The Birmingham age-herald., 1913-01-12

bank monopoly is injuring German indus
try. Great undertakings are no longer
run by their founders or by technical ex-
ports, but by fnaneiers who live hundreds
of miles away, and know nothing of the
business. A banker who has never seen
a coal or iron mine directs from a dis
taItce the great metallurgical industries of
Westphalia and Silesia; and in his own In
terests overrides the decisions of experts
the spot.
The bank monopoly has the further eff
feet of pushing German industry into the
trust system. The banks forbid competi-
ton between industries which they con-
troll. Two big D. banks gain control
of rival steel corporations. The steel
works compete against one another and
cut prices until they are selling al a loss.
BY this the banks behind them are threat
ened with loss of the interest on their
capital. They. therefore. come to an
agreement behind the backs of the Steel
corporations, and force these to restore
the old high prices. In this way the Big
d" banks are the controlling factor in
the matter of prices.
At present the big DIS" have cpne
thoroughly to understand the profit which
they may reap out of industrial trusts,
and they are systematically organizing
combines. The Deutsche bank drst
formed trust combination of Sienens
and Halsaeke with the Sehuekert Eler-
trical works, and next compelled this
combine to make an anti-competition
agreement with the General Electricity
company, and with several smaller cor
porations The great Bergman Eleetriei-
~ company alone stood out The
Deutsche bank refused it money unless
It entered the combine, and thus finally
forced Ii to come in. Bitter complaints
are made about the rigorous way In which
the Pig D's' act. As the result of one
combine and consequent curtailment of
output a whole factory quarter of Frank
furt-on-Main was laid waste.
The banks are further attacked on the
score of unsafe management. II Is al
legged that the councils of supervision
have degenerated into family affairs. AMI
that directors eat up large share OF the
profits In 1910 the Dresdener bank paid
81 100000 to directors and members OF the
supervision council.
Many members OF the councils do
nothing but collect fees. A furthor ae
ousation is that the big D's' invest
money so readily In unrealizable Sc
curities that they must fail in time Of
a crisis The president of the Imperial
bank, Prlvy Councillor HaVenstein,
holds this alarmist view; and last
spring he issued a warning to the big
D's' and to their allies advising them
to give less credit and to Keep more
ready money in hand for emergencies
sensation was caused by this attack
minister of the interior. was Obliged
to make a reassuring statement to the
reichstaR
Germany's government more or less
considers itself responsible for the big
banks. and processes to take rosy
view. Nevertheless DR. Kuehn, imperial
secretary of the treasury, and Dr.
Lentze Prussian finance minister. are
known to be frightened at the monopo-
list plans of the banks and at the dan
gerous hiding away of public money in
risky undertakings. The government
will sooner or later intervene. One plan
is to compel the banks to invest a much
larger part of their funds i'm state pa
pers This incidentally would have the
advantage of sending up German and
Prussian rentes. Another suggestion Is
that law should he passed preventing
banks engineering industrial combines
or otherwise acting in restraint of
trade BASIL SANDWICH
Copyright, by Curtis Brown)