A HOUSE DIVIDED

Since the exodus of Kaiser Wilhelm, periodic rumors of revolt have kept the German pot a-boiling. German Ministries have ebbed and flowed but only one bubble in the pot has come to the surface the Kapp Pusch of 1920. This bubble was soon burst. In the alchemy of internal turmoil, the characteristics of Prussia have changed places with those of Bavaria and Saxony. Berlin beams with sunny cordiality, while Munich and Dresden are lowering with political ferment.

It is out of Bavaria that the latest scare has come. Herr Severing Minister of the interior, exposed to the Reich on Friday a far-reaching plot of the ultra-reactionaries in Bavaria against the government. On Saturday he followed this up with an almost hysterical message to the police all over Germany of "heightened alarm preparedness". The voice in the whirlwind is Herr Hitler, leader of the National Socialist party in Bavaria. This party has cemented itself with the Liberty party in Prussia, and Herr Severing asserts that the whole movement is backed by the ominous Ludendorff. Certain Paul Reveres in automobiles sent out by Hitler have been captured and have admitted, under third degree tactics, that invasion of Prussia is imminent. The announcement that the Hitler Guards were to turn out for "field manoeuvres" yesterday seems to have given Herr Severing his extraordinary nervous chill.

The program of the reactionaries, divulged by some who have been captured, is grandiose enough. With Ludendorff as dictator and the republican officials assassinated, they would denounce the treaty of Versailles, order the French out of the Ruhr, and follow a "constructive policy" against Poland. If they only could be successful in occupying Berlin and setting the program in motion, the world might see French and Polish soldiers shaking hands in Berlin and the last of the Monarchists, who now pester Germany so much, kicking German dust off their heels. But the possibility of success is negligible. The Centrist and Democratic presses have warned against taking this movement too seriously. It is conceded to be more of a gesture on the part of the Socialist government to show the world what terrible things France is doing to German political equilibrium.

Yet the government is stirring up more of a tempest in its teapot than it has bargained for. Saxony is the center of an ultra-radical party, as antipathetic to the reactionaries as fire is to water. And with every rattle of the Monarchist sabre, the red flag is waved a little harder. If the violent Right should go to buffets with the violent left, the trembling Center would find the back of passive resistance in the Ruhr well-high broken.