Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1930-08-03
BY FRANK H. sIMoNDs.

distance which Germany has trav-
eled in the five post-Locarno years
Il that the dissolution Of the Reichs-
tag by presidential decree and the
imminence of new general election
leaves the world calm. Nor is this calm
much disturbed by the current predic-
tons that the results of the new po-
litical campaign will bring added
strength to the political parties which
respectively champion revolution and
reaction-namely, the Communists and
the Fascists.
In reality the latest German crisis
has twofold explanation. On the one
hand, Germany Is suffering from the
worldwide depression which in Its
American phase may have political con-
sequences in the Congress elections this
Fall. On the other, the Reich suffers
from an utterly incoherent party sys-
tenn and an all too brief training In
democratic government.
AS to the economic depression, It is
certainly not as bad as In Great Brit
ain or Italy. Measured by unemploy-
ment figures, 1t Is probably not worse
than that in the United States. But
unlike all three of these nations, Ger
many faces reparations payments and
has so far failed effectively to balance
her budget. Her treasury is again Sin
the red" and there is lacking to the
present government the authority and
the courage to impose the necessary
burdens or, more exactly, to reduce the
unnecessary expenses.
Feeling Against Plan.
In word, although Germany has
accepted the Young plan and Is full
filling her obligations under 1t, there
still remains the more or less subliminal
conviction that the burden is at once
impossible to carry and undeserved Ii
fact. What is required Is a political
administration having the votes ano
the will to compel the German states
and people to reduce their own expenses
so that they can at one time balance
their own domestic budget and pay theil
war debts, as fixed by the treaty of Yer.
sailles and the Young plan.
In his last annual report, in winding
up his administration of the PREPARATIONS
payments under the Dawes plan, Parker
Gilbert sounded again the note of warn
ing which has been frequently on his
lips. Germany, he Said had adequate
resources to run her own affairs and pay
her obligations, but the rate at which
she was spending had produced an un-
balanced budget and would ultimately
impair her capacity to pay her con-
querors.
But it is easy to imagine the conse.
quences when a political government
even with strong majority party be-
hind it. tells the voters. who are the
taxpayers, that they must economic al
home to pay abroad. There is, too, al.
ways the fatal dilemma that the more
Germany does reduce her domestic ex.
penditures, and thus insure foreign pay.
ments, the less the chance of further
reductions of these payments. Coco
behavior, contrary to all copy-booi
rules, thus insures punishment Ions
continued.
Germany. however, has anything but
a strong government. In place of the
twc-party system familiar to Americans
she has what is literally a 20-party sys-
tenn. And, dropping the minor polit-
ical groups, she still has something like
half dozen parties of considerable size
and none with anything like q major
only divided from each other by rea
and profound differences, but are split
within themselves in such fashion as to
make effective and united action well
nigh impossible.
After Revolution Paralysis.
In the first years after the revolu-
ton, which followed military defeat
Germany was paralyzed as conse-
quence of the fact that there was a
fairly even division between the Re-
publicans and the Monarchists. Since
Locarno, and in fact since the brief but
momentous rule of the late Gustav
Stresemann, the question of the sur
vival of the republic has tended to be-
come less and less a question of i'm
aAIf 4raav@ W. - eR-
have not in great numbers abandoned
their belief in the old form of govern
ment, but they have increasingly APP
preciated the fact that restoration as q
practical matter was well nigh impos-
sible.
Little by little there has grown up
among the more moderate Monarchists
an appreciation of the fact that the re-
public has come to stay for time at
least and that the more immediate issue
is economic rather than political.
Stresemann himself was always seek
ing to bring about working arrange
ment between the Nationalist - who
we're mainly Monarchists - the Popu-
lists-his own party, who were also in
a majority believers in the old system
and the Catholic Center and Demo-
Gratis, who were Republicans.
The basis of this coalition of the So
called bourgeois parties would be the
resistance of the Socialistic program
StreSemann sought to bring about a
coalition of these parties to resist So
cialism, putting aside for all present
time the question of the form of gov
eminent.
He was never able to do this. how
ever. because sooner or later the ex-
tremists in the Nationalist ranks would
become intransigeant and attack the
republic from within a coalition which
included the Republicans of the Center
and the Democrats. Much against his
grain he u,aS forced RI oo m the Sooia l.