Evening Republican, Volume 17, Number 150, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 24 June 1913 — KRUPP SCANDAL AMAZES GERMANY [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

KRUPP SCANDAL AMAZES GERMANY

fERMANY'S excitement over the Krupp scandal is not due alone to the rarity of graft caseß in that country, or to the fact that it touches her in her sen* sitlve place—the army. It is due partly to the fact that the Krupp' establishment has come to be looked upon as a national institution, and that every German - has been immensely proud of, it as one of the glories of the Fatherland. And now to discover that this great Industry has stooped to the bribing of officials —a fact admitted by the Krupp firm, after the charge had been made in the reichstag—and that it had been supplying French newspapers with material for war-scare articles, so as to induce the German government to buy mbre armament from the Krupps, is more to Germany than a scandal. It is a catastrophe. The charges were made in the reichstag by Dr. Llebknecht, the Socialist deputy, and In the columns of the Vorwaertß, the Socialist newspaper. It is a coincidence that it was that newspaper which ten years ago printed another scandalous story about the Krupps, which caused the death of the then head of the works, Friedrich Alfred Krupp.

It was impossible to refute him, because the minister of war, Gen. von Heeringen, was obliged to admit then and there that an inquiry was going on which had already revealed that “one of the Krupp officials” had bribed officers to reveal certain information. The following day the Krupps 1 issued a statement in which they admitted that, their representatives in Berlin had maintained “friendly relations” with their former “comrades" of the war department for the purpose of obtaining “business information," and had bestowed Bmall present “on certain under officials.” It was on Friday that Llebknecht exploded his bomb and forced von Heeringen to reveal that secret inquiry and on Saturday that the Krupps made their admissioh of bribery. On Sunday the Vorwaerts published the text of the instructions sent by the Deutsche Munitions und Waffenfabrik to its Paris agent to “leave no stone unturned” to persuade some popular French newspaper to publish a statement that France intended to double her orders for machine guns. The object was to get the German government to order machine guns from the Deutsche Munitions und Waffenfabrik. On Tuesday the popular indignation had risen so high that Gen., von Heeringen’s plea for a suspension of judgment until his private inquiry had done its work was forgotten. The budget committee of the reichstag voted to appoint a parliamentary commission of inquiry into the scandal. This commission, however, despite the protests of the Socialists, was not vested with power to send for persons and papers. Although the Krupp works date from 1810, when Friedrich Krupp established his forge at Essen, it was bis son, Alfred Krupp, 4ho was the real founder of the industry. Friedrich died practically bankrupt in 1826, leaving little more than the secret of his cast-steel process to his son, and it was 30 years before any striking results were achieved. \r: ‘ It was in 1810 that Friedrich Krupp purchased a small forge in Essen, where he devoted himself to the problem of manufacturing cast steel, but though the article was put on the market by him In 1815 it commanded but little sale, and the firm was anything but prosperous. He employed only three workmen. Alfred Krupp wsb born April 26, 1812, and at the time of his father's death was only fourteen years old. His mother carried on the works until Alfred reached his Majority, so that twice in the history of the works have they been managed by women. The bead of the industry is Bertha Krupp, the granddaughter of the woman who became its manager in 1826. The Krupps had so little money that Alfred, onhis father’s death, was compelled to leave school to assist his mother. He displayed a phenomenal aptitude for the foundry business, and the works developed with increasing* rapidity after his. influence was felt in their management. By 1848 the firm had expanded so that 122 workmen were employed. As late as 1848, the year in which bis mother relinquished the sole management qf the works into his hands, he melted the family plate to pay his workmen. Today* tjpe mighty industry furnishes employment to a majority of the workmen of three cities and a dozen coal and iron mining towns. The ships built from it, equipped with its stqel, and armed with its cannon, are on all the seaß, and wherever steel is used the name of Krupp is known. The capital of the firm now is about 860,000,000. It was in, 1847 that Krupp scored his first real success, when he made a three-pounder muzzleloading gun of cast steel. At the great London exhibition qf 1851 he exhibited a solid flawless ingot of cast steel weighing two tons, thus establishing the fact that an important firm existed in Germany capable of turning out Bamples of excellent workmanship. The Essen works were, everywhere spoken of, and the output watched wltn the closest Interest. The manufacture of weldless steel tires for railway vehicles was another invention which followed soon after. The making of heavy ordnance, which has made the name of these works famous the world over, was not then a prominent part of the business. One of the first large orders he got for firearms came four years aftes the London exhibition, when

Prussia gave him the contract for her new breechloaders. The Khedive of Egypt followed this with a large order for war material, and Russia followed with contracts for large quantities df new yreapons. While the Essen works were designed for .general foundry work, the output for many years has consisted almost entirely of heavy guns; but it was not until 1846, 20 years lifter his father’s death and 36 years after the founding of the firm, that Alfred Khupp began gunmaking. His first results were pieces of small caliber. As’ he became Interested in the science, and as his discoveries in steel casting developed, the size and weight of the cannon he was able to construct increased steadily until these war monsters, which have become world-famous, became common pccurrences in the Essen works. The Krupp field gun is the basis of the mobile artillery of Germany, Austria-Hungary, Italy, Russia, and Turkey. Under the administration of Friedrich A. Krupp, Essen turned out the great pieces which guard Germany’s fortresses and are mounted in her coast defenses. Krupp answered Krupp from the emplacements of Port Arthur against the siege batteries of Japan. And side by side with the instruments of war Essen placed a thousand and one steel products, illustrating Alfred Krupp’s first and chief maxim: “No good steel without good iron,” used in today’s tools, machinery, railroads, and ships. Krupp ordnance haß roared all over the world. Some of the guns that fired at Dewey’s squadron at Manila came from Essen. The siege guns used in the Franco-German war and |n use at the bombardment of Paris were from this factory, and the Parisians’ terror of them was not diminished by the memory of one of the Krupp masterpieces which had been exhibited in their city in 1867. It weighed 15,000 kilograms, and made away with 8800 worth of powder and Iron every time it was fired. After that war the Krupps refused to make cannon for France. As the business grew collateral industries were developed, and Essen, which had been a tiny village, expanded to a town of over 100,000 inhabitants) all dependent on the Krupp Industries. Coal mines, coke ovens, iron mines, steamships, railroads, and blast furnaces were bought. In 1872 Alfred Krupp owned 414 iron ore diggings, and when his son Friedrich died he owned over 600. Upon Alfred’s death, July 14, 1887, Friedrich A. Krupp became the head of the establishment It has been said of him that hq devoted himself to the financial rather than the technical side of the business, but in 1902, at the annual meeting in London of the Iron and Steel institute, the Bessemer gold medal for scientific research was awarded to him. This is one of the highest honors that can be paid to any man In the Iron trade. It was given to him for his discoveries In the manufacture of armor plate. The son was thus following in the footsteps of his father. Both Alfred and Friedrich A.- Krupp declined titles. One was offered to the father by King William, afterward Emperor William L. in 1864. and William’s son, the present emperor, renewed the offer to Krupp’s son. Neither would accept. At the time of his death he was by far the richest man in Germany’, and was called “the German Morgan.’* The Imperial income tax returns showed that in the year before his death he had a yearly Income of between 20.000,000 marks (84.760,000) and r 21,000,000 marks. The second wealthiest man in the empire bad an income of only 6,000,000 marks.

He directed in his will that the firm should be changed Into a stock company. This was done, but Bertha Krupp, his daughter, who married Dr. von Behlen und von Halbach, holds all but four shares of this company. She 1b not only Germany’s wealthiest woman, but itß wealthiest subject and greatest taxpayer. Hence she has been-called “the Queen of Essen,” and “Our Lady of the Cannon,” and other romantic names. At the age of eighteen there descended upon her the greatest industrial inheritance the world has yet known. She was sixteen when her father died, and attained her majority in 1904. v Esfcen is a city now of 160,000 population, and it owes its existence as a city to the Krupp storks. But there is hardly a city in the world which is governed more in the communistic spirit than this. It is one of the very earliest places in which 00-operative stores were established. They havp been in existence there for over 60 years. “Bertha Krupp,” says one writer, “may be the ‘queen’ of Essen, but her workmen conduct their own affairs without molestation. She limits her ‘interference’ to gifts of mpney, by which institutions of mutual good to the workmen may be established.” From the three men whom Friedrich Krppp employed, the 122 whom Alfred Krupp had in his employ 20 years after he took charge, the force working for the Krupps had grown to 60,000 at the death of Friedrich A. Krupp in 1902. The establishment now comprises 60,000 workmen and 6,760 engineers'and clerks. The works comprise five separate groups, the first of which is the Essen Steel works, with proving grounds at Meppen, Tanger-Hutte, and Essen. This group includes the Milhofener-Hutte, with its four blast furnaces; the Herman-Hutte, with three blast furnaces, and the Sayner-Hutte, with coal and iron mines. The second group is the Friedrlch-Alfred Iron works in Rheinhausen; the third, the Annen Steel works; the fourth, the Gruson Machine works, at Magdeburg-Buckau, and the fifth, the shipyards, at Kiel. The Essen Steel works alone comprise some sixty-odd departments, covering an area of about 600 acres, and housing 7,200 machine tools, 17 roll trains, 187 hammers, 81 hydraulic presses, 397 steam boilers, and 569 steam engines, more than 2.200 electric motors, and 900 cranes. Almost in the center of the Essen works stands the original Krupp-factory and a family house, maintained Intact, in accordance with the directions of Alfred Krupp. It bears this inscription: “Fifty years ago this cottage was the home of my parents. May none of our workmen bare to go through the struggle which the building up of these works has cost us. The success which now so splendidly has rewarded our faith, our anxiety, and our efforts, was doubtful during twenty-fire long years. “Let tfils example serve as an encouragement io otbeqa in difficulties. May it increase the respect for the many small houses and the great sorrows which often dwell in them. “The object of work must be mutual welfare; the work Is blessed, then work is prayer. May all, from the highest io the lowest amongst us, work with the same earnestness to found and secure tilb own future success. That’s my greatest wish. “Essen, February, 1878, twenty-five years aftei my assuming charge. ALFRED KRUPP.”