Evening star., 1937-02-13


Next -
"And I remembered the knitting
women
Who implacably counted stitches
while
The pride of France mounted the
scaffold, smiling"
It's all right. but the reviewer finds
1t hard to believe that any critic
takes books and authors 50 seriously.
THE reviewer once took Stage
severely to task for its Gas it
seemed to herr unattractive covers.
Consider, then, its February face and
see something genuinely nice. It Is q
Valentine-looking thing, ornamented
with the pictures Of 81 stage men and
women. whom the editors Of the
magazine address as follows:
"Thirty-one spaces
For thirty-one acesi
Equal the case is
For hundreds more graces.
This heart lacks the places
For all your dear faces!"
The 81 for whom there Is "place"
are taken from opera, stage and screen
and-lest you overlook it-animated
cartoon. For right down at the bot
tom (next TO Fred Astaire) are the
unrnistakable features Of Donald
Duck.
A CURIOUS article occurs in this
weeks Liberty, purporting to ex-
plain how the abdication Of King Ed
ward VIII was forced by Britain's
invisible government" The author
Is member of the House of Lords, the
Right Honorable Lord Strabolgi.
According to his piece. Edward was
forced to resign because the govern
ing forces" were afraid Of him.
"If he had been persona grata to
the real governing forces in other re-
spects." says the author, "the NOR
ganatic marriage compromise would
have been accepted. He would even
have been allowed to marry the lady
and make her Queen. But those who
control the government were afraid Of
him"
The reason which the article gives
for this fear" Is Edwards immense
personal popularity. He could have
accomplished what even his beloved
father was unable to do. says Lord
Strabolgi. He could have acted in
dependently and assumed real ruler
ship. It was this that the "key men"
Of the invisible government resolved
to prevent. AS near as an American
reader can understand it, the term
invisible government" approximates
what we mean when we say political
machine" It does sound better,
though, doesn't it?
THE question whether frame-up
Is always a frame-up or not may
quite reasonably be asked by readers
of the Nation when they have finished
perusing the last weeks editorial on
the now famous Moscow trials. Says
the Nation, "The whole sequence OF
sabotage and conspiracy on the one
hand and ruthless judicial prosecution
on the other is best explained In terms
of the struggle for power that has
been an inevitable part OF the con-
solidation of the revolutionary regime
a struggle that has involved both
men and ideas"
In other words, the question Of the
guilt or innocence Of the accused Is
mere bagatelle. It IS not even con-
sidered in the Nations little piece.
The accused were of one political phi
losophy and Stain is Of another, II
says, and hence trial and death for the
opposition.
This, of course, will not strike any
one as being news, as it has been con-
ceded by most agencies from the be-
ginning of the prosecution, but con-
slider the Nations gently admonitory
summing up, after its own concession
that the executions were thinly dis
guised judicial murder. 1t says:
"A final question remains-whether
the whole episode indicates political
weakness inherent in the Soviet sys-
tenn. The passing Of a handful OF
men, however important as revolution
ary figures, Is of minor importance ...
But the trial itself and the conspiracy
from which it emerged, even assuming
as true the most extreme charges OF
the government. are both disturbing
A sympathetic outside observer
must point out the dangers in
herent in q prolonged dictatorship"
This seems, somehow, bit bewilder-
ing to one accustomed to thinking Of
courts as places OF trial, as well as
chambers of execution. The Nation
obviously feels that the executed men
probably were not guilty as charged,
as it says that their guilt must be
assumed in some respects. 1t does not
feel, however, that their execution
C'passing' to us) is anything at all.
But it does find the condition which
breeds conspirators (even those whose
guilt must be asSupeeo disturbing"
Somehow, on this 6ouAt, one feels that
the Nation ought to blush. Murder Is
all right, 1t seems to say, so long as
you kill those who disagree with those
with whom we are in agreement. But
what Is new about that? And the
Soviet state Ii supposed to be an ex-
pertinent.
SYLVIA, Eollywood's famous beauty