Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1936-04-26
BY MARK SULLIVAN.

patl0n WIN the relatively
trivial while the more impor-
tant Is unobserved or ne
elected, is Nero flddling while Rome
burns. The situation in America is
not like that at all. We have TO
Nero, no one of any importance that
I know of is fiddling and there is no
fire. Nevertheless. am reminded of
that classic instruction of attention
whenever I read. or myself write,
articles about national politics in the
familiar terms that writers have al
ways used and readers always known.
We are entering those quadrennial
American months in which political
interest centers in the presidential
election. increasingly the country is
interested in knowing about the per-
sonalities, the moves and the trends.
How near is Landon to the Repub-
lican nomination? If he does not get
it, who will? What are the chances
of the Republicans winning in No.
vember?
European Infection Spreads.
1t is perfectly familiar and it is
quite all right. Over and over, every
four years, I have written this sort of
thing. and read it as written by others,
and been interested and entertained
by it, as have been most other Amer
leans. But in the world as it is in the
year 1886 it all seems almost as i'm
material as the base ball scores. COM
pared to the tides and forces beneath.
When I see what has happened and
continues to happen in Europe, and
when I see the thing coming from
Europe which tends to infect Amer
ica-when I see that find it difficult
to interest myself in discussions about
the relative radio charm of the voices
of Mr.. Franklin Roosevelt and Mr.. AL
fred NJ Landon. Talk about an old
Roman Emperor fiddling! Could any,
thing be more incongruous or more
humorous or more tragc-uSe which,
ever you choose, the conditions fit all
three and a good many more words
besides-than the grave discussions I
have listened to about whether the
voice of a gentleman named Alfred M.
Lardon is sufficiently attractive over
the radio, or can by teaching be made
sufficiently attractive, to compete with
the radio voice of another gentleman
named Franklin D. Roosevelt? There
is nothing fundamentally inappropri-
ate about this discussion. The radio
has become an essential part, Of the
mechanism of national elections. Al
ways there have been comparisons OF
the oratorical powers of candidates
for the presidency, and of the relative
appeals of their respective person.
alities.
But how slight all this sort Of thing
seems at time when new concep-
ton of society and government is try
ing to establish itself in the world,
when the new conception has already
established itself in three great Euro
pean countries and some small ones,
and when many tendencies are under
way which invite the new conception
to America.
Compulsion on Individual.
What the new conception of society
and government is cannot be told In
one newspaper article nor in whole
newspaper Hundreds of books have
been written in efforts to analyze it.
For the present, make only two or
three primary points. which I think
will be helpful toward understanding
1t is most important of all to real
ize that the new conception is not
three, it is one. Fascism in Italy,
Nazism in Germany and Commun-
ism in Russia are not three; they are
merely separate phases, different stages
of development, of the same thing.
What this new formula of society
and government is cannot be fully
explained here. In a word, it is a
conception of society and government
which rests upon coercion, coercion
of the individual by the state-as
against the old American and British
conception which puts emphasis upon
liberty for the individual, and with
constant vigilance restraints the state
from putting compulsion upon the
individual.
What happens when the new con-
ception has taken hold of the coun-
try, when an individual or a group
has pressed the new conception upon
a people, or induced the people to &C
cept the new conception-what goes
on when that has occurred-the pic
ture of the new conception in opera
tion-can be got by following tie dis
patches in American newspapers from
Italy, Germany and Russia.
Conditions and Forces.
Just how great is. or has been, the
danger that the new European con-
ception of society and government
may take hold in America? I do no:
wish to overemphasize the danger
Americans are people very different
from Russians, Germans or Italians
And in discussing the danger, in order
to avoid being unnecessarily contro-
versial, let us not charge that any
individual in America is deliberately
attempting to introduce the new order
here. I am not asserting that there
is no such individual in america