Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1930-08-03
Bull Market i'm Kings

Merry widcw," which was adjudged 70
be libelous. He held that it injured
his prospects to be depicted In the nlm
in scandalous and lewd scenes nank
heaven" said he to reporters, the
honor of the Montenegrin court Is VIM
d1cated."
He has not lost hope of sitting on
the throne of a restored Montenegro
Who knows what may happen IN Eu-
rope? One war absorbed his little ma
ton in the combined Kingdom oil Ine
Croats, Slovenes and Serbs. Another
may well break up that new conglom-
crate state, and he may be put pacA
on the throne of his forefathers.
He ought to derive some encourage
ment from the high adventure OF Eosn'
that 33-year-old mountain chieftaln IN
Albania, who two years ago successfully
turned himself into king and ms
country into a European kingdom, the
newest and smallest on the Continent.
King Zugo 1 functions now as the
undisputed autocrat of his country anu
the idol of his people. He holds an
infant fort between the huge and ag-
grandized JugoSlavia, stretching eagerly
for an outlet to the Mediterranean, ana
a glowering Italy, desperately determ-
ined to bar the way to that outlet. he
may be in Mussolini's pocket, since tnaI
potentate lent him $l0,000,0O0 ana Sc
cured the right to train the Albanian
army and build strategical roads ana 1
works in Albania. but among his own
800 ,000 subjects he is very mucn the
King.
"The only difference kingship has
made to me- he told an inquirer re-
Gently, lis that instead OF working elgnI
hours a day l now work ID, ana
carry the responsibility Of the whole
state I am only simple workman DO
ing my Job. That is all kingship means
to me-"
AbsOlutism Is Gone.
Kingsl Outside wild mountain states,
they are not what they used to be. They
can no longer impose themselves, ex-
plot dominate rule in the absolute
tradition and claim to hold their thrones
directly of God.
They are summoned now by peoples
or by political groups or leVered mo
position by interested great powers.
But mainly they are wanted ana
welcomed by peoples who, unable
human material and possessed of
the essential attributes of leader.
ship, banker for a symbol around
which to wreath their hopes, fears, as
pirations and longings for stability--a
king who locks like a leader, even II ne
is not one; who seems to be above the
politicians; who promises permanence
and who puts up brave show.
Lock at Carol, weak, amorouS
prince, recalled to further The interests
and fortunes-of whom? OF the peas
ant masses! The interests one normally
associates with kings, the mobiles, the
financial powers, the banker industrial
lists, the boyarS---theSe were exactly the
interests hostile to Carol, and it was to
break them that the astute peasant
leaders staged the Carol coup.
Politicians can safely be behind the
times, and usually are; but today In
Europe princes are perceiving that it is
polite to be ahead OF them. ror princes
are the kings of tomorrow, and kings in
the scientific age who want to hold their
thrones must identify themselves with
the high adventure of life and progress.
Consider the Prince of Wales, the
best living example of the efficient mod
ern prince. Lean, brown, sineWy. &C
tive, restless, adventurous, far-ranging,
enduring-he himself is characteristic
of the new age into which man is NOV
ing so fast that the entire world IS dis
organized by the speed and range Of the
great transition. One perceives him
consciously fitting himself for world
which in Is years will be as different
from the world of 1880 as that world is
from the world of 1900.
Wales Is. Adaptable.
He possesses the most valuable quail.
ity OF all-adaptability He ranges far,
1t is the tradition that the King of
England must not leave the island save
in some such emergency as an illness,
cure, or a historical occasion, like the
coronation of the Emperor of India at
! Delhi.
But the Prince of Wales as King will
| Ill fro no IN
making a regular annual trip to jungle
or lcke or mountain or ranch, living in
| the simplest fashion, hardening his body
and storing his nervous batterieS--and
incidentally strengthening by his pres
ence the ties which bind distant lands
in the British Empire chain to the
mother island, and the idea of the
throne as the keystone in the imperial
structure.
The Prince of Wales is in the van of
the young men and women who are
blazing the adventurous trail into
larger and freer age. He has reoriented
his life lately by giving up hunting and
Steeplechasing, by cutting down on
dancing, by extending the range of his
pastimes to include golf Cat which he
used to be no good, by enlarging his
bachelor quarters and planning an even
larger social life.
And all the time he goes about more
| freely than any prince since Haroun al
Raschid walked the streets of Bagdad.
More and more he finds ways of meet
| ing privately and informally men who
matchmaker not because of inher-
tied rank or high titles, but because of
achievements. From his home he rings
uD commoner friends of humble birth.
| He finds time to write them friendly
| little letters in his own hand.
| The kings and princes of yesterday
did not do these things-they could not
do them. But times and men change at
a tempo that constantly increases, and
kings must change, too, or perish.
If William II of Germany had kept
pace with changing world, he would
hold this throne today. If he had not
been an astounding anachronism, a
throw back to the vanished day when q
king could say 'tL'etat c'est moi" and
not lie. he would not today hide his
aging head in Dutch castle behind a
| barbed-wire fence. Nor would Europe
have acquired new face, nor would
| the orientation of world economics and
| financial power be what 1t is, nor would
| the bones of 100000 men molder in
the bloody track Of the greatest and
most destructive war in the history Of
mans sojourn on the planet
! A solemn thought, which may escape
at least one of the latter-day dictators
but is not lost on any Of the latter
day kings.