The Key West Citizen Newspaper, December 16, 1947, Page 6

bh anton tanta doton Dn tin tn te edna tn tn tn dntncintntntinttetdtntend ‘Sie Transit Gloria Mundi’ (Copyright 1947, Mason Rossiter Smith) LM aAABRERREEARBREEE AAARARAABRARABAABAASD Berlin, September 20. After viewing the devastation wrought the Germans throughout Western Europe, for two and one-half months, with’ Britishers, Italians, Frenchmen, Belgians, Hollanders, Danes, | Norwegians and Czechs, and aftér walking through the almost total destruction of Warsaw, perhaps one becomes so “condi- tioned” to the ruins of war that it is possible to view the colossal destruction of Germany dispassionately, and to understand how , Western Europeans can say, “After all, they asked for it,” with- out pity for the Germans. These were the enemy, the “Herrenvolk”, the Master Race, the people who would rule the world. Now they are a beaten people, hopeless about the future, intensely sorry for them- selves, and, despite surface courtesy to the occupying forces, resentful against the “conquerors.” With the ruins of their great | cities about them (Berlin is 50% destroyed), the German mark j ly valueless, existence dependent upon a huge black food rations, the Germans’ econ-; omy has descended so low that the principal medium of ex- change is cigaretes. And in face of sincere effort on the part of the American, British and French occupation forces to rebuild! the German economy and to restore something like a reason- able standard of living, there is at the same time an element of an sabotage of the very effort of rehabilitation which market to supplement meager quiet is their only real hope. general despair of the German people has definite | causes, principally the result o: tion. Germany has been divided into four zones, occupied re- srchyely by the Americans, ssi , each with its own system ‘of occupation government. In addition, the city of Berlin, an “island” in the Russian zone, has been divided into four sec-. tors, each of which is con- trplled:by one of the occupying powers. An the American zone, under the sincere and able leadership of General Lucius D. Clay, the 1 neer G. A. Zevin has in- Russian Wheel-skis In: the Summertime l(OSCOW.—(AP). — Engi- vented a pair of skis for summer, The skis operate on wheels and can be used on dirt roads and fields as well as on hard surface thoroughfarts, The ipventor says he can travel mm eight to: nine miles an hour on them. He explaired their wheel construction, four wheels to f the present form of the occupa- the British, the French and the Despite all kinds of pressure each ski, guarantees a “soft glide,” and they “can now meke skiing possible on the | hottest days of summer.” even if it had any value, there no merchandise to buy with it. | “But a cigarette can be given; to a’farmer in exchange for food. | The farmer can use it for trade,; or. he may smoke it because it is! from the Russians, the elections resulted in the choice of demo- {cratic government. The Russians got only about 12%, although j they had something like 33% in attempt has been to teach the; their own sector.” Germans democracy NOW. The| “That isn’t quite what I mean,” method has been ‘to place the re-!I replied. “Although you have sponsibility for reconstruction| in the past had a limited mon- and rehabilitation on the Ger-| archy and then the Weimar Re- mians themselves through a Ger-| Public before Hitler, Germany man ‘government elected in free} has never. had democracy as we elections, the officials being re- sponsible to American military government officers, whose func- tion now has become more or less supervisory. In the British and French zones, however, the new German governments are not granted a comparable . responsi- bility,.and in the Russian zone the people are under strict con- trols—all of which brings confu- sion and doubt to thé German people generally, for with four different governments, all oper- ated on a different basis, and with all the complications of do- ing business. between sectors. of | Berlin, and between thp occupa- | tion zones, the average German; —-who has been accustomed tol order and discipline for eens: turies~cannot see his way out 4 A conversation with a German businéssman,. whose principal of-/| know it in America. My question ' if you:could now .make the 'choice, would it be for the Am- | erican type of democracy, or the ; kind of government you have had | before?” ! “Democracy,” he said at once, ; adding that “I have talked with many Americans since the war, | and they all want to know how | we allowed Hitler to rise, and {why we supported him once he jeame into power. “The answer is—and I'm quite sure you don’t understand it, for no Americans do—that when the Weimar Republic began after. World War I, everything was al} right: But we had no experience in your Kind of, democracy. , The result was ‘that, in’ time; instead of two major’ parties as you have} it in America, our parties began to break up into smaller groups, fiees:‘are located in the Russian sector of Berlin, with .a branch! in the American sector ahd a} subsidiary plant in Frankfurt, in! the American zone, may serve to! fustrate the difficulties in- volved. | Thi§ Berlin plant once supplied printing machinery to all of Ger- many and most of central Europe. The Frankfurt operation provid- ed small parts and accessories. During the battle for Berlin the] each with a slightly different po- litical shading. We had 30 of them in all. “Hitler came and made all sorts of promises—to the workers, that unemployment would be wiped out, and to the farmers, that they ! would once again. be prosperous. He accomplished some of these things quite quickly—and won widespread support. Then at the same time he began to organize main plant was partially bomb- }the.country. ed out, and when the Russians came in they removed all the “His system was nothing new. He took something from Com- Machine tools they could find.) munist Russia and_ something This reduced the Berlin plant to} low production, by the most from Fascist Italy. But he built up an organization which made primitive methods, for ‘necessary; it absolutely impossible to resist machinery requires the most del- ieate tolerances and careful ma- ehining. After considerable pains- taking effort, with few suitable tools, reconstruction of the plant} Was begun in 1945 and is now nearly completed. But produc- tion: Which once amounted to 40 orf ae ines per month has been #eduédd to 10 or 12, for lack of proper production equipment. “To, get German newspapers back into operation,” he said,|suffered now from two world “and of course if we are to re- build we must have some means of disseminating information— we must have printing machin- ery. “But here in the Russian sector of Berlin we are subject to Rus- sian Controls on import of ma- terials and export of machines from and to other Berlin sec- tors and the four zones of occu- pation. Each occupying power has its own regulations and re- Strictions in its own ‘areas, so that trade between zones is hampered by a multitude of forms which must be filled out, | innumerable conferences to re- quest shipment, etc. “In fact if I wish to visit the Frankfurt plant, the difficulties involved are enormous. An appli- eation to travel from Berlin to Frankfurt, even by train, requires about three weeks to clear, and even then it may not. be ap- proved.” We turned then to discussion) have become the principal me- of government, and I pro) this question: “Supposing ll! military government official told Germany were again one COUN-| me, “js very simple. In the first try, and your people were asked to choose what type of govern- ment. they were to have. ea ITCHING would that choice be?” He answered at once and em- phatieally, “Certainly not Bolshe- vism. We have seen enough of| that—-and it is no different from} i Cy National Socialism (Nazi). The} $37 Honso ok hi or throw him out. The people who attempted to start resistance were taken at once to concentra- tion camps. This» you cannot understand, but it is true. We simply couldn’t get rid of Hitler, once he was in power, for he controlled everything and every- body.” “As you know,” I replied, “a great many people in Europe dis- trust you, because they have wars. Many of them don’t have much sympathy for Germany now, because they have suffered so much and because they fear that if you are allowed to grow strong again there will be an- other war.” He threw up his hands. “You have seen Germany,” he said, “with all the destruction and you know that many of our machine tools have been taken away and many of our factories dismantled. Even if we wanted to, we could- n’t possibly rebuild and make war for another 25 years. “You forget,” I said, “that the countries Germany has invaded in World War I and World War II and all the others whose econ- omy has suffered from these wars | are thinking ahead to that 25th year.” He threw up his hands again and was silent, ‘ “The reason that cigarettes dium of exchange,” an American: lace the mark is valueless. And | KNOCKED OUT proof: lies in the Berlin elctions | sometime ago—really free elec- E ck tnees i \ ‘ekin or o vou by all four occupying powers. Hesiod i ksh, Wasted tions,for they were supervised | ith convenient connections to New Yorn, a mild sedative, and it reduces; his appetite. It’s as simple as that.” | The simplicity of it is demon- strated every day on the streets of nearly every German city.| Men, women: and children are} quick to snatch up every cigarette} butt that falls to the sidewalk—! before the smoker can stamp on it. The tobacco is saved, either to smoke or to trade. The lack of food—the current ration is between 1200 and 1500 calories per day, enough to sus-! tain life but not enough to enable a man to work—shortages of clothing, the low value of the mark, all have resulted in : “slowdown” in German industry. '! The workingman sees no purpose in working unless he can get food. Production ‘in the Ruhr mines, byilding construction in; the American zone and service in American military government offices can depend on a goud sup-. ply of skied workers, because! the Ruhr miners get additional ‘Tood bonuses for production and Americans working for the Am-: erican military government , get! one good free meal per day and a ration card allowing additional food. ~ 1 But the coniusion among the j Germnas increases with Russian ‘ propaganda that America is ex-| ploiting Germany, and with the! contrary statements published in American, French and British controlled German newspapers. The Germans do not know whom; to believe. They know only that they have a deadly fear of Rus- Sila. I think it is safe to say that! while there is a deep undercur- rent of resentment against the conquerors—the Germans are a proud people who once had the j highest standard of living in| Europe, regardless of how they obtained it—the American mili- tary government is held in high | regard by comparison with the! others. One example may serve | to illustrate why. | In an effort to prevent disea: in Berlin, the Americans propos- ed that all four sectors be spray- ed from the air with DDT. The British and French accepted, the Russians refused, so only the American, British and French zones received the treatment. Re- cently a polio epidemic broke out in Berlin, of such proportions that Americans were forbidden to attend movies or large gath- erings of Germans, and the open- ing of the schools was delayed. The epidemic—at this writing it! has reached 800 cases—broke out in the Russian zone which has the largest number of victims. 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