The Birmingham age-herald., 1922-08-07
Killing of Rathenau
 Shows War in Germany

New York, August 6.-The assassination of Dr. Walter Rathenau, German foreign minis ter, revealed the existence of practical state of war between the republican government and it's reactionary opponents, declares Her bert s. Houston, president of the Houston Publishing company in Our World for August MT. Houston, who was in Berlin on the day when Dr. Rathenau was killed gives the follow ing graphic description of events in the Ger man capital during the tremendous strife of hostile factions which immediately developed, the first account by an American eyewitness to be brought to the United States and pre- sented to the public. MT. Houston says:
 "On calm June morning I sat in the offices of the chief editor of the yossische zetung, Dr. George Bernhard, when a member of the staff rushed through the door, exclaiming that Dr. Walter Rathenau, the German foreign min ister, had been murdered. Three hours later was in the tribune of the Reichstag directly facing the raised benches of the government when Chancellor Wirth pronounced brief eulogium on his brilliant colleague. This had followed turbulent and violent demonstra- tion of the left (the goevrnment) against the right (the opposition)--a scene which threw into tragic relief that irreconcilable conflict that is now raging in Germany. For Ger many is at within her own borders. The shots that killed Walter Rathenau have startled the allied world into realization of that truth and of it's large and Hateful significance.
 "When Chancellor Wirth had finished, a motion was made and put, calling for the im- mediate publication of the address through out Germany. But in the entire membership of the right. over 200, not one vote was cast in favor of the motion. Here indeed were the two Germanys at war, the old order and the new, the reactonaries and monarchists and the liberals determined to uphold the republic Of course, the motion prevailed, supported by the solid government bloc.
 "The next morning, little before noon, the storm was raging. Large crowds were gather ing about the various statues in the Lusgar- ten and the legends placed on these statues of Germs of the old regime seemed highly significant 'Avenge Rathenau and Liebknecht,' Defend the Republic and similar challenges were various banners. The one that seemed to me amazing was that linking Rathe- nau, one of the greatest capitalists in Ger many, with so extreme radical as Lieb- knecht. And that linking together indicates what is both the strength and the weakness of the republic; it's strength, in effecting union between the liberals and the enlightened capi- talists on one side and the most extreme socialist radicals on the other; and it's weak ness, in the minds at least of it's enemies is I the rreconcilable character, as they declare, of the elements in this union.
 "When I asked pr. Georg Bernhard, the editor-in-chief of the Vossiche Zeitung, what effect the killing of Rathenau would have on the republic, he replied: Tt will greatly and immediately strengthen 1t. For one thing, it will unite it's supporters They have seen, as in lightning flash, the dangers that threaten | and they now sink minor differences and come together for the defense of the re- pYblic.''