New-York tribune., 1901-06-10
EUROPEAN TRUSTS.
EFFECTS OF AMERICAN COMBINATIONS
ABROAD-THE GERMAN Hapurr on
INIITATION-ENGLAND MONEY
POWER CHALLENGED
London, June 1,

day in Europe well in America Germany
is taking the lead in what may be regarded as
p defensive campaign against American COM
binations in manufacture trade and commerce.
Put belelum is already organizing its industrial
iorces on similar lines. and English capitalists
with all their Inertia and conservatism are
slowly pulling themselves together and striving
10 consolidate their resources for competition in
the worlds markets. In Austria Hungary there
are vague concentrations in the press respecting
ihe necessity for a European league against
American enterprise but these vaporings need
not be regarded seriously. In France important
Industrial combinations under contempIa-
tion. and even in Russia Belgian company pro-
moters are planning trusts in coal mining the
metal trades, glass factories tramways electric
lighting and the textile industries. The pooling
IF the interests of American corporations for the
purpose Of cheapening processes Of manufacture
and distribution and of facilitating transporta-
ton TO foreign markets is regarded as a
challenge TO European industries. but rather as
practical policy based concentration of re-
serves of capital. Imitation rather than defen-
sive tariff legislation is the natural safeguard
Germany has superior equipment for meet
ing the menace of American combinations of
capital. 1t is the most initiative and flexible
country in Europe. Since the decisive campaigns
with Austria Hungary and France it has en-
tered with tremendous energy upon the greatest
conflict of the modern world-the battle for the
foreign market. At the outset il settled the cur
rency question by adopting the English mon
etary system based upon a single gold Standard
and then, after experimenting unsatisfactory
with free trade. it profited by the Industrial ex-
2erience Of the United States and introduced
protection the best method of securing the
"home market against destructive foreign COM
petition and Of developing national industries
hen he nj cd
twenty more reciprocity treaties, Germany
initiated this policy wherever il was practicable
10 do and il has followed the English exam
PIE in creating and charging the merchant ma
rine under the national flag and in laying the
foundations of colonial empire. All these great
policies have been allowed TO operate with the
least possible political and social disturbance
and TO minister to the industrial development
and economic prosperity of the Fatherand.
Technical and commercial education has been
promoted with characteristic thoroughness. and
every American improvement in mechanical
processes has been Introduced with singular
adaptability. The Germans, appreciating fully
the disadvantage of their belated appearance in
the industrial tournament have been quick 10
learn every device and expedient for arming
themselves with weapons of precision and for
using them with skill. They have borrowed
ideas from their most formidable competitors
tial resource or safeguard in America or Eng
land.
When the concentration of masses of Ameri-
capital and the combination of great rail-
way and industrial corporations create new
resource for foreign competition, Germany nat
urally has recourse to imitation. The details are
not yet known. but it is evident that the great
iron masters and steel makers under the leader
ship of the Krupps forming a formida BILE
Der, and can be easily brought under the control
of master minds; and their interests be
pooled without fictitious capitalization or legis-
lative and political agitation The matter is
kept secret and contradictory reports have been
printed respecting It, but practical measures for
securing this concentration Of industrial
sources in the German iron and steel industry
have been adopted. and a complete reorganiza-
tion on American lines is likely 10 be effected
any day. The coal and iron mining interests
will probably be included in this gigantic opera
tion. Similar combinations in the woollen and
cotton industries will be attempted, but there
viii be greater difficulty in bringing them about.
These manufacturing trades until recently, and
especially in SaXony, have been conducted by
families with small capital. the business being
handed down from father to SON. This system
involved economy of management and narrow
margin Of profit in business transactions and it
competing with one another for the foreign trade
and for the control Of the home market. Within
ten years corporations with limited liabilities
have taken the place of the family factories in
Saxony and elsewhere: and these have opened
the way for trusts and combinations. by which
further economies in manufacture have been
introduced, and cutthroat competition at home
and abroad has been avoided. Further concen-
trations Of capital difficult. but not impossi-
bic: and the Germans. with their genius for or
ganization and detail, and with their instructive
habit of imitation, will not shrink from them if
they are ever convinced that this is the new
order of the day and that it is indispensable
condition for industrial competition.
CONDITIONS IN BELGIUM
The Belgian iron and steel industry is con-
froIed by a few mine owners and manufacturers
and a combination has apparently been brought
about already for mutual advantage and de-
fence These capitalists occupy middle ground
and have close relations with their French, Ger
man and Swedish competitors. They will be the
natural Intermediates II a Continental COM
bination ever becomes practicable. All discus
zion OF this contingency is now premature, since
the national concentrations in the iron and steel
trades have not been effected, and these must
precede anything in the form of an anti-Ameri-
can combination Equally premature the re-
ports printed by halfpenny journals respecting
the operations OF Belgian company promoters in
Russia and other countries for the creation of
industrial trusts and trade monopolies These
would be excluded by Russian law. which is an
tagonistic 10 foreign capitalists.
English conservatism has not been an ade-
s,T a,1