and various copper, tungsten, rubber—I was instrumental in building up one of the great industries in rubber in Mexico, which was the establishment of the source of supply of rub¬ ber, and developed a large concern there for the pro¬ duction of raw material, which is still going on * * * “I became interested in the new process of concen¬ tration of low-grade ores in the Mesaba Range, but the interest I had particularly in steel was in the study of the present-day organization, in order to get myself posted so that I could intelligently buy or sell their securities * * * ”
It is an important point, one not made very clear in the testimony, what interests Mr. Baruch held at the beginning of the war. His previous activities in vari¬ ous fields, principally perhaps the field of metals, had been important and numerous. In any case, as a young man, he is found to be master of large sums of money, and there is no indication that he inherited it.
‘DISRAELI OF AMERICA”-A JEW OF SUPER-POWER 59 He is very wealthy. What change the war made in his wealth, if it made any change at all, is a matter on which nothing may be said now. Certainly many of his friends and closest associates reaped great quanti¬ ties of money from their activities during the war.
Now, as to the point of his business connections just prior to the war, this testimony appears:
Mr. Graham—“You continued in the opera¬ tion of these various businesses, in the formation of companies and the flotation of their stocks, and in your business in the Stock Exchange and else¬ where up until the time of the beginning of the war ?”
Mr. Baruch—“I was gradually getting myself away from business, because I had made up my mind to retire, and I had been getting less active with that end in view, and I was not very much in sympathy with the organization of companies. I am not criticising other men who