While the Dutch, Danish and Swiss governments try to stop smuggling; there is always some going through.  The rich have the money to bribe border officers and inspectors.  When I was in Duesseldorf, last October, I met the owner of a number of canal boats, who shipped coal and iron products from the Rhine Valley to Denmark.  He told me his canal barges brought back food from Copenhagen every trip and that the border authorities were not very careful in making an investigation of his boats.

In Duesseldorf, too, as well as in Cologne, business men spoke about the food they got from Belgium.  They did not get great quantities, of course, but the leakage was enough to enable them to live better than those who had to depend upon the food in Germany.

When the food supplies began to decrease the Government instituted the card system of distribution.  Bread cards had been very successful, so the authorities figured that meat, butter, potato and other cards would be equally so.  But their calculations were wrong.

When potato cards were issued each person was given nine pounds a week.  But the potato harvest was a big failure.  The supply was so much less than the estimates that seed potatoes had to be used to keep the people satisfied.  Even then the supply was short; and the quantity to be sold on potato cards was cut to three pounds a week.  Then transportation difficulties arose, and potatoes spoiled before they reached Berlin, Munich, Hamburg, Dresden, Leipsic and other large cities.

The same thing happened when the Government confiscated the fruit crop last year.

One day I was asked on the telephone whether I wanted to buy an 11-pound ham.  I asked to have it sent to my office immediately.  When it came the price was $2.50 a pound.  I sent the meat back and told the man I would not pay such a price.

“That’s all right,” he replied.  “Dr. Stein and a dozen other people will pay me that price.  I sent it to you because I wanted to help you out.”

Dr. Ludwig Stein, one of the editors of the Vossiche Zeitung, paid the price and ordered all he could get for the same money.

When I left Berlin the Government had issued an order prohibiting the sale of all canned vegetables and fruit.  It was explained that this food would be sold when the present supplies of other foods were exhausted.  There were in Berlin many thousand cans, but no one can say how long such food will last.

When Americans ask, “How long can Germany hold out?” I reply, “As long as the German Government can satisfy the vanity and stimulate the nerves of the people, and as long as the people permit the Government to do the nation’s thinking.”

How long a time that will be no one can say.  It was formerly believed that whenever a nation reached the limit which Germany has reached it would crumple up.  But Germany fails to crumple.  Instead of breaking up, she fights harder and more desperately.  Why can she do this?  The answer is simple:  Because the German people believe in their Government and the Government knows that as long as it can convince the people that it is winning the war the people will fight.