Evening Republican, Volume 18, Number 259, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 2 November 1914 — RISE KRUPP of the GUNMAKERS [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

RISE KRUPP of the GUNMAKERS

NOW in these days when the great nations of Europe are' arrayed against Germany, the Teuton places his faith in the kaiser, the army, the navy—and Krupp. In the Krupp, works, because Krupp rifles, cannon and siege guns are the greatest in the world admittedly; while Krupp armor plate on Germany’s battleships is the most impenetrable. The house of Krupp, as a recent writer has said, is a national institution in the Fatherland, and its name is almost as revered as that of the Hohenzollern itself. Krupp guns and armor form a ring of steel about the Fatherland which it will require a miracle, believe the Germans, to pierce. The ironmasters of Essen have ruled a hundred years; and now a queen and a queen consort hold sway. The heads of the houses have been: Friedrich', founder (1787-1826); Alfred (1812-87); Friedrich Alfred (1854-1902),'and now Bertha, wife of Krupp-yon Bohlen und Halbach. And with the queen rules Dr. von Bohlen und Halbach, entitled by order of the kaiser upon bis marriage to designate himself Krupp von Bohlen, thus keeping alive the family name of the great gunmakers. For the last male of the line left only daughters, Bertha and Barbara. From a Small Beginning. “Great oaks from little acorns grow." So with the house of Krupp, which had its inception in a small forging plant near Essen that at one time did not have sufficient business to support it. The founder of the line, Friedrich, who was born at Essen, endeavored to make cast steel, the secret of which was carefully guarded in England. And in 1810 he founded a small/ forging plant near Essen for the production of cast steel after a process he had evolved. Mint dies, stamps for buttons, etc., were manufactured,' but, so small was the demand, the works could not be kept in operation. And, soon after 1820, Krupp was obliged to give up his house to occupy a small onestory laborer’s cottage near his plant The hut is etill preserved In the midst of the present gigantic, establishment Shortly before his death, however, thp first of the present day Krypps confided to his son, Alfred, the secret of making cast steel, which the latter developed successfully, Alfred, with the indomitable perseverance of the Teuton, a perseverance that captivates the imagination., continued in the face

of mountainous difficulties his endeavors to improve the manufacture of steel. Then came the Krupp opportunity—the great exhibition at London in 185 L The obscure Rhenish steelmaker from Essen-electrified the military universe with a six-pwhder of flawless cast steel. Since then the German army and navy have bought 29,000 Krupp guns. And 30,000 Krupp guns have been sold in the last half century to 52 nations throughout the world —23 in Europe, 18 in America, six in Asia, five in Africa. But the Krupps have never manufactured munitions of war for France. Alfred Krupp’s breech-loading rifle and cannon, adopted by the Prussian army in 1861, proved their superiority in the Franco-Prussian war. From then oL the factory became world famoua for its manufacture of heavy ordnance and armor plate. < Under the next Krupp, the output of the gun factory was increased and diversified by the incorporation of other enterprises. And now the Krupp von Bohlens not only have the immense plant at Essen, which comprises an area of 1,200 acres, 235 of them under one roof, as if ‘‘Sheffield and Pittsburgh had miraculously beeen transplanted and relied into one throbbing area,” but many other plants as well. At Essbn, and at the three neighboring 15-miie-long gun ranges of Meppen, 39,000 men are employed. At Krupp’s collieries in RhinelandWestphalia and Silesia, 10,000 miners dig coal for Krupp branch works at

Annen and Gruson, where armor plats is made, and for Krupp blast furnaces at Rheinhausen, Duisburg, Neuwiei -and Engers, which, between them, keep another 15,000 pairs of hands busy. At Kiel 6,100 shipwrights build battleships, torpedo boats and submarines in Krupp's 55-acre Germania dockyard. In Germany and far away Spairi 5,000 miners are disemboweling ore from Krupp iron mines which, in the case of that mined in Spain, is shipped in Krupp steamers that unload their burden at Krupp docks at Rotterdam, there to be transshipped down the Rhine. For all those employes the Krupp pay roll totals >25,000,000 a year. Bertha Krupp Sole Owner. . When the last of the Krupp men died he gave the Krupp works to Bertha, his oldest daughter, now twenty-eight. She married, after a love affair at Rome, a young Prussian diplomat attached to the legation there, Dr. Kropp von Bohlen und Halbach. He is now managing director of the vast system of which she is sole owner. He n® longer is merely Bertha Krupp’s husband, however. He no longer is simply the man who married the greatest fortune in Germany. He has become the master of Essen in reality. The 75,000 members of the Krupp staff, and the community of 300,000 souls dependent upon KrUfcp employment, today look upon Krupp von Bohlen with the same spirit of reverential loyalty that inspired throe generations of workmen to regard the Krupps as their liege lords. In “The Men About the Kaiser,” Frederick William Wile paints about the couple a happy picture. The vast bulk of their time, he writes, la devoted to their home, their three children and their work people. The social work of the Krupps at their foundries and factories, among their work people, dates back to 186 V At that time, finding there were not in Essen sufficient houses for their employes, the Krupps began building dwellings. Now some four hundred houses are provided, many being given rent free to widows of former employes. A co-operative society divides profits according to the amounts purchased. A boarding house for bachelors now accommodates 1,000. Bathhouses are provided and employes receive free medical attention. Accident, life and sickness insurance soci-

eties among the menare given >60,000 a year by the firm for their support. There is a trust fund of onequarter million dollars for the benefit of the needy who are not qualified to receive pensions. There is also a fund for a building association. And technical and manual training school* are provided. "Altogether,” sums up Mr. Wile, "the Krupp von Bohlen* are inspiring reminders that the age of luxury and splurge is still adorned by folk to whom great riches can never be a curse.” And it is in the hands of the Krupp von Bohlens that the fate of Germany may rest.

DWELLINGSS of KRUPP WORKMEN