The Watertown weekly leader. [volume] (Watertown, Jefferson County, Wis.) 1912-1917, 1913-06-20

And to discover that this great industry
has stopped to the brbing of oficials-a fact ad
mtted by the Krupp firm, after the charge had
been made in the reichstag-and that it had been
supplying French newspapers with material for
war-scare articles, so as to induce the German
government to buy more armament from the
Krupps, is more to Germany than scandal 1t
is catastrophe
The charges made in the reichstag by Dr.
Liebknecht the Socialist deputy, and in the col
uInns of the Vorwaerts, the Socialist newspaper
1t is a coincidence that it that newspaper
which ten years ago printed another scandalous
story about the Krupps, which caused the death
of the then head Of the works Friedrich Alfred
Krupp.
1t was impossible to refute him, because the
minister of war, Gen Won Heeringen, was obliged
to admit then and there that an inquiry was going
which had already revealed that zone of the
Krupp officials" had brbed officers to reveal GER
tain information. The following day the Krupps
issued a statement in which they admitted that
their representatives in Berlin had maintained
friendly relations" with their former comrades"
of the department for the purpose of obtain
ing business information and had bestowed
small present con certain under officials"
1t was on Friday that Liebknecht exploded his
bomb and forced Heeringen to reveal that
secret inquiry and on Saturday that the Krupps
made their admission of bribery. On Sunday the
Vorwaerts published the text of the instructions
to its Paris agent to leave no stone unturned'
to persuade some popular French newspaper to
publish statement that France intended to dou
BILE heF orders for machine guns. The object was
to get the German government to order machine
guns from the Deutsche Munitions ind Waffen
fabrik.
On Tuesday the popular indignation had risen
so high that Gen. Won Heeringens plea for sus-
pension of judgment until his private inquiry had
daue its work was forgotten The budget commit
tee of the reichstag voted to appoint parliament
tary commission of inquiry into the scandal. This
commission, however despite the protests Of the
Socialists, was not vested with power to send for
persons and papers
Although the Krupp works date from 1910 when
Friedrich Krupp established his forge at Essen, it
vas his son, Alfred Krupp, who was the real
foun5er of the industry. Friedrich died practical
1y bankrupt IN 1926 leaving little than the
secret of his cast-steel process to his and it
was 80 years before any striking results
achieved. =
1t in 1910 that Friedrich Krupp purchased
a small forge in Essen, where he devoted himself
to the problem of manufacturing cast steel, but
though the article put the market by him
In 1915 it commanded but little sale, and the firm
anything but prOsp erous. He employed only
three workmen.
Alfred Krupp was born April 26, 1912, and at
the time of his fathers death only fourteen
years old. His mother carried on the works until
Alfred reached his majority, that twice in the
history of the works have they been managed by
women The present head of the industry is
Bertha Krupp the granddaughter Of the woman
who became its manager in 1926
The Krupps had little money that Alfred, on
his fathers death, compelled to leave school
to assist his mother He displayed phenomenal
aptitude for the foundry business, and the works
developed with increasing rapidity after his in
fuence felt IN their management. By 1846
the firm had expanded so that 122 wCrkmen
employed.
AS late 1848, the year in which his mother
Eelinquished the sole management of the works
into his hands, he melted the family plate to pay
his workmen. Today the mighty industry fur
nishes employment to majority Of the workmen
OF three cities and a dozen coal and iron mining
towns. The ships built from it, equipped with
It's steel and armed with It's cannon. all
the seas and wherever steel Is used the name OF
Krupp Is known. The capital of the firm Is
about $50 100000
1t was in 1S47 that Krupp scored his first real
success, when he made three pounoer muzzle-
loading gun OF cast steel At the great London
exhibition of 1851 he exhibited solid hawless
ingot OF cast steel Weighing two tons thus estab
fishing the fact that an important firm existed in
Germany capable of turning out samples OF excel
lent Workmanship. The Essen works y ere every
where spoken Of and the output watched with
the closest interest. The manufacture of weldiess
steel tires for railway vehicles another In
vention which followed soon after.
The making Of heavy ordnance. which has made
the name of these works famous the world over
was not then prominent part OF the business
One Of the first large orders he got for firearms
came four years after the London exhibition, when