NEEDLESS ALARM

Those who feel anxious over the election of Field Marshall Von Hindenburg should remember that it takes many many votes to make a president and a great many popular reasons. The idea seems to have become editorially rampant that Germany elected Von Hindenburg to bring back an era of militarism, to threaten world peace once more, and carry out the policy that was so disasterously interrupted seven years ago. Germany is still incapable of vigorous international action, and communism rather than militarism, has lately been Germany's chief danger.

Von Hindenburg was undoubtedly elected not for one definite purpose, but for a variety of reasons: he was the one man whom all Germany respected; his reputation did not hang purely on political triumphs; his name was one to conjure back the former glory of the nation. He was thrust into office by an accidental combination of anti-communistic parties.

Those who fear the advent of a militarist of the old school must remember that the powers of Germany's president are so limited that even if this were a great national attempt to throw off the Allied yoke, it could result in nothing but failure. Von Hindenburg is too much of a political realist not to see that submission is the only salvation of Germany. He will adhere more closely to the Versailles Treaty than Europe half realizes.

Germany, with Bulgaria and Russia all too near, has recoiled from the dangers of communism. Marx was too much in sympathy with communistic ideals to guard Germany against a revolutionary future. Von Hindenburg's personel strength and conservative tendencies should be a stabilizing factor in the new political situation. Germany has swung, not towards militarism, but away from communism.