A Crash

On a char blue Swiss morning, two double-engined electric trains thundered along the tracks in the heart of the Alps. One was the northbound Milan-Berlin express; the other was the southbound Zurich-Milan express. Near Bellinzona in Switzerland the engineer of the southbound train failed to observe signals set against him. Both trains collided.

The impact was terrific; all four engines became total losses; a wooden gaslighted coach on the northbound train caught fire after the gas tank had exploded; only three people escaped death. The total casualties were 19 killed, including six members of the train crew, many injured.

In this wooden coach (accompanied by his aged aunt) was Dr. Karl Helfferich, one of the greatest reactionary leaders of modern Germany and a noted financier. At the time of the accident he was on his way from Lake Maggiore in Italy to Hanau near Frankfort, where he was scheduled to make a speech in support of the Nationalist cause.

All Berlin newspapers featured his demise, but those politically opposed to him did not allow the tragic manner of his death to interfere with the expression of their bitter hostility, although all admitted that he was a man of great ability and untiring energy. He was attacked for deluding Germans during the War by stating that the enemy would ultimately pay the War costs and for having been "largely re- sponsible" for the assassinations of Chancellor Matthias Erzberger and Foreign Minister Walter Rathenau.

Dr. Helfferich was 52 years old. His father was the owner of a textile factory at Neustadt in Rhenish Prussia, which has since grown into a large establishment and thus afforded Dr. Helfferich the income necesary to the role which he has played in German politics.

After having studied at the universities of Munich, Strassbourg and Berlin, he went on a four-years' world tour to study commerce, finance, politics. On his return he entered the public service, for 30 years served the Fatherland.

It was not until 1906 that he became famed. In that year he went to Constantinople as director of the Anatolian Railway, a German project financed by the Deutsche Bank, one of the four great "D" banks* of Germany. From this time onward his name was among the biggest connected with the Bagdad Railway scheme.

Hereafter, he became a close friend of Kaiser Wilhelm and his fiery protagonist in politics. During the War, the All Highest pinned the First Class Iron Cross upon the Helfferich bosom to reward him for having extracted more than $1,000,000,000 from the pockets of the German bourgeoisie.

During the first part of the War period he served Germany in the capacity of Secretary of the Treasury. In 1916 he became Secretary of the Interior and Vice Chancellor under Dr. von Bethmann-Hollweg. In 1917 he succeeded the assassinated Mirbach as German Ambassador to Soviet Russia, but resigned almost at once because he was not in sympathy with Soviet policies. (His enemies always averred that he resigned because he feared assassination.)

From 1918 onward he became one of the most active and turbulent Monarchists. He was a bitter enemy of both Erzberger and Rathenau and was always opposed to accepting the Versailles Treaty. One of the main planks in his present-day platform was the nonacceptance of the Dawes-McKenna reports on the ground that their conditions would overtax the capacity of Germany.

Through four and a half years of hectic republicanism in Deutschland, Dr. Helferrich retained a warm personal affection for the Kaiser of Doom and has many times paid him visits. This as much as anything else probably led Kurt Geyer, Communist Reichs-tager, in a recent book, to classify him with the late Rudolf Havenstein, President of the Reichsbank, and the late Hugo Stinnes, King of Coke, as the "three evil spirits of Germany."

*The other three "great 'D' banks" are: Discontogesellschaft, Darmstadter, Dresdner.