The Birmingham age-herald., 1913-01-12
Gern1a,1y's Great Dominating Bank Monopoly

u ERLIN, January 1i.-tspecialo
Germany is at the mercy of a
- gigantic bank trust State,
municipalities and private businesses OF
all kinds are in its grip. Controlling
banks with capital of hundreds OF
millions, a few men possessed OF sinis-
ter powers sit in Berlin and impose
their Wills upon financial and industrial
Germany. Whole industries are al
ready under their thumbs. while 9TH
ers are being rapidly subjugated by
methods that are at last goading the
suffering common people of the father
land into action.
The Deutsche, Dresdener, Daerm-
staedter, and Disconto banks-known
as the Big D's''-with five minor satel-
lites, the National bank, the Berliner
Trading society. the Bank of Commerce
and Discount, the German Central Cred
it bank, and the Sehaafhausen Banking
union, are the monopolists They aim
at complete mastery of the money mar
kets of central Europe; and SO far have
found no rival combination able to op-
pose them. Ten years ago these nine
banks had no claim at all to dictate
to German finance. They were I'M
portant central banks; but they had to
compete with great network OF pow
erful provincial banks. Now, after
decade of systematic Rockefellerisation.
the Big DIS" and their satellites have
eaten up the provincial competitors;
and today handful OF Berlin direc-
tors is able to dictate To all financial
Germany.
The bank trust is now in IT'S last
triumphal stage. The banks which COM
pose it are ceasing to compete among
themselves, and thus a gigantic monop-
oily is being evolved On one hand the
trust-forming banks have eaten up all
outsiders and thus doubled their cap
1tal every few years, on the other hand
they have begun series of deals be-
tween themselves to limit competition.
The result is that an industrial under
taking which dares to defy one of the
big D's' usually finds it impossible
to deal with any other big D." Ger
man industry groans under the tyranny,
and the injury caused to municipal
finance is so great that the large cities,
led by Frankfurt on-Ma ain, now propose.
to start a municipal bank of their own
in order to make them in future inde-
pendent of the bank trust.
The Big d" banks stick at nothing
In order to absorb or force into sub
serviency the old established banks IN
the great provincial cities. By them
selves investing relatively small cap
ital they have gained control of banks
WIN more lndn 9l,UVVVuV,uuU Capital
Whenever a provincial bank needs to
increase its capital, one of the Big
D" banks, itself controlling the private
investor, takes up all the new shares,
and buys up old shares, until 1T gets
control of about a third of the total
share capital This Is enough to give
control at all shareholders meetings,
for the German investor takes no in
terest in bank as long as dividends
remain high. For every million dollars
invested the Big d" gets control of
three millions of capital.
Sometimes the monopoly is spread
i with even less capital. Thus by lately
Investing s1s,oo0.000 In a group of pro-
vincial banks, the Deutsche bank got
Z control of institutions capitalized at
S125,000, 900. When needed. however,
the Big d. banks can lay hands on
enough capital to buy up important
banks wholesale. The Disconto bank
lately bought up altogether the Ham
burg North German bank, and similarly