Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1931-01-11
POLITICO-ECONOMIC CRISIS
REVIEWS GERMAN ANXIETY
Critical Situation Must Last Five Months.
But Chance of Domestic Upheaval
Is Believed Remote.


and beyond all else Fascism Is the ulti.
mate expression of disillusioned young
Germany in revolt. Today the break
between the Germans over and under
35 years of age is complete.
The Germans who lived through the
war In the trenches, who know its
misery, horror, suffering, who have
come to appreciate the limitations i'm
posed by defeat and disarmament, re-
main totally opposed to any chauvinistic
affirmation of supper-nationalistic
beyond all else. And the Bruening
| government, led by men chiefly around
so years old, expresses this desire.
COntemptuOus Of Logic.
BY contrast, the new generation, led
by Hitler and GoebbelS, who are around
| 35, is totally contemptuouS of all APP
peal to logic, experience or reason. For
them GermapyS present plight is due
| to betrayal-betraya of the army by the
Communists in 1918, betrayal Of the ma
ton by republican leaders when the
| peace treaties were made and since. For
them Germany has only to speak in the
voice of might-to declare the repara-
tons contracts null, the peace treaties
at an end, the restrictions of German
armament abolished-to bring q terri
lieu WOIlQ 70 It's knees.
All this passion Of youth, all this fire
and violence would fail to carry far in
a Germany which was fairly prosperous,
reasonably contented, moderately salts
ned with its world status. But you
have whole people growing hungrier,
becoming daily more Inundated by in
ternational events, reused by the spec
tacle Of the alleged persecution of Ger
mans by Poles, Czechs, even by Lith-
uanians. You have a Germany In
which the conviction continues to spread
that eventual ruin is insured by the
territorial clauses of the treaty of
Versailles, by the financial terms of the
Young plan, by the maneuvers of the
disarmament conference at Geneva.
And relentleSsly, necessarily FaS-
ciSm reinforced by Nationalism repeats
the story Of Germanys degradation and
doom, and daily the revolt spreads. In
the universities the spirit runs with
all the violence of religious creed.
spontaneously, unanimously, young
Germany goes out to hear Goebbels,
Hitler, to dedicate itself to the task of
national salvation. And in the same
spirit it, as out to break UP presenta-
ton of war films, like "All Quiet on the
Western Front" which are designed to
spread peace sentiments
In the face Of this national explosion
the very duties of government COM
promise its chances. The long pro-
gram Of new taxes and necessary
economies enormously increased the
number of opponents who welcome
Fascist arguments that Germany Is
being bled white to satisfy the claims
Of France swimming in gold and ever
increasing its armament. But, on the
other hand. every time the Bruening
nak Af IN fo0 -
utters words designed to warn the out
side world Of actual German conditions,
those words which seem feeble at home
are hailed abroad, IN Paris, Warsaw
and Prague, as evidence Of varlike
purposes.
Economic Political Race.
In sum, the situation of government
Is, as I have said, that Of a besieged
city; the condition Is that Of q race be-
tween renewed business activity and a
fresh domestic political crisis which
may retard Germany's domestic re-
covery and compromise Germany's In
ternational situation for some years to
come.
In this situation the men actually
holding power are condemned to stand
between the German people and the
follies Of the young, the despair of the
impoverished and the malice of the an
archistic. To insure financial solvency
they must impose new taxes; TO pre-
serve international position they must
comply with unpopular treaties. They
are men sincerely devoted to peace,
eager not for international conflict, but
for cooperation; plotting neither re-
venge nor violence, but struggling under
burdens 1t is impossible to exaggerate
and in the face of q problem which
seems today insoluble.
The issue Is primarily the immediate
future Of Germany. If the Bruening
cabinet falls much of the international
credit built up by the steady and wise
policy Of Stresemann will be destroyed.
Given the present posture of Germany,
economic, financial military and politi-
CAL supernatural triumph at home
cannot lead TO any immediate German
attack upon any country, but 1t can
retard, II not prevent, that cooperation
between Germany and the outside
world, which is alike essential to Ger
man recovery and the organization Of
European peace and world prosperity.
All this the men who make up the
Bruening cabinet see. Their fight Is to
preserve Germany primarily from her
self, against the disasters which must
follow the success OF Fascism In It's
present stage. But they are fighting
with their backs against the wall. Thus
the struggle Is the most critical since
the close of the World War itself, In
Germany. Moreover, while, as I have
said, the promise. Of victory is plain
and would end on q note Of optimism
in this respect-the present struggle
must leave enduring results. After 1t
Europe and the rest of the world are
going to be in the presence of q new
Germany, dominated by another spirit
than that of the defeated Germany OF
the postwar years. This Germany of
the future shall discuss In my next
article.