The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1934-05-18
Liberal Viewpoint
by DIR. HARRY ELMER BARNES -=

THERE has been much inventive and propa
Il ganda concerning Herr Hitler and his
government. There has been, however, relatively
little material on Hitler that has not been tinged
with prejudice or propaganda as to leave the
reader uncertain about the facts.
The article by Miles Bouton on Germany
Sinks into Slavery" in the American Mercury
likely is to excite confidence in those familiar
with the author
Mr. Bouton is highly competent journalist
who has lived in Germany for many years. He
never was over-friendly to the German republic
or to the Jews. He knows personally nearly all
the important "higher-ups" in the Hitler regime
and was, in the beginning, rather friendly with
them.
Therefore, any critical estimate which he
offers of the Hitler regime hardly could be based
upon either ignorance or original prejudice
against the Nazi
| Little time is wasted on the general back
ground of the rise of the Nazi, because Mr..
Bouton takes it for granted that any one reason
ably acquainted with the history of the world
since 1918 already would understand this phase
OF the problem
The war guilt lie the treaty of Versailles, the
invasion of the Ruhr and other phases of the
oppressive treatment of Germany made the re-
sentful and overburdened populace only too glad
to follow any one who promised decisive
deliverance
The German republic had to bear in consid-
cradle part the onus for the harsh terms it
accepted at the hands of the allies.
MIR. BOUTON pays much more attention to
4V1 the more perplexing problem of why the
German people and their intellectual leaders
have submitted to the political and intellectual
tyranny of the Naz regime with so little appar-
ent resistance or unhappiness
In the first place, he attributes to the Ger
mans-even to their leaders-moral cowardice-
or, at least, remarkable capacity for rapidly
adapting their opinion to any decisive change of
the political and economic regime.
In the fall of 1918 prominent Germans who
had once been Slavish admirers of the Hohen-
zollerns became ardent and outspoken republic
ans within forty-eight hours, and few who dis
liked the republic had the courage to say so.
Similarly, in the spring of 1888, most Ger
mans who had ridiculed or denounced Hitler
rapidly climbed on the Naz band wagon and
whooped it up for the SwaStka. In short, the
Germans seemed to have no stomach for martyr
dom in behalf of great political cause.
Another and very important explanation of
the remarkable docility of the Germans under
Hitler is the absence of competent and fear
less press in Germany. Perhaps in no country
in the western world has there been such dis
parity between the numbers, wealth and intelli-
gence OF the population and the low quality of
the newspapers.
THE greatest of the German journals before
Il HitlerS time could not compare in most ways
with the newspapers of a fourth class American
city, and few of them anything more than
bigoted party organs No German newspaper
could equal even the best journals of little
country like Denmark.
The inferiOrity of the German press has not
been due primarily to repression of its freedom,
since before 1927 it was reasonably free to write
as it wished
This absence Of a powerful and fighting Ger
man press made it easy for Hitler to succeed
with his propaganda and to convert the press
into docile propaganda mechanism for the
Na1. Today, according to Mr. Bouton, the Ger
man press has "degenerated into such servile
boot-licking institution that even Minister
Goebbels has jeered publicly at these self
enaSculating editors"
The fact that the German press was inferior
before the days of Hitler and now is completely
at the mercy of the NaZi makes it impossible for
| the majority of the Germans to be informed
completely about the atrocities which go on
within the boundaries of Germany or to know
what foreign peoples think of the new regime
The German people of today live in a world
OF fantasy, propaganda and ignorance COM
parable to that which existed in the warning
countries from 1914 to 1918.