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Henry Morgenthau, The German Character
Five chapters from Morgenthau’s book, Germany is our Problem, here published with an introductory note by Ellopos. Emphasis, in bold or italic letters, by Ellopos. Complete book in print.
52 Pages
Page 30
In 1926 an international steel cartel was organized. At the time, Germany produced only 2˝ per cent more pig iron than France. The cartel agreement fixed the quota of each member, and each was to pay into a common pool one dollar for every ton it produced. But for every ton produced over the quota, the producer had to pay by way of a fine an extra four dollars a ton. The French very thriftily kept within their quota and even cut production a bit now and then to save the dollar a ton. The Germans, on the other hand, seemed to have gone on a spree. They regularly exceeded their quota and cheerfully paid the fine. In one year it amounted to about $10 million for 2,500,000 tons excess production. But it turned out that the Germans knew what they were doing. After a few years they argued plausibly that their increased capacity was so great that it entitled them to a bigger quota. Their increased capacity— second only to that of the United States by then —gave them the power to beat their European rivals over the head to get what they wanted. Their pig iron quota was raised, and by 1938 German steel production was 23,-200,000 tons while France dropped to 6,200,000.
Without the cartel deal, the two countries would normally have developed along about the proportions of 1926. As it was, France sold her iron ore to Germany in greater volume, contented herself with an inadequate steel capacity and relinquished to Germany markets she might easily have kept or gained for herself. Germany could get away with it in part because German cartel members were part owners of all the important steel and chemical companies in Europe. It was the same steel cartel that showed how an industry can be strangled at birth in a little European country.
Shortly before the outbreak of the war, Greece was planning to build steel mills of her own. Germany not only refused to supply any equipment after having gained a predominant place in the Greek economy, but used her influence to keep other members of the cartel from doing so. In a letter from the German Steel Cartel to the international body, appears this paragraph: "We have left no stone unturned in order by all means to prevent the establishment of an iron industry in Greece."
Cf. H. Arendt: totalitarianism reduces men to impersonal natural forces * German philosophers in support of Nazism * Beethoven and Mauthausen * The Superior Race of Germans * Kalergi, European Spirit must Precede Europe's Political Unification * La Construction de l'Europe selon Jean Monnet * Plan Fouchet * Mitterrand and Kohl urge European Political Union * Il Manifesto di Ventotene
