Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-03-17
nv COUNT CARLO sToRzA,

Former Italian Minister for Foreisn Anairs
and Ambassador to France.
I'm old Europe, perhaps even here in
America. there are some lntellec-
tual currents which are trying to
launch the fashion of a certain
skenticism about the future OF de-
r,ocracy When anti-democratic regimes
have become possible in countries pre-
vio,,slv accustomed to democratic con-
cention of life there If no doubt that IL
;s because a sort of literary movement
the fruit of a mixture OF war sensa-
tions and industrialistic interests-has
nrenared the ground by throwing dis
credit and irony on democratic prln-
ciples. s.,,+,,, l.,
history after great wars is reason enough
NOT to attach too great an importance
to such a recurring phenomenon. war
has paved the way for the new Conui-
t; n with its miseries, with the
habit it fosters. while 1t lasts, OF car
INC little for laws and rules.
After all. we ought to remember that
at the end of the bloody period OF the
French Revolution and of the Ma
noleonic Empire. all Europe, France IN
Guided turned white" out Of reaction.
Put without turning to history, we
have examples under our very eyes.
Thev ought to spare us the necessity OF
arguing on theoretical terms. We may
draw a practical philosophy OF history
from the greatest national tragedy that
our generation has witnessed. ms
tragedy cannot be the fate OF Russia
Russia was Asia before the revolution,
and still is Asia; she was an lntoleraole
noIice regime under the Cars, and she
is an intolerable police regime under
Soviet dictatorship. Russia does not OF
fer us any permanent lesson; sne is sun
nassing through series of dramatic
nhases. Nobody knows whether things
mill end in some new dictatorial adj
venture or. as seems more probable,
whether they will crystalline, perhaps
slowly. into a form of atomic agrarian
democracy, which, after all, would be
best as far as the peace of Europe and
Asia is concerned.
Fall of German Empire.
The tragedy was thinking of as the
one which we have had the opportunity
of witnessing through all of its phases,
from the greatest prosperity down to
the greatest catastrophe, is that of the
greatness and fall of the German En-
pire.
It might be well 10 make pTellm-
mary remark: There is in France a
party-a minority, despite journalistic
puearances-which constantly de-
nounces the German peril, the awaken
ing of the Boche, and by its words runs
the risk of keeping alive the very dam
ger against which it pretends to be the
best traditional French guardian.
So far as home policy is concerned
these gentlemen are all in favor eff
autocracy, of dictatorship. They do not
seem to have reflected on this; that If
there is really a German danger for
France at present it was created by the
strong man in power, by the autocrat
of their hearts-Bonaparte
When the Corsican was first consul
Germany was a loose confederation of
about 300 states, independent of each
other in essential matters and bound
only by some lip homage to the Holy
Roman Emperor, so-called In spite of
his being neither holy nor Poman. It
was Bonaparte-this highly overrated
politician-who laid the first foundation
of German unification and therefore of
German power; he reduced the endless
German principalities to about 30
But this was only material advan-
tage which he gave to Germany. Bona
parte did more. He gave the Germans
! a soul.
The birth OF the present German ma