Evening star., 1932-11-06
AZ BY WILHELM Ill.
From a painting by Anton Won Werner

- Az d WILHELM IL.
From a painting by Anton Won Werner.
ideas or her technique She can never
forget that she is a Bourbon by birth
and Hapsburg by marriage, and her
talent for memorizing these cardinal
facts of her family's history plays
havoc with the plans Of the Hungarian
legitimists The homecoming of King
must necessarily be disguised behind the
veil Of a new deal" and the country
Of Kossuth is the last one to get ex-
cited over the arrival of a Bourbonesque
Hapsburg
An American politician versed in the
art Of convention trading and conven-
tion double-crossing would bring Otto
to Budapest in less than a year 1t is
just a question of quieting this min
ister's fears and flattering that orators
vanity. The job is simple-for an
American politician: but not for a
fantastically proud woman who would
rather be a Hapsburg in a village in
Belgium than a hostage of stunt
masters in the royal palace in Buda- :
pest. She Is willing to wait and wait
she will. According to the family rec
ords, the waiting periods" of a Bour-
bon may consume as much as %
years.
Predicts Princes Return.
Were I to risk my reputation as a
prophet would predict that of the
four pretenders the Crown Prince OF
Germany will be- the first to reach the
throne. closely followed by King Al
fonso and separated by miles and miles
from Hapsburg and a Bourbon I an
not sufficiently foolish to try to guess
even as joke which particular Haps-
burg and which particular Romanof
shall return to the capitals of their
ancestors. Grand Duke Cyril has a
son. Both the latter and the youthful
Otto will, no doubt, marry some DAY
and have male heirs. This will take
time, but neither one of the two nations
seems to be in too great a hurry
The Germans are. So much so that
admirable as the Crown Princes tech
nique is, he would be doing just as
we'll by merely avoiding music halls
| and not posing too much for the Amer
ican photographers. There is such q
thing in the career Of a pretender as
attending too many parades
To compare the actions Of the Crown
Prince with those Of Grand Duke Cyril
would be obviously unfair to the nom
inal head Of the exiled Romanoffs. I.
is not the fault Of the Grand Duke that
our immediate ancestors had never
stopped to consider that a dynasty
| must have party, that the backbone
Of every regime is formed by wei
maintained system Of political patron
age. The Hohenzollerns, thanks tc
the clear wisdom of Bismarck. had al
ways known that the class of wealthy
Prussian landowners constituted the
solid basis of the German throne They
cherished the affection of those
much criticized junkers. and nc
Heidelberg theoretican and no talka-
tive Berlin economist was ever able to
make them quarrel with their natural
supports.
1t is only because Emperor William
I favored the junkers that his great
grandson today may depend on the un-
limited loyalty of Won Papen. The
enthusiastic support Of even half OF
l per cent OF the population is all that
is necessary for the maintenance of a
regime. The Hohenzollerns under
stood 1t in Germany. the Communists
in Russia; but the Romanoffs missed
their chance. When my grandfather
Emperor Nicholas I, died he left to his
son what he called "the army Of the
forty thousand chiefs of police" mean
ing the 4O,000-odd wealthy landowners
OF Russia who were accustomed to re-
ceive favors from the throne.
These 10000 faithfuls realized that
they stood and fell with the dynasty
and made 1t their self imposed duty
to police the vast empire. They would
have stuck to the Romanoffs Just as
the junkers did to the Hohenzollerns
had it not been for the fact that in
the year 1861 strange gesture was
made by Emperor Alexander II. The
gesture is known to the historians as
the emancipation Of the serfs. and it
had for net results the disappearance
OF the party that was supporting the
regime. Had the serfs been given ade-
quate land, together with their free
dom, they would have rallied around
the throne and replaced the party OF
the rich agrarians. As 1t was, the serfs
became politically neutral at best.
while at the same time the dynasty
lost its claims on the fealty OF the
masters.
Seventy years later the peasants we're
driven back into practical Serfdom be-
cause the Communists of 1881 under
stood what had escaped the mind of
Emperor Alexander II; whatever the
name of the regime, its only hope for
survival lies in the maintenance of a
compact party of few favored ones,
not in millions of lukewarm voters.
am quite certain that this inter-
pretation of the chief event of modern
Russian history would horrify Grand
Duke Cyril His program reeks of
noble-hearted liberalism. and his tech
nique consists Of appealing to the now
disfranchised majority of Russia. I
am wishing him the best of luck, but
doubt his ability to rewrite the
axioms Of practical politics. Even the
Presidents of the United States must
have their faithful postmasters.
Were I to ride over an empire
would pit. any day of the year, the
thorough loyalty of 10000 against the
grumblings of 10000, 900. Were I to
attempt a comeback I would think up
program that would make it worth
while for these 10000 to take a chance
even against loaded dice. I realize that
this statement classifies me with the
enemies Of democracy, but I can en-
dure 1t whar think Of the League of
Nations. 4 this Is fascism, then the
first name bf Lenin was Benito.