Evening star., 1938-01-24
WORLD DILEMMA
HELD WORST SINCE
RULE Of NAPOLEON
Europe Has Violated Prin-
cipIes for Which U. S.
Fought, Dr.. Dodd Says.
INDIVIDUAL AN ATOM"
IN REICH, HE DECLARES
Blames High Tariffs for Making
Payment Of War Debts
Impossible.

DR.. William E. Dodd, who resigned
last month as American Ambassador
to Germany because of his lack Of
sympathy with the Hitler government,
last night considered the state OF
world affairs for a Town Hall lecture
audience at the Rialto Theater and
found civilization In a dilemma the
worst the world has known since Ma
poleon l."
"The whole OF Europe Is confronted
with violation Of all the basic prin-
ciples for which the Americans
fought when they went into the World
War;" DR.. Dodd, who is an eminent
historian in the American field, said.
His last speech, in New York two
weeks ago, brought protest to the
State Department from Ambassador
Hans Dieckhof Of Germany.
individual Is an Atom
Last night DR.. Dodd, for whose
statements as a private citizen the
State Department refused RESPONSE
bility. characterized the Third Reich
as a land where "the individual Is an
atom and the government Is God
Almighty" He bemoaned the sup
preston Of free thought and speech
and the vigorous i-Semitism, add
ing dolefully:
Il have a feeling that the same
system is increasing"
The world would be enjoying calm,
with no threat of war today, DR.. Dodd
said, if its nations had agreed at
the close of the World War to follow
the course Of the 13 American COL
onies at the close Of our Revolutionary
War and effect a real union. For the
collapse Of such union, in the guise
Of the League Of Nations, he blamed
in large part our Congress refusal to
Join the league.
He blamed the United States, too,
for making war debt settlement i'm
possible by our high tariffs. To our
high tariffs he attributed worldwide
tariff barriers, to world wide tariff bar
riers he attributed the modem inten-
sity of nationalistic feeling, and to
such feeling he attributed the current
bellicose spirit noticeable in some
countries.
Other Nations Not Spared.
While he blamed the United States
for much Of the modern unrest, DR..
Dodd did not spare England (for
what he felt was her failure to back
Secretary Of State Stimson In seek
ing to halt the 1881 Japanese inva-
sion Of Manchuria) nor Japan (for
seizing Manchuria and for her pres
ent war in China) nor Italy (for
seizing Ethiopia) nor France (for fall
ing to cooperate in the 1920s to help
make German democracy possible)
nor Germany in placing the fault
for the upset world.
The German people, DR.. Dodd found
in his four and one-half years in
Germany, are instinctively devotees
Of democracy, but. he added, they
have been taught for years that
the individual must submit to gov
ernment." He explained the result:
so the German people feel that
when government says anything, right
or wrong, the people must obey. This
condition has brought all the German
people into solid phalanx. It's
amazing how complete an organization
has come. It's designed to cover
everybody from peasant to q great
business man."
Youths Are Schooled.
"A boy of is put into a govern
ment school," DR.. Dodd reminded the
audience, land at years he Is al
lowed to wear a dagger to let him
think he Is in a flx to stab some
body If he wants to. At IL he can
wear a sword to show how far he
has gotten along"
AS for the effect of anti-Semitism,
II have never heard Jew attack
his government. They're so afraid"
DR.. Dodd said
The panel for the lecture, which
was composed of Philip Marshall
Brown, former professor of law at
Princeton University; Felix Morley,
editor of the Washington Post; Rev.
Edmund Walsh, S. j., vice president
of Georgetown University, and Miss
Janet Richards, a lecturer on current
events, devoted its questioning to TAX
ing DR.. Dodd to task for what its
members considered inaccuracies In
his talk.
DR.. Dodd, however, refused to con-
cede the inaccuracies and injected
into the discussion this observation:
1T looks to me like our country
has failed to exercise its utmost in
fluence in staving of war"