question in the fall of 1916 gave me +the impression that it would not be long before the only thing of value +of most Central European railroads would be the right of way and its +embankments, bridges, cuts, and tunnels--the things known collectively +as _Bahnkörper_--line body. + +When I first made the acquaintance of Central Europe's railroads, I +found them in a high state of efficiency. The rail-bed was good, the +rolling stock showed the best of care--repairs were made in time, and +paint was not stinted--and the motive power was of the very best. +Efficiency had been aimed at and obtained. To be sure, there was nothing +that could compare with the best railroading in the United States. The +American train _de luxe_ was unknown. But if its comforts could not be +had, the communities, on the other hand, did not have to bear the waste +that comes from it. Passenger travel, moreover, on most lines, moved in +so small a radius that the American "Limited" was not called for, though +the speed of express-trains running between the principal cities was no +mean performance at that. + +It was not long before all this was to vanish. The shortage in labor +began to be seriously felt. There were times, in fact, when the railroad +schedules showed the initiated exactly what labor-supply conditions +were. When an hour was added to the time of transit from Berlin to +Vienna I knew that the pinch in labor was beginning to be badly felt. +When one of the expresses running between the two capitals was taken +off altogether, I surmised that things were in bad shape, and when +ultimately the number of passenger-trains running between Vienna and +Budapest was reduced from twelve each day to four, it was plain enough +that railroading in Austria-Hungary was down to one-third of what it had +been heretofore--lower than that, even, since the government tried to +keep up as good a front as possible. + +In Germany things were a little better, owing to the close husbanding of +resources which had been done at the very outbreak of the war. But to +Germany the railroads were also more essential than to Austria-Hungary, +so that, by and large, there really was little difference. + +The neatly kept freight-cars degenerated into weather-beaten boxes on +wheels. The oil that would have been needed to paint them was now an +article of food and was required also in the manufacture of certain +explosives. So long as the car body would stand on the chassis it was +not repaired. Wood being plentiful, it was thought better economy to +replace the old body by a new one when finally it became dangerous to +pull it about any longer. + +It was the same with the passenger-cars. The immaculate cleanliness +which I had learned to associate with them was replaced by the most +slovenly sweeping. Dusting was hardly ever attempted. From the +toilet-rooms disappeared soap and towel, and usually there was no water +in the tank. The air-brakes acted with a jar, as the shoes gripped the +flat surface of the wheels, and soon the little doll trains were an +abomination, especially when, for the sake of economy, all draperies +were removed from the doors and windows. + +The motive power was in no better condition. The engines leaked at every +steam and water joint, and to get within 60 per cent. of the normal +efficiency for the amount of coal consumed was a remarkable performance. +It meant that the engineer, who was getting an allowance on all coal +saved, had to spend his free time repairing the "nag" he ran. + +Constantly traveling from one capital to another, and from one front to +the other, I was able to gauge the rapid deterioration of the railroads. +To see in cold weather one of the locomotives hidden entirely in clouds +of steam that was intended for the cylinders caused one to wonder how +the thing moved at all. The closed-in passenger stations reminded me of +laundries, so thick were the vapors of escaping steam. + +Despite the reduction in running-time, wrecks multiplied alarmingly. It +seemed difficult to keep anything on the rails at more than a snail's +pace. + +To the freight movement this was disastrous. Its volume had to be +reduced to a quarter of what it had been. This caused great hardship, +despite the fact that the distribution and consumption zones had put an +end to all unnecessary trundling about of merchandise. In the winter the +poor freight service led to the exposure of foodstuffs to the cold. It +was nothing unusual to find that a whole train-load of potatoes had +frozen in transit and become unfit for human consumption. Other +shipments suffered similarly. + +In countries that were forced to count on every crumb that was a great +loss. It could not be overcome under the circumstances. + +In the winter the lame railroads were unable to bring the needed +quantities of coal into the population centers. This was especially true +of the winter of 1916-17. Everybody having lived from hand to mouth +throughout the summer, and the government having unwisely put a ban on +the laying-in of fuel-supplies, there was little coal on hand when the +cold weather came. Inside of three weeks the available stores were +consumed. The insistent demand for fuel led to a rush upon the lines +tapping the coal-fields. Congestion resulted, and when the tangle was +worst heavy snows began to fall. The railroads failed utterly. + +Electric street traction shared the fate of the railroads. To save fuel +the service was limited to the absolutely necessary. Heretofore most +lines had not permitted passengers to stand in the cars. Now standing +was the rule. When one half of the rolling stock had been run into the +ground, the other half was put on the streets, and that, too, was +shortly ruined. + +The traction-service corporations, private and municipal alike, had been +shown scant mercy by the several governments when men were needed. Soon +they were without the hands to keep their rolling stock in good repair. +Most of the car manufacturers had meanwhile gone into the ammunition +business, so that it was impossible to get new rolling stock. Further +drafts on the employees of the systems led to the employment of women +conductors, and, in some cases, drivers. While these women did their +best, it could not be said that this was any too good on lines that were +much frequented. Travel on the street cars became a trial. People who +never before had walked did so now. + +As was to be expected, the country roads were neglected. Soon the fine +macadamized surfaces were full of holes, and after that it was a +question of days usually when the road changed places with a ditch of +deep mire. The farmer, bringing food to the railroad station or town, +moved now about half of what was formerly a load. He was short of draft +animals. Levy after levy was made by the military authorities. By the +end of 1916 the farms in Central Europe had been deprived of half their +horses. + +It has been said that a man may be known by his clothing. That is not +always true. There is no doubt, however, that a community may well be +recognized by its means of transportation. Travel in every civilized +country has proved that to my full satisfaction. I once met a man who +insisted that if taken blindfolded from one country into another he +would be able to tell among what people he found himself, or what sort +of gentry they were, merely by traveling on their railroads. To which I +would add that he could also very easily determine what sort of +government they had, if he had an ear for all the "_Es ist Verboten_," +"_C'est défendu_," and "It is not allowed" which usually grace the +interiors of stations and car. + +Travel was the hardest sort of labor in the Central European states. I +was obliged to do much of it. And most of it I did standing. I have made +the following all-afoot trips: Berlin-Bentheim, Berlin-Dresden, +Berlin-Cologne, Vienna-Budapest, and Vienna-Trieste, and this at a time +when the regular running-time had become 80 to 150 per cent. longer. + +The means of communication of Central Europe had sunk to the level of +the nag before the ragman's cart. The shay was not good-looking, either. + +But the wear and tear of war did not affect the means of communication +alone. Every building in Central Europe suffered heavily from it. +Materials and labor for upkeep were hard to get at any time and were +costly. Real property, moreover, suffered under the moratorium, while +the constantly increasing taxes left little in the pocket of the owner +to pay for repairs. As already stated, paint was hard to get. Exposed to +the weather, the naked wood decayed. Nor were varnishes to be had for +the protection of interior woodwork. + +Many manufacturing plants had to be closed, first of all those which +before the war had depended upon the foreign market. The entire doll +industry, for instance, suspended work. In other branches of manufacture +the closing-down was partial, as in the case of the textile-mills. Not +alone had the buildings to be neglected in this instance, but a great +deal of valuable machinery was abandoned to rust. As the stock of +copper, tin, and brass declined the several governments requisitioned +the metals of this sort that were found in idle plants and turned them +over to the manufacturers of ammunition. While the owners were paid the +price which these metals cost in the form of machinery parts and the +like, the economic loss to the community was, nevertheless, heavy. + +Farm implements and equipment also suffered much from inattention. Tens +of thousands of horses perished at the fronts and almost every one of +them meant a loss to some farm. The money that had been paid for them +had usually been given back to the government in the form of taxes, so +that now the farmer had lost his horse or horses in much the same manner +as if some epidemic had been at work. Valuable draft and milk animals +were requisitioned to provide meat for the armies. In certain districts +the lack of vitriol had resulted in the destruction of vineyards and +orchards. + +To give a better picture of what this meant, I will cite the case of an +acquaintance who is somewhat of a gentleman farmer near Coblentz, on the +Rhine. + +When the war broke out this man had in live stock: Five horses, eight +cows, forty sheep, and a large stock of poultry. He also had several +small vineyards and a fine apple orchard. In the winter of 1916-17 his +stock had shrunk to two horses, two cows, no sheep, very little poultry, +and no vineyard. The apple orchard was also dying from lack of Bordeaux +mixture. + +In January, 1917, I obtained some figures dealing with the wear and tear +of war in the kingdom of Saxony. Applying them on a per-capita basis to +all of the German Empire, I established that so far the war had caused +deterioration amounting to $8,950,000,000, or $128 for each man, woman, +and child. In Austria-Hungary the damage done was then estimated at +$6,800,000,000. + +These losses were due to absence from their proper spheres in the +economic scheme of some 14,000,000 able-bodied men who had been +mobilized for service in connection with the war. This vast army +consumed at a frightful rate and produced very little now. To +non-productive consumption had to be added the rapid deterioration due +to all abandonment of upkeep. The Central states were living from hand +to mouth and had no opportunity of engaging in that thorough maintenance +which had been given so much attention before. All material progress had +been arrested, and this meant that decay and rust got the upper hand. + + + + +XVI + +THE ARMY TILLS + + +Men getting much physical exercise in the open air consume much more +food than those confined. In cold weather such food must contain the +heat which is usually supplied by fuel. All of which is true of the +soldier in a greater degree. This, and the fact that in army +subsistence, transportation and distribution are usually coupled with +great difficulty, made it necessary for the Central Powers to provide +their forces chiefly with food staples. + +Before the war about 35 per cent. of the men mobilized had lived largely +on cereals and vegetables. Little meat is consumed by the rural +population of Central Europe. For the reasons already given, that diet +had to make room for one composed of more concentrated and more +heat-producing elements. Bread, meat, fats, and potatoes were its +principal constituents. Beans, peas, and lentils were added as the +supply permitted. In the winter larger quantities of animal fats were +required to keep the men warm, and in times of great physical exertion +the allowance of sugar had to be increased. + +Since at first the army produced no food at all, the civil population +had to produce what was needed. With, roughly, 42 per cent. of the +soldiers coming from the food-producing classes, this was no small task, +especially since the more fitted had been called to the colors. + +The governments of Central Europe realized as early as in the spring of +1915 that the army would have to produce at least a share of the food it +needed. Steps were taken to bring that about. The war had shown that +cavalry was, for the time being, useless. On the other hand, it was not +good military policy to disband the cavalry organizations and turn them +into artillery and infantry. These troops might be needed again sooner +or later. That being the case, it was decided to employ mounted troops +in the production of food. Fully 65 per cent. of the men in that branch +of the military establishments of Central Europe came from the farm and +were familiar with the handling of horses. That element was put to work +behind the fronts producing food. + +No totals of this production have ever been published, to my knowledge, +so that I can deal only with what I actually saw. I must state, however, +that the result cannot have been negligible, though on the whole it was +not what some enthusiasts have claimed for it. + +I saw the first farming of this sort in Galicia. There some +Austro-Hungarian cavalry organizations had tilled, roughly, sixty +thousand acres, putting the fields under wheat, rye, oats, and +potatoes. When I saw the crops they were in a fair state of prosperity, +though I understand that later a drought damaged them much. The colonel +in charge of the work told me that he expected to raise food enough for +a division, which should not have been difficult, seeing that three +acres ought to produce food enough for any man, even if tilled in a +slovenly way. + +Throughout Poland and the parts of Russia then occupied the Germans were +doing the same thing. What the quality of their effort was I have no +means of knowing, but if they are to be measured by what I saw in +France, during the Somme offensive in 1916, the results obtained must +have been very satisfying. + +One of the organizations then lying in the Bapaume sector +was the German Second Guards Substitute-Reserve Division-- +_Garde-Ersatz-Reserve-Division_. I think that the palm for war +economy must be due that organization. In my many trips to various +fronts (I have been on every front in Central Europe, the Balkan, +Turkey, and Asia) and during my long stays there I have never seen a +crowd that had made itself so much at home in the enemy country. + +The body in question had then under cultivation some sixteen hundred +acres of very good soil, on which it was raising wheat, rye, barley, +oats, beans, peas, lentils, sugar-beets, roots of various sorts, and +potatoes. It had made hay enough for its own draft animals and had sold +a large quantity to neighboring divisions. + +At Gommecourt the division operated a well-equipped modern dairy, able +to convert into butter and cheese the milk of about six hundred cows. +Its output was large enough to supply the men in the trenches with all +the butter and cheese they could reasonably expect. A large herd of pigs +was kept by the division, and as General von Stein, the commander of the +sector, now Prussian Minister of War, informed me at a table that +offered the products of the division at a luncheon, the organization was +then operating, somewhere near the actual firing-line, two water-mills, +a large sugar-plant, and even a brewery. Coffee, salt, and a few other +trifles were all the division received from the rear. + +It was then the middle of August, so that I was able to see the results +of what had been done by these soldier-farmers. I can state that soil +was never put to better use. Cultivation had been efficiently carried +out and the crops were exceedingly good. + +One of the most vivid pictures I retain from that week in "Hell" shows +several German soldiers plowing a field east of Bucquoi into which +British shells were dropping at the time. The shells tore large craters +in the plowed field, but with an indifference that was baffling the men +continued their work. I have not yet been able to explain what was the +purpose of this plowing in August, except to lay the knife at the root +of the weeds; nor can I quite believe that this end justified exposing +men and valuable animals. At any rate, the thing was done. + +The case cited represents the maximum that was achieved in food +production by any army organization, so far as I know. But that maximum +was no mean thing. That division, at least, did not depend on the civil +population for food. + +Several trips through Serbia and Macedonia in the same year showed me +what the German "economic" and occupation troops had done in those +parts. + +On the whole, the efforts at food production of the "economic" +troops--organization of older men barely fit for service in the +firing-line--had not been fortunate. The plan had been to put as much +soil under crops as was possible. For this purpose traction plows had +been brought along and whole country sites had been torn up. Though the +soil of the valleys of Serbia is generally very rich, and the climate +one of the best for farming, the crops raised in that year were far from +good. Some held that it was due to the seed, which had been brought from +Germany. Others were of the opinion that the plowing had been carelessly +done, leaving too much leeway to the weeds. Be that as it may, the work +of the economic companies was not a success. + +The occupation troops did much better, however. Together with the +Serbian women they had cultivated the fields on the intensive principle. +Yields had been good, I was told. + +In Macedonia the fields had also been put to use by the Germans, +Austro-Hungarians, and Bulgars. The last named, familiar with the +cultivation of the tobacco plant, were exchanging with the others +tobacco for grain. Food production was also attempted by the +Austro-Hungarians on the Isonzo front. But since they were fighting on +their own territory in districts which still had their civil population, +there was little opportunity, all the less since the soil of the +Carso and Bainsizza plateaus, and the mountainous regions north +of them, is not suited for agriculture on a large scale. Every +_doline_--funnel-shaped depression--of the Carso had its garden, +however, whence the army drew most of the vegetables it consumed. + +The food that was being raised for the army never reached the interior, +of course. If an organization produced more than what it consumed, and +such cases were extremely rare, it sold the surplus to the army +commissaries. It took men and time to cultivate the fields, and these +could not always be spared, especially when the losses in men were +beginning to be severely felt and when the opponent engaged in +offensives. It had meanwhile become necessary to throw, several times a +year, divisions from one front to another, and that, too, began to +interfere with the scheme, since the men no longer took the interest in +the crops they had taken when they were established in a position. + +I spent considerable time with the Ninth German Army operating against +the Roumanians late in the fall of 1916. Much booty in food fell into +the hands of that organization, among it some eleven hundred thousand +tons of wheat and other grains. + +Bread was bad and scarce in the Central states. When it became known +that so large a quantity of breadstuff had fallen in the hands of the +Centralist troops, people in Berlin and Vienna already saw some of it on +their tables--but only in their minds. Falkenhayn and Mackensen issued +orders that not a pound of breadstuff was to be taken from the war zone +they had established, which comprised all of Roumania occupied, +Transylvania, and the Dobrudja district. Nor could other food be +exported to the Central civilian population. Whatever was found in the +conquered territory was reserved for the use of the troops that had been +employed, and the surplus was assigned to the German, Austro-Hungarian, +and Bulgarian commissaries-general. + +The quantities taken, however, were large, and six months later, when +all needs of the armed forces had been met, the civilian populations +were remembered so far as it was prudent to do so. To give that +population too much might have resulted in a lessening of production at +home, and that was something which could not be invited. + +This policy was followed always. I know of no instance in which it was +abandoned, even when the clamor for bread at home was loudest. The army +came first in all things, much in the manner of the driver of a team of +mules. + +But it was not selfishness alone that gave rise to this policy. It +served no good purpose to ship into the interior food that would later +be needed by the troops. That merely increased the burden of the +railroads, first by the transport of the booty homeward, and later by +shipping back food as the troops needed it. Keeping the food where it +was found obviated this traffic entirely. + +On the whole, the Centralist troops never fared poorly in subsistence. +It had become necessary to reduce the bread ration from 500 grams (18 +ounces) to 400 grams (14 ounces) per day, but this was made good by +increasing the meat and fat ration. Enough to eat was the surest way of +keeping the war popular with the soldiers. + +Since it is very easy to exaggerate the value of food production due to +the army, I will state here specifically that this production took care +of little more than what the men consumed in excess over their former +diet. Their normal consumption was still borne by the civilian +population, and, as the losses on the battle-field increased, and the +reserves had to be employed oftener, food production in the army fell +rapidly, though at present this condition appears to be discounted by +the food produced in Roumania, Serbia, and Poland. The area involved is +large, of course, but the surplus actually available is not great. The +population of these territories has dwindled to old men, boys, and +women, and their production is barely able to meet actual needs. The +little that can be extracted from these people does not go very far in +the subsistence of Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Bulgaria. These +countries have together a population of, roundly, one hundred and +fifteen millions to-day, of which not less than ten million of the best +producers are under the colors, thereby causing a consumption in food +and _matériel_ that is at least one-third greater than normal--munitions +and ammunition not included. + +But the army had much to do with food in other directions. It controlled +inter-allied exports and imports and was a power even in trade with the +neutrals of Europe. + +The relations between Germany, Austria-Hungary, Bulgaria, and Turkey +were essentially military. They were this to such an extent that +they almost overshadowed even the diplomatic services of these +countries. For the time being, the _Militärbevollmächtigte_--military +plenipotentiary--as the chief communication officer was known, eclipsed +often the diplomatic plenipotentiary. Militarism was absolute. The civil +government and population had no right which the military authorities +need respect. + +All commercial exchange passed into the hands of these military +plenipotentiaries. The diplomatic service might reach an agreement for +the exchange of food against manufactured articles, but finally the +military saw to it that it was carried out. They bought and shipped, and +received in turn the factory products that were the _quid pro quo_ for +the food and raw material thus secured. + +In Roumania, so long as she was neutral, the _Einkaufstelle_--purchasing +bureau--was indeed in the hands of civilians. As a neutral, Roumania +could not permit German and Austro-Hungarian officers to be seen in the +streets in their uniforms. They were, for all that, members of the +army. For the time being, they wore mufti, nor did their transactions +show that they were working directly for the army. The food that was +bought was intended for the civilian population, naturally. But it has +always been hard to keep from any army that which it may need. The same +sack of wheat may not go to the military commissaries, but what +difference will it make so long as it releases for consumption by the +army a like quantity of home-grown cereals? + +The German and Austro-Hungarian purchasing bureaus in Switzerland, +Holland, Denmark, Norway, and Sweden are similarly organized. Many +members of their staffs are indeed civilians, but that does not change +anything, since all shipments of food entering Central Europe fall +immediately under the control of the government Food Commissions, if not +under that of the military commissaries direct. + +To the military, then, the Central states civilian population had to +look for such food as could be imported. + +There was the case of Bulgaria. That country is still essentially an +agricultural state. Of the five and a half million inhabitants fully 90 +per cent. engage in farming and animal industry. The products of the +soil constitute the major portion of Bulgaria's exports. That meant that +she could ease to some extent the food shortage in Germany and +Austria-Hungary. + +An acquaintance of mine, a Captain Westerhagen, formerly a banker in +Wall Street, was in charge of the German purchasing bureau in Sofia. He +bought whatever was edible--wheat, rye, barley, peas, beans, potatoes, +butter, eggs, lard, pork, and mutton. His side lines were hides, wool, +flax, mohair, hay, and animal feed-stuffs. + +Indirectly, he was also an importer. Under his surveillance were brought +into Bulgaria the manufactured goods Bulgaria needed, such as iron and +steel products in the form of farm implements, farm machinery, building +hardware, small hardware, and general machinery, glassware, paper +products, instruments, surgical supplies, railroad equipment, medicines, +and chemicals generally. + +When the German army needed none of the food Captain Westerhagen bought, +the civilian population was the beneficiary of his efforts. The fact is +that my acquaintance bought whatever he could lay hands on. Now and then +he bought so much that the Bulgarians began to feel the pinch. In that +event the Bulgarian general staff might close down on the purchasing +central for a little while, with the result that the Germans would shut +down on their exports. It was a case of no food, no factory products. +This sort of reciprocity led often to hard feeling--situations which +Colonel von Massow, the German military plenipotentiary at Sofia, found +pretty hard to untangle. But, on the whole, the arrangement worked +smoothly enough. + +It was so in Turkey. + +The Germans had in Constantinople one of their most remarkable men--and +here I must throw a little light on German-Ottoman relations. The name +of this remarkable man--remarkable in capacity, energy, industry, and +far-sightedness--is Corvette-Captain Humann, son of the famous +archeologist who excavated Pergamum and other ancient cities and +settlements in Asia Minor. + +Captain Humann was born in Smyrna and had early in life made the +acquaintance of Enver Pasha, now Ottoman Minister of War and +vice-generalissimo of the Ottoman army. Raised in the Orient, Humann +knew the people with whom he was to deal. The viewpoint of the Orient +and the Turk was an open book to him. He had the advantage of being +looked upon as half a Turk, for the reason that he was born in Turkey. +To these qualifications Captain Humann added great natural ability and a +perseverance without equal. + +Officially, Captain Humann was known as the commander of the German +naval base in Constantinople and as naval attaché. Actually, he was the +alpha and omega of German-Ottoman relations. + +There always was a great deal of friction between the Turks and the +Germans. The Turk often could not see the need for speed, while the +German was eternally in a hurry, from the Oriental point of view. The +Turk was inclined to do things in a slovenly manner. The German insisted +upon everything, in matters economic, military, and diplomatic, being +in its place. German officers who had a great deal to do with these +things had not always the tact and forbearance necessary. Bad blood +would come of this. To make matters worse, the Turk was forever under +the impression that he was being exploited. The Germans, also, refused +to _bakshish_ the officials of their ally, and more trouble came from +that. + +It is hard to say what the general result of this would have been had +not Captain Humann been on the spot. He was on _du_--thou--terms with +Enver Pasha, and when things refused to move at all he would call on his +friend in the Harbiyeh Nasaret in Stamboul and set them into motion +again. That Turk and German did not come to blows during the first year +of the war is largely due to the genius of Captain Humann. So great was +the man's influence in Constantinople that the successor of Ambassador +Baron von Wangenheim, Prince Metternich, grew jealous of him and had him +removed to Berlin, where in the Imperial Naval Office Captain Humann +chewed pencils until conditions in Constantinople were so bad that the +German Emperor had to send him back, despite the prejudices he held +against him. Captain Humann is not a noble, and in those days the powers +that be in Prussia and Germany were not yet ready to have a commoner, no +matter how able, take away glamour from the aristocratic class. + +Though purchasing in Turkey was not one of the duties of Captain Humann, +he was often obliged to take charge of it. I knew of one hundred and +twenty thousand pounds of wool which the Germans had bought, but which +the Turks were not willing to surrender because they were not satisfied +with the price after the bargain had been closed. The case was ticklish +in the extreme. Everybody had gone as far as safety permitted and the +Turks had meanwhile grown more obdurate. In the end the matter had to be +brought to the attention of the ambassador. He, too, decided that +nothing could be done. Captain Humann was appealed to and succeeded in +securing delivery of the wool. + +I have quoted this case to show that very often the exchange of +commodities between the Central allies was attended with much friction +and difficulty. More merchandise moved over and across the Danube as +personal favors done than by virtue of the commercial treaties that had +been made. Personal equation was everything in the scheme, especially at +times when Germany's allies were in no pressing need for arms and +ammunition. The very fact that Germany was the "king-pin" in the Central +European scheme caused the lesser members of the combination to be +sticklers in matters affecting their rights and sovereignty. + +On one occasion the predecessor of Captain Westerhagen in Sofia was said +to have boastfully made the statement that what he could not get from +the Bulgarians voluntarily he would find means to get, anyhow. General +Jekoff, the chief of the Bulgarian general staff, heard of this, and +promptly shut down on all exports. For two weeks not a thing moved out +of Bulgaria, and when the two weeks were over there was a new man in +charge of the German purchasing bureau in Sofia. The methods of the +Prussian barrack-yard would not do south of the Danube. It took many a +lesson to bring this home. + +Austria and Hungary were two separate economic units in the war. When +food was scarce in Austria it did not necessarily follow that the +Hungarians would make good the deficiency. It took a special permit to +export and import from and into Hungary, and the same rules were +enforced by Austria, Germany, Bulgaria, and Turkey in the case of all +shipments made by civilians, so long as these had a hand in this +inter-allied exchange of necessities and commodities. + +Little need be said of the German purchasing centrals in Austria and +Hungary. The war was not very old before these countries had nothing to +spare. Thereafter, exchange was limited entirely to materials needed in +the manufacture of arms and ammunition. Austria and Hungary continued to +exchange medical supplies, chemicals, and machinery for food and the +like, respectively. They also managed now and then to get a little of +the food in Bulgaria and Turkey, though the latter country could sell +food only on rare occasions. Constantinople continued to live on +Roumanian wheat, until the total cessation of activity by the Russian +Black Sea fleet made navigation in those waters possible for the Turks +and brought wheat and other food from northern Anatolia. + +The food secured by Germany in other markets was also under military +control, as I have stated before. Exchange in this case depended even +more upon reciprocity in kind than in the instances already cited. At +one time the Swiss government was ready to close its borders against the +export of food to Central Europe entirely. Nothing came of the +intention. The German government informed the government at Bern that +this would lead to an embargo on coal along the Swiss borders. France +and Italy had no coal themselves, and Switzerland had to have fuel. + +It has been said that the incident in question was staged for the +purpose of illustrating what the position of the Swiss actually was. At +any rate, they would have no coal, not so much as a shovelful, if +to-morrow they refused to export to the Germans and Austrians dairy +products and animal fats. The same is true of iron products and +chemicals. + +Holland is in the same position. Great Britain needs all the coal she +can mine, and the Germans refuse to supply the little they can spare +without getting something in exchange--dairy products, animal fats, +vegetables, and fresh and preserved fish. Holland also gets her coal-oil +and gasolene in that manner. Iron and steel and chemicals are other +strong arguments in this scheme. Denmark is in exactly the same +position, and when German gasolene and benzine are not available the +Norwegian fishermen have to stay at home. For each gallon of these +fuels, which Germany exports from the Galician and Roumanian oil-fields, +the Norwegians are obliged to turn over so many pounds of fish. Sweden +has no food to give for the coal and liquid fuel she gets from Germany, +but exchanges them for wood pulp, certain specialty ores, and on rare +occasions reindeer meat. + +That this commerce is strictly military those interested know, of +course. But they have given up splitting hairs over it, because there is +no way out. Coal and iron products, to say nothing of chemicals and +medicines, are things which the European neutrals must have, and this +need warring Central Europe has held over them as a whip. Incidentally, +this traffic has done much toward keeping up the rate of the German +mark. Central Europe would have been bankrupted long ago were it not +that the neutrals must buy what these states have for sale and must buy +it at prices fixed by monopoly. + +The need of coal and iron has been a far more efficacious discipline for +the European neutrals than the German armies that have lain along their +borders. That these countries have never combined for the purpose of +throwing off this yoke is due to the influence of racial affinity--the +sentiment upon which in the past has thriven Pan-Germanism. Switzerland, +Holland, Denmark, Norway, and Sweden, rising simultaneously, could +overnight cause the defeat of the Germans and their allies. But the ties +of blood and kinship militate against that step, despite the dislike +felt in these countries for certain aspects of German political life. + + + + +XVII + +WOMAN AND LABOR IN WAR + + +To the plow was yoked an ox and harnessed a horse. A tall and muscular +woman was guiding it, while a small boy carried the whip. From the +Isonzo front, not more than ten miles away, came the crash of heavy +artillery. + +Neither the woman nor the boy seemed to mind that war was so near. I +concluded that they were from the village which I had just come through, +bound for the front named. The inhabitants of that place had listened to +the noise of battle for eighteen months and it was possible that now the +crash of guns meant less to them than the sound of the vesper bell. + +There was a tire blow-out. While the soldier-chauffeur was attending to +that, I watched the woman draw furrows. Being somewhat of a farmer, I +was interested in the quality of her work. It was good average plowing. + +The plow continued to cut down one side of the field and up the other. +The automobile did not interest the woman. She had serious business to +attend to. War must have seemed to her a sort of folly, and fools all +those connected with it--myself included. She was tilling the land to +get something to eat for her brood and to raise the money for taxes +which those idiots at the front would waste in powder and the like. Her +"hees" and "haws" punctuated the rumble of artillery like words of +command for the oxen in the trenches. + +The woman behind the plow was a superb figure--the embodiment of nature +herself. + +I went on. + +Toward evening I returned over the same road. The woman was still +plowing, but now she had a little girl holding the whip. The sirocco had +blown a heavy mist in from the Adriatic. Where the woman was plowing the +vapors floated in layers of uneven density--the veils of evening. The +plowers passed into them and out again, loomed now and then dwindled in +the mist as the moods of light pleased. + +It struck me that it would be worth while to have a few words with this +woman. She was so close to the war and yet, seemingly, so far from it +that almost anything she could say promised to have an unusual color. + +"These people here are Slovenes, sir!" remarked my soldier-chauffeur +when I had sought his advice. "They do not speak German, as a rule. But +we can try." + +It was love's labor lost. The woman spoke some Slovene words in greeting +and I replied in Bulgarian, of which language I know a few words. The +chauffeur was no better off. + +I dug into a furrow with the tip of my shoe and said: + +"_Dobro!_" + +She nodded recognition of both my "remark" and appreciation of her work. + +To show the woman that I knew what I was talking about, I took the plow +out of her hands and drew a furrow myself. It was her turn to say: + +"_Dobro!_" + +The fact that she limited her conversation to this word, as I was +obliged to do, showed that she was a woman of understanding. + +When I was back at the road I shook hands with the woman and her child +and hurried off to Adelsberg, where General Boreovic, commander of the +Austro-Hungarian Fifth Army, expected me for dinner. + +"Ah, she is a worker," said the old veteran, as I mentioned the incident +to him. "Her husband is dead, you know. Was killed in the war. She is a +remarkable woman. I have talked to her several times. She is worth a +dozen of anything in skirts you can find in Vienna, or anywhere else, +for that matter." + +I thought so, too, and think so yet, and, _Deo volente_, I will picture +the plow-woman better some other time. + +In the Manfred Weiss works at Budapest thousands of women are engaged in +the manufacture of ammunition. The little girls and older women who +watched the infantry-ammunition machines did not greatly interest me. +They were all neatly dressed and did no more than watch the mechanical +contrivances that made cartridge-cases out of sheets of brass and +bullet-casings out of sheets of nickel-steel. + +In the shell department of the establishment I saw quite another class +of women. + +They were large and brawny and strong enough to handle the huge +white-hot steel nuggets with ease. By means of a crane two of them would +seize one of the incandescent ingots, swing it under the trip-hammer, +and then leave the fate of the shell in the making to two others, who +would turn the thing from side to side, while a fifth operated the +hammer itself. + +At the far end of the shed, in flame-raked gloom, other women of the +same type were engaged in casting. The ladle was operated by them with a +dexterity that showed that neither strength nor skill were lacking. + +These daughters of Vulcan were stripped to the waist. Their labor seemed +to be the only dress they needed. In fact, it never struck me that there +was anything unconventional about this costume--the whole and total of +which was a large leather apron and skirt of something that resembled +burlap. Nor did they seem to mind me. + +It is impossible to say to what extent man's place in labor was taken by +woman in Central Europe during the war. On the farms the women had +always done much of the hard work. They had been employed in large +numbers in the factories, stores, and offices, so that it was generally +a case of employing more women instead of surrendering to them +departments which heretofore had been entirely in the hands of men. It +is true that women were working on street-car lines as conductors, and +in a few cases as drivers, and that more of them found employment in the +railroad and postal service, but the work they did was well within the +capacity of any healthy woman. Woman's work during the war was to have +results quite foreign to those immediately in prospect. + +[Illustration: Photograph from Henry Ruschin + +WOMEN CARRYING BRICKS AT BUDAPEST + +A pathetic aspect of the policy "Business as Usual" inaugurated at the +outbreak of the European War. Central European women worked hard before +the war, however.] + +[Illustration: Photograph from Henry Ruschin + +VILLAGE SCENE IN HUNGARY + +These women and children struggled to keep food production close to +normal, but failed.] + +The fact that women were employed in foundries and steel-works, in the +manner stated above, is chiefly remarkable for the evidence furnished +that woman is able to do much of the work for which in the past she has +been thought unsuited, especially if her deficiency in bodily strength +is discounted by the use of machinery. At the Weiss works I was told +that the women doing heavy work with the aid of mechanical energy were +in every respect the equal of the men who had done the same thing before +the war. + +The war, then, has demonstrated in Central Europe that the woman is far +less the inferior of man than was held formerly. To that extent the +status of women has been bettered. When a man has seen members of the +frail sex fashion steel into shells he is thereafter less inclined to +look upon that sex as a plaything which an indulgent Scheme provided for +him. Over his mind may then flash the thought that woman is, after all, +the other half of humanity--not only the mother of men, but their equal, +not a mere complement of the human race, but a full-fledged member of +it. + +A little later I was the guest of Halideh Edib Hannym Effendi at her +private school in the Awret Basar quarter of Stamboul, Constantinople. +The Turkish feminist and promoter of education had asked me to take a +look at the establishment in which she was training Turkish girls and +boys along the lines adhered to in the Occident. She had arrived at the +conclusion that the _medressi_--Koran school system--was all wrong, for +the reason that it sacrificed the essential to the non-essential. Though +her influence with the Young Turk government and the Sheik-ul-Islam was +great, she had not asked that her experiments with Western education be +undertaken at the expense of the public. Her father is wealthy. + +Several teachers had been invited to the tea. Like Halideh Hannym they +were "Young Turk" women, despite the fact that most of them still +preferred the non-transparent veil--_yashmak_--to the transparent silk +_büründshük_. + +I commented upon this fact. + +"The _yashmak_ does indeed typify the Old Turkey," said Halideh Hannym. +"But is it necessary to discard it because one takes an interest in the +things identified as progress? To the _yashmak_ are attached some of the +best traditions of our race; it comes from a period when the Turk was +really great, when he was still the master of a goodly share of +Europe--when he ruled, instead of being ruled." + +All of which was true enough. + +I pointed out that the _büründshük_, however, was the promise that the +Turkish woman would soon be able to look into the world--that seclusion +would before long be an unpleasant memory. To that my hostess and her +other guests agreed. + +"The war has been a good thing for the Turkish woman," I ventured to +remark. + +"It has been," admitted Halideh Hannym. "As an example, the university +has been opened to women. Three years ago nobody would have thought that +possible. To-day it is _un fait accompli_. The world does move--even +here." + +Halideh Hannym did not mention that she was largely responsible for the +opening of the Constantinople University to women. Modesty is one of her +jewels. Nor would she admit that her novels and her trenchant articles +in the _Tanin_ had much to do with the progress made in the emancipation +of the Turkish woman. + +"If Turkey is to be regenerated, her women must do it," said Halideh +Hannym, when we had come to speak of the necessity of better government +in the Ottoman Empire. + +That one sentence comprises at once the field of endeavor and the motive +of the woman. She believes that there is much good in her race, but that +its old-time position of conqueror and ruler over subject races had been +fraught with all the dangers of ease and idleness. + +"We must work--work--work," she said. "The race that lies fallow for too +long a time gives the weeds too much chance. Our weaknesses and +shortcomings are deep-rooted now. But I believe that the plowing which +the race had during the present war will again make it a fertile field +for the seeds of progress." + +Not long before that Sultan Mahmed Réchad Khan V. had told me the same +thing. + +"We of the Orient are known to you Westerners as fatalists," remarked +the old monarch in the course of the audience. "The fatalist is accepted +to be a person who lets things drift along. This means that any fatalist +may be no more than a lazy and shiftless individual. In our case that is +not true. Our belief in the Fates--Kismet and Kadar--is to blame for +what backwardness there is in the Ottoman Empire. But it will be +different in the future. It is all very well to trust in God, but we +must work." + +I told Halideh Hannym that probably his Majesty had read some of her +writings. My reason for doing this was largely the fact that as yet this +gospel of work was little known in Turkey. + +"That is not impossible," thought the woman. "At any rate, we must work, +and it is the women of Turkey who must set the example. When the Turks +have more generally embraced the idea that all there is worth while in +life is labor, they will come to understand their non-Osmanli +fellow-citizens better. I look upon that as the solution of the Ottoman +race problems. Labor is the one platform upon which all men can meet. My +objective is to have the races in the empire meet upon it. Turk, Greek, +Armenian, and Arab will get along together only when they come to heed +that old and beautiful saying of the Persians, 'How pleasantly dwell +together those who do not want the ox at the same time.' That means that +each of us must have his own ox--work ourselves, in other words." + +And Halideh Hannym applies this to herself. There is no reason why she +should write novels and articles to make money--she does not need it, so +far as I know, if town houses and a country seat on the island of +Prinkipo mean anything at all. Halideh Hannym works for the satisfaction +there is in knowing that duty is done and done to the limit of one's +ability, and within that limit lies the seizing of one's opportunity. +Hers came with the war, and while others stood by and lamented she set +to work and wrung from ungenerous man that which under the pressure of +the times he thought unimportant. Halideh Hannym and her friends and +co-workers gathered these crumbs, one by one, and then made a loaf of +them, and that loaf is not small. Some future historian may say that the +emancipation of the Turkish woman was due to the Great War. I hope that +he will not overlook Halideh Edib Hannym Effendi. + +The women of Central Europe have always worked hard, but at best they +have been kept at drudgery. They have done what man would not do, as +deeming it below his masculine dignity, or what he could not do. The +result of this has not been a happy one for the women. The "lord of the +household" has in the course of time come to look upon his wife as a +sort of inferior creature, fit indeed to be the first servant in the +house, but unfit to be elevated above that sphere. The rights of +equality which he takes from his mate he generally bestows upon his +daughters, and later he is inconsistent enough to have them enter the +servitude of his wife. Thus it came that the majority of all women in +Central Europe thought of nothing but the stomach of the lord and +master, and when this was attended to they would put in their spare +moments knitting socks. + +The picture of the German _Hausfrau_ may appeal to many. It does not to +me. Nothing can be so disheartening as to spend an evening with a family +whose women will talk to the accompaniment of the clicking of the +knitting-needles. The making of socks should be left to machinery, even +if they are intended to warm the "Trilbys" of the lord and master. + +I am glad to report that a large crevasse was torn into this _Hausfrau_ +notion by the war. With millions of men at the front, the women had to +stand on their feet, as it were. The clinging ivy became a tree. Though +the ubiquitous knitting-needle was not entirely dispensed with, it came +to be used for the sake of economy, not as the symbol of immolation on +the altar of the _Herr im Hause_. + +The woman who has fought for bread in the food-line is not likely to +ever again look upon the breadwinner of the family with that awe which +once swayed her when she thought of "his" magnanimity in giving her +good-naturedly what she had earned by unceasing effort and unswerving +devotion. + +Thus has come in Central Europe a change that is no less great and +sweeping than what has taken place in Turkey. All concerned should be +truly thankful. The nation that does not give its women the opportunity +to do their best in the socio-economic sphere which nature has assigned +them handicaps itself badly. Not to do that results in woman being +little more than the plaything of man, or at best his drudge, and, since +man is the son of woman, no good can come of this. The cowed woman +cannot but have servile offspring, and to this we must look for the +explanation why the European in general is still ruled by classes that +look upon their subjects as chattels. A social aggregate in which the +families are ruled by autocratic husbands and fathers could have no +other than an autocratic government. I believe that a pine forest is +composed of pines, despite the fact that here and there some other trees +may live in it. + +The war has upset that scheme in Central Europe. While the labor of +woman was valuable to the state, through its contributions to the +economic and military resources of the nation, it also fostered in the +woman that self-reliance which is the first step toward independence. +Of this the plow-woman and the women in the steel-works are the factors +and Halideh Hannym the sum. While the plow-woman and steel-workers were +unconsciously active for that purpose, the Turkish feminist had already +made it the objective of a spreading social policy. + +What poor pets those women in the steel-mill would make! + + + + +XVIII + +WAR AND MASS PSYCHOLOGY + + +Harassed by the shortage in everything needed to sustain life, plagued +by the length of the war and the great sacrifices in life and limb that +had to be made, and stunned by the realization that Germany had not a +friend, anywhere, aside from her allies and certain weak neutrals, the +German people began to take stock of their household and its management. +It seemed to many that, after all, something was wrong. + +I ran into this quite often in 1916. + +During the Somme offensive in August of that year I was talking to a +German general--his name won't matter. The man could not understand why +almost the entire world should be the enemy of Germany. I had just +returned to Central Europe from a trip that took me through Holland, +Denmark, and parts of Norway; I had read the English, French, and +American newspapers, with those of Latin Europe and Latin America thrown +in, and I was not in a position to paint for the soldier the picture he +may have been looking for. I told him that the outlook was bad--the +worst possible. + +He wanted to know why this should be so. I gave him my opinion. + +Not far from us was going on a drumfire which at times reached an +unprecedented intensity. The general looked reflectively across the +shell-raked, fume-ridden terrain. He seemed to be as blue as indigo. + +"Tell me, Mr. Schreiner, are we really as bad as they make us out to +be?" he said, after a while. + +The question was frankly put. It deserved a frank reply. + +"No," I said, "you are not. Slander has been an incident to all wars. It +is that now. The fact is that your government has made too many +mistakes. War is the proof that might is right. Your government has been +too brutally frank in admitting that and suiting its action accordingly. +Belgium was a mistake and the sinking of the _Lusitania_ was a mistake. +You are now reaping the harvest you sowed then." + +My questioner wished to know if _sans_ Belgium, _sans Lusitania_ the +position of Germany would be better. + +That question was highly hypothetical. I replied that an opinion in that +direction would not be worth much in view of the fact that it could not +cover the actual causes of the war and its present aspects, of which the +case of Belgium and the work of the submarine were but mere incidents. + +"Seen objectively, I should say that the invasion of Belgium and the use +of the submarine against merchantmen has merely intensified the world's +dislike of much that is German. I doubt that much would have been +different without Belgium and without the _Lusitania_," was my reply. +"This war started as a struggle between gluttons. One set of them wanted +to keep what it had, and the other set wanted to take more than what it +had already taken." + +Not very long afterward General Falkenhayn, the former German chief of +staff, then commander of the Ninth German Army against the Roumanians, +asked a similar question at dinner in Kronstadt, Transylvania. He, too, +failed to understand why the entire world should have turned down its +thumb against the Germans. My reply to him was more or less the same. + +A regular epidemic of introspective reasoning seemed to be on. At the +Roumanian end of the Törzburger Pass I lunched a few days later with +Gen. Elster von Elstermann. He also wanted to know why the Germans were +so cordially hated. Gen. Krafft von Delmansingen, whose guest I was at +Heltau, at the head of the Vörös Torony gorge, showed the same interest. + +"It seems that there is nothing we can do but make ourselves respected," +he said, tersely. "I am one of those Germans who would like to be loved. +But that seems to be impossible. Very well! We will see! We will see +what the sword can do. When a race has come to be so thoroughly detested +as we seem to be, there is nothing left it but to make itself respected. +I fear that in the future that must be our policy." + +I made the remark that possibly it was not the race that was being +detested. The general is a Bavarian--at least, he was commanding +Bavarian troops. + +"So long as these shouters can make common cause with autocratic Russia, +they have no reason to fasten upon the Prussians every sin they can +think of. I am not one of those who think that everything in Germany is +perfect. Far from it. We have more faults than a dog has fleas. Never +mind, though! To lie down and beseech mercy on our knees is not one of +these faults." + +I believe that Gen. Krafft von Delmansingen spoke for the army on that +occasion without knowing it. What he said was the attitude of the vast +majority of officers and men. + +Shortly before I had interviewed Baron Burian, then Austro-Hungarian +Minister of Foreign Affairs, on that and related subjects. I will state +here that he was the most professorly foreign minister I have met. His +voice never rose above the conversational tone. Though a Magyar, he was +evenness of temper personified. + +"I suppose there is nothing we can do in that direction," he said, +slowly. "What the world wishes to believe it will believe. We cannot +change that. Whether it is true or not has nothing to do with the cause +and the outcome of this war. And what difference will it make in the end +whether we are called barbarians or not? I know that a good many people +resent what they say in the Entente newspapers, and I suppose the +Entente public resents a great deal of what is being said in our +newspapers. That is a small matter. There is nothing to be done, for +what we could do would be a waste of effort. Let them talk. No! There is +nothing I wish to say in connection with that. Our position is quite +defensible. But to defend it would merely stir up more talk. By the time +the hostile American newspapers have taken care of all that is being +said against us, they must have used so much paper that it would be a +shame to get them to use more on refutation." + +Dr. Arthur Zimmermann, at that time Under-Secretary of State for Foreign +Affairs, was more aggressive when I suggested the subject for the +substance of an interview. Backing his position with certain documents +that were found in the Belgian state archives, according to which there +was some understanding between the British, French, and Belgians for the +contingency of a German invasion, he held that Germany was entirely +right in demanding access to France through Belgian territory. He was +not sure, however, that doing this had been a good move politically. The +military necessity for the step was something he could not judge, he +said. + +Doctor Zimmermann said that the sinking of the _Lusitania_ was a bad +blunder. Responsibility for the act he would not fix, however. The thing +was not within his province. So far as he knew, it had not been the +intention to torpedo the ship in a manner that would cause her immediate +sinking. If a ship was torpedoed in the fore or aft holds she would +float for hours and might even be able to reach port under her own +steam. + +"There is a great deal of mania in this Germanophobe sentiment that is +sweeping the world," he said. "For the time being, we are everybody's +_bête noire_. The world must have somebody on whom it can pick. Right +now we are that somebody. Quite recently, during the Boer War, it was +Great Britain. During the Japanese War the entire world, Germany +excepted, made common cause with the Japs against the Russians, +forgetting somehow that this was a war of the yellow race against the +white. To-day we are it. To-morrow it will be somebody else. It is +always fashionable to hate somebody." + +That was the cool, diplomatic view of it. + +But the Central European public was more inclined to take the view of +the officer I had met on the Somme front. It was chagrined, +disappointed, grieved, stunned. + +The question was asked whether the invasion of Belgium had been really +necessary. Many held that the German general staff should have +concentrated a large force on the Belgian border, with orders not to +invade the country until the French had done so. + +There can be no doubt that this would have been the better policy. The +contention of the German government that the French contemplated going +through Belgium and had for the act the consent of the Belgian +government and the acquiescence of the British government will not +invalidate my assertion in the least. Granted that such an agreement had +been really made for the purpose of giving the French army certain +tactical advantages, it would be the policy of any wise and calm +government to wait for the execution of the plan. There would be no +Belgian question at all to-day if the Germans had given the French the +chance they are said to have sought. That the French reached out for the +German border _via_ Belgium would not have made the least difference in +the sum of military operations, since it was first a question of keeping +the French army out of Germany, and, secondly, of defeating the French +forces wherever met. + +The few days gained, and the slight military advantages alleged to have +been procured, were certainly not worth what Belgium was in the end to +cost the Germans. This is all the more true when it is considered that +the reduction of Liège and other Belgian fortifications might have never +become a necessity, in view of the fact that the documents found in +Brussels have never convinced me that the Belgian government was acting +in bad faith. + +It seems that many have overlooked the fact that, between tentative +arrangements made by the Belgian general staff and the allied +governments and an authorization by the Belgian parliament that war +should be declared against Germany, there is a great difference. The +former existed; the latter had yet to be obtained. In case it had been +obtained, in order to give the French troops marching through Belgium +the status they needed, there was still time for the Germans to do what +they did, under martial conditions that would have declared the French +troops in Belgium mere raiders, on the one hand, and Belgium a violator +of her neutral status, on the other. Belgium permitting the use of her +territory by French troops about to fall upon Germany would have been +obliged to also admit German troops, or declare war against Germany. +That case is so simple that few can understand it, as a rule. + +That such might have been the initial events of the war began finally to +dawn upon all thinking Germans. It occurred to many now that there was +ample front in Alsace-Lorraine; so much, in fact, that the French +succeeded in taking and holding quite a little of it. There was, also, +Luxembourg. + +Though mobilizations are like the avalanche that starts at the +mountain-top and thereafter obeys but one law, gravity, it was not +impossible for the German general staff to divert south-ward the troops +bound for the Belgian border. A day might have been lost. But even that +seems uncertain, since troops were needed along the Belgian border, +anyway, in view of what Berlin claims to have known. No matter how the +thing is looked at, in the end it resolves itself into the question +whether or not there was a difference in meeting French troops in +Belgium or on their own soil. It was the objective of the Germans to +defeat the French army. Whether that was done in the line of the French +fortifications along the Franco-Belgian border, as came to pass, or +whether that was done in the line of the fortifications along the +German-Belgian border, could make little difference to a government and +general staff able to think on its feet. + +Since governments at war must of necessity take it for granted that only +the men at the head of affairs have the right to think, this aspect of +the invasion of Belgium has been but rarely treated in public print in +Germany. I will say, however, that several military writers have +attempted to speak on the subject, and have usually been called to task +for their hardihood. + +To-day the average German is not at all sure that "Belgium" was +necessary. He has no interest in Belgium, differing in this from his +industrial and commercial lords. Most men and women with whom I +discussed the subject were of the opinion that "one Alsace-Lorraine is +enough." + +The greatest shock the German public received was the news that the +_Lusitania_ had been sunk. For a day or two a minority held that the +action was eminently correct. But even that minority dwindled rapidly. + +For many weeks the German public was in doubt as to what it all meant. +The thinking element was groping about in the dark. What was the purpose +of picking out a ship with so many passengers aboard? Then the news came +that the passengers had been warned not to travel on the steamer. That +removed all doubt that the vessel had not been singled out for attack. + +The government remained silent. It had nothing to say. The press, +standing in fear of the censor and his power to suspend publication, was +mute. Little by little it became known that there had been an accident. +The commander of the submarine sent out to torpedo the ship had been +instructed to fire at the foreward hold so that the passengers could get +off before the vessel sank. Somehow that plan had miscarried. Either a +boiler of the ship or an ammunition cargo had given unlooked-for +assistance to the torpedo. The ship had gone down. + +The defense made by the German government was based largely on points in +international law that govern the conduct of raiding cruisers. But the +submarine was not a cruiser. It could not save many lives under any +circumstances. + +People shook their heads and said nothing. It was best to say nothing, +since to speak was treasonable. + +Nothing weaned the German public so much away from the old order of +government as did the _Lusitania_ affair. The act seemed useless, +wanton, ill-considered. The doctrine of governmental infallibility came +near being wrecked. The Germans began to lose confidence in the wisdom +of the men who had been credited in the past with being the very +quintessence of all knowledge, mundane and celestial. Admiral Tirpitz +had to go. Germany's allies, too, were not pleased. In Austria and +Hungary the act was severely criticized, and in Turkey I found much +disapproval of the thing. + +While the greater part of the Central European public accepted that +there had been some necessity for the sinking of the ship, seeing that +she carried freight of a military character, there were many who thought +that in such cases politics and not military necessity should govern +conduct. These people were better politicians than those in the +government. But the others were better militarists and militarism was in +control, being seated more firmly as each day brought more enemies, open +and potential. The case was much like that of a family that may have +difficulties within, but which would set in concerted action upon any +outsider who might think it well to intervene. + +This was to be the fundamental quality of German public sentiment +throughout the course of the war. As the ring of enemies grew stronger +and tightened more upon the military resources of the empire, the public +grew harder and harder. The pressure exerted being concentric, it +grouped the German public closer and harder to its center--the +government. It was no longer the absolute devotion of other years which +the Germans brought their government--hardly that. It was the +determination to win the war despite the government and despite what +others thought and held of that government. The fact that government +there must be is too clear to the German to make him act toward his +_Obrigkeit_ with the impetuousness that has characterized events in +Russia, where this was possible only because for decades many there have +held the view that the time of anarchical society was at hand. + +This state of mind made possible the acceptance of the heavy sacrifices +which were demanded by the war. The very private in the trenches felt +that he would have to risk all against a world of enemies. + +Self-pity in the individual leads usually to maudlinism. The trait is +not foreign to German temperament. Self-pity in the aggregate is a +totally different thing. It is the quality that makes martyrs of men, so +long as there is an audience. It is sentiment minus all sickly +self-indulgence, and that is fortitude--the thing that will cause men to +adhere to an idea or principle even in the face of the stake at the +_auto da fé_. + +It was this spirit, also, that caused the German multitude to bear with +patience the many deprivations and burdens due to the war. + +In Austria things were slightly different. The Austrian-German is +probably more of Celtic than of Germanic blood. He is more volatile. +Great issues do not hold his attention long. He becomes easily a slave +to habit. + +To the Austrian-German the war was never more than a nuisance. It +interfered with his business; above all, his enjoyments; it drove him +from his favorite café and his clandestine lady-love. It upset life for +him thoroughly. What was the preservation of the Austrian Empire to a +man who shared that empire with Czech, Pole, Ruthene, Slovene, Croat, +Italian, Bosniak Mussulman, and in a sense with the Magyar and +Roumanian? The feeling of race interest would have to remain foreign to +such a man, just as it was a stranger to all the others who fought at +his side. Of the ten races in the Dual Monarchy only the Slav group +could understand one another without special study of the other's +language. Czech, Pole, Ruthene, Slovene, Croat, and Bosniak could with +little difficulty master one another's language. German, so far as it +was not familiar in the form of military commands, was unknown to most +of them. Magyar was a total stranger to Slav and German alike, and +Italian and Roumanian meant nothing to any of these. + +I remember philosophizing a bit at the execution wall of the +fortress of Peterwardein in Hungary. To the left of me stood +a little gallows--one of those peculiar strangulation implements they +use in Austria-Hungary--descendant of the Spanish _garrote_, I believe. +On the ancient brick wall were the marks left there by chipping steel +bullets. Many a Serb seditionist had seen the light of day for the last +time in that old moat. More of them were behind the grilled peepholes +of the casemate. That morning two or three had died where I stood. + +In that there was nothing unusual, perhaps. But on my right was a large +poster, framed with the Hungarian national colors, red, white, and +green. The poster drew attention to a certain paragraph of the treason +laws. It defined treason poignantly, precisely. + +I read the paragraph in German, concluded that the Hungarian said the +same, surmised that the Slav languages in the country did not differ +greatly from one another, found that Roumanian I could almost read, and +saw that the Italian version said the same thing as the German. I +suppose French had been left off the poster for the reason that the +Austro-Hungarian inter-monarchical classes, which now use that language +instead of Latin, as in the days of Marie Therese, did not need to have +their attention drawn to the danger of sedition. + +The gallows and execution wall seemed fit companions to that poster. One +might not have missed the other when seeing the one, but still there was +harmony between the two. People who do not understand one another, be +that a question of language or temperament, have no business to live +together. But the thing happens often in wedlock, and governments at +peace and leisure say that it is perfectly feasible from the viewpoints +of state interests. + +I found that _Das Reich_--the empire--had no meaning to any member of +the Austro-Hungarian group. But what held that conglomerate together? +The Emperor-King. + +Soon I found that nothing had changed in Austria-Hungary since the days +when the Empress-Queen Marie Therese, with her infant son in her arms, +and tears in her eyes and on her cheeks, had implored the Magyar nobles +to come to her assistance against Frederick the Great. The Magyar nobles +tore off their fur _kalpacks_, drew their swords, and cried: + +"_Moriamur pro rege nostro, Maria Theresa!_" + +That was still the mass psychology in the dual monarchy. The old +Emperor-King called to battle, and that was enough. Later the new +Emperor-King renewed the call, and it was still enough. + +What the soldiers did in the trenches the civilian population did at +home--a little half-heartedly at times, a little slovenly occasionally, +but reliably at all times. + +"We must help our Macedonian brothers. The Bulgars can no longer remain +deaf to their prayers to be relieved of the oppression of the Serbs," +said the Bulgarian Premier, Doctor Radoslavoff, to me in February, 1915. + +In October of the same year he said during an interview: + +"There is not enough room for two strong states on the Balkan peninsula. +Yet there must be a strong state if the Balkan problem is to be +eliminated. That strong state will be either Bulgaria or Serbia. _We_ +desire that it be Bulgaria. It will be Bulgaria when the Macedonians are +permitted to join her. The time has come when they can do that. For that +reason we go to war on the side of the Central Powers." + +The two statements picture Bulgarian mass psychology exactly. The Bulgar +wanted the Macedonian to be one with him nationally, as he is racially. +He wanted the ancient Bulgar capital of Monastir to lie again within +Bulgarland. With that in perspective he had driven the Turk from the +peninsula; for that purpose he wanted to make the Serb small. + +I found the same iron determination throughout Bulgaria and in all walks +of life. The _shope_ farmer, the shepherd in the _planina_, the monks at +Rila Monastir, the fishermen at Varna, the city and towns people, were +all for that idea. And in so stern a manner! To me the Bulgar will +always be the Prussian of the Balkan. He is just as morose, just as +blunt, and just as sincere. + +I had occasion to discuss Turkey's entry into the European War with his +Majesty, Sultan Mahmed Réchad Khan V., Ghazi, Caliph of all the +Faithful, etc., etc., etc. + +"They [the Allies] deny us the right to exist," said the old man. "We +have the right to exist and we are willing to fight for that. I have led +a very peaceful life always. I abhor bloodshed, and I am sincere when I +say that I mourn for those who died with the ships [the crews of the +battleships _Bouvet_ and _Irresistible_ whom I had seen go down with +their ships on March 18th, an event which the Sultan had asked me to +describe to him]. It must be hard to die when one is so young. But what +can we do? The Russians want the Bosphorus, this city, and the +Dardanelles. They have never belonged to the Russians. If there is +anybody who has a better right to them than we have, it is the Greeks. +We took these things from them. But we will not give them up to anybody +without the best fight the race of Osmanli has yet put up." + +Like Scheherazade, I then continued my account of the bombardment. + +Said Halim Pasha, then Grand Vizier, expressed himself somewhat +similarly. He was more diplomatically specific. + +"The hour of Turkey was come," he said. "That conflagration could not +end without the Allied fleet appearing off the Dardanelles, and the +Russian fleet off the Bosphorus. That would be the smash-up of the +Ottoman Empire. The Entente governments offered us guarantees that for +thirty years Ottoman territory would be held inviolate by them. +Guarantees--guarantees! What do they amount to! We have had so many +guarantees. When Turkey gets a guarantee it is merely a sign that there +is one more pledge to be broken. We are through with guarantees. We +joined the Germans because they offered none." + +All this in the most fluent Oxford English a man ever used. Said Halim +is an Egyptian and somewhat directly related to the Great Prophet in the +line of Ayesha. + +Enver Pasha, the Prussian of the Ottoman Empire, Minister of War, +generalissimo, Young Turk leader, efficiency apostle, Pan-German, and +what not, told me the same thing on several occasions. + +"Nonsense, nonsense!" he would say in sharp and rasping German. "We are +not fighting for the Germans. We are fighting for ourselves. Mark that! +They told us we'd be all right if we stayed neutral. Didn't believe it. +Nonsense! Russians wanted Constantinople. We know them. They can have +it when we are through with it. It was a case of lose all, win all. I am +for win all. Fired five thousand of the old-school officers to win this +war. Will win it. Country bled white, of course. Too many wars +altogether. First, Balkan War, Italian War. Now this. Better to go to +hell with Germans than take more favors from Entente. Those who don't +like us don't have to. Nobody need love us. Let them keep out of our +way. May go down in this. If we do we'll show world how Turk can go down +with colors flying. This is Turkey's last chance." + +It took Talaat Bey, then Minister of the Interior, now Grand Vizier, to +epitomize Turkey for me. He is a man of the plainest of people. When the +Turkish revolution of 1908 came Talaat was earning 150 francs a month as +a telegraph operator in Salonica. He saw his chance, and he and Dame +Opportunity have been great friends ever since. At that, he is not a +lean bundle of nerves like Enver Pasha, his great twin in Young Turkism. +He is heavy, good-natured, thick-necked, stubborn, bullet-headed, +shrewd. + +"_Très bien, cher frère_" ("We meet on the same pavement"), he said to +me in the best of Levantine French. "I can't say that this war is any +too popular with some of our people. They have had enough of wars, and +revolutions, and trouble, and taxes, and exploitation by +_concessionnaires_, and all that sort of thing. I suppose I would feel +the same way about it were I a Greek or an Armenian. But I am Turk. We +Turks felt that the European War would be the last of us. The Russians +want Constantinople and its waterways. The Italians want Cilicia, +forgetting entirely that the Greeks have priority in claim. I suppose +Thrace would have gone to the Bulgars when lot was cast for the shreds +of the mantle of the Osmanli, and Great Britain would have taken what +was left, which would have been not so little. + +"When a man is up against that he does the best he can. That's what we +are doing. It's a mighty effort, _cher frère_, but there is no way out. +We Turks are not ready yet to bow to the audience. We would still remain +in the play awhile. And we are willing to play accordingly. We have all +confidence in the Germans. Some people don't like them. They are +terrible competitors, I have been told. So far we have not done so +poorly with them. We have abolished the capitulations. That is something +for a start. When this war is over we hope to be more the masters of the +Bosphorus and the Dardanelles than we have been since the days of Grand +Vizier Köprülü. It'll be a hard row to hoe before the end is reached. +But we will come out on top. After that we and the Germans will try to +make something of our natural resources. We will build railroads and +factories, irrigate wherever possible, and establish the finest +agricultural schools to be found anywhere. But we will see to it that +Turkey is developed for the benefit of the Ottoman. Tobacco monopolies +and foreign public-debt administrations we hope to banish." + +Such is the aim of the Turk. To speak of mass psychology in the Ottoman +Empire is not possible, for the reason that it has more races than +Austria-Hungary and no central personage to hold them together. The old +Sultan is a myth to fully two-thirds of the Ottoman population. To the +Greeks and Armenians he is no more than any other high official of the +government. + + + + +XIX + +SEX MORALITY AND WAR + + +I have seen much comment on the increase of sexual laxness in the +Central European states, owing to the influence of the war. Those who +have written and spoken on the subject have, as a rule, proclaimed +themselves handicapped by either prejudice or ignorance--two things +which are really one. + +Much breath and ink has been wasted on certain steps taken by the +several German and Austro-Hungarian governments for the legitimization +of natural offspring by giving the mother the right to set the prefix +_Frau_--Mrs.--before her maiden name. I have also run across the +perfectly silly statement that the Central European governments, in +allowing such women the war subsistence and pension of the legitimate +widow and children, were purposely fostering that sort of illicit +relations between men and women for the purpose of repeopling their +states. On that point not much breath need be wasted, for the very good +reason that each child is indeed welcome just now in Central Europe, and +that the government's least duty is to take care of the woman and child +who might ultimately have been the wife and legitimate offspring of the +man who lost his life in the trenches. Sex problems are the inevitable +result of all wars in which many men lose life and health. I may also +say that in other belligerent countries this problem has as yet not been +dealt with half so intelligently and thoroughly. + +Monogamy and polygamy are usually economic results rather than purely +social institutions. A stay of nine months in Turkey showed me that +polygamy in that country is disappearing fast, because the Turk is no +longer able to support more than one wife. In the entire Bosphorus +district, in which Constantinople lies and of which it is the center, +there were in 1915 but seventeen Moslem households in which could be +found the limit of four legitimate wives. Of the entire population of +the district only seven per thousand Turks had more than one wife, so +that, on the whole, legalized polygamy made a better showing in sex +morality than what we of the Occident can boast of, seeing that +prostitution is unknown among the Turks. + +That the war increased illicit sexual intercourse in Central Europe is +true, nor was that increase a small one. It did not take on the +proportions, however, which have been given to it, or which under the +circumstances might have been looked for. + +In the first place, many of the slender social threads that restrain sex +impulse in the modern state snapped under the strain of the war. Their +place was taken by something that was closely related to the Spartan +system of marriage. Free selection was practised by women whose husbands +were at the front. The men did the same thing. The water on the +divorce-mill took on a mighty spurt--evidence that this looseness did +not always find the consent of the other party, though often his or her +conduct may not have been any better. + +This is a case in which generalization is not permissible. The good +stood beside the bad and indifferent, and reference to the subject might +be dispensed with entirely were it not that public subsistence is +closely related to sex morality. + +War takes from his home and family the man. Though the governments made +some provision for those left behind, the allowance given them was never +large enough to keep them as well as they had been kept by the labor of +the head of the family. So long as the cost of living did not greatly +increase, the efforts of the wife and older children met the situation, +but all endeavor of that sort became futile when the price of food and +other necessities increased twofold and even more. When that moment came +the tempter had an easy time of it. From the family had also been taken +much of the restraint which makes for social orderliness. The man was +away from home; the young wife had seen better times. Other men came +into her path, and nature is not in all cases as loyal to the marriage +vows as we would believe. In many cases the mother, now unassisted by +the authority of the father, was unable to keep her daughters and sons +in check. + +War has a most detrimental effect upon the mind of the juvenile. The +romance of soldiering unleashes in the adolescent male every quality +which social regulation has curbed in the past, while the young woman +usually discards the common sense of her advisers for the sickly +sentimentalism which brass buttons on clothing cut on military lines is +apt to rouse in the female mind. Soon the social fabric is rent in many +places and governmental efforts at mending are hardly ever successful. + +We have of this an indication in the remarkable increase in juvenile +delinquency which marked the course of the European War. In thousands of +cases the boys of good families became thieves and burglars. Even +highway robbery was not beyond them, and, odd as it may seem, nearly +every murder committed in the Central states in the last three years had +a lone woman of wealth for a victim and some young degenerate, male or +female, as perpetrator. In the cases that came to my notice the father +or husband was at the front. + +But apart from these more or less spontaneous failings of young men and +women, there was the category of offenses in which external influence +was the _causa movens_. Desperate need caused many to steal and +embezzle; it caused many women to divest themselves of that self-respect +which is decency and the glory of the _fille honnête_. + +Nothing can be so cynical as the laws of social administration. That was +shown on every hand by the war, but especially did it become apparent in +the gratification of the sexual appetite by that class which has nothing +but money. While the father and husband was at the front, fighting for +the state, and heaping the wealth of the community into the coffers of a +rapacious industrial and commercial class, his daughter and wife were +often corrupted by that very wealth. Nor was it always bitter want that +promoted the lust of the wealthy profligate. The war had shaken the +social structure to its very foundations. So great was the pressure of +anxiety that the human mind began to crave for relief in abandonment, +and once this had been tasted the subject would often become a confirmed +"good-time" fiend. + +There was a certain war purveyor of whom it was said that he seduced a +virgin once a week. The class he drew upon was the lowest. Most of his +victims were factory-girls, and, such being the case, nobody thought +much of it at a time when calamity had roused in all the worst qualities +that may be wakened in the struggle for self-preservation. It was a case +of the devil take the hindmost, and his Satanic Majesty did not overlook +his chance. + +For a few days these girls would be the paramours of their masters. +When, finally, they saw themselves cast off in favor of a prettier face, +they would for a while frequent cafés where they would meet the officers +on leave and small fry of civilians, and not long after that they did +business on the street with a government license and certificate showing +that they were being inspected by the authorities in the interest of +public health. + +That was the usual career of one of these war victims. But the thing did +not end there. The thousands who had grown rich on war contracts and +food speculation began to tire of the very uninteresting sport of +ruining factory-girls and shop-women. They reached out into those social +classes in which refinement made a raid so much more delectable. To +physical debauch had to be added moral and mental orgy. Taste had been +stimulated to a degree where it demanded that social destruction should +accompany lustful extravagance. And that only the woman of the better +class could give. The gourmand became an epicure. Times favored him. + +What proportions this state of affairs reached may be illustrated by the +"personal" advertisements carried at one time by one of Vienna's +foremost newspapers, the _Tagblatt_. Throughout the week that paper +would carry from forty to ninety inches, single column, of personal +ads., each of them requesting a woman, seen here or there, to enter into +correspondence with the advertiser for "strictly honorable" purposes. On +Sundays the same paper would carry as much as two whole pages of that +sort of advertising. Soon the time came when often as much as a quarter +of these ads. would be inserted by women who disguised a heartrending +appeal to some wretch in whatever manner they could. + +Emperor Charles deserves the highest credit for finally putting his foot +down on that practice. The "personals" in the _Tagblatt_ began to +irritate him, and one day he let it become known to the management of +the publication that further insertion of that sort of matter would lead +to the heavy hand of the censors being felt. That helped. After that the +_Tagblatt_ ran only matrimonial advertising. Yet even that was not +wholly innocuous. The daughter of a colonel was corrupted by means of +it. I am glad to say that the old soldier took the law in his own hand. +He looked up the man who had seduced the young woman and shot him dead +in his tracks. The government had good sense enough to dispose of the +case by having the colonel make a report. + +To my own attention came, in Budapest, the case of a fourteen-year-old +girl who had been sold by her own mother to a rich manufacturer. The +woman had advertised in a Budapest newspaper that did business along the +lines of the Vienna _Tagblatt_. The girl knew nothing of it, of course. +There was a sequel in court, and during the testimony the woman said +that she had sold her daughter to the manufacturer in order to get the +money she needed to keep herself and her other children. Josephus +mentions in his _Wars of the Jews_ how a woman of Jerusalem killed, then +cooked and ate, her own child, because the robbers had taken everything +from her, and, rather than see the child starve, she killed it. He also +mentions that the robbers left the house horror-struck. The war purveyor +and food shark did not always have that much feeling left in them. + +Poor little Margit! When my attention was drawn to her she was a +waitress in a café in Budapest, and her patrons used to give her an +extra _filler_ or two in order that she might not have to do on her own +account what she had been obliged to suffer at the behest of her raven +mother. As I heard the story, the manufacturer got off with a fine, and +the mother of Margit was just then sorting rags in a cellar, with +tuberculosis wasting her lungs. + +Society at war is a most peculiar animal--it is anarchy without the +safeguards of that anarchy which fires the mind of the idealist; for +that system and its free love would make the buying of woman impossible. + +But there were sorts of sexual looseness that were not quite so sordid, +which at least had the excuse of having natural causes as their +background. Rendered irresponsible by sexual desire and the monotony of +a poverty-stricken existence, many of the younger women whose husbands +were in the army started liaisons, _Verhältnisse_, as they are called in +German, with such men as were available. It speaks well for the openness +of mind of some husbands that they did not resent this. I happen to know +of a case in which a man at the front charged a friend to visit his +wife. After I learned of this I came to understand that progress, called +civilization, is indeed a very odd thing. The Spartans when at war used +to do the same thing, and it was the practice of commanders to send +home young men of physical perfection in order that the women should +beget well-developed children. The offspring was later known as +_partheniæ_--of the virgin born. But the laws of the Spartans favored an +intelligent application of this principle, while in Central Europe no +regulation of that sort could be attempted. + +An effort was made by the several governments to check this tendency +toward social dissolution. For the first time in many years the police +raided hotels. Now and then offenders were heavily fined. But +authorities which in the interest of public health had licensed certain +women were prone to be open-minded to practices due to the war. It was +realized that the times were such that latitude had to be given; in the +end it was felt that just now it did not matter how children were born. +The state began to assume what had formerly been the duty of the father +and proceeded with more vigor than ever against the malpractice of +physicians. One of them, convicted on the charge of abortion, was given +a two-year sentence of penal servitude. + +It cannot be said, however, that the woman who had made up her mind to +remain a loyal wife or innocent was not given ample protection. The +state was interested in the production of children, but had little +patience with illicit sexual intercourse that did not result in this. +There is the theory that the child whose father does not take some +loving interest in the mother is not of as much value as that which has +been born in the "wedlock" of love. With that in view, the government +took what precaution there was possible. The profligate and _roué_ were +given a great deal of attention, though little good came of this, since +the times favored them entirely too much. But there is no doubt that the +eyes of the law saw where they could see. + +Food-lines were as a rule attended by policemen, whose duty it was to +maintain order and keep off the human hyenas who were in the habit of +loitering about these lines for the purpose of picking out women. That +was well enough. But the policeman could not see these women home, nor +prevent the man from surveying the crowd, making his selection, and +later forcing his attentions upon the woman. + +With the need for food and clothing always pressing, the ground was +generally well prepared, and the public was inclined to be lenient in +such matters anyway--as "war" publics have a knack of doing. + +I had scraped up acquaintances with a number of policemen in the +district in which I lived. Most of them I had met in connection with my +investigation of food-line matters. They were all very fine fellows, and +red blood rather than red tape was in their veins. The suffering of the +women in the food-lines had made these men more human than is usual in +their business. + +"Another one of them has gone to the bad," said one of the policemen to +me one day, as he pointed out to me discreetly a rather pretty young +woman who had come for her ration of potatoes. "A fellow, who seems +rather well-to-do, has been trailing her to and from this store for +almost two weeks. I had my eye on him, and would have nabbed him quick +enough had he ever spoken to the woman while in the line. Well, three +days ago I saw the two of them together in the Schwarzenberg Café. The +damage is done now, I suppose. You will notice that she has on a new +pair of shoes. She must have paid for them at least one hundred and ten +crowns." + +I suggested that the shoes were not necessarily proof that the woman had +done wrong. + +"Under the circumstances they are," said the policeman. "Yesterday I +managed to talk to the woman. She is the wife of a reservist who is now +on the Italian front. The government gives her a subsistence of one +hundred and twenty crowns a month. She has no other means. With two +little children to take care of, that allowance wouldn't pay for shoes +of that sort. It's too bad. She is the second one in this food-line this +month who has done that." + +Shortly afterward I learned of the case of a woman who had sold herself +in order to provide food and fuel for her two children. She was the +widow of a reserve officer who had fallen in Galicia. Her own pension +amounted to one hundred and ten crowns a month, and for the support of +the children she was allowed another one hundred crowns, I believe. The +sum was entirely too small to keep the three, being the equivalent of, +roughly, twenty-seven dollars, depreciation of the Austro-Hungarian +currency considered. At that time life in Vienna was as costly as it is +normally in the United States. While her husband had been alive the +woman had led a very comfortable life. She had kept a servant and lived +in a good apartment in the Third Municipal District. The thing that +struck me in her case was that she had not taken the step before. It is +extremely difficult to be virtuous on twenty-seven dollars a month when +one has not known need before. + +The many cases of that sort which I could cite would merely repeat +themselves. I will make mention, however, of one which is due to what +may be termed the psychology of the mass in war. In this instance it was +not want that was responsible. Aggregates involved in war seem to sense +instinctively that the violence of arms may draw in its wake social +dissolution. The pathology of society is affected by that in much the +same manner as is evident in other organisms when a change is imminent +or pending. A period of relaxation sets in, which in the case of the +human aggregate manifests itself in sexual looseness. + +In various parts of Serbia I had had occasion to notice that the women +gave themselves readily to the invading soldiers. In the Austrian +capital I ran into the same thing, though there was at that time no +danger of invasion. + +Time lying heavy on my hands when I was not at a front, or occupied with +some political situation in one of the Central European seats of +government, I decided to pass some of it by taking piano lessons. I +made the necessary arrangements with a master of the instrument near the +Kärntner Ring. On the three half-hours a week which I took from the +_maestro_ I was preceded on two by a pretty young woman greatly gifted +musically. Her parents were well off, so that it was not a question of +getting a "good time" in the only manner possible. + +After a while the young woman failed to appear for her lessons. The +_Tonmeister_ wanted to know the reason for this. Confused and +conflicting answers being all he received, he made up his mind that +something was wrong. The poor old man had dealt with nothing but music +all his life, and was delightfully ignorant of the ways of the world. He +asked my advice. Should he inform the parents of the student? + +After I had ascertained that his responsibility as teacher was not +weighted by friendship or even acquaintance with the girl's family, I +suggested that he confine himself to his proper province by notifying +the student that failure in the future to put in appearance at her hour +would result in a report of that and past delinquencies to the parents. + +A very emotional interview between teacher and student resulted. By this +time the girl had realized the folly of her conduct and seemed truly +repentant. Being much attached to the old teacher, she made a clean +breast of it. Her excuse was most interesting. + +"You see, dear master," she said, "these are war times. I thought that +it wouldn't matter much. If the Russians came to Vienna it might happen +anyway." + +There is used in the German army a word that comprises every +rule of sex conduct to which the soldier is subject, or ought to +be--_Manneszucht_--the moral discipline of the man. Infraction of this +rule is severely punished in all cases, though the ordinary soldier may +under it cohabit with a woman by her consent. To the officer this +privilege is not given, however, it being assumed that as the instrument +of military discipline he must be proof against many demands of nature +and be in full control of himself at all times. The German officer who +would violate a woman in an occupied territory fares badly, and the code +forbids that he enter into liaison with a woman of the enemy. Nor may he +visit the army brothels which now and then are established by the +authorities. + +I do not mean to infer that the German army officer always and +invariably adheres to these rules. But he does this generally. The +abstinence thus practised reflects itself in that unqualified devotion +to duty for which the German officer is deservedly famous. It tends to +make of him, for military purposes, a sort of superman. He comes to +regard the curb he sets upon himself as entitling him to despise the +weaklings who satisfy their desires. In the course of time he extended +the fine contempt that comes from this to his allied brothers-in-arms in +Austria and Hungary, who were deplorably lax in that respect, despite +the regulations. + +Though I do not especially deal with the latter subject, I must mention +it here as a preamble to a certain experience I had one night in +Trieste. The experience, on the other hand, showed to what extent war +may influence the conduct of men whose station and opportunities might +cause one to believe that they were above surrendering to sexual +laxness. + +In the "Hall" of the Hotel Excelsior of Trieste were sitting at café +tables some sixty Austro-Hungarian officers from the Isonzo front who on +that day had been furloughed from the trenches for a certain purpose. At +the tables sat also a fourscore of women who for the time being were the +sweethearts of the officers. High revelry was on. The windows of the +room, with all others along the Trieste water-front, had been well +blinded, so that no beam of light fell into the inky blackness without +through which a fierce _borea_--northern wind--was just then driving a +veritable deluge. + +The room was well heated and lighted. I had on that very day walked off +a sector on the Carso plateau, and found a most pleasant contrast +between the cold and muddy trenches and the "Hall." It was exceedingly +snug in the place. And there was the inevitable gipsy music. + +Across the bay, from Montfalcone, came the sound of an Italian night +drumfire, and in the room popped the bottle of Paluguay champagne--the +French products being just then hard to get. + +There were three other war correspondents in the party. An Austrian +general-staff man was in charge. The officer was of the strait-laced +sort and did not sanction the conduct of his colleagues. But then he was +at headquarters at Adelsberg and could go to Vienna almost as often as +he liked. The others were poor devils who had been sitting in the Carso +trenches for months and had now come to Trieste to have a good time, +even if that meant that next morning the pay of several months would be +in the pocket of the hotel manager and in the hands of some good-looking +Italo-Croat woman. + +It was not long before we had at our table some of the "ladies." One of +the war correspondents had taken it upon himself to provide us with +company. From that company I learned what the frame of mind of the +officers was. After all, that attitude was simple enough. Each day might +be the last, and why not enjoy life to-day when to-morrow there might be +a burial without coffin, without anything except the regrets of +comrades? What was etiquette under such circumstances? The champagne +helped them to forget, and the women, though their conversation might be +discouragingly banal, were, after all, members of the other sex. One of +the women was able to take a very intelligent survey of the situation. +She was capable of sensing real sympathy for these men. I learned that +she had lost her husband in the war. It was the same old story. She had +found the small pension for herself and the allowance for her boy +entirely insufficient, was not minded to do poorly paid hard work, and +had concluded that it was easy for the well-to-do to be decent. The poor +had to do the best they could in these days of high prices. + +Out on the Carso the bombardment progressed, satisfactorily, I presume, +as the next official _communiqué_ of the Italian government would say. +The champagne bottles continued to pop. Men and women drank to one +another's good health, the former oblivious, for the time being, that +this might be the last good time they would ever enjoy. + +It strikes me that not much fault can be found with this, so long as we +are human enough to allow those whom we are about to execute for the +commission of some crime to choose their last breakfast--or is it +supper? To be detailed into the advanced trenches was generally no +better than to be sentenced to death. + +Only those who have been constantly threatened by the dangers of war can +realize what state of mind these men were in. Nothing mattered any more, +and, nothing being really important, the pleasures of the flesh were +everything. It was so with the little music student I have mentioned. I +could not reach a harsh judgment in either case, despite the picture of +Prussian _Manneszucht_ before my eyes. At the same time, I am not +ignorant of the fact that sleek communities living in peace and plenty +cannot be expected to understand the moral disintegration which the +dangers of war had wrought in this instance. + +I made the acquaintance of similar conditions in Berlin and other cities +of the Central states. Being a matter-of-fact individual, I cannot say +that they shocked me. The relations of cause and effect cannot be +explained away, much as we may wish to do it. With some fourteen million +men taken away from their families, whose sole support they were in the +vast majority of cases, nothing else was to be expected. It speaks well +for mankind in general that the resulting conditions were not worse. The +responsibility involved falls rather upon those who brought on the war +than upon the men and women who transgressed. + +And that responsibility was not shirked in the Central states. Before +the war broke out there had already been held very liberal views on +illegitimacy. The children of Hagar were no longer ostracized by the +public, as, for instance, they are in the United States and other +countries where social "justice" is still visited upon those whose +misfortune it is to have been born out of wedlock. In Germany and +Austria-Hungary it was held that a man is a man for all that. + +Small wonder, then, that during the winter of 1916, when the crop of +"war" babies was unusually large--formed, in fact, more than 10 per +cent. of the increase in population--the several Central European +governments should decide to give such children and their mothers the +allowances provided for the wives and widows of soldiers and their +children. The German state governments, that of Prussia excepted, +also abolished the "illegitimate" birth certificate and gave +the unwed soldier wife or widow the right to use the designation +_Frau_--Mistress--instead of, as heretofore, _Fräulein_, or Miss. + +This measure was a fine example of humaneness, seeing that otherwise +many thousands of mothers of "war" babies would have been obliged to go +through life with the stigma of illegitimacy branding both woman and +child. It is somewhat typical of Prussia that its government should be +willing to support illegitimate "war" babies and their mothers and yet +deny them the comforts of social recognition, when their number was no +less than two hundred thousand. + +There came up, in connection with this legislation, the question of +whether the offspring of unmarried women whose paramours were not in the +military service should receive the same liberal treatment. A great deal +of opposition was voiced by the clergy and other conservative elements. +It was argued that extension of this benefit to all would encourage a +general recourse to free love. + +But the legislators and governments were less short-sighted. The +legitimizing acts were so framed that they included all children, no +matter who their fathers were. It was held that it would be absurd to +expect the millions of women whom the war had robbed of their husbands, +or the chance of getting one, to lead a life of celibacy. Nature would +assert itself, and if the subject was not now dealt with in a rational +manner, it would have to be disposed of later when conditions might be +less favorable. + +There were certain examples to be recalled. At the conclusion of the +Thirty Years' War the South German states, being the hardest hit in +losses of male population, adopted laws according to which any man with +the necessary means could legitimately admit into his house as many +women as he cared to support. Though well-intentioned, the law shared +every defect which emergency legislation is apt to be afflicted with. +The men able to support more than one wife were generally advanced in +years, so that the very condition which the state had hoped to meet gave +rise to chaos. It had not been the intention to afford the pleasures of +the seraglio to the wealthy, but to take the best possible account of a +social emergency. + +This was borne in mind when the Central states governments dealt with a +similar condition in 1916, the factors of which were these: There had +been killed in action, crippled for life, and incapacitated by disease +nearly five million men who had gone to the fronts in the very prime of +life. That meant a serious loss to a community--considering Germany and +Austria-Hungary a single unit in this respect--which then had +approximately twenty million women in the state of puberty. Reduced to +statistics, the situation was that there were only four men of +marriageable age for every five women. It was estimated at the time that +before the war was over these odds would go to three to five. Recent +casualty statistics show that this stage has been nearly reached. + +I must make reference here to the fact that the normal and healthy woman +finds life with the physically impaired man a torture. A good many cases +of that sort have come to my attention. One of them is so typical of all +others that I will give its details. + +At a certain Berlin drawing-room I made the acquaintance of a charming +young woman of the better class. I may say that she is a writer of +considerable merit. + +A few months before the outbreak of the war she had married a +professional man of quality. When the mobilization came he was drafted +as an officer of the reserve. + +For months at a time the two did not see each other, and when finally +the man returned home for good one leg had been amputated at the knee +and the other a little above the ankle. The woman did what most women +would do under the circumstances. She received the man with open arms +and nursed him back to complete recovery. + +Soon it was evident that all was not well with the relations of the two. +The woman tried to forget that her husband was a cripple for life. But +the harder she tried the more grew a feeling of repulsion for the man. +Finally, she decided to live alone. + +It would be very simple to label the woman a heartless creature. But it +would be quite as unjust. The foes of even that small portion of +realism which the most logical of us are able to identify may be +inclined to take the stand that sex has little to do with what is called +love. And yet in the healthy race it forms the social _force majeure_. +It is not for me to decide whether the woman in question did well in +leaving the man. After all, that is her own affair--so much more her own +affair since the man, as yet not reconciled to his great misfortune, +began to plague her with most vicious outbreaks of jealousy, when as yet +he had no reason for it. + +The man is to be pitied by all, and unless he is able to calm his mind +with the solace that comes from philosophical temperament, it would have +been far better were he among the dead. He may in the end find another +mate; but, seen from the angle of natural law, it must be doubted that +the pity, which would have to be the great factor in such a love, would +in any degree be as valuable as the sexual instinct which caused the +other woman to go her own ways. Idealism and practice are always two +different things. The former is the star that guides the craft, while +practice is the storm-tossed sea. + +More than fifty thousand Russian prisoners-of-war petitioned the +Austrian government to be admitted to citizenship in the country that +held them captive. Many of these men had been sent into the rural +districts to assist the farmers. Others were busy around the cities. +They had come to be reconciled with their lot, had acquired a fair +working knowledge of the language, and association with the women had +led to the usual results. The crop of "war" babies increased. + +The Russians were willing to marry these women, but under the law could +not do so. Hence the petition for admission to the usual civil rights. +The Austrian government recognized the situation, but in the absence of +the necessary legislative authority could do nothing to admit the +Russian to Austrian _Staatsangehörigkeit_. Yet it was eager to do that. +The new blood was needed. + +Travel about the country has often brought to my attention that in +certain districts intermarriage for centuries had led to degeneration. +Goiter, one of the first signals of warning that new blood must be +infused in the race, was prevalent. Scientists had drawn attention to +this long before the war. But there was nothing that could be done. + +The Russian prisoners-of-war came to serve as the solution of the +problem. Their offspring were unusually robust, and some cranium +measurements that were made showed that the children were of the best +type mentally. + +A state which was losing men at a frightful rate every day could not be +expected to view this increase in population with alarm. So long as the +mothers were Austrian all was well from the political point of view, +since it is the mother usually who rears the patriot. The Russians, +moreover, soon grew fond of the institutions of Austria, and gave return +to their own people hardly any thought. Conversation with many of them +demonstrated that, on the contrary, they were not anxious to go home. +Russia was then still the absolute autocracy, and these men were not +minded to exchange the liberal government of Austria for the despotism +they knew. + +I may state here that the Austrian government, serving in this instance +as the example of all others in Central Europe, had done its level best +to promote this very thing. On several trips to prison camps I visited +the schools in which the Russian prisoners were being taught German. +Thousands of the men were thus given their first chance to read and +write, and to the more intelligent was apparent the irony of fate that +caused them to read and write German instead of their own language. No +more deliberate attempt to win friends could have been devised and +executed. Small wonder that on one occasion a Russian working detachment +employed in road-making on the Italian front rushed to the assistance of +the Austrians who were being overwhelmed, and cut down the last of their +allies with their spades and picks. + +To what extent Russian blood has been infused in the rural population of +Austria and Hungary is at present entirely a matter of conjecture. The +same applies to Germany, though I must state that in this case the +number cannot be so great. + +Dreary as the picture is, it is not without its brighter spots. The +mixture of blood which has occurred in many of these countries will +improve the human stock. And who would care to gainsay that governments +are not in the habit of looking at populations from that angle--the +angle of stock? None will admit it, of course, they may not even be +conscious of the fact that they hold this view. But so long as +governments are interested more in quantity than in quality of +propagation they cannot easily clear themselves of the suspicion. I am +not at all sure that it is not better thus. + +I have so far treated the post-bellum aspect of sex morality entirely +from the position of the man. Women will ask the question: What do the +women think of it? + +That depends somewhat on conditions and circumstances. + +"When one is forty, one is satisfied with being _madame_," said a +Hungarian lady to me once, when the subject had been discussed. She +meant that the woman of forty was content with being the head of a +household. + +Such an attitude takes a breadth of view altogether unknown in the +Anglo-Saxon world. I found it often in Central Europe, especially in +Austria, where one day were pointed out to me two couples who not so +very long before had changed mates by mutual consent on the part of all +four concerned. One of the husbands is a rich banker, and the other, his +best friend by the way, is also well off. The double pair go to the same +café, sit at the same table, and their friends think nothing of it. They +are regularly divorced and married, of course. + +While elsewhere in Central Europe the same easy view is not taken, it +is a fact, nevertheless, that nowhere much puritanical strait-lacedness +is to be encountered. I happen to know a certain successful diplomat who +closed both eyes to his wife's infatuation for a young naval officer. +The wife was young and her husband was past middle age. Rather than lose +the woman and have a scandal besides, the diplomatist applied to himself +what he had so often applied to others--the deception there is in +self-restraint. + +The three of them got along well together. Often I was the fourth at +table. While the diplomatist and I would smoke our cigars and sip our +coffee, the two would sit side by side on the ottoman and hold intimate +converse. But in Europe it is considered tactless to speak of such +matters. + +There will be heartache, of course. Many a good woman will find herself +displaced by a younger one. But that will not be without some +compensation. The husband who would desert his mate because the charms +of youth have flown may not be worth keeping. It may even be an act of +mercy that he has rekindled his affection at some other shrine. The +forsaken wife may have grown very weary herself of the life conjugal. + +In Protestant Germany the readjustment will be easier than in Catholic +Austria and Hungary. In the latter countries much double-living will +result, and that means that more women will have to sacrifice more +self-respect. That is the worst part of it. + +But, again, the _légère_ views of Central Europe come into play. So long +as the man has sense enough to keep his "war" wife in the background, +nobody will take offense, and the legal wife may not mind. Officially, +the paramour will not exist. As soon as she has children she will be a +"Mrs." in her own right, and I suppose that many will not wait that long +before changing "_Fräulein_" into "_Frau_." + +There is no doubt that the condition is unjust to two women at the same +time. But there seems to be no escape from it. Ministers of the gospel +have already roundly condemned what seeming sanction the government has +given to illicit intercourse. But these good men are theorists, while +the government is practical--practical for the reason that a great +social problem has to be met in the best manner possible. It is far +better to give the thing such aspects of decency as is possible rather +than to encourage the growth of the social evil into proportions that +might for all time impair the health of the race. Students of the social +evil generally agree, throughout Europe at least, that its prime causes +are economic. Communities in which the man, by reason of small income, +is not able to establish a household early in life have not only the +greatest number of loose women, but also the greatest number of +free-living bachelors. + +The problem, then, has an economic side. In the instance here under +scrutiny, the economic side is that more women than ever before must +earn their own living in Central Europe to-day. The women will readily +do that, so long as society will not entirely deny them the company of +the man or place upon such company the stigma that generally attaches to +it. Without such privileges many of these women--nature decrees +ironically that they should be physically the best of the race--would +take to vice in such numbers that society would lose more by being +ungenerous than by taking a common-sense view of the problem it has to +face. + +But logic in such matters is no balm of Gilead. The young married woman +will be able to compete with the "surplus"; the older ones, I fear, will +not. To them the war will be the thing of the hour, long after the grass +has grown over the trenches, long after the work of reconstruction shall +have healed the economic wounds. + +There will be many who can truly say, "I lost my husband in the war." +And the worst of it is that they will not be able to say this with the +tenderness that was in the heart at the departure for the field of +battle. + + + + +XX + +WAR LOANS AND ECONOMY + + +During the last three years and a half the political economy of Germany +and her allies has strongly resembled that in vogue among certain South +Sea Islanders, who are supposed to make a living by taking in one +another's washing. The same money has been making the rounds on one of +the oddest economic whirligigs mankind has so far seen. + +The war has been carried on by means of funds derived mostly from war +loans. By means of them Germany has so far raised, roughly, +$19,800,000,000, and Austria-Hungary $8,600,000,000, making a total of +$28,400,000,000. In addition to that the two countries have spent on the +war about $2,300,000,000 derived from other sources--taxation, +indemnities levied in occupied territories, and property here and there +confiscated. + +Within my scope, however, lie only the war loans. + +The interest on the German war loans so far made amounts to $762,000,000 +per year. To the German public debts the loans have added $293 per +capita, or $1,082 for each producer in a population which the war has +reduced to about 67,500,000 fit individuals. Each wage-earner in Germany +will in the future carry a tax burden which in addition to all other +moneys needed by the government will be weighted every year by $43.28 +interest on the present war loans. + +Austria-Hungary's load of interest on war loans will amount to +$344,000,000 annually. The burden is $204 per capita, or $816 for each +wage-earner, out of a population which war losses have cut down to about +42,200,000. The annual interest each Austro-Hungarian breadwinner will +have to pay on the war loans is $32.64, and in addition he must provide +the revenues which his governments will need to operate. + +This means, of course, that the cry for bread will be heard long after +the guns thunder no more. It must be borne in mind that the average +yearly income of the wage-earner was a scant $460 in Germany, and $390 +in Austria-Hungary. The war loan interest so far in sight will +constitute about 9.3 per cent. and 8.2 per cent. respectively--no small +burden when it is considered that all other revenues needed by the +government must be added to this. + +But the bitter cup of economic losses due to the war is by no means full +with these figures. The Germans have so far lost, killed in action and +dead of wounds, fully 1,500,000 able-bodied producers, and have at this +time to care for about 900,000 men, of whom one half is totally +incapacitated and the other half partly so. The Austro-Hungarian +figures are 650,000 men dead, and 380,000 totally or partly crippled. In +other words, Germany has lost 2,300,000 able-bodied men, and +Austria-Hungary 1,030,000. It may well be said that those dead can no +longer figure in the economic scheme, because they consume no longer. On +the other hand, each of these men had another twenty years of useful +life before him. This long period of production has now been lost, and +two decades must elapse before the Central states will again have as +many producers as they had in 1914. Their propagation has also been +lost, though, with the women as strong numerically as before, this loss +will probably have been made good within ten years. + +Before treating further of the effects of war loans and their influence +upon the body politic, I will examine here how these loans were made, in +what manner they were applied, and what the system of economy was to +which the transaction gave birth. + +The figures I have cited may well suggest the question: + +How was it possible under such conditions to make war loans? + +The superficial reply to that would be: + +By raising the money in the country--inducing the people to subscribe to +the loans. + +The reply has no value, since it does not disclose how the necessary +money was made available. The funds invested in the war loans were a +part of the national capital, not a portion of the national wealth, the +term wealth standing for the natural resources of a community. But +capital is the surplus of production, and production results only from +applying labor to natural resources; for instance, by tilling the soil, +mining coal and ore, and engaging in the conversion of the less useful +into the more useful, as is done in industry. A surplus of production is +possible only, however, when consumption falls below production, for +that which is left over of the thing produced makes the surplus. This +surplus is capital. + +Incomplete figures which I was able to gather in 1916 showed that before +the war the average wage-earner of Central Europe had produced and +consumed in a ratio of 55 against 48, so far as the scale of pay and +cost-of-living showed. The difference of 7 points represented the amount +of money he could save if he wanted to do that. The 7 points, then, were +the actual increase in the national capital. + +In the winter of 1916-17 the figures had undergone a remarkable change. +Wages had been increased to 70 points, while the cost of food had risen +to 115 points as against 48 formerly. In other words, while the +wage-earner was getting 15 points more for his labor, he was paying 67 +points more for his food and the necessities of life. The place of the 7 +positives in capital production had been taken by 45 negatives, which +meant that the national capital of Central Europe had fallen below +static, the point where neither increase nor reduction takes place, by +38 points. The national capital had been decreased 38 per cent., +therefore. That much of all present and former surplus production of the +two states had been used up in the pursuit of the war. + +Governments deem it a safe policy to issue in times of financial stress +three times as much paper currency as they have bullion in the vaults. +One million in gold makes three millions in paper with that formula. +This had been done in Germany and Austria-Hungary to quite an extent by +the end of 1916. For every million of gold in the vaults there was a +million of _bona fide_ paper money. That was well enough. The currency +system of the United States adheres to that principle in times of peace +even. But upon the same million of metal there had been heaped other +paper currency which carried the promise of the government that on the +given date it would be redeemed for gold or its equivalent. This method +of national finance is known as inflation. It was this inflation that +caused the wage-earner to show in his own little budget a deficit of 38 +points. + +Why the government should have inflated its currency in that manner is +not so difficult to understand as it may seem. From its own point of +view, the wage-earner had to be lashed into greater effort if the moneys +needed for the war were to be available and if the food and material +consumed by the army were to be produced. The more the consumer had to +pay for what he required to sustain life the harder he had to work. His +deficit of 38 points was the yoke under which he labored for the army +in the field, which was consuming without producing anything. These 38 +points were only 17 points less than the 55 which had represented his +income before the war--in round terms every two wage-earners in Central +Europe were supporting in food, clothing, munition, and ammunition a +soldier at the front. It could not be otherwise since two political +aggregates having then approximately, with the women included, +twenty-five million wage-earners, were keeping under arms about ten +million soldiers, and were meanwhile providing the heavy profits made by +the war purveyors. + +Though the 38 points were a deficit, the producer-consumer was not +allowed to look at them in that manner. It was his task to cover this +deficit. This he did by paying more for his food and necessities, +through a channel which the inflated currency had filled with water in +the familiar stock-jobbing phrase. The middlemen who owned the barges in +the channel were taxed by the government on their war profits, but +enough was left them to preserve interest in the scheme of war economy, +a friendly act which the middlemen reciprocated by generous +subscriptions to the war loans. + +The first, second, and third war loans in Central Europe were subscribed +to with much, though later dwindling, enthusiasm. Patriotism had a great +deal to do with their success. Real money was required by the +government, moreover. Bank accounts, government securities, sound +commercial paper, and savings deposits were turned over. The loans made +later were devoid of many of these features. Those who bought war-loan +certificates did so because it was necessary for one reason or another, +and many of the war bonds obtained in the first loans were converted. +The war and all that pertained to it was now entirely a matter of +business with those who could subscribe. The poor were tired of any +aspect of war. + +The government could not prevent their being tired, but it could see to +it that indirectly the masses supported the war policy, no matter what +they thought. That was not difficult. The high cost of living took from +the producer-consumer what the government needed, and there is no system +of discipline that is quite so efficacious as keeping a man's nose to +the grindstone. + +Sleek bankers used to inform me that there was much prosperity in the +country. There was from their point of view. The margin between the +wages paid the producer and the prices asked of the consumer was great +enough to satisfy the interested parties, government and middleman +alike. The war loans had hardly been closed when a good share of them +was again in circulation. The whirligig of war economy was spinning +lustily, and there was no danger of things going wrong so long as the +producer-consumer was kept well in hand. + +How the war loans made the rounds is quite interesting. It is the +closest approach to perpetual motion I have come across. + +Since the Central states could buy in foreign countries only by means of +special trade agreements that called for an exchange in commodities +rather than for the medium of exchange, the money raised by the war +loans remained within the realm. Much of it went to makers of arms and +ammunition, of course. In their case a million marks--I am using this +small amount as a unit only--would lead to the following results: To the +manufacturer would go 60 per cent. of the total and to labor 40. +Subdivided these shares paid for raw material, plant investment, +operation expenses, and profits so large that the government could +impose a tax of 75 per cent. without making it impossible for the +manufacturer to subscribe to the next loan. Labor, on the other hand, +found itself barely able to sustain life, and if a few marks were saved +by some, little or nothing could be bought for them. The man who was +earning 70 marks a week, instead of 55, was paying for his food and +necessities 115 instead of 48 marks--an economic incongruity at first +glance, but perfectly feasible so long as those affected could be +induced to live on about 85 per cent. of the ration needed to properly +nourish the body, and had given up entirely the comforts of life. That +scheme left him hope for better times as the only comfort. No matter how +often the money of the war loans rushed through his hands, none of it +ever stuck to them. + +Before long it was plain that in this fashion the Central Powers could +keep up the war forever. Their financial standing in foreign countries +need not worry them so long as they could not buy commodities in them. +To be sure, the public debt was increasing rapidly, but the very people +to whom the government owed money were responsible for that money. If +bankruptcy came to the state they would be the losers, and that +responsibility increased as their wealth increased. Capital and +government became a co-operative organization, and both of them +exploited the producer-consumer, by giving him as little for his labor +as he would take and charging him as much for the necessities of life as +he would stand for--and that was much. When now and then it seemed +necessary to placate the producer-consumer, he would be told that in the +interest of the Fatherland the government was compelled to do what it +did. But the necessity for this came not often. The small man was +generally overjoyed when the government was able to announce that the +war loan had been a success or had been over-subscribed. That is all he +wanted to know, so long as he was not required to go to the front. The +success of the war loan meant that he would have work--and live to see +the end of a war which everybody claimed had been forced upon the state. + +It is certain that the Central states governments would have been +bankrupt long ago had they been able to buy in the foreign market _ad +libitum_, though in that case the foreign trade connections would have +also seen to it that war loans were made to the Germans and +Austro-Hungarians. There is no doubt at all that a Germany permitted to +buy abroad would have later been less able to organize herself as +efficiently economically as she did when her financial strength was +still unimpaired for internal purposes. To this extent the swift descent +of the British blockade is one of the gravest errors booked on the debit +side of the Entente's politico-military ledger. Absolutely nothing was +gained in a military sense by shutting the import door of the Central +states. Far-seeing statesmen would have allowed Germany to import all +she wanted and would then have seen to it that her exports were kept to +a minimum, so far as the shortage of man-power in the country did not +automatically bring about that result. + +As it was, the Central states supplanted and substituted right and left, +made new uses of their own natural resources, and fitted themselves for +the long siege at a time when doing that was still easy. The British +blockade, if applied in the winter of 1915-16, would have had effects it +could not hope to attain in the winter of 1914-15, when almost any +rational being knew that to starve out the Central states was not to be +thought of. The Central states would have continued to live very much as +before, and by the end of 1915 the governments would have been obliged +to shut down on imports of food for the civilian population if the gold +reserve was not to be exhausted completely, as would have been the case +if exports could not balance imports to any extent. Production and +consumption would then not have been as well organized as they were +under the auspices of the premature blockade, and the downfall for which +the Entente has until now vainly hoped, and which will remain the +greatest _spes fallax_ of all time, would then have surely come. That +bolt was shot too soon by Great Britain. + +Though the Central governments were fully aware of this, as +some of their officials admitted to me, they had no reason to bring +this to the attention of their publics or the world. The British +_Aushungerungspolitik_--policy of starvation--was the most potent +argument the Central governments had to present to their war-tired +people. What the German air raids on London accomplished in promoting +the British war spirit the blockade of the Central states effected in +the German Empire and Austria-Hungary. In a war of such dimensions it +was foolish to thus drive the governed into the arms of their governors. + +The financial condition of the Central European states to-day is as +sound as that of the Entente states. That would not be true if any great +share of the Central European war loans had been raised in foreign +countries. But, as I have shown, this was not done. + +That the war debt is great is a fact. The government's creditors are all +in the country, however, and if need be it can set against them the +tax-tired multitude. For that there will be no necessity. The +depreciation of the currency has automatically reduced by as much as 25 +per cent. on an average all state indebtedness, in so far as capital is +a lien against the community's natural resources and labor. But of this +more will be said at the proper time. + +Early in the summer of 1917 the German and Austro-Hungarian governments +were occupied with the question to what extent it would be possible to +lighten the burden of the taxpayer. Nothing came of it for the reason +that finally it was concluded that the time for financial reorganization +was not yet come. Inflated money and high prices would still have to be +used to keep the producer at maximum effort and prevent his consuming +more than could be permitted. + +But the methods of financial reorganization, or we may call it +reconstruction, that were discussed are none the less interesting. They +involved a reduction of the interest which the government has to pay on +war loans, as well as a lightening of the war-loan burden. It was +tentatively proposed to either cut into half the rate of interest or to +reduce by one-half the principal. + +One would think that the Central European bankers would oppose such a +step. They did not, however. For the sake of pre-war loans and +investments, these men must favor a rehabilitation of the currency, and +nothing would do that as effectively as a reduction of the war debt. The +mark and crown buy to-day from one-third to one-half what they bought in +1914. With the war debt cut down to one-half they would buy from 60 to +75 per cent. what they bought in that year. As a measure of +socio-economic justice, if there be such a thing, the reconstruction +proposed would appeal to all who invested money before the outbreak of +the war. These people put up money at the rate of 100, while the +interest they are getting to-day is worth from 33 to 50. The man who in +1914 invested 100,000 marks would indeed get back 100,000 marks. The +trouble is that the mark has depreciated in purchasing power, so that +his capital has shrunk to 33,000 or 50,000 marks, as the case may be. + +War does not only mortgage the future of a nation, but it also has the +knack of tearing down the past. + +Tired of hotel life, I had made up my mind in Vienna to find private +quarters. In the end I found what I wanted. I ought to have been +satisfied with my lodging, seeing that it was the comfortable home of +the widow of a former professor of the Vienna university. + +I never experienced such mixed feelings in my life as when I discussed +terms with the woman. She was a person of breeding and tact and +considerable false pride. How much did I want to pay? She did not know +what she ought to ask. She had never rented rooms before. + +We arrived at an understanding. I moved into the well-furnished flat and +the old lady into her kitchen, where she lived and cooked and slept, +together with a parrot, until I turned over to her the bedroom and +occupied the couch in the parlor. + +Before the war the woman had fared better. She was getting a small +pension and had a little capital. The income had been large enough to +give her a servant. When I moved in, the servant was gone long ago, and +I suspect that since then there had been days when the old lady did not +have enough to eat. Still, she was getting the same pension and her +little capital was bringing the same interest. The difficulty was that +the income bought but a third of what it had formerly secured. + +There were thousands of such cases, involving pensioners, widows, and +orphans. In their case the world had not only stood still, but it had +actually gone backward. The inflated currency left them stranded, and +the worst of it was that taxes were growing with every day. The +government was levying tribute on the basis of the inflated money. These +people had to pay it with coin that was 100 so far as they were +concerned. + +Real-estate owners were in no better position. The moratorium prevented +them from increasing rents, which step had to be taken in the interest +of the families of the men at the front. Taxes kept growing, however, +and when the income from rent houses was all a person had there was +nothing to do but stint. With the currency as low as it was, nobody +cared to sell real property of course. It was nothing unusual to see the +small rent-house owner act as his own janitor. + +While the war loans and government contracts were making some immensely +rich, thousands of the middle class were being beggared. But there is +nothing extraordinary in this. The socio-economic structure may be +likened to a container that holds the national wealth. For purposes of +its own the government had watered the contents of the bucket and now +all had to take from it the thinned gruel. That thousands of aged men +and women had to suffer from this could make little impression on +governments that were sacrificing daily the lives and health of +able-bodied producers on the battle-fields--one of whom was of greater +economic value to the state than a dozen of those who were content to +spend their life on small incomes without working. + + + + +XXI + +THE AFTERMATH + + +In Cæsar's time the pound of beef at Rome cost 1¼ American cents. At the +end of the thirteenth century it was 2½ cents, due largely to the +influence of the Crusades. In a Vienna library there is an old economic +work which contains a decree of the Imperial German government at Vienna +fixing the price of a pound of beef, in 1645, at 10 pfennige, or 2¼ +American cents. When peace followed the Seven Years' War the pound of +beef at Berlin was sold at 4 cents American. During the Napoleonic wars +it went up to 6½ cents, and when the Franco-Prussian War was terminated +beef in Germany was 9 cents the pound. The price of bread, meanwhile, +had always been from one-tenth to one-quarter that of beef. In Central +Europe to-day the price of beef is from 60 to 75 cents a pound, while +bread costs about 5¼ cents a pound. The cost of other foods is in +proportion to these prices, provided it is bought in the legitimate +market. As I have shown, almost any price is paid in the illicit trade. +I know of cases when as much as 40 cents was paid for a pound of wheat +flour, $2.70 for a pound of butter, $2.20 for a pound of lard, and 50 +cents for a pound of sugar. I have bought sugar for that price myself. + +These figures show that there has been a steady upward tendency in food +prices ever since the days of imperial Rome, and we have no reason to +believe that it was different in the days of Numa Pompilius. + +Looking at the thing from that angle, we must arrive at a period when +food, in terms of currency, cost nothing at all. Such, indeed, is the +fact. When man produced himself whatever he and his needed, money was +not a factor in the cost of living. The tiller of the soil, wishing to +vary his diet, exchanged some of his grain for the catch of the +fisherman, the first industrial, who could not live by fish alone. The +exchange was made in kind and neither of the traders found it necessary +to make use of a medium of exchange--money. The necessity for such a +medium came when exchange in kind was not possible--when food and the +like began to have time, place, and tool value, when, in other words, +they were no longer traded in by the producer-consumers, but were bought +and sold in markets. + +But the question that occupies us here principally is, Why has food +become dearer? + +Actually food is not dearer to-day than it was in Rome under Cæsar. The +fact is that money is cheaper, and money is cheaper because it is more +plentiful. Let me quote a case that is somewhat abstract, but very +applicable here. + +Why should the farmer sell food when the money he gets for it will +purchase little by virtue of having no longer its former purchasing +power? He can be induced to sell such food if he is given enough dollars +and cents to buy again for the proceeds of his soil and labor what he +obtained through them before. That means that he must be given more +money for his wares. But that he is given more money does not leave him +better off. What difference does it make to him if for the bushel of +wheat he gets one dollar or two dollars when the price of an article he +must buy also jumps from one to two dollars? The result is a naught in +both cases. To be sure, he could save more, apparently, from two than he +could from one dollar. That, however, is fiction, for the reason that +the twenty cents he may save of two dollars will in the new economic era +buy no more than the ten cents he saved from the one dollar. + +It is clear now that the farmer has not profited by the increase in food +prices. All others are in the same position. Money has ceased to buy as +much as before. The worker who is getting twice the wages he received +before the outbreak of a war is obliged to pay twice as much for food. +Like the farmer, he is no better off than he was. He, too, sees nothing +but zero when expenditures are subtracted from income. + +The body politic is a living organism for the reason that it is composed +of living organisms--men and women. As a living organism this body has +the inherent quality to repair or heal the wounds it has received. The +men lost in war are replaced by the birth of others. In our time, at +least, the women are no longer killed off, and since the remaining males +are able to fertilize them a decade or two generally suffices to make +good this loss which the body politic has sustained. It is a well-known +fact that the average man is able to produce many times the number of +children to which monogamy limits him. At the conclusion of the Thirty +Years' War, when polygamy had to be legalized in southern Germany, +Nuremberg boasted of a citizen who had thirty-seven children by six +women. + +But even the economic wounds of the body politic heal rapidly. They +begin to heal in war almost with the first day on which they are +inflicted. Over them spreads the protecting scab of cheap money and high +prices. + +The German mark buys to-day about one-third of what it bought in July, +1914; this means that it is worth no more in comparison with its former +value as a lien against the wealth of the German nation. The several +German governments, however, will continue to pay on their public debts +the old rate of interest, and when the loans are called in the +depreciated mark will take the place of a mark that had full value. The +gain for the state is that it has reduced automatically its old public +debt by 66 per cent. in interest and capital. + +The same applies to the first war loans. The German war loans up to the +middle of 1915 were made with a mark that still bought 90 per cent. of +what it had bought before. Interest on them will be paid and the loan +redeemed with a mark which to-day has a purchasing power of only 33 +pfennige. If nothing is done to interfere with this relation of currency +values, the German governments will actually pay interest and return the +loan with money cheaper by 62.97 per cent. than what it was when the +loans were made. The fifth war loan was made at a time when the +purchasing power of the mark was down to about 50 points, so that on +this the "economic" saving, as established with the present purchasing +power of the mark, would be only 33.34 per cent. On the seventh war +loan, made with the mark down to roughly one-third of its former +purchasing power, nothing could be saved by the government if redemption +of the loan should be undertaken with a mark buying no more than what it +buys to-day. + +We are dealing here with the mark as a thing that will procure in the +market to-day the thing needed to live. In its time the mark that made +up the public debt and the war loans served the same purpose, in a +better manner, as it were. But that mark is no more. The several +governments of Germany will pay interest and redeem loans in the mark of +to-day, without paying the slightest heed to the value of the mark +turned over to them when the loans were made. + +The result of this is that the older investments, be they in government +securities or commercial paper, have lost in value. We must take a look +at an investor in order to understand that fully. Let us say a man owns +in government bonds and industrial stocks the sum of 200,000 marks. At +4 per cent. that would give him an annual income of 8,000 marks, a sum +which in 1914 would have kept him in Germany very comfortably, if his +demands were modest. To-day that income would go about a third as far. +His 8,000 marks would buy no more than what four years ago 2,666 marks +would have bought. His lien against the wealth of the community, in +other words, is 2,666 marks to-day instead of 8,000 marks. Those who had +to produce what the man consumed in 1914 have to produce to-day only a +third of that. They would have to produce as before if the government +returned to the old value of the mark, and since such a production is +impossible to-day, with over two million able-bodied men dead and +permanently incapacitated, with the same number of women and their +offspring to be cared for, and with the losses from deterioration to be +made good, the German government cannot take measures that would restore +the pre-war value of the mark, especially since it would have to pay +interest on war loans with a mark having more purchasing power than had +the mark turned over to the government in these loans. + +In adopting the policy of cheaper money Central Europe is doing exactly +what the Roman government did more than two thousand years ago and what +every other government has since then done when wars had made the +expenditure of much of the state's wealth necessary. Capital is the +loser, of course. That cannot be avoided, however, for the reason that +capital is nothing but the surplus of labor--that part of production +which is not consumed. During the European War there was no such actual +surplus. The increase in capital, as this increase appeared on the books +of the state treasury and the investors, was nothing but an +inflation--an inflation which now must be assimilated in figures, since +its influence upon actual production is _nil_. + +I have already mentioned that the bankers of Central Europe are well +disposed toward a partial cancelation of the public debts. They agree +not because of patriotic motives, but for the reason that such a +cancelation would better the purchasing value of the currency. A partial +repudiation of the war loans would immediately force down prices of food +and necessities, in which event the mark or crown would again buy more +or less than it bought in 1915, let us assume. For the exigencies +incident to foreign trade the step has merits of its own. It should not +be necessary to point out that a Germany living on an American-dollar +basis, as it is now doing with its depreciated mark, would find it hard +to undersell the American competitor. German industrial and commercial +interests must bear this in mind, and on that account will do their best +to preserve the margin which has favored them in the past. Cheap money +and high prices do not make for cheap labor, naturally. Even to-day +labor in Central Europe has risen in price to within 70 per cent. of its +cost in the United States, while food is about 15 per cent. dearer than +in the American cities. + +Central Europe, all of Europe, for that matter, will live on what may be +called the pre-war American basis when the war is over. The advantages +enjoyed by the American dollar in Europe in the past are no more. Gone +are the days when an American school-mistress could spend her vacation +in Germany or Austria-Hungary and live so cheaply that the cost of the +trip would be covered by the difference in the price of board and +lodging. The cheap tour of Central Europe is a thing of the past--unless +the public debt of the United States should increase so much that some +slight advantage accrue therefrom. For what has taken place, or will +take place in Europe, will happen in the United States when economic +readjustment must be undertaken. + +Aside from some damage done to buildings in East Prussia, +Alsace-Lorraine, Galicia, and along the Isonzo, the Central states have +not suffered directly from the war. The losses sustained in the +districts mentioned are relatively small, and much of them has already +been repaired. Reconstruction of that sort will not be so great a task, +therefore. + +Much labor and huge expenditures will be required, however, in the +rehabilitation of the railroads and the highroads. It will be necessary +to relay at least a quarter of the bed mileage with new ties and rails, +and fully one-half of the rolling stock and motive power now in use will +have to be discarded before rail transportation in Central Europe can +be brought to its former high standard. + +Pressing as this work is, the people of the Central states must first of +all increase the production of their soil and bring their animal +industry into better condition. For the first of these labors two or +three years will suffice; for the second a decade is the least that will +be needed. It will be necessary for many years to come to restrict meat +consumption. With the exception of South America nobody has meat to +sell, and since all will draw on that market high prices are bound to +limit the quantities any state in Europe can buy. + +On the whole, the damage done by the war to the Central Europeans is not +so catastrophic as one would be inclined to believe. In fact, the damage +is great only when seen in the light of pre-war standards. In Central +Europe, and, for that matter, in all of Europe, nobody expects trains to +run a hundred kilometers per hour any more. The masses have forgotten +the fleshpots of Egypt, and will be glad to get pork and poultry when no +beef is to be had. Enough bread, with a little butter or some cheese on +it, will seem a godsend to them for many a year. The wooden shoe has not +proved so bad a piece of footgear, and the patched suit is no longer the +hallmark of low caste. Enough fuel will go far in making everybody +forget that there was a war. + +Viewed from that angle, reconstruction in Central Europe is not the +impossible undertaking some have painted it. The case reminds somewhat +of the habitual drunkard who has reformed and feels well now despite the +fact that he has irretrievably damaged his health. + +The assertion has been made that the mechanical improvements and +innovations made during the war would in a large measure balance the +material damage done. I have tried hard to discover on what such claims +are founded. The instance that would support such a contention has yet +to be discovered, so far as I know. The little improvements made in +gasolene and other internal-combustion engines are hardly worth anything +to the social aggregate. I hope that nobody will take as an improvement +the great strides made in the making of guns and ammunition. The stuff +that has been written on the development of the aeroplane in war as a +means of communication in peace is interesting, but not convincing. + +From that angle the world has not been benefited by the great +conflagration that has swept it. + +But great hopes may be placed in the mental reconstruction that has been +going on since the war entered upon its downward curve. Men and women in +the countries at war have become more tolerant--newspaper editors and +writers excepted, perhaps. As the war developed into a struggle between +populations rather than between armies, the psychology of the +firing-line spread to those in the rear. I have met few soldiers and no +officers who spoke slightingly of their enemies. They did not love their +enemies, as some idealists demand, but they respected them. There is no +hatred in the trenches. Passions will rise, of course, as they must rise +if killing on the battle-field is not to be plain murder. But I have +seen strong men sob because half an hour ago they had driven the bayonet +into the body of some antagonist. I have also noticed often that there +was no exultation in the troops that had defeated an enemy. It seemed to +be all in the day's march. + +In the course of time that feeling reached the men and women home. The +men from the front were to educate the population in that direction. It +may have taken three years of reiteration to accomplish the banishment +of the war spirit. When I left Central Europe it had totally vanished. +The thing had settled down to mere business. + +There is also a socio-political aftermath. + +That socialism will rule Central Europe after the war is believed by +many. I am not of that opinion. But there is no doubt that the several +governments will steal much of the thunder of the Social-Democrats. Some +of it they have purloined already. The later phases of food control +showed usually a fine regard for the masses. That they did this was +never more than the result of making virtue of necessity. Endless +hair-splitting in political theories and tendency would result, however, +if we were to examine the interest in the masses shown by the several +governments. What the socialist wishes to do for the masses for their +own good the government did for the good of the state. Since the masses +are the state, and since I am not interested in political propaganda of +any sort, mere quibbling would result from the attempt to draw +distinctions. Politics have never been more than the struggle between +the masses that wanted to control the government and the government that +wanted to control the masses. + +[Illustration: Photograph by Underwood & Underwood, N. Y. + +SCENE IN GERMAN SHIP-BUILDING YARD + +The great ship in the background has just been launched. Though the war +left Germany no man to spare, every effort has been made to materially +increase the country's merchant marine. To-day Germany's mercantile +fleet is stronger than ever.] + +For the first time in the history of Central Europe, the several +governments had to publicly admit that the masses were indispensable in +their scheme instead of merely necessary. That they were necessary had +been realized in the manner in which the farmer looks upon the draft +animal. The several governments had also done the best they could to +have this policy be as humane as possible. There were sick benefits and +pensions. Such things made the populace content with its lot. So long as +old age had at least the promise that a pension would keep the wolf from +the door, small wages, military service, heavy taxes, and class +distinctions were bound to be overlooked by all except the wide-awake +and enterprising. The few that were able to examine the scheme from +without, as it were, might voice their doubts that this was the best +manner in which the ship of state could be steered, but their words +generally fell on the ears of a populace to which government was indeed +a divine-right institution. + +I have met Germans and Austro-Hungarians who were able to grasp the idea +that the government ought to be their servant instead of their master. +Their number was small, however. Generally, such men were socialists +rather than rationalists. + +It is nothing unusual to meet persons, afflicted with a disease, who +claim that nothing is wrong with them. The "giftie" for which Burns +prayed is not given to us. It was so with the Germans and the thing +called militarism. I have elsewhere referred to the fact that militarism +as an internal condition in the German Empire meant largely that +thinking was an offense. But the Prussian had accepted that as something +quite natural. We need not be surprised at that. Prussia is essentially +a military state. The army made Prussia what it is. Not alone did it +make the state a political force, but it also was the school in which +men were trained into good subjects. In this school the inherent love of +the German for law and order was supplemented by a discipline whose +principal ingredient was that the state came first and last and that the +individual existed for the state. + +The non-Prussians of the German Empire, then, knew that militarism, in +its internal aspect, was a state of things that made independent thought +impossible. To that extent they hated the system, without overlooking +its good points, however. The fact is that much of what is really +efficient in Germany had its birth in the Prussian army. Without this +incubator of organization and serious effort, Germany would have never +risen to the position that is hers. + +As a civilian I cannot but resent the presumption of another to deny me +the right to think. Yet there was a time when I was a member of an +organization that could not exist if everybody were permitted to think +and act accordingly. I refer to the army of the late South African +Republic. Though the Boer was as free a citizen as ever lived and was of +nothing so intolerant as of restraint of any sort, it became necessary +to put a curb upon his mind in the military service. That this had to be +done, if discipline was to prevail, will be conceded by all. The same +thing is practised by the business man, whose employees cannot be +allowed to think for themselves in matters connected with the affairs of +the firm. On that point we need not cavil. + +The mistake of the men in Berlin was that they carried this prohibition +of thinking too far. It went far beyond the bounds of the +barrack-yard--permeated, in fact, the entire socio-political fabric. +That was the unlovely part of militarism in Prussia and Germany. The +policy of the several governments, to give state employment only to men +who had served in the army, carried the command of the drill sergeant +into the smallest hamlet, where, unchecked by intelligent control, it +grew into an eternal nightmare that strangled many of the better +qualities of the race or at best gave these qualities no field in which +they might exert themselves. The liberty-loving race which in the days +of Napoleon had produced such men as Scharnhorst and Lüchow, Körner and +others, and the legions they commanded, was on the verge of becoming a +non-thinking machine, which men exercising power for the lust of power +could employ, when industrial and commercial despots were not exploiting +its constituents. + +The war showed some of the thinkers in the government that this could +not go on. Bethmann-Hollweg, for instance, saw that the time was come +when Prussia would have to adopt more liberal institutions. The Prussian +election system would have to be made more equitable. Agitation for that +had been the burning issue for many a year before the war, and I am +inclined to believe that something would have been done by the +government had it not feared the Social-Democrats. The fact is that the +Prussian government had lost confidence in the people. And it had good +reason for that. The men in responsible places knew only too well that +the remarkable growth of socialism in the country was due to +dissatisfaction with the rule of Prussian Junkerism. They did not have +the political insight and sagacity to conclude that a people, which in +the past had not even aspired to republicanism, would abandon the +Social-Democratic ideals on the day that saw the birth of a responsible +monarchical form of government. What they could see, though, was that +the men coming home after the war would not permit a continuation of a +government that looked upon itself as the holy of holies for which the +race was to spill its blood whenever the high priest of the cult thought +that necessary. + +"We are fighting for our country!" is the reply that has been given me +by thousands of German soldiers. Not a one has ever told me that he was +fighting for the Emperor, despite the fact that against their King and +Emperor these men held no grudge. And here I should draw attention to +the fact that the German Emperor means comparatively little to the South +Germans, the Bavarian, for instance. He has his own monarch. While the +Emperor is _de jure_ and _de facto_ the War Lord, he is never more than +a sort of commander-in-chief to the non-Prussian part of the German +army. + +Liberal government is bound to come for Germany from the war. There can +be no question of a change in the form of government, however. Those who +believe that the Germans would undertake a revolution in favor of the +republican form of government know as little of Germany as they know of +the population said to be on Mars. The German has a monarchical mind. +His family is run on that principle. The husband and father is the lord +of the household--_Der Herr im Hause_. Just as the lord of the family +household will have less to say in the future, so will the lord of the +state household have less to say in the years to come. There will be +more co-operation between man and woman in the German household in the +future and the same will take place in the state family. The government +will have to learn that he is best qualified to rule who must apply the +least effort in ruling--that he can best command who knows best how to +obey. + +This is the handwriting on the wall in Germany to-day. A large class is +still blind to the "_Mene, mene, tekel, upharsin_," but that class must +either mend its way or go down in defeat. The German at the front has +ceased to think himself the tool of the government. He is willing to be +an instrument of authority so long as that authority represents not a +wholly selfish and self-sufficient caste. + +The indications for their development lie in the fact that the German +generally does not hold the Prussian element in the empire responsible +for the war. The Bavarian does not hate the Prussian. The West German +does not entertain dislike for the men east of the Elbe river. What +Bismarck started in 1870 is being completed by the European War. All +sectionalism has disappeared. Three years' contact with the German army, +and study of the things that are German, has convinced me that to-day +there is no Prussian, Bavarian, Saxon, Würtemberger, Badenser, +Hanoverian, or Hessian. I have never met any but Germans, in contrast to +conditions in the Austro-Hungarian army, where in a single army corps I +could draw easily distinction between at least four of the races in the +Dual Monarchy. + +It must be borne in mind that these people speak one language and have +been driven into closer union by the defense of a common cause. What is +true of racial affinity in the Anglo-Saxon race is true in the case of +the German race; all the more true since the latter lives within the +same federation. + +I must make reference here to the fact that even the German socialists +are no great admirers of the republican form of government. Of the many +of their leaders whom I have met, not a single one was in favor of the +republic. Usually they maintained that France had not fared well under +the republican form of government. When the great success of +republicanism in Switzerland was brought to their attention, they would +point out that what was possible in a small country was not necessarily +possible in a large one. Upon the American republic and its government +most of these men looked with disdain, asserting that nowhere was the +individual so exploited as in the United States. It was that very +exploitation that they were opposed to, said these men. Government was +necessary, so long as an anarchic society was impossible and +internationalism was as far off as ever, as the war itself had shown. +Germany, they asserted, was in need of a truly representative government +that would as quickly as possible discard militarism and labor earnestly +for universal disarmament. A monarch could labor better in that vineyard +than the head of a republic, so long as his ministers were responsible +to the people. + +Upon that view we may look as the extreme measure of reform advocated by +any political party in Germany to-day. It is that of the Scheidemann +faction of Social-Democrats, a party which latterly has been dubbed +"monarchical socialists." The extreme doctrinarians in the socialist +camp, Haase and Liebknecht, go further than that, to be sure, but their +demands will not be heeded, even after the pending election reforms +have been made. The accession to articulate party politics in Germany, +which these reforms will bring, will go principally to the Liberal +group, among whom the conservative socialists must be numbered to-day. +Not socialism, but rationalism will rule in Germany when the war is +over. + +One of the results of this will be that the Prussian Junker will have +passed into oblivion a few years hence. Even now his funeral oration is +being said, and truly, to be fair to the Junker: + + The evil that men do lives after them, + The good is oft' interred with their bones. + + + + + * * * * * + + + + +Transcriber's note: + +Obvious punctuation errors were corrected. + +A table of contents was added. + +Hyphen removed: air[-]tight (p. 148), bread[-]winner (p. 354), +fountain[-]head (p. 31), hall[-]mark (p. 31). + +P. 51: "quantitity" changed to "quantity" (a large quantity of crude +rubber). + +P. 115: "sharps" changed to "sharks" (For the food sharks). + +P. 154: "Kaffee-ersatz-ersatz" changed to "Kaffee-ersatz". + +P. 227: "General Höefer" changed to "General Höfer". + +P. 366: "fron" changed to "from" (prevented them from increasing). + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 40628 *** |