Evening Republican, Volume 21, Number 159, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 16 July 1918 — GERMANS GRAB ALSACE PLANTS [ARTICLE]

GERMANS GRAB ALSACE PLANTS

Systematic Stripping of Industry Before the Day of Reckoning. INDIGNATIONJSWIDESPREAD Even Officials Responsible to Kaiser’s Government Forced by Public to Give Voice to Emphatic Protests. Amsterdam. —German carpetbaggers are overrunning Aisace to grab all property confiscated by the state under various pretexts. Indignation among the people Is widespread, and even officials responsible to the kaiser’s government are forced by public opinion to give voice to emphatic protests. Alsace is a great industrial center and one of its principal Industries is the manufacture of textiles. Most of the textile factories in Alsace were taken over by the state as a war measure. As some of the stockholders were Frenchmen, the mills, it was alleged, were partly enemy alien property. So the state took charge of the mills and prepared to liquidate them. This liquidation was carried out recently. Alsatian business men and capitalists had formed a corporation to buy the mills in an effort to keep them In Alsatian hands. Even city administrations, such as the municipality of Muhlhausen, where a number of factories are situated, bought stock in this corporation. The name of' the corporation Is the United Alsatian Textile Factories. Forbidden by Berlin. But it was decided in Berlin that the Alsatians should not be allowed to bdy what was practically their own. Another concern, called the Bleichroeder group, was more successful. Their bid for the property was accepted by the government, while the Alsatian offer was rejected. It was announced the Bleichroeder bld was preferred because It accepted state supervision as one of the conditions of the sale. Baron von Stein, undersecretary of state, in defending the government’s action before the main committee of the relchstag, said the Bleichroeder group had offered a million marks more than the Alsatian corporation. Besides, the Alsatians had refused to subscribe to the conditions, including state supervision of management. Consternation and indignation reigned at the meeting iff the city council of Muhlhausen when the gov-

ernment’s decision' was made known by Mayor Zopfel. He said not only had the offer of the Alsatian corporation, of which the city of Muhlhausen Itself was a component part, been rejected by the government, but he also had been Informed on good authority all the other Alsatian factories to be liquidated* would be sold to “old-Ger-beyond the Rhine; Ruthlessness Condemned. This attempt to Germanize Alsace by ruthless industrial methods was condemned by several members of the city council. Councillor Emmel denounced as a subterfuge the statement of Undersecretary vbn Stein, who had said the Bleichroeder offer had been accepted because it was the more favorable one. The speaker saw in the government’s action a systematic effort to take Alsatian property away from Alsatians. The Bleichroeder group, the successful bidder, is headed by the banking house, of Bleichroeder in Berlin. The original Bleichroeder was Prince Bismarck’s financial man and Ms heirs are still in control of the banking house. Old Bleichroeder was not very scrupulous in his financial methods, but this did not prevent Bismarck from conferring the title of nobility upon his moneymaker. This was one of the greatest jokes perpetrated by Bismarck. However, Baron Blelchroeder’s heirs are still barons and their Influence in the highest circles is still formidable. It seems they had little trouble in obtaining the Alsatian properties at favorable terms —favorable to themselves, for to them State supervision means supervision by friends.