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liferated, spread out until it occupied whole blocks of buildings.Here was a comprehensive cartelization of industry regulatingprices, competition, products, qualities, territory—every phase ofproduction and distribution. Here, in fact, was the planned economyactually in effect. It was, therefore, no longer a question whetherGermany would have such a thing. She had it. The question waswhether she would cease to have it when the war ended. And whenthe war ended, Rathenau, a leader of the conservatives, wrote:From the ruins will arise neither a Communist State nor a system allowingfree play to the economic forces. In enterprise the individual will notbe given greater latitude; on the other hand individualistic activity will beconsciously accorded a part in an economic structure working for Societyas a whole; it will be infused with a spirit of communal responsibility andcommonweal.A more equal distribution of possessions and income is a commandmentof ethics and economy. Only one in the State is allowed to be immeasurablyrich: that is the State itself. 3When the old imperial government collapsed with Germany'sdefeat, the republic was established after a brief interval with theadoption of the Weimar republic. And now we find the republicansocialists and liberals toying with these same ideas. The constitutionitself, though the socialists did not have a majority in the Weimarassembly, had a socialist tinge. And the new government beganstraightway to try its hand at some experiments in planning. Itamounted to a legalization of the principle of cartelization whichhad always been strong.In the disorder following the collapse of the imperial government,workmen's councils operated in Germany. Under their influence theconstitution recognized this institution as a permanent sector ofbusiness. Wage earners were entitled to be represented in workers'councils organized in each local enterprise as well as in districtcouncils in each economic area, all united in national workers' councils.These workers' councils were to meet representatives of employersin similar groups. Here was an organization of industry intoshop, district, and national councils, with employers and employees8 Quoted in Social and Economic History of Germany, by Werner Friedrich Bruck, London,1938.113