The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1926-05-22


of the Hohenzollerns or the national
standard of the Weimar republicy
Over such vital questions do German
cabinets seem to fall!
The cabinet of Herr Luther pro
posed that the merchant marine flag,
which contained in its upper left-hand
corner the emblem of the carpenter of
Doom, should fly side by side with the
Black-Red-Gold banner of the republic
on German diplomatic buildings
abroad. It was necessary to placate
the citizens of the Reich in other
countries whose royalist tastes could
not stomach the sight of the republi-
can flag with its implications of ex-
fled monarchs and scorned princes.
Or so the cabinet maintained. And
while all the parties jockeyed for po-
sition the widespread monarchist-fas-
cist plot was unearthed, the support
Luther expected from the nationalist
followers of Count Westarp was alien
ated and the cabinet fell in a vote of
lack of confidence.
Interesting as the war of the flags
may be, our story must go a little
deeper. AS the name Achilles as
sumed when he hid with the women
during the Hellenic wars may never
become known, so we may have to
remain forever ignorant about the real
preferences of the elusive German cit
liens living abroad on the flag that
should wave over German diplomatic
buildings. But the efforts of Herr
Luther are not so unbelievable. At
least, we may venture a good guess.
The empire which was crowned at
Versailles in 1871 is in sad state.
All that is left of it is Wilhelm at
Doom, crown-prince who is hooted
by mobs when he ventures into the
streets, and a determined band of
monarchist officers. Nor is the cher
ished republic of the ancient priest of
Social-Democracy, Kautsky, with it's
constitution of Weimar, in a much
better conditions. The Reichstag has
disintegrated into a dozen parties.
The republic of Hindenburg and
Sressemann and Scheidemann is
threatened from one side by the revo-
lutionary proletardat and from the
other by monarchist and fascist plots.
And every cabinet rests upon a tenn
porary turn of fortunes, the wish of
American or allied finance capital
coalitions, and other unstable phe-
nomena.
The cabinet of Mr.. Luther, like that
OF his predecessors, was beginning to
feel the CHASTITY hand of oblivion.
Made up of a dubious combination of
four of the center parties it had to
reply not only to the accusing finger
OF the nationalist for it's Dawes Plan
Locarno-Geneva adventures, but to the
tremendous demand of the broadcast
sections of the people for the confis-
cation of estates of the ex-princes.
With the former, a gentleman of the
accomplishments of a Luther, whose
words and deeds smack of the spirit
of the founder of the Society of Jesus,
might without much difficulty come to
an agreement. With the latter it was
next to impossible.
In the face Of the twelve and half
millions of names signed to a petit.
ton demanding a popular referendum
on the appropriation of the ex-princes,
Herr DOlCtor Luther. like Lot, turned
his face definitely from the left and
to the right What better way, under
the difficult circumstances, of secur-
ing a good Reichstag majority for a
cabinet than to WOO and win the votes
OF the Nationalist bloc? For Spring
has come even to unfortunate Ger
many. And what better posies might
q lover present to his fierce national
list lady than the proposal to legalize
and make obligatory the use of the
old imperial emblem, which is as