South Bend news-times. (South Bend, Ind.) 1913-1938, 1922-05-25
ny milton BONNER

BERLIN MAY Every little
enn.z added 10 what you've 60:
makes Just a little bit more" seems
o. be the favorlte motto of Hugo
SHINES. the uncr0wned king OF Ger
iran business
Like come ~ our American bust
ness men. he early found the formula
convert coal irto gas or electric
power or set - 20 Iu-.a ~ water and
10 w.u soon have ent.. communi-
rurE -1er money into your
trs There are svndicates IN
America which own and control an
kinds Of public utilities. but 10 is
doubtful whether any Of them found
such a Fat field as SHINES has dis
covered.
The far-famed Ruhr region is Pc
ouliariy fitted FOR syndicated control
Ruhr Is Ideal Location.
The coal is right there in the Ruhr
Il doesn't have 20 be hauled for miles
before being available So Ruhr vail
ley and the neigh0orng country is
studded with large busy manufactur-
ing towns In which most Of the peo-
pie are working either IN the mines
o. the steel or iron mills Consequent
" they are highly paid laborers, live
in comfortable homes and want ali
the cOnveniences n electric lighting
abundant water supply and gas for
cooking purposes. furthermore. the
entire region is a network Of street
car systems and the electric narrow
gauge railways which haul material
from mill 20 mill
Twenty years azO SHINES be-
came active in forming several com
panies 10 undertake this public utili-
~ and as usual with SHINES con
Germs they were finally combined IN
10 big Rhenish-W estphalian Elec-
tricity Works Corporation
It's present field is enormous. II
covers a region from the Dutch
is especially strong around Dussel-
dors. Cologne. Dortnund. Essen and
Bochum. In several places it's cleo
trio power plants actually stand at
the edge OF the coal mines. so the
fuel goes from pit 10 boiler
Get Cities 10 Invest
The electric plants not only sup
ply lights for many cities OF the Ruhr
and for the illumination OF big
mines. but also the power used in
the street railways. most Of which
are owned and operated by the mu-
inequalities. SHINES .clever1y got the
money in the Rhenish -Westphalian.
Thus the towns have a decided in
terest in the prosperity Of the cor
poration. As consumers they buy
electric current for their street
lighting and their street railways
AS stockholders they participate In
the considerable profits of the COM
pany. This is true in the big cities
like Essen. Mulheim. Ruhrort. Sol
ingen. Gelsenkirchen and all the
other steel towns of which one heard
so much during the war.
The company has also gone ex-
tensively into the gas business. In
the past ten years II has erected and
stIll owns the gas plants for about
% cities in the Ruhr region.
Aquires Ignite
II also constructed and partly
owns a considerable numbe OF wa
ter reservoirs. The far-seeing SHINES
also brought into the concern the big
Ignite company OF Bruehl This not
only gave him another immense cleo
trio power station. but assured the
combined an annual supply Of 9. 0O0,-
600 tons or Ignite The last avail
able report showed that the Rhenish-
Wesbtphalian produced the tremen-
dous yearly sum Of 626 million kilo-
watt-hours of energy OF this $50
millions were used by its own street
railways and similar organizations
Going into southern Germany
SHINES acquired big interest in the
South German Railway Corporation