Askov American. [volume] (Askov, Pine County, Minn.) 1914-current, 1937-12-30
International
News Review
BY GEORG sTRANDvOLD

During the year now ending there
has been discernible a rather definite
trend toward Qualification of two of
the main issues which fill with anx-
iety the minds of people in many
lands, for-the line between fascism
and democracy has been drawn more
tightly than probably ever before.
Conspicuous on the fascist side
of that line were numerous Rome
visits by high German officials, and
Berlin visits by CORRESPONDENCE high
Italian diplomats; the climax oc-
CURED when Prime Minister Benito
Mussolini of Italy went to Germany
to see Adolf Hitler, chief executive
of that country, and an anti-climax
was recorded when Italy few weeks
back signed the German-Japanese
friendship treaty. More than any
other single factor the Spanish civil
war served to merge the interests of
nations dictatorially ruled.
Democracy's Front.
On the other hand, democracy was
not idle, for, under the leadership of
Great Britain and France, countries
opposed to autocracy found much
in common, especially in view of the
fact that it had become the fashion
to stigmatize all democracy-ina all of
its shadings-as communism. The
front populaire" government in
France, headed by Leon Blum, re-
tired, but that was merely a change
of stage settings, for the succeeding
cabinet, under the leadership of
Camille Chautemps, expounds the po-
litical ideals of its predecessor. In
Great Britain, too, there was change
of government as Stanley Baldwin,
shortly after the coronation of King
George vi retired in favor of Neville
Chamberlain; although generally con-
sentative, the Baldwin and the Cham
berlain ministries on every available
occasion expressed their adherence to
the parliamentary and democratic
tenets of freedom-loving peoples.
AS it could be said of the Span
ish civil war that it drew fascist
countries closer together, it had cor
responding effect on democratic ma
tons.
Armaments.
While it was one characteristic of
the year that it defined the two ma
jor political ideologies more clearly
than had hitherto been done, so it
may be said that the ever increasing
ornaments typified much of what
went on. Early in 1887 the French
government proclaimed to the world
that it must increase it's ornaments
because of the impending European
turbulence, and soon was followed
by Germany whose government main
tanned that it must confine its new
demands not merely to a restoration
of its war-lost colonies, but also must
include the right to rearm, on land,
on sea and in the air, to an extent
which it was Germany's own business
to determine.
Then Great Britain followed suit,
the government asking for an ap-
preparation of $7,5OO,OOO,OOO for a
period OF five yearS-tO be applied to
the ornaments account, and almost
thereafter Italy and
Japan declared that they, too, must
arm almost to the limit.
Altogether, it was a bad year for
peace!
Bloody Conflicts.
Spain's civil war was inherited
from the preceding year and was
featured by a succession of vic
tories won by the fascist rebel forces
under the command of General Fran
cisco Franco; city after city fell into
his handsome recalls, offhand, the
battles about Malaga, Guernica, Bill
Continued on Page 81