Evening star., 1932-09-04
IMMINENT GERMAN CRISIS
is CRAVEST SINCE THE WAR
Probability of Revolution in Reich Is Not
Disputed Within Nation Itself-Power
to Maintain Order Is Gone.

to draw back from negotiations with
Hitler. For the effect of the NaH de-
mands in the Beuthen affair was the
assertion of a right to kill Communists
with impunity
The Hitler campaign has, then, de-
generated into purely terroristic tactics.
1t has failed and failed definitely to
seize majority of German votes. The
last election disclosed that while the
Nazis has swept into their own camp
the great bulk of the middle class and
bourgeois parties, 1t had made no in
! roads either upon the Catholics, So
cialiSts or Communists, which consti-
tute nearly 60 per cent of the German
electorate. The workers and the Cath
olics stood firm and the latter even
gained materially.
To gain power, at all, therefore, the
Nazis must resort to violence. Again,
they cannot now afford to wait long
because they have reached point where
action Is demanded of leaders who have
been preaching violence with increasing
energy for three years. On the other
hand. the attempt to seize power under
existing circumstances will bring Hit
Ter and his following into collision not
only with the Nationalist government,
but with the Socialist and Communist
masses.
That the Nationalists backed by the
army and the Prussian police, would
long resist Hitler is open to doubt. be-
cause in doing that they would be
serving the interests of Socialists and
Communists who are their enemies. On
the other hand, for the latter, the
struggle which is impending is a mat
ter OF life and death. For nothing is
more certain than that Nazi success
will be accompanied by massacres of
Communists everywhere as 1t Is certain
also to be attended by gross violence to
the Jews
Thus the first overt act of the Nazis
is calculated to evoke the Socialist
Communist -Reichsbanner reply, which
are organizing to repeat the tactics
which produced the collapse of the
Kapp Putsch decade ago. But at that
time the government was in control of
Republican officials. whereas now it is
in Nationalist hands. A general strike
must instantly bring paralysis in the
life OF the nation, with consequences
which are unimaginable
Again, while there is the clear pur-
pose of the NaZis to slaughter the Com
munists, there is well understood pur-
pose of the Reds to reply by a campaign
OF widespread sabotage against the
great industrial plants For the indus
trialists have supplied the larger share
OF the funds which have gone to the
financing of the Hitler movement
In a word, while everything else is
moving toward disintegration in Ger
many, civil war is being organized on
grand scale and with utmost care by
leaders of parties which contain at least
two-thirds of the voting strength of the
Reich. Moreover, as result of mur-
ders and reprisals, passions have reached
point where consideration of national
interest or of personal safety have been
dismissed.
Finally, misery and hunger, the two
familiar attendants of revolution, are
discoverable on all sides. German in
dustry is still running down; German
foreign markets are shrinking; unem-
ployment is mounting, and already the
prospects of the approaching Winter
are unmistakable. The state of mind
Of majority Of the people Is one of
mingled despair and passion-despair
at their own outlook, passion provoked
by the hatred of their political oppo-
nents.
None Can Maintain Order.
When I was in Geneva last Winter,
it was even then the common convic-
ton of all European observers that the
German condition had already become
pathological Such direct advices as
have reached me in recent weeks con-
firm the impression that since then
conditions have worsened incredibly.
There Is no longer any man or govern
ment capable of maintaining order;
there is no way by which suffering can
be mitigated and despair removed.
Thus every sign discoverable on the
German horizon portends the arrival of
revolution. The imperial system COL
lapsed as result of defeat in war and
produced the revolution of November,
1918. The Republican system has COL
lapsed because It was unable to produce
prosperity or even tolerable living con-
ditions at home. or restore German in
f1uence and prestige abroad. The new
revolution is being promoted by the
Hitlerites, who are neither Monarchist
nor Republican, but an incredible mix
ture Of Communism and Nationalism..
But what is gravest in the situation Is
that while. after the fall of the empire,
the old machinery still remained and
the tradition of order and obedience
similarly endured, both have now been
swept away. The very elements which
in most countries are the bulwarks of
order. namely, the industrialists, the
landed proprietors and the great middle
class, either have themselves been
ruined or are threatened with ruin and
have gone over to the revolution. It is
only the working men who represent
order now.
In sum, the last few months and
even the most recent weeks have seen
German conditions take a turn for
the worse-serious beyond exaggera-
tion-and Europe as well as the world
Is face to face with the day-to-day
possibility Of the outbreak of civil war
in the Reich. What such an explosion
would mean to the various programs for
international economic and financial CO.
operation and for disarmament needs
no emphasis. Nevertheless, the facts
are now too evident to permit denial
and too serious to warrant neglect.