New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1908-12-02
Literary NesvS and Criticism

support and the other is ambition for q larger
place in the SUM-"
Private enterprise has been directed into in
dustrial undertakings because so many fields Of
public utility have been appropriated by munich
pal bodies and the state. Railways. tramways,
river and canal transportation. insurance. bank
ing and other interests have been conducted as
collective enterprises for the benefit Of the COM
rnunfty and the general effect of SO much ma
tionalzation and municpaIization has been to
make. Germany more intensely industrial than
it would otherwise have been. Private capital
and effort have been released from large num-
Der OF necessary economic functions and en-
ployed in Industrial activities. A considerable
portion Of the revenues of the various states OF
the empire is drawn from remunerattve enter
prises like railways and telesraphs. and
from mines, forests, smelling works. quar-
ries, and tobacco and other manufactures In
Prussia the largest mine and mineral pro-
prietor is the state. and there Is pos
sibility Of the naturalization Of conier1es on
q large scale. The Saxon government is plan
ming large steel works for the production OF
rails and materials needed on the railway lines.
and in Bavaria there is an ambitious project
for the generation and distribution Of electric
power from the water courses of the kingdom
State agricultural enterprises are common; the
business Of insurance against fire and other
losses is conducted by municipalities and states
on a large scale, and revenues from all these
sources help to tighten the burdens Of direct
taxation AS state initiative has been the tradi-
ton in Germany, it has been easy to apply the
principle of public ownership to modern condi-
tons.
PERHAPS the most interesting chapter in this
exhaustive work is that relating to the concen-
tration of capital and industrial enterprises 1t
opens with this striking declaration from the
Austrian consul in Berlin: Never before was
economic Germany entirely under the abso-
lutte rule of a group of men, barely fifty in
Der; in no former period of industrial expansion
was the old formula Of the free play of forces
abandoned to such q degree in 1905. when
the rnomentous decisions to the extent OF
production, sales abroad. prices, the granting Of
credit, the raising of new capital and the fixing
of wages and rates of interest lay in the hands
of a few persons found at the head Of the large
banks, mammoth industrial undertakings and
great cartels. The lions share Of the industrial
boom has fallen to these great combinations of
interests whose gains have been the larger the
more their industries were ruled by syndicates."
Mr. Dawson continues with close and critical
study of the syndicates, showing that the move
ment extends no less TO finance than to industry
The provincial banks have been absorbed by the
large Berlin corporations, and these have COM
half q dozen institutions seriously count in
the financial world Three OF these" he says,
work with a capital exceeding f20,0o0000
each and play an important part in most OF the
great financial operations by which German IN
dustry and trade promoted in transoceanic
countries. as well as In the combinations which
are so rapidly completing the concentration OF
industrial capital at home" Dependence upon
these masterful syndcates has steadily in
creased. While the cartels have kept within
the law, abuses in their operation have become
fragrant. and legislative measures for regulating
them may become necessary.
There are important chapters on technical
education. methods of industrial Cancellation the
preservation of agriculture. the rural labor and
small holdings movements. cooperation and the
German workman The most hopeful passages
and conclusions found under the heading
The Outlook Of Socialism" There has been
a steady growth Of a lower middle class re-
cruited from the ranks Of labor Social legisla-
ton and the system Of insurance against sick
ness, accident and old age have tended to
develop a wholesome feeling Of conserva-
tism among working people The theory of
social Improvement and economic catastrophes
has had to be abandoned by agitators although
they have concealed their retreat behind all
sorts OF phrases. They still depend upon poverty
and discomfort for propaganda success but the
comparative barrenness of their parliamentary
achievements has discouraged their followers
While the Socialist demagogues have not known
what they wanted, nor been able to avoid fac
ton feuds the German workman has become