Atlanta tri-weekly journal. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1920-19??, 1923-05-03
Less Than Dozen Men Now
in Position to Dictate En-
tire Future of Berlin Gov
eminent
BY HIRAM X. MODERWELL

BY HIRAM X. MODERWELL
| Especial Cable to The Atlanta Journal and
| Chicago Daily News-Copyright, 1921
Following is the first of n series Of srti-
Giles by Mr.. ModerweI on financial, indus
trial and general economic conditions in
Germany. These articles are the product of
Mr.. ModerwelI's second extensive tour OF in
vestigation of that distracted country)
BERLIN, Germany, May IA
dozen men in Germany control 80
per cent of the country's coal and
heavy iron production. With this
virtual monopoly over the bread Of
industry they have the power to die
tate the economic life of the nation
and no one can say that in the fu-
ture they may not be able to make
and rule the government.
Now that the middle class is
ruined, the working class divided
and underpaid, and the junkers ex-
lied from the most important func-
tons of government, the Industrial
| lists alone have wealth and power.
In time of almost universal per-
plexity they alone know exactly
what they want.
Germany today is like a prison
camp. In an area no larger than
! that of New York and New England
there are crowded more, than half
as many people as live in CONT
mental United States. They cannot
emigrate. Surrounding nations,
with a host of unemployed, will not
have them. Not one German in TO-,
900 could raise the price Of a steam
ship ticket to America--a whole
years wages.
In this prison camp food produc-
ton has sunk to so or 70 per cent Of
normal. The peasants refuse to buy
| the necessary fertilizers and Guilt
vate their land intensively unless
they can obtain high prices for their
produce. The city population, weak
ened and depressed by the war and
deprived of all tangible wealth, can
not pay high prices.
Berlin Perpetrates Fraud
People cannot go outside the pris-
on camp to get their food. So they
snatch what they can from the other
prisoners. The city population has
snatched from the householders by
obtaining a law which fixes rents
at about a thirtieth of the normal
rate. The ruined householders can
not buy. The shopkeepers cannot
sell to them.
The improvised government can
not get taxes from the impoverished
householders and shopkeepers. So
it, too, has found a way of living at
the expense of others. BY issuing
trillions Of promissory notes, called
marks, it gets its supplies for moth
ing, snatching bread out of peoples
mouths with tits invisible hands.
When the people discovered that
the government was keeping alive
by perpetrating this gigantic fraud,
they felt that they had a right to
From coal baron to chambermaid,
every one has turned speculator,
first at the expense of foreign buy
ers of tn emark, and latterly at the
expense of one another. Business
how the mark will go. It has be-
come impossible in Germany to make
a decent living decently.
Every one is convinced that his
neighbor is cheating him, that to
work hard is only to make oneself
somebody else's mule, that nothing
pays but dishonesty. Such is the
morale of the prison camp.
Positions of Advantage
But the dozen big industriallsts
and their satellites have been in
strategic position. Every calamity
has turned to gold in their hands.
If food prices were high, they could
sell their agricultural machines. If
rents were cheap, they could get
cheap labor. If money was depre-
ciating they could turn it into for
eign money of real value at the
most favorable time. If speculation
was the rule of life, they, with their
resources and information, could
speculate better than any one else.
If they were obliged to surrender
their mines and ships to the allies
they were Unidentified at the eX'
pense of the Gerrhan people. thus
obtaining vast sums of ready capltal
at q time when every one else was
poor. If business was good, they
could sell at high prices. If business
was lettering, they could buy mines
and factories cheaply. If the mark
rose, they could purchase their sup
plies cheaply from abroad. II the
mark fell they could produce at low
cost. If the government was hated
and weak, they could bully the gov
eminent and evade its laws, paying
contemplate taxes and draining
Germany's wealth nito foreign
lands.
Organization of Trusts
They have brought some degree of
order and prosperity to Germany at
a time when no one else could per
form the task. They have organized
the basic industries into vast trusts
more complex than the world has
ever before seen. They have per
fected a system of production and
marketing from the mine to the con-
sumner with the minimum of waste
of capital and raw material. They
have, beyond a doubt, tnaugurated
a new era in Industrial organization.
Within Germany they control alb
sOlutely the price of coal, which sets
all other manufacturing prices. They
control a predominant portion of the
press. They can make or break the
government by paying or refusing
to pay taxes. At any moment, they
could, If need be, subsidize a fascist
movement that might make OF par
lament puppet such as parliament
became in Italy. They have the re
sources, If they have the necessary
political shrewdness. to do with Ger
the course of time.
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