Ripley County democrat. (Doniphan, Mo.) 1905-1920, 1917-01-26
Germany's Great Organizer Del
scribes How Difficulties Were
Overcome.
STRONGER THAN THE ALLIES
Declares Success Of Work is Due 70
Fact That cermany's Industries
Quickly Adapted Themselves
10 War Conditions.

Berlin.-Dr. Walter Rathenau, In
charge of ell raw materials for the
German government, has written
book In which the famous wizard"
describes the enormous difficulties that
confronted him when he was called to
his post BY the war minister, and the
wonderful results accomplished.
when we started our herculean
work the war department gave us
four small rooms," the great organiser
says. "The war minister thought that
these ofuces would be suftIcient and
he was greatly astonlshed when I In
formed him within two weeks that I
needed at least I've times as much
space.
After much parleying I got twenty
rooms, but In another month 4 had to
request forty more. That necessitated
the removal of whole sections OF the
war department. More than 100000
important documents had to be trans
ported to other buildings and the work
took weeks.
cramped and Crowded.
I'm the meantime our labor threat-
ened to come to a standstill. Although
we put desks u every possible corner,
and even in the Railways, we we're not
able to make room for our ever-in-
creasing working force. When we
finally got our sixty rooms We were
as cramped and crowded as before.
and wa continually had To ask for
more and more space. Our offces now
cover an entire city block and we
still need more room.
ut Is difficult TO give descrlptiont
Of our work. because much Of what hasE
been done and accomplished must re-
main secret until the war ends. The
public has no idea of the difficulties
we had 10 overcome and the tremen-
dous labor that was necessary to en-
able the empire successfully to defy
the British blockade. Every man in
our department worked from sixteenl
to eighteen hours every day, including
Sundays and holidays, and we all only
regretted that the days did not havel
aorty-eight hours, instead Of only twen-
ty-four.
( Conferences were always In prog
ress from eight o'clock in the morningE
until midnight, as new plans had to
be made continually and often II be-
came necessary to alter them before
they were completed.
! Hard Work Won.
1T was hard work, but we won out
One Of our advantages was that the,
press paid little attention to us, and
we were not hnmpered by public
criticism. Sometimes professors called
to tell us that we were oil wrong and
would have TO start anew Then
members Of the reichstag came to COM
vince us that the professors were. as
wrong as ourselves.
"We had to listen to this talk and
that meant the loss OF much valuable,
time, but otherwise 1t did not hurt us.
"Our success is principally due to
the fact that the German industries
adapted themselves to the war condi-
tons with astounding rapidity and
energy. Our manufacturers carried.
out their task enthusiastically and
without losing any words.
while our enemies were telling the
world how they would organise and
develop their resources we quietly
solved the problem, and now we can
confidently look. into the future. Ger
many today Is economically and indus
triaily stronger than the allies and viii
never break down.