Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1924-02-03
EUROPE WEARYING
OF DEMOCRACIES
wants Chiefs Who Will Lead and
Governments That
Govern"
MUSsOLINI IS POPULAR
SSOLINI IS POPULAR
Writer Contrasts Progress Under
Dictatorships.
BY WILLIAM BIRD.

By Radio to The Star.
PARIS, February 2.-premier Mus
solini himself thanks the outgoing
Italian parliament, which voted him
dictatorial powers. by calling them
band of useless parasites.
Nothing stands in the way Of a
dictatorship in France except the ap-
sence of any likely dictator. Indeed
Premier Poincare could be dictator
tomorrow If he could exchange his
Unborn sense of fair play for Mus
solini's arrogance. BY so slight a
thread is Europe's present balance
held.
Even England nii,lt, by no very
great stretch of the .magirati"n, well
come a Cromwell. i:ngland's future
prospects under parliamentary
regime look gray and gloomy. 1t now
appears from Prime Minister Mac
donald's cautious puSsyfooting on II.
II. ASquith, $ velvet carpet that moth
Ing more decisive can come from
labor's access to power than re-
grouping of parties, substitution
for the old alignment of conservative
versus liberal of another Technology
conservatives versus radical liber-
ais. with a tiny clan of die-hard
either wing. And so it goes, unless
all signs fail, until some disguised
faction again arises to give the i'm
pulse toward the formation of anoth-
er great third party, and the comedy
repeats itself.
Difference in Europe.
America may cling tenaciously to
democratic ideals. but Europe. &C
Customed for four years to follow
ing striped and chevroned chiefs
blindly. even into the jaws of death,
does not readily assent to the blank
give and take of leiSurely demo-
cratic regime.
ton, life. will not be assuaged by
simply dropping a ballot into a box.
This prediction period of internal
squabbles anu international watchful
waiting is preparing the way for
chiefs who will lead the governments
which Will govern. Americans have
been accustomed ever since the war
TO have United States elections held
up as a horrible example and the
cause of most of the world ills Now
it's Europe'S turn to shoulder the
respon Utilities.
Whatever delay and confusion the
American biennial campaigns may
have caused in the settlement OF
world problems. it is a fact that the
Legislative machinery in the most
important European countries today
Ia standing stock still, while precious
time is wasted in electoral man.
euvering.
France is on the verge of her first
general parliamentary election since
1919, and as consequence the dep
uties are fearful of their parlia-
mentary lives, and are frantically
quarreling over questions of taxa
ton and fiscal scandal England,
which has just experienced one cam
paign, following hard on the heels
of it's predecessor. is governed by a
minority cabinet for the first time in
modern history, and it is only a ques-
tion of weeks until another election.
with all it's confusion and national
disruption. will become necessary.
ItaIy's Elections Near.
y Italy'S parliamentary elections are
less than two months off. and while
under the new Mussolini law, giving
q two-thirds majority in parliament
to the party which obtains the most
votes. even if only quarter of the
total. a fascist success is almost
inevitable, 1t is nevertheless true that
the campaign will afford an oppor-
tunity for discord on local questions,
to the great detriment of any sane,
sound thinking on international
affairs.
In short, it may be said that during
the next few months millions of Euro
as the worlds chief desidera tum, will
turn from this sterile internecine
strife with heavy hearts, wondering
whether, after all, some form of abb
solutism would not give a greater
continuity of policy and more solid
assurance of progress.
Indeed, SO far as the observer san
see, the two nations that have made
the steadiest progress are precisely
those in which parliamentary institu-
hou ahn1tCha6
to the minimum, namely red-shirted
Russia and black -shirted Italy. And
while the latter has preserved a
semblance of democratic forms, they
have been it's chief source of weak
ness