The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1931-04-06
German Dictatorship


has succumbed to dictatorship That the change was
made legally by presidential decree, under Article
4s OF the Weirnar constitution makes it no less dc
tatorshp. Without civil liberties, there can be no
democracy.
PRESIDENT Won Hindenberg justified the suspension
OF constitutional rights and assumption OF dictatora
powers by the government on the ground that this
was necessary to deal with political excesses'
Political excesseso is not an extreme phrase to
use in describing situation which has resulted in
mere than 300 political murders and thousands of cases
of political violence in the last year.
Constitutional government having broken do5n a
resort to dictatorship appears to be justified in Ger
many today If it ever is justified anywhere at any
time. This German type of legal dictatorship has
more to commend it than the similar but digsed am
unconstitutional dictatorship in the United States
during the war
1t Is not comparable theoretically at least to the
Russian and Italian relationships which make no pre-
pretenSe OF eventual return to democracy
The German citizen, however, is not interested in
theoretical distinctions He is up against the hard
fact that the democracy by the 1918 revolution
has been lost again. for the present at any rate
His immediate reaction to the dictatorship win de-
pend on how much 1t pinches him personally II he
is Centrist, he will rejoice if he is untouched and
If both the Fascist right and the Communist left are
injured.
But it is improbable that only the Fascist and
Communist extremists will suffer- When a govern
ment uses lawessness to fight lawlessness discrin
nations are lost The poison of ruthless power tends
to infect the entire country Dictatorship so easy to
let in is hard to drive out
If the Germans can be made to accept Hinden-
berg Centrist dictatorship today. will they not be
more willing to accept Fascist or a Communist
dictatorship tomorrow? Having confessed by this
new emergency decree that democratic government
no longer can preserve law and order, and having
proved by twelve years of increasing travail that it
can not achieve prosperity for the masses how much
longer can the noninay democratic parties hold the
loyalty and hope of the German people?
Not long, if the extremist gains of both Fascists
and Communists in the last election are a sign of
the future.
Germany's future is in the hands of foreign
powers. including the United States We and the
allies dictated peace terms to Germany which made
her revival as prosperous nation impossible
Later, when "the ecoonic consequences of the
peace" We're understood, they were mitgated some
what by the Dawes and more by the Young plan
but not enough Even with large colonial and foreign
markets not now in sight, Germany can not carry
her economic load. Our tariff barrier increases her
difficulty
So. month by month, the German middle class
and working class sink nearer to starvation.
Out OF such desperation is born dictatorship and
revolution. There is little hope of savagng capitalist
democracy in Germany without virtual cancellation
of reparationS and war debts and general lowering
of tariff barriers.
Unless the United States and other powers are
willing to pay that price, Fascist dictatorship in
Germany, followed by Communist revolution, appears
to be only question of time.