Vossische Zeitung
- World Appeal for Economic Peace
- Referendum on Alcohol
- Serruys in Berlin
The Vossische Zeitung's front page of 18 October 1926 carried three reports on economics and politics. The first announced, on the strength of a Reuter report, that leading industrialists and financiers would publish a manifesto in every European country on Sunday. The manifesto urged economic understanding and the removal of artificial trade barriers, and the paper named Reichsbank President Schacht, Robert Bosch and Geheimrat Deutsch of AEG among its German signatories. The second previewed Norway's referendum on alcohol prohibition, held that day. It recalled the 1919 vote and argued that close to 100,000 young voters, enfranchised when the voting age was lowered, were hostile to the ban. The third, a dispatch from Paris, reported that Serruys of the French Ministry of Economics was coming to Berlin to discuss the Franco-German commercial treaty and trade with the Saar.
Translation
World Appeal for Economic Peace
International Declaration by Business Leaders
The disorder brought upon the European economy by war, inflation and a nationalist policy that threatens to make economic war a permanent institution has now called the leading men of the world economy onto the scene, so that an end may be put to this state of affairs. After months of preparation, as a Reuter report announced, a manifesto is to be published on Sunday in all European countries, in which the most important industrialists and financiers urge common defence, economic understanding and the dismantling of the artificially erected economic barriers. On the German side the manifesto is signed by Reichsbank President Schacht, by Robert Bosch, by Geheimrat Deutsch (A. E. G.),
Referendum on Alcohol
Norway votes today on alcohol prohibition. The result is not meant to decide the fate of the ban directly, but it will allow a conclusion to be drawn about the coming development. The last referendum took place in 1919, but because the population was then not clear about the scope of the ban, it managed to arouse the interest of only 66 percent of all eligible voters, 793,700 in all, of whom about 490,000 voted for and 303,000 against the ban. Since that vote, 270,000 new eligible voters have been added, of whom close to 100,000 owe their right to vote to the fact that the voting age has meanwhile been lowered from 25 to 23 years. These 100,000 are accordingly drawn from Norway's youth, which is uniformly averse to the compulsion of the ban. Moreover, in contrast to the previous vot-
Serruys in Berlin
News service of the Vossische Zeitung
br Paris, 18 October
Serruys, director of the trade department in the French Ministry of Economics, is coming to Berlin today. The Journée Industrielle claims that his intention is to discuss with the German authorities certain questions concerning the conclusion of the German-French commercial treaty. At the same time, the trade relations between Germany and the Saar territory, as well as the questions arising from [?]
Context
Who signed the October 1926 manifesto against trade barriers
The Vossische Zeitung reported the manifesto before its release, relying on a Reuter announcement. Before its text breaks off, it names Reichsbank President Schacht, Robert Bosch and Geheimrat Deutsch of AEG as German signatories. Time magazine's account of 1 November 1926 confirms the outline: a round robin signed by more than 100 of the world's leading financiers, titled "A Plea for the Removal of Restrictions upon European Trade," which called on European nations to remove their tariff hindrances to trade. Time listed Schacht among the signatories. For Germany it also named Karl Bosch, chairman of the chemical trust in Heidelberg, and Geheimrat Felix Deutsch, whom it described as chairman of "General Electric, Berlin", meaning AEG. So Time names Karl Bosch where the paper wrote Robert Bosch. Because Time mentions seven more German signatories without naming them, the two accounts do not settle whether the paper confused the two men. Time also stressed that, despite French protectionism, René Laederich, a regent of the Bank of France, and eight other French financiers signed.
How Washington and the markets received the manifesto
President Coolidge answered sharply. According to Time, he reminded the nation that those who lend money are always eager for international free trade, while the Republican party stood ready to shield American earners with its tariff. Time judged that public opinion was inclined to let the document drop as a mere pious plea. Even so, it noted that the manifesto caused marked temporary fluctuations on the New York Stock Exchange and the Berlin Bourse. Of the central bankers rumoured on Wall Street to have given the manifesto its final form, only Schacht would comment. He said the manifesto was closely connected with a recent conference of German and British industrialists in England and was the result of international negotiations. The manifesto itself condemned "the economic folly which treats all trading as a form of war". The Vossische Zeitung's warning that economic war could become a permanent institution echoes the document's own language.
The separate origins of the 1927 World Economic Conference
The League of Nations' World Economic Conference, held in Geneva in May 1927, had been proposed before the manifesto. France's Louis Loucheur first suggested it in 1925, and it became the first international economic conference formally sponsored by the League. Representatives of 46 League member countries attended, as well as delegates from the United States and the Soviet Union. Its participants, 194 national delegates and 157 expert advisers, did not formally represent their governments. The delegates unanimously stated that "Financial reconstruction is the basis of economic reconstruction." The conference had therefore been proposed in 1925, before the October 1926 manifesto, and these sources record no direct line of influence from the manifesto to the conference's agenda.
How Norway's prohibition had developed before 1926
Partial prohibition had been in force in Norway since 1917, and after the 1919 referendum spirits and dessert wine were banned as well. A handbook on Norway digitised by Project Runeberg gives the 1919 result as 487,999 votes for prohibition and 304,207 against, figures the Vossische Zeitung rounds to about 490,000 and 303,000. The same handbook records that the ban led to difficulties with wine-producing countries, and that the Storting therefore lifted the ban on importing and selling strong wines in 1923. The 1926 referendum was organised partly because of pressure from France, whose exports of alcoholic beverages had fallen. After 1923, then, the ban the voters were asked about mainly concerned spirits.
What the 18 October 1926 vote decided
The referendum the paper previewed was held on 18 October 1926 as a consultative vote, which fits the paper's remark that the result would not directly decide the ban's fate. Voters rejected continued prohibition by 531,084 votes (55.66 per cent) to 423,031 (44.34 per cent). Turnout was 64.78 per cent of 1,482,724 registered voters, slightly below the 66 per cent the paper gives for 1919. Support for prohibition fell in every county, and it was overwhelmingly rejected in and around Oslo and in other towns such as Bergen. Although the vote was advisory, the law was abolished as a result and prohibition came to an end. The outcome bears out the paper's expectation of change. These sources give no breakdown by age, however, so they cannot test its claim that young voters uniformly opposed the ban.
Why Franco-German trade talks mattered to heavy industry in autumn 1926
The Paris dispatch reports, citing a claim in the Journée Industrielle, that Serruys was coming to Berlin to discuss the conclusion of the Franco-German commercial treaty and trade between Germany and the Saar. These talks bore directly on heavy industry. Rail producers in Germany, Belgium, France and Britain had concluded an agreement on 12 March 1926, but disputes between the French and German governments during the trade negotiations stalled a more general steel agreement. That accord, the International Steel Agreement, was finally created on 20 September 1926, less than a month before Serruys's visit. It was run by a council of industry representatives from Germany, France, Belgium and Luxembourg. The Saar belonged to the same industrial network: the German crude-steel association founded in November 1924 brought together all German steel producers and those of the Saarland. This helps explain why the dispatch pairs Saar trade relations with the treaty. Gustav Stresemann publicly wished that other branches would follow the steel industry's example without stopping at national borders.
Original
Weltappell für Wirtschaftsfrieden
Internationale Kundgebung der Wirtschaftsführer Die Verwirrung der europäischen Wirtschaft durch Krieg, Inflation und eine nationalistische Politik, die den Wirtschaftskrieg zu einer Dauereinrichtung zu machen droht, hat jetzt die führenden Männer der Weltwirtschaft auf den Plan gerufen, damit diesem Zustand ein Ende gesetzt werde. Nach monatelangen Vorbereitungen soll, wie eine Reutermeldung ankündigte, am Sonntag in allen europäischen Ländern ein Manifest bekanntgegeben werden, in dem die bedeutendsten Industriellen und Finanziers zu gemeinsamer Abwehr, zu Wirtschaftsverständigung und Abbau der künstlich aufgerichteten Wirtschaftsschranken mahnen. Das Manifest ist von deutscher Seite vom Reichsbankpräsidenten Schacht, von Robert Bosch, von Geheimrat Deutsch (A. E. G.),
Volksabstimmung über den Alkohol
Norwegen stimmt heute über das Alkoholverbot ab. Das Ergebnis soll nicht direkt das Schicksal des Verbots entscheiden, wohl aber wird es einen Schluß auf die kommende Entwicklung gestatten. Die letzte Volksabstimmung fand im Jahre 1919 statt, vermochte aber, da sich die Bevölkerung damals nicht über die Tragweite des Verbots klar war, nur das Interesse von 66 Prozent aller Stimmberechtigten zu wecken, insgesamt 793 700, von denen ungefähr 490 000 für, 303 000 gegen das Verbot stimmten. Seit dieser Abstimmung sind 270 000 neue Stimmberechtigte hinzugekommen, von denen gegen 100 000 ihr Stimmrecht dem Umstand verdanken, daß inzwischen das Wahlalter von 25 auf 23 Jahre erniedrigt wurde. Diese 100 000 rekrutieren sich demnach aus der Jugend Norwegens, die durchweg dem Zwang des Verbots abhold ist. Außerdem wird im Gegensatz zur vorigen Abstim -
Serruys in Berlin
Serruys in Berlin Nachrichtendienst der " Vossischen Zeitung " br Paris, 18. Oktober Der Direktor der Handels-Abteilung im französischen Wirtschaftsministerium Serruys kommt heute nach Berlin. Die " Journée Industrielle " behauptet, seine Absicht sei es, mit den deutschen Behörden gewisse Fragen über den Abschluß des deutsch-französischen Handelsvertrages zu besprechen. Gleichzeitig sollen die Handelsbeziehungen zwischen Deutschland und dem Saargebiet sowie die Fragen, die sich aus [?]