Evening star., 1937-07-04
OBSERVER WARNS NATION
OF REVOLUTION BY RUSE'
Says We Would Be More Fortunate
If Armed Hitler, Mussolini or Stain
We're on Our Soil.

OllI OO1ls
| Fundamentally there are not three
/ new forms of government in Europe,
/ there Is only one. All express them
| selves in dictatorship, in denial Of
| individual rights. in assertion of the
right of compulsion by the state. And
| the thing that is being brought to
! America varies from the new concep-
ton in Europe only as the three eY-
! periments in Europe vary from each
| other
| I feel confident Gen. Johnson would
| say the new form of government be-
| ing brought about in America is mere
! ly variation Of the new order in
! Europe. There is only one new order
/ in the world. When We are told, even
by President Roosevelt himself, that
America is going to be taken into a
new order the new order that Amer
lea is destined for is the same new
order that has established itself in
Europe. What gives Gen. Johnson
"shudders' is the anticipation that
the dispatches which now come out
| OF Rome, Berlin and Moscow will pres
emily be coming out of Washington.
/ We have warning from Gen. John
! son, who certainly knows.
| We have warning from Mr.. Walter
/ Lippmann. one of the best equipped
| living students Of government He
/ saws, speaking merely of one phase
! OF the attempted revolution. speaking
| merely of Mr. Roosevelt's court pro-
/ posal: 1T is bloodless. OBVIOUSLY
/ legalized coup d'etat." And Mr.. Lpp-
| mann puts his warning in almost the
| same terms as Gen. Johnson: II am
/ not afraid Of Mr. Roosevelt (as bein-
Dictator, but l am afraid of his
| successor"
/ Miss ThOmpson's Warning.
/ We have warning from Miss Dor
/ othy Thompson. She is equipped IN
know. She sat by the bedside Of
! dying democracies in Europe, she
knows the death rattle; she was pres
ent at the rise Of Hitler in Germany
| Hitler expelled her from that coun-
| try. Miss Thompson says-she is
| speaking of only one phase OF the at
/ tempted revolution in America, Mr.
! Roosevelt's court measure:
| The main difference between de-
| mocracy and dictatorship is that in
a democracy the judicial system is
| there TO protect the citizen, and IN a
| dictatorship it is there to protect the
/ state M raNolo
! their dictator in advance he never
stands for election on the platform
! OF dictatorship"
Gen. johnson says it. Mr.. Iipp-
mann says it. Mark Sullivan saws It.
| There would seem to be Paul Reverns
enough. But the people DO not rise.
| Perhaps We do not say it clearly
enough. 1t is difficult to make clear.
for the reason, among others, that
we cannot use any familiar term for
it that the people will understand.
While it contains the essential fea-
| lures of all three, nazilsm, fascism
and communism, yet it is not any
one of the three.
| Reasons for Failure.
Perhaps We say it clearly enough,
but do not say it loudly enough One
Is so afraid of being thought crier
of ''Fire!' that he hesitates even when
he is practically certain the fire is
beginning
Besides the reluctance Of those
who know to speak loudly enough
10 De heard, there is the reluctance
| OF the average man to believe, how
ever clearly he may hear He can
not believe that what has never hap
pened before is going to happen now.
He cannot believe that what has
happened in distant Europe is going
to happen here in America to him.
One reason for the reluctance of
the average man to believe is the Do
sition all the warmers take about Mr.
Roosevelt. All say the dictatorship i
coming-but all say Mr.. Roosevelt
will not be the dictator Gen. john
son says he would not be afraid O.
such system with Mr.. Roosevelt 2
President Miss Thompson says. e.
have never suggested that Mr.. Roosc-
welt is trying to establish a dictator
ship Mr.. Lippmann says, Il am
not afraid of Mr.. Roosevelt, but l
am afraid of his successor"
| Motives Are Unknown.
What motives these several persons
have for exculpating Mr.. Roosevelt
do not know. I do not at all impugn
their sincerity; probably all OF them,
in different ways, think that Mr..
Roosevelt would not consciously and
deliberately plan to make himself
dictator. Or they think that, as a
dictator. he would be a benevolent
one. tFor myself, 1 cannot persuade
myself that Mr.. Roosevelt is unaware
OF the consequences of what the
Machiavellis around him get him to
do. But to state fully. with adequate
care what I think is Mr.. Roosevelt's
attitude and part would require more
space than is here available-it would
involve a painstaking analysis of Mr..
Roosevelt's extremely unusual per-
sonalityD
Whatever the reasons of those who
exculpate Mr.. Roosevelt, whatever the
soundness of the exculpation, the fact
Of the exculpation makes the aver
age man reluctant to believe. The
average man thinks, "Oh, heck,
there's only one man in position to
bring about a dictatorship in Amer
ica, and if he isn't doing it, no
one is"
Perhaps another reason for reluc-
tance to believe is the fact that the
revolution is being brought about not
by violence, but by ruse, by pro-
longed series of secret devices, by
what Gen. johnson calls Machia-
vellianism. Machiavellanism as
technique of revolution has advan-
tages. Revolution by ruse has the
same relation to revolution by vio-
lence that forgery or embezzlement
have to physical assault and robbery.
If the revolution in America were
being brought by violence, America