La Grande evening observer., April 07, 1917, Image 7

SATUED AY, APRIL 7, 1917.
LA GRANDE EVENING OBSERVER.
PAGE SEVEN
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LA GRANDE, OREGON.
How German Busi
ness Is Preparing
((Continued from Friday's Observer.)
' BY EDWARD LYELL FOX.
' ' (In System)
This is bringing us to the last step
in Germany's plans for regaining her
world trade. Certainly world trade is
the paramount issue when the imper
ial chiefs consider "the good of, Ger
many." Here the Rathenau organiza
tion confers with a committee that
lias just been organized. That
committee is the Friedensuberg-ang-commission
literally, "going
over to peace commission.'' This
committee has been vested by the im
perial government with power to draw
up plans f ojr the reconstruction pariod
after the war. It i3 headed by Herr
Stahmer, who, in the spring of 1916,
put through two commercial treaties
with Roumania, obtaining sorely need
ed tons of wheat and oil, in the face
of enormous opposition from the En
tente diplomats in Bucharest. In oth
er words, Stahmer is a tenacious,
clever man, a power to be considered
when American business men unin
formed as a rule about German's ex
port plans are confident of easily
holding the now markets that war has
thrown into our laps.
Associated with Stahmer r.re the
captains of German industry and the
big men of the German banking
world. These are the brains that are
grappling with the problem of (ioating
Germany's low-priced favored goods,
of regaining that five billion dollars'
worth of lost trade. And the core of
their plans is this:
When peace comes Germany must
export cargoes of goods that, general
ly speaking, far exceed in value the
kind of goods she must import
Therefore, the more valuable the com
modities, the more desirable will it be
to Germany to encourage their export
ation.
In other words, a cargo of chemi
cals and dyestuffs is worth far more
than a cargo of copper or cotton. To
this end German industry manufac-
ican machinery. On any other com
modity it is almost a certainty that
the Stahmer committee will recom
mend prohibitive import duties es
pecially on the manufactured articles.
In other words, with the exception of
machinery, Germany is going to en
deavor to concentrate on importing
only bulky and cheap raw material as
soon as peace comes. The discrepancy
in price between such commodities
and finished products, like chemicals
and dyes, is enormous. Those in
charge of Germany's trade plans ex
pect that the value of every ship load
of raw material that they import
(aside from that which is consumed
internally) will be greatly enhanced
by being worked up into finished com
modities, and exported. In other
words, when worked up, this raw ma
terial will be sold for more than was
paid for it.
The Kind of Goods Germany Will
Have to Sell Abroad.
It is further hoped that the raw
materials imported from abroad that
will be consumed internally meats
They had to have nitrates for explo
sives. They perfected the process of
extracting nitrogen from the air.
They did it with great foresight.
They built five factories near the
Saxonian and Rhineland coal fields
with private and government capital.
They made the process cheap enough
to bo profitable to run these factor
ies f.fter the war. Nitrogen is taken
from the air by electricity.
All the Germans need is machinery
and coal. They have plenty of coal in
their own country. The factories
were not built on such a big scale
merely for war use, only to be shut up
when peace again opened the Chilean
nitrate market to Germany. Con
trary to general opinion, this process
is not so expensive that it cannot be
continued profitably when peace
comes. Indeed, the Germans declare
they will henceforth export instead of
import nitrates.
Tirelessly have the German scient
ists worked. They have extracted
from coal a new oil akin to petroleum.
They have extracted oils from seeds
and nuts. They have found in Syria
a plant that yields oil. They have
used the by-products of coal to make
benzol with which to run automobiles.
their output is being used in German or "imperial socialism," he has in
plants while Germany's own mines ' mind socialism in the sense of an ua
are spared. When the Germans cap- functions of government to the assist
tured Serbia they captured a mine;usunU thorough extenson of the
yielding an extraordinary high grade j . . . .
of copper-this mine is being drained : nnce of P"vate
X 11U i'UlCSli OCMlbQ liiuubvu wva vil
1500 acres of denuded National For
est land in Oregon and Washington in
1916. Nearly half of this area was in
When the Germans captured Rou
mania they captured a rich oil coun
try. Can anyone dream that Ger
many will take from these oil wells
qnly the oil she needs? Rather she
will probably operate them on a scale
that takes no heed for the future of
the wells, but which will help her i
store up m Germany tons and tons or
petroleum.
In considering the German economic
strength we must remember that it is
not only an army that destroys in an
invaded, country, but that after the
army come the scientists and the bus
iness men. These men of commerce,
protected by their troops, often seek
to drain a captured country's natural
resources dry and turn tho flood of
wealth back home.
It is said that this is what the Ger
mans are doing everywhere.
Few are tho factories in .captured
France, Belgium and Poland that have
the Mount Hobo region on the Siuslaw
National Forest.
As part of its fine protective sys
tem the Forest Service maintains 94
lookout stations on high points in the
mountains of Oregon and Washing
ton. These are manned only during
the tire season.
They have substituted wood and not been stripped of their machinery
vegetables fibre for cotton, wool and j and this machinery has been put
leather. Some of these substitutes, 'into German factories. It will take
like those for cotton and wool, will be i from one to two years after peace is
and leather, for example and other ; useless when peace comes. Othors, on I declared for France, Belgium and
payments to foreign countries for pur-
poses other than imports, will bo more
than offset by those commodities
which Germany will produce for ex
port, and by the payments which must
be made to German citizens for other
purposes interest and returns upon
German capital invested in foreign se
curities, for example. The realiza
tion of these hopes will give to Ger
many a favorable trade balance. In
other words, there will probably be
two chief motives dominating the gov
ernment in Its desire to encourage ex
ports and to capture the foreign mar
kets. The first has been actively in opera
tion in recent years, even before the
war. This is the realization that it is
only by finding foreign markets and
outlets for its manufactured commodi
ties that a thickly populated manu
facturing country like Germany can
maintain her large working popula
te-in;? such articles usually articles tion in prosperity. The second prob
for the manufacture of which Ger- able motive will be a new one the de-
many has a super-abundance of raw
materials has first call on all sup
plies allotted by the Rathenau organ
ization after the wants of the army
and navy have lcen considered. That
means that the chemical, dyestuff,
hardware, cutlery, and "knicknack"
industries of Germany are manufac
turing today articles that will be
thrown on the world as soon, as peace
come for these are among the prin
cipal lines for tho manufacture of
which Germany has a super-abundance
of raw materials.
Let us consider dyestuffs and chem
icals first. This brings Stahmer, the
reconstructive chief, into conference
with the heads of Germany's chemi
cal industrv and with Gwinner, the
banker, and with Holfferich, secretary
of the imperial treasury the men
whose brains conceived the system and
the plans by which Germany is now
financing herself. Stahmer is inter
ested in the efficient reestablishment
of world trade. The chemical indus
try wants a big export volume. So
does the imperial plan.
The Germans figure that the world
must have their chemicals and dyes
because so far they are cheaper and
better. They believe that the new
chamical and dye industry in Ar-r-ion
will not be able to manufacture nearly
so cheaply nor nearly so well. They
base this oninion on the enormous
prices existing today for German pro
ducts in the chemical and dye mar
kets of the world. They recall that
Denmark has Tefused to sell any
croodn to Germany and take gold in
sire to secure a favorable fiscal bal
ance in order to support her increased
paper money by increased gold hold
ings. It seems probable that the govern
ment will heartily welcome a flow of
gold into the country, which would re
sult from a favorable fiscal balance,
as this should strengthen her position
with iregard to her new paper issues,
which are as yet inconvertible and up
on which there is already apparently
considerable depreciation.
Even before tho war the .German
government had adopted a policy of
lending' aid to German exporters. It
seems probable that this policy will
be carried still further with the com
ing of peace, and that, therefore, Ger-
n.nn m -i .1 1 1 F f i 1 1 i-nr a wi wnirp an es
pecially keen ana vigorous smuggle , ,
the contrary such as nitrates, and
those oil substitutes secured from
vegetable sources will .not be use
less. '
Germany has not irrecoverably cat
en her way into her resources. She
has not by any means put such a
pressure on her mines that they will
bo over-weakened when peace comes.
We must consider that the plans
of the German army for the invasion
of France and Belgium were drawn
up not only by military men, but that
the heads of German industry had a
finger in the pia. In other words, at
the outbreak of the war, when the
army of tho Crown Prince invaded
France it struck for one point Lon
gwy, with its blast furnaces and for
est of smoke-stacks. Longwy from a
distance looks like a second Pittsburg.
How Germany Is Getting Some of Her
Raw Materials.
Behind tho German front in France
and Belgium are rich mines. These
mines are today in full operation, and
tories in other words, to put them
in condition to produco goods, to com
pote with goods some of which Ger
many is already producing!
Likewise the German forests have
been spared. Resin has been stripped
from the captured pine forests of the
Czar. And if there is any wood cut
ting to be done, tho German wood
resources are not used, but axes ring
in tho forests on captured soil.
Only too true is it that Germany
has increased her mercantile marine
during tho war, while he rsubmarine
campaign has cut into the shipping of
the Entente. She has by her amazing
cooperation between government and
industry, by her contradiction of so
cialism monarchial socialism been
able to manufacture cheaply. She is
probably ready to erect a big import
wall against all commodities except
the raw materials she needs. Ger
many is confident of quickly estab
lishing a favorable balance, and of re
gaining her five billion dollars of
world trade. Germany is today mob-
olr.mg as shrewdly and as painstak
ingly for peace as sho did for war.
ATTENTION
It will, of course, bo understood
that when Mr. Fox refers in this nr
ticlo to "monarchial socialism,"
"state socialism," "socialistic stae"
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I
German chemicals and dyes. In other
words, these countries today are bar
tering. Now the Germans reason that they
will have to import copper, nickel, cot
ton, wool, oil, meats and foodstuffs,
vegetable and animal fats, and Amer-
The annual observance
of Easter by Eastern
Oregon Commandry No.
6, will be held Sunday,
Anrii Rt.h. 1017. All Sir
for the possession of foreign markets. I . vi rpfiuested to
The Germans base their plans upon ! J lUUgAtS are requeb WU W
meet at uieu nsyiuiu au
10 o'clock a. m. and
march to First Presby
terian Church, where
services will be held at
11 o'clock a. m. i
At 1 o'clock r. rri. all Sir
Knights and their ladies
are invited to assemble
at the Masonic Hall for
dinner. !
Visiting Sir Knights so- !
journeyia.? in the city i
are especially invited to j
participate in the exer- j
cises of the day.
C. M. HUMPHREYS,
E. C.
tVin laws of sunnlv and demand that i
the world must have in certain lines j ,
the kinds of goods that apparently on-
ly Germany can manufacture well and : (
cheaply. j J
So much for the corner-stone ot ;
their plans. Among the commodities ; J
they are manufacturing for the export) i
drive are certain chemicals potas- .
sium, for example and hardware, i
cutlery, and "knicknacks," as already J
pointed out. These may be put on the j i
world at amazingly low prices at: J
prices which despite tariff walls may j
enable German agents to undersell,
their competitors. Now such a prop
osition is possible only in a country
like Germany, where everything bows
payment she insists upon having I before the general good of the state.
Submitting to the unbending, un
written law of "All for Germany, the
big concerns in Germany importing
nitrates will probably have to close
up. During the war it was impossi
ble for the Germans to obtain nitrate
from Chile.
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