New-York tribune., 1921-09-04

- URKE once wrote that every country
& x has the statesmen which in deserves
- Recent events in Europe, and indeed
) the whole world, have proved the truth Of
,hese words. With regard to Germany they
,rpear strangely significant inasmueh as the
sass influential parsonage in it after the war,
"a after the revolution which was it's sequel,
S man who was hardly known outside his
sxu country ten years ago. Yet this man,
uuro Shines, now runs the country and
,he new National Peoples party, as we'll as an
unlimited number of different financial enter
,rises, all of them closely connected with
noItcs, and is the sole owner or principal
shareholder of sixty different newspapers in
carmany and in other countries.
Hugo SHINES is a new appariton in the
Sesd of politics. But this does not prevent him
from looming immense and all-powerful. He
Il the perfect incarnation of the Prussan
Junker with perhaps more unscrupulousness
shan Bismarck, his model, and with certainly
less aristocratc breeding and undoubtedly
more ferocity, because he has set himself for
the restoration of his fatherland's former
might and grandeur-and as things stand to-
day this restoration can hardly be effected
disregard for the ordinary notions of morality
on the part of those who start upon achieving
it.
In that sense Hugo SHINES is kind Of mon
strosity. He would not recoil before anything,
and he would not hesitate at anything if, by
the sacrifice of all that man generally holds
dear in the domain of conscience and self-re-
spect, he could avenge himself as we'll as his
country for the just punishment inflicted by
the Treaty of Versailles. He has mastered
perfectly the one lesson of the war which looms
immense and tragic out of all the misery and
horrors of the last years-the knowledge that
with money one can obtain many things and
do many things And of money he has more
than be wants-more than heknows-and his
llgotten millions have allowed him to seize
all the old weapons Of the former German
government in the way Of secret service, spy
ing and intriguing and to use them with far
more skill than the Kaiser and latter's serv-
ants ever employed or could be capable Of
SHINES is undoubtedly the most picturesque
and interesting figure in modern Germany, and
unless some unforeseen incident stops him he
will in few years become with whom the
whole world will find itself compelled to
reckon. He is as relentless as Fate itself, i'm
placabls as few have been, and apart from all
this he is clever-keenly, terribly clever-and
though not at all cultured in the ordinary
sense, he has made a very deep study of bust
ness and has learned how to use this knowl-
edge for the furtherance of his own personal
schemes.
To-day in Germany nothing is done in the
way of political, financial or industrial en-
terprise without SHINES being made aware Of
it and either controlling or directing it in some
capacity. He is the whole of Germany in him
self; and, what is worse, he is quite aware Of
this terrible fact.
His wealth is said to be more than two bill
lions of dollars. He owns most Of the indus
trial concerns in his country; he can use to
keep these concerns going his own coal, his
own STEEL his own timber. He is building now
in Sweden, where he has erected immense
wharves without any outside help, mercantile
feet which will be twice the size Of the pre-war
feet of the Hamburg American Line, and
which will be entirely outside of the control of
the Allies; he has agents, official and secret, all
over the world. Most of the foreign govern
naents are indirectly and, without suspecting
1t. under his thumb. He never hesitztes at
bribing. He squanders his money right and
left when he thinks it necessary, with = superb
unconcern which appears to be generosity, but
which in reality is only deep sense Of cal
culation He has no pity for the weak and
nothing but contempt for the vanquished. He
recognizes no restraint outside his own will.
He is cruel, hard, sarcastic and unforgiving
monarch, who wields more power than the last
three Hohenzollerns and all their ministers.
All the resources of Germany are at his
command and he understands admirably how
to use them. He has some of his own men
In the Foreign Office, the Home Department,
the Postofice and in that big red building
which before the waf was the headquarters of
the General Staff of the Prussian army. The
man who was once the head of the German
Military Intelligence Service is now the gen.
eral manager of his numerous newspapers.
A former Minister of State, Helfferich, is in
terested in some of his industrial concerns;
former mayor of one of the biggest towns
IN Germany is in charge of his real estate.
Nearly the whole town of Hamburg belongs
to him, the entire chemical and dye business
OF Germany belongs to him, either directly or
indirectly. One of his enterprises, the cleo
trical works of Essen, is capitalized at 120,-
Voo,0oO gold marks, with turnover of over
Z5o,0o0 100000 gold marks. In every town
4 &C.