Working girls in Dresden have not only been encouraged but quietly advised to serve the State “by enabling Deutschland to achieve the high place in the world which God marked out for it, which can only be done if there are a sufficient number of Germans to make their influence felt in the world.”  They have been told not to worry, that the State will provide for the offspring.  In fact, societies of godfathers and godmothers are growing all over Germany.  They do not necessarily have to bring up the child in their own home; they can pay for its maintenance.  Thus the rich woman who does not care to have many children herself is made to feel in ultra-scientific Germany that she should help her poorer sister.

The Germans treat the matter very lightly.  In Bremen, for example, where the quartering of Landsturmers (the oldest Germans called to military service) among the people resulted in a large batch of illegitimate children, I found it the custom, even in mixed society of the higher circles, to refer to them jokingly as “young Landsturmers.”

A serious consideration of what Germany, or any other belligerent, will do after the war is usually of little value, as conditions after the war depend upon what is done during the war.  The amount of freedom which the German people attain in the next few years is in direct proportion to the amount of thrashing administered to their country by the Allies.  Perhaps they will have something to say about the frontier regulations of Germany; but assuming that the training of centuries will prevent their hastily casting aside their docility, it is extremely probable that few, if any, Germans will be allowed to leave Germany during the first years of reconstruction.

This will disappoint several million Germans.  Despite the snarling rage displayed everywhere in the fatherland, except in diplomatic circles, against the United States, I heard an ever-increasing number of malcontents declare that, immediately after the close of war, they would go to the States to escape the burden of taxation.  One hears two words—­Friede (peace) and Essen (food)—­constantly.  The third word I should add is Steuern (taxes).  It is all very well to sit by some neutral fireside reading Goethe or Schopenhauer, while listening to the Meistersinger von Nurnberg, or the “Melody in F,” and lull yourself into the belief that the Germans are a race of idealists.  This touch is used to a considerable extent in German propaganda.  Any one familiar, however, with conditions in modern Germany knows that Germans are ultra-materialistic.