The evening leader., 1918-07-08
GERMANS GRAB
ALSACE PLANTS
Systematic Stripping of Industry
Before the Day of Reck-
oning.
INDIGNATION IS WIDESPREAD
Even Officials Responsible to kaiser's
Government Forced by Public to
Give Voice to Emphatic
Protests.

Amsterdam.-German carpetbaggers
are overrunning Alsace to grab all
property coniscated by the state UNI
der various pretexts. Indignation
among the people is widespread, and
even officials responsible to the kali
ser's government are forced by public
opinion to give voice to emphatic pro-
tests.
Alsace is a great industrial center
and one of its principal industries
is the manufacture of textiles. Most
of the textile factories in Alsace were
taken over by the state as war meas
ure. AS some of the stockholders were
Frenchmen, the mills, it was alleged,
were partly enemy alien property. So
the state took charge Of the mills and
prepared to liQuidate them. This liQui-
dation was carried out recently.
Alsatian business men and capital
lists had formed corporation to buy
the mills in an effort to keep them in
Alsatian hands. Even city administra-
tions, such as the municipality of
Muhlhausen, where a number of fac
tories are situated, bought stock in
this corporation. The name of the
corporation is the United Alsatian Tex
tile Factories.
Forbidden by Berlin.
But it was decided in Berlin that the
ho ona 60 h,rxv
what was practically their own. An
other concern, called the Bleichroeder
group, was more successful. Their
bid for the property was accepted by
the government, while the Alsatian of
fer was rejected. 1t was announced
the Bleichroeder bid was preferred be-
cause it accepted state supervision as
one of the conditions of the sale. Baron
Won Stein, undersecretary of state, in
defending the governments action be-
fore TIE main committee of the reichs-
tag, said the Bleichroeder group had
offered million marks more than the
Alsatian corporation. Besides, the Al
satians had refused to subscribe to the
conditions. including state supervision
t0f management.
CONSERVATION and indignation
reigned at the meeting Of the city
council Of Muhlhausen when the gov
ernment's decision was made known
by Mayor Zopfel. He said not only
had the offer of the Alsatian corpora
ton, of which the city of Muhlhausen
itself was component part, been re-
jected by the government, but he also
had been informed on good authority
all the other Alsatian factories to be
liquidated would be sold to "old-Ger-
man" concerns beyond the Rhine.
RuthIessness Condemned.
This attempt to Germanize Alsace
by ruthless industrial methods was
condemned by several members of the
city council. Councillor Emmel de-
nOunced as subterfuge the statement
of Undersecretary Won Stein, who had
said the Bleichroeder offer had been
accepted because it was the more
favorable one. The speaker saw in
the governments action a systematic
effort to take Alsatian property away
from Alsatians.
The Bleichroeder group, the success
full bidder, is headed by the banking
house of Bleichroeder in Berlin. The
original Bleichroeder was Prince Bis
marck's financial man and his heirs
are still in control of the banking
house. Old Bleichroeder was not very
scrupulous in his financial methods,
but this did not prevent Bismarck
from comforting the title of nobility
upon his moneymaker. This was one
of the greatest jokes perpetrated by
Bismarck.
However, Baron Bleichroeder's heirs
are still barons and their influence in
the highest circles is still formidable.
1t seems they had little trouble in OBJ
tanning the Alsatian properties at fav-
orable terms-fayorable to themselves.
for to them state supervision means
supervision by friends.