[3] The advertisement columns of the daily papers, those most trustworthy of documents, told many a tale of distress. Here is one such advertisement:—
"Valuable violin—Antonius Stradivarius Cremonentis, authentic, will exchange for provisions: meat, sugar preferred."
But it's an ill wind that blows nobody good, and if it blows away the family heirloom it blows off the mortgage on the family property:—
"Summer holidays in peace and plenty. Farmhouse in Harz mountains will receive family and provide them with farm produce, milk, butter, eggs, etc., in return for redemption of mortgage of 10,000 marks."
[4] The following percentages of unemployment during and after the war may be of interest:—
| Month. | Average 1908-1913. | 1914. | 1915. | 1916. | 1917. | 1918. |
| Jan. | 3.1 | 4.7 | 6.5 | 2.6 | 1.7 | 0.9 |
| Feb. | 2.8 | 3.7 | 5.1 | 2.8 | 1.6 | 0.8 |
| March | 2.3 | 2.8 | 3.3 | 2.2 | 1.3 | 0.9 |
| April | 2.2 | 2.8 | 2.9 | 2.3 | 1.0 | 0.8 |
| May | 2.3 | 2.8 | 2.9 | 2.5 | 1.0 | 0.8 |
| June | 2.3 | 2.5 | 2.5 | 2.5 | 0.9 | 0.8 |
| July | 2.2 | 2.9 | 2.7 | 2.4 | 0.8 | 0.7 |
| Aug. | 2.2 | 22.4 | 2.6 | 2.2 | 0.8 | 0.7 |
| Sept. | 2.1 | 15.7 | 2.6 | 2.1 | 0.8 | 0.8 |
| Oct. | 2.1 | 10.9 | 2.5 | 2.0 | 0.7 | 0.7 |
| Nov. | 2.2 | 8.2 | 2.5 | 1.7 | 0.7 | 1.8 |
| Dec. | 3.2 | 7.2 | 2.6 | 1.6 | 0.9 | 5.4 |
[5] To do justice to the German revolution I annex a schedule of measures passed by the Peoples Commissaries before the Weimar Parliament met and reaction set in. How far these are being at present enforced I do not know.
Unemployment provision—regulations of 13th November and 15th January. The cost is borne one-half by the Reich, one-third by the State and one-sixth by the locality. The rates must be reduced by April, 1919, to a maximum of six marks per day. It can be withdrawn on refusal to work for insufficient reasons.
Employment regulations of 4th and 25th January. Previous employés on demobilisation must be re-employed and persons employed in their absence only discharged under certain conditions.
Legislative regulations of labour. An order of 12th November, 1918, restored to force all sanitary and social regulations and restrictions suspended during the war.