Atlanta tri-weekly journal. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1920-19??, 1922-07-06
SHINES QUICK RISE
. IN GERMAN TRADE
j BY HIRAM X. MODERWELL


throughout the world. The silent
rsan1an, who owns coal mines and
steamships and iron mills and news
papers, who travels all over Europe
on mysterious missions, who never
gives an interview. who acquires
properties now in Austria and now
in South America. is a type OF the
kind Of man who has risen spectacu-
larly in Germany since the war.
~ Whoever else has lost through the
deyaluation of the mark since the
- war, the big industrialist has GER
tainly won. The cheap mark has
enabled him, first, to retire his
bonds, mortgages and other fixed
s9obligations with almost nothing. Sec
s,sond, it has enabled him to underbid
the world on export goods and keep
his factories running while factories
In other nations have been idle
RxThird, it has enabled him to get the
FIRST grab from the government
Naprinting press and pay his current
expenses in the money OF today,
receive this money as it trlckles
down week after week when prices,
r. in consequence, are rising.
Now Free Of the Banks
sssa From these ADVANTAGES come q
multitude Of minor advantages, but
the sum total is that the German in
dustrialist has attained position OF
dominance in German life never be-
. fore known in the histo.V Of any
country. The first impressive result
is his freedom from the domination
of the banks. Before the war the
~srapidly expanding German indus.
!, tries were constantly in need OF
:. credit. Four great banks controlled
mot only the financial policy but also
the trade policy of German big busl'
zRness. The bank directors sat as di-
-Srectors in the boards of the trust to
-rgiye orders Now they sit there.
but to receive commands. With
: fresh money constantly flowing from
~t the printing press, with large stocks
of foreign currency abroad con-
oasstantly approaching in terms, of
marks, the industrialists no 'onger
have to beg from the banks.
The other characteristic phenn'''e.
:. mon of postwar industry is that call
:. ed vertical classification. The old
form of combination of similar in
dustries to fix prices and control the
market has given way tt a new type
of combination of industries .lich
feed one another, from the raw ma
terial to the finished product. The
vertical trust is able to control its
supplies Of raw materials and to
work from the bottom up.
Industrial Combinations in All Lines
- Whereas before the war there was
zone horizontal trust or kartel in GER
tain classes of machinery, of which
Herr Rathenau's Allgemeine Eiektri-
~fszitats Gesellschatt was dominating
.s.member, there are now two parallel
.eAvertical trusts, dominated respec.
sntively by Rathenau and SHINES.
The vertical tendency is spreading
rapidly and silently over all German
economic life. Every day one reads
s+,rofs this or that combination Of dis
1sAsimilar corporations and one knows
THAT one more gigantic engine Of
production is being silently pieced
tugether.
II For example, the other day The
ss Linke Holman locomotive and rail-
- road car works made agreements on
- the one hand with the Rathenau flc
- tories for motor and Their equip
= ment for its new electric locomotives,
S and on the other hand with a whole
e series Of metal works, FORCES, wagon
- factories and coal companies tending
sA to lower costs of production, and
II forming perhaps the stronges loco
= motive and car manufa curing trust
s. the world has ever seen. Even the
~ department stores are Verticalizing
L themselves and are beginning to
= own textile mills, printing shops I'D
Il other sources of supply.
Ts Shines Holdings Enormous
= The SHINES combination, COM
q monty called the Rhine-Elbe union,
- is a trust Of trusts. 1t owns or con-
z trolls colleries in the Ruhr, with
q cooking and by-products plants,
~ smelling furnaces, rolling mills, iron
e mines, shipbuilding yards, an engi-
seneering department; it controls the
q great Siemens-Schuckert electrical
- engineering works; it has water pow
- or concessions in Bavaria; it owns
= transatlantic liners and timber for.
sscsts; it owns newspapers in at least
- three lands; it controls nominally
ssDutch bank in Holland and has large
Adeposits of "Swiss" capital in Switz-
~ srland; it controls the Alpine-Mon-
ana iron mines in Austria with
a. Austrian" capital, the Witkowitz
- coal mines Czecko- Slovakia with
s-.Czechko- Slovakian" capital, and the
Lu1i mines in Italy with the help of
&&riendly Italian capital.
This list is far from complete.
seStinnes last year was credited with
ss--employing 100000 workmen. The
A9number is unquestionably growing
leach month. The list of Rathenau
.snroperties would be almost as i'm.
Expressive. There are minor trusts of
"a terrifying completeness. The Muh-
~~..lenbauund Industrie concern has d
.s1irtual monopoly Of the flour mill
CONSTRUCTION business. The Siche'
group controls companies in Ger
ss,nany, Luxembourg, France, Belgium
eslnd Switzerland and its branches in
ss:lude chemical and metal factories,
local mines and shipping.
Big Taxes; Bigger Dividends
Thus the productive industry Of
fe5ermany is falling under the control
.sof a comparatively few men. The
lswealth which the middle and work.
ssssing classes have lost has gone in
ssIarge measure to them. No reliable
ss.itatistics, not even any intelligent
,s;uesses, exist as to the extent of
= heir wealth. They represent them
ss,elves to the German people as poor,
ssVeighed down by taxes and buying
s<heir raw materials from abroad at
"a loss. They explain that their diVl-
ssdends of %, 50 or even 70 per cent
ssare paid in paper marks on gold
capitalization and boil down to a
ssinodest 2 or per cent. But enor-
ssnous and often untraceable sums go
Ito Replacement" extension Of
agplant," "stock bonuses" and "in-
s.creases of capitalization which
- y Il