Atlanta tri-weekly journal. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1920-19??, 1922-03-04
4 CAPTAIN of Industry Turns
PHILOSOPHER and IdeaIst

Philosopher ana 1OeOHSC
are not usually captains
of business, and captains of, business
are not always philosophers; but Wal
ter Rathenau is greatly both. He is also one
of the outlooming statesmen of present-day
Europe.
AS German Minister of Reconstruction
and head of the delegation to Cannes he has
aroused a popular interest second only to
that which hangs upon the sayings or LLOYD
George or the doings of Aristide BRAND AS
author of books on the strivings and the
eternal values of the human spirit, he has
multitudes of thoughtful readers, one of his
works having reached it's sixty-ffth edition,
and several others having passed the TWEEN
tieth. AS a young student Of chemistry and
physics, he discovered method of obtaining
certain important alkalies which so COM
mended itself to practical minds that large
corporation was organized to exploit it. He
is beloved in republican Germany he is
listened to in France, in England he is ad-
mired
writer in the London Review of Reviews
adverting to the fact that it was Walter
Rathenau's father, Emil Rathenau, who
founded the far-famed "a. E. g." (the Gen
eral Electric Company, has this to say OF
the sons swift rise in the realm OF industry
and finance: Half a dozen years and his
first-born company (the one called forth by
joined the ga. e. g." and looked after its
interests in Manchester and Amsterdam,
Buenos Aires, and Baku. Three years Of that
and he retired from the company and went to
Zurich to manage the ElektrO Bank, found
ed in 1895 as holding company to promote
electrical enterprises and control their opera
tions in the interests of the "a. E. g."
Shortly afterward he was called to highly
responsible position in the great industrial
bank, the Ber1iner Handelsgesellschaft, and
.'for some years was busy putting on their
feet many of the firms in which the bank was
interested''-an experience which made him
"an economic and financial expert of a re-
markable kind" Upon the death of his father
in 1915 he became president of the GA. E..
Co." which subsequently absorbed num-
bers of other concerns and developed into
titanic trust.
In the all-darkening days Of the World
War Rathenau's thought was curiously per-
picked. "It was raw material" writes his
English biographer, "that affected his whole
outlook: a beaten Germany would have no
raw material; if she could force a peace or
make one on favorable terms, all he cared
about was that raw materials should dom
mate the conditions. Though he abhorred the
submarine warfare, though militarism, i'm
perialism, anneXatiOns and money indemni-
ties were to him stupid enormities, he sent
out an appeal for levee en- masse and a
continuation of the war when even linden
burg ana Ludendorff had given up the gam
BILE as lost. For the moment, raw material
blinded his clear vision" In the aftermath,
however, few have seen so widely, so
searchingly, so steadily. 1t was in confer
ences between Rathenau and the French
Minister of Reconstruction that relations be-
tween Franc and Germany first were
brought to status that invited and encour-
aged hope of mutually helpful goodwill in
happier years to come.
To one who watched only his squared
shoulders and snewy stride as he bore down
one obstacle after another, this resourceful
economist and dominant man of affairs
would scarce have seemed to harbor brood
ing Hamlet, student Of Kant and Of Plato,
Lord Bacon essayed to make all his knowl-
edge his province. DR.. Rathenaus equally
bold and unattainable ideal has been "to put
all, philosophic and social problems in a
clear form, and so seek a solution" Master
of mechanical forces as he is, he declares
"The real world is not the material one in
which we live" Encompassed though he was
by powers at once cynical and materialistic
he avowed: "Skepticism is deceit pessmisu
is folly. In an age of machinery man must
not be. a machine" Vigorously scientific but
humanity discerning, he holds: cit is not the
struggle for existence that poisons life, but
the struggle for the trifles the vanities, the
worthless things" And bow like trumpet
ring from forgotten stars is this: I'VE are
not here for happiness merely. Our wills dc
( It exist nor does development take place
simply to enhance our happiness. We are no.
on the way to happiness but on that leading
to amelioration, the way of the soul, and We
must tread it even though happiness col
lapse. And we take that way not because we
must, but because we will. Not fear an(
hope are the driving forces, but faith which
springs from love, utter need, and God:
will
1t means much that any leader Of me1
should be thinking thus in times so whelmeC
with high issues and so beswarmed with thu
trivial and selfish; but it means vastly tina
thus should think captain of industry ant
finance, a man among the masters of Ger
many, grappler with the grimmest Of reali
ties.