Evening star., 1925-04-27
ELECTION BRINGS |
REB|RTH Of FEAR
Europe Seen Reverting to
Reliance on Arms, Scent
ing Danger.
BY FREDERIC WILLIAM VILE,
Author of "Men Around the Kaiser :

BY FREDERIC WILLIAM VILE,
Author of Men Around the Kaiser
All Europe today is reaching for its
gun. A bad man" has come among
it. That Is the earliest effect of Field
Marshal Won Hindenburg's election to
the German presidency. 1t is the
simple and the whole truth to say
that the future consequences are i'm
measurable. No man, in or out of
Germany, can foreshadow them with
any degree of accuracy.
That Hindenburg's accession to
supreme leadership in Germany fills
the entire European situation with a
renewed atmosphere of gunpowder IS
undeniable. It remilitarizes Europe.
1t puts Europe on it's guard. 1t may
not at once or ever become necessary
for Europe actually to defend itself
against IIindenburgsm. But Europe
now sees at the head of Germany the
idoliZed war god of that unrepentant
country From that development
Europe can safely draw only one con-
clusion. That conclusion is that the
spirit, if not the letter, of Prussian
militarism is again enthroned at
Berlin.
Seed of Fear Replanted.
Therein lies the immediate sig
nificance of Hindenburg' election
the replanting of the seeds of fear
from one end of Europe TO another. 1t
has compelled the Old World to re-
vert to what Senator Borah has
called the psychology of war and
makes it impossible. for the time
being at least, for Europe to think
in terms of peace. Americas $ inter-
est in that state of affairs Is vast.
The United States was the archi-
tect- chief of the Dawes plan for
the settlement of the German rep
arations problem. That plan origi-
mated with Secretary Hughes and
was mainly executed through the
skill of Charles G. Dawes and owen
D. Young. Everywhere in the world
the Dawes plan was acclaimed as
marking the "rebirth of Europe"
Hindenburg's election does not smash
the Dawes play. But there can
hardly be a statesman, financler or
economist in London, Paris, Wash
ington or New York today who does
not feel that the foundation of the
Dawes plan have been seriously
shaken. if not gravely impaired.
That is one aspect of Hindenburg' 9
election which is disturbing to Amer
iCa--its unsettling of the Dawes set
tlement. The other aspect-one that
comes home directly to President
Coolidge-is the blow which Hinden-
burgism strikes at the policy of in
ternational disarmament.
Hurts Arms Farley.
II is easy to imagine what would
he the answer of France this day II
Ambassador Herrick should invite
Premier Painleve to nGcept an invita-
tion to a second conference Mt Wash
ington on limitation of arnlaments.
nh hn 10
ment issue for France. France will
not disarm, on land, at sea or in the
air, as long as the monarchist-mili-
tarist choice for the German preSi-
dency remains in power.
Nor win the states which border
Germany, and which came into exist
ence in consequence of Germany s
defeat in the World War. be in mood
to stack arms. The powers of the
little entente" whose intimate re-
lations with France are well known
Czechoslovakia, Jugoslavia and Ru-
mania-will have their fears of Ger
man military power rekindled. Po-
land. which lives in incessant terror
of a German war of revenge, will
keep her sword sharper and her pow
der dryer than ever. Within the past
so days, weeks before Hindenburg's s
election. the Poles had a specific warn
ing from Germany that she does not
regard the "rectification" of her east
ern frontier a permanent one. In the
so-called security pact" which Ger.
many offered to western Europe Ger
many agreed to consider conditions on
the Rhine is settled and irreyocable.
But she insisted on the right to dis
cuss" her eastern border diplomat
Cally" on a future occasion. Poland
will know what that means if she
has to deal with a Hindenburgized
Berlin.
Russian Figure Sinister.
There is the question of Russia. 1t
was against the Russians that Hin
denburg made his early military
fame. 1t was under his leadership
that the Russians, bolshevist- led, ,
surrendered to Germany at Brest- Lii
tovsk and betrayed the allied cause.
The red armies have to a large ex-
tent been officered by ex-Prussian
military leaders. There is a notorious
community Of interest between the
Soviet army and the German war
lords. Soviet Russia, no less than
militarist monarchist Germans, lusts
for revenge against the Poles in par
ticular, and the western capitalist"
nations in general. There is food for
grave thought in the Russo German
developments that may flow from
Hindenburg's ascendancy to the pres
idential throne at Berlin.
Within Germany itself the roper
cussion is bound to be sharp. The
German working classes, who were
the main founders of the republic in
1918, are not likely to submit meekly
to resumption of a goose-step regime.
The Rhineland. which is strongly
Republican, may carry out it's long
cherished plan and secede from the
Reich. Red Saxony" may do like
wise. Hindenburg must tread warily
If these things, and worse, are not to
come to pass.
lCopvripbt