Evening star., 1923-12-09
EUROPE UPON THE EVE /
OF MOMENTOUS EVENTS
Present Trends and Future Are Mir.
rOred i'm Reflections ON
Past History.

And he made half -deSpairing, half-
fatalistic gesture.
Probably there is not anywhere in
the world today a brilliant writer of
fiction, even more imaginative than
a II. G. Wells in "The War of the
Worlds" his Time Machine" or THE
First Men in the Moon," who could
forecast sort of veracious unravel-
ment of this grim reality -plot-Ger-
many's currency riddle. Just, imagine
the eastern half of the states of
America, few intensely industrial
lied states amid a vast eXpanSe or
agricultural and farming states. And
assume, then. that in such country
American currency would have lost
all its purchasing power. That wages,
values and services of all kind would
have to be reappraised, revalued
daily, in the illusory hope to adjust
them to the shifting values which
we now call our costs of living.
TeutOnic State of Mind.
Imagine further, that the only peo-
pie In that extraordinary country to
be those who sold against foreign
exchange currency their food stuffs
and manufactured goods. And this
foreign currency, being mostly de-
posted in foreign banks, in order to
keep credit available for the neces-
sary purchase of raw materials. ship
ping space, and foreign imported vic
tuals, would absorb all the savings.
the profits of the nation. Imagine
then the state of mind, the 'psychol-
ogy Of the masses; of fifty millions
of wage-earners, small agriculturists
and farmers; of the economic armies
of the civil services, employees of
commerce and industry, the people
with small savings, the hundreds OF
thousands of modest shopkeepers,-
all these with mo foreign deposits"
Thus is the state of mind of, per-
haps fifty million Germans today.
What bolshevism did in Russia, to
abolish private property, where the
destruction of confidence had brought
tional and national credit. had been
immensely facilitated by the depre-
citation and debauching of the Rus
sian rouble. after kerensky's fall.
But again, it is more to the closely
resembling economic state of France,
just imm ediately before the French
revolution at the end of the eight
eenth century. that we might point,
rather than to historical precedent
of Slavonic and a largely uncul-
tured people.
French Issue of Notes.
Without dwelling upon the ex-
tremely interesting details of the is
sue of "assignats" under Calonne, the
ideal minister of finance" of Louis
XVI Cor should we say of Mario An
toinetteO, we know the financial
credit of France. the grand mon
archy" of the latter Bourbons, had
become utterly bankrupt. No more
money could anywhere be raised. The
"assignats," or national bonds, were
Of
erty, and they deprecated almost at
once. After the revolt of July, 1889,
the national assembly issued many
more millions of national "promissory
bonds" and the fearful depreciation
of the French currency went apace,
sapping the national confidence, .driv-
ing the common people fairly to
despairing cynicism. Which would
ultimately lead to Jacobin republican
ism of the Girondins, to Robespierre.
Current ideas in politics. and particu-
larly the sentimental and popularized
ones, fail often to take cognizance of
the economic facts in the development
of popular discomfort, growing into a
revolutionary state of mind.
The most important question to be
asked today by the intelligent and
anticipating student of current world
events, in view of the threatening
one (which is the leading political
idea today in Berlin. Munich, the
Rhine province or Saxony? Which is
the popular state of mind in these
various German lands? And who
could be the "doers of Deeds" pro-
duced by these ideas, by the develop
ment and succession of popular states
OF mind?"f
RepubIicanism Opposed.
Let it be understood that German
republicanism. grown out of more
or less MARKHAM socialism, after the
sudden bolting of the kaiser and the
crown prince into Holland G91S),
when the self-constituted council of
peoples commissioners took over the
litical creed of a small minority.
Some writer's, in Germany as else
where, mean that a plebiscite would
reveal that at least 20 per cent of
the total German population would
favor one or other form of limited,
archy, as the British.
The royal Bavarian reichswehr, COM
manded by the "disloyal' (to Ber-
lin) Gen. Won LoSsow, who since their
been reorganized and fortified (and
recently inspected by the Bavarian
Prince Rupprecht. head of
the Wittelsbach dynasty, will be
doubly on their ''qui vive" for the
coming events.
AS long as Bavaria should stand
alone against the republi-
canism Of Berlin and the communism
of Saxony, it would, with its nearly
100000 Inhabitants, only be seri-
Gus danger for German republicanism
on account of it being, or becoming,
the powerful national champion of
German monarchism. And nothing in
the past had ever prepared Germany
for republicanism like the secession
states of former Austria were. the
France of Louis XVI, or OF Napoleon
III, former republican prince-presi-
dent before the coup d'etat of De-
cember 2, 1851. Monarchy govern
ment is the most favored form for the
north European peoples, and the Ger
man people, as the English. have new
er successfully gone without.