BALLIN, Albert, director-general of the Hamburg-Amerika line: b. Hamburg 1857, of Jewish parents, After receiving a good com mercial education he went to England and resided there several years, studying the British mercantile marine and acquiring a thorough knowledge of the language. Since 1886 he has been the head of the great Hamburg-Amerika steamship line, and it was mainly due to his perseverance and organizing skill that his com pany succeeded in surpassing all its rivals in the variety and extent of its maritime opera tions. When he joined the firm, its capital was $3,750,000; at the outbreak of the European War it was $37,500,000. Whereas in the early years of his administration its gross profits were $625,000, in 1913 its gross profits ap proached $15,000,000, while the company's pennant floated from the mastheads of 180 ves sels. From a total tonnage of 60,000 for the whole fleet 25 years before, one single vessel in 1913, the Imperator, had alone a tonnage of 50,000. Though of humble origin Herr Ballin is one of the intimates of the Kaiser, who admires his extraordinary talents and has frequently sought his counsel when matters relating to the extension of German commercial affairs were in question. He has often been called one of the real makers of modern Ger many, and so highly prized are the services he has rendered to his country that the Kaiser is stated to have offered him on more than one occasion a portfolio in his cabinet. A modest
and retiring man of small stature and unob trusive bearing. Herr Ballin is essentially a man of peace; he has never been included in the (jingo* ranks of his countrymen. He is credited with having exerted all his influence with the Kaiser to yield to the United States demands on the submarine question in order to avoid a rupture with this country. He foresaw and dreaded that which eventually came to pass— the seizure of all the valuable German vessels interned in American ports. In December 1915 he published an article in the Vossische Zeitung in which he repeated the German slogan that the war was all for the advantage of the world on the other side of the ocean (the United States), and to the delight of the yellow race" (Japan). His assertion that Germany was fighting for a free pathway over both land and water was less convincing, from the fact that the actual free dom of the seas existing before the war had enabled him unmolested to build up a gigantic shipping concern.