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Show STARVATION SLOWLY ; CREEPS OH TEUTONS Blockade Sends Prices of Foodstuffs Up to Prohibitive Pro-hibitive Figures. AMERICA IS BLAMED iThis Country Accused of Aiding in Depriving Nation Na-tion of Sustenance. By FREDERICK WERNER. Spe ih! ( 'a hi u The Tribune. BliRM.V, Sept. II. Time and again I have heard from the .lips of men In nearly all walka of 1 lie expressions su-.ii a this: If ivp lose this war we aim II have been conquered not by the millions of soldiers who have surrounded us on all sldfs, bill ""ho have never been ahle to ple.-ve the walls of our living defense, but by the Inhuman British blockade and the refusal of America to heed our pltHwtl against the starving of an entire nation. As a matter of fact, there Is no iihao-lutc iihao-lutc lack of anv tiling Datna, If you h.ive motiey enough, you may Mill get any luxury your palate may desire, hut the limp is diawing closer when the greal masses of the Genua n jeople will not have monpy enough to buy even the necessaries of tif. Neutral ravtlers who pay an occasional visit to Hertiji. stopping stop-ping -1 hotels like the Ad Ion or the Kalserliof. find tlip tables therp as well provided as ever and the prices ahout the same as before the war. but neutral visitors vis-itors see but the surface of things, and they do not know that these hotels, which maiie enormous profits before the war, are being run almost at a loss. BpIow the surface, in the hundieds of thousands of mtddle-claFs homes, thrifty and eperienred housewives are fighting as desperately against (lie Increasing prices as their husbands or sons are fighting fight-ing the enemies east and west. Figures publlshpd by the Reichsanzplger gip a vivid Impression of the enemy the German housewives have to fight. Enormous Advances. Statistics gathered In fifty of Germany's" largest cities, and showing the upward niovpinpiit of prices during the past twelve months, prove that butter has gone up 43 per cent; potatoes. 9J per cent; ricp, 151 per ''pnt ; barley meal (used here much as oatma' in America.. 165 per cent; tggs, il ppr ctOV! rye meal. 65 per cent, and peas. 2'10 per cnt. These figures fig-ures show prlcps on May 1. and many articles have gone up In price since then. During the samp period I May. 1PM. to May. 1 91 f i meat prices ross as follow s: Beef. 3? pr cent; veal. 3S per cpnt; mutton mut-ton and lamb, 46 per cent; pork. 100 per cent. Maximum pricM were placed on pork, the principal -neat food of the middle and working classes, hut these prices were soon found Impossible to maintain, and pork hega n soa ri ng. until it Is now a n absolute luxury. Time and again the Vorwaerts lias pointed out how the high prices of meat tempt the farmers to disobey dis-obey the government order not to give potatoes and grain to pigs, because they get much more for their grain using It In this way than hv selling ft. Babies Are Deprived. .It is just the same with milk. Prices of butter nd cheese have gone up so enormously that fanners make all their milk Into butter and cheese and milk 1b Increasingly difficult to get. This. , uf course, is fatal to tpns of thousands of hables. It is useless to keep the price of milk down while permitting the prices of butter and cheese to soar. The time Is approaching when the making of dairy products will have to be forbidden, at least In part, to save the future generations. genera-tions. In some places, as In Bavaria and Wuertt embers, the military command era have stepped in and meted out severe punishments to the usurers In foodstuffs, but In Prussia the government hesitates to interfere with the junkers and large landed proprietors, whose support it cannot can-not do without. We are now being told that bread will be dearer yet during the coming year, owing to the drouth and the resulting" partial failure of the harvest, and house-'wives house-'wives of the working classes are in despair. They do not see how they are going to get through another winter of war and blockade. Want Independent State. No matter to whom will fall the task of regulating the fate of Belgium after the war, the increasing Flemish movement move-ment in Belgium must be taken into consideration, for the populations of the northern provinces appear more and more determined to emerge from the war an Independent state, preferably a republic. re-public. It would be wrong to say that they are satisfied under the present German Ger-man regime, hut It would be even further from the truth to Imagine that they have any desire to revert to their condition before be-fore the war. Six months ago It would have been absurd ab-surd to have spoken of any Independent Flemish movement, for the Flemish population popu-lation of Belgium had separated into two camps. One faction, the leaders of which are at present residing In Holland, had a purely Belgian programme and their aim was first of all the liberation of Belgium, Bel-gium, while the other party, whose leaders lead-ers are at Ghent and who have repeatedly repeat-edly been accused of playing the hand of the Germans before the war. are now openly fighting under the device: "Flanders "Flan-ders for the Flemish." These people consider Belgium a meie geographical name and maintain that the historical moment has come to liberate Flanders from the foreign yoke. TCo matter what 1 be the outcome, of the war, they desire to create a Flemish state which shall be neither French nor German, but absolutely abso-lutely Independent. Preserving Language. At present Flanders, like the old kingdom king-dom of Poland, ha s been divided Into three parts, belonging respectively 1 to France, Holland and Belgium. When Belgium was separated from Holland in 1830 the Flemish movement was started to counteract the spreading of the French language, and after many years' struggle the Flemings succeeded in having hav-ing the Flemish language recognized on equal terms with French, which Is spoken in the southern part of the kingdom. king-dom. The Flemish constitute half of the population of Belgium, or about three and a lialf million people, and there Is little doubt that many of them would rather become Germans, if granted a position within the German empire similar to that of Bavaria, than return to their old position posi-tion u the subjects of King Albert. |