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war of American dealers shipping a large portion of the American catch to the London sales, of other American dealers traveling to London in order to purchase the same American catch and bringing it back with them to America, and of other portions of American goods being purchased by Leipzig merchants only to have American dealers travel to Leipzig to repurchase these same American goods, either dressed or dyed, to bring them back to America plus freight and tariff duty, is therefore no longer apparent.

One reason for the general involvement of the American with the Leipzig fur trade was not so much the investment of German capital as such in this country. German interests mostly appeared in the form of debts due Germany from American firms. One of Germany's great policies was the systematic practice of a credit plan more liberal than that offered by any other country of the world. So liberal was it that it was a common practice to send American paper to Germany for discount. American firms could afford to pay almost any profit to the German because of the credit facilities they received and the consequent freedom they enjoyed in the working off of the merchandise purchased. Nothing more insidiously destructive of the independence of the American fur merchant could be conceived.

The result was that the passage of the act found a large number of American fur merchants indebted to Germans in considerable amounts. While the law compelled the payment of these sums to the Alien Property Custodian, it was seen that in many instances payment immediately meant ruin to these Americans who had permitted themselves to be blinded by the glare of Germany's so-called commercial policy and were deceived by the camouflage of the German credit system. It, therefore, became necessary to work out the German interest in such a way as not to affect detrimentally the American business. This has been so successfully accomplished that in every instance the American firm has been actually benefited and, moreover, has through this assistance of the Alien Property Custodian reached, and is now enjoying, a state of business independence never before enjoyed.

In no trade has the result of the war been of greater consequence to the country than in the fur industry.

With the elimination of the foreign market by the war, with the elimination of German capital by the enforcement of the provisions of the trading-with-the-enemy act, these are the net results: 1. American furs dressed, dyed, manufactured, and sold in America.

2. Russian, Chinese, Japanese, and Siberian markets taken from Germany, and direct connection established with the United States.

3. The sale through American auctions of the raw catch, both foreign and domestic, and the consequent creation of the American fur market of the world.

4. The realization of the fur merchant of the actual motive of Germany.

5. The complete elimination of German influence in the American fur trade.

It is inconceivable that the American fur merchant will ever permit any future participation by Germany or the Germans in this industry which the war has brought into its own.

CHAPTER VII.

ENEMY INTERESTS IN AMERICAN MANUFACTURING CONCERNS.

The German agents looked upon the American manufacturing field as a particularly fertile one, and their investments were large and varied. It afforded them excellent means for sowing the seeds of German propaganda and at the same time gave them practically unlimited opportunities for collecting information, both commercial and military, for the use of the German Government and its agents.

In many of the large German owned companies taken over by the Alien Property Custodian, after investigation, it was found that espionage was one of the chief functions. Every scrap of information of commercial or military value to Germany was carefully gathered by the representatives of these concerns in this country and quickly forwarded to the home office in Germany. The German agents were particularly keen on gathering information that would be helpful to Germany's commercial warfare.

Once in Germany, this information was carefully card-indexed for the use of German manufacturers. Bulletins of commercial information were also prepared and placed at the disposal of the German manufacturer. In Germany, the collection of all commercial information is under a bureau which is controlled and financed by the great German banks, such as the Dresdner, Disconto, and Reichs Bank.

One of the most striking examples of the German propaganda and spy system in this country was furnished by the Orenstein-Arthur Koppel Co., of Koppel, Pa.

Orenstein-Arthur Koppel Co.-This concern was a branch of a German company with agencies in every country in the world. It manufactures light inside railway equipment and was a bidder for this class of work in every big industrial plant in this country. This company was thus enabled to obtain much confidential information. regarding these plants which was quickly forwarded to Germany in the form of blue prints, there to be held for whatever use the German strategists could make of it. This was the first German-owned plant

sold by the Alien Property Custodian and is now in the hands of 100 per cent Americans.

The Orenstein-Arthur Koppel Co. owned the Koppel Land Co., the Beaver Connecting Railroad Co., the Koppel Water Co., and the Koppel Sales Co., of Koppel, Pa., the Pennsylvania Car & Manufacturing Co., of Pittsburgh, and the Universal Railway Products Co., of New York.

The Orenstein-Arthur Koppel Co. furnished an excellent example of the German prewar methods in obtaining a foothold in an essential American industry-an industry through which valuable military information was obtained and sent to Germany. About 10 years ago the Orenstein & Koppel-Arthur Koppel Aktiengesellschaft, a German corporation with its principal office in Berlin, organized a branch in this country under the laws of Pennsylvania. It was called the Orenstein-Arthur Koppel Co. The company itself was established at Koppel, which is about 35 miles from Pittsburgh. As the business of the company grew, the subsidiary companies were organized and branch offices were established in New York, Chicago, Pittsburgh, and San Francisco.

The parent concern in Germany had many branches and plants in South American countries, Cuba and Mexico, German-Africa, England, and Russia, and the establishment of a branch plant in this country completed the chain that would give the Germans practically world control of this particular industry.

The Orenstein-Arthur Koppel Co. installed light railway equipment in practically all American munition plants, steel plants, and kindred concerns. It had contracts with the Westinghouse Co., with the United States Steel Corporation, with the Du Pont Works, and with nearly half of the big industrial plants operating in this country. Under these conditions it can readily be seen how easy it was for this German-owned concern to supply information of great military importance to the German Government regarding the big industrial and munition plants in this country. The American business was conducted by a committee composed of Arthur Riche, Karl Hansen, and Eric Joseph, all of them German subjects, now interned.

When in 1916 the relations between the United States and Germany became strained and the war clouds began to gather, the managers of the German-owned concerns in this country became panicstricken. The cables and the wireless stations were crowded with messages to and from the German owners and their managers in this country, scheming and plotting to arrange their affairs in such a manner as to keep the concerns from being taken over by the Alien Property Custodian. Every conceivable sort of camouflage was used; the flimsiest pretexts were used to transfer overnight corporations

valued at millions of dollars. In a few instances American lawyers. joined with the German owners and their agents in their efforts to escape the provisions of the trading with the enemy act. In some instances it required months of painstaking and persistent investigations to ferret out the enemy ownership.

SCHUTTE & KOERTING CO.

The Schutte & Koerting Co., of Philadelphia, furnishes an excellent example of the frantic efforts made to save property for German owners. This concern owns and controls the exclusive rights to certain patents under which automatic ejector and injector boiler valves are made, of the type which are used in most of the warships of the United States. The real owner of this concern is Ernest Koerting, sometimes referred to as the "Carnegie of Germany."

The company owns real estate, factory equipment, and other assets valued at approximately $1,700,000. The firm was formed in 1904, with Adelbert A. Fischer, son-in-law of Koerting, who came to this country from Germany to take charge of the business. On March 9, 1917, less than a month before America entered the war, Fischer caused all of the common stock of the company which was in the name of Ernest Koerting to be transferred to Helen Fischer, the daughter of Koerting and wife of Adelbert A. Fischer. Mrs. Fischer paid for this stock with a note payable in 20 years. Investigation revealed that this transfer was merely one of camouflage and that it had been made without a valid power of attorney. Efforts were made by Koerting to get certain papers to Fischer on the German submarine Deutschland, but these efforts were blocked.

Fischer is now interned at Fort Oglethorpe. His name has been linked with some of the most famous German propagandists in this country. He and Capt. Thierichens, of the German steamship Prinz Eitel Friederick, worked together in organizing the German sailors detained at Philadelphia into a powerful German propaganda machine.

The German investments in machinery and other manufacturing concerns in this country were large and varied. In many instances the concerns controlled by them were employed as outlets for the manufacture and sale of partly finished products shipped from Germany. In most cases the name of the corporation or business was such that few persons would suspect it was owned in whole or in part by Germans.

The enemy interests in the following concerns engaged in the manufacture of machinery and other products have been taken over by the Alien Property Custodian:

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