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Show ONE DOLLAR IS 100 CENTS IN" AMERICA! Salvanah, Ga., Feb. 10 it requires requir-es only ten days to fall from the high estate of a millionaire on the Rhine to eligibility for a uoorhouse on the muddy Savannah. Four hundred soldiers and twenty-seven twenty-seven wives now of Fort Screven, but lately of the American army of occupation, are coming at last to a sober realization of the cold, hard, facts after three days ashore from the good ship St. Mihile. They are going through the experience that others of their buddies suffered before be-fore them. Still there is a difference. When moat of the doughboys come home from the Rhine the American dollar was buying but 300 German marks. When this last contingent left Coblenz the American 'iron man' was good for 23000 marks. The dollar dol-lar that was mighty a short fortnight ago sems no more than paltry here today as the men in khaki vainly tried to adjust themselves to the new economic conditions that surround them. "I always called a taxi when 1 had more than four blocks to walk in Coblenz," said Private Oliver P. Washburn of Des Moines, la, today, "Now I can hardly afford to ride on a street car if I've got to go a mile." Moat of the soldiers are vowing that they want to go back to Germany. Ger-many. There is a big proviso in the wish, however. They would like to go back if they could draw pay in American dollars andl live on German Ger-man marks. The idea of working for marks has no appeal whatever. The drop from the high waves of swollen finance to the hardpan of living in the United States on $30 a month has left most of the returned soldiers in a daze. The doughboys are having their first experience with the latter-day American bootlegger and they are ready to lynch him. Whiskey prices are comparitavely cheap in Savannah Savan-nah eight dollars a quart but the doughboys think it murder. We could get champagne on the Rhine for 30 cents a quart," lamented lament-ed Private Washburn, "and all the beer you wanted for half a cent a glass . Why, man, I used to take two bits out for an evening and have a wild time. As for cigars, I quit smoking them when they went up to three-quarters of a cent." Private Washburn was interrupted by a' sergeant, who complained because he had paid one dollar for a table d'hote dinner at a Savannah hotel "The last meal the frau and I had before we left Coblenz was a soup, an entree, a meat course and a bottle bot-tle of wine." he said, and 20 cents each was the damage, including the lip to the waiter." The sergeant and his wife had an apartment nicely furnished; fur-nished; they kept a servant girl; he had a motorcycle; they went to the opera once a week; went up to Weis-baden Weis-baden on the weekends; and saved money. His army pay was equivalent equiva-lent in the Rhinelandi to 400 good American dollars at home. Fcrd automobiles, according to the soldiers, were selling around one hundred to one twenty-five when they left Coblenz. A house and lot could be hnd for between $200 and $300. Sergeant Delaney, regimental supply sergeant was reported to be among the big property owners at Coblenz. Commissioner Kingston of the Rhinaland commission purchased a castle along the Rhine, though no two reports of the consideration have agreed. It was several hundred dollars, dol-lars, however, and not as the soldiers sol-diers scornfully denied, $1.65. One soldier brought five suits across with him. The highest was a tuxedo, which cost $10. The others averaged $6. John M.arcelle of Brock ton, Mass, ventured that you could "buy out a barber shop for a dime." "Marks were still going down when the troops left Coblenz. One of them showed a handful to a newspaper news-paper man. "Ah, go on and take some of thfm they're probably 50,000 to the dollar dol-lar now." |
