Mr. Calian is Professor of Industrial Management in the Graduate School of Business Administration, and is also connected in an advisory capacity with various manufacturing concerns. He has recently returned from a trip through Germany.

The Writer, in company with Mr. Ralph Wilkins, a young paper-mill chemist, spent about two year, weeks in Germany. In January of this year, looking up certain processes and machinery used in paper manufacture, in the interest of a large eastern pulp and paper mill. It has been suggested that some notes on the conditions observed might to be of interest.

A plea of confession and avoidance must be entered at the beginning, to the effect that outside the paper industry we have nothing to contribute beyond a few snap-shots of the surface of German life at this time. The time was short and well-filled, and out general impressions were of necessity wholly superficial.

German and Belgian visas were obtained without difficulty in Paris, and we took' a morning train for Berlin via Cologne. The battle areas along the line, which passes through Complegne, Noyon, La Fere and St. Quentin, showed much less recovery than we had expected. It may be said here that the devastated, areas from Rheims along the Chemin des Dames, which my associate visited later, were in much the condition in which the war left them. These areas have been written about so often that any further description could not add anything of value. The picture itself brought home a most poignant realization of the indomitable courage and gallantry with which France upheld our common cause, and of the awful sacrifices that she made in the struggle of our sort of civilization against one quite alien to our ideals.

Through Belgium the line followed the route of the original German advance, through Namur and Liege; from the train war here, but the very names of the town stir the imagination.

Railway Service Good

Our tickets read only to Cologne, and we changed trains here and arranged for a sleeper from Dusseldorf. The station was dirtier than in pre-war times, and the train was late enough to make us feel at home. Service was good, and an English-speaking porter who helped us to start our three trunks of paper samples through in bond, tried to return half the well earned tip that we gave him. The first-class car that we entered here was clean, and newly and attractively upholstered, both seat-coverings and curtains being of paper fabric, as in nearly all the cars in Germany. To avoid a wrong impression one should say that the returning of tips or their refusal was not found to be a habit, despite the stringent national anti-tipping law; and that most of the cars had dingy and well worn paper-cloth upholstery, and were not very well cleaned. The Sleeper which we were fortunate enough to get at Dusseldorf had somewhat this dingy appearance, but the sheets and blankets and a good many applicants did not get berths; the train crew was friendly and courteous, and handled patiently the loud and persistent complaints of some of the unlucky ones. The locomotives that we saw here and elsewhere in Germany were remarkably well groomed, and seemed in excellent condition. The permanent way appeared from the ridding of the train, and from a few casual inspections to be in good shape. Of course we did not use the German dining service on this night journey, but it may be said that while the matter of trains is under discussion, that the food served there was plentiful and good, and that the requirement for bread-cards was the only reminder of abnormal conditions. Whether the prices should be called high or low depended as elsewhere upon whether one thought in the old value of marks or in dollars. A certain excellent luncheon on the train cost us fifty-two marks each,--the equivalent of seventy-eight cents at exchange then current. Similarly with railway fares: The first class fare from Cologne to Berlin was 330 marks,--or $4.45; from Berlin to Stettin, 85 marks, or $1.28; and from Berlin to Frankfurt including sleeper, or, 191.60 marks, or $2.87. The fare by mail-plane from Berlin to Dortmund,--a trip for which we were booked, but missed on account of fog,--was 500 marks, or $7-50.

Berlin Conditions Near Normal

At the Custom house in Berlin we found that the importation of paper is forbidden. We spent an hour in preliminaries, visited the Commissioner, who issued a permit in fifteen minutes, and on the next ensuing week day spent a further hour and forty minutes, during which two men worked continuously on examination and classification of our samples and computation of duties. Our growing alarm was assuaged when we received a bill for a dollar and eighty cents -- in marks of course.

In Berlin a superficial glance about as one left the station and rode through the streets showed fewer departures the streets showed fewer departures from normality than might have been expected. Station and streets were well filled; there were plenty of taxis waiting, duly equipped with pneumatic tires: policing was good, and shop windows were attractively dressed. The appearance and behavior of the crowds seemed perfectly ordinary. On the other hand the standard of clothing was low,--thought not as conspicuously so as we had expected; there were a good many old uniforms; there were not many private automobiles about, and many private automobiles about, and many of the taxis were a good many signs from which the words "Kaiserlich" or "Koniglich" had been erased, sometimes at a good deal of pains.

Food in Hotels Plentiful

Hotels were crowded, but we were able to get one excellent double room with bath at the Eden for two hundred marks a day--a dollar and a half apiece. There were a few remaining scars from military occupancy, and the sheets had apparently been North German Lloyd tablecloths -- otherwise appointments and condition were good. Room service was excellent, and dining room service was excellent, and dining room service approached perfection. The orchestra divided its attention between the lighter classics and "American music"--to wit, jazz,--a condition that seems to be common to France and England as well. Food at this hotel was plentiful and good, except that coffee was poor, there was very little milk and no cream, and colored goose grease in attractive pats but of villainous taste was served in place of butter. One of our business friends who owned a cow gave us some butter in a flat silver box made to be carried in the coat pocket. Sugar was short but not absent, and bread could be obtained without a card only at the hotel were one was registered.

A very good dinner at this hotel -- which is one of the-three best in Berlin--cost about a dollar and a half, and a rather pretentious one with wine about three dollars. There was little dressing for dinner at the hotels. In the restaurants of less degree the charge was much loss. Of course a dollar and a half was a hundred marks, which does not grow on every bush in Germany. German beer is poor on account of the shortage of cereals, but the bills of fare showed native wines at very low prices in terms of our money. The largest of the Berlin beer halls is partly closed and partly converted to other uses. Afternoon tea,-or chocolate,--has become an established habit, and at appropriate hours the tea rooms both at the downtown hotels and elsewhere are crowded.

Extensive Business Advertising

Store windows were attractively dressed, and the only department store visited had a most enticing line of such goods as are suitable for presents, at remarkably low prices in terms of American money. The major automobile companies bad fine window displays, but we did not see anyone in the showrooms. The North German Lloyd and Hamhurg American Companies advertised rather extensive Air-plane service, but apparently only the Berlin-Dortmund small route, and possibly one other line were in anything like regular operation.