The Birmingham age-herald., 1924-01-06
SHINES t KEN
 EQR OlL sUPP[Y.
Wall Street Journal Pub- fishes Exclusive interview
 With German Finanoier

The principal American invest , ments of Hugo shines. Gerfhan in- dustrial king, whose son. Hugo Shines. IT.. was recently visitor to Birmingham. and Mobile, arc likely to be in oil, according to the Wall ] Street Journal, which prints an au- thorized expression of Stmnes' views.
 Hugo Shines, Jr., whose visit to Birmingham was said to be purely for purposes of inspection. ana oo- servation, is in charge of the ship ping department of the Stinnes fn- terest, and it is understood that pos sible investments that Shines may make in America will be in oil lands,
 Following is an article. appearing in the Wall Street Journal. |. Paris, London and New York are known to have sreceived expressions ,. of his views on current German prob lems, an intimation of which has been conveyed to The Wall Street Journal. .sS4
 These, intin. ations contradict the American conception of Stinnes as m Industrial kaiser in control of Ger many's sources of raw material sup ply, her misunderstanding industries, merchandising channels, public util- tiles, shipping and newspapers. They point out that this, erroneous impress 4s6 German newspapers whose antago- Tism is racial as well as commercial
 Nothing could be more misleading than to regard Hugo Stinnes as Q typical representative of industrial monopoly, or worse: of the struggle Germany" 1t was said. He, is an important factor in big business. te be sure, but for some time his in- terest in manufacturing finished products has been greater than in producing raw material"
 Center Of Newspaper Struggle. $ ,s Attacks have been steadily di- rected against him, it was explained by four important dailies. the Frank furter Zeitung, Berlinger Tageblatt. Vossische Zietung. and Vienna Ferie Presse. These attapks have general ly featured him aslthe ruled of Ger many financially and commercially, with good effect.
 G To combat these. attacks, he has acquired k two dailies, the Deutsche ssAllgemeine Zeitung in Berlin, and < an identical paper in Frankfurt, and < a commercial paper published in Der some of his Reichstag speeches and , replies to attacks.
 E He recently won a libel suit against tho financial editor of the J Frankfuter zeitung. who had charged him with violating the law, prohibiting conversion of funds into dollars or pounds sterling. He proved that he had bought S00,000 pounds for the railway ministry to be de- {, voted to the purchase of British coal after the ministry had prevailed upon someone lafge enough to swing the deal for itJ Instead of precipitating a sharp decline of the mark by gov ernment buying.
 The stinnes family has further combatted public antagonism by feeding 2,000 children at the best hotel in Berlin daily and 1,0o9 moro in Hamburg. s Governmcnt Needs Firm Hand.
 Currency reform, reparations pay ments and restoration of industry cannot come, it is argued by Stinnes, until the government reduces expep- ditures and attains a much more normal basis.
 All attempts of the government ,; to get a stable marllIas its unit have failed and will continue to fail so long as expenditures exceed receipts, and that Is the case more today than ever" said his spokesman. Our < government does not seem able to nsucceed in getting stable moneys for taxes or other government revenues Nor has any serious effort been made to reduce the tremepd pdously swollen personnel of government officials. Railroads in Germany have many more employees per mile than United States roads. The same is true of other German goyernment depart ments.
 Instead of economizing, we are showered with new decrees and laws { for the execution of which still more new officials are constantly required.
 Critical analysis of German gov ernment finances would make 1t ap- pear offhand as if further heaHy re- paration payments were out of the question. It would appear that the allies themselves were doubtful if they would ever get anything.
 < We must come to an understand Ing with France. It was possible fEome time ago and is still possible. Chances of success grow less daily with, lesseninG of government sol Yency. Before the war 70,000,00O Germans prospered from exports, a combination of the iron of Lorraine and coal and coke of the Ruhr and ( Rhine. This is now, all gone forever.
 France makes the mistake of re- Earding the Ruhr as a military field i3f strategic value and overestimates Its importance as an economic lever In French occupation. We may ev- entually have to write the Ruhr off Dur books just as we gave up Lor- ,l.aine.
 v "Germany is ready and willing to