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About Omaha daily bee. (Omaha [Neb.]) 187?-1922 | View Entire Issue (May 24, 1903)
How German Municipalities Lend Money I '"1' J 1 " . : A iin, i fe 1 t i ' H ill t.ti n-. ; : vu THE BOOK EXCHANGE LEirZIO. (Copyright, 1903, by Frank O. Carpenter.) EIPS1G. May 13. (Special Corre T I spondence of The Bee.) I spent 1 thla mnmlnp In nnornhrn1fr'fl shop. II belong to the city o Ijeipslg and It loans out hundreds of thousands of dollars a year. It has a capital of lens than $1CO.COO, but It borrows money from the City Savings bank at 3V4 per cent Interest and charges about 8 per cent to its customers who bring as se curity watches, clocks, furniture, old clothes and everything under the sun. Last year It made about 200.00U loans, which on the average would be more than one for very family in Lelpslg. I spent some time watchlns the pawn brokers take In the goods and give out the money. The loaning room is large and divided in half by counters. On one side are the pawnbroking clerks and on the other, at the time of my visit, were about ' 200 men, women and children, each holding . a bundle waiting to get money upon It. They were lined up like the single file be fore a theater window at an opening night. Each dickered with the clerks, trying to Set the most for his goods. As the articles were placed on the counter their value was estimated by an appraiser who gave the otfner a check for the amount to be loaned. He took this a little further on to the cashier, who paid out the money and gave him a ticket. Another man then took the goods and bundled them away on a shelf. The amounts were generally small, seldom more than $1. Many were for 1, 2 or I marks, or 25, BO and 75 cents. The Interest charged. wus 2 pfennigs for each mark, or one-half cent for each 25 cents per month. This pawnshop was established seventy eight years ago, and since then it has loaned out millions. Its loans increase dur ing hard times and decrease when the times are good. The Institution is worked for the benefit of the people. The Interest is kept down to the lowest rate and the articles are so valued that practically nothing la lost. The most of the articles are redeemed, less than 10 per cent being left for sale at auction. The auction was going on In another room during my stay, and I went in to watch It. The room was filled with bidders, and the auctioneer knocked the goods oft without delay. I noticed that they sold for a little bit more than their valuation. A clock which was mark-d $2 DO sold for $3 and ether things In proportion. - - This pawnbroking shop Is connected with the City Savings bank, which has deposits amounting to about 117.000.000 and now de posits of something like I3.OU0.0O0 a year. It pays about 8 per cent Interest, and loans Its money out for t per cent and upward, the pawnbroking branch paying 3Va per cent. The bank Is not run to make money, but In the Interests of the people. It has now about 180.000 depositors, and of these more than 70.000 have deposits of less than 815. 88,000 have between $15 and 835 and only K.ouo more than 8142. Much of the depositing is done by means Of stamps. A man can buy a stamp for 10 pfennigs, or less than 2tt cents, and de posit this in the penny savings bank. Such stamps are saved until they amount to a mark or more, when they are deposited. There are stamp offices all over the city, and. one can put away his small change Into the savings bank almost as easily as Into the beer saloon. Such savings banks arc to be found In nearly all cities of Germany. That of Ber lin has about 100 different branches; its de positors number more than 600.000 and the deposits are about 8M),000,000. Dresden has almost half as much In Its savings bank, and there are a number of other German cities which have as much as J 30.000,000 each. In addition to theso city banks there are private savings banks, which are to a cer tain extent under the supervision of the government. In these the' deposits are limited by law to 1,000 marks, and the ! MR CARPENTER. BfJTS A TICKET AT A "SLOTBOX." interest rate Is fixed annually by the board of directors. It Is usually low, about 8 per . cent. In these banks $40 can be checked out on anv one day, but a month's notice must bo given for the withdrawal of more than that sum up to 1,000 marks, and six months' notice for larger sums. I have written of the modern postal serv ice of Swltserland and France. That of Germany is equally good. The government here works for the people and helps them . . do their business. The ' Postofflcb depart- ' mcnt forwards all kinds of express, includ ing farm produce and merchandise. There are regular wagons for such work. I see them at the stations piled high with crates and baskets. AVhen I came Into the big depot at Lelpslg yesterday I heard a hen cackling and a duck quacking. By and by a rooster crowed and I looked about for a farm yard in the heart of this city of a half million people. I found it on the top of the mail wagons each of which was driven by ' a postman In uniform. The wagons were loaded with crates of ducks, chickens and other fowls." One box con tained two white pigeons and another a dosen big turkeys. There were postage stamps on the back of the boxes, and I was told that they had been sent in from the country through the post at so much per pound. I took a photograph of the wagons, their hclmcted drivers laughing Os I did so. The German states, with the exception of Bavaria and Wurtemberg, are in the Im perial postal service, which is one of the largest in Europe. It has 200,000 employes . and about 37,000 officers. It handles a bll lion copies of printed matter, a billion pos tal cards and about two billion letters every year, and It does it at a profit. Our Post office ' department annually runs behind That of Germuny runs ahead. It . gives a letter service than we do at a lower rate, and at the same time makes a profit of 84.000.000 out of it, Berlin, for instance, has a pnnumatlo tube system superior to any quick delivery system of New York. By It telegrams, let tors and postal cards can be sent from one part of the city to another more quickly than by telegraph, at a cost of 8 cents a card or 1 cents per letter. If you pay 13 cents you can have a prepaid an swer. This post Is called tho rohr, or tube post. Its offices are distinguished by a red lamp, and are to be found In all parts of Berlin. . The telegraph and telephones of Germany belong to the government, and, conse quently, their charges are lower than ours. . The rate for all Germany and Austria Hungary Is IK cenU a word, while that to Belgium, Denmark, Holland and Switser- . land Is only t cents. You can send a dispatch to England, Norway or Italy for less than t cents per word, and to almost EXPRESS SERVICE OF THE GERMAN POSTOFFICE. though not as luxurious In their appoint ments as ours. The cars are after the European fashion first, second and third class. They are divided into compartments. On the better trains there are lavatories, but an extra charge is made for the use of towel and soap. This is furnished by a penny-ln-the-Blot box. You put In a 10 pfennig piece and pull out a little rag and a piece of soap. The rag Is too small to dry you well, and the soap is just enough for one washing. The third-class cars have no such accom modations. Many of them are without cushioned Beats. There is also a fourth class, where most of the passengers stand up. The 'rates of the first-class are about the same as ours, second-class a little cheaper and third and fourth clases very low. Speaking of s'ot boxes, they are to be found everywhere here and of every kind. In some of the cities you can buy tickets on the elevated railroads by dropping a German nickel, which means 2V4 cents, in the slot. There are slot boxes which sell postal cards and slot restaurants where you can get anything from a thimbleful of benedictine or chartreuse to a glass of champagne or a schooner of beer, and from a chocolate cream to a slice of roast beef. The advantage of the slot machine is that It dispenses with feeing. There are no waiters and hence no fees, and this where one has to pay from 2 cents to a dime for every service, amounts to much. The Germans appreciate small savings. . Tho richer among them spend a great deal .;but they know Just where the money goes and try to get the worth of it. The poor get more for their money perhaps than any other poor In Europe outside the French. They know how to prevent waste. In cook ing nothing Is lost. The crusts of bread and stale pieces of the loaf are kept to thicken the next day's soup and the waste paper of the poor man is kept for fuel. German stoves are economical. They are made of porcelain and are often a yard square and from six to tight feet tall. ' Each stove has a series of flues, and a very, little fuel suffices to warm It. Once hot It gives out a gentle heat all day, using about one-third the coal of an American base burner and nothing like that of a fur nace. Every bit of coal is saved, and a great part of that now used Is In the shape of briquettes or bricks made of coal dust, so tightly pressed that they are as hard as the coal Itself and at the same time per fectly clean. This Is a great business in Germany. The Germans have a better system of do mestic service than ws have. In Lelpsig and other German cities the peoplo live in flati, so that the most of the work Is con fined to one floor. Every loom Is valual-le and the servant usually has little more than a closet to sleep In. The mistress of the house knows all about housekeeping, that being a part of every German girl's education,-and she watches to see that no food Is wasted. The servants are seldom given the same food as the fami!y and among some It Is customary to give the hired girl an allowance of 2 or 8 cents for her supper and let her buy It outside. If there Is fruit on the table it seldom goes out to the kitchen. I am much Interested In the employment agencies here. Each town has one or more such institutions supported by low charges upon employers and employes. The charge Is about 12 cents for getting a servant and half that amount to the servant who wants a place. The laws provide that every serv ant shall have a record or pass book tell ing where she was born, her age and previ ous servitude. It must have the records of the places she has worked and the signa tures of her former employers testifying to her character. The police must stamp every record showing that It Is correct. A dollar a week Is a big price for a hired girl, and at one of the agencies I was told that excellent servants could be had from (Continued on Page Sixteen.) any place In Europe for less than 6 cents. I have spent some time here with Brain ard H. Warner, Jr., one of the youngest and brightest men in our consular service. He has been making an investigation of tho book trade, and. through him, I am able to tell you something of the book metropolis of Europe. Lelpslg does more book .handling than any other city in the world In proportion to its size. It has 800 book stores and pub lishing establishments. It has almost 200 different printing houses and about 9,000 publishing firms represented by agents.' It has a book publishing exchange and clear ing house, and its arrangements are such that books are Bent out dally by the thou sands from here to all parts of Germany. There are 6.000 retail book dealers In the empire, and the book stores of Austria and German Switzerland are fed from here. All publishers have their agents at Lelpslg and many keep full stocks of books on hand so that they can supply orders at an hour's notice. There is a regular system of sending out books by cheap freight and express and the agents arrange for quick delivery and make all collections. . They represent the book stores, as well as the publishers, and the system Is such that tho publishers so represented come Into direct contact with the buyers all ovar Germany, and by the Lelpslg agency throw their books into something like 10,000 stores. About the only provision Is that all books must be delivered in Lelpslg free of freight charges, the book dealers expecting to pay the charge from Lelpslg to their respective stores. Some of the American firms .have such agencies, and it would pay all of our pub lishers to appoint such representatives. I have gone through the book clearing house. It is a beautiful building thoroughly equipped for the purpose. I have also vis ited some of the chief publishing establish ments, including the famous one of Brelt kopf & Haertel. They all do good work, but In modern, conveniences are far behind similar establishments In the United States. Every one here says Germany is having hard times. It may be so, but that is not delaying public improvements. The city of Lelpslg Is planning a railroad station which will cost 830,000,000, or five times as much as the new union station at Wash ington. There are at present about half a dosen depots. These will be done away with and this structure will be built In their place. Dresden recently put up a railroad depot costing millions; I have already described the station at Frankfort, which cost 88,500, 000. Berlin has a number of fine depots. Cologne has good railroad buildings, and so have almost all the cities of Germany. The railroads here belong to the govern ment, and they are very well managed, 4
