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Show Walter Rathenau Shot And Killed by Unknown Murderer Who Escapes Slayer Drive Up as Official Enter Car for Hi Office and Fires Two Shots Which Take Immediate Fatal Effect; No Clue Found to Death Agent BKRLIN. June 24 (By A. P.) Dr. Walter Rathenau, German minister of foreign affair, waa aaaaiwiuated today. The minister was shot and inatantly killed aa he waa leaving his residence in Grunewald, a suburb of Berlin, for the foreign office, in an automobile. The assassin escaped. Official announcement of Dr. Rath-1 enau'e death waa made In the, relrhstsg. Ths murderer, who waa driving In a motorcar, slowed up ss he waa nesting Dr. Rathenau and ahot twice at the foreign minister, ths shots taking Immediate fatal affect. Put-ling Put-ling on high apeed, tha aiaaaaln escaped. Dr. Rathenau was a gueat at dinner last night of Aianson R. Houghton, the American ambassador. On receiving re-ceiving new of the aaaasslnatlon of the foreign minister this morning, the American mbaaey promptly hoisted Its flsg to hslf msst. No clue to the Identity of the murderer mur-derer hsd been discovered up to noon today. The sssasslnstlon or Dr. Rathmau followed hard upon a vltflollc atiant on tha foreign mlnlater by Dr. Karl tlelfferlrh In tha relchalag yeilerday. when th nationalist leader grilled the government generally and Dr. Hath-nau Hath-nau In particular concerning the cabinet's cab-inet's reparation policy and Its sttl-tud sttl-tud towards th population of ths nhlneland and th Har valley. Newa of ths esaaeelnstion reached the relrhatag at 11 o'clock. Just when tha commlaslon on taxation had convened. con-vened. Chancellor Wlrlh announced the aaeasalnatlon, upon which panda-monlum panda-monlum broke out among the various psrty groups. Two aoclalista Jumped up, shouting to Ir. Helfferich: "You are tha assaaaln!" Thv threatened to pounce upon him and Dr. Helffertch haatlly left th commit tee room. In 'on of the relchstsg lounges a heated outbreak of recrimination occurred oc-curred between deputlea belonging to the left and a party ,of repreaentatlvea or th other extreme In the chamber. When the news waa communicated to tha mlchatag Itaetf at TTtll tfvtwrlr. R vii rscelved with deep emotion. Then smldst a turmoil, ths body adjourned. There were two persons In the automobile au-tomobile from which ths shots thst killed Dr. Rathenau were fired. Iioth th occupants era aald to have opened flra upon the foreign mlniater. who fell to tha floor of hla car ratally wounded, expiring ahortly afterward. Large forcea of police were quickly on th acene. Following tha asaaalnatlon of Minister Min-ister Hathenau. It waa announced thla arternon that the government would Immediately decree the eatabllahmenl of extraordinary courte for the trial of nationallat plottera and would proclaim pro-claim a atata of emergency for Prua-ala. Prua-ala. All regimentsi reunions or mill- tarlstlo demonstrations will b prohibited. pro-hibited. As foreign minister, Dr. Rathenau was a leading figure among th German Ger-man delegates at th Genoa conference. confer-ence. Hathenau's promlnenr at Genoa came rather from what h accomplished accom-plished outside the conference than in it. The Genoa body had been In session ses-sion only a few days when ths startling start-ling announcement came, on April IT, that as German foreign minister, he had signed at Rapallo a treaty between be-tween Germany and soviet Russia. Dr. Walter Rathenau was styled "the wisard of the German mpl rebecs re-becs use. by his high powers of organisation or-ganisation and bualness efficiency, he devised expedients which kept "the people eating and the army shooting" when the blockade had ahut off the Importation of raw materials during the war. After the war, as minister of reconstruction, his meetings with the French minister, Iouls L-oucheur, brought about with buslneasllke dl- rectneas adjustments and accommodations accommoda-tions which had been the despair of diplomats. He was of Jewish birth, and waa described ss a man of great fore and energy, business acumen, vision and Initiative. His father founded the German General Electric company of Berlin. Rathenau Told Cause of War NKW TORK. June J4 By U. P.I "The war wss csused by cowsrdlce." declared nr. Welter Kathensti In June of laat year In an interview with V. W. Hawklna. preaident of the United Press, In the office of the then minister minis-ter of reconstruction In Withe!mtrese In Berlin. Dr. Rathensu talked freely, but Insisted that his words ahouM not be quoted during his lifetime. N'otca of the Interview were made at the time and ntsy now be released. 'The kaiser rattled hi sword until he frightened himself and all of hla ministers out of their normul Jurti,--ment." declsred Rathenau vhen askd his opinion as to the real cause of the war. He pulnted across the Wllhelm-strssss Wllhelm-strssss snd said: "Von Bethmann Hollweg and hi ministers sst up sll night In thilr offices over there In fear and trembling, trem-bling, hoping and preying that ths cxar would succumb to tha terms of the ultimatum and that they would ea-cape ea-cape the dlaaater In' which their cowardice cow-ardice had led them. "The policy of frlghtfulnese was ths policy of cowsrdice. It waa tha pohcy nf a man afraid who makea a great noise In sn effort to frighten his enemy In hone thst hs may avoid fighting. NEVER CAME BACK. "All Dei-many knowe thla snd there Is no danger of the kaiser ever coming Continued on pegs 1 ) WALTERRATHENAU (Continued from page 1) hack to Berlin. The lrman people are cured forever of royalty, hut. of course, there are a certain number of royalists In C.ermany who wlil remain royalists as long as they Ity. Nothing Noth-ing can change them and they wilt make a noise as long as breath remains re-mains in their Iradlea. but they are .in entirely inconsequent lul minority. The greatest proof of this was In the K ipp coup, when his royalist rule In I.e. Mn was utterly destroyed by the alien: protest of the people through the only effective general strike ever known in history. The people of Berlin simply stopped dead In their tracks and Kap found himself the ruler of a dead city, without food, water, light or any of tha necessities of life. Ho far history has failed to appreciate the tremendous significance of this great event, which I am sure marked the final end of organised or-ganised royalist activity In Germany. "The truth about the war was tnat It Waa a war brought nn by cowards who were afraid to face the economic facta and the social conditions which surrounded them. Before they realised what they had dona, they had gone so far that they could not draw h tck from the Inevitable results which they themselves them-selves feared more than anyone else "The world should know this and tha world should know that the last thing possible In Oermany la tha return of the kajser. ! wish I could mass this statement public at this time, but there are obvious reasons why It would be unwise. The statements made hy Dr. Rathe-! nau In thla Interview reveal his true attitude toward the situation In Germany Ger-many and make perfectly clear tha hatred held for him by tha royalist party.. UnionisU Resist Junker Conspiracy IX!VrOa. June 24 Hy U. P . The Kvenlng Star printed a Berlin dispatch today stating that the tnde unionists of Berlin had laaued a manifesto mani-festo railing upon the workers to resist a poaslhle Junker uprising. Attempt to Overthrow Government Feared BE Rial T, June- 24 (By V. P.V Aeaaeslnati-on of Foreign Minister Walter Rathenau today waa tlTe signal sig-nal for a countrywide attempt to I overthrow the government tonight. I leader of the Independents In lha ratrhatag warned. Tha city was thrown Into a turmoil, i the communists demanding immediate arming of the workmen to resist a monarchist uprising. Majority aoclal-Uta aoclal-Uta urged dissolution of tha officer league and reorganisation of tha Iretehetag. Tha assassination evidently had been carefully planned and was rare-. rare-. fully carried out. In aoma quarters tha officers' leagues were held re-I re-I sponsible. It waa also pointed out j that acquittal of tha suspected slay-1 slay-1 era of Mathlas Kraberger had en- couraged political murder. |