RATHENAU'S REMARKABLE CAREER.

Dunstan Times, Issue 3132, 28 August 1922, Page 8

RATHENAU'S REMARKABLE CAREER.

(By a Correspondent.) On the day when Germany began military operations against France a tall, burly man brushed aside the aide.s-de-ea.nn> who were trying to prevent him from entering the room where General von Falkentoayn, the Chief of the General Stall', sat surrounded by maps and constantly growing mountains of telegrams. The intruder was l)r Walter Ratheuau, the great chief of the A.K.G., the Allgemeine Electrizitats Gesellschaft, the gianfc company which controls the Gorman electrical industry Ho wanted to see the General on an important question the discussion of which could brook no delay. Dr Ratheuau told Falkenhayn. "he war is going to last much longer than the two or three months the public imagines; Germany is going to be hard pressed for raw materials, and some of these it will be well-nigh impossible to get. Wo must organise immediately so as to economise our reserves and'to replace unobtainable materials by others we can get.'' Falkenhayn'B answer was to make Dr Ratheuau immediately Director of Raw Materials, with positively dictatorial powers, together with' Professor Mollendorf, of Halle, who elaborated the scheme of the socalled Plan Wirtshaft (national life according to programme).

Dr Ratheuau was responsible for the long resistance opposed by Germany to the military efforts of the Allied and Associated Powers. His activities were directed (I) to reduce the waste of existing stocks, (2) to expedite the acquisition of raw materials abroad by buying or by requisition, and (3) to replace unobtainable raw materials by others less scarce. As an example of the results of Dr Rathenau's iniative and activity as Director of Raw Materials, wo need only to remember the marvellous way in which Germany replaced copper imported from abroad by aluminium and other metals obtained in the country. Men who were at the front from the beginning of the war will remember well their surprise when they discovered that suddenly copper had been eliminated from the manufacture ol German shells. If the war had continued Ratheuau would have had the opportunity to cause to be employed the special steel prepared in two_great factories near Munchen and Bitterfeld and which, allied to certain other metals, had all the properties of bronze. Dr Ratheuau. as long as the war lasted, was one of our most dangerous and powerful enemies. He repaid in full to Germany the debt he felt he owed her for the distinguished position he had been able to attain in business, industry, and ill society. Some people say of Dr Ratheuau that he was born with a golden spoon in his mouth. It is true that hrs father, the founder of the A.&.U.j left; him a great fortune and immense possibilities, but he never allowed has son to follow a. life of indolence. 'Young Walther was obliged to work lor Ins living and to prepare himself by hard study and personal experience for the great task of directing one of Germany's greatest industrial enterprises. The'father, when he died, at a ripe old age, was able to see his son fully prepared to follow in his footstep as president of the managing Iroard of the A.E.G. In this capacity Dr Ratheuau was most successful, especially in developing the financial resources of ma great industries. He became a great personality in the fousmeiss world, and the respect shown to him by the exEmperor put the sea l ' to his social position.

But the real Ratheuau was not the successful man of business. If by chance he had not been born as heir to a great fortune he would nevertheless have made a name tor himself. For he was: a distinguished writer on philosophical and socialogieal subjects. In fact, for a representative of capitalism Ratheuau had a curious predilection for Socialistic theories, which, it is true, he handled more from the theoretical point of view than as a. practical scheme. His book on the "Ideal State" will lie read with great interest as an example of clear, logical, thought and of close analysis. Ikd'ore the war his participation in politics probably never went further than paying his yearly contribution as a. member of the German Democratic party. But tho German revolution changed all this. In the beginning before Herr Stresemann separated himself from them, tbe Democrats were the leading bourgeois party in Germany. Dr Ratheuau was automatically pushed into prominence as leader of tho group of great German industrials who were opposed to the ultra-Teutonic attitude of men like Hugo Stinnes. Imperceptibly Dr Ratheuau was carried into the very thick of the political turmoil, and at last he became Minister for Foreign Affairs in the weak Government of Dr Wirth. People will he astonished when 1 say that this in itself was a tragic circumstance for Dr Ratheuau. Never having taken part in polities before, and totally ignorant of diplomatic routine, he found himself faced by a most difficult situation. In fact, he was between the devil and the deep sea—French demands on one side, the obduracy of the German Right on the other. With all his great talents, Dr Ratheuau was a very vain man, with a great faith in his own judgment. His fear of committing a faux pas or of losing his reputation was considerable, and was the cause of several flagrant mistakes which a more experienced professional diplomat would not have committed. and which Dr Kathenau. if he had lived, would certainly not have made again.

The crowning misfortune of this sort was the treaty with the Russians at Rapallo during Hie Genoa Conference. History will doubtless confirm my statement that the Treaty was signed simply because Dr Ratheuau had not yet boon given the time to learn technicalities. How far bis advisers were responsible for not keeping him posted it is difficult to say, but then, as I have said:. Dr Ratheuau. with all his intellectual qualities, was a difficult man to advise at all times. At Genua only because he did not know the methods by which ho could have obtained an immediate interview with our Prime .Minister he went and signed the Iragic Treaty of Rapallo. This treaty he signed because he was mortally afraid to come back to Berlin flouted and emptyhanded. But by doing so he destroyed his fondest hopes. For it is no secret that he had brought to the Conference a series of deeply thought-out plans to remedy the European misery. They may not have been found practical, but they were certainly interesting ami full of ideas. Kor example, he had prepared a plan for tbe taxation of rawstuffs in the world, so as to pav with the pro-

coeds the various nations' war debts. But all this is gone for ever, and the assassins, in destroying Ihe man they hated have destroyed also the chances of success of their own party if they ever exited. In Dr Ratheuau we had a. great enemy during the war. but we have, I believe, lost in him a great pro tagonist of peace and a partisan of a ra tional (settlement in Europe.