FORESTS AND EMPLOYMENT IN GERMANY 39 



jobs if it could be avoided. Regular work and small emergency jobs 

 were to be reserved for regular employees, and outside workers were 

 to be employed only on the larger extraordinary (zusatzlich) jobs, 

 where there were not sufficient local unemployed workers. It was 

 proposed that hand labor be used instead of teams for working the soil 

 on steep slopes and in other difficult places. Regular workers were 

 to be given work the year round, so far as practical; after logging was 

 done they were to be used for building roads and ditches and in 

 pruning. Needy persons were to be allowed to cut firewood for their 

 own use, but to take only small trees from thinnings, or stumps the 

 extraction of which would not pay if done by paid labor. 



The measures adopted during the last 2 or 3 years to increase the 

 cut in German forests and reduce imports of timber have, of course, 

 greatly increased employment of woods workers. In 1935 the cut 

 of the State forests was raised approximately 50 percent above normal 

 and in 1936 and 1937 this increase was also required of the other public 

 and the private forests. 17 It was estimated early in 1936 that the excess 

 cutting of the past 2 years had provided the equivalent of 6 months' 

 work to 60,000 or 70,000 more woods workers than were employed 

 in 1927 (81). Sawmills employed about 38,000 more persons and 

 woodworking industries 51,000 more in 1935 than in 1932. 



From 1927 to 1929 the Prussian State forests provided emergency 

 employment amounting to 279,000 man-days (37). This was mostly 

 planting of insect-devastated areas in the eastern provinces. In 1930-31 

 emergency work amounted to 87,000 man-days, and in 1932 it rose 

 to 588,000 days. Before 1932 a large part of the workers were women 

 from Berlin and other cities, as it was desired not to reduce the supply 

 of farm workers; with increased unemployment in agriculture, be- 

 ginning in 1932, more local people were employed. 



During the year ended February 1, 1932, unemployed persons were 

 given 720,000 steres of fuel wood, which they were allowed to cut 

 for themselves. This helped to reduce thefts of wood, and at the 

 same time accomplished some needed thinning that the forest admin- 

 istrations could not afford to pay for. 



The emergency work on the State and other public forests was 

 financed largely from relief funds appropriated for the purpose, or 

 from unemployment insurance funds. This enabled the forest ad- 

 ministrations to get a great deal of work done which they could not 

 have done otherwise, owing to reduced income. The workers were 

 recruited through the labor offices, and were frequently city industrial 

 workers. More work could have been accomplished with the same 

 funds if experienced workers could have been hired, without restric- 

 tions, but this would not have accomplished the objectives of the 

 relief funds. 18 The expenditure, even though the work was not par- 

 ticularly efficient, was considered justified because the workers would 

 have had to be supported anyway even if not employed. Moreover, 

 it was estimated that one "free" worker was employed in making 

 clothing, materials, and equipment, and preparing food, for every 

 two unemployed persons given relief jobs (15). The relief workers 

 received regular wages, contributed partly by the labor offices and 

 partly by the forest administrations. 



17 Similar action was taken in 1919-20, when the Minister of National Economy ordered forest owners 

 to cut 33 percent more than the normal cut in order to supply the deficiency resulting from loss of territory 

 by the Treaty of Versailles. (13) 



18 Kiinanz states (23) that relief workers accomplish only 55 percent as much as experienced men. 



