Evening star., 1921-07-31

~ money. The mark, Whlcn
ought to be worth 25 cents, is quoted
at one cent and a half in the world
market. That is to say, German
| going across the Swiss frontier must
pay equivalently $3.50 for fifteen-cent
cake of soap-thanks to deprecated
| paper money of Germany.
All right! They have found rem
\ edy to bring them uber allies. They
| will print more paper money! Ac-
| cordine to old doctrine, it spells ruin
According to new German business
institution, IL is going to mean the
salvation Of the fatherland.
| 'aThey are going to keep the print
| ing presses running all the time" says
John Penton. printing more ana more
of this paper money, in order to pre-
vent the mark from gong up in value
| They are determined to keep the
! value Of their money low in order to
| control the worlds trade in the
present market"
| Here is the best story that has yet
| come out of Germany.
John Penton of Cleveland, Ohio. is
| the millionaire publisher of the Iron
| Trade Review. the Daily Metal
| Trade, the Foundry, the Marine Re
view and similar technical publ.
1
| keep finger on the iron and steel
pulse and for the past few months he
has been studying industrial condi-
| tions in. Europe. Recently the news
agencies cabled his general appre-
citation.
coming out of Germany, where he had
| met those German magnates of the
| iron and steel trade who are as self
enacfng today as they were promi-
nent in the empire. They are getting
! no space. because they are delibera-
Penton; and John Penton talked to
us.
Here s>the astonishing story:
y 4 \
NNrExT to the agricultural stocks. the
worlds biggest thing is the iron
and steel industry. isn't it?'' says Pen
ton. "Well. four days before the Ger
man government told the allies that
they would accept their ultimatum the
director of one of the biggest steel
plants Of Germany said to me:
1--WE are going to accept. We can
not help ourselves. We have got to do
it. We staked the wrong horse"
That was all there was to 1t. No re-
morse. no contrition. no regret for hav-
ing devastated half of Europe: but
lust gambled and lost! The next day
three great iron and steel combinations.
These are the three things they told
him:
Having accepted the ultimatum. Ger
many will make the payments. 1t will
be done by issuing the biggest bond is
sue ever made in the world and by the
most extensive taxation program ever
offered, at any time, in any legislative
body in the world.
And these three industrial magnates
repeated:
I'VE have got to pay. We cannot
help it. II we do not pay, here come
the ships to blockade Hamburg and
Bremen!
The empire is dead.
''The next thing" says Mr.. Penton,
lis that the empire is as dead in Ger
many as Napoleon's empire is in France.
It is hard to make Frenchmen believe
this, and its effects will be far-reach-
ing. Republics do not make war and
States, England and France. where war
can be made only by vote of the iegis-
lative body.
"They are taking down all the en-
b:ems of royalty. The other day they
had scaffoldngs up in Inter den Linden
money is without a souvenir of royalty.
Never an eagle on it has a crown! No
more decorations are given out. no more
titles of nobility are created. there is
no more standing attention. clicking
heels and everybody saluting every
body"
Sometimes you see bit of black
and white. but as a man told me. it
is not good FORM
The empire is dead.
"At the fall Of Ma poleon's empire
in 1871" he says, people believed
stored again. A handful Of dreamers.
in France. believe 1t yet. So 1t is true
that certain insignificant cliques in
Germany more or less worship at the
old shrine. but few would restore the
old thing. even II they could. Even
the fanatics Of Krupps (all have saher
cuts on their faces) now say that the
old system had so many undesirable
features that to go back to 1t would
be intoIerable."
But had 1t won the war for them?"
I said.
'Tt would have been all right. Oh.
my, yes! But all that is over and
past There is great resentment
against those who. got them into it.
but no time Is wasted in idle repining.
Their eyes no longer look across the
Rhine, but eastward. And Germany
is going in for the worlds trade in
iron and steel in way that nobody
has attempted. nor can attempt!
seExPoRT trader I said.
l yes. They cannot send semi
finished to the United States because
OF our tariff, but a leader of the in
dustry tells me that even before the
war he WAS In a position to nut GER