THE KRUPP DYNASTY, AND AFTER.
STRANGE enough are the illustrations of the progress of Christendom afforded by the story of the Krupp dynasty. Here in the twentieth century of our era of peace and goodwill there has died the head of incom- parably the vastest industrial undertaking in the leading country on the European Continent, having possessed by far the greatest fortune among his compatriots ; and his trade was the manufacture of the machinery of wholesale slaughter. Krupps, no doubt, made other things than Krupp guns and ammunition, and if the millennium had been established the resource and ingenuity of Krupp would doubtless have built up on quite other lines a colossal enterprise from the humble foundations laid by Krupp I. But as things were in the latter half of the nineteenth century, it was in the production and the constant improvement of engines for the destruction of human life that the father of the man who died last Saturday found the most profitable use for his own extra- ordinary administrative and inventive faculty, and for the industrial application of the ever-advancing discoveries of chemical science in the field of metallursv. It was in such work that, for the most part, employment has been found for ever-increasing regiments of artisans and labourers at Essen, so that the population of that town, which was ten thousand about 1850, has since decupled. But this rapid growth has been happily distinguished from that which has occurred in not a few of the newer industrial centres in this country and abroad. The second Herr Krupp had a genuine sense of responsibility for the welfare of his workpeople, and there appears to be a general concurrence of opinion that he discharged what he believed to be his duty to them, in the way of providing excellent dwelling-houses, hospitals, libraries, educational and other institutions, and specially of pensions for those who were past work, with the most lavish liberality. That liberality was continued by his son, who has just died, so that there seems to be no doubt that the conditions of life in this German town, devoted to the manufacture of deadly engines, are in many respects as favourable as those to be found in far smaller towns or villages here owned by proverbially philanthropic makers of useful articles for domestic consumption.
That the Essen people are less independent of, or aloof from, their employers than is the case with workpeople whose employers are not their landlords, and do little or nothing for them outside their workshops, is likely enough ; and the general abstention, as we understand it to be, of Messrs. Krupps' employ6s, who in that town alone number some thirty thousand, besides some twelve thousand to sixteen thousand in other places, from participation in Socialist movements is certain to be very irritating to agitators. Herein, probably, lies, wholly or in part, the motive of the terrible attacks recently made in the Socialist Press on the private character of the late Herr Krupp,—attacks which are believed to have had much to do in inducing his fatal illness at the early age of forty - eight. As to the grounds of the allegations brought against his life at his Italian re- treat we cannot have any means of judging. He appears to have been a man of large business capacity, if not of close application, and, at any rate, to have had the regal gift of placing confidence in sound advisers, for the scale of his undertakings, which latterly have embraced the building of armour-clad ships, has largely increased, with, as is understood, a fully corresponding rise in his revenue. His steady refusal to accept elevation to the nobility was, primci, facie, a trait very unlikely to be associated with unbridled excess ; and the knightly intervention of the German Emperor to " hold his shield over the house and memory of the dead "—in itself one of the most picturesquely chivalrous incidents in modern history— will go very far to convince the world of the innocence of the character thus championed.
Apparently the principal conduct of the vast works at Essen and elsewhere owned by the late Herr Krupp will fall to a cousin of his who has been living near Vienna; but they are to be carried on in the interest of the deceased proprietor's widow and daughter, and are ulti- mately to pass into the possession of the latter lady, who after a quarter of a century from now, but not before, may sell them or turn the ownership into a limited liability company. It is not surprising if in such circumstances the question has already been mooted whether it is altogether for the advantage of Germany that this colossal enterprise should remain in unchecked private control. The cousin from near Vienna may be the best of Germans. but also possibly he may be quite definitely Austrian ; and in any case his point of view will be necessarily that of a trustee for his female relatives. His concern, that is to say, will be to strengthen and extend the business, exactly as if it were an ordinary engine factory or a brewery, by the development of the sale of its products, not only at home, but in all parts of the world. That, indeed, it may be said, has from the first been the object of the Krupps, and so, in a very real sense, no doubt it has. Yet there must be an appreciable differ- ence, from the German national point of view, between the situation existing when the largest ordnance facto'', in the world was under the control of a m. an whose artillery had been largely instrumental m securing the decisive triumphs of Prussia in 1866 and 1870, or of his son, the Emperor's personal friend, and that which is created when it becomes a trustee property. It has always been the business interest of the Krupps, but it will be the fiduciary duty of those left in charge of their vast enterprises, to turn to immediate use every metallurgical discovery or mechanical invention made by the band of scientific and other specialists at Essen with a view to increasing the custom for Krupp guns, ammunition, and armour-plates. Often enough discoveries or inventions of this description follow one another very quickly, and it might quite con- ceivably occur that the German military or naval authorities would acquire some offensive or defensive equipment at large cost which within a year or so would be made practically obsolete, or, at any rate, would lose very much of its value if some other nation had in the meantime obtained some still later improvements in its apparatus for war. Now it would plainly be the duty of the Krupp trustees, and of course to their benefit also so far as they are shareholders in the concern, to make known their latest developments and improvements without delay in every quarter in which they would be likely to find customers. Equally obviously it might be very much to the advantage of Germany, in respect of economy and even of security, that such information should not be circulated in foreign countries, or at any rate not for a considerable time. This kind of divergence of interest between the Krupp firm and the German nation is increasingly liable to occur, it may be observed, now that Germany has entered upon a large policy of naval construction, and that the Krupp firm has taken up that business. It could cause no surprise if, on a full review of the situation, the Emperor were to come to the conclusion that national interests demanded either that, on terms to be arranged, and which would no doubt be liberal, the German Government should exercise a supervisory control over the operations of the Krupp firm, or that the whole enterprise of supplying munitions of war should be taken over, and in future carried on under Government auspices.
The arguments for such a line of action are, of course, by no means confined in their application to Germany. The experience of our own country cannot fail to furnish various illustrations of their force. But there is also, on general grounds, something almost repulsive in the thought of the manufacture and sale of the engines of modern warfare being treated exactly like any other commercial matter by persons who, whether acting simply in their own interests, or as trustees for others, are for the most part unaccountable to any human authority for the effect of their actions. So long as they avoid scandals, such as supplying belligerents towards whom their own country is officially neutral, or, on the other hand, furnishing fighting equipment to countries with which their own is specially likely to be at war, they are entirely exempt from interference, and may reap fortunes from providing the machinery for colossal crimes. There is no question involved here of moral censure to be attached to firms or individuals engaged in the manufacture of warlike material for profit. Many of the persons so concerned, probably most of them, have been and are just as estimable privately as those engaged in .any other occupation. But it is of the essence of their business, if it is to be carried on with time fullest success, that it should be conducted and pushed without any regard to the character or aims of possible customers. It is certainly a question of great interest and moment how long the public opinion of civilised and Christian nations will regard this state of things as compatible with that approach towards peace and that diminution in the grinding burden of war-preparations which all Govern. ments profess, and no doubt sincerely, to desire. There is, we allow, another aspect of the subject to be borne in mind. It may be plausibly argued, as it was with great elaboration by the late M. Bloch, that the enormous in- crease which has taken place in the destructive power of artillery and of rifles since the Franco-German War has in itself operated powerfully to diminish the chances of war on a great scale ; and it is certainly a tenable view that no such deterrent increase would have occurred if progress in the manufacture of war material had been withdrawn from the stimulating atmosphere of private enterprise. But even so, we may reasonably hold, first, that the element of potential massacre from an un- seen distance has been carried so far as to produce all the aversion to war it is ever likely to cause ; and, second, that if more of that kind of influence might operate beneficially, the rivalry for military prestige among Governments will promote with sufficient rapidity all the further progress on that line which can now be desired. The sound principle is that preparations for war should be a national undertaking, conducted by Governments responsible to their own people, and in the last resort accountable to those of the foreign nations against which they are made.
Previous page
