KRUPP'S, UNLIMITED

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LII, Issue 348, 26 March 1910, Page 9

KRUPP'S, UNLIMITED

GERMAN Y'iS GIGANTIC FIRM. The great German tinu tiiat, is known bo everyone as "Krupp's/' and which supplies half the civilised world with what it want* in the way of cannon, is buying ,a large tract of'land in Holland with the object of erecting new works there.

If so, this gigantic business, which already gives employment to about 150,000 men, and owns a city and several towns and villages in Germany will soon possess no fewer than nine different groups of works. The rise 01 the firm has been remarkably swift. In 1810 a working mechanic called Frederick Krupp. set up a forge in the village of Essen. Wretchedly poor, he yet contrived to keep lour workmen in his pay. He had ideas which, he hoped, would revolutionise the manufacture of steel.

Handicapped by his poverty, however, and by a ten years' lawsuit, he accomplished nothing, and died, worn out by failure, in 1826. When his son Alfred, for whose schooling the widowed mother had scarcely been able.to pay, entered the business in 1848, he round, to use his own words, "three workmen and considerably more debts than cash." Before his death, fifty years later, he was one of the most -powerful factors in the -wars of Europe. THE FIRM'S LIVING LANDMARK..

Wedged in between two huge worksimps in Essen, which is now a city of a quarter of a million inhabitants, and is practically the property oi the firm, there stands the tiny old-fashioned cottage in which the founder of the firm struggled for a livelihood. It bears an inscription in the handwriting of Alfred Krupp, commending the example of his parents to the workpeople. The site of that cottage is worth thousands, but it still stays unused. It would be difficult to name three European countries in which the Krupp firm have no interests. In Germany they own, besides Essen (their headquarters), the Germania dockyard at Kiel (where they build Dreadnoughts), three coal mines, many iron mines and koundries, and great steel-making works at Rheinhausen on the Rhine, and at Magdebourg. They have coal and iron mines all over Europe. The famous iron-mining town of Bilbao, in Spain, is partly theirs. It is from Bilbao that Britain gets most of her supplies of iron ore. AN HOTEL FOR KRUPP'S GUESTS ONLY. Everything Krupp's do is on a gigantic scale. At Essen they keep an hotel solely for the use of the firm's guests. These arc chiefly foreign military and naval officers inspecting the work Krupp's are carrying out tor their respective countries. No bills, of course, are presented. -This hotel costs Krupp's a clear £25,000 a year. Alfred Krupp was succeeded by his son, the second Frederick Krupp. The new head of the firm was a peace-loving scientist with a passion for botany and zoology, and a positive distate for can-non-making. Rumor has it, however, that on at least one occasion he made his presence felt. On one occasion he bearded Bismarck in his den and told him flatly that a certain war must not break out. And it did not. There are several uncrowned Icings in Europe, and the head of the Krupp firm is certainly one oi them. There are very few nations that can wage a war without the assistance of Krupp's.

The firm is now managed by a board of twelve directors, the chairman of •which is the second husband of Fran Krupp, the late Frederick's widow. Frau Krupp, as she is still called, is the largest shareholder. The name, by the way, is pronounced "Kroop." BOUND TOGETHER BY A BADGE. Frau Krupp and her two daughters have all married German baroas, friends oi the Kaiser. The Emperor, indeed, is said to have done the matck-niaking, a« he naturally wishes to bind the Krupp interests as firmly to those of the State as possible.

Round Essen four towns have been specially built by the Krupp firm foi their workmen. Two of these are garden cities, much like those of England, and are reserved for retired and disabled employees. , In Essen itself the Krupp institutions are innumerable. There are two "house-keeping schools" ior Krupp girls. Besides th« usual libraries and technical colleges there are Krupp cafes, Krupp churches, a Krupp hospital, a Krupp park—all solely for the use of the firm's employees. There is a Krupp restaurant, in which two thousand Krupp workmen can dine at one time.

But how is it possible to tell a man ■who works for Krapp's from one who does not? Simply enough. Every one of the 150,000 Krapp's employees wears the Krupp badge. This is a miniature artillery shell made of platinum. Those of 'twenty years' service wear the shell mounted on gold, those oi shorter service on silver. This applies to engineers and workmen. Clerks, on the other hand, have to wear two pairs of small platinum shells, each pair being coupled ny a chain, and are thus recognisable by their sleeve-links.