A TEUTOINIC DUCE

A contribution to the already seething cauldron of European politics, one even more ominous than the decline of the franc, is the news that a Fascist movement is underway in Germany. Taking advantage of the anti-administration reaction to the Genevan disappointment, Dr. Alfred Hugenberg, through the influential medium of the Telegraph Union, a news syndicate which he controls, is about to launch a nation-wide campaign to promote the establishment of a dictatorship, Meanwhile he hopes to win over the various anti-republican factions to his standard, thus forming a powerful organization corresponding to the black shirted myrmidons of Mussolini.

should Dr. Hugenburg succeed in uniting these divergent elements, it would indeed be a political triumph. It is true that the election of Hindenburg and the Munich demonstration indicated that a considerable number of Germans still cherish the memory of the Empire. But since a Hohenzollern restoration is not a part of the Hugenberg plan, his platform will have but little appeal to the monarchists. Nor will the Communists, much as they dislike the present regime, be inclined to range themselves on the side of a reactionary and oligarchic movement.

While Germany continues to be harassed by economic burdens, however, the danger of a coup d'etat is always present. These rumors should remind the Entente of the peril of keeping their former foe dismantled. For howevermuch a recuperated Germany might be a menace, a Germany modelled on the virulently national Fascist pattern would be even more formidable.