Richmond daily register. (Richmond, Madison County, Ky.) 1917-1978, 1919-02-13
HOW HUNS kept
HOLD ON METALS
Vivid Account by Australian Pre-
mier of Methods All Over
the World.
IT STILL HAS ITS POWER
An Octopus, Whose TentaeIes Extenc
All Over the World and Worked
Increasingly for Commercial
Benefit of Germany.

New York.-Attention has beer
called q 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 ramifications of the German
octopus were never as graphically de-
scr;bed as In an address made by w.
NJ. 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
fsh end of the German trust was des-
ignated. He said IL was "a living out.
ward and visible sign OF the rottenness
within" and an agent of the enemy.
Then he went on to say:
1t is the English branch of one OF
the greatest companies the world has
ever seen; IL 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 strangie-
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.
ut was a most powerful and a most
serviceable instrument in the German
policy Of penetration. 1t served the
power Of the kaiser better than a
dozen legions on the field. and 1t Is
now here today. as IT has been, with
its notifications In our midst. II 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 i shall
speak in moment.
This was the firm from which Brit
ain bought for u months after the war
the metals necessary for CARRYING on
the war. This firm was founded by
Merton of Frankfort, and |
from the day of its establishment IL |
las spread its tentacles out, and the |
irm has grown every passing day. Ii /
S called Metallgesellschaft, the Amer
can Metal company, the Australian
Metal company, the African Metal
company, Schweizerische Gesellschaft |
n Switzerland; IL has dual name
which Is sometimes French and some
lines something else; but II is always
ierman in essence. 1t pushed out its
entacies over Europe from place to
lace.
1T pushed another tentacle across
ne ocean to Australia, calling itself the
australian Metal company; it called
tself the Australian Metal company,
ut II was not Australian. 1t was
company held by Germany; Ii had
ierman directors. and very naturally,
s was their custom. they covered
themselves In their methods and de-
ices with the cloak of naturalization.
lit by bit they beslabbered and en-
angled the great metal industries of
In grip until they had them
ody and soul, and so it was that when
ne war broke out there was this great
fetal industry, the Beer Sondheimer
one shape or another. the Metallge-
ellschaft, and the Metallurgische Ge-
ellschaft, the whole controlling the
from which the metal came,
etermining how 1t should be produced
nd what prices it should be sold at
u over the world. What they did In
ustralia they did elsewhere.
In the United States.
I'm America they pushed out an
her tentacle; there was q company
llled the American Metal company.
was a company in which, out of TO-
70 called-up shares, $4,000. or 40 per
mt. were held by the Metallgeseu-
.haft at Frankfort, q per cent by
ertons OF this place and the remain n
g IL per cent were held mostly by II
'phenated Germans, few being held II
bona fde Americans who were put II
ght In the front of the shop window II
deceive the credulous. Now abso- II
teiy acquit here the English share III
,lders, the innocent shareholders in III
ertons, Of all blame. They went into II
is in bona fide way. they did not 4
alize what were the designs OF these
'ople; but am directing my remarks
re against the firm, against the
Gesellschaft, against 4
e great German octopus which dom
ated the world. which stayed here
r four years after the war. II isl
fhcult to understand how they II
ould have remained here 1t is not n
f1icienf to DENY them q license they III