Evening star., 1943-08-01
i. S. Turns Seized Alien Assets
Into Weapons of Economic War
BY Richard l.. Stokes.


In the Chicago files of Leo T. Crowley.
alien property custodian is a card bear
ing the name of Adolf Hitler and a
credit entry for $4,000, representing
American royalties on "Mein Kampf"
The Fuehrer need not complain that his
funds are lying idle. They have been
used to republish monumental classic
in the German language, Beilstein's
Handbook of Organic Chemistry" 1t
consists of 49 volumes weighing pounds
each.
Humorously enough the founder OF
the opus, one of the worlds two or three
fundamental texts on the subject, was
celebrated Russian chemist, the late
Feodorovich Konrad Beilstein.
Before Pearl Harbor, German owners
Of the copyright offered the work for
sale in the United States at 81, 900 a set.
The cost was beyond the purse of most
individuals and of many libraries and
professional associations Having seized
the copyright, Crowley was able to slash
the price to S400, by utilizing the camera
facsimile process. At such figure, he
even. He saw no sense in building up
profits for Hitler and at the same time
proposing to hang him after the war.
To the horror of the apo staff, so
many orders flooded in that the venture
showed substantial profit. The obvious
remedy was to pillow the earnings back
into the business. They were used to
bring out photostatic edition of
volume by Herr Doktor Johann Theodor
Peters OF Berlin, which had been
urgently required by airplane engineers.
This is a bit OF light summer reading
called "Seven-Place Values Of Trigo-
nometric Functions"
Sought to Sell Diamonds.
After the manner described above,
Hitler's capital In the United States has
been invested" for the benefit of
American science and war manufacture,
while precautions have been taken to see
that no dividends accrue. incidentally,
Goering and Goebbles are believed to
nave no assets in this country, whether
open or disguised. Small amounts seem
to have been traced to Ribbentrop's
ownership They would no doubt have
been larger If the Foreign Minister'S first
cousin, Werner Won Klemm, had not
been convicted last year and sent to
prison. The German imperial staff had
set him up in New York as an inter-
national fence" to dispose of diamonds
looted in Holland and Belgium.
Hitler's American bank account is a
| small item beside the $1,000, 900 900 in
| cash, securities, patents, copyrights,
| plant equipment and other property Of
which custodial authorities have dis
possessed nationals of enemy and occu-
| pied countries. But its fate casts re-
vealing glimpse into the gulf between
practices of the first and second World
Wars, and suggests partial reply to the
question gas to whether the United
States in regard to alien assets, will re-
| peat the costly blunders of Is years ago.
/ At that time the sacredness Of private
| property, as a right in itself, was un-
/ questioned. Government agencies re-
garded themselves, as trustees, bound by
capitalist morality to keep enemy assets
unimpaired and administer them eff
ciently. About economic warfare was
undreamed of.
Today the idea of trusteeship has been
| flung from the window. The ruling pur-
pose Is that of setting all hostile re-
sources under seizure at full-time work
not for the advantage OF the original
owners but for promotion of the ma
tional war effort. In order to cancel
profits, German patents and copyrights
have been issued free of charge to Amer
ican business. Enemy bank accounts
have been enlisted wholesale for the
purchase of War bonds
Future Is Unpredictable.
| Whether German, Italian and Japa-
nese capital will eventually be restored
depends on factors. which cannot be pre-
dicted. If the Allies are victorious, it
might be confiscated as a measure of in
demnity. In case of a stalemate, 1t
would probably be used in trading for
the return of vast quantities of Ameri-
can cash. securities and plant equipment
seized by the Germans in Occupied
! Europe. Congress might again lapse into