Evening star., 1932-05-15

BERLIN, Germany Germany,
awake! Better let 100000 die on the
field of BATTLE than starve to DEATH
Rather to end with terror than end
less terror"
Germany is in hourly danger of be-
ing invaded by the Poles"
I'VE don't give dam for the French.
We hope they do occupy the Rhine
land"
Democracy is a swindle. liberalism
Is dead"
I'VE don't give hoot for the Par
lament"
"It simply can't go on like this
something has to happen"
"Hoch Lenin!" Hail Hitler!"
Germany Sick Nation.
These phrases are heard all over Ger
many today, not once but endlessly. II
hysteria is a condition wherein the real
is confused with the imaginary, then
this people Is hysterical. If persecution
mania Is an illness, Germany Is sick.
The contemporary German reaction Is
both symptom and result Of this condi-
ton.
Germans have gone through so much
In the last 18 years that the nerves OF
many have cracked under the strain.
First the war-where they out
fought and outsuffered everybody else.
Then the defeat-horrible to q people
lieve itself the pride of the earth. Then
the revolution and the new form of
state, most upsetting to devotees OF
order and authority. Then the mon
strous infiation-by no means the in
evitable occurrence the authorities like
to picture (which definitely annihi-
lated the financial foundation Of the
middle class. Then seven years OF fur
ther exploitation of this class by the
combined industrial owners and bank
ers and shopkeepers on one side and
organized labor on the other. Then two
years of terrible economic crisis. with
creeping unemployment that today has
reached 6,500,o0o.
Realize War Was Lost.
And in the meantime the slow real-
zation that the war really had been lost,
that the unbeatable German armies
had availed nothing, that the peace
treaties, with the reparations burden,
the amputations of German territory,
the one-sided disarmament, were there
to stay or were remediable only through
decades. The result? The greatest
reaction in history. A popular move
ment against the republic, the parlia-
ment, the present state, the treaty OF
Versailles, the organized manual work
ers, the Jews and the hereditary for
eign enemies" A mental sickness al
most without parallel Scores of mean
ingless phrases that brighten de-
spondent browS and are echoed by bit
ter lips. Meaningless because untrue.
Three of the five candidates in the
recent presidential election in Ger
many were opposed to the present re-
public-Adolf Hitler, the Fascist: Ernest
Thaelmann, the Communist. and Lieut..
Col. Theodor Duesterberg, the Ma
tionalists' champion. Nearly SO per
cent Of the Germans voted for one Of
the three; that is, against the Weimar
constitution and liberal democracy.
Why? Because they were told by
fluent leaders that the Weimar con-
stitution and the treaty Of Versailles
were responsible for most of their
mental and physical misery. Being
miserable. they believe. The result is
| kind Of mad house atmosphere in
which everything is possible. yet Moth
ing need happen.
Brawling Now Common.
J Not a night goes by without a
furious clash somewhere between Com
munists and National Socialists, Nazis
and Republicans, Nazis and Socialists
The Nationalists are not always the
aggressors, but it was they who turned
a peaceful people into a nation of
brawlers. Nearly always there are
dead and wounded on both sides. The
fight Is carried even into the high
Sch0Olg IgOlatAd Jewish hovs mtd.