From Our Berlin Correspondent.
Page 14
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Manufacturers and Taxation.
Rightly enough, all the German motor firms arc up in arms against the projected taxation. Protests are raining down on the Federal Council from every part of the country protests framed by free-lances, tilting on their own account, and protests formulated by solid phalanxes some thousand strong. Herr Naoke, a Sal:oily engineer, belongs to the former category, and his little protest contains some exceedingly interesting statements respecting the struggles of the home motor industry to pay its way. We cull a few passages A great Thuringian motor factory traded for a number of 3,ears at an annual loss of k:35,000 and more. For the past two years the losses have been smaller, but there is as vet absolutely no hope of any profit. A large factory near Berlin, founded by leading firms with a capital of a quarter of a million pounds sterling and managed by first-rate engineers and business men, lost almost the entire capital in five years, and had to go into liquidation and be cc-formed. The new firm earned a profit last year, it is true not, however, through orders for Germany, but because, for one reason, it worked mainly for the English market, and because the capital had shrunk considerably, in consequence of the liquidation. Our greatest and most famous German motor firm did business for years at a loss, although it obtained the highest prices for its cars and motors. In t905 it paid a dividend of 6 per cent. . . but has L;237,000 creditors, against only L:126,900 debtors. In France this factory would have paid dividends of so per cent. In Germany it progresses painfully, in spite of its excellent makes and fine technical and commercial management. I myself lost ZY.xx.i in 1900-1, -£1,325 in 191)1-2, .4.1,123 in 1902-3, .Z4,000 in 1903-4, and. ,4.-;675 in tgoa-sthat is, a sum of ,L4,725. And I may here state that I have sold cars at normal prices, and that I have not lost the money through experiments. But such losses a manufacturer, who wishes to establish a new industry in his Fatherland, has to bear, and, as in my case, so it has been with most pioneers of the German motorcar industry. And is it not an injustice that cries to heaven—this crippling by high taxes of a German industry which must fight so hard for its existence? "
Alcohol for Power.
This morning I called at the Centrale für Spiritusyerwurtung, through whose hands passes pretty nearly all the alcohol used in Germany for power as well as other purposes. When I say that the Centrale dealt with some 3os million litres of crude, refined, and denaturated alcohol from home sources alone during the business year 1904-5 an idea may be formed of the magnitude of the undertaking. " Well, now," said the official to whom I was introduced and to whom the object of my visit had been previously explained, " you want to know something about our sales for power purposes? "
" Yes, power purposes exclusively," I replied.
" We have published statistics on this specific ik>int, but," observed the official after a pause for reflection, " suppose we say between three and four million litres."
"Not more?" I enquired.
" I should say not. The estimate I give is for every kind of motor, stationary or otherwise, and T can give no idea as to the ratio which self-propelled vehicles bear in this respect to other classes of motors. Here, in Berlin, for instance, alcohol plays but a small part in propulsion. Our Centrale runs a couple of alcohol-driven vans; I daresay you know that. Then there is Wertheim—" " With his fleet of sixty odd!" I interjected.
" Ah I see you are informed on that point."
" Yes; THE COMMERCIAL MOTOR published an article on the motor vans of Berlin's greatest universal store some months back. But are the Centrale and Wertheim the only consumers? "
" Besides ourselves and Wertheim there is nobody else, I think, so far as Berlin is concerned. I see, from your current issue, that you reproduce the Emperor's splendid prise for alcohol-driven motors in the trials organised by the German Agricultural Society; and that reminds me, we have been experimenting with a motor plough." " Now have the experiments turned out " I demanded.
" They are not yet ended," was the brief answer, and as, after a few more remarks had been exchanged, I rose to go, I asked him how many million litres the Centrale disposed of yearly for industrial purposes.
" Say iso," was given as the volume. " Last year our sales in denaturated alcohol dropped considerably owing to the poor potato crop; we had to raise the price 334i per cent., and cheaper materials were substituted in consequence."
Peasants and Motor Conveyance.
It is in the nature of things that new inventions breed antagonism, as every stride forward in the province of mechanics means an attack on some vested interest of hand or animal power. The inventor of the spinning jenny saw his invention smashed up by an infuriated mob; blackguardly remarks were made in livery and bait stables about the father of railroad travelling; and, to-day, horse owners squirm at the rising tide of motorism. But the mechanical marches on : to attempt to stop it is to confront the inrushing ocean with a mop and pail_ Hardships are occasioned by its advance. We do not blink at the fact, and can and do sympathise with those who suffer; yet, in course of time, the pressure is removed and new spheres are found for labour by the very invention which caused the disturbance. Comparative quiet follows until the advent of another mechanical upheaval. This by way of introduction to. a tragi-cornedy in the Russian town of Shepetovka, in which Count Josef Potoki recently introduced a 2oh.p. German Daimler lorry for conveying the products of his sugar factory to the neighbouring railway station, the sugar having been previously carried in carts belonging to local peasantry. The peasants rose to a man in defence of their menaced interests, but, instead of destroying the motor, they edopted up-to-date means-'almost as effectual --to redtice the innovation to impotency : they struck in a body. As the manager of the Potoki estate could not dispense with the peasants, there was no help for it but to come to a compromise, which took the .form of an agreement to use the lorry only for consignments which they cannot get to the station with their horse-drawn carts.