The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1923-04-22

the same policy tnat they themselves
adopted when they blew up the
Frech factories and maliciously de-
stroyed their machinery during the
war.
Stacks of Lenses.
The Germans object to the smash
ing Of field glasses, telescopes, and
other optical instruments on the
ground that they might be used In
warfare, and one Of them hoped up
and down in his rage as he showed
me some bushels of costly lenses that
had been shattered to bits, on that
ground. They want to go on making
gas masks, saying that they must
have them for protection against the
sulphur and other poisonous vapors
found in the mines, and they want
the right to make any kind of WIRE
Iese telephone or telegraph, notwith-
standing such instruments can be
used for war.
They are especially sore over the
fact that they are not allowed to
make any airplanes or Aeppelins
which can carry more than $4,000
pounds each. nor ascend as nigh
as $4,000 feet, nor go faster
than 10 miles an hour. They say,
also, that the control commission has
prohibited them from making riding
breaches and uniforms. which pre-
vents their export of costumes for
the porters and chauffeurs of South
America.
A Good job.
In fact, the work of the control
commission has been thoroughly
done. One of the officials of the
Union of German Industries tells me
that he has investigated the destruc-
ton of 337 factories, and that the loss
in them was some hundreds of mil
lions of dollars. All kinds of ma
chimes for the making of munitions
We're destroyed, and the head of one
of the largest German institutions
said in his establishment alone Co.,
600 such machines were crushed by
the means of a magnetic crane. He
has a photograph showing how fine
crane was lifted 40 feet in the air
and dropped. shattering it to pieces.
Another photograph exhibited pile
of rifles as big as a hay-stack. all in
pieces, and others showed the rem
nants of boilers and furnaces and
even smokestacks that were torn
down and crushed. As l understand
it the Germans have not objected to
the destruction of the tools and ma
other purpose than warfare, but they
are Directing to the breaking up of
dynamos and all machinery which
can be easily adapted to the industry
of peace and which will have to be
replaced by new machinery of the
same kind.
From War to Peace.
Notwithstanding this destruction it
is wonderful how rapidly the indus
tries of Germany have been changed
from an active war basis to one of
peace industries. In most of the fac
tories have visited every vestige of
arms and munitions making has been
wiped out, and one would never sup
pose that they had been anything else
than ordinary industrial plants.
To show you what has been done
by the control commission and how
the big war factories have been
transformed. I called upon Dr. Vein
Zig, director-general of the Deutsche
Werke here in Berlin, and then went
out to see the great factories at
Spandau which before the war were
dred thousand men. The Deutsche
Werke was the organization of the
kaisers war factories Independent of
the Krupps and other private insti-
tutions. 1t was financed from the
imperial treasury and operated under
still belongs to the government and
therefore is an official civil service
institution. The Deutsche Werke has
IA different establishments and dur
ing the war they employed altogether
more than a quarter of a million men,
One of the biggest was the works at
Spandau, another was at Kiel, on the
Baltic, and others were scattered
here and there throughout Germany.
During the war all worked day and
night, and their machinery was red
hot until the time of the armistice.
These factories have now all been
turned as far a possible to the works
IF hu M har
has been greatly cut down owing to
the difficulty of changing the ma
chinery, and to the destruction done
by the control commission. Still, all
of the institutions are more or less
busy.
What the War Factories Are Making.
During my talk with Dr. Weinlig l
asked him what sort of peace goods
they were now turning out. He re-
piled: I'VE have experiemented on
more than ten thousand different ar
ticles and our successful experiments
include freight cars, automobiles,
motorcycles, wagons and agricultural
implements. We are making wooden
houses for north France and Belgium
and also office furniture and iron
bedsteads. We make electric irons.
toys and machine tools, and also
emery paper, canvas and artificial
is only fraction of that we used
during the war and many of the
buildings are vacant. as We have not
vet been able to buy new peace ma
chinery to fill them. So far our eX-
ports are small. We are shipping
threshers and ether agricultural ma
chinery to South America. We hope
later on to do good business with
Russia, but all that depends upon
changed political conditions. and just
now raw materials are so high and
must be paid for in gold, so that we
are unable to buy much of them.
1t is not only the high gold cost of
raw materials, but it is this perpetual
rise and fall of the mark that makes
it almost impossible for us to do bust
ness" continued DR.. Weinlig "Our
values change every day and we have
no basis for contracts. What seems
to be a mark profit today is a de-
cided loss tomorrow. and we cannot
replace the goods at the prices we
sell them for. We shall have no sue
cessful manufacture until we have
stabilized mark. We are suffering,
also, from lack Of working eff
cheney on account of the dissatisfac-
ton of the men at their low wages
and the high cost of living. Men will
not work unless they feel they are
fairly paid and you can get no spirit
into them under eur present condf-
lions"