The late Herr Hugo Stinnes, who inherited a substantial business,
and was a fairly prominent industrialist in Germany during the War, burst later into a glare of fame as by far the greatest manufacturing and commercial magnate on the Continent. He controlled vast " verti- cal " and " horizontal " combinations in the metal and shipping trades, banks and newspapers in Germany and Austria. German politics centred in economics and lie was -said to hold politicians in the hollow of his hand, though he was not a man comparable to Dr. Rathenau. The weight of his affairs crushed him, and he died com- paratively young. He had used inflation to his advan- tage : rapid and successful stabilization threw his affairs into confusion. A combination of banks is trying to administer them, apparently with some success, though they began by accusing his son of withholding assets- Amid the confusion of details we see a strange comment on the praise that we used to hear of German banking enterprise as more helpful than ours to traders. We see them now fighting for their pre-War domination rather than helping. Here, on the contrary, every sorely tried industrialist is deeply grateful to his bankers, and our wonder is how long our banks will be able to go on helping as they do.
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