The Elbert County tribune., 1915-05-21
Allies viii Have Long Wait II
They Hope to Starve-
Her Out.
STAFF OFFICER GIVES FACTS
chemists Promise Surprise az Great
as the f2s and submarinss-Won-
en- Are Taking an Important
Part In the War.
sy COUNT Moualk De seAuFoa1

| 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
Of course. the subjects nearest to
my heart were copper, rubber and
petrol. had found in previous con-
yersations-or l should better say
attempted conversations" because l
never got very far on these subjects
that they were extremely delicate
topics. and it was pointed out to me
on different occasions that 1t would be
more "tactful" not to touch on them.
The moment you bring up the matter
OF German's supply of raw material
Yes. It's very nice day. isn't it?" or.
as the case might be. Isn't this
wretched weather."
Doctor Rathenau looked at me for
moment out of the corner OF his eyes,
then got up, and from a drawer OF his
desk-the Interview took place at the
war ofice-took out fair-sized book
and. holding 1t up before my eyes.
gave me the opportunity to see some
thing about "Rohstoffe In Deutsch-
land" traw material in Germany. My
heart began to beat faster. AT last"
thought, well get some real au-
thentic figures; fine story" But the
truth of the saying that there is many
a 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
talixingly, contains everything about
every grain Of raw material In this
country. the means and methods of
producing and obtaining more; in
short, all you would like to know
about 1t; but . those are deep Sc
crets of war and therefore | cannot
show 1t to you any further than on
the outside"
That was almost worse than the
usual replies ! had received No
amount Of diplomacy, arguments,
wheedling or promises could persuade
the polite doctor to part with the lit.
tie volume, not even for minute.
"All can tell you." he said, SIS that
If our enemies are waiting till we are
starved out. till we are short of cop
per. well. they'll have jolly long
watt
Then the subject was changed.
why don't you go and take some of
the menus In our large restaurants,
have Photographic copies taken of
them and verified by your consuls7 ?
Send those abroad, and let people
| judge for themselves how badly we
are starving"
But. as you were saying copper"
You are very insigtent," he fired
bach. but I'll try to help you little.
and assure you you are the first with
whom l have discussed this subject
at all. II you take the yearly statis-
tics you will find that Germany during
the last five years has imported an
average of over 200, 900 tons OF copper
year. With our own productions at
Mansfield, our total supply amounted
close to 100000 tons. Our exports of
electrical goods. machinery, etc. in
which copper has been used did not ex-
ceed 100000 tons year, SO nearly
10000 tons of copper has remained
in the country.
Can Recover Much Copper.
Much of this has been combined
W fala t...f
perimented and our chemical develop
ments have reached such stage of
perfection that over rs 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 go
into some of the German Kitchens.
There is hardly a house where you
will not find certain number of cop
per pots and pans In shining glory.
Look at the amount of copper that
is used in every house, every hotel,
every building. Our mines at Mans.
field have turned out close to 10000
tons year, but we have been able to
increase the output by at least so per
cent. Besides. there are one or two
sources which our enemies have not
figured on. One of them is the won
derful state of development our chem.
istry has reached. The best brains in
the land are working on a new prod
uct that may give the world in gem
eral, and our. enemies in particular.
another surprise. az did our AIS and
our submarines. No. we are not at
the end OF our resources yet. not by
a long way. Germany cannot be de.
stroyed."
Doctor Rathenau expressed a. his