362 



NATURE 



[January io, 191 8 



A ucr themselves with them, novelties of the kind j and the landowners, who as growers of food are 



wil7 continue to be supplied. But here, agam, 

 there is no necessity why one should succumb^ to 

 the blandishments of the pushful "Kaufmann." 



Combines or trusts of the kind we have indi- 

 cated are looked askance at in this country and 

 America as acting in restraint of competition. But 

 in Germany, where they are known as "cartels, 

 they are positively encouraged and upheld by the 

 courts as a justifiable means of self-preservation. 

 Under the oost-war conditions which Germany 



post- 



vi'hich 

 intends to force upon us, this question needs very 

 careful consideration, and it cannot be solved by 

 economic formulae which are supposed by doc- 

 trinaires to be as fixed and immutable as the law 

 ot gravitation. , 



One noteworthy outcome of the war in Germany 

 has been the establishment by the State of a great 

 institution known as the Central Einkauf Gesell- 

 schaft, whereby every importation of raw mate- 

 rial into the country falls into the hands of this 

 central buying corporation, which disposes of it 

 under regulations to manufacturers. According to 

 Mr. Gerard, this institution, which was created 

 solely as a war measure, has come to stay. It is 

 defended on the ground that it husbands the gold 

 supply of Germany, prevents useless expenditure 

 abroad, and benefits home industry. The Cen- 

 tral Einkauf Gesellschaft will make its own 

 purchases abroad, and as it will be a buyer on an 

 enormous scale it will force the sellers to compete 

 against each other in their anxiety to sell. In this 

 way it is believed that the aggregate purchase will 

 be effected at a lower rate than individual buyers 

 would secure. The material will then be divided 

 among the manufacturers at less eventual cost 

 than if they had purchased it separately abroad. 

 This is an exarhple of socialised buying and sell- 

 ing which, if successful, is bound to have an enor- 

 mous influence upon German commerce. Its very 

 m.agnitude may, however, render it unworkable in 

 piactice. Should it prosper it will give a tremen- 

 dous impetus to the cause of State Socialism. 



Although there is much in Mr. Gerard's account 

 of the manner in which Germany has grappled 

 with the economic difficulties she has brought upon 

 herself, which serves to illustrate her extraordinary 

 powers of organisation and her well-drilled faculty 

 of combination towards a common end, there are 

 many instances of economic blunders on the part 

 of departmental authorities, as, for example, Del- 

 briick's treatment of the cyanide industry and the 

 exportation of potash. In both these cases, and 

 in others that might be mentioned, the anticipated 

 result was altogether falsified by the event, and 

 irreparable injury has probably been done to these 

 industries in Germany. In the attempt to play 

 off the United States against England, Germany 

 was hoist with her own petard. 



This fact is beginning to be perceived by the great 

 mass of the commercial community in Germany 

 and Austria-Hungary. Many industries are com- 

 pletely ruined already, and as the war continues to 

 drag along others will share their fate. There 

 are, however, some — powerful organisations like 

 Kiupp's and the great body of the Prussian Junkers 

 NO. 2515, VOL. 100] 



making money by the aid of the cheap labour of 

 Russian and other prisoners — which will clamour 

 for the continuance of the war so long as the dumb- 

 driven common herd, who have no real leaders, 

 are inarticulate, and have only a sham poli- 

 tical representation, can be induced to tolerate 

 their long-drawn-out agony. To Mr. Gerard it is 

 a matter of surprise that the German manufac- 

 turers, who were enriching themselves so rapidly at 

 the expense of the whole world by the aid of low 

 wages and long hours, and with no laws against 

 combination, should have allowed their military 

 autocracy to drive them into war. They would pro- 

 bably have protested, with all the political power 

 they possessed, had they foreseen that they 

 would be up against four-fifths of the civilised 

 world, and that, to use Dr. Helfferich's phrase, they 

 would be doomed to drag about the leaden weight 

 of the billions which this world calamity will have 

 cost the country that really instigated it. No 

 Pyrrhic victories can prevent the social and moral 

 bankruptcy which will assuredly overtake Ger- 

 many in the long run, and there are signs that 

 this truth is being realised. Germany to-day 

 suffers from the lack of a sane Liberalism, from 

 the want of a strong party of moderate, clear- 

 thinking men with sound political ideals and a 

 larger measure of humanism than characterises 

 th(; average Prussian. Politically she is torn 

 asunder by two forces — a brutal and unscrupulous 

 autocracy supported by a cunningly devised system 

 of caste, and a Socialism the creed of which, in 

 many of its moral aspects, is repugnant and hateful 

 to all right-thinking men. Germany, like every 

 other nation, has the Government she deserves, 

 and she has brought her deserts upon her own 

 head by her flagrant disregard of the nobler in- 

 stincts of our common humanity. 



T. E. Thorpe. 



THREE AMERICAN BOOKS FOR 

 GARDENERS. 

 (i) Greenhouses : Their Construction and Equip- 

 ment. By W. J. Wright. Pp. xvi-t-269. 

 (New York: Orange Judd Company; London: 

 Kegan Paul and Co., Ltd., 1917.) Price 1.60 

 dollars net. 



(2) Vegetable Forcing. By Ralph L. Watts. Pp. 

 xiv + 431. (New York: Orange Judd Com- 

 pany, 1917.) Price 2 dollars net. 



(3) Modern Propagation of Tree Fruits. By Prof. 

 B. S. Brown. Pp. xi-+-i74. (New York: 

 John Wiley and Sons, Inc. ; London : Chapman 

 and Hall, Ltd., 1916.) Price 6s. net. 



(i) T^Y the skilful use of glass and artificial 

 -*-^ heat, gardeners have succeeded in the 

 cultivation of tropical plants in temperate 

 countries. Greenhouse gardening is compara- 

 tively modern, for although the Romans, before 

 the time of Christ, knew how to force fruit and 

 vegetables, they applied only hot manure for the 

 purpose, and it was not until the early part of 

 the eighteenth century that glass structures arti- 



