Evening star., 1927-05-22
BANKS ARE BLAMED.
IN GERMAN L0SSES|
Only Modest Effort Made to
Find Guilty in Crash,
49, :.
Says Writer.
nv MAMMALIAN HARDEN.

By Radio 10 The Star.
RERL1N. Nav 21.-The past week
has again demonstrated that the Ger
mans are politically the most patent
and hence the easiest of all peoples
TO govern. The writer pointed out
in "A prev.Sus dispatch that the quo
tations on the stock exchange were
uncomfortable for those people VINO
with their eyes focused on Geneva and
who especially longed for a revision
of the Dawes plan would like to see
the German economic situation de-
picted with cheeks pale from hunger
and with deep wrinkles of wretched'
ness.
, These quotations could appear mon
Strously high only TO him who forgot
that since the catastrophe of 1918 the
gigantic capital of obligations had dis
appeared, that the man who had
owned 10 shares still possessed only
one in the most favorable cases and
that the release of inwardly strong
and long fully occupied industries
from debt must find expression in
stock market quotations. How small
the interest return was is shown by
the standard security, shares in the
dye industry. which at its constant
quotation of $500 marks nominal val
lies $1,000 paid only an s per cent
dividend.
FOrcib!e COnfiscatiOn.
The reproach that there existed too
much speculation was justified. On
what Bourse, where future dealings
are permitted, is there not too much
speculation? Our bonds and shares
were nullified or decimated; our bank
notes. which the Reichsbank was oh.
ligated to redeem in gold. became
scraps Of paper: we lost everything we
lent the ReichStateS and municipali-
ties In peace and war and the Reich
has given us compensation" of per
cent for our property which was con
Hscated in the conqueror'S countries
and which is credited to the Reich in
full on the reparations account.
And this forcible confiscation which
was hardly more pardonable than that
of the Bolshevists was also praised as
1.-THE miracle Of the mark" Those
patient people endured it. But isn't
it understandable that people who
somehow got hold of a little money
tried to relieve their urgent necessi.
ties by small speculations? Let him
without sinful thought cast the first
stone. The writer is not ashamed to
confess that although he lost seven.
eights of his hard-earned savings
through the mark miracle" for the
first time he found it hard to abstain
from the temptation to speculate.
Tempest Broke Suddenly.
Big industries and big banks could,
If it had seemed necessary to them,
have forced quotations gently down.
ward and stopped this tendency of
speculation. But they did not do it!
The tempest broke suddenly from
clear sky. The threat to withdraw
bank loans from spectators was too
loudly uttered and quotations for the
soundest undertakings slumped on
May 13-Black Friday--from 40 to
140 cash. Cash loses in Berlin alone
were reckoned at from 10000, 900 to
S0,000,000 marks.
The fact that such losses were ad.
justed disprOves the assertion that the
financial situation is bad and that
such cure was'unavoidable. And was
1t a cure? Three days later a third
of all quotations had regained their
former figure for the simple reason
that little" speculatorS lost their
breath and the big ones were able to
Luy shares back cheaply. And only
modest effort was made to find. the
guilty parties.
The Reichsbank president, the
greatly overpraised Dr. Schacht, who
happened to be away from Berlin pre-
cisely on this Friday, ascribed the
guilt to the big banks and these in
turn somewhat timidly declared that
the guilt was his. All were as pure
as angles. Some skeptical jobbers
found in this the mutual assurance.
spare us and we wiz spare YOU"
One Berlin evening paper asserted
that director of the Deutsche Bank
before the crash, had secretly sold
short through many small firms. thus
causing the panic and winning mil.
lions in an hour. Although the
names We're given together with all
details. the rest of the press did not
publish the report. which hitherto was
not denied. Now, however. only
Schacht threatens libel action. The
patient people did nothing. And
abroad the whole thing is regarded as
a camouflage.
tCopyright. 1927