[Diskussionsbeitrag zum Kohlenbergbau, Bd. II, S. 507, Nr. 53]

Emil Lederer: Intervention on Coal Mining (1920)

This recorded commission speaking turn concerns the entrepreneur’s freedom to dispose of funds and the corresponding rights of the Reich Coal Council (Reichskohlenrat). Lederer’s argument moves from an objection to unequal financial discretion toward a proposal for shared ownership or voting power. Its central distinction is between merely holding funds and being able to invest them:

Er hat einen Vorteil; er hat den Vorteil, daß er darüber frei verfügen kann, er braucht es nicht auf die Sparkasse zu legen, er kann es investieren.

English translation: He has an advantage; he has the advantage that he can freely dispose of it, he does not have to deposit it in the savings bank, he can invest it.

For Lederer, free disposal is itself an economic benefit. His remedy therefore concerns rights within enterprises, not simply where money is deposited:

Deshalb möchte ich mir den Vorschlag erlauben, daß in irgendeiner Form ein Miteigentum oder ein Mitstimmrecht des Reichskohlenrats nach Maßgabe der Tilgungsquoten an den Unternehmungen begründet wird.

English translation: I would therefore like to venture the proposal that, in some form, co-ownership or a right to participate in voting in the enterprises be established for the Reich Coal Council in proportion to the repayment quotas.

Lederer leaves the institutional form open but specifies a proportional basis for participation. He presents this as a minimum requirement when prices enable the entrepreneur to make purchases. The intervention’s significance lies in connecting financial advantage to ownership or governance rights; the brief record does not explain the surrounding financing arrangement or how those rights would operate.