Evening star., 1935-08-25
EUROPE GASPS AS ITALY
DEFIES BRITISH NIGHT
Fascism Declared Menace to Civiliza.
ton, With Democracies Slow to Grasp
PerilOus Situation.

QlQ restore order Wnerepy Craue anu
finance could prosper.
From the forth to the south the
tories, the timid and the rich exalted
the great MuSsolini Travellers from
Italy reported he made the trains run
on time, abolished beggars by the
process of failing them and cleaned
and disciplined the cities, which was
true. They did not seem to care that
he also set about implanting ideas of
war and violence and renewed Roman
domination which might disrupt the.
world.
Needless bankers lent more money
than Italy could every repay. Foreign
Offices, even Washington, helped Fas-
cist Italy to secure naval advantages
it could never have achieved by COM
petitive building. Thousands Of ad-
miring tourists crowded the Lido at
Venice. Mussolini became a world
figure" who, people said. talked war
just to keep power at home. but was
really a Safeguard of peace"
This illusion was not the fault OF
the Fascists. They said and wrote
exactly what they intended to do. II
Duce himself stated that the year
1885 would be decisive for Europe's
peace. Still none but a few believed
such wild words.
Only Credit Baked Nazis.
Two years ago the Germans ex-
ploded in a similar manner, worse
only in greater brutality. The same
story almost occurred, were it not that
the world depression had ruined Ger
many's credit.
Hitler, like Mussolini, made no bones
of his contempt for the Christian con-
ception of life; of his hatred for free
dom, pacifiSm, mercy, objective SCI
ence and the Jews. He wrote in his
autobiography that Germany must
first rearm at any price and must
deceive its opponents until 1t was
strong enough to defy them; must an
mex all the Teutonic populations in
Europe, must get big navy, must
square accounts with the "beniggered
French" then expand southwark and
eastward over the inferior Slavs.
The world refused to believe any
one could mean such a program. For
that was supposed to mean war. Each
time Hitler took a step forward the
world first wondered, then resigned
itself. The next time it was equally
surprised.
None Stayed Them.
Two major countries publicly pro-
claimed they despised peace and tol-
erance and were educating their peo-
pies to wage war whenever the mo-
ment seemed opportune. None moved
a hand.
At the beginning both .Mussolini and
Hitler could have been eliminated by
foreign pressure. Today they are the
cocks of Europe, supreme in the gentle
art of blackmail, backed by colossal
cheek, behind which none knows
whether there is bluff or power.
Today bluff alone sufhces. so re-
luctant are the pacific nations to risk
armed conflict. so tardy to realize what
is occurring, so stepped in local we'll
being.
Today Mussolini's action in Ethio-
pia raises the definite question whether
a new sort of society which encour-
ages overbreeding and then Loudly
demands new room for its superfluous
population can permanently exist
alongside the older and freer cultural
civilizations that still believe in human
capacity for progress.
Civilization In Peril.
None but the hopelessly sentimental
believe that Italy, If it conquered Ethi-
opia, would stop there; and Germany
is already demanding colonies. Why
not?
Fascism menaces civilization-not
because the Fascists are personally
wicked or because tyranny Is necessar-
lily warlike, but because this sort OF
state is founded on brute force and
national appetites. More and more
people in Europe are beginning to
feel. as the Americans once felt,
namely, that this continent and the
world cannot exist half slave and half
free"
This is the issue which will be back
of many minds at Geneva when the
League meets. That at such a mo-
ment the American democracy should
have proclaimed anticipated neu-
trality" at any cost is something which
confuses people here who wonder II
the two oceans really isolate the Amer
ican continent as much as they insu-
late the American minds.
Copyright 1935)