past. The German industry as hitherto organized, and still more as now organized, has had so much to gain by extending its foreign trade and by destroying the industry in other countries that it would undoubtedly give away its goods in this country for nothing in order to recover the American market. The Chemical Foundation, however, should prove a power sufficient to discourage in a most effective manner any German attempts in this direction. If, as their newspapers boast, the Germans have during the war worked out entirely new dyes superior to their past productions, the protection afforded by it will be invaluable. It has been the uniform experience of the industry that the introduction of new classes of dyestuffs follows only several years after the patenting of the original inventions on which their manufacture depends. Accordingly, the later dyes of to-day depend largely upon the patents of three or four years ago. The patents transferred to the Chemical Foundation include many German patents of 1917 and even of 1918, and also many applications still pending. These patents undoubtedly include the results of the research upon which must be based the manufacture of any new dyes. which the Germans are now able to produce and market. Accordingly, at the very least, the institution will be able to protect the American industry for a considerable period, and this should be all it needs. It appears to be the universal view of the more competent manufacturers in this country that given five years of freedom from German competition, the American industry can hold its own. Probably only a measure such as the embargo which appears to have been imposed by the British and French against all foreign dye importations can furnish this protection to the degree necessary to insure the safety of the American industry; but short of such an embargo, the Chemical Foundation would seem to furnish all the aid that possibly can be given.

At the same time the new institution promises an incalculable benefit not only to the dye and chemical industries but to the whole American manufacturing world. The opportunities which it can offer and the rewards which it can hold out to competent research scientists should far exceed those of any institution unconnected with industry, and it may well, therefore, form the nucleus of the greatest rescarch organization in the country.

CHAPTER III.

THE METAL SITUATION.

To appreciate what has been accomplished in ridding the metal industry of the United States of the influences of the so-called "German metal octopus," it is necessary to briefly sketch the growth of the German metal concerns on their native soil, and then to point out how these gradually invaded foreign markets and to what extent the American metal markets came under their domination. At the outset, however, it must be pointed out that however much justification there is for the assertion that the German metal combine controlled the metal markets of Europe and Australia-especially in zine and lead-it is not the fact that they controlled the metal market of the United States. Their influence here was potent, no doubt, and it was growing, but it was far from sufficient to control either the production or the price of metals in the United States. The octopus was spreading his tentacles across the Atlantic, but he had not yet assumed the "octopian" proportions.

The Alien Property Custodian has taken over the German-owned metal concerns in the United States, and, by disbanding some and Americanizing others, it is believed that the German influences in our metal market have been completely eliminated.

GROWTH OF THE GERMAN METAL TRADE.

Germany has never been a great producer of metals. Her production of copper is but 3 per cent of the world's output, against about 60 per cent produced by the United States. Her production of refined zinc is about 28 per cent of the world's output, and of lead she produces 16 per cent of the world's total production. Yet unquestionably Germany has for years controlled the zinc and lead metal markets of Europe and of the rest of the world except the United States. What is the secret of her power? It is not alone that she is a large consumer of metal. For though she consumes annually about 500,000,000 pounds of copper more than she produces, she consumes only 23 per cent of the world's zinc against her own production of 28 per cent of the world's output; and of lead she consumes only 20 per cent of the world's output against her own production of about 16 per cent.

1 All figures herein regarding Germany are for 1913.

Yet she completely controls the zinc and lead markets of the world. The secret of her power lies in the fact that her great metal firms act in concert in the purchase of zinc and lead ores, cooperate in the control of smelters and refineries, and, by the free use of unlimited credit extended to them by the German banks, who themselves participate in these industrial enterprises, they are enabled to buy and sell huge quantities of metals, thereby influencing the market prices.

THE GERMAN METAL TRIUMVIRATE.

There are but three great international metal concerns in Germany-the Metallgesellschaft of Frankfurt, Aron Hirsch & Sohn of Halberstadt, and Beer, Sondheimer & Co. of Frankfurt. These giant organizations, whose operations now circle the globe, are of comparatively recent development and are the growth of very small and humble beginnings.

Around the year 1800 there were in Germany three small concerns or individuals devoting themselves to the metal business, viz., Jacob Raviné, Berlin; Philip Abram Cohn, Frankfurt; Aron Hirsch, Halberstadt. They traded in the products of the country-lead produced in the Hartz Mountains or in Saxony or Silesia, copper produced by the Mansfield Works and other small concerns, and they also brought in some copper from Sweden.

In the nineteenth century the three concerns developed on somewhat different lines: Raviné drifted more into the iron business; Cohn developed into a very large metal merchant, and Hirsch developed into a combination of industrial manufacturer and metal merchant.

(1) The Metallgesellschaft is the largest of these concerns and is by far the most powerful metal concern in the world. It is a stock corporation with a capital of 18,000,000 marks. It is the outgrowth of the metal business founded by Philip Abram Cohn early in the nineteenth or late in the eighteenth century. In the early sixties of the last century, Henry Merton, whose real name was Moses and who was related to Philip Abram Cohn, founded a metal firm in London which later became the powerful house of Henry R. Merton & Co. (Ltd.). The Metallgesellschaft and the Merton firm worked hand in hand for the advancement of German domination of the metal markets of the world.

(2) Aron Hirsch & Sohn, a copartnership, is the business founded by Aron Hirsch and it has always been kept in the Hirsch family. This house has not confined itself strictly to metal trading but has also engaged in metal manufacturing. It has interests all over the world.

(3) Beer, Sondheimer & Co., a copartnership, was founded in the latter part of the seventies by Messrs. Beer and Sondheimer, two