New-York tribune., 1919-08-30
Germ any Is
Risky Field for
American Cash
Bargain Prices Hold No
Allurement i'll Face of
Crippled Rail Lines and
Radical l. al Dor Forces
By William L. Dreher

BERLIN, Aug. 10-Reports are grow
ing more frequent and more specific
about American projects for buying I'D
German manufacturing plants or other
unde rtakings. The "Vossische Zai-
tung" recently wrote "American ef-
forts to acquire German establish
ments are growing more and more ap
parent. Fabulous prices-elicited bv
the cheap possibilities growing out Of
our deprecated currency-have al.
ready been offered to certain German
industrial magnates for their plants
America is beginning vislDiy to pre-
pare for financing Europe"
This paper lntimates that such q
movement, by making Germany depend
ent upon America, gives grounds for
pprehensions; nevertheless the editor
sees positive advantage in such pur
chases, because they enlist foreign in
tcrest IN rcconstructing Germany's in
dustrial prosperity.
Bargain Prices
Other papers also speak OF the pros-
pects Oh American investments here,
and one hears much talk on the sub
Ject from ones financial acquainrances
Every American here has his tale to
tell Of Germans who have come to ain,
with Offers to sell property of various
sorts TO American capitalists. have
myself been asked by several financial
men to watch for the first arrivals of
American capitalists seeking invest
ments- One of these has chemical fac
tories to offer. Many offers Of this
kind will certainly strike the American
newcomer rs promising brilliant r0ssi-
bi!ities when he converts the German
price into American money
F(uf ,v,uld ho o,o
news article to enumerate even in
briefest form the changes in general
industrial conditions that should deter
our Am erican capitalist from investing
in German companies. Only one such
change is Of profound signifcance:
Germany was a considerable exporter
Of coal before the war but henceforth,
after the punitive exports to Italy, Bel
gium and France under the treaty, it
will have to import large amounts if
her manufacturing industries are to
cut any figure at ALI in the worlds
trade. Also ner iron industries will
have to import 80 or 80 per cent of the
ores consumed.
The facilities for marketing the
products Of German factories will also
be far less efficient than before the
war, SO far as can now be foreseen
with no foreign trade connections, no
shipping, and railways crippled for
some years to come and freight rates
much higher than formerly.
Labor Problem Worst
But ii ] were an American capitalist
looking around for investments in
Germany the labor problem would ap-
pear the strongest argument for keep
ing my money in bank, for doing any
thing with it, in fact, rather than
inv /
in various articles in The Tribune
tried to show something of the tenn
per and actions of the German labor
ing classes since the revolution, and
therefore / need touch those matters
but lightly here.
l am certain that I have found no
change in Germany that is more
marked than precisely this change in
the workingmen. All the fine dis
cipline, all the self-restraint, all the
loyalty Of their labor organizations that
characterized them before the war now
seems to have disappeared. TIE ex-
tent to which they have become rad
icalized, politically and in respect to
their position as laborers, is quite re-
markable; and it is certainly a pne-
nomenon that threatens the sravest
dangers to Germany's economic inter
ests, to say nothing of the political
turmoil that may result
In these incessant labor troubles
moral restraints have suffered vastly.
Men who belong to non-orthodox labor
organizations are dubbed and thrown
into the river without scruple Manu-
facturers are also terrorized into grant
ing wages that they know will ruin
their business. 1t is "open season" for
all capitalists. The Prussan Finance
Minister, DR.. Suedekum, who is himself
Socialist. recently stated that a
large manufacturer Of Berlin had ex-
cused himself to him for concedng an
excessive wage increase by saying that
he feared for his life if he refused.
In another direction, too. marufactur-
ers are being forced into policies that
they disapprove-conscnting to join in
organizing sort of national industrial
guild in various industries only
because they think in that way to keep
the government friendly to them.