It is verboten for dealers to raise their prices on the common necessary articles higher than those fixed by the government.
It is verboten to bake cakes and pastry at home. The flour must be saved for bread.
It is verboten to either sell or use cream. Cream is a luxury, butter is a necessity.
It is verboten to dance during the war.
These are only a few rules laid down by the German people for the German people. And they are not only laid down but they are obeyed without question. The power to obey laws shows strength and not weakness, and it is this little word verboten that the world has laughed at so much that is helping Germany to win battles to-day.
For the Germans verboten means not only "forbidden," but it means self-restraint, obedience, and the respect for the rights of others, and it means unity as well,—the unity of working together, of hearing commands given by those above and of heeding those commands.
A German is quite as selfish as a person of any other nation, and he is also quite as greedy, but since the war he is forbidden to be greedy. He has the inclination but he cannot carry it out. He can buy only a certain amount of things each week and that at a price so sternly fixed by the government that a man's store is closed if he charges one cent more than allowed. Also, he is not allowed to refuse to sell things if he has them in stock, and the laws are very strict about selling spoiled things. If a butcher sells you spoiled meat and refuses to take it back you can go to the police with your story. It is verboten to sell bad meat.
The drink question had become a mighty one for all the warring nations, but Germany, the greatest beer-drinking country of the whole world, has quietly settled the question without a fuss, and now since the war, the breweries are forbidden to retail more than two-thirds of their output in peace times.
The Germans say that verboten is a part of patriotism, for real patriotism consists in not only loving your country but in serving it as well and in having respect for its laws and the rights of other men.