The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1922-02-02
TOPEKA sTA4E JOURNAL
Information Bureau
FREDERIC ). HASKIN. Director,
Washington, D. @.
HGO SHINES.

German-Hugo SHINES. Inc ola Ger
many of the Hohenzollerns is crushed
and beaten and bankrupt, but the new
! Germany, which is largely under the
control of SHINES, is quite lively and
vigorous and by no means poverty
stricken. Yet it cannot be attached
by its creditors, because, While the
idea has been suggested, the ailles
do not feel at liberty to attach the
i property of a private individual.
Its really quite annoying" explains
/ an American who has just returned
from Europe ''The allies have found
/ themselves in much the same position
as the creditors of the man VINO
/ thoughtfuIly transfers all his valuable
/ property to his wife few days before
declaring his insolvency. OF course,
Germany did not act deliberately; but
the fact remains that the majority OF
its natural and industrial resources
seemed to have passed into the hands
of SHINES during the war. 1t was
case of when the allies got there the
cupboard was bare"
Just how much of Germany SHINES
owns is not precisely known. some
say he owns practically all of it.
+! Others assert that his wealth. and
power have been greatly overesti-
mated. One hears all sorts of strange
and fantastic rumors concerning him.
| There are those who insist that he
plans for the reinstatement of the
|
position of premier, while others de-
clare that he is working for the COM
I plete Specialization of the German state.
Some see in him the most stabilizing
factor in the new relations of Europe,
and other point to him as the new
| shadow on the world" At any rate,
whatever may be his secret aims, he
is unquestionably the most pictur-
esque and disturbing personality in
Europe today.
| His Many Enterprises.
| In the first place Europe is not as
accustomed to billion-dollar capitalists
as we are here in America, and the
sudden rise of such a phenomenon
against the general, poverty-stricken
background of Germany is sufficiently
novel to attract attention all over the
| world. In the second place, SHINES
has not limited his activities to one
industrial line, but is engaged in a
wide variety of enterprises, including
! mining. coal trade, ocean and river
| shipping, electric power plants, gas
plants, export and import, lumber
mills, iron and steel foundries, hotels,
| tourist travel, the development of
| health resorts, and the publication of
newspapers. He is said to own a
| chain of so newspapers, scattered
| thruout Germany and neighboring
| countries
| Indeed, there is no important in
dustrial enterprise in Germany, to all
accounts, with which Hugo SHINES is
not connected. To keep the concerns
| in which he is interested going he
! can use his own coal. his own steel,
/ his own timber. He is gradually ac-
| cumulating a mercantile fleet which, it
is predicted. will be. twice the size of
the pFe-war fleet of the Hamburg
Am erican line, and (which will be en-
tirely. outside the control of the al.
lies. He is reported to have an agent.
or a staff of agents, in every i'm
| portant foreign port, many of whom
are not openly but secretly in his en-
ploy. His agencies in Russia are said
| to be particularly important and pow
| erfu1, and it is believed that his clever
| negotiations with British capitalists
are responsible for the fact that the
Soviet government has been recog>
i nized and that Russia is once more
the world. In short, SHINES appears
to be whole nation in himself.
| His Sudden Rise.
! 1t is no wonder, then, that he has
! captured the magination of Europe,
and that even the German people mar
| vel at his energy and ability-espe-
cially since the man was scarcely
| known before the war. His rise has
| been sudden, and achieved solely thru
| his own extraordinary ability and eff
| fort. AS an American newspaper man
| puts it, ''Stinnes burst like a comet
upon the astonished postwar world
Yet he is not what we Americans call
a seIf-made man, for he inherited a
| considerable fortune, as we'll as his
! superior business genius, from his
grandfather. when he was born on
February %. 1870" writes his admir-
ing biographer, DR.. Herman Brick
| meyer, there lay ready to his hand
| the means by which he might achieve
| the tremendous results upon which he
| can now look back"
| The grandfather Matthias Shines,
according to Doctor Brickmeyer, set
| tied in Mulheim on the Rhine in 1903,
| where he soon became known for his
| courage, strong will and business sa-
gacity. He invested his small capital
in coal barges and gradually built up
an important coal-carrying line be-
| tween Cologne and Holland. After
| time, he established his own ship
building plant and began constructing
| his own bargeS, SO that by 1920 the
| number of craft owned by the SHINES
firm had increased to sixty-eight.
Twenty years later, however, when
| the practically of the steamboat had
been well established, Matthias SHINES
| decided to scrap his slow, herse-towed
barges in favor of steam power. This
| substitution was bitterly opposed by
the RhinelanderS, who had been fur
nishing the horses for towing the
| barges and disliked to see good
| source of profit swept away. SHINES
| was informed that upon tie appear
ance of the first steamboat used to tow
| his barges, there would be trouble.
| This warning proved to be accurate.
When the first steamboat arrived at a
! certain point near Neuwied- on-the-
Rhine, it was greeted with a volley of
4 rifle shots from the bank. But to the
discontinue of the enemy, the steam
boat swept haughtily on, scorning to
notice such interference; for Matthias
SHINES had taken the precaution to
place his steersnan in an invulnerable
| armored turret After that the
Rhinelanders resigned themselves to
the inevitable.
A Family of Promoters.
When Matthias SHINES died in 1S45
his business had expanded enormously
so that it included not only river snip
ping but mining and the marketing of
coal. It had become so complicated
and varied, in fact, that one man
: Gould SCARCELY. an.ils II. hut Matthias