FALL OF KRUPPS

Otago Witness, Issue 3396, 16 April 1919, Page 43

FALL OF KRUPPS

ITS WORLD SIGNIFICANCE,

THE GROWTH OF A WONDERFUL

CONCERN.

(By Aeohibald Huhd, in London Daily Telegraph.)

Tho downfall of the great armament firm founded by Friedrich Krupp rather over a century ago, in fact, just before the battle of Waterloo, is an event of world-wide significance. It was the child of Prussianism, and supplies tho classio illustration of the fruits of Government-controlled works for the creation of munitions of war. Nominally, it was a private company, but in effect it was a department of tho Government. It was thought no shame that the Kaiser himself should be one of the largest shareholders, and that many other leading public men, exercising commanding influence oyer German policy, should be financially interested in the prosperity of this vast organisation, which supplied, at one and the same time, weapons for the army and all types of ships for the navy, from battleships to submarines. The earliest German submarines were built at the Krupp yard at KieH Subsidised by the Government, whose officials were directly concerned in the sizo of the dividends paid, it spread its tentacles throughout the whole Empire, owning its own coal and < iron mines, and supporting its own press, if not, as there . is reason to believe, its own members of the Reichstag. It possessed its newspapers and its politicians, and thus it fed the militarist flame and excited German war passions. On the eve of the war a large proportion of the men of any importance in the German Empire were interested in one way or another in this firm, which was regarded almost with veneration by the average German as providing the sure foundations on which this militarist Empire, with its policy of aggression, rested its hopes of world domination. After the war had opened Bonn University conferred the degree of Doctor on the present head of the firm, hailing him in effect, as the saviour of tho Fatherland. In this country a Ministry of Munitions had to be hurriedly created to enable us to conduct the war by sea and by; land; in Germany no such step had to be taken, because Krupp's existed to feed #ie fire which the Kaiser had lighted. EARLY FAILURE OF EFFORT.

The early days of the Krupp firm gave no promise of the great position which it was afterwards to attain under the fostering care of the Emperor William 11. Friedrieh Krupp, its founder, was born in 1787, the son of an insignificant merchant. Britain then held the ascendancy in the production of steel. Napoleon's .Continental system ruined trade on the Continent for the . time being, and in .1811 Friedrieh Krupp,- having fallen in with the two brothers Kechel, who claimed that they had learnt the British secret of manufacture during their residence in our midst, began experiments. Eventually a small steel factory was started, power being supplied by- a little stream, which had an irritating way _of running dry in summer and freezing in winter. _ But still, that was merely an inconvenience, and Krupp had more serious troubles to worry him in quarrels with his partners, from whom at last he broke away. He worked early and late, and in loneliness, in' supplying cast steel for various industrial purposes, and slowly his business grew, but only very slowly. He was not a little proud of his tiny factory, and had laid his plans for the future, when, in 1826, he died, at the early age of 59. He left his widow a goodwill of small value, a mass of debts, steel-producing craft of no great importance, and a son, Alfred, who was theu little more than a lad.

it must have seemed a hopeless task for this lonely woman-to continue the venture; and it would, indeed, have been a foolhardy undertaking if Alfred Krupp had_ not early developed remarkable business ability, good judgment, commercial acumen, and foresight. The Krupp family had-faith in the struggling concern, and supplied funds to enable the firm to continue its operations. Alfred Krupp advanced from one success to another; he revealed noteworthy initiative, branching out in any direction which seemed to offer promise of profits. He was not unobservant of the rising military spirit of the Prussians, and in 1847almost exactly 70 "-years ago—he manufactured his first gun—a 3-pounder weapon. That weapon proved the lever by which he was to raise his business to a position of world-wide eminence. At the Great Exhibition of 1851 in Hyde Park, he surprised the world by exhibiting a solid ingot of cast steel weighing two tons and without a Haw. He attracted the attention of the King of Prussia; he was able, to come to some sort of arrangement with Bessemer and Siemens, when these men began the revolution in steel manufacture; and in time became a great producer of crucible steel. As he felt his feet, he began to look abroad as well as at home for orders, and he had an early customer in Said Pasha, the spendthrift Khedive of Egypt. GERMANY'S THREE WARS. And then came the three short wars of 1864, 1866, and 1870, which established the name and fame of Krupp's - guns. Every good Prussian was henceforth prepared to bow the knee to the man who had produced guns which had enabled the army to triumph first over Denmark, then over Austria, and at length over Franco. No sooner was the Emperor William crowned as Emperor than an order was given for rearming the whole of the German army, a very profitable undertaking. In 1887 Alfred Krupp died, being succeeded by his only son, Friedrich Alfred, who survived him only 15 years. During the later years of the nineteenth century the firm continued to advance rapidly, acquiring mines to supply it with ore and coal, and building shipyards to use its steel plates and armour, for the firm was the inventor of a new process of armour manufacture, increasing _ the resistance to projectiles by three times as compared with the wrought iron which Lord Fisher's Inflexible, of Alexandria fame, carried. It would be a mistake to leave the impression—a very widespread one —that Krupp's were merely the general providers for the German army_ and navy, and for any other nations requirin<r armaments, for they were international in their activities; they conducted operations in more peaceful directions, exhibiting enterprise and courage and commercial ability of a high order. The business had its two sides, the one of peace aiid the other of war. It was the latter which specially attracted Wilhelm 11, who constituted himself the friend . of the second Friedrich Krupp, and afterwards transferred his

patronage to the daughter and her husband. Baron Krupp von Bohlen and Halbaoh, the present head of the firm. Krupp g appear to have had the first ■warning', probably from the Kaiser himself, to be prepared for the naval expansion movement which took shape in 1898; they profited mainly bv the capital levy for the army on the eve of the war. In time the little town of Essen grew to the dimensions of the city —and, in many respects, a model city, for Krupps were good masters —and during the war it 'became even larger and more prosperous. The firm's capital was increased to £12,500,000, and in the first year of the war the. profits reached £4,000,000. There aremany indications in Essen in that and the immediate following year that war, based on confidence in victory, paid. Thousands of workers had to bo imported into Germany to keep pace with the firm's activities.. The hiistlo was at its height when the whole bubble of " invinciblo Germany" burst, and from the dav when the armistice was signed to bo followed by the ignominious flight of William II to Holland, the doom of tho vast co-ordinativo factories, workshops, shipyards, and mines belonging to tho Krupp Company was sealed. Nothing l could save the concern once militarism had been defeated, for tho main strength of the Krupp organisation was the belief of the German people that force, well organised and deftly employed, was unconquerable. So we may regard this firm as supplying the classic illustration of the evil which flows from the State and its rulers being concerned financially in the manufacture of munitions of war. Krupp's will now, presumably, go into bankruptcy. We, on our part, had maintained a complete divorce between policy and armament production, with the result that the present Prime Minister had to devote his energy to the creation of the Munitions. Now that the emergency is passing, that vast organisation is rapidly contracting its operations, and will soon be.known no more, leaving the nation free once again. In. Germany the end of the war,* coinciding with the defeat of Prussianism and all it stood for, must bring to abject ruin one of the wealthiest firms in tho world, involving in distress every man, woman, and child in Essen, and swallowing up the savings of thousands of persons who had invested in Prussianism as a dividend-paying concern.