The herald., 1922-11-09

prepared by the National Geographic So
ciety Washington ID. c.
Once more the Ruhr valley, Ger
many's beehive of industry, has come
to the fore In world interest, with the
suggestion that France may seize this
region to force the payment of repara-
lions.
Merely as a river, this Ruhr, barely
$50 miles long, is not important. Down
the Rhine, below where Caesar bridged
It at Andernach, below where Yankee
doughboys now wash their shirts In
its green flood and British Tommies
play at soccer above the bones of bish-
ops, the small crooked stream flows in
from the east. But it flows through
and lends its name to a tiny region
not equaled anywhere for intensity OF
industry and potential political impor-
lance.
Viewed In the light Of events since
the war, 1t seems safe to predict that
the course Of life In Europe for the
next generation may depend on what
is happening now along this short,
crooked, but busy stream.
The Ruhr, as this famous region Is
commonly called, Is not political sub
division Of Germany; it is merely an
Industrial district, smaller in area than
Rhode Island. but crowded with mines
and factories from end to end and
settled, in spots, with 1880 people to
the square mile.
Tiny as Il is, mere speck on the
map. 1t produces In normal times over
100000 tons Of coal a year; it
mines much Of the iron ore its many
mills consume, and the steel wares Of
Solingen have been famous since the
Middle ages.
From Essen there is trundled out,
month after month, a parade Of fin
ished engines, cars, and farm imple-
ments, to say nothing of tools, shaft
ing, ship-frames, bridge steel, and
plates, that compete In the markets
of the world from Java to Jerusalem.
One German writer, with character
istic racial precision, figures out that
the volume Of raw and finished prod
ucts handled In the Ruhr every work
ing day would load a train Of cars
80 miles long!
What the Ruhr Is Like.
To grasp quickly just what the Ruhr
would look like If painted in on q
map, take your pencil and draw q
horseshoe-shaped figure, starting north
east from Duisburg, on the Rhine; then
curve east and southeast, so that bort
mund stands at the toe of the shoe
thence south at Hagen, southwest to
Barmen, and thence straight on tc
strike the Rhine again at point north
of Cologne.
Then think Of the Pennsylvania Goa
fields packed into this tiny area; poul
in the combined populations of Phil
adelphia, Baltimore, Cleveland and st
Louis. Then take flock of the big
gest American steel mills and railroad
shops you can think of and set then
down along the Ruhr. Fill in the re
manning smaller gaps with paper, sill
and cotton mills, glass factories, tan
neries, dye, chemical and salt works
Now put every man, woman and chile
from the cities named hard at worl
digging coal, firing boilers, running
latfes or rolling steel rails. and yol
will get a graphic, accurate menta
picture of what this roaring, rushing
Ruhr really is.
Geographically, the Ruhr distric
lies chiefly In the province Of West
phalia, bounded on the west By tn
Rhine. A small section of its area
however, including the city of Essen
flows over into the Rhine provinc,
Physically, it forms part Of the grea
sandy plain of northwest Germany
merging with what biologists call tn
"Gulf Of Cologne" It's climate is milo
ly oceanic, with the heaviest rainfall
In July.
Plunging suddenly into this teemin
Industrial field on the train ride froI
Cologne to Berlin, and passing thrOug
Dusseldorf, where $50 trains a da
puff IN and out, you are amazed at tn
solid procession Of busy towns, at tn
almost endless forest of chimneys, an
the pail Of somber smoke that hang
over the fiat. unattractive country.
In this small but highly mineralize
region, where men have dug coal fo
600 years. over 400 concerns now oI
crate mines or hold concessions f.
their exploitation And the Huhr IL