Evening star., 1938-02-14
Rope for the Hanging
Dctatorshps Grow Progressively Weaker as Dictators
Become Stronger, Is Observation.

that moment the world ceases to take
the Russian Army quite 50 seriously-
and Stain prays to whatever god he
has that the ineficient democracies
will some day save Russia.
The very idea OF the leadership
principle which Is supposed to be in
corporated in the. Hitler regime is
obviously flouted by the way in which
the regime works out. The charac-
teristics Of leadership are courage. in
dependence, originality, creative abil-
ity and intelligence. and, given q free
society, these qualities come to the
top and have an opportunity to assert
themselves. But precisely the oppo-
site OF these qualities are rewarded
under the relationships. What gets
you into ofice in the dictatorships
and keeps you there Is intrigue, syc-
ophancy, political conformity, obse-
quiousness to those above you and the
willingness to scramble up on the
faces of those below you.
But the sum total of these qualities
Is not national strength. Germany
now has as commander in chief of
the army a neurotic Austrian ex-lance
corporal and house painter. Its en-,
tire economic life is regimented and
controlled under that master econo-
mist, Gen. Goering. an ex-aviator. Its
religious philosophy is dictated by a
White Russian fanatic and pseudo
Nietzchean, Alfred Rosenberg. Its cul-
ture is controlled by a fourth-rate
cof1es-house intellectual" DR.. Goeb-
bels. And its foreign affairs are in
the hands of a frivolous Nazi careerist
and former. champagne salesman, Mr..
Riboentrop, who, during his stay at
the German Embassy in London, dis
played almost q genius for awakening
distaste for himself and the regime he
represented.
And looming above them all and
feared by them all is the head of the
secret political police, q pathological
sadist, Mr.. Himmler, the very sight
OF whom is likely to make an old-line
German officer reich.
And this sextet is supposed to repre-
sent the leadership of a powerful
renascent nation
Saved by Daisy Chains.
This is what personal government
shakes down to in the end: Intrigue,
internecine hatred, personal jealousies,
overwhelming fear that the loss of a
single personal advantage may mean
death and oblivion, and eventually the
total failure of the single thing that
personal government is supposed to
promote: Efficiency The able and the
brave perish. Fourth-raters with suf-
ficient ruthlessness come to the top
and keep themselves there by more
ruthlessness.
In the middle of the army crisis the
German people are treated to a speech
by Dr. Goebbels saying that there is
conspiracy of German Jewish milli-
ners to ruin the artificial flower in
dustry by creating small hats with no
room on them for flowers! Presum-
ably Germany is to be saved by daisy
chains
II try to point out with vehemence
what seems to me to be the lesson of
the developments in the dictatorships,
1t Is because the democratic world is
so hypnotized by them. Our New
Dealers also think that the farther YOU
extend the power of the state under
personal leadership, the stronger the
Nation becomes. One can go back
through 1000 years Of history to prove
that 1t is a complete llusion-or one
can come to Washington and mark
the deterioration of personnel in the
kitchen cabinets Of the last five years.
Personal government and the ag-
grandizement of the state over So
ciety is the death Of the creative spirit,
the death of courage, inventiveness,
elasticity and intelligence.
And in the end you do not even have