Evening star., 1933-02-05

GERMANY PUTS THE CLOCK BACK b.
Edgar Ansel Mowrer. New York: William
Morrow & Co.
CINCE the revolution which sent the German
Kaiser into exile in Holland, the German
clock has been moving backward, not steadily,
but in jerks, with an occasional forward Jump.
but altogether toward counter revolution. Mr..
Mowrer, who writes this history Of political
and social Germany since the World War, u
chief of the Chicago Daily News Bureau IN
Berlin has been in Berlin since 1924, and 50
has lived In the center OF the events OF which
he writes So many elements have contributed
to the German reaction toward mlitarism that
the daybyday record of events becomes con-
fusing and a book of this sort based on sound
knowledge, well ordered Interestingly written,
Is valuable explanation of what has been
taking place. 1t is not merely book on Hit
lerism It recognizes the parts played by Com
munists, Socialists, liberals of various groups
and mitarists, under whatever title they
masquerade.
In discarding Prussianism at the time Of the
revolution the Socialist leaders offered no sum.
GENTLY comprehensive program as a substitute.
They appealed to old-time Monarchists and
generals to defend the republic against the
Communists and soon their power was hltering
away. 1t was passing into the hands Of the
defending Monarchists. Inevitably the gen.
erals continue for the next 10 or 20 years to
constitute state within state, Mephisto
from which-as later developments showed only
too well-no power can hope to deliver un-
happy Faust" The bad peace treaty, NE
Mowrer says logically made the German peo-
pie nationalistic and their return to subanis-
siveness to their natural autocrats was due
to "supine passivity of the Republican rulers
in allowing their state to be fouted and de-
rided with impunity by generals, ex-sovereigns
,NI~1 sIx, Sas4
Some of the questions before Germany today
are: Is democracy dead? Will the HohenzOf-
lerns come back? Will the Versailles treaty be
repudiated? Will the Jews be eliminated from
German public life? Will Hitler be dictator?
The answers to these questions will concern not
Germany alone, but the whole world. Another
important question for the world is whether .
new militaristic German state would be likely
to dominate Europe. Mr.. Mowrer has very
definite opinions on the whole subject and sees
no reason for concealing them. He IS not q
writer of the much to be said on both sides"
type, SO there will be some disagreement with
his conclusions. His sketches Of important post
revolutionary public men very graphic
Hindenburg, Won Papen, Won Schleichef.
CurtiuS, SHINES, Hitler and Stresemann, who
died too soon.
INDIAN REMOVAL. BY Grant Foreman
Norman: University of Oklahoma Press.
CONTRIBUTING to the general history Of
~ the Indain in this country, Mr.. Foreman
writes of the forced migration of five tribes,
the Choctaws, Creeks. Chickasaws CherokeeS
and Seminoles, from the Southeast to the
Middle West, beyond the Mississippi. He places
these tribes in rather different class from the
average Indians and briefly characterizes them
as civilized while this book is not written
to excite sympathy for the Indians, this tragic
phase of American history is best understood
if one will remember that for the most part
the Southern Indians were people Of hxed
habits and tastes. They were not nomadS, like
some Western Indians; they were less inclined
to wander to strange places than white people.
They loved their streams and valleys, their
hills, and forests, their fields and herds, their
homes and firesides, families and friends; they
were rooted in the soil, the Choctaw chief
Pushmataha said, where we have grown UP as
the herbs of the woods"
Indian removal for long haphazard, became
a policy with the administration of Andrew
Jackson. Treaties made with little -compre-
hending Indians were the first steps in the
process of driving them farther and farther
west. In telling the tale of the inevitable
bloodshed and hardships accompanying this
conflict of races Mr.. Foreman employs the
scholars method of depending upon original
documents and contemporary records for his
evidence. His own conclusion Is that, admit
ting the necessity of the removal, inadequate
preparation by the Government and the ap-
pointment Of horde of political incompetents
to posts of authority resulted in woeful mis-
management and cruel and unnecessary suffer-
ing by the emigrants. Much suffering, per-
haps, was inevitable, but much would have
been prevented by considerate and shillfu
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