Ellsworth American. [volume] (Ellsworth, Me.) 1855-current, 1919-01-29
Vivid Account by Australian Pre-
mier of Methods All Over
the World.
IT STILL HAS ITS POWER
An Octopus, Whose Tentaeles Extend
All Over the World and Worked
Increasingly for Commercial
Benefit of Germany.


called number of times to the man.
ner in which the Germans managed
to dominate in the control and price of
nonferrous metals. One branch OF
their organization was taken over by
A. Mitchell Palmer, the alien property
custodian. This concerned itself with
handling the metals in this country.
But the ramifcations of the German
octopus were never as graphically de-
seribed as in an address made by w.
M. Hughes, the Australian prime min
lister, at the Mansion house, London,
some time ago while the war was still
on.
He took as his text what he called
the great firm of Mertons, as the Brit
ish end of the German trust was des-
ignated. He said it was "a living out
ward and visible sign of the rottenness
within" and an agent of the enemy.
Then he went on to say:
at is the English branch of one of
the greatest companies the world has
ever seen; it is combination, an oc-
topus whose tentacles extended before
the war all over the world, and whose
heart was at Frankfort-on-Main. 1t is
an organization that had a strangle-
hold on the whole of the world, that
affected not only its commercial and
industrial life, but affected also the
political life; which worked unceasing-
ly for the commercial benefit of Ger
many, which gathered huge profits for
the benefit of Germany.
Served Germany Well.
sit was a most powerful and most
serviceable instrument in the German
policy of penetration. 1t served the
power of the kaiser better than
dozen legions on the field, and it is
now here today, as it has been, with
its ramifcations in our midst. 1t still
has its power, the profits are being
gathered in-this firm, which for three
years after the war was the London
agent, the English agent, of the Amer
lean Metal company, of which l shall
speak in moment.
This was the firm from which Brit
ain bought for II months after the war
the metals necessary for carrying on
the war. This firm was founded by
Wilhelm Merton of Frankfort, and
from the day of its establishment it
has spread its tentacleS out, and the
firm has grown every passing day. 1t
Is called Metallgesellschaft, the Amer
lean Metal company, the Australian
Metal company, the African Metal
company, Schweizerische Gesellschaft
in Switzerland; it has a dual name
which is sometimes French and some
times something else; but it is always
German in essence. 1t pushed out it's
tentacles over Europe from place to
place.
ut pushed another tentacle across
The ocean to Australia, callir.g itself the
Australian Metal company; 1t called
Itself the Australian Metal company,
but it was not Australian. 1t was
company held by Germany; it had
German directors, and very naturally,
as was their custom, they covered
themselves in their methods and de-
vices with the cloak of naturalization.
Bit by bit they beslabbered and en-
tangled the great metal industries of
Australia in grip until they had them
body and soul, and so it was that when
the war broke out there was this great
metal industry, the Beer Sondheimer
in one shape or another, the Metallge-
sellschaft, and the Metallurgische Ge-
sellschaft, the whole controlling the
channels from which the metal came,
determining how it should be produced
and what prices it should be sold at
all over the world. What they did in
Australia they did elsewhere.
In the United States.
"In America they pushed out an
other tentacle; there was a company
called the American Metal company.
1t was a company in which, out of TO-
300 called-up shares, $4,000, or 40 per
cent, were held by the Metallgesell-
schaft at Frankfort, 81 per cent by
Mertons of this place and the remain
ing Is per cent were held mostly by
hyphenated Germans, a few being held
by bona fide Americans who were put
right in the front of the shop window
to deceive the credulous. Now | abso-
lutely acquit here the English share
holders, the innocent shareholders in
Mertons, of all blame. They went into
this in bona fide way, they did not
realize what were the designs of these
people; but am directing my remarks
here against the firm, against the
Metallurgische Gesellschaft, against
the great German octopus which dom
mated the world. which stayed here
fori four years after the war. 1t is
difficult to understand how they
should have remained here. 1t is not
sufficient to deny them license; they
ought not to be allowed to trade at all.
Their company should be wound up
and they should disappear from the
I'll e.