The Washington times., 1938-09-09
The News
News Behind
By PAUL MALLoN

lures Syndicate, Inc. All rights re-
served. Reproduction III full or in part
strictly prohibited.)
THE mighty thump with
l. which Herr Hitler beat
his breast at Nuremberg
must have made him cough
a feeble cough. Even if he
failed to, there was enough
quiet a-hemming (not to say
snickering) behind the Off
cia1 diplomatic hand here to
disclose the inside situation.
For, truth is, the defiance he
expressed against the British
threat Of a North Sea blockade
seemed to be bluster to cover
his deepest military weakness.
His claim that his Germany Is
now completely self-contained
was good domestic political
propaganda, but hardly a real
iStic presentation Of facts.
Information Seeping through
subofficial channels from Hitler
land indicates Der Fuehrer has
developed his publicity about
his new synthetic Industries far
more than he has developed his
industries.
Competent judges here doubt
that Germany could contain
herself a year without an outlet
to the sea.
Economically Fantastic
DEMARKABLE scientific
IL strides have been made by
the Germans in their self-con-
tanned economy, but it is an
open official secret that they
have not been able to make
these commercially feasible.
Take the Herman Goering
Steel Works (you could take it
for very little If you had some
golO. Hitler organized it to ex-
plot ores within the Reich,
after Lorraine, with its rich iron
ore deposits, was irretrievably
lost. The Goering works is
handling ore with iron content
running as low as 80 per cent,
while good ore runs as high as
go per cent.
This venture Is economically
fantastic, but politically sound.
It helps to keep unemployed
Germans out of the bread lines,
but it could not supply German
war needs. It would not even be
justifiable as q social factor, If
Hitler had any foreign exchange
with which to purchase foreign
ore, steel or scrap.
Synthetic Goods
DERHAPS oil is a clearer ex-
L ample. Hitler has built up
the synthetic process Of extract
ing oil and gas from coal to
such a surprising extent that
he now is able to supply so per
cent OF normal domestic de-
mand (expert estimate)s' It is
a remarkable scientific fact, but
the process is very costly, un-
economic and wholly incapable
of supplying war needs.
The best of the German syn
thetic developments, they say,
is rayon. Hitler has produced a
new staple fiber like rayon by
mixing wood fiber with wool and
shoddy. The idea is to conserve
wood pulp needed for straight
rayon as his domestic supply of
wood pulp is limited. It costs
much more than cotton, but
Hitler cannot buy cotton in his
bankrupt financial condition,
and he charges the cost off
socially to unemployment relief.
He is doing the same thing
with synthetic rubber, although
raw rubber is cheap and plenti.
full in the world markets. He is
replacing copper needs with
aluminium because he has plenty
of bauxite and cheap water
power. All these and other
things make for a sort of a
Robinson Crusoe self-contain-
ment in Germany which is
merely making the best of the
limited resources at hand.
It creates a sort of fairyland
economy, which can exist in
peace only as long as the peo-
pie are content with high costs
and low wages, as long as DR..
Schacht can discover ways of
paying the losses and figure out
methods of trading high cost
products in the world market
for few morsels of raw ma
terials.
It might even do in war-for
a time-provided the time is
very short.
Martin Favored
COME doubt has arisen whether
~ Toa AKoT Tfio thu TnnNOn