Evening star., 1932-08-01
Hitlerism's Advance.

! Adolf Hitler's Brown Shirt Fascists
did not succeed at yesterdays Reich
stag elections in capturing control OF
the German government, but their
gains in popular votes and parha-
mentary strength were Of landslide
dimensions The National Socialists
polled 13, 1872, 900 votes out Of total OF
S6,e76,OoO. They increased their Reich
stag seats from lot to 229. They re-
Quired 303 for an absolute majority in
a house of 604 members, and are thus
7o-odd short Of the necessary total.
But to have doubled their forces since
the Reichstag election of 1880 Is an
unuuestionably impressive performance
II leaves them, with 37.2 per cent OF
the aggregate vote cast, overwhelm-
ingly the strongest single party in the
Reich. The "Nazis'' have the additional
satisfaction of having displaced from
that eminence their archfoes, the So
cial Democrats, who will have only
1873 seats In the new Reichstag, as
against their 143 in the old.
The real winners in the furiously
fought contest, which cost many lives,
are the HindenburgVon Papen gov
ernment. Without candidates Of its
own and purporting to stand above all
parties, the ministry of monocled mill
tarists and aristocrats which succeeded
the Bruening coalition government on
June / seems to have been endowed
by yesterdays election with a new and
almost interchangeable lease of power.
Had Hitler and his Nationalist allies
between them achieved a Reichstag
majority President Won Hindenburg
would have had hardly any alternative
but to call the "Nazi' chieftain to the
chancellorship. AS it is, the total Of
Right votes in the country, 1884 900,
is matched by a total of Left votes ag-
gregating 1862, 900, leaving the Center
parties, with 5,780,000 votes, holding
definite balance Of parliamentary power.
If President Won Hindenburg and
Chancellor Won Papen, therefore, care
to rule Germany with Reichstag ma
jority functioning under constitutional
limitations, coalition cabinet is their
sole recourse. Obviously, it would be a
coalition Of the Right and Center
parties, which now are the two major
Reichstag groups. The late coalition
government, headed by DR.. Bruening,
was made up Of Left and Center parties.
oNy'c Tvnf n0rl1Q-
mentary pendulum definitely to the
Right. The natural consequence will
be a coalition, if coalition there is to
be, in which the Nationalist Right will
predominant. Whether Hitler is minded
to play subordinate role in a Berlin
government is not yet disclosed.
While the German republic emergeS
from Sundays balloting still existent,
its foundations are weakened by the VIC
tories of its avowed foes. ReichStag
pre-eminence passes to the forces of
reaction-the elements which have
sworn to destroy the Weimar conSti-
tuition, parliamentary institutions and
the treaty of Versailles. That is not
q development or prospect that con-
Jures up much of promise either for
Germany or for Europe.
The one ray of satisfaction in the
confused and chaotic political situation
that has resulted is that the day of
Hitler1te evil is at least postponed
again. The "Nazi" drive against de-
mocracy has once more been checked.
The republic stands. But the parties
that def1antly clamor for a return of
''Kaiserism" have triumphed in proper
tions that bode no good for the future
OF constitutional government in the
Reich.
The outside world can only hope that
the iron hand of the junker regime,
whose authority weathered the election
storm, will continue to be welded for
the welfare Of Germany with tran
quillity at home and conciliation abroad
as its guiding principles. The out
break of rioting in Berlin and other
cities today, with the Communists as
the object Of violent attack, indicates
that the ferociouS bitterness which
marked the Reichstag campaign did
not end with the count of the votes
The Communists increased their par
namentary strength from II to 80,
ranking them fourth among the par
ties behind the Hitlerites, the Social
Democrats and the Catholic Center in
the order named.
The Reich never had more urgent
need of cool-headed leadership, for it
is plain that the seeds Of internal strife,
far from being uprooted by the political
events of yesterday are sown deeper
than ever.