Ellsworth American. [volume] (Ellsworth, Me.) 1855-current, 1918-01-09

In Grasping at World Trade Has Lost
What She Had.


Quarters. The German junker is for self,
first, last and all the time, and now ne Is
beginning to realize that in place oil the
world trade which Prussian military
diplomacy promised as his reward ior
financing the conquest OF the world ne
must reap only ashes; that not only mas
the friendliness OF most OF Germany's GUS
toners throughout the civilized world
been hopelessly slienated, but German
trade already has been destroyed in three
quarters OF the face OF the globe, Ger
many's great merchant ships are in the
hands OF her enemies, and the elaborate
and scientific commercial machinery she
has built up has been destroyed as COM
pletely as the engines in her captured
merchantmen.
This weakening OF German hope has
figured in the debates in the Reichstag,
where the conservative centre party has
voiced its strong suspicion OF the govern
ment and is chatting over the cost OF war
which promises only ultimate bankruptcy
Germauy's foreign trade had reached the
enormous total of q, Oo0, 600, 600 year just
before the war opened. Germany was
second only to Great Britain in exports
and merchant fleet, and her salesmanship
bad proved superior to that OF any other
nation. All this great commercial fabric
has now fallen, while rival nations are
rapidly learning the secrets Of German
efficiency.
The cold statistics OF the United States
department of commerce appear fully to
justify the growing apprehension in Ger
many over the er ormons trade losses the
country must suffer as a result OF the war.
Far more than one-half of the export
trade Of Germany at the outbreak OF the
war, these figures show, was with the ma
tions which she forced into the war by
acts Of Prussian terrorism.
In other words, OF the e, Asa, 81, $50
worth OF German products which she ex-
ported in 1918, s1,755, 600, 900 worth were
sold to the nations now at war with her,
and whose bitterness is certain to last
through the present generation. In the
meantime, and until the Prussian war
lords sue for peace, all but a comparatively
negligible proportion OF Germany's nor
mai foreign trade OF &, 2i2 ,000, 600, includ-
ing exports and imports, is completely
wiped out, due to her isolation, while the
countries with whom.she wars are taking
over her markets.
That part of Germsny's merchant
shipping which has not been seized by
her enemies or informed in neutral ports
is locked up in her harbors, whilei hulls
rot and engines grow rusted. just how
much OF her tonnage has been seized by
her foes cannot readily be ascertsined, al
though some idea is suggested in the fact
that the United States alone seized some
ninety-three vessels OF an aggregate tom
mage of between $4,000 and 1000 tons.
At the outbreak OF the war Germany
boasted 4, $50 steamers and sailing vessels
OF an aggregate tonnage OF 3,153,T24 tons,
or approximately per cent. OF the worlds
shipping. Cargo tonnage entered and
cleared from German ports at the rate OF
81 ,0OO, 900 tons year. How long 1t will
take Germany to regain the proud place
her now idle merchant marine then oecu-
pied, with her enemies, and particularly
the, United States, concentrating tire
mendous efforts on building ships, is one
OF the elements OF uncertainty that is be-
ginning to plague the German people, ac-
cording to information that reaches here
from the neutral countries adjacent to
Germany.
Ever since the teachings OF men like
Treitschke began to impress on modern
German philosophy the doctrine of force,
the Pan-Germsnist movement has been
fed with the idea that only by means of
territorial expansion and the acquisition
of colonial possessions could Germany
hope to rival her competitors in the
struggle for world commerce. While
stolid German burghers proceeded
ploddingly and patiently to build up a
vast foreign trade for Germany through
sheer force OF German thoroughness and
German efficiency, the German militarisrs
preached the theory that by dint OF
military conquest Germany could gain
more commerce in a day than peaceful
competition could win for her in years.
At the end of three years of frightful
bloodshed and at the sacrifice of un-
Numbered thousands of lives, the German
people are beginning to realize that all
they have to show for their foreign trade
prospects are the ruins of the elaborate
machinery of commerce which they had
built up during the years OF peace.
How thoroughly and painstskingly they
had built mp that machinery and how in
timateiy it was bound up with the pros
perity Of the German nation, officials here
say, is illustrated amply in the history of
the German markets in South and Central
America. Never have the Won Hinden-
burg or the Ludendorffs of the German
general stan planned with more precision
and exactness of detail their military cam
paigns than the German traders displayed
in mapping out their commercial conquest
in Latin America.
Through fifty years their quiet, effective
work went on, and the extent to which
they succeeded is shown by the fact that
a - Il.