Milford chronicle., 1920-11-05
SAVINGS DEPOSITS in
GERMANY FIVE TIMES.
LARGER THAN BEFORE THE WAR-2O
TO 62 PER CENT DIVIDENDS
FROM INDUSTRIES.
NOW ENJOYING PROSPERITY
INDUSTRIES AND SAYINGS SHOW NATION
BETTER OFF THAN BEFORE WAR,
ENGLISH WRITER SAYS.
By Frederick CunIlffe-Owen

BY Frederick Cunliffe-OWen
Today one finds on every hand tn,
assertion that if we wish Germany tC
fulfill any portion of her obligations
we must help to set her upon her feet
in an economic sense; that her restOr-
alton as one of the principal factors
in the trade and industry of the world
is Indispensable to our future well
fare, and that unless we assist her in
every possible way she is likely to be
plunged into a chaos such as now
prevails in Russia, but would cOnsti-
tute in the case of Germany a far
greater peril to all the powers of the
entente and to the United States.
Yet all this is the direct contrary
TO the truth. Germany has fooled
most OF our statesmen and our lead
ers of the business world TO the top
OF their bent. The figures put for
ward in her behalf and in support of
her assertions are for the most part
mendaciOus. She is in a fair way to
the recovery of that pre-eminence in
trade and in industrial enterprise
which gave so much force and weight
to her military ambitions and ven
lures. Perhaps the most convincing
proof thereof that can be furnished is
the well-established fact that today
the people of victorious France are
paying far more in taxes than the sub
jects of the defeated central powers,
and in particular the citizens Of Ger
many.
Textile Figures
Far from there being any close
down of any of Germany's great man
ufacturing industries for lack of coal
and particularly of raw materials, her
textile concerns are producing, ac-
cOrding to latest returns far more
goods. and are paying much larger
dividends than before the war. Thus,
the North German MOrsted Manuiac-
turing and Yarn Spinning Company OF
Bremen. the biggest organization OF
the kind in Europe, has Just paid a
dividend of 90 per cent. TO its share
holders for the twelve months ending
July 1 last, while its reports indicate
that in this lapse of time it did four
times more business than in 1913.
The MitWeida Cotton Spinning Com /.
pany, in its report issue last month,
gives net profit for the year ended .
i'm July, of 100000 marks, as against /
2,0O0,000 marks for 1913. This has en-
abIed it TO pay dividend OF 81 per |
cent, after deyOting a large amount /
to reserve, and TO the ObliteratiOn OF .
debts contracted during the war.
The Jute Spinning and Weaving
Company of Meissen. in Saxony, has
just voted an annual dividend OF Al
per cent. TO its stockholders; and l
have before me list of at least twelve
other of the most important textile
manufacturing concerns in Germany,
each of which is paying dividends
from 20 to 36 per cent.
OF course this development of the
textile industries is calling for large
amounts of new capital, and in the
last six weeks two dozen big manu-
featuring concerns of this particular
branch OF industry have placed upon
the market some 60,0O0,0O0 marks of
new shares, which have gone like
Wildiire, and at premium.
Other Industries
As il is with the textile business, so
Il is with other branches of industry
in Germany. The krupps are maxi
ing more money than ever. SO, too,
are the dye manufacturers, the toy
makers, the pOtteries, the agricultur-
al and tool machinery firms. The only
industry which thus far has given no
evidence of revival and that has not
kept pace with the others is the
shipbuilding business. This is due to
two reasons. The first is that ac-
cording to the terms of the treaty of
Versailles Germany is bound to fur
nish certain number of new ships to
the allies to replace the tc@eSge sunk
by her submarines during the war,
and that consequently any vessel that
might now be constructed would serve
not the trade of Germany, but that of
her business rivals, the powers of the
entente.
The other reason is that all the cap
ital which the leaders in the maritime
trade of Germany were wont formerly
to employ in the building of ocean
liners is now being devoted to the
purchase of majority stock in the
shipping companies of neutral and ev-
en- entente companies. 1t is no secret
that in most of the ocean-carrier or
ganizations of the Scandinavian ma
lions, of the Netherlands, and, in par
ticular, of Spain, the Germans, either
II. their. ngn name or in that Of sub sub
stitutes, exercise as stockholders a
interest. They have even
managed to accomplish this in the
case of some Belgian, Italian, English
md Amefican concerns.
Shipping Activities
1t must not be thought that those
German shipping interests have aban-
ioned or even suspended their activi
les. They are today more far-reach-
ng and enterprising than ever, espec-
ally in the Orient and in South AM
.rica. But for the present, and for
iome time TO come, these activities
ire being carried on under the flags
# formerly neutral and even entente
lations.
There is no surer barometer of the
economic status of a country than its
avings banks. The returns Of the
aving banks OF Germany prove that
he deposits today are five times larg-
r than they were for the twelve
l0nths Immediately preceding the out
reak of the war. True, they may
ave suffered while the entente block
de was in progress from the lack of
sxtiles, of fatstuffs, of oils and of
We stock. But that they were re-
uced to state of destitution / have
ever believed.
Andre Tardieu, formerly high COM
Iissioner of France in the United
tates and afterward minister of rep
rations in the cabinet of Clemenceau,