The Mena weekly star. (Mena, Ark.) 1904-1977, 1920-07-08
DEMOCRACY IS
STRANGE TO HUNS
New Style Government Isn's Under
stood by Germans-Political Con-
froversy Is Bread and GoOse-Fat
of Boche Life-No Butter at All.
international News Service STAFF
Correspondent.
Nv EARLE C. REEVES,

BY EARLE C. REEVES.
Berlin, July 6.-"We don't UNDER
stand parliamentary government.
We never had it before"
SO the German explains the mud
die in which his country finds itself
in the experiment of self-rule,
They're learning. They seem to be
learning fast over here.
AT home we think it takes a tre-
mendous let of mouth work and
printed words to get anything done
politically. But Germany's working
on a super Massachusetts scale. In
the Bay State an annual State cleo
fion makes politics a year-around af-
fair. 1t seems to be a continuous
side-show here.
Ten or twelve parties are taking
constant hand in the game. Political
controversy is the bread and goose
fat of German life. There is no but
ter.
/ travelled from Cologne on the eve
of the Whitsuntide holiday The train
was crowded. holiday travellers stand
German, a dozen years old, is weak
thing against a spluttering political
discussion, but | caught the high
spots.
Conversations started at the point
now popular or unpopular - the
world over. Prices they talked-sor-
rowfully, with gestures which said,
"What are we coming to 7" Then, of
course, politics, by way of finding
whether there was way out.
A mother of three and prosper
ous-looking man travelling alone led
the debate. Both looked as though
they had found way to accumulate
enough marks and to locate enough
hidden sources to insure themselves
good feeding, including fats.
The Socialist Government in Ber-
lin, one gathered, was everything
thst was cultural and unpronounce-
able, Ebert, it seemed, was worse, be-
cause helpless and hossed by ne.*s
cxperimenters. For my benefit, also,
the man in the corner read the riot
act" on France, England and Amer
lea.
He worked himself gradually into a
passion, using his arms freely to help
raise his temperature to boiling
point. found later many indications
of this national trait. that of re-
spending slowly, laboriously, to any
incentive to anger and working to a
white heat over a period of hours or
days. 1t keeps Germany's feet upon
the ground in these troubled times.
The German population Is anything
but highly inflammable.
A girl in the window corner whis-
pered to her neighbor that was
English--which was as near as she
could guess it. The rumblings of the
impromptu political orator rose high
er, as he glared now and then thru
thick lenses at me. was jnsulted, no !,
doubt. but he had long since passed |
into such stage of vocal eruption |
that could no longer even catch the
high points or the simple ones.
We stopped at 4:80 In the after |
noon and dinner was put on. The |
girl beckoned and gave me the well
come tip to stand in line in the CORR
dor. 1t was a friendly act, for I'd
had coffee and crackers for breakfast
and the station platform refreshment
booths had yielded only more coffee,
a cake of chocolate for sixty cents
and two apples.
"The war is over" she said.
Not for the simmering politician.
She had been friendly to an "aus-
lander" and he only grunted in re-
Spouse to her general goodnight, as
she left the compartment at her sta
ton.
Berlin, generally, is more friendly /
TO foreigners of the late enemy class,
for most of the people one comes into
contact with here know the money /
that comes with the visitor. Most |
have very efficient methods for help |
ing him get rid of it. But here every !
body has his particular brand of poll |
tics There's wide varity to select |
from
Burying the news, or leaving it |
over to- be printed tomorrow. the /
German newspapers purvey opinions |
first, page one editorials, long and |
1ntricately worded, signed broadside |
by men with big journalistic names;
bitter attacks on the low intelligence
of rival writer, written in the stvle
OF the age of Horace Greedy.
The walters, one learns, are cred. -
But they are not red enough to suit