Evening star., 1925-11-20
HINDENBURG
Won for Republic
BY Frank Fl. Sin,onds.

" Hlle the maneuVerS CT "ndl Lne
Germans described as their Inner"
politics must remain largely incom-
prehensible to the outsider, one fact
is beginning to be unmistakable.
The Nationalists have with incred-
lble, if characteristic, stupidity
thrown away all the advantage
which might have beeen theirs, and
that the world did assume they had
acquired when they elected Field
Marshal Hindenburg President Of the
republic.
1t is difficult to imagine a more
ridiculous situation than that into
which the extreme elements of the
Nationalists have put their party
and themselves. Selling upon the
popularity Of the old marshal which
is not only universal but wholly
comprehensive, they made him
President in a campaign which would
have been won by the socialist and
bourgeois combination otherwise.
In doing this they displayed an ir-
rltatlng lack of comprehension OF
world opinion and for moment
gravely compromised the position of
Germany.
But as events have fallen out it
has become clear that their initial
success was ultimate disaster. When
the old marshal took his oath of
allegiance to the republic, not only
did his character guarantee he would
keep it, but the Nationalists were
suddenly confronted by the fact that
the man who had been made the
standard bearer of those who were
uncompromising foes of the republic
had not alone accepted ii but sworn
to uphold it. The republic had re-
ceiyed an Endorsement which was
not very exactly appraised abroad,
but did have immediate valuation
in Germany.
This was the first blunder; this was
the primary failure to appreciate the
consequences. Hindenburg was
name which could bring victory, but
Hindenburg remained a name after
victory, and if he accepted the repub-
lie, the Nationalist arguments and de
nuncfationS lost force. In reality, a.
though the world thought otherwise,
it was the republic which gained Hin
denburg, not the Nationalists who con.
quered the republic by putting a sol
der in the Presidents palace
Thus. in reality, the day the old
marshal took the oath of Office the
Nationalists actually lost him, al
though at the moment the fact was
little apparent. What remained for
the Nationalist to do to complete
their job was TO make a public display
of the breach between the man they
had made President and themselves
And this they have done with com.
pleteness in the matter of the LoCarno
pacts
In point of fact. the battle, once
Hindenburg was President, was to de-
eide who would control him, or more
exactly what position he would take
as between the elements which desired
10 make peace and have an adjust
ment and those who were unwilling to
take any account of the realities, and
insisted upon refusing all concession
and preserving sterile aspirations and
lmpotent grudges rather than seeking
through a recognition of what was i'm
mutable TO bring about a change in
what was at once intolerable and
cs pable of amendment
In this battle Luther and Strese-
mann have overborne Westarp and all
the extremists They defeated them
over the Dawes plan while Ebert was
still President, for Ebert's position
was never in doubt. But now they
have defeated or will soon inevitably
defeat them, because while Hinden-
burg is President, he is unquestion.
ably converted to the Stresemann.
Luther policy and to the Locarno
pacts.
In the last analysis what Luther
and Stresemann have labored for has
been, first, to free Germany from the
actual position of isolation and infe
rlorlty which a lost war invariably
imposes. While the Nationalists thun-
derously demanded the allied repudia-
ton of the war guilt" sections in the
treaty of Versailles, Luther and
Stresemann have worked to obtain the
evacuation of the Ruhr, of the Co
logne zone, both of which are now
realized or assured, and beyond that
the evacuation of all German soil.
In a word, Luther and Stresemann
have worked for a settlement, the Ma.
tlonalistS have preferred to cherish
grievances and rely upon German re-
sentiment and desire for revenge as
more potent than German desire for
peace and adjustment. Hindenburg.
confronted with the choice. has de-
cided inevitably for adjustment He
is President of people who desire
passionately TO be free Of physical re-
straints, of foreign interferences, who
at one time desire to regain mastery
on their own soil and to obtain abroad
that capital which is the prerequisite
to resuming the old march toward
economic prosperity.
X X X
1t is true-no one can deny it-that
q whole people paSSionately resent
and deny the guilt" detail of the
treaty of Versailles. If allied coun-
tries were to insist upon treating Ger
many on the basis of such a declara-
ton not even material considerations
would have weight. But the fact
" T ,Ith nd
proved is that, impossible as it may
still be to revise the statement in the
treaty of Versailles, every interna-
tional conference demonstrates that it
has become a dead letter so far as
realities are concerned
AS a result of the Stresemann oper-
ations, in which for more than a year
DR.. Luther has been an important
partner, Germany has already COM
pletely emerged alike from political
and social isolation. At Locarno every
circumstance contrasted with those of
the peace congress seven years ago.
Germany appeared as q great power
proposing to her equals a system of
European adjustment, and on the
basis of that offer demanding as of
right very large material advantages.
which. to be sure, the German would
describe as rights. And, as the recent
VI the dIlled intention
to evacuate the Cologne zone demon
strates, she not only obtained these
advantages, but she is to have them
in advance of her performance.
X X x
In all this one must see quite clear.
ly that the Nationalists, who won a
far-shining victory in electing Hinden-
burg, lost eventually because they had
nothing to propose. They were simply
and solely against any understanding