The Birmingham age-herald., 1923-10-21

M. V. Joseph, president of Love man, Joseph & Loeb. who has recent ly returned from Europe, gave the1 inside reason Saturday as he sees it , for the peculiar Industrial condition in Germany, explaining the meaning and cause of the startling industrial activity there.
 Mir. Joseph said before tine war and because of il, many German in- dustrial concerns were mortgaged. These mortgages specified that cer- tain sums of marks were to be used in liquidating the mortgage obliga- tions. When the value of the mark collapsed, the officials of the mort gagged companies lived mp to the let ter of their contracts, paying off the indebtednesses in the actual number regardless of the value of the de- pleted mark at the time.
 This action was within the law living up to the actual letteT of the law, and 6ebtednesses incurred Were Hquidated for the prover0ial song. Companies that could not have met their obligations at the pre-war value of the mark paid off heavy obligations with actual num- Der of marks specified. though they obtained the German money with which to do so at incidental expense
 In this way German industry as a whole is practically out of debt and all surplus profit has been avail able for expansion.
 An intensifying of international competition in trade not before known is anticipated by Mir. Joseph as result of this abnormal develop ment, and the present heretofore mystifying status of German indus try Is explained.
 Q
 Vienna Impresses Him.
 Vienna and its revivlng affairs of commerce impressed the Birmingham mer chant very much. Mir. Joseph said he had visited the Austrian capital two years ago, at the time when 1t lessness. This summer, he said, Vienna is hardly recognizable with the city he saw in 1921. The allied loan has stabilized business there wonderfully. not only in the revival of trade through the presence of large amount of available money, but through the revival of hope, self-con- fidence and belief in a future through the extended helping hands of the people of other nations. MT. Joseph indicated that the moral toning of the Viennese through the confidence expressed in them has done more good than the actual money made dNdtlaDle. IHtI SplIll, uC SdlQ. shows wonderful improvement. They have begun to assert themselves, their courage is returning, and above all, they have gone back to work Ill Vienna Mir. Joseph made large pur- chases for the firms he represents, also visiting nearby Czechoslovakia Gold Bohemia), where he bought of their wares.
 Regarding political conditions in Germany. MT Joseph was very reti- cent, saying that if the premiers of the European nations and the Ger man officials were unable to solve thep roblem he considered it out Of place for him to suggest solution
 aciined to discuss that subect. Talks Of New Concern.
 About the expansion of the "tri- rmvirate," the firms. Loveman, Jo- seph & Loeb of Birmingham; Maison enstein Ss Co. of Memphis. he had more to say. The big white store in New Orleans is being expanded considerably he said, but most at tention, just now, is being paid to the new eight-story building for B. Lowenstein & Co. in Memphis, which will occupy the site of the old Pea body hotel. in the center of the Ten nessee. metropolis. This new store, he said, will be the greatest and most modern in the south, repre- sentipg all that money can buy.
 O O O
 Unemployment In England.
 While abroad MT. Joseph was inn rressed by the condition he saw in England as compared to other na- tions; over a million people out of work, business slowed up, the whole empire affected, the colonies as well as the British. Isles, Co., lonial representatives, he said, arc meeting now with the officials of the home government in an effort to find a solution. The tremendous burden of taxes is their greates. trouble. MT. Joseph has great con fidence in the British to handle their grave situation, for, he said, they are clean. keen spirited people and will pull through.
 Paris presented a great contrast to London. While Mir. Joseph was in the French capital, he said. the in- dustries there had all the orders they could fill and the commercial atmosphere was buoyant. Regarding his stay in Paris Mr. Joseph said he wanted to correct a statement that had been made recently about hm. 50 the effect that he had dined with George Gordon Crawford of Birmingham and other Americans He said he had received an invita- ton to an American dinner in Paris but had not been able to attend
 Mr. Joseph left America for Eu- rope early in July on the steamship Leviathan, returning on the same