The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1934-07-19
Liberal Viewpoint
by DIR. HARRY ELNIER BARNES

Editors Note-This is the first of four
articles by Harry Elmer Barnes, Ph.D., on
the causes, course and immediate results of
the uprising in Germany.
1.-THE recent events in Germany will constitute
i an important incident in the history Of our
times. 1t may be too early to decide whether
they are significant chiefly as a chapter in the
history Of revolution or in the technique of die
tatorship.
1t is quite impossible to understand the
causes and course Of the threatened revolt in
Gus complex of forces which brought Hitler into
power.
The Treaty Of Versailles repudiated the
fourteen points and the Armistice terms, saddled
Germany with the moral stigma of war guilt and
imposed crushing economic and financial bur-
dens upon her.
In a state of economic Generalization at the
close Of the war and still further stripped Of her
resources by the victorious allies, Germany could
not for long meet the new impostions.
She soon defaulted on reparations payments
and Poincare retaliated by invading the Ruhr
and attempting to collect reparations by force.
In self-defense Germany resorted to wild
cat imitation and thus ruined the upper middle
class which had invested it's savings in secur-
tiles, annuities and the like.
When I visited Germany in the summers of
1928 and 1927 1 came into contact with many
tragic cases of once-prosperous and influential
Germans, who had difficulty in securing even
he basic necessities of life.
THE mass of workers also were hard hit by
Germanys impaired industrial activity.
They believed that they had been betrayed rep
rehensibly by the Social Democratic groups who
controlled the republic.
The Social Democrats themselves were
hated and dstrusted by the conservatives on
one side and by the radicals on the other. Their
policy also was denounced by the patriotic Ger
man youth who had not personally participated
| in the horrors of the World war but bitterly
resented the postwar ignominy of their country.
While Germanys foreign policy was formu
| lated ably and represented by Herr StresSeman,
there were few outstanding figures in the con-
| troll of German domestic policy after the muir
der of Walter Rathenau by the irreconciliabe
Ireactionaries.
Germany's economic recovery after the in
fation orgy and. the withdrawal of French
| troops from the Ruhr was a marvellous testi-
monial to the efficiency of so-called industrial
| rationasm. The achievements were in large
part offset however, a result of the over
excessive loans contracted abroad and the i'm
pact of the worldwide depression after 1929
| Misery spread among the workers, causing
discomfort and labor disputes and encouraging
| the reactionary induStralistS to back some po-
| litical leader who would pledge himself to save
| the country from Communism and proletarlan
dictatorship.
Hitler's hackers represented perhaps the most
motley and diversified array that has ever fol-
lowed human leader
MANY monarchists favored him because
wi they believed he would step down and re-
/ call the Hohenzollerns Big industries sup
ported by French money as well as their own,
looked to him as their great hope in frustrat
ing radicaliSm. The middle class and many of
the workers and peasants supported him be-
cause of his promise to undertake far-reaChing
changes of the German econC mic system in the
interests of the mass of Germans.
HitlertS rabid denunciation of the Treaty of
Versailles appealed to millions of Germans who
were CALLED by the war guilt charge and the
peace treaty.
Particularly important here were the sup
porters of the old monarchy and the patriotic
youth of the land
| Finally, not a few of Htler's most aggressive
associates were drawn from the noncomnlis-
stoned officers of the World war period who
hated the old upper class military clique and
desired to come into their own
| This varegated body Of followers at once
| accounts both for Hitlers initial strength and
| for the rapidly mounting body of discomfort
which arose after he came into power. No hui
| man being possibly could satisfy a following
with such mutually contradictory and irrecon-
| cilable ambitions.