"POOR, BEATEN GERMANY."

Taranaki Daily News, 15 November 1919, Page 9

"POOR, BEATEN GERMANY."

A HUN PROFESSOR'S LAMENT. "It is a miracle how we have gotten along without America in these last years (says Professor Lujo Brcntuno, the famous German economist). What we have done to help ourselves has been a revelation. We have hud no copper, so we have found ways to make aluminium do. And aluminium, for which we formerly relied upon France, we have produced from ordinary clay. We have been/ deprived of petroleum and have learned to produce it from our native soft coal, ue have produced pigs' fodder from wood, and cloth from nettles, I have held in my hand cloth as soft as a Smyrna rug and it was made from peat fibre! All this has Been done by our rising generation, men in their thirties have produced these wonders of science that have inspired old men like me. Such a nation cannot be eliminated by military defeat; it must and always will remain an important factor in the industrial world. Whether it will regain its old position depends, of course, on the practical application of the peace condition. The treaty deprives Germany of a great part of her natural wealth, which consisted mainly of coal, wood and iron. We lose the coal of the Saar basin and of Silesia and are obliged to export great quantities in addition. The wood'is barely sufficient for our needs."

"As for the iron, there is the greatest tragedy of all. German v produced before the war 30,000.000 tons of iron per year. (Jf this quantity 28,400,000 came from Lorraine and Luxembourg. Since, these territories are lost to Germany industry there remain only 7,000,000 ton's with which to raise German industry from its ruins. Reckoning all the scrap iron proceeds at.3,000,000 tons, we get a total of less than 11,000,000 tons. Our railroads, our factories, our agricultural machinery, have all gone to pieces in the war. It goes without saying that from the slender resources left to us we cannot make good the damage in our own country, much less export goods that are to pay our indemnity. We are, therefore, obliged to import great quantities of iron from France. Will France sell us the iron? It will be obliged to do so. |i\ir French industry is not organised for the absorptiou of such a. quantity of raw material. It is my opinion that it never will be. France is essentially the maker of specialties. The fine tilings, the artistic objects, and the luxuries will-always be what her own people produce. Its manufacturers are flot captains of industry in the American or the German sense; in spite of its protective tariffs it has created no trusts. The Frenchman will still prefer to invest his money to working with it, and so lie will be obliged t« sell us the natural wealth yiWk Jie owes to our enterprise,

for it must not be forgotten that we have unlocked this wealth since 1871." "The eventual solution of international commercial problems must come through the principle of free trade. Even the English, our greatest rivr.ls before the war, will come to see that. Let it be well understood that it was not Germany's protective tariff that secured her supremacy in the steel industry, but a scientific process for which we are indebted to England; the Bessemer proj cess, which first made it possible to refine the Lorraine ore cheaply enough to compete with the English product. 1 understand that the recent victory of the Unionists in England was only a sham triumph. If that is so England will / not be able to put through a practical protective tariff. As for (lermany, we are through with 'protection' forever. Our people have learnt that it has meant poverty to them. It is estimated that under the new budget, which thus far takes no account of the war indemnity paid, every family will have to pay something like 1500 marks in taxes. i In other words, a worMngman must I earn WOO marks for tiie State before he can earn a penny for himself and his family. Do you think we can afford to pay several billions more to our great syndicates in the form of duties? In 1913 we paid no less than a billion in the grain duties alone! No, Germany ! has come to her senses in more ways ! than one. We hope to show the world 1 not only a new example in democracy, but in economic wisdom as well. If the world will forget its hate and realise that its salvation lies in equal opportunities for all, then the future is bright even for poor, beaten Germany."