Ripley County democrat., 1915-06-18
GERMANY IS FAR
FROM THE END | OF
HER RESOURCES
Allies viii Have Long Wait II
They Hope to Starve
Her Out.
STAFF OFFICER GIVES FACTS
Chemists Promise Surprise as Great
40 the as and submarlnes--Wom.
On Are Taking an important
Part In the War. ="
BY COUNT MouRIK De BEAUFORT

BY COUNT MOURIk De BEAUFORT
International News Service Correspondent.
Berlin.-"The man who keeps Ger
many eating and shooting" thus
was DR.. Walther Rathenau, the son
Of the founder Of the A. d. g. (Allege-
meine Electricitaets Gesellschaft), de-
scribed to me. Doctor Rathenau is
chief of the raw material department
OF the German war Office.
Doctor Rathenau speaks perfect
English, and most of the conversation
was carried on in that language.
or course. the subjects nearest to
my heart were copper, rubber and
petrol. had found In previous CON
versations-o l should better say
ATTEMPTED conversations" because
never got very far on these subjects
that they were extremely delicate
topics, and 1t was pointed out to me
on different occasions that II would be
more "tactful" not to touch on them.
The moment you bring up the matter
Of Germans supply Of raw material
Eyes. it's very nice day, isn't 1T" or.
as the case might pe; Isn't this
wretched weather." "
Doctor Rathenau looked at me for o
moment out Of the corner Of his eyes,
then got up, and from drawer of his
desk--the interview took place at the
war -ofilce--took out a fair.sized book
and, holding II up before my eyes.
gave me the opportunity to see some
thing about "Rohstoffe In -Deutsch-
land" (raw material in Germany. My
heart began to beat faster. "At last"
I thought, F"well get some real au-
thentic figures; fine story" But the
truth of the saying that there fs fhahy
q slip 'twixt story In the war office
and the same in the paper came true
once more.
Deep Secrets Of War.
"This," said Doctor Rathenau, while
patting the wretched little volume tan.
talleingly, contains everything about
every grain OF raw materiaS In this
country, the means and methods Of
producing and obtaining more; in
short, all you would like to know
about It; but those are deep Sc
crets Of war; and therefore ! cannot
show II to you any dufther than on
Che outside"
That was almost worse than the
usual replies | had received. No
amount Of diplomacy, arguments,
wheedling or promises could persuadg
the polite doctor to part with the lit
tie volume. not even for a minute.
"All can tell you.e he said. "is that
IL our enemies are waiting Till we are
starved out, till we are short Of cop.
per, well, they'll have jolly long
wait" ~
Then the subject was changed.
t"Why don't you 60 and take some Of
the menus In our large restaurants.
have Photographic copies taken Of
them and verified by your consuls?
Send those abroad. and let people
Judge for themselves how badly we
are starving"
"But, as you were saying. copper"
"You are very insistent." he fred
back, "but I'll try to help you little.
and assure you you are the first with
whom / have discussed this subject
ct all. II you take the yearly statis-
tics you will find that Germany during
the last five years has imported an
average Of over 100000 tons Of copper
year With our own productions at
Mansfield. our total supply amounted
close to 250,00o tons. Our exports Of
electrical goods, machinery. etc, In
which copper has been used. did not ex-
coed 100000 tons year, so nearly
10000 tons of copper has remained
in the country.
Can Recover Much Copper.
much OF this has been combined
with other metals, but we have ex-
perimented and our chemical develop
rients have reached such stage Of
perfection that over 70 per cent can
be reduced again to pure copper. For
one, we have thousands Of tons OF tele-
graph wires which can be substituted
with lines OF other metal. Then 30
into some OF the German kitchens.
There is hardly house where you
win not find a certain number Of cop
- - =. -. * ahtnty,a, xinrxs