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Show ; Stinne's Stage Fortune ! One-,'. the most remarkable business events since the : ,has been the growth and collapse of the Stinnes fortune. .3 was rated by many before his death, as "the rich-' rich-' 'man in' the world." Yet within a few months his vast - t:h has evaporated. ' It afWears that his fortune was nearly all speculative, ostintf ;'.of paper' profits and prospects. Stinnes, who j ;e money during the war, took advantage of the rapid-. rapid-. (ailing fnark to- buy largely on credit. He acquired great Arties' and control in scores of important business en-1 en-1 rriees by bargaining in depreciated marks, with the exit ex-it atiofc pi paying later on with marks still further de-Jetetl. de-Jetetl. His system worked as long as the marks kept falling. finally, after his-death, came the reckoning, when Ger-1 Ger-1 jy went back on a gold basis. Lately the Stinnes estate has been losing its holdings in enterprise after another, because of inability to meet its , t obligations-, until nearly everything is gone.- The heirs ,- have been left a modest fortune, but nothing comparable it y many an-American- and English fortune. ! The great '-'business empire" that Stinnes built was i-jv bluff.- He was a- sort of stage character in real life, f fortunes of- men who are real builders, like Rockefeller i Ford, are founded on more substantial things, and so .:e. . ' |