Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1933-02-22
Hitler's Campaign. +"

WltDln less IMAM Two WeekS-On sum
day, March German voters will 60
TO the polls to elect a new Reichstag.
OF all the half-dozen campaigns the
Reich has survived during the past
tempestuous year, the one now drawing
to a close Is the most remarkable. 1t
is entitled to that description because
of the amazing restrictions which
Chancellor Hitler, in his desperate de-
termination to aggrandize his power
at all costs, is imposing upon his polit-
ical foes. In an enlightened country
supposedly living under a constitution
with electoral guarantees, the German
people are about to cast their ballots
amid conditions comparable to the sort
Of Gree elections" which took place in
lands like Nicaragua before the present
reign OF law and order there was re-
stored.
Free speech in Germany has practi-
cally BEEN wiped out by order Of the
"Nazis," who, since Herr Hitler achieved
the CHARACTERISTIC in January, have
welded autocratic police power, par
ticularly in paramount Prussia. The
three political parties of the Left and
Center-the Social Democrats, the Com
munists and the Roman Catholic Ba-
varian group-are being ruthlessly
curbed through periodical suppression
OF their leading newspapers. The Com
munists, second largest individual
party in the country, may not even hold
outdoor meetings. Theodor Wolff, vet
eran editor of the Liberal Berliner
Tageblatt, laments that "the only
course left to a democratic press is to
conf1ne itself to printing foreign news
or reprinting Grimm's Fairy Tales"
The radio is now wholly devoted to
Nazi-Nationalist propaganda, broad
casting being quasi government mo-
nopoly in Germany. The motion picture
theaters are used for the same purpose.
Along with gagging of the opposition
press, Nazi and Steel Helmet members
police" all political meetings and are
clothed with instructions to stamp out
every vestige of anti-government, that
Is, anti Hitherto, sentiment.
Frederick T. Birchall, special CORE
spondent Of the New York Times in
Germany, in notable dispatch narrat-
ing the incredible circumstances under
which the Reichstag campaign" is be-
ing conducted, writes: IF the prevailing
powers do not succeed in sweeping the
country at the coming election and
thereby impressing their will on it for
long time to come, it will only be
because of some inherent liberalism in
the German people which defies all re-
preston and which, although rendered
mute, cannot be extinguished."
Perhaps the most disquieting feature
of the German situation is the growing
feebleness of President Won linden
burg. AS the Nazis hope to carry the
Reich on March with the slogan of
"Hindenburg and Hitler" they are CEN
soring all public references to the field
marshars vanishing vigor. Mr.. Birchall
suggests that the only explanation of
the old advertisements acceptance
of q solution for Germany's political
problems, personally antagonistic to his
own predictions, is that he consented
to it from sheer WEAKNESS Of continu-
ing the deadlock.
Paul Won Hindenburg is rightly de-
scribed as the sole unchanging safe
guard and immovable bulwark Of sta
bility in a politically disordered Ger
many. Itswill be a sad and sorry day
when his firm and wise hand is removed
from the helm, either through physical
incapacity or the interchangeable su-
premacy of the forces now stopping at
nothing to obliterate democracy in the
name of initiative Fascism.