EVEN1KQ- LEDGER-PIITLABEIiPHIA; THIJJRSDAT, gEKFBMBBR JS7, M7 .... - A1 (ii Suction MJrfl&JbVtHte v 'SHE NEXT GERMANY "When Americans ask, 'How long can Germany hold out?' I reply, 'As long as the German Government can satisfy thevanity and stimulate the nerves of the people, and ns lonrr as the people permit the Government to do the nation's thinking.' " REPUBLIC fa (&y CSlRJUmXCKE&MAN 5V K i). rrt I Mf k. IT 1 !. Cotrrl(ht. 1VIT. OeoNte II. Borau Company. - -AS , :&. .-. " Germany t According to Ackerman, Is Like a Man on the Verge of, Nervous Prostration, Ready to Collapse as Soon as Artificial Means of Stimulus Are tyithdr awn Then the Entire " Political, Military and Economic Organiza- ) Hon Will "Cave In" But It Remains With the Allies to Make It Impos sible for the Kaiser 'and His Junkers to Find Additional Sources of Stimulation Every s Minor Military Victory Can Be Magnified and Every Diplomatic Blunder Can Be Seized to Serve Prussia's Purpose v . y TT IS nlmo3t impossible to say whether Germany, as a nation, " can be starved into submission. Everything depends upon the next harvest, tho length of tho war and future military operations. The German Government, I think, can make the people hold out until the coming harvest, unless there is a big military defeat. In their present undernourished condition the public could not face a defeat. If the war ends this year Germany will not be so starred that she will accept any peace terms. Dut if the war continues another year or two Germany will have to give up. I entered Germany at the beginning of the Allied blockade, when one could purchase any 'kind and any quantity of food in Germany. Two years later, when I left, there were at least eighteen foodstuffs which could not be purchased anywhere, and tere wore twelve kinds of food which could be obtained only by G crnment - cards. That fs what the Allied blockade did to tho food supplies. It made Germany look like a grocery store after a closing-out sale. The Food Situation in Germany Suppose in the United States you wanted the simplest break fast cbffce tind bread and butter. Suppose you wanted a light luncheon of eggs or a sandwich, tea and fruit. Suppose for dinner you wanted' a plain menu of soup, meat, vegetables and dessert. At any grocery or lunch counter you could get not only these plain foods, but anything else you wanted. Not so in Germany! For breakfast you cannot have pure coffee, and you can have only a very small quantity of butter with your butter card.. Hotels serve a coffee substitute, but most people prefer nothing. For luncheon you may have an egg, but only one day during two weeks. Hotels still serve a weak, highly colored tea and apples, or oranges. For dinner you may have soup without any meat or fat in iU Soups are just a mixture of water and vegetables. 'Two days a week you can get a small piece of meat with a meat card. Other days you can get boiled Fish. y People who keep house, of course, have more food, because as a rule they have been storing supplies. Take the Christian Scientists as an instance. Members of this church have organized a semi official club. Members' buy nil the extra food possible. They then divide, and store away what they want for the "siege" the time when food will be scarcer than it is today. Two women practitioners in Berlin, who live together, bought thirty pounds of butter from an American who had brought it in from Copenhfigen. They canned it and planned to make this butter laqt one year. Until a few weeks ago people with money could go to Switzerland, Holland and Denmark and bring back food with them, cither with or without permission. Some wealthy citizens who import machinery and other things V 11 ' - ' ilKlJMfir T!"ffWUI RJ'V'"! 3HiT MflpJTHM-fr Jp nm When I left Berlin tho Government had Issued an order tmJJ hibiting tho sale of nil canned vegetables nnd fruit. It was cxplalnt "' "" "-- '"- - i-.w.v ouj,jiiCa 0j Other foods were exhausted. There were n Berlin many thousand cansJ but no one can say how long such food will last. When Americans ask, "How long can. Germany hnM ..... ." reply, "As long as the German Government can satisfy the vanit I and stimulate the nerves of the people, nnd as long as the n..l nnrmtl Ihn Rnvrrnmcilt (n Ho h nntlnn'a ihlnhlntv ' "How Long Can Germany Hold Out?" How long a time that will bo no ono can say. It was former!? 1 believed that whenever n nation reached tho limit which Germany has reached it would crumple up. But Germany fails to crumple! Instead of breaking up sho fights harder and more desperately wny can sno ao una . jl.iu unswcr is simple: uccauso the German A pcoplo beliovo in their Government, and tho Government knows fl ttinf a innr oa ?f rnn nnnvSni-rt flirt nnnntn 4lin4- It t- -V .. J w.v ... .... - .v . -..,...w .. j.-.v w.o ,k ,s winning the war the people will fight. Germany is today in the position of a man on the verge of a nervous breakdown; in tho position of a man who is under. nourished, who is depressed, who is. weighed down by colossal ?J burdens, who is brooding over the loss of friends and relatives II uu" Ui "'"" """ B1 M"k "" u"" -... mm nappmess depend upon his ability to hold out until the crisis passes. If a physician wcro called to prescribe for uch a patient his 1 iirat act wuuiu 111 uu luuuau.i.iy uc lu sumuiuio mis mans hODe. m to. make him bellcvo that if ho would only "hold out" he we-nM VM pass ine crisis bucccssiuuv. uui no pnysician could say that hii ' pauunt couiu sutnu it mr ono wcck, a monm or a year' mora, ial Tl.. ilnntnw iff..1.1 Mn..A In nnmltln ........ tl.ni- ., ' i uw liuwtwi "uum mivc vv (,uinuiu uju,i uiob 4I1UI1.3 nerVeS, would havo to stimulate him daily, perhaps hourly. HJ So it is with the German nation. The country is on the verge of a nervous breakdown. Men and women, business men and generals long ago lost their patience. They are under nourished. They arc depressed, distressed, suffering and anxious for peace. It is as true of the Hamburg-American Line director! as it is true of the officers at the front. The potato harvest was a big failure, and an additional tax was pu t upon the municipal kitchens. from outside neutral countries have their agents smuggle food at the same time. While the Dutch, Danish and Swiss Governments try to stop smuggling, there is always some going through. The rich havo the money to bribe border officers and inspectors. When I was in Dusseldorf last October I met the owner of a number of canal boats who shipped coal and iron products from tho Rhino Valley to Denmark. He told me his canal barges brought back food from Copenhagen every trip and that the border authorities were not very careful in making an investigation of his boats. In Dusseldorf, too, as well as in Cologne, business men spoke about the food they got from Belgium. They did not get great quantities, of course, but the leakage was enough to enable them to live better than those vho had to depend upon the food in Germany. When tho food supplies began to decrease the Government 'instituted the card system of distribution. Bread cards had been very successful, so the authorities figured that meat, butter, potato nnd other cards would be equally so. But their calculations were wrong. When potato cards were issued each person was given nine pounds a week. But tho potato harvest was a big failure. The supply was so much less than the estimates that seed potatoes had to be used to keep the people satisfied. Even then the supply was short, and the quantity to be sold on potato cards was cut to three pounds a week. Then transportation difficulties arose, and potatoes spoiled before they reached Berlin, Munich, Hamburg, Dresden, Leipsic and other large cities. Tho same thing happened when the Government confiscated the fruit crop last year. One day I was asked on the telcphono whether I wanted to buy an eleven-pound ham. I asked to havo it sent to my office immediately. When it' came the price was $2.50 a pound. I sent the meat back and told the man I would not pay such a price. "That's all right," he replied. "Doctor Stein and a dozen other people will pay me that price. I sent it to you because I wanted to help you out." Dr. Ludwig Stein, one of the editors of the Vossischo Zeitung, paid the price and ordered all he could get for tho same money. There have been more cases of nervous breakdowns among the people during the last year than at any time in Germany's u history. There have been so many suicides that the newspapers arc forbidden to publish them. There have been so many losses on the battlefields that every family has been affected, not once but two, three and four times. Dahcehalls have been, closed. Cafes and hotels must stop serving meals by 11 o'clock. The atres are presenting the most sullen plays. Rumors spread like prairie fires. One day Hindenburg is dead. Two days. later he is alive again. But the Kaiser has studied this war psychology. He. and his Ministers know that one thing keeps the German people fighting their hope of ultimate victory; their belief that they have won already. The Kaiser knows, too, that if the public mind is stimulated from day to day by new victories, by reports of many prisoners, of new territory gained, of enemy ships torpedoed, or by promises of reforms after the warthe public will continue fighting. So the Kaiser gambles from day to day with his people's nerves. For two years he has done this, and for two years he has been supported by a 12,000,000-manpower army and a larger army of workers and women at home. The Kaiser believes he can gamble for a long time yet with his people. Just as it is impossible for a physician to say how long his 11 patient can be stimulated without breaking down, so it is- impossible for an observer in Germany to say how long it will be before tho break-up comes in Germany. (CONTINUED TOMORROW) ;.& CVi A TRIP TO HOG ISLAND, WHERE THE WORLDS BIGGEST SHIPYARD IS" UNDER CONSTRUCTION N . VWB.4-.J - B -,X' If ' p. K- . ,3s - ir.- is - vbjssb mem MfsimmM ksi . ,&&wmM:i&mmtl, .. , . Jm- . . s itiiiv-" mw, :w:vm mmmm-' .&&&&, laBmmm&KS2MMtmt. i.: rW M2alfew. ''&: ., . JKS wM - ' i ii ii r i,ii-ry-r , - - i ' ' I.... . 1 t.,'mm.'vm.,mii;im ''I'fri'fffp--' r ' ywww i WORKMEN ON THEIR WAY TO WORK AT THE SITE OF THE PLANT The American International Corporation is back of the gigantic enterprise that will bring additional fame to the Delaware River and bear out its reputation as "the Clyde of America." TIES FOR THE RAILROAD SPUR THAT WILL TAP HOG ISLAND The mammoth shipbuilding plant, when completed, will boast of fifty ways on which 50 yessels, each of 5000 tons, can be constructed at one time. I r a w'h;.; tirff -w 9 3arvHi-i-Bn v imi '"'- .jatMtMB'Er-sv--B tim-..f. , iiveTflB&i "SP'nrai abmm. .i,r.aw. .... if iimim m u iii ii n maii-i-MMi iimi f wfcii hmm ii-mmmmh' fiwiwunii'iii in w n ! Hi u 3 LAYING FOUNDATIONS FOR THE RAILROAD SPUR WHERE IT WILL CROSS THE ERSTWHILE BED OF A CREEK AltHUILxP? f- j lijjt3iJ& A'Vm BBr!r'l'v5y ' " fittaWtd! lift' wt' a'Gv'EBT 4'' ' ' '.', -. I ' -3 Vfl WISHING LUMBER TO THE SCENE OF OPERATIONS Th plht will cover 000 acres of, land and will employ 15,000 nen continuously LABORERS BUILDING ONE OF THE HO ADS THAT WILI LEAD TO THE HEAP.T. OF THE SHIPYARD .. . . . ' . r. a msarsiiTA " v.:'' s.j.. .-j.. ,-j . 'ifSmS 7 mz . v jtAj&dgL. Lh? i-, x..
Significant historical Pennsylvania newspapers