"Base Greed"

An easy way for Germany to pay what she owes in Reparations would be to make the necessary gold from lead.

So thought General Erich Ludendorff, famed during the War as the "brains of old Field Marshal von Hindenburg." Over a period of several years $300,000 was advanced by General Ludendorff and patriotic friends to one Franz Tausend, alchemist, who promised to make enough gold to pay the Fatherland's debts and leave a comfortable surplus for his backers.

When the $300,000 experiments of Alchemist Tausend failed, he was charged with fraud. Last week he was tried in Munich.

Witness after witness swore to having "seen" the prisoner produce gold in small quantities. Truculent and shrewd, he dramatically declared:

"If I am acquitted I will have a hundred new clients tomorrow, all ready to give me more money to continue my experiments!"

Unimpressed, the Court sentenced Alchemist Tausend to three years and eight months in jail. The Court expressed the opinion that, in his most convincing demonstrations, Tausend had concealed gold foil in a cigaret, flicked the ashes into his crucible.

Prisoner Tausend hung his head when informed by the Court that he had acted from motives of "base greed."

General Ludendorff, not in Court, may well have hung his head upon reading in the papers the Judge's opinion that "Tausend's dupes exhibited naive credulity."

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