Sioux County pioneer., 1922-10-05

prepared by the National Geographic So
ciety. Washington. d. CO.
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-
tions.
Merely as 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 end 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 tiny region
not equaled anywhere for intensity of
industry and potential political impor-
tance.
Viewed in the light Of events since
the war, it 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 1900 people to
the square mile.
Tiny as 1t is, mere speck on the
map, it produces in normal times over
1OO,O0O.O00 tons Of coal year; it
mines much Of the iron ore it's 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, 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
30 miles long!
What the Ruhr 10 Like.
To grasp quickly just what the Ruhr
would look like II painted in on a
map, take your pencil and draw
horseshoe-shaped figure, starting north
east from Duisburg, on the Rhine then
curve east and southeast, SO that Dort-
mund stands at the toe of the shoe;
thence south at Hagen, southwest to
Barmen. and thence straight on to
strike the Rhine again at point north
Of Cologne.
Then think Of the Pennsylvania coal
fields packe1 into this tiny area pour
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 them
down along the Ruhr. Fill in the re-.
naming smaller gaps with paper, silk
and cotton mills, glass factories, tan
neries, dye, chemical and salt works.
Now put every man, woman and child
from the cities named hard at work
digging coal, firing boilers, running
lathes or rolling steel rails, and you
Will get a graphic, accurate mental
picture Of what this roaring, rushing
Rullr really is.
Geographically, the Ruhr district
lies chiefly in the province Of West.
phalia, bounded on the west by the
Rhine. A small section Of its area,
however, including the city Of Essen,
flows over into the Rhine province.
Physically, 1t forms part Of the great
sandy plain Of northwest Germany,
merging with what geologlsts call the
>"Gulf Of Cologne" Its climate is mild
~ oceanic, with the heaviest rainfall
In July.
Plunging suddenly into this teeming
industrial field on the train ride from
Cologne to Berlin, and passing through
Dusseldorf, where $50 trains day
puff in and out, you are amazed at the
solid procession Of busy towns, at the
almost endless forest Of chimneys. and
the pail Of somber smoke that hangs
over the fiat, unattractive country.
Ip this small but highly mineralized
region, where men have dug coal for.
800 years. over 400 concerns now on
crate mines or hold concessions for
their exploitation. And the Ruhr In.