The Washington times., 1923-10-02
HOPE NOW
IN IRON
RlJLE:
Nation Tired of Shifting Poll
cies-Step Foreshadowsd
for Months.
By S.. D. WEYER.
international News Service.

resulted, on September %, in the
appointment of Minister Of De-
Tense Gessler as dictator for the
whole of Germany, has been fore
Swallowed for many months to
intimate eobservers by the almost
universal demand for a Strong
man" to play just this role.
The need for President Ebert's
act was made immediate, of
course. by the appointment of q
Bavarian dictator, though it long
has been obvious that the step
was inevitable.
Hope in Dictatorship.
German newspapers have openly
advocated the move, and in doing
90 have voiced the yearnings CT
10000, 900 people who are sick of
eelf-rule and ready to put their
trust in one man who would take
their destinies in hand and Ego
ahead and do something"
The entire nation is agreed that
every other system has been tried
and found wanting, and since hope
springs eternal even in the breast
q q "down-and-out" nation, II is
felt that the only salvation lies
with q dictatorship: not OF one par
ticular party or group Of parties,
but Of one particular man, with
hair on his teeth" who will look
neither right nor left, nor f1irt
with the middle, but RULE, IL need,
with a rod of iron.
A nation which for decades was
drilled to the goose-step has had a
re
ng-politically speaking-and its
head IL dizzy. From the parliament
tary tango and party-bloc shimE1y
its thoughts turn back tenderly to
the good old-fashioned' polka of
ffa.- lays. Right here 1t should
De said. however, that this wistful
geminiscing does not include the
:. laster'' OF those days.
Only an utterly negligible minority
would like. to revive the .'Potsdann
Polonaise," with either Wilhelm the
slider Or the younger commanding
the steps
Excepting Bavaria. ,nonarchisnaI
ss dead in Germany. Prussia, cradle
OF the Hohenzollern dynasty aid
core Of the defunct German Empire,
has become q hotbed Of red radi-
calism. The reactionary Right,
based all its agitation upon the cry
for return OF the monarchy, has
abandoned that slogan. It has real
lied that the bulk of the German
people always excepting part of the
Bavarians-are done with dynastic
rule.
Limiting the Dictator.
Count Ernst zu ReventIow, a con-
ia "a
realist of the first order, says in an
article in his weekly, Der IseicIls.
Wart, in which he discusses the
qualities needed by a dictator.
Nothing is remoter from our
minds than the idea that the die.
tator should be the pathfinder for
q restoration of the monarchy. AL
healthy monarchy in Germany isl
thinkable only upon the precondi-
ton that considerable part of
the German masses wants a mon.
archy."
The count admits that this pre-
condition does not exist.
A year ago the clamor for a die
tAtor was, for the nationalists,
more or less a subterfuge, step
ping stone to power, which they
then still could not imagine in any
other form but a monarchy. But
the hard blows that the last years
political developments have dealt
them have literally knocked 'im-
mediate" monarohism out Of their
heads and hearts. They have
learned the grim lesson that the
been continually left tout in the
cold" and been denied hand in
the government. in spite Of the fact
that they undoubtedly represent to-
q great degree the most construc-
tive elements of law and order. Isl
that they are compromised and dis
credited by the old regime; their
own countrymen, as well as the
outside world, suspect them of
wanting to restore monarchy the
first chance they get.
Educating the People.
The leading personalities Of the
Right, the old army and navy Of
ficers, still believe at heart that
q monarchy is the best form of
government for Germany But,
with the exception of a very few,
they have come to realize that ii
would take at least a generation
tn educate the people back to
g." From talks with many Of the
chiefs of the nationalistic move
Hindenburg, the writer is convinced
that they have abandoned for all
time the idea of restoring the mon
archy by force Probably the only
one who believes that possible is
the ex-kaiser himself, who even
now lives the life of a phantom
emperor" in his fenced-off make
believe empire" at Doom. The
man who would stand a fair chance
of holding himself on the throne
If any man could be set up as
emperor by force-Friedrich VIII.
helm, the former Crown Prince,
frankly told the writer several
months ago that he considered a
Aoup by force a criminal venture
&aomed beforehand to ridiculous
fiAsco"
And SO the nationalists have
ditched their dynastic dream for
a more concrete and a more
promising plan-a dictatorship.
But the cry for a dictatorship
goes out from all the other parties
also. Each party wanted, of
course, to furnish the candidate
and put him up, so as to be the
Spower behind the throne" But
the people as a whole are sick