Evening Star Newspaper, June 25, 1933, Page 23

: SCHACHT IS RATED HEAD OF HITLER i ' BRAIN TRUST , German Financial Expert Guarding His Nation’s Interests at Economic Conference. BY C. PATRICK THOMPSON. ERMANY'S affairs at the Lon- don Economic Conference are being managed largely—as is apt and proper for a state|highly developed sense of political real- | Partial execution of the campal whose rulers have not yet de- cided whether to head into the strange | future or trim sail and turn back fo| the known, explored, familiar and dis- astrous past—by a new-generation man Ministers and governments were rising and falling too quickly for him. Be- sides, his keen financial nose scented a currency disaster if inflation were not arrested: and, with his by now ities he did not see how it could be arrested until the German politician: were ready to give somebody dicta- torial powers. Then Germany defaulted on repara- with an old-regime manner. tions, and in poured the French tc Meet Dr. Hjalmar Schacht. president | apply military sanctions. They occu- of the Reichsbank, the most formidabie | pied the Ruhr, seized mines and rail- figure in Germany’s little brain trust. roads, tcok over Reichsbank branches, banker, economist, politician, renowned | Cuno resisted passively. Schacht made as a heaver of financial bombs and a ' a violent speech against Cuno’s eco- wielder of political indiscretions (a ' nomic financial policy in the privacy very useful weapon of both attack and 'of the “Wednesday Society” circle; and defense in European politics in general Cuno fell. and German politics in particular) and | The mark also continued to fall, al- one of the most significant world fig- | though Stresemann, an infinitely wres of the epoch. tougher man than Cuno, had now taken Shaking hands with this stocky, over the chancellorship. By November abrupt, energetic man. whose hard, |of that memorable year, 1923, the mark smiling eyes glint behind very large | touched the fantastic rate of 150,000, ince-nez glasses, you may find hlm‘ooo,ooo to the British pound. Nearly cking in personal magnetism, and this {2,000 printing presses, running in 140 reaction may recall to your mind that | factories, and fed by 30 printing mills, ‘his fame is scarcely equal to the appel- all working day and night, were occu- lation “significant world figure.” I use pied trying to keep pace with the this phrase advisedly, for the significant | mark's meteoric fall. Stresemann had world figures of this mighty transition | offered Schacht the finance ministry phase in the life of the machine-made | in his cabinet. Schacht had refused. civilization are not really those who| He had definite ideas and did not pro- enjoy enormous fame through the ex- pose to trim them to the winds of ercise of political talents and mass|popular politics. It was neithef obsti- hypnotic powers. They are the eco- nacy nor arrogance. He knew he must nomic experts who not only preach the | have a free hand, or fall. gospel of a dispassionate ~economic- | 7 v H technical approach to world prob]ler:lsJ Produce Financial Plan. { but who have the requisite qualitles| He had already produced at a “Wed- | needed to put them behind the domi- | nesday socmy"y g\zetmg a complete | nant political leaders and regimes so|plan for rehabilitating finances. His that they can put their ideas into prac- | plan was based upon gold. Helfferich, tice. | the former Hohenzollern secretary of the treasury, had a rival plan. It was ! based on "land values. Stresemann {had to do something. He himself 1lacked technical knowledge, but his in- telligence was profound. Schacht pro- i i Bulks Big in Economics. You may not like Hjalmar Schacht's manner. You may protest that the back of his head looks as if a caricaturist had molded it to fit the popular con- ception of what is meant by “Prussian.” | You may think that as a diplomat he is about as tactful as the late Hugo| Stinnes, who in the midst of delicate ! Allied conferences with defeated Ger- many in the early post-war phase, posed to put Germany in the interna- tional current and could gain British and American ‘support. (Strong and Montagu Normar, occupying the key financial positions in America and England, both were anxious to stabilize was in the habit of losing his temper | urrencles by getting back to gold.) i relling the et mnqu"&i-}nut old Helfferich? He was out of Ministers, diplomats and bankers whers | date. Land values! Who would sup- they got off. But all that side of |POrt a currency based on German land Schacht pales before those aspects Values—who except a land-owning no- which make him bulk big in the queer Pility without cash resources? Schacht, age of the great economic war. further, had obviously the will to carry He preserves, above all things, and & currency scheme through. despite his Prussian manner and Nazi| A few hours before he fell, Strese- nationalist orientation, the detached |Mann gave Schacht what he wanted— mind. The thin clenched lips may |dictatorial powers as currency commis- upon occasion pronounce phrases more | Sioner. Schacht's Juck was in. Haven- in keeping with Hitlerite oratory than | Stein. for twenty years head of the with common : but the brain in- | Reichsbank, died. Helfferich was next side that massive skull remains a free in line of succession. But Marx, the agent—strong, acute, balanced, wide- ; new chancellor, cut across tradition ranging, dispassionate. Probe for the | 8nd precedent and put Schacht, a new secret of this and you find that it lies | regime man, at the head of the central less in education than in the obscure bank. roots of tribal origin. | Thus, dramatically and overnight, Like Hitler, he comes from an out- | Schacht arrived. Two days before, he side tribe. He has Scandinavian roots. | Was, for political purposes, only a voice ose roots were transplanted to in a debating society. Suddenly he Northern Schleswig and the Schacht| was precipitated into the mnational family flourished in this province, |arena, with unprecedented executive vhich was Danish until Prussia powers, virtual controller of Germany's grabbed it 70 years ago, a piece of in- | economic life. And he achieved this ternational piracy which was recalled | position in the state because the polit. efter the war. | ical leaders had no man of their own Name Is Not German. | capable of dealing with the situation. : | He was no longer the expert used as “Hjalmar” is not a German name. 8 tool. He was the expert in revolt, in. Probably Schacht would not have cho- | sistent, intriguing, challenging, thrust. sen his baptismal name had he had ing his way into the field of control of any say in the matter. But that little| the state so sadly mismanaged by ex- affair was left to his father, and what | clusive control, first by a warrior land- his father, a Danish subject, thought| owning caste and then by a new breed about the appesrance of the Prussian of popular politicians. flag in_Schleswig may be gauged from | Tis subsequent action. He mi;[arn:fd‘ Had Technical Knowledge. to the New World across the Atlantic,| Schacht's task was not an el his betrothed came out to him from| difficult one once the polltici!xc;:iz‘e:g cpenhagen, 70 days in a sailing boat. | that-be had smoothed the road for him and they were married in Brooklyn, where their first child was born, and named (shades of Nazi Germany!) Edward. Hjalmar, appearing later, nar- | Towly escaped a like birthplace, and | American nationality. But New York climatic conditions did not suit the| woman from Copenhagen, and Schacht. ‘ senior, returned to Schleswig, to work | there for the company which had em- | ployed him in New Ycrk. Hjalmar was born a year later. at Tinglefl. His parents commemorated in their new-born their life in the United States by baptizing him Hjal-| mar Horace Greeley. But if you wish to remain on friendly terms with Dr. Schacht, head of the Reichsbank snd a power in the Nazi regime, you will not greet him with a bright, “Hello, Horace,” and still less with a_warm, “Why, Greeley, old fellow!” For he does not use those names, and doubt- less thinks his father extremely indis- creet to have pinned them on him, a full-blooded German now Some minority men spend their lives preaching and working for the restora- tion of a lost nationality. Others (like the Scots, the Welsh and the Irish in England. as typified by MacDonald, Lloyd George and Bernard Shaw) pre- fer to conquer the conqueror and rule or bully him on his own sofl. To the Jatter group of wiser men belongs Schacht, from former Danish Schles- wig. Lacked Early Luxuries. pre-war Germany Hialmar In - Schacht, lacking the advantage of keep the regime afloat in stormy seas.|port and money. birth and the individualistic acquisitive instin mained relatively unimportant, the tool of more powerful men and interests. His father had been made secretary of his company’s branch office in Be Thither Hjalmar went when he was through with school, and, after start- ing off on the wrong foot in a news- paper office, began his real career with a concern which supplied business firms with statistics. The record and statistical side of big business was then becoming important The big Dresdner Bank enlarged this side of its organization and took in| young Hjalmar. Once in on the ground floor, Hjalmar, quick, clever, indus- trious, rapidly attracted the attention | of bank chiefs. He was head of his section and on the board of director: at 35. The state had need of such highly specialized men when war came Hence Schacht’s survival. He is not a warrior type. and his only close con- nection with the war front was a spell in Belgium, where he was sent by the authorities to organize German bank- The collapse of the old regime and the coming of the republic changed Schacht’s whole life and field of op- portunity. Since the beginning of th war he had 7 & member of the politi nomic circle known as the “Wednesday Society.” At the weekl meetings of this circle, industrialists bankers and Left-inclined industrial- ist-politicians, tied to the Hohenzollern regime. and outside of the ruling warrior-Junker caste, met and discussed affairs in which they had a common interest—the interest of self-preservation. These contacts did three things to the serious, industrious young bank cashier. They broadened his outlook. They brought him in touch with bigger men destined to play considerable roles in the subsequent life of the German state—men like Rathenau, Stinnes, Hugenberg. —And they awakened his acute intelligence to the importance of politics in & career Active After Revolution. So after the revolution we find Schacht. now 43, joining a political party, the Democratic, getting more active in the “Wednesday Soclety” and contrisuting to the Berlin newspapers— all activities which would have been unthinkable in the old-regime davs But the daunting old-regime men h been blown away, and on all sides dis. eers were open to new- e Sehacht cannily bided his time, | clues to the psychology of this man and protected him during his pr S3 along it to the mbuusauun po‘r)grtehe mark. He had the technical knowledge and after that it was mainly a matter of will power. Montagu Norman helped on the technical side. So did Strong. They had their reasons. But Schacht was completely successful as a con- structive financier and economist and as head of the central bank he retained a pretty complete control of Germa economic life through the crisis vea: to 1929 when he resigned because he objected to the politicians’ interference with the Young nlan 2s drafted by the bankers and economists. Look at his eyes, large but narrowed under straight brows. Look at his nose, big and wide-nostriled. Look at the set of his head on his neck— it is poised like & boxer's. Glance at these physiological points which give and then observe that Schacht refused to “mix it” but stood clear of events from 1929 until the advent of the Nazis He saw that Germany was headed for He smelled it. And he stood from under and watched events The Nazi group thus were able to take over & man untainted by relations witn the governing group during the pre-| ceding four years and Schacht was able | to join them as a banker economist hostile to Left tendencies and sub-| scribing to the Nazi nationalistic ideals | and aims Schacht, besides. has all the technical knowledge and experience needed to With Schacht. Hitler hopes to make | . went ahead but re- himself independent of Hugenberg and | dent about the whole old regime crowd. He may | manage it, Schacht willing. With| Schacht. Hitler hopes to secure the successful flotation of a great internal loan to back his regime. And he may manage that, too. the international bankers willing (Schacht has already secured Montagu Norman's conditional pledge of aid). Hitler wants to get the | interest rate of Germany's external debt reduced. It would be a great triumph for him. The technical methods, the strategy? Leave that to Schacht Schacht is already on the job. The proclamation of German transfer diffi- culties, the procedure followed at the May meeting of the creditor representa- tives in Berlin, are a first step in the Schacht operation His Views Are Fixed. It is illuminating to take a bird's-eye view of the fundamental ideas and views of this remarkable man. for they are fixed views scientifically based and do not shift with changing conditions Moreover, they put a spotlight on the world struggle of capitalistic society to keep afloat during the great transition period ushered in by the war and the harnessing of science to the industrial machine. His e e philocop! within the compass phrases which he has uttered. They are: “The world can only recover when economic experts, instead of poli ticians and diplomats, assume the lead- ership of the fate of nations.” and “Economic facts alone can furnish the weapons against political aversion contrasts of races and unjustified na- tional price.” He hates Socialism in general and Socialism of the international brand in | particular. Under the Soclal Demo- | crats, in the first revolutionary phase, | Germany had her fill of the latter. It materially injured the national econ- omy of that state. Surveying the German picture with some disgust in 1931, that 30 per cent of the entire industrial population were government officials in one form or another, or were working in enterprises upon which the national, state or local government exercised a decisive influence. He found state and municipal works in control of 53 per | cent of German water power, with is contained Wo memorable Germany were dearer than elsewhere. He also pointed out that, since these are WY | statesmanship s U Schacht found | STAR, WASHINGTON, 933—PART TWO. «“Husbands for All!” That Promise to Women Helped Hitler to Power—but Now He ks Sending Them Baek to the Kitehen. BY EMIL LENGYEL. HUSBAND for every m!!"’ That was a campaign slogan of the Hitlerites before they came to power and to that slogan they must be than! | ful for much of their success. Now, in ign pledge implied in that slogan, the government of the Reich has just issued a law by which it expects to secure husbands for at least 150.000 National Socialist girls To encourage young women to Marry, the government undertakes to grant a loan of 1,000 marks, the equivalent of $275 at the time of writing, to every newly wed Aryan couple—but, in order for the couple to obtain the loan, the bride must be a job holder, she must have held her job for at least six months, and she must agree to give up this job and to accept no new job as long as her husband earns at least 12 marks a month. ‘The loans are to be repaid without | interest at the rate of 1 per cent a | month. The government will finance the operation by levying special taxes on bachelors and spinsters. This marriage law of the Hitler gov- ernment reveals the policy of the Third Reich toward women; they must marry, then they must retire to the kitchen and leave the opportunities of work to the males. Marriage is encouraged in Hitler's Germany because of its stimu- lating effect on the birth rate. The Third Reich is in urgent need of sol- diers. “We must have 20,000,000 more Germans,” say the Nazis. Beyond bear- ing children women are of little use in the Nazi state. Hitlerism is in re- volt against “the domination of women.” Nazi Attitute Toward Women. The attitude of the Third Reich toward women can be studied to best advantage at Nazi mass meetings, pref- erably at Summer festivals. Where men and women meet in large numbers | their respective social positions can be best appraised. Visit for a moment the district of Treptow, on the banks of the River Spree just within sight of Berlin’s jungle of chimneys. In the shade of giant oaks and fragrant linden trees National Socialist men and women sit at hundreds of small tables in an endless row of beer gardens. There are more women among them than men and there is an exceptionally large —_— were using the provision of light and power as an additional form of taxa- tion. Whereunon he cursed the na- tionalization of industry root and branch. Sees Faults in Socialism. “The fundamental malady of the So- cialist system,” he declared, “is the tremendous overvaluation of the ma- | chinery of the state. The overgrown bureaucracy and the excessive number of civil servants slow up the whole administrative enterprise. Any enter- prise in which the overhead costs form too large a percentage of the total re- turn is spending its capital, and will soon collapse.” He doespsnbt merely believe in de- fending the national economic inter- ests of Germany: it is an article of his faith. But he thinks (and this is in line with the vaguer Nazi ideas of race superiority) that nations can ar- range cartels, associations, mergers of interests, thus giving the economic forces of a powerful and industrious conglomeration of tribes a chance to win a place in the sun, if not Conti- nental or even world dominance, with- out the intrusion of the warrior caste, and military war, neither of which he likes. Thus in the first post-war phase, he | embraced the ideas of Pan-European political union, and advocated the so- called “Continental policy,” which aimed at an economic understanding with France and joint development of French and German industries. The only fly in that ointment was that France wanted control in the partner- ship—and so did Germany. Schacht also is the author of the bright idea (which may yet come to something) of taking the colonial question cut of international and na- tional litics Prance, x;‘t’aly and possibly the United States, with one or two other coun- tries, into a merger to develop the German colonies fcr the joint benefit of all. The only fly in that ointment, once this project was put into practice for the German colonies, now man- dated to Germany's conquerors, is that it would not be long before Germany Would be pressing for. the extension of an enlightened and economically suc- cessful and peace-stimulating technique to the colonies now administered under the French, Portuguese, Belgian, Italian and British flags, with the result that certain imperial nations would lose their valuable :awcul interests in rica (for a start), ll:(nrflciary would be the mighty clang- orous workshop that is Germany. Wants Territory Returned. this field Schacht is in the com: pa}‘{\l' of many advanced economists of pacific tendencies. He might even, w 2_’ Teservations on phraseology, be H, G- Wells speaking—Wells, with :;s“m B task con e s "the organizing under the control of work larger interests of manki Taw material supply. But when you % Baitic, his romantic de e 'Emse_ s st be returned to Germany. y e hers, and they were looted. Be- sides, without them Germany's economy is disrupted. ' Unil restitution is made; the financial rr-cugsutuugn of P is impossible. And 50 on. 5 ic approach, one per: The natlonl e prolems. His casc he exuao‘r’d.\m?{! pe‘n]:; rpetuated at ersailles created p:ug cases, arguable in :,e;:rss of economics and finance, all over Eu- Tope. But many folk can not see 'L Among the lafier, 18 Lot tatesmen rt most O - PIE]:E)' met in Paris to talk nb(?}l]lltrép(;‘ rations—purely a question of what Ger v could pay, an " 5 T:g’snmcm? the chief German d‘m gate, roughly thrust the aforesald quer; nto their midst. 1 e ;’};’&ke‘d ‘A brain_storm, saxdhclht creditor dclegate, shaking his hea “These economic experts!” exclaime ma British diplomat over dinner that night. | “It just shows what a mistake it to send them to these conferences in lomats-—or—or—gentlemen.” “politically inept.” are terms which are likely acht's way, again during ; Jgress of the London confe! el S Because he is an economic autocrat who 1s impatient of decep- tions, half-truths, l}’ll\g ‘\;'lli‘x]xlfl)gur?. ope, bologna & mug-w u‘i"’u-m,n of politicians s only exceedec ¢ his distrust of publics which arc governed by passions and prejudice and misled by words. having themselve { neither time nor inclination to make : ¢ of facts e einess men in different natlon: nearly always understand one another, he s “That is because they talk as they think and do not waste timc employing empty phrases intended fo: he public.” P onder that the 57-year-olc Schacht, a mild family man in privat’ life, industrious. devoted. abstemious should in public life be an autocrat well as an economist. He may be th reconstructor of Germany's economi and financial life, and the man upo whom Hitler chiefly depends to provid a rising instead of a falling econom tide for the Nazi regime, but as person dependent for power upon per corridor to tachment diplomat to come S d|the result that light and power inlsonal popularity and the emotional ac- las! | of Paris. to interpret the covenant more | claim of the crowd, he would long as a lump of ice in about as and the chief| d boards of such| nd as trans-| alk to the Reichsbank presi- | e ber Silesia and the Polish | F | | | | | proportion of young girls, many of whom have no male companions. They | are gay and lively, believing in the | Third Reich as a gigantic marriage ou- reau in which young heroes of the | Brown Army carry off blond heroines to dream castles in the romantic man- | mer of the cheap novels of the last | century. ously bleached so as to bring 1t closer | to the Nordic ideal. There can be o doubt that Nazi gentlemen prefer blonds. Adolf Hitler is a great favorite with National Socialist girls. Has he not promised to bring them out of the slough of despond and get husbands for all of them? 1In the gardens of everywhere and the great majority of them are bought by girls. Men in brown Nazi about in every direction, their heels clicking ponderously, their arms shoot- ing upward in the Nazi salute. The organizers, officials and ushers of the Summer festival are men, members of Hitler's storm troops. The women hold no such official positions. On the contrary, many womeh are seen Carry- ing the family food baskets to the tables—obviously the Hitlerites be- lieve in the old-fashioned female, the servant of the male. “German Men.” And when a speaker addresses the audience he begins with the saluta- tion, “German men!” It is so accepted that one is inclined to believe that | should a thoughtless speaker address his audience as “German men and women” he would be booed. Women | are mere supers in the Nazi drama; {all they have to do is to obey when | their masters speak. “I have no use for women in poli- | tics,” Adolf Hitler said. “The Third | Reich recognizes no special rights for men or for women, but wants one set of rights for both sexes.” If the visitor to one of these Sum- mer festivals in Treptow is in luck he may hear Dr. Alfred Rosenberg, a power behind and semetimes in front of the leader's throne, retailing his | views on the problems of women, on | which he is an authority. “Feminine influence ruins the state.” {Dr. Rosenberg says. “America’s cul- {ture is so low because of woman's by getting Britain. | ryle | _The Third Reich, he says, must be | reared in the rule of the sword, and ‘women—a suspicious species because | so many of them do not believe in Prussian _ militarism—must _have no commanding place in it. Under the corrupting influence of women, hi warns, there is danger that German: will return to “the idolatrous cult of humanity, neighborly love, slave eman- cipation and pacifism.” The Third Reich must harden its heart to such | beliefs and must bow only to the pagan | virtues of the fighting man. | Sex Equality Resented. The Nazis’ aversion toward the equal- ity of women is allied with their aver- sion to everything born in Germany's shame. Hitler's movement is a revolt not only against Versailles, but against | the social changes that were instituted | by that product of Versailles—the re- | public. That is the logic by which | the Nazis seem to have convinced mil- | lons of German women that it was | treasonable for them to have accepted | emancipation from the bondage of the | kitchen. ‘The Hitlerites can furnish as many reasons against the equality of women as a magician can produce rabbits out of an empty hat. One of their pet arguments is that feminine competition | has had a devastating effect on em- ployment. When Hitler took possession |of ‘the Reich in January there were | about 11,000.000 women gainfully em- |ployed in Germany, and the unem- ploved of both sexes numbered about | 6,000,000 Tt was not difficult to con- | trast’ these two figures and thus to | blame unemployment on the women. | In a pamphlet which bears the im- print of the Hitler party, a Nazi propa- | gandist complains that a few months | ago there were 3,000.000 women em- | ployed in German industry and handi- | eraft, 1,800,000 in commerce and trans- The blonds are in a majority | and the hair of many of them is obvi- | Treptow his photographs are for sale uniforms_ it | | “BACK TO THE KITCHEN"—A GERMAN FAMILY PREPARING DINNER portation and 600,000 in administrative positions—with the rest of the 11,000.- 000 employed women working in agri- culture and domestic service. Since 11913, the propagandist says, the num- ber of women employed in factory increased thirteen times, and the number in commercial offices has increased six times. Women have pressed down wages, it is charged; they have driven men out of their jobs and have thus deprived girls of the prospect of marriage. The result is, according to the argument, that in the first half }o{ 1931 there were 30,000 fewer mar- riages than in the first half of 1930. Birth Decrease Is Worry. But it is the decrease of the German offices has |than anything else, and they say that the only way to improve it is to return to the three “Ks” so highly praised by | Kaiser Wilhelm II—“Kueche, Kirche, | Kinder"—kitchen, kirk and cradle. | Should the population of the Reich continue to decline at the present rate, | Nazi statisticians estimate that Ger- many, in 1953, will contain only 50,- 000,000 people—not more than the population of Poland by that time. What a catastrophe that would be! Then the Reich, freed from iis night- mare of overpopulation, no longer would be forced to look for a place in the sun, and the main excuse for mili- | tarism would vanish into thin air. No figures are quoted more often in Nazi headquarters than those which were submitted by the minister of interior to the Reichstag in August, 1931—and those figures show that in 1913, 116.12 children were born for every thousand women between 15 and 44 years of age, and that in 1930 the number of births had dropped to 67.2. As part of the Nazi program to ward off this danger. Dr. Alfred Rosenberg recommends a modified form of polyg- amy. He does not advocate the T¢ introduction of polygamy in legal form; he wants it brought back in a round- about way. The Third Reich, of which he is one of the principal archi- | | tects, should encourage child-bearing— | whether the mother is married or not. In the Third Reich, where the state commands all allegiances, even love must be subordinated to the needs of the community. Marriage, according to some National Socialist leaders, must that regulation must begin with the | blood of the bride and groom. Blood Register Drawn Up. A blood register has been drawn up by proponents of the idea, and they suggest that only members of the sam blood class should be allowed to marry | without special permission. A girl in blood class AA, for instance, would | not be allowed to marry a young man |In class A. Jews and other non- Aryans would belong in & class by themselves—and would be forbidden to Tmarty Aryans. ‘These are not fanatical dreams. Al- ready several laws, which would make it nal offense, pun- ishable with death, for an Aryan to marry a non-Aryan, have been sub- mitted to the Reichstag and to the State Diets. For the time being less radical Nazis would be satisfied with sterilizing the socially unfit. But while the party leaders are Ways of preserving Teutonic racial purity, the rank and flle have taken matters |into their own hands—Teuton youths |and girls suspected of having non- 'Ahryan friends are warned and pun- ished. | If the Germans_are to be trans- | formed into a race of masters, provision | must be made for servants. and it ir | part of the Third Reich's policy toward | women to induce many of them to | enter domestic service. The marriage |law of June 1 exempts servants from the payment of unemployment insur- lance premiums and reduces their in- | come taxes below the average level. At the same time, it authorizes «employers | of domestic servants to claim tax ex- | emption for new help—the more ser- vants in _a household, the lower are its |taxes. Thus the Hitler government { hopes to absorb a large number of | the 2.000,000 women—Germany’s excess female population—in domestic service There is another striking illustration of the attitude of the Hitler govern- Legal Definition of War Is Proposed As Method of Enforcing World Peace The need of a legal definition of war in order to avoid confusion in applying international agreements, such as the covenant of the League of Nations and the Pact of Paris, to the present situa- tion in the Far East where war is going on, although not formally declared, is emphasized by Prof. Clyde Eagleton in the June issue of the International Conciliation Document, published by the Carnegie Endowment for Interna- tional Peace. Prof. Eagleton says: “According to the covenant of the League of Nations, resort to war brings sanctions into automatic effect; ac- cording to the treaty for the renuncia- tion of war, war is outlawed—in pur- pose, at any rate. If it is not known what constitutes . the effectiveness of both these documents is limited. Indeed, it is not too much to say that international government cannot pro- ceed, and that the maintenance of peace is left at a standstill, until war is defined, or until the rules against war are differently stated. It is a vital and pressing question.” Pointing out that the uncertainty re- garaing the exact legal condition of war has been hampering to a proper ap- plication of the covenant of the League, Prof. Eagleton says: “Whatever may have been the intention of the makers of the covenant, the tendency has been, espectally since the making of the Pact | and more to prevent war or gther use Aot amod focce, And i the cwRme-a this development studies have been undertaken by League authorities which have revealed the necessity for clearer definition of war; which have, indeed, revealed that it is impossible for the League to proceed much further with its pacific mission until war is clearly defined. The problems raised by the lack of a clear-cut conception of what constitutes force or war are apparent in the dispute between Japan and China, Prof. Eagle- ton points out. “So far as the layman is concerned, all the usual character- istics and paraphernalia of war were present, and he followed the course of military operations on his map just as during the World War. Yet it is ad- mitted by all authorities that war, in the legal sense, did not exist, and does not at the time of this writing. Neither side has declared war; no third state has issued a proclamation of neutrality; Japan denies it to be war in fact or law or in intention, and China does not claim that it is war. S = A Doubtful Claim. From the Cincinnati Times-Star. Michigan writers charge that their Legislature this year is the worst on record. A lot of States will dispute that. ————————— ’ Gifted Linguists. | Prom the Des Motnes Reaister. Clever people, the Japanese spokes- ‘gen. ‘They kpow “io-be amiisya ' ment toward women. Among the 288 Nazi Reichstag deputies there is not one woman. Nor is there a Nazi woman among the mempers of the state legis- lators and municipal councilors. In the Brown Houses of Germany, the headquarters of the Nazl party, women occupy only such positions as telephone | operators and charwomen. “The iron | broom,” with which the Nazis are sweeping the Reich clean of Jews, Marxists and pacifists. has dealt ruth- lessly with women. Those women who were placed in responsible positions by the republican governments are now on the black list. The teaching staffs | of the universities are being purged of feminine influence, and once more the future generation will be steeped in the traditions of the Prussian drill | sergeants. | _Noting this anti-feminist policy of | the Nazis, one is reminded that Hit- | ler's movement received its victory from the hands of women. It was a woman who bought a daily paper and financed | Adolf Hitler's bold venture of crashing the gate to fame. It was women who cheered themselves hoarse when Ger- many’s drummer staged his rallies to catch the attention of the world. It was womenh—sometimes the wives of Socialists and Communists—who held | up Hitler's arms in his struggle for power. What 1s the history of women in Germany? The German woman has seen her stock rise and fall through the centuries. In the first century of the Christian era women were held in sacred awe, and were thought to pos- sess the power of foreseeing the future. Their advice was always heard and their responses were deemed oracular. “When their women saw the ranks give way,” the Roman historian, Taci- | tus, wrote of Germania, “they rushed forward, and by the vehemence of their i cries and supplications, by exposing their breasts to danger, they restored the order of battle.” Status of Women Traced. ‘Twelve centuries after Tacitus wrote these lines the women of Germany were in a far different plight. The poor among them were hardly better than beasts of burden, and the best were kept in golden cages, pampered and admired, but prisoners just the same. A few more centuries were drowned in tears and blood and while men con- ey THREAT OF TRADE WAR AROUSES LATIN AMERICA Prelimin Moves Made for SeM- Sufficieney if London Conference : BY GASTON NERVAL. TATESMEN and economists every- where are agreed that the alter- native to success of the London | Conference lies, for the leading commercial powers, in the Jaunch- ing of a movement of economic na- tionalism heretofore unequaled in its | magnitude and_severity. e But for the Latin American nations the alternative is quite a differént one. Editorial reports gathered from the Latin American press reveal the exist- | ence of a strong sentiment in some of | the principal southern capitals for the conclusion of regional customs unions | or, at least, a series of bilateral trade arrangements among the Latin Ameri- can countries in case of failure of & | world agreement at London. | It couli not be otherwise. Only the major industrial powers—the very few | “chosen” ones, physically speaking— could afford to embark in a painful and dangerous adventure of extreme eco- nomic nationalism. The Latin Ameri- can countries are far, very far, from economic self-sufficiency. ~They are, chiefly, agricultural countries and pro- ducers of raw materials which they must exchange abroad for other neces- sities they do not possess and for manu- factured articles. In most cases they have specialized in one or two single crops, which make up 70, 80 or 90 per cent of their exports. Relied Long on Exports. This lack of diversity of production and the fact that they have been rely- ing for generations on their exports as the main source of their national in- come render the Latin American n: tions completely helpless in a race for : “autarchy.” - Logically, the only way out, then, if the major commercial powers were to isolate themselves and discontinue their trade, would be for the Latin American countries to combine among themselves, exchange their natural re- sources, and develop their nascent in- dustries by means of preferential tariffs, reciprocal advantages, or barter, if need be. Once they had come to some sort of a regional understanding among them- Collapses. birthrate that worries the Nazis more | selves, they could go to an industrial power for some of the finished goods and luxuries which they are unable to manufacture—geographic and economic reasons would naturally point to the United States—but then, going together, and having much more to offer in ex- change, they would undoubtedly be given much better treatment than here- tofore. Unimpressive as inter-Latin Ameri- can trade has been up to this day, the fact remains that if economic national- | ism were now to run amuck over the world, as a consequence of a London hey | failure, and Latin America found her- did it well, but because they could do|self deprived of her traditional trans- it at all. atlantic customers, she would be forced The v‘l‘;rtr}l’dhwr:’r ndd:;dhthz mm to find relief within herself, woman urdens which wo! ve taxed the endurance of most men— Cuben Viewpsini Given, {and she emerged triumphantly from| Perhaps the head of the Cuban dele- the ordeal. The government was|gation to London, Secretary of State tinued their heroic pursuit of killing their neighbors, the women carried the burden of every-day life. As late as 1870 a Prussian husband could dispose of his wife's personal belongings with- out restrictions. Not long before the ‘World War it was still the law of Prus- sia that the husband might chastise his wife physically. When the first university degrees were given to two German girls at Goettingen the newspapers applauded them. but it was the same sort of ap- plause that Dr. Johnson gave to preaching women and dancing dogs. They were applauded, not because the the most far-reaching legislation in : “Falling favor of women the Continent has|agreements here, I shall undertake to ever seen. When the National Assem- | work out the difficulties through col- bly of the young republic met in the|laboration with nations of the Western :llxeltet of vgelma‘; on R‘h}lru:mrz 6, gl!. Hemisphere.” ‘women deputies sat audito-| In 50, Senor Ferrara rium, the elected representatives of lnteml:eyfihx:!‘ the views of mm;‘;n:x‘:’lz the nation, the largest number of | nent Latin American statesmen who, women in the legislature of any demo- | during recent years, have been per- cratic country. Hundreds of women |sistently pointing in that direction. were elected to the State legislatures | Perhaps because its sponsors foresaw and thousands sat on the municipal|this wave of economic nationalism in councils. Even the executive branch|the leading commercial powers—and | of the government was thrown open to | certainly because the vision of its hid- | women, and one of them, Dr. Gertrude | den possibilities grows with the mate- | Baumer, was appointed “ministerial- | rial development of the Southern re- at,” an unexampled achievement. publics—the trend for Latin American Child Welfare Stressed. Gl o or reglonal e | w‘-wwmmamtuwv | It was the woman Ilegislators who | were the most ardent proponents of | the child welfare act of 1922, which | proclaimed for the first time the right | of the child to physical, mental and be regulated by the authorities, and | moral development, and gave the State| for | the right to educate the child if the parents failed to live up to their obli- gations. Women legislators were the nsors of the social hygiene act of 11923, which made the treatment of so- | cial diseases compulsory and abolished regulated prostitution. Buring the years of the republican era the German woman underwent a | stupendous _transformation. With an | eagerness and energy of which she had ! not thought herself capable, she hewed | her way across the forest of social | prohibitions. Just before Hitler came to power 20,000 girls were students at German universities. Hundreds of thousands of gitls were members of sporting clubs. The traditional plump- ness of the German woman had nrd&htened into a stylish slimness. In the mountains and on the plains bright-eyed girls met with boys on a footing of equality. They were me bers of the same groups of youth or- ganizations, sometimes they were th leaders of these groups, “good 4 and faithful companions. The new woman of Germany recognized no bar- riers of wealth or social cast. In the 15 years of the republican re- gime the German girl progressed more than her ancestors had in as many centuries. Marvelous though Germany’s achievements may have been during the republican era, awe-inspiring as were her fast ships, Zeppelins and dynamos, the greatest accomplishment of the republic was the modern Ger- man girl. It was only natural that most feminine youth should be attached to the Socialist and Communist or- ganizations which have espoused their cause from the beginning. Men Guard Their Privileges. Those who feared for man's privi- leged position under the new order frowned at the novel relationship of man and woman. They did not like the revolutionary innovation of woman being admitted to the bench and bar and jury box. They resented the fact that women were becoming stock ex- change operators. There was an out- cry of dismay when a woman became | assistant pastor in 8 South German church A convention of German lawyers |adopted a resolution 10 years ago that "Women were unfit to practice law. ‘cnnsmmllve postmaster general tried to dislodge woman postal employees by giving orders that they were to wear | long skirts. The Prussian state reduced the pay of its woman employes 10 per | cent. Members of the Reichstag kept | their women colleagues off of parlia- | mentary committees. Some women themselves assisted the men in the fight against the so-called masculinization of the sex. The Queen Louise Assoclation, an auxiliary of the Steel Helmets, pro- tested against the liberal era by en- gagirg in a furious discussion about the length of the hair and skirt of a respectable lady. With the success of the Hitler move- ment an era of retrogression now be- gins in the life of the German woman. Is her fate deserved as many of her critics say? Has she made the best use of her opportunities during 15 years of republican liberalism? Has she lived up to the expectations of the | sponsors of her cause? Has she justi- fied the forecast of those who p \dlcted that with women sitting side by | side with men in the legislatures a re- |turn to Prussian junkerism would be entirely out of question? The answers must be left for the historians of the future. Yet there re- | mains the charge that millions of Ger- man women helped Hitlet into power. But perhaps it will not be long be- | fore Germany’s women—second-class | citizens, trained to obey their masters - PR encmu:::: };‘:n the gt few mble en| 3 Minister i}“l;:x'm Mnrswl’l:ncm' Chile sent circulars s sibilities of a united front least, the South American naf “the free circulation wealth across our frontiers,” the Chil- unflfinntesmm u‘gechnd: conditions prove paramount impor- tance of Latin American economlcp:o— operation in employing, with mutual advantage, our own productive forces. The great depression of world busi- ness is destructive to our vitality be- ’cwseem \:;dhcbkec:ncm of collective -de- ) use we aggravate the internationally troubled situation with local barriers which our ancestors had gy (54 Soon afterward. probably encour< aged by the favorable reception his “trial balloon” met in most of the Latin American capitals, the Chilean foreign minister sent a note to the gov- ernments of all Latin American repub- lics, inviting them to an international conference for economic relief. The conference was expected to deal with a number of current economic problems affecting the southern nations. its chief object being the study of regional cus- toms arrangements among them and, eventually, the formation of a Latin American trade union. Before plans for the conference could be perfected, however, the Ibanez government, with which Senor Planet | was collaborating, fell the victim of an armed revolt, and the ensuing period | of political turmoil in Chile shelved the project indefinitely. $ The Planet proposal, nevertheless, gave occasion to lengthy discussions on the possibilities of Latin American eco- nomic pacts by the press and the pub- lic officials of the interested countries. Outstanding among these discussions was the revival of the well-known Bunge plan for a southern customs union, including Argentina, Chile, Bo- livia, Paraguay and Uruguay, which, in the opinion of this author, would give rise to an economic entity with a variety of production hardly matched in the world. . ‘The method advised by Senor Bunge would be: (a) A standard customs tariff for the five nations among them- selves with respect to outside coun- tries; «b) a gradual reduction of 20 per cent yearly in customs duties among the five nations, so that at the end of four years the duties on prod- ucts from the countries forming the union would disappear; and (c) dura- tion of the agreement for a period of 20 years, at the end of which it may be renewed. Reaction to U. S. Tariff. Last year, when the highly protective duties on oil and copper were passed by the Congress of the United States, a Peruvian Congressman introduced a resolution in the Camara de Diputados directing the Lima government to call a conference of Latin American states for the establishment of a Latin American customs union. Not long after that, a movement for bilateral trade agreements began, al- most simultaneously, in Argentina, Bra- zil and Chile. One of the first acts of President Alessandri of Chile, after being inaugurated in office last De- cember, was his announcement that he would continue the efforts of pre- vious Chilean governments for the con- stitution of a South American eco- nomic bloc. Q ‘The pronouncement had hardly left the Palacio de la Moneda when official spokesmen for the governments of Argentina, Brazil and Uruguay indorsed; the idea. Conversations began almost immediately between the Argentine and Chilean ministers of foreign affairs and finance. A few weeks later, in the conferences of Mendoza, the founda- tions for a reciprocal trade pact be- tween the two southernmost Latin republics were laid. And only a few' days ago, on the thirty-first anni- versary of the conclusion of their boundary treaty, which in 1902 pre- vented war between the two countries;” Argentina and Chile signed a trade treaty expected to end permanently the al warfare in which they had been engaged since the beginning of" the depression. Basis of Union Seen. ‘The pact has been signed, according to cable reports, with the joint under-* standing, in writing, that it could serve as the basis of a_continental union for. economic purposes. Foreign Minister” Cruchaga of Chile stated: “We hope that the pact between Chile and Argentina will serve as a stimulant and, inspiration to the rest of the comti- nent.” The day following the conclu- slon of the treaty she Chilean Associa~ tion of Retailers und Industrial Manu-, i e heumdm;::rct!t “mmu"’ ‘whole-] su] to for a South eumn‘:’ union.: In the meantime, the idea has found. ancther enthusiastic and active advo- ice is completing ments for a series of cmtemnmmm Argentine officials which may eventuate. in a Brazilian-Argentinian agreement” similar to that just signed between Chile and Argentina. It is suggested- that the matter may be the subject of. a speahl m;er&;iew between the chief executives o e two countries, Gen. Vargas and Gen. Justo. =y If London fails, then, and economic 1 consid ture welfare e i B nati breaks loose throughout the world, the alternative will not find Latin zniefles completely unprepared.-- (Copyright, 1933.) Danzig Danger Point for Europe With German-Polish Bitterness Uneased (Continued From Pirst Page.) tween Marien] and Marienwerder could be removed by slight exchanges of territory. ‘Thus an absurdity, originally due to military considerations, would be abolished, for Poland having no con- cern with preserving the dikes has awakened the apprehensions of the Ger- mans for whom these barriers are the sole protection against inundation of vast and fertile areas. There would, of course, continue the major question of the future of Danzig. Obviously no temptation would remain to the Poles to employ its harbor and there would be no compulsion due to the treaty provisions. On the other hand, the Poles themselves have argued that Gdynia alone can never be adequate to serve completely a country three-quar- ters as large as Germany and already Possessing 33,000,000 inhabitants. In such circumstances the people of Dan- zig would have every reason for seeking a reasonable adjustment and the Poles ;lgrlild similarly find Danzig a necessary To neutralize the Vistula between Tchew and the sea—where it would cross German territory—to construct a railway between Danzig and the Reich, perhaps paralleled by a motor highway, h to be owned and operated by the Germans, Polish rights on the river and German on the railway to be as- sured League supervision—these | would then be simple ways of abolish- | ing all the more vexatious phases of | the Corridor. And this new railway would pass the Corridor at its narowest point, where it is barely 25 miles wide. Precisely as long, however, as the | Germans refuse to accept the Polish Corridor as permanent and bend all | their energies to bringing about treaty | revision which would deprive Poland of | access to the sea over its own territory, no such readjustment is possible. More- over, the argument which claims Danzig for Germany because of its overwhelming majority of Teutonic in- habitants, holds just as strongly for a Polish Corridor, because in it the Slavic majority is just as formidable. While Danzig remains a point of friction between Polish officials and workingmen and the German city pop- ulation and authorities, it is perhaps the greatest danger point in Europe. Today, however, any intelligent and ra- tional readjustment is still out of the question, because the Poles are unwill- ing to resign their treaty rights in Dan- zig while the Germans refuse to re- nounce their program of total revision. For the moment it is plain that the Hitler government, sobered by the re- cent evidences of world disquiet and less impressive and in the combined the Polish majority would be |t it Polish state was impossible. the removal British and American support of the principle of treaty revision and specifi- cally of the suppression of the Polish Corridor. change would subject a million and a quarter of Poles—twice as large a num- ber as that of the Jews in the Reich— to Nazi domination has pretty largely removed the Anglo-Saxon support for the idea of treaty revision. area, decisive. notably Goering and Papen, is under-- taking to soft-pedal the Corridor issue and to repress ri its followers in Danzig. Nevertheless the danger exists’ and can become acute again at any moment. And solution must wait upon a new mentality. alike among the Ger- mans committed to wholesale revision+ and the Poles alarmed by German: signs and resolved not to yield an inch. Sooner or later, however, Danzig must be returned to Germany. But this side of war—which might invélve- all Europe—such a change must wait upon a parallel readiness on the Ger- man part to accept the Corridor. No part of the memorable address of Hitler a few weeks ago was more g than that which recognized the right of the Poles to national existence. In- the first instance, after the war, practi- cally all Germans were convinced a. So far, however, the Polish state has disclosed more stability than the German in the post-war_years. One consequence of the anti-Jewish manifestations in the Reich has been- of the larger part of. The realization that such a On the other hand, the City of Danzig is German. its people desire to return |to the fatherland. | material reasons so far as Poland is ‘There remain no | concerned why the transfer should not | take place. the status quo will constitute a grave menace to European peace. But Ameri- cans, in particular, should be careful |not to confuse the rights of the Ger- mans within the Danzig Free State with those of the Poles in the actual Corridor. For if the race factor is to be considered, there are three times as: many Poles in the Corridor as Ger- mans in Danzig. were invoked, while Danzig would vote overwhelmingly majorities in the Corridor would not be As long as it is postponed, Thus if a plebiscite German, the Polish In reality, what is most striking about he whole Danzig-Corridor question is that it is, of itself, not only insoluble but capable of simple solution from every practical aspect. remain insoluble precisely as long as German purpose remains unmodified and, as a consequence, Polish opposi- But it must ion to any incidental concession im= R SRR R, et i