New-York tribune., 1906-11-10
GERMAN PROSPERITY.
Great Policies Uninterrupted -
Massing the BattaIions.
Bremen, October %

at great port like Bremen. and il is now full
and vigorous. Mines and factories are working
at high pressure, and there is an increasing vol
ume Of business. Money is likely 10 remain dear
for a long time but that is because there has
been complete industrial revival after pro-
tracted period Of depression. Money is wanted
for keeping production at full capacity when
prices are rising. That is why the bank rate is
high, although the gold reserves are lower than
they should be and too many American bills
have been offered. There has not been a renewal
Of the speculative movement for financing cleo
tricaI bubbles and irresponsible building COM
panies but legitimate business interests need
strong support from capital, and, consequently.
the currency has expanded and bank credits
have been enlarged. Coal is wanted as well as
money. since all branches of manufacture ara in
active operation, and many factories and iron
mills have advance orders for six or nine months.
Altogether the Fatherland has never been buster
more buoyant. It mas not been drinking
brandy again, IN the disastrous imitation
period. 1t has revived under cold water treat
ment Bremen, with its iron foundrles sugar re-
ineries oil works. jute mills and tobacco fac
tories and with its constantly expanding
commerce. has a large share of the general good
fortuna There has been improved business with
America Australia, South America and England,
and the next dividends Of the great shipping
lines may be larger than last years
The shipping interest is at once the life blood
Of ports like Bremen and Hamburg and the
main resource Of Germany in times Of stress.
When the business interests Of the home market
We're disorderea by a collapse of confidence
few years ago. 1t was the steadiness Of the for
eign trade that saved the situation There had
been little less than a debauch Of unrestrained
activity, with stock promoting unprece-
dented scale, with speculative enterprises reck-
I o,Iro With r0ri0
of factories in obscure villages. and the rebuild
ing Of towns with precipitate rush, and with
the creation OF electrical and mechanical plants
beyond existing capacities and requirements
There sudden revulsion Of feeling from
eredulity 20 hopeless depression. and the country
had to stop from sheer exhaustion and 10 pull
itself together. It learned to value Alright its
foreign trade when 1t was forced to live upon it
from hand TO mouth German exports were not
affected by the collapse of domestic trade. and
imports were received in increased volume. For
eign commerce was an anchor 10 windward. and
II enabled the ship TO weather the gale. With
the restoration Of good times all mercantile In
terests have fourished. and nearly so per cent
of the carrying trade TO and from Bremen has
been under the German flag. The vessels Of the
four principal transatlantic lines either anchor
ing at Bremerhaven coming UP TO the city
comprise a fleet Of $50 steamships with tonnage
the four fastest liners ahoat, which carry the
mails thousands Of miles with the certainty OF
river ferry, ana as an advertisement Of German
enterprise throughout the world worth all
they cost in subsidies 1t gives patriotic
American a sober sense of wasted opportunities
in his own country when he witnesses IN this
old Hanseatio town the evidence Of continuous
and systematic development of the German
merchant marine.
There are all sorts OF popular agttatons in the
empire and at least one-third of the votes cast
at general election are for Socialist candidates
but there are no organized movements against
trusts and combinations So little is said about
them in the German press that stranger might
hastily assume that they do not exist, but in
cisive questions TO shippers and merchants
would speedily dispel the illusion. Nearly every
important industry is organized and controlled
by hard and fast agreements or cartels among
manufacturers and merchants. Production is
limited, prices are SET and the distribution Of
goods in the home and foreign markets is sys-
tenaticaIy regulated. If there are no combina-
tons approaching IN magnitude the largest in
America. there is more general recognition of
the necessity for concerted action both at home
and abroad. The favorite comparison is a mill
tary one A manufacturer or merchant acting
on his own initiative is ike a single gun on
battlefield AS artillery fire is massed by bat
talon or regimental organization so also are the
activities Of manufacturers and merchants con-
centrated in the battle for markets-the grea test
of modern contests The mining industries the
iron and steel trade. sugar production and re-
fning. the textile and chemical trades. tobacco
manufacturing and all the other leading
branches Of production are organized for effect
I've campaigning without cut-throat competition
Like everything undertaken in Germany, this
system has been mastered in detail through in
dustriaI cartels and manufacturers and ship
pers' syndlcates. The export trade has been
most fnteugently directed in this way. Even
in the worst times surplus stocks are not worked
off abroad at panic prices. but deliberately and
cautiously. so as 10 avoid unnecessary sacrifice
Of values. In the best times the capacity OF the
home market is not underrated and the enlarge
ment Of exports is scientifically controlled by
powerful syndcates. If there are no popular
outcries against cartels syndicates and combina-
tions IL is because they are considered modern
mechanism. as essential improved plants
A great oil combination has been formed in
Bremen within a fortnight and in place of
popular agitation led by a halfpenny journal
against IT, as there IS in England over the Soap
Trust, there is general approval of the trust.
Three groups of fnancers are behind it-the
Paris RothschiIds, the ST. Petersburg NobeIs
and the Deutsche Bank, and with a capital of
s5O0OOOO which can be doubled II necessary.
the trust practically controls the petroleum pro-
duction of Russia and the Continental trade
The ostensfbIe motive for this combination is
European defence against the Standard OIL
| Trust, but this is not 10 be taken seriously,
since the Bremen trust is more likely TO become
an ally Of the American monopoly than
antagonist Of it. The methods adopted are
those prevailing in the German export trade.
wherever there has been competition in the sale
OF Continental supplies there will be uniform