September 5, 1918 
LAND ^ WATER 
11 
The Bernhardi of Commerce. — II 
HOW GERMANY PLANS TO ENSLAVE LABOUR AND SCIENCE 
By Ralph W. Page 
^'Imperial State Ownership af the Individual '' would 
be a more appropriate title tor this exposure of German 
designs on the world's trade. The original work was 
written by an emifient German engineer and economist, 
and published during the second year of the war. It fell 
into the hands of Mr. H. C. Hoover, the U.S. Food 
Controller, ivho considered it of such moment that 
he arranged for its translation and publication in book 
form. The book presents ingenious plans for securing 
commercial victories at the expense of other nations. 
IF there is any- 
thing] to be gained 
by being honest, 
let us be honest ; 
if it is necessary 
to deceive, let us deceive.' 
Thus wrote Frederick the 
Great in the middle of the 
eighteenth century — the 
man who laid the founda- 
tion of Pan-Germanism, 
which this world war was 
expected to achieve. Xot 
content with dominion^ by 
force of arms, we find 
Germany plotting for commercial supremacy, with that 
insolent disregard of the rights of others and that resort to 
deception that has characterised all her policies since 
Frederick the Great's reign. 
"For forty years the Germans have been plotting to realise 
their dream of Pan-Germanism — eventual world conquest and 
dominion. For two generations they have been thinking in 
terms unknown or little understood by an innocent and 
unsuspecting world. Jhe Prussian philosophy that might 
makes right, . that the State is supreme, has completely 
possessed the ruling and upper classes of Germany, both 
military and commercial, until deception and fraud form 
the background of their most important international rela- 
tions and undertakings. They have made Germany an 
inherently dishonest nation. 
"Their military plans were successfully concealed for 
years, and when their dreams of conquest did out-crop 
occasionally, there were few with an intimate enough know- 
ledge of the complete premeditated and systematic degenera- 
tion of the German official character to read the handwriting 
on the waJl. 
"German nile means the breakdown of all order, the 
exchange of personal liberty and national freedom for force, 
of right for might, of justice for the mailed fist. 
"The world should have been forewarned. Books were 
written, maps constructed, by well-known German authori- 
ties for the enlightenment of the German people, and these 
books reached the outside world ; but civilisation, accus- 
tomed to the pursuits of peace, turned a deaf ear, and is 
now paying the penalty for refusing to see and hear. 
" Now another conception comes out of the heart of Ger- 
manythat threatens the commercial interests of unsuspecting 
nations — carefully thought out, with characteristic German 
thoroughness, openly advocating the breaking down of all 
business ethics, relying upon trickery and circumvention to 
gain their end. This promises to stop at nothing, from 
national dumping of goods to crush competition to false 
labels and disguise of the origin and the breaking of contracts 
that prove disadvantageous to the German. 
" Let the manufacturing and banking interests, and the 
labouring and professional classes of all nations, be warned 
in time to devise antidotes and counter-attacks to the 
Machiavellian devices of a class gone mad with lust of con- 
quest, deliberately plotting to fatten itself upon the life 
blood of other peoples even after the war. Let us consider, 
in making peace, what protection we can give to the com- 
mercial existence of the free nations." 
From the Preface to the American Edition. 
That the Kaiser plans to seize the cream of the world's 
business upon his own terms is by no means the most startUng 
of the Herzog propositions. There are preliminary con- 
quests which he frankly admits will have to be made. 
The first of these is the complete subjugation of labour. 
He intends to take unquestioned command of the time and 
the Hves.and the movements and the thoughts, of all the 
workmen, artisans, and mechanics of his own dominion — 
previous to dictating the conduct of workers throughout the 
world. Once committed to the conduct of a war of economic 
extinction, organising a disciplined army is an inevitable 
prelude. This Herzog points out with laudable frank- 
ness. 
"The export trade," he says, "because it is a measuring 
of strength, domestic and 
foreign, is a battle. . . . 
To wage it successfully, 
the combatant must re- 
main free from irritation 
and disscntion within. 
He goes on to say that 
"all financial support is 
useless if production is 
interrupted by causes lying 
in labour conditions — 
strikes aud lock-outs im- 
pairing the work of indus- 
tries must under all cir- 
V cumstances be avoided — 
such cases are unthinkable in times of war." 
Having concluded that, properly speaking, all times are 
war times, his way of avoiding them is simple. He remarks 
that "a command is sufficient." He elaborates: 
"Long investigations about causes would injure industrial 
development and, therewith, the export trade. As in times 
of war, so here, the procedure must be cut short — by the 
mandate of the State." 
Hence he decrees that all employees of important industries 
"must be entered in special lists," and that "these persons, 
whether they are directors, operating or scientific officers, 
or labourers, must be subject to State organisation similar 
to that of the army." 
"Protection might without a doubt be had against this 
danger (insubordination) by placing the labour under State 
supervision in the same way that this was done in certain 
industries during the war, with success and to the general 
satisfaction. . . . This form of militarising invaluable indus- 
tries can scarcely be avoided in spite of the opposition it 
w<ll be exposed to in times of peace." I 
In order to make sure that there is no possible mistake 
about the intentions, it is added that ; 
" In so doing, the legal freedom of the private individual, 
of science, and of property, although eventually guaranteed 
and safeguarded, is liable to be compromised, as is likewise 
the right of capital and trade to move about at will." 
By these means all vexing questions between capital and 
labour are finally and easily settled. Not only for Germany, 
either, if this scheme works. For the single and sole purpose 
of establishing this system of peonage and military con- 
trol of labour in Berlin is to force it upon the rest 
of civilisation. 
State Ownership of Workmen 
For the very heart of the plan is the conquest of American 
and Allied commerce and business. And, of course, business 
and commerce are inextricably bound up with the lives and 
welfai;e and daily actions of every individual on the Con- 
tinent. Our whole conception of "life, liberty, and the 
pursuit of happiness" is fundamentally based upon our 
emancipation from any arbitrary control of our earn- 
ings, our working hours, and our freedom of personal 
action. 
The wedge by which the German flatly proposes to intro- 
duce his "efficient" processes into the life of the world is 
through the industries and mines owned outside Germany 
and operated under the management and laws of Potsdam. 
This was set forth in my first article. 
But this actual physical forcing of peonage upon our 
labour by force on our own shores is not the most immediate 
probabld" danger. 
We abhor great standing armies. Ordinarily we would 
not stand the arbitrary and often secret State management 
of all business, the compulsory limitation of private wills 
and actions, the uniform discipline impesed on every man. 
Yet to-day, at this very moment we are not only submitting 
to exactly that, but every right-minded man in the republic 
knows that it is necessary for self-preservation, and 
hence that objection by any one smacks very clearly of 
treason. 
Whether we liked it or not — abhor it as we might— we 
were forced to adopt this process because Germany adopted 
