NATURE 



361 



THURSDAY, JANUARY 10, 1918. 



GERMAN COMMERCIALISM AND THE 

 WAR. 

 My Four Years in Germany. By J. W. Gerard. 

 Pp. xiv + 320. (London : Hodder and Stough- 

 ton, 1917.) Price 75. 6d. net. 



IT has been an invariable characteristic of all the 

 wars upon which Germany has embarked 

 since the attack on Denmark in 1864 that the real 

 motives of her rulers have been sedulously con- 

 cealed from the mass of the people. She has in all 

 cases sought to fix the cause upon her opponents 

 and to throw upon them the obloquy of breaking 

 the peace. This, of course, is an obvious trick, 

 and no doubt has its advantages in the case of a 

 nation which is not allowed to think for itself, and 

 for whom opinion is manufactured through the 

 agency of a controlled Press. But the rest of the 

 world has never been deceived, and the true nature 

 and motives of the quarrel have been understood 

 and appreciated at their real merit. In every in- 

 stance, as in the present case, Germany has been 

 the actual aggressor, and in all her motive has 

 simply been self-aggrandisement. Her action has 

 been primarily directed by an autocracy which 

 rests upon two powers — the one an aristocracy 

 that regards war as a virtue and a necessity ; the 

 other capitalism, which speculates on war as a 

 means to gain wealth and commercial influence. 

 Each power is complementary to the other, and 

 their combination is, of course, necessary to the 

 >uccessful prosecution of such a war as that upon 

 \hich Germany has deliberately engaged. In 

 lime of peace the two powers have little or 

 nothing in common ; they are, indeed, anti- 

 pathetic and distrustful of each other. In time of 

 war they agree to work together for a common 

 aim. 



In Mr. Gerard's remarkable book there is an 

 enlightening chapter which reveals, to some ex- 

 tent, how organised capital in Germany, aided by 

 the State, is still seeking to dominate the world, 

 in spite of the many setbacks caused by the unex- 

 pected prolongation of the war. It is always well 

 to learn from your enemy if you can. But even if 

 you do not choose to follow his example, it is at 

 least desirable to know what he is up to, for, says 

 prudence, to be forewarned is to be forearmed. 

 The American ex-Ambassador's chapter is prim- 

 arily addressed, of course, to the American public, 

 and is more immediately applicable to American 

 laws and conditions, but there is much in it that 

 bears directly upon our own circumstances, both 

 at the moment and when peace is restored. For it 

 IS absolutely certain that no matter what the purely 

 military result of the war may be, capital in Ger- 

 many is organising itself in such a manner that it 

 means to start an economic war against the world 

 with the view of preserving, and, if possible, 

 strengthening, such monopolies as it has hitherto 

 possessed. The most valuable of these monopo- 

 lies depend upon the application of physical science 

 to industry. Such is the character of her educa- 

 tional equipment that she thinks she is secure in 

 NO. 2515, VOL. 100] 



the contmued development of her means of turning 

 science to practical account ; and she has probably 

 good grounds for her faith. It is rather to the 

 economic side— the purely business aspect of the 

 problem— that she is bending all her energies and 

 the financial ability and astuteness of her commer- 

 cial magnates. 



Some time before the outbreak of war, and 

 probably in view of it, the six great companies, 

 each employing hundreds of chemists in research 

 work, which practically control the dyestuff indus- 

 try of Germany made an alliance not only for the 

 distribution of their products, but also for the 

 exchange of their ideas and trade secrets. They 

 work together as one organisation, are exceed- 

 ingly wealthy, and have hitherto been well served 

 by agents all the world over. These concerns 

 manufacture not only dyestuffs, but also a large 

 proportion of the synthetic drugs which are so 

 characteristic a feature of modern therapeutics, and 

 in very many cases are manufactured from 

 what otherwise would be useless by-products of 

 the dyestuff industry. The blockade of Germany 

 has, of course, prevented any considerable export 

 of these dyes and drugs, and most of the countries 

 at war with Germany have sought to develop their 

 manufacture at home. The commercial sub- 

 marines Deutschland and Bremen were to a great 

 extent built with money provided by the dyestuff 

 manufacturers, who shipped their products over 

 to America before her entrance into the war in 

 order to check, if possible, the development of the 

 colour industry in the States, the German Depart- 

 ment of the Interior meanwhile stipulating that 

 Germany should receive in exchange cotton, of 

 which she was in urgent need. This traffic has, 

 of course, now wholly ceased. To meet the com- 

 petition which it recognises to be inevitable, the 

 great combine has very largely increased its capi- 

 tal and is prepared to spend enormous sums to 

 undersell its rivals and force them out of business, 

 and it rests with the several Governments to take 

 such measures as vvill effectually protect these 

 menaced industries. An enlightened public 

 opinion, which will refuse to be hoodwinked by the 

 propaganda and "peaceful penetration " of the 

 Germans, may do much to counteract their insidi- 

 ous efforts. Dyes and drugs of the synthetic kind 

 are largely affairs of fashion, and both appeal 

 more to women than to men. Owing to the im- 

 perious dictates of fashion, which loves change, 

 there is a constant demand for new colours or 

 shades of colour for which there is no absolute 

 necessity. If women would only be content with 

 a more limited range of dyes, of which there are 

 many possessing every essential attribute of a 

 satisfactory dvestuff — at all events, until our own 

 dyestuff industries* are consolidated — half the 

 battle would l^e won. As for the drugs, nine-tenths 

 of them are worthless, and many of them are posi- 

 tively noxious. Many hundreds of them, the names 

 of which are now forgotten, have been put upon 

 the market by m^anufacturers solely in the attempt 

 to exploit the by-products of the colour industry, 

 and so long as fashionable practitioners can be 

 induced to prescribe them and people induced to 



