Evening star., 1940-10-25
Hitler Sees
Hate kiruqe
In Election
Visions Disunity;
But He Fails
As Psychologist
By JAY FRANKLIN.


things to swing on, so long as you
don't dislocate your neck, and
there's an interesting comparison
to be made between 1910 America
and England in 1914.
Hitler's plan of operations took
into account the fact that we are
having a national election this
year-an unavoidable political
process on which he counted to
weaken our aid to Britain and to
confuse and divide our public
opinion. There is ample evidence
for the belief that he and Musso-
lini now rely on the theory that
the election will produce so much
bitterness and discord here that
practical national unity will be i'm
possible in the first six months Of
l94l. Without unity here, he be-
lieves that it will be possible to con-
quer the British Empire and then
turn the guns of his Rome-Berlin-
Toxic triangle" against us with an
order to stand and deliver"
In 1914, the German Foreign
Office was pretty well informed as
to the state Of affairs in Great
Britain. The liberal government,
led by Asquith and Lloyd George.
had just completed dramatic
program of social legislation, in
cluding old-age pensions, fair treat
ment for labor and a curb on the
power of industrial and financial
magnates. This program had led
to a threat to pack England's
Supreme Court"-The House of
Lords-and had forced that privi-
legged institution to stand aside.
Finally, the program had intro
duced a home rule bill for Ireland.
Near Civil War.
This had brought about state
of affairs approaching civil war.
There was gun-running in Ireland
and Ulster men were drilling to the
slogan: Ulster will fight, and Ulster
will be right" Clearly, England
was in no shape to wage war on
the Continent Moreover, England '
seemed to be in no mood to wage
such a war. 1t was true that Brit
aims Roosevelt-Winston Churchill
had put the navy in good shape
but the British Army was small and
unframed for modern warfare and
there was a strong body of Little
Englanders' who vigorously opposed
the idea of getting into "other
peoples wars" In fact. Sir Edward
Grey, the Foreign Secretary, had
been forced to assure the country
that England was under no obhga-
ton to fight for the defense of
France Many influential Germans
believed that England neither
could nor would fight and that
Germany would have free chance
at France
1t was an interesting calculation
and when it proved to be a great
mistake. the Germans were furious
with England for not acting as they
had assumed England would act
1t is matter of historical fact
that England did unite and fight
and fight doggedly on many fronts
until that war was won.
Fail in Psychology.
The NaZi calculations with respect
to the United States may constitute
another military booby-trap for the
German war policy For it is in
herently incapable of understanding
our political psychological knowing
that we conduct our campaigns with
the same bitter partisanship that We
lavish on our football games and the
World Series and that when the
political season is over We lay these
passions aside and attend to our
national business, without much
worry about whether we have elected
TWeedledum or Tweedledummer to
the contested Office
Other countries than the Anglo
Saxon and the Scandinavian do not
take political controversy in this
easy or good-natured spirit. Fiery
words and raucous charges. which
would be the signal for shooting and
a coup d'etat in most of the Euro
pean countries, mean little more
than our cries of Kill the urApire!"
Block that kick!" and I'VE want
another touchdown" Any geopoliti-
cal theorist of the Third Reich who
sought to prove from the course of
this campaign that America was
out Of the reckoning would be ter
ribly mistaken and would no doubt
blame US very angrily if We acted in
a manner contrary to what had been
predicted.
So this column is an invitation to
Herr Hitler to think. once, again
and then once more before he be-
lleveS that our quadrennial political
dog-fight means that the United
States will be out of action in world
politics if our vital national inter-
estS are threatened. That's what
the Kaiser thought about England
in 1914 and the Kaiser had to run
for his life four years later from
the country he had BETRAYED into a
losing war for world power.
(Released by Consolidated News Features.
IncO