Show economic high hiah jinks in germany by WILLIAM C UTLEY AILY flown down unter den linden D DAILY there walks with a brisk efficient stride a very unhappy and very successful man ue ile it is dr hjalmar schacht ue ile Is unhappy because he be has to do something that tie lie does not like at all so something that Is distinctly contrary to his own tetter better judgment ile he Is still more unhappy because the fortunes of the people of the fath fatherland erland he be loves so well are directly concerned with wh what at he Is n S and lid ile he is sure it Is not the t best tahi thine g fa for r them 11 r 4 ile he Is successful because he Is doing doln this thing he be does docs not believe in extraordinarily tra ordinarily well better perhaps than any ny other living man could do it besides being a man who wears a derby hat nose glasses a mustache and a worried look doctor schacht Is president of the ire he Is a conservative man and believes jn in the time proved theories of laissez faire in i business confronted with the t tion lion ot of nazi principles 0 of economics which abic b nie are so abhorrent to him because they are so unprincipled doctor schacht went to chancellor hitler and tried to resign so important were these novel departures in economics to the security of the nazi party and state socialism der feuhrer told fold doctor schacht that it if he resigned he would be sent to one of the dreaded concentration camps it was important that the new deal for german business hive have an able leader to manage it IL doctor schacht kept the lob job loyally and efficiently he has ad ministered the financial which has made german recovery post sible bible it Is one of the wi wl erdest tales in f all 11 II the history of business yet geri roan recovery la Is a facts fact althou although h it Is 13 built on methods so unorthodox that one slip might easily crumble it IL hitler faced panic when hitler came into control in 1933 there were germans unemployed the country was suffering industrial tickets rickets the people were willing to g give elve state socialism a try to get back on their feet this was hit lers lera chance ills entire future and that of depended not upon german cerman military prestige e but upon re covery unless germans got their jobs back hitler would not keep ills his very long today there are less than unemployed employed lin germans it makes no difference if you take the word of the german government for it the revival of german industry and trade Is obvious on last january 30 the second anniversary niver sary of his hia coming into power hitler told germany the national socialist reg regime line has lifted up a nation cation that had wasted away in indall dull desperation and his has filled it with strong faith f alid nd confidence in the innate values and creative powers of its own life if on january go 80 it lia 3 I 1 demanded four years time tor for the execution of the first labor program then two third of this program has already teen been fulfilled during the first half of this period 1 tody tod y the truth of his bis words Is more i I 1 than ever apparent to the german people public works and rearmament armament re have given impetus to industrial activity ItI vity there is an ever increasing consumer demand for the products of industry banks have been able to liquidate the major part of the frozen credits edits which resulted from the panic vi of 1931 what has brought all this about hard on an foreign creditors some of it Is due the factor which recovery in many of the nations of the world the suspension t f the tola gold standard by the united sta totes aca rut kot by far the llona lions llon a share M r it his nag resulted from hillers nit Hit lers utterly economic and financial policies cles seeking internal recovery germany egla en by limply canceling her foreign debts she have to worry about those any more let her creditors worry 1 to restore employment she began huge public works schemes and a rearmament program which startled the world manufacturers were given large orders for goods for both purposes and more workers went back to work she did these things when tier her gold reserves were nearly exhausted the mark even now la Is only 2 per cent covered by gold we too pushed public works programs with money we av li 4 V ak ato P 0 o Q AL g amr w germany has literally spent billions billion which did not exist to rearm and p this activity Is one of the factors factor which have started her on the way to recovery center part of the fleet which Is being augmented by more and more vessels right hitler reviewing troops left dr hjalmar schacht president of the bank possessed germany spent billions that did not exist that alone would have stamped jabat nazi economics as unstable if not disastrous she went beyond that and in ima the government ordered industrial employers to put men back t to work whether they needed them or not they were ordered to use 4 less efficient machinery if that were necessary cries of protest were in vain ruin seemed to men like doe doc sa tor schacht inevitable gut but no the j spending of additional money for 3 wages created new purchasing power alad only an occasional factory been forced to return men to work it would have got back mighty little of the now new purchasing power created rut but when they all had to do it in an actual stimulation of business resulted so that by 1934 such highhanded high handed action no longer had bad to be resorted to priming the pump the ile billions of marks which had been poured into the public works and rearmament programs went through the circle of trade industry was able to make good its frozen credit with the banking system banks were enabled to recover their frozen bills from the the financing of public works was put on a reasonably sound basis because treasury hills had bad slowly but surely replaced the frozen commercial bills no inflationary measures were necessary to protect the overwhelming deficit there was no return to the dark days of a dozen years ago the budgetary high jinks of the nazi government causes no trembling of the confidence of the people with its subsequent general business de delapl dation simply because the fhe german people do not know much about it if the deficit Is tremendous the german people never read about it in the papers or hear it discussed over the radio the complete authority of the state forbids forbid it what happens when the treasury needs additional funds A concrete example is available in the record of january of this year the government merely helped itself to the resources of the savings banks and the insurance companies corn both were required to take over loans of COO welchs marks although the resources of these institutions were hardly unlimited the money was spent immediately and soon ran the ordinary economic course and was returned to the banks with the upturn in business the banks savings deposits have actually increased so far this year by more than the amount from them by the government this looked so good that hitler ordered them to take over another last august dark evil things have been predicted for the nazi new deal by the old guard to whom such practices are unimaginable they are sure this sort of economic perpetual motion machine which develops its own fuel will fall apart or be slowed down by friction sooner of later so far it has not the has maintained its position posidio D has even appreciated from time to co time internally german recovery has progressed even beyond the hopes of many of the nazi extremists externally the outlook Is not nearly so bad as might be expected from the shameless manner in which germany has treated her foreign creditors by defaulting her debts germany of course ruined her credit abroad and could no longer buy without laying the money on the line in 1934 1914 the revived ger main purchasing power began to be so 90 felt that a shortage of raw materials for industry began to be feared also prices began to go up this was bad for export trade hitler intervenes again A few factories found it necessary to reduce their output because of the raw material shortage but hitler nipped this in the bud by forbidding factories to let workmen go because of shortage of materials government assumed control of the I 1 entire import trade it clamped tha lid down on unnecessary imports it based trade with foreign countries upon exchange clearing and compensation agreements other nations in order to sell goods in germany had bad to import german goods doctor schacht put over the plan in a degree sufficient for the country to weather the storm germany Is selling enough goods now to meet her own requirements for raw materials in another drastic government in ter ference with business home industries were burdened with a levy which was to subsidize the export industry capital lid did not like this step very well either and it was protested while it Is still early to predict the result it seems to have been working in a manner fairly smooth so far it will readily be seen that the unorthodox financing of all these government expenditures depended in large measure upon the confidence of the german people in the nations financial stability doctor schacht admitted this himself in a speech at Ts henigsberg the circle of money circulation must not be broken it if the people were ever gripped with fear and began hoarding money if for any reason at all the money failed to return to the banks whence it came ame these banks would be unable to lend the treasury any more funds two alternatives in this case the government would find two courses open it could continue its financing of public works ind and rearmament by inflating the currency or it could begin cutting down on them to cut down on public works would be killing the goose that began laying golden eggs to curtail rearmament well over adolf hillers nit Hit lers dead bodyl body I 1 there Is little likelihood of a loc loss s of german confidence however the he observers of authority say not like there Is in france where people are never sure of the solidity of the government that happens to be in power at the time german people have eveaj ever confidence in the stability of their government ern ment the censorship of the press and radio makes it difficult for criticisms of government actions and policies to creep in there Is one school of thought which holds that wl with th germany spending so much money and having so small a gold reserve devaluation of the welchs mark might result which would surely wreck public confidence in government finance doctor schacht merely points out that depreciation of the currency in other countries has had exactly the opposite effect indeed he says it has served to curb panics in japan the united states great britain the union of south africa and belgium the german state socialism does not alm aim at gov government emment ownership of factories or of any of the means of production duct lon rather it Is built bellr around a policy of private ownership I 1 p with wl th the utmost in federal control of industry and business in the public interest the government own business but when conditions approach a state of panic the government will certainly tep step into the managerial post on the other hand band industry Is farther than ever from controlling the government or the state socialist party the movement it Is true was financed by industry in a desperate attempt to avert communism or socialism rut but the monster got out of the hands of its ita maker and now the maker Is its slave now how will german recovery affect the worlds peace some som e say the more prosperous germany becomes the better able she ehe will be to speed up her armament until she Is strong enough to attempt to re gain aln the power she had before the war others contend that once she reaches prosperity she will hardly risk losing it it in the uncertainty of war needless to say the first premise Is the more popular one 0 warn union |