Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-01-17

America with the rest of the world
seems to accept the dictatorship OF King
Alexander in Jugoslavia as a logical de-
velopment and, perhaps, the only road
to stability in the troubled war-born
Kingdom Of the Serbs, Croats and
Slovenes.
AS the st. Paul Pioneer Press de-
scribes the Balkan monarchs assump-
ton of supreme power: still another
European country has gone in for the
dictatorship idea. This time 1t is Jugo-
slavia, stormy petrol of the Balkans, and
the novel thing about it is that for once
a King is doing the debating. Mussolinl
elbowed aside the Italian King and
Rivera in Spain made King Alfonso a
flgurehead. But the expiring in
stitution of royalty is showing decided
signs of life at Belgrade. There. at the
capital of Jugoslavia, King Alexander
has suspended the constitution, dis
missed Parliament and made himself the
only real strong King still In the buSl-
ness"
OF this action the Waterbury Re-
publican says, THE step he took was
as radical as could easily be imagined,
but it is logical in view of his popularity
all over the kingdom and the fact that
loyalty to him is about the only thing
the three peoples who make it up have
in common"
Reviewing causes, the Philadelphia
Record explains this "act of royal
usurpation" as the result "of conditions
and forces which had brought Jugo-
Slavia to the verge of civil war;" noting
particularly the stern. implacable
defiance of the government at Belgrade
by the Croatians since the assassira-
ton of their leader Raditch. last Sum-
mer, with their recent ultimatum-"We
recognize only two institutions-the
people and the King. These alone can
save the state"
The irritant in this Balkan govern
mental structure which is an attempt
ITO unite the Serbs, Croats and Slovenes
under one government and in one ma
ton, observes the Lexington Leader, was
supplied by the Serbs, who from the be-
ginning "have assumed to be the pr1n-
cipal element and dominating unit"
AS the Newark Evening News views
the situation previous to the dictator
ship, the Serbs have seemed to look
upon 1t as a greater Serbia" and this
paper believes that King Alexander in
tends ito be King Of all the groups In
his kingdom, giving the on-Serbian
elements fairer deal than they re-
ceived at the hands Of the Serb-con-
trolled Parliament"
Will he be successful? The Spokane
Spokesman Review asks the question,
"FIoW can King Alexander know that he
can interpret the true voice of the peo-
pie? All tyrantS and dictatorS profess
that power of divination," continues this
paper, but only once in century or
so does the world see ruling genius
who really has it."
The future of the tri-headed country,
as the editors see 1t, Is still on the lap or
the gods, with the world in general
amazed at the calmness with which this
fundamental change in rule has been
made. THE radical change which has
been forced upon JugoSlavia has been
received with such remarkable absence
of fireworks and warlike fervor that the
world Is inclined to ask If the Balkans
have departed from the trouble-ma
| role which they have so long played"
remarks the New York Sun, as 1t pre-
diets that If King Alexander succeeds in
welding his people into one, "he will be
acclaimed as the savior of his Kingdom
and the benefactor of the Slavic race. d"
In the condition of Jugoslavia the
Boston Evening Transcript sees lone OF
the advantages of the monarchical sys-
| tenn of government-even of constitu-
tional monarchy" in that Gin times OF
stress or anarchy an unlimited power
may be assumed by the royal head
pending the restoration of normal con-
ditions."
| Conditions have never. been salts
| factory in this country created after
the World War. according to many
newspaper observers. The New Bedford
Evening Standard Says that the nation
has been so split into blocs that
the Parliament has been more or less
impotent," and the government has
been incapable Of doing anything that
might straighten out the tangle and
establish q measure of national unity. .
The New York Evening Post gives an
insight into the difiiculties by listing
the racial groups whose inherent differ