NOTES AND COMMENTS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LIV, Issue 16459, 8 February 1917, Page 6

NOTES AND COMMENTS.

GERMANY FOREWARNED. That Germany did not plunge unwarned into war is shown by The World's Work, which recalls that on May 11, 1912, Herr E. Possehl, one of tho greatest merchants in Lubeck, delivered a lecture in Berlin on what would be the effect on German industry and trade if there were war. Tiere had been ominous threatenings of war in 1911 over the Morocco 1 affair. Herr Possehl spoko at the invitation of General Klein, a well-known disciple of PanGermanism. He commenced by insisting that his address should not be reported, because, of necessity, ho would : have to call attention to the weak points ( in the German State as well as the strong. " I am convinced," said he, " that tho ?rar which England would wage with all her might on our seaborne trade would— far more surely than war on land with France—havo most serious results for Germany and end in dragging us to our knees." Then he went on to speak of the stoppage of work and of blockade, of the more than £900,000,000 worth of German trade, represented by exports and imports, of which more than £650,000,000 worth would be at the mercy of the English Navy. He spoke of the scarcity of corn and foodstuffs which Germany buys abroad to the value of approximately £50,000,000 per annum, the risk of stoppage of factories, scarcity of rolling-stock, the six or eight million persons who would bo thrown upon the State, all ofwhich appeared to him to have such an element of danger that he wont on to suggest the setting-up of a standing committee composed of the most prominent business men, drawn from the ranks of the manufacturing and trading classes, agriculturalists, and bankers. "These economic problems," ho cried, "must so greatly affect the destiny of our people that surely they are as important as military considerations." It should be added that some time ago it was reported that Herr Possehl had been arrested in Germany for "dealing with the enemy." GERMANY'S ECONOMIC POLICY. Tho economic organisation of Germany, asserts Professor Millioud, is a policy of conquest. By reason of this policy her trado and manufacture are closely dependent on each other, and both are dependent on tho banks, Of late years there has been a new and well-marked tendency towar' industrial combination. In tho first place, the trade associations and combinations of various kinds make it their endeavour to control all the output and by-products of a trade, such, *«*r instance, as finished iron. In the second place, and in greater degree, they endeavour to be independent of thoso who supply the raw material, and of thmiddleman whoso business it is to sell the finished articles. Thus, for instance, the steel manufacturers buy up collieries, colliery proprietors strive to get foundries and ironworks established alongside their pits. It is a battle of mastodons, but a battle with the. result that industrial combination goes on without mercy. Further, the manufacturers have become so powerful that they can dictate their own terms to the merchants; in other words, they also control trade, thanks to their control of the sale of their manufactures. They have central offices which fix the price at which the brokers shall sell iron, the amount they may put on tho market, and the markets in which they may trade. The brokers are bound to show them their account books if required to do so. WHY GERMANY NEEDED COLONIES It was not in order to find an outlet for her surplus population that Germany needed colonies at any price. She has not enough manhood on the soil as it is, and she has to import labour every year. She has barely enough hands for the number and sizo of her factories. Emigration figures grow less every year, and are now negligible, amounting to only 25,500 in 1910, of whom all but 1800 went to the United States. Moreover, although the birth-rate is higher than in England and France, it is decreasing more rapidly than in either of those countries; for instance, in Prussia the figure was, in 1900, 36.1 per 1000; in 1910, 30.5. In Saxony, 38.1 in 1900, and 27.2 in 1910. In Bavaria, 36.8 in 1900. and 31.4 in 1910. Over the same decade the fall was from 28.2 to 25 per 1000 in the United Kingdom, and from 21.4 to 19.6 in France. This fierce desire for colonies came from no excess of population penned within frontiers and struggling for breath. What German prospectors go hunting about the world for are mineral deposits. Germany wants and must have raw materials, also she needs corn, seeing that she has become to such an extent an industrial nation that she no longer grows enough cereals for her own consumption. THE GERMAN " DUMPING" SYSTEM Dumping consists in selling at breakdown price in order to defeat competition and seize the market; for instance, the German ironmasters sell their girders and channel iron for 130 marks per ton in .Germany; for 120 to 125 in Switzerland; in England, South America, and the East, for 103 to 110 marks; in Italy they throw it away at 75 marks and make a loss of from 10 to 20 marks per ton, for the cost price may be reckoned at 85 to 95 marks per ton. That is dumping. The rival manufacturer is ruined outright, unless he comes to a working agreement and accepts all conditions. It is pointed out to me, says Professor Millioud, that dumping is in vogue to some extent at least all over the world. That is true, but in order, at times of crisis, to find a market, at whatever loss, so as to keep one's factory at work, and one's workmen on the pay-sheet. Dumping of that nature is intermittent and depends upon circumstances; it comes to an end as tho market rights itself, and, consequently, is not practised in order to bring ruin to competitors. It is one thing to dump for the purpose of clearing one's own excessive stock, and quite another to do it systematically, with the. object of killing out competitors in other countries and seizing their markets. The German practice is that of over-production with a view to dumping. The distinction between the two forms of dumping is an essential one. Dumping is not just an incident of trade— exceptional occurrence. It is a weapon used in respect to all countries when commercial conquest is intended; it applies to the iron trade, chemical trade, electrical, and to trade of oil kinds. 1