It is in towns, particularly industrial towns, where one sees how entirely the German nation is organized for war. Into these towns an enormous number of men have been drafted from the country to work in factories, which are humming day and night with activity to keep up the supply of all things necessary for the fighting line.
In general, the relations between capital and labor there have experienced notable amelioration. Indeed, the impression one gains in traveling about Germany is one of absolute settled industrial peace, but I know this has only been secured because all parties know that the first signs of dissatisfaction would be treated "with the utmost rigor of the law."
At some of the largest factories men are often at work fifteen, twenty, and even thirty hours on a stretch, with only short intervals for rest. Though it is said that there are ample stocks of all kinds of ammunition, there is noted daily and nightly a feverish haste in the factories where it is made.
The Government has not officially taken over the factories, but it is well known that all factory owners who want Government work can get it, and, as this is almost the only profitable use to which factories can just now be put, there is no lack of candidates for recognition as army contractors.
Whenever a Government contract is given out there is a clause in the contract which fixes rates of wages for every grade of workmen so that any questions of increases that the men might raise are out of the hands of the employer, and he points to the fact that both he and the workmen are in the hands of the State. Strikes are therefore unknown, a further deterrent being the knowledge that any man who does not do his utmost without murmuring will quickly be embodied in some regiment destined for one of the hottest places at the front.
In factories where Government work is being done wages are high, and even in the few cases where wages of certain unskilled workers have fallen, the men are allowed to work practically until they drop and so make up by more hours what they have lost by the lowered rates.
There is keen competition to obtain work in the factories working for the State, as the men engaged in these know almost certainly that for some time at least they will not be sent to the front, which seems to be the chief dread underlying all other thoughts and feelings.
For work done on Sunday wages are 50 per cent. higher than the usual rate. The men are encouraged to work on Sundays and overtime on weekdays and the prices of food are so high they need little encouragement. Where women have taken the places of men their wages are in most cases lower.
KRUPPS’ IMPENDING STRIKE
An Associated Press dispatch from Geneva on July 15 said: