Hindenburg into Dictator

"No taxation without representation!" was the battle cry of the American Revolution. Last week His Excellency General Paul von Beneckendorff und von Hindenburg, President of the Reich, imposed upon Germans by a stroke of his goose-quill taxes totaling $115,000,000 which had previously been rejected by the Reichstag. After signing this extraordinary decree at midnight, Old Paul went troubled to bed. In the grey Berlin dawn millions of papers were imprinted with the ominous words: VEILED DICTATORSHIP!

The dander of Old Paul had been rising for several days. In the first place the President of Germany, who is Honorary President of the patriotic but illegal Stahlhelm ("Steel Helmet") military organization, had quarreled on Stahlhelm's behalf with the Government of Prussia.

Knowing that Old Paul was about to begin a triumphal tour of the liberated Rhineland, Dr. Otto Braun, Socialist Prime Minister of Prussia, refused to relax his rule that Stahlhelm members may not parade or demonstrate in Rhenish Prussia, which includes such an important city as Coblenz. "This is unequal treatment which I find unbearable!" wrote the President to Dr. Braun last week and threatened to omit Prussia's end of the Rhineland from his tour.

Dr. Braun remained inflexible. Suddenly the acting Stahlhelm leaders, who had previously refused to treat with Socialist Braun, called upon him. They promised that if allowed to parade before Old Paul they would not thereafter stage military maneuvres in the Rhineland. This promise was really a Hindenburg-Stahlhelm capitulation. Dr. Braun accepted it, gave per-mission for the Stahlhelm parades. Disgruntled, Old Paul put Rhenish Prussia back on the itinerary of his triumphal tour (see below).

Smouldering from this technical defeat by a Prussian Socialist, President von Hindenburg was in ripe mood for drastic action when Chancellor Heinrich Briining of all Germany reported that in the Reich- stag the national Socialist party was continuing to hamstring his fiscal program. Already two luckless Finance Ministers had been forced to resign. The Socialists were blocking the Budget. What should two old soldiers do about these pesky Socialists--for Herr Briining too is an old soldier (Iron Cross).

In every German crisis there is always Article 48. Under this emergency provision of the Weimar Constitution: "The President, in the event that public security and order in the German nation should be considerably disturbed or endangered, may take all necessary measures to re-establish such public security and order, and, if required, to intervene with the aid of armed power. To this end he may provisionally abrogate, in whole or in part, the fundamental laws. . . ."

In the "revolutionary period," while the young German Republic was gestating, Article 48 was invoked 138 times by Germany's first President, Friedrich ("Saddle-maker") Ebert--but in each instance there was a clear "emergency"; riot, insurrection or a putsch. Old Paul, as Germany's second President, had invoked Article 48 only seven times up to last week, always with the consent of the Reichstag, and mostly as the quickest legislative way to cancel outworn laws. Last week with the Fatherland profoundly at peace, did mere Socialist obstruction of the Budget considerably disturb or endanger public security?

Old Paul von Hindenburg and "Iron Cross" Briining decided that it did. With a Presidential decree invoking Article 48 in his pocket, the Chancellor faced the Reichstag for a showdown on Budget Article 11. When the vote went against him 256 to 204, when the Reichstag began to resound with shouts of "Resign! Re- sign!", Herr Bruening, speechless and pale for a moment, suddenly flushed dark red, shouted above the tumult:

"Meine Herren, in the name of the Government, I have to declare that it no longer places any value on this debate!"

The Budget was then passed by decree under Article 48. It contains drastic cuts in Federal expenditures, imposes an extraordinary income tax on Federal employes, and lays upon the German populace a new surtax upon incomes of more than $2,000, also a bachelor tax and a spinster tax.

Immediately after the decree had been issued Dr. Rudolf Breitscheid, Socialist Leader, stormily addressed the Reichstag. He denounced Chancellor Briining's action as "frivolous and outrageous," accused President von Hindenburg of creating a "veiled dictatorship." Finally he protested that his party has not obstructed the Budget. "On the contrary," he shouted at "Iron Cross" Briining, "we have practically been running after you and were nearly prepared to commit harakiri, regardless of our own party interests, as the truest and most loyal supporters of the German State!" He left the Reichstag threatening to prepare a motion which if passed would void the presidential decree. In that case Old Paul could still have his way by decreeing dissolution of the Reichstag and then decreeing the budget all over again. But would he dare?

"Down with Hindenburg!" Two days later the Socialist motion was presented. Amid tense excitement it passed 236 to 221. Perfectly composed this time Dr. Briining opened his red dispatch case, drew out a paper and began to read. As the chamber caught his drift, deputies burst into furious shouts: "Down with Bruening! Down with the Government! Down with Hindenburg!"

Though he could no longer be heard Dr. Briining read on to the end, then folded up his paper and departed. He had done it. He and Old Paul had dissolved the Reichstag. The "veiled dictatorship" had become actual--for three months. Under German law a new Reichstag must be elected Sept. 14, convene Oct. 14.

Prospects are bad. Everyone admitted in Berlin last week that the current German unemployment and depression will mean big electoral gains for the "extremist parties," Communists & Fascists. Most unfortunate of all the prestige of Old Paul has suffered. Month ago it would have seemed incredible that the Reichstag should ring with cries of "Down with Hindenburg!" Perhaps, however, the deputies were chiefly irate because, being now no longer deputies, they have lost such pleasant hot weather privileges as unlimited, free, first-class rides on the German State Railways.

For the duration of the campaign the Prussian Government forbade the sale of guns, pistols, brass knuckles, bowie knives.

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