Bisbee daily review., 1919-04-06

NEW YORK, April 5.-A. Mitchell Palmer's report on the elimination of German interest in the metal indus tries of this country was made public yesterday by Francis P. Garvan, MT. Palmer's successor in the office of alien property custodian. Thd re- port is accompanied by four charts in which the qualifications of German control had grown and multiplied like the tentacles of giant octopus and were fast enyeloping mines, smelters and kindred factors in the field of metals, as already occurred in other parts of the world.
 'It may be said" MT. Palmer writes in his summary. ''that finding German interests and German influences in the American metal market centred in three well defined corporations. American in name, but all controlled by the German metal triumYirate, the activities of which were not confined solely to the United States but pene- 1 trated into Mexico and South Amer ica, owning mines. smelters, refiner, ies, oil concessions, railways, dealing in every known metal ding business which annually ran into hundreds of millions of dollars, the alien property custodian has succeeded in thorough ly Americanizing two of these con- cerns and in liquidating the third, thereby entirely eliminating German influences in our metal markets and cur metal industry.
 German Metal Octopus.
 ''The German metal octopus had spread his tentacles across the ocean and over into the United States and Mexico and South America, but for the present, surely. and for all time, it is to be hoped, it has been driven back and wall of Americanism erect ed against him." says the report
 The report deals exhaustively with the development of German dominance in the metal industry of the world. Germany was never great producer of metals. Her production of copper in 1913 was but per cent. of the worlds output, against about so per cent produced by the United States. Her production of refined zinc is about zS per cent and of lead she produces 16 per cent.
 Though she consumes 500 ,000, ,000 pounds of copper more than she pro- duces, she consumes only 23 per cent Of the worlds zinc against her own production of 28 per cent Of lead she consumes about 20 per cent against her own production of 16 per cent. Yet she completely controlled the zinc and lead markets of the world.
 The secret of her power lies in the fact that her great metal firms acted in concert in the purchase of zinc and lead ores, co-operated in the control of smelters and refineries and, by the free use of unlimited credit extended to them by the German banks, who themselves participated in these in- dustrial enterprises they were enabled to buy and sell huge quantities of metals, thereby influencing the mar ket prices.
 Three Great Concerns.
 There are but three great interna- tional metal concerns in Germany the Metallgesellsshaft, Beer, Sond- heimer & Go. of Frankfort, and AronI Hirsch & Sohn of Halberstadt. The Metallgesellschaft is the most pow erful metal concern in the world. It is stock corporation, with capital of 1S.000,00O marks. In the early six ties of the last century Henry Mer- ton, whose real name was Moses and who Was related to Philip Abram Cohn, founder of the parent company, set up the metal business in London which finally became the powerful house of Henry R. Merton & Go. The Metallgesellschaft and the Merton firm worked hand in hand for the advancement of German domination of the metal markets of the world.
 The business of Aron Hirsch & Sohn has always been kept in the Hirsch family. It has interests all over the world. Beer, Sondheimer & Go. is al copartnership which has confined its activities principally to the zinc smeIting business.
 In the control of these three houses were not only German metal and chemical companies, but also French, Belgian, English, Australian, Ameri- can, Swiss Austrian Italian, Spanish and Mexican. In addition tliey con- trolled syndicates for the exploration of mines in South America Hungary, | Russia and Africa In this vast com bine were eharted 245 separate com panies whose interests lay in almost every part of the globe and which produced every known form of metal. !
 At the outbreak of the European war each member of the triumvirate had a branch of its business in the | United States. The MetalIgeseIlsehafti | had the American Metal company, !! Aron Hirsch & Sohn had L. yogelstein 1 & Co, and Beer. Sondheimer & Co. I had branch under its own name. All the branches were in New York and all developed vast and extensive in-l terests in the United States. Mexicoi