The Tabor independent. [volume] (Tabor, S.D.) 1913-19??, 1915-01-14
What You and I Que Germany
System Organization and Efficiency Things
In Germany-How It Works In Banking, Commerce
and Labor.

By william Hard. In Everybody'S Maya
FIRST In tying invention and finance to-
Eether into q system.
An acquaintance Of mine made an in
Vention. q highly technical one, which
turned out to be commercially very Inn
portant. He went to bankers In America,
England, and Germany. .
In America the purpose Of the bankers
was purely financial. Quite naturally.
Under our arrangement Of things, the
question for them was: II we issue
stocks and bonds on this proposition.
what IL the market for them and how car
we get outf' 80. 81
In England my friend was charmed.
The bankers he met belonged to the class
OF persons immortAIiEed by Bagehot as
spending half their time washing their
whole persons" They bathed and did q
cit OF business, and did q bit OF tennis and
bathed, and were frcsh-cheeked and fresh
minded and civilized But at the end OF
two weeks their conception OF the tech
meal scope Of the new invention was lin
ited-very limited. You may say that my
friend didn't find She right bankers. Well,
In Germany. the bankers found him.
He hadn't been IL his hotel In Berlin
hours when he WINS waited on by per-
son who introduced himself as q repre-
sentative OF certain banking institution
ono OF the larRes= And In what ca
pacity?" inquired my friend. "I," said
the strange person, "am a chemist" Yes
chemist an academic, professional
chemist, processing industrial chemistry
In 20 minutes, for the first time or
either side Of the Atlantic, my friend got
his invention and It's scope completely
understood by q member OF the regular
working staff OF bank. And what was
the next step7 ,....
I'VE will put so much money into this
proposition. And we will keep II there
And we will give you commercial advice
straight along from E1-and-so In our or
ganiZation, And we will give you techni.
cal scientific advice straight along from
Bo-and-so In our organization. We con.
| clude that your invention has such-and'
such possibilities. VIC win cooperate
with you In developing those possibilities
commercial and scisntifc."
Now how can Bucn cooperation be dis.
missed as "all very well for autocratic
nilitaristic Germany but quite impossible
Tor us7" What IL there militaristic about
It? Or autocratic2 s...t.
So also with my second illustration
Tailways-the tying together OF transpor.
tation and Industry into a system.
Are we to say "milItarIsm" and ''autoc-
;acy" just because tie principal railways
Of Germany are owned by the severa
states OF Prussia, Saxony. Bavaria
Baden, and Wurtemt erg? Then what
about Australia with its railways govern
mentally owned? Is Australia ''militar.
stic" and "autocratic? No, let US looh
deeper. Are the Geu1e pan railways man.
aged automatically
Shippers Help Fix Rates.
Wen, who are the persons peculiarly
dependent on railways? Shippers, OF
course. And does the German Imperial
government automatically impose q ben.
sficent schedule Of railway rates on Q
voiceless body OF German shippers7 II
does not.
Among the men who sit az a nationa.
permanent rate commission there Is a dis.
tinct group called "the traders commit.
tee," representing the shippers and theil
interests. And how are they chosen? BY
the kaiser? Not at ELL BY the shipper.
themselves. Five Of them are elected By
the agricultural chambers OF Germany
Ten of them give for manufactures and
i've for trade). are elected by the German
| chamber Of commerce. And the advice
they give to the rate commission IL 90 in.
nuential as to DO called "authoritat,I e."
The shippers Of Germany have officia
| recognition and official influence continu
ously and robustly In the management OF
German railways.
That at the top! And then the same
idea OF cooperation al the bottom! There
are district advisory boards" chosen IN
various ways at various points along the
railway lines. In the case OF the Prussian
railways, for instance, the members OF
these local boards are elected for three
year terms by local chambers OF COM