New-York tribune., 1919-10-05

ENLlN, sept. l.-N hen the SO-callcd
= German Peoples party the other day
proposed Hindcnburg as candidate
FOR the Presidency Of Germany, around
whom all the people might rally without
regard to previous party attachments, it
did a foolish and fatuous thing There
are number of reasons for saying that.
In the first place Hindcnburg' is no polti-
clan, and never was He tried, in con-
junction with LudendorF, to run both the
military and the political business Of Ger.
many. but certainly neither man was a
success politically. Everybody recognizes
that now, and the more fully people come
to how persistently these great gen
erals tried to meddle with the affairs OF
the Wilhelmstrasse the more clearly Il is
recognized that they are no statesmen
Hindenburg No Magnet
But it is equally manifest that Hinden-
burg's great name will not prove the mag
net that might draw together the scat
tered fragments of Germany's political
parties, and that for a very good reason
namely, military prestige counts for very
little in Germany just now. The people
so weary Of the war and everything
connected with it, so disgruntled over the
political activities of these big generals
so little accessible to the alurements of
military glory that even Hndenburg
would fail to attract any considerable body
Of voters. outside of his own Conserva-
tive and PanGerman classes of the popu-
ation.
must confess that this strikes me, so
fCr
lican Germany. If the German people at
this juncture can resist the meretricious
allurcments of u great military reputation
they will certainly manifest degree Of
political ripeness which some other re-
publican nations have failed to show 1t
is favorite axiom of intelligent Germans
themselves that the Germans are not
political people, but if they now turn
down a great general in order to seek
statesman as President they will certainly
have done a most noteworthy thing-even
If they do not succeed in finding the states
man, they probably will not
Without Statesmen
Which suggests the further remark that
Germany is practically without statesmen
at this moment. There is not a man who
stands out as ralying centre of national
sentiment. Why have the Germans no
leaders who stand out for their political
ability? They fully aware of the fact
and are themselves discussing the phe-
nomenon A placard got out by the Con-
servatives last winter during the campaign
for the National Assembly made char
acteristc confession of the lack of a lead
IL showed "a hor of II &C.
ures in the foreground representing the
present political parties, while in the back
ground loomed, great and ghostlv. the
massive features of Bismarck And even
that cartoon hinted at Hindenburg as the
coming man.
''Welf-Fremd''
learned professor has just been dis
cussing this lack of leadership in a way
that seems to me to strike bottom at some
points. He thinks that the whole intel
lectual habit Of the Germans is a direct
encouragement or preventive of great
leadership. 10 put it in more definite
form, he thinks the Germans are too ad-
dlcted to analysis and criticism to throw
themselves whole-heartedly into any move
ment and follow their leader with un
questioning zeal for the cause. In short,
it is "ovcr-intellectuaity," says this au-
thority, and "the multfarious volume of
our mere knowledge has led to a hypertro-
ply of the intellect at the cost Of the will.u
he holds that the spirit of hypercriticism
that dominates the German intellect kills
that naivete which is prerequisite for
energetic action; it prevents that certain
fanaticsm which makes "a neon1a fo11ou
their leader undisturbed by doubts
think the professor struck bedrock In
all that. His remarks are quite in line
with what German acquantances have said
10 me at various tmes-only they could
not say it so philosophically. One Of these
"A man who grew up in military and
Junker traditions, but has been out in the
world enough to see and understand many