Omaha daily bee., 1919-12-23
By HAYDEN TALBOT.

Copyright, 1919, bs Universal Service.)
Berlin. Dec. 19-(By Mail.)-"Not
yesterday nor today matters. To-
morrow is all that matters"
And a moment later | discovered
that by tomorrow" Walther Rath-
enau, credited with being the great
est genius for organization. with the
keenest insight into the future, in
Germany, meant 2l00 A. D.
with the coming OF the twenty
first century," continued Rathenau,
soberly, "the world will include ex-
actly three great powers-America,
Russia and Japan. By or before the
year POO there will come a con-
flict that will decide which of these
three powers will cease to function.
"All three cannot continue to ex-
ercise their sway, the extent of
which in each case will be infinitely
vaster than anything the world has
ever known. There will be room for
only two of them. One must go
under.
Odds Favor Japan.
"At the moment the odds favor
Japan-to win. The reason is obvi-
Gus. Russia must prove the deter
mining factor. The nation which
allies itself with Russia will emerge
victor from the. inevitable conflict,
for the Russia of 2l00 will be an
inmeasureably different Russia from,
her present people-and there viii
T.. , b,,Jrad ,,,;t1;o+, MORA of t1,ov,,
And at the moment Japan's oppor-
tunities of sowing the seeds of a
future alliance with Russia are dis
tinctly better than Americas.
"Incidentally-and of greater i'm.
portance-Japan's I statesmen are
more keenly awake to their oppor-
tunities than Americas. Japan fore
sees-and prepares. America lives
in the past and present, the irhme-
1iate past and the immediate pres
ent, and is prodigally careless of the
future. Yet in 2l00 it must be
Japan and Russia against America,
or America and Russia against
Japan"
Foremost German Economist.
1t was Walther Rathenau who or
sanized the economic resources o.
Germany during the first months of
the war, and he is foremost now in
planning its economic revival. From
one authoritative quarter ! heard
that without Rathenau Germany
would have succumbed- to the block
ade before the end of, 1916.
He is a sort of Hoover, Edison,
Schwab combined, heading the great
Allgemeine Electrizitats Gesells-
chaft, the vast electric power cor
poration which controls that branch
of endeavoi in Germany. He was
director of no fewer than 100 con-
Germs having part in industry. conf
merce and finance.
A German of Jewish ance stry,
Rathenau is, that strangest OF all
combinations-a profoundly religi-
Gus and keenly shrewd business man.
Pronounced War a Blunder.
Three days after the declaration
of war Rathenau went, straight to
the German war Office. He told the
thcn all powerful military chieftains
bluntly: :.
First-Embarking on the mad
adventure was the most tragic
hfunder in all history. /
Second-Final defeat of Germany
was almost'sas certain as CONNER
cal supremacy had been ;,p to the
declaration of war.
Third--If Germany was not to be
suffocated through lack Of raw ma
terials she must organize all her
resources available at once.
Fourth-Unavailable resources
must be offset by substitutes at any
cost, because the war was going to
be long war.
Tell me about America" was
the. first thing my host said after
welcoming Us both and leading us
cut on to charming balcony where
simple luncheon awaited. And
so it fell that for the first hour l
found myself being interviewed.
All Europe Broken.
But meanwhile, as we started a
tour of the wonderful grounds,
Rathenau himself began to talk
stopping me abruptly i'll the middle
of an inconsequentia1 sentence, put
ting both hands on my shoulders
and wheeling ME around to face
him.
"You have heard too much about
poor Germany" he said. "It has