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20 Crushing the German Advance in American IndustryOrenstein - Arthur Actiengesellschaft, atBerlin. Similarly, the eighteen branchesof German insurance companies in thiscountry collected for their own use detailedplans and drawings of all the propertyinsured by them, with especial referenceto the hazard of the insured buildingsfrom fire, explosion, or other causes.Whether these interesting circumstanceshad any connection with the fact whichafterward became apparent, that whoeverwas planning the explosions which occurredin munition plants, seemed toknow the vulnerable points in which tocause the explosions, has been one of theunsolved riddles of the war.After the world war started, the Orenstein- Arthur Koppel Company took acontract to furnish certain railway suppliesto Russia, and the German agentswho were operating the plant became suddenlypossessed of the fear that in doingso they had violated the penal code of theFatherland in agreeing to furnish suppliesto an enemy of Germany. Inquiry bythem at the German Embassy in Washingtondeveloped the fact that it was aviolation, but the German agents at Koppelexpressed the hope that this violationof the German law might well be condonedin view of the fact that they were inposition to render a great service to theFatherland by taking the contract withRussia and failing to deliver the goods.This was fighting the war in Pennsylvaniain the days when we were trying in goodfaith to be neutral.The Bosch Magneto Company, by secretownership of the stock of competitors,had reached a point where it controlledmore than half of the business in thiscountry in magnetos and battery ignitionsystems. It secretly owned the majorpart of another magneto company, andthrough stock ownership controlled thelargest producer of moulded insulation, aproduct which was essential to the magnetoindustry. It had acquired for abouta million dollars another competitor,whose plant was promptly shut down anddismantled. In addition to these investments,the Bosch Magneto Companyowned and operated a well-equipped factoryat Springfield, Massachusetts, withbranches at Detroit, Chicago, and SanFrancisco, and, when the war opened, itsproducts had obtained first place in theminds of the American purchasing public.It was ostensibly American-owned.It had only twenty-five thousand dollarsof capital stock, though it was afterwardsold to American purchasers for four millionone hundred and fifty thousand dollars,and of this stock all but a few sharesstood in the name of American citizens,who at first steadfastly insisted that therewas no enemy interest in the company.Despite this alleged American ownershipduring the period of our neutrality, thecompany was openly pro-German in itssympathies and activities. Though itmanufactured a product highly importantin war, it refused to sell anything to eitherthe allied governments or to any purchaserssuspected of being interested forthe allied governments. It did this underan alleged impartial business policyof refusing to supply materials for anybelligerent, but it was, of course, playingGermany's game. When the UnitedStates went into the war the companystill held back, and it was not until aftera most searching investigation, followedby a confession by the men who had concealedthe enemy ownership, that theAlien Property Custodian was able totake over the business. When he didtake it over, he made the Government ofthe United States its preferred customer,and at the time of the armistice was furnishingeighty-five per cent of the productof the Bosch Magneto Company to thisgovernment for war purposes.The Bosch Magneto Company presentsan interesting example of the Germanmethod of invading our market.Bosch had taken out a large number ofAmerican patents. The Bosch MagnetoCompany was permitted to use these patents,but when that company was takenover as enemy property, it was learnedthat it had no title whatever to the patents,either by assignment, license, orotherwise. Bosch had simply been permittinghis own company to use themwithout paying royalty or license fee, relyingfor his compensation upon theenormous profits which the companycould earn in the manufacture of theproduct for his benefit. It was this circumstancethat first carried convictionto the minds of our investigators that the