Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1930-08-03
WOES OF GERMANY LAID
TO DEMOCRACY DISEASE"'.
New General Election Assures Country
Will Not Revert to Monarchy or Bolshe-
vism-World Depression Adds Strife.

lists again and again for the votes to
carry out his international policies. On
the other hand the Socialists were
naturally averse to supporting steadily
ministries which were dominated by
party leacers who were their enemies
on all domestic questions.
Collapse and Old Es5ls.
The collapse of the present cabinet
is q result of the recrudescence OF the
old evils. Actually the cabinet was
overturned because the Socialists and
Nationalist, or more exactly the ex-
IRENE faction of the Nationalist, head
ed by Hugenberg. for totally different
reasons voted against it. The Nation
alists were angry because the cabinet
was too moderate, the Socialists be-
cause it was too reactionary. And the
effect Of hard times was, OF course, far
from negligible.
Not more than half Of the 10 Ma
tionalistS. however, followed Hugenberg
gladly, and now they have broken away
and returned to the leadership of Count
Westarp. AS far as one can now see
this means a permanent split in the
Nationalist party, the Hugenberg fac
ton tending toward the Fascist camp
of the Hitlerites, the Westarp group
standing apart and perhaps in the END
with the Peoples party.
Should this actually happen it would
patiently be all to the good. What Ger
many gravely needs is some simplifl-
cation of her party system. She needs
party which, If not republican in
spirit, Is yet willing to accept the ex-
isting system for all present time and
to make its appeal as an economically
conservative camp. The living issue In
Germany today is economic, not po-
litical, but no political party fully sat-
isles this situation. Thus the Ma
tionalists are split between extremists
conservatives and radicals, and the
Democratic party, which resembles the
British Liberal party, seems dying of
the same disease which Is carrying on
its British prototype.
Under the surface there has been
steadily developing conviction that
what Germany needs is less Parliament
and more executive, bigger President
and smaller Congress, size denoting
power. This Is not to say that Ger
many desires Hohenzollern back or
Mussolini ahead. There is a vo-
ciferous minority advocating both as
there is an equally noisy minority clam
oring for the Red Russian form. What
Germany Is reaching for, more or less
unconsciously, Is that form of govern
ment which combines the safeguards of
democracy with the efficiency of mon
archy. And, of course, no such thing
has yet been discovered.
The French are, so far, the only peo-
pie who have made the So-called bloc
system, the system which results from
the existence of many parties or groups,
work To the outsider this system
seems to work very badly even in
France. The French, however, have
had full century of experience with
az more or less real Parliament dating
back to the Revolution of 1880, which
sent the last Bourbon packing. And
beneath the incoherence and chaos
there is political instinct which en-
ables them to employ Clemenceau or
Poincare when they are in real diff
Guilty.
Germany has not yet had time to
develop in the French way, nor, one
must add, Is 1t by any means sure that
she ever will. On the contrary, it, is
toward a more powerful President that
she turns. And in this state of mind
Hindenburg is the ideal man. But I'M
happily, he is old, and no successor is
In sight
DisorderIy Government.
The most orderly people in the world.
for the Germans certainly are that.
seem then doomed to suffer for long
time to come from one of the most
disorderly governmental systems in ex-
istence. Yet there is no sign that they
will follow the italian example and take
the short cut dictator supplies, nor
is there much reason to believe that
they will go back to their old system.
Democracy Is not in Germany the
result of long experience as in Anglo
Saxon countries, or of sustained strug-
gle, as in France. Monarchy abdicated
to Socialism in Germany in November,
1918, to escape bolshevism, but the
mass of Germans were not republicans.
much less socialists. In fact there was
not any real republican party, In our
sense. On the 9Th of November the
mass of Germans went to bed subjects
of an Emperor. and on the morning of
the 9th found themselves citizens of
a republic. wholly without any conscious
decision on their own part.
Meantime, since Germany has the
ing change in representation in the
Reichstag is likely. After election,
whatever the result, the problem of
forming a ministry by some form OF
coalition will be identical with the
problem which proved inSoluble in the
recent past and precipitated dissolution.
There will probably be few more So
cial Democrats, Communists and Fas-
cists, and almost certainly fewer Ma
tionalists and Democrats, but no party
will have majority, and the necessity
to mix oil and vinegar will recur.
Actually Germany is suffering from
the familiar diseases of democracy In
its infancy, which is an odd affliction
for a great people in all else so I'M
mistakably mature. But as far as one
can see, Europe, the world in general
has little to fear at the present stage.
Postwar Germany shows no signs of
going back to Potsdam or forward to
Moscow.