GERMANY: With Firm but Heavy Heart

The Young Plan's two archfoes, Dr. Alfred Hugenberg, "Hearst of Germany," and Dr. Hjalmar Schacht, resigned presi dent of the Reichsbank, both nursed their feelings last week as the Reichstag ratified the Plan with a vote of 270-192.

Entirely due to President Paul von Hindenburg was the impressive majority. Realizing that the bill had to pass, Centrist opponents of the Young Plan schemed to save their faces by abstaining from the vote to allow the bill to squeak through and become law by the President's signature. The grizzled, grim President, who apparently knows and sees all in German politics, neatly bud-nipped this plan. Summoning the Centrist leader, Dr. Heinrich Briming, he pounded his desk with his gnarled fist, announced that unless the Young Plan was ratified by a majority large enough to show unmistakably that the Reichstag stood behind the government, the entire cabinet of Chancellor Hermann Muller would resign. Impressed, the Centrists voted. Then President von Hindenburg signed the bill and, further to calm public opinion, issued a lengthy press statement :

"With a heavy but firm heart, and after mature and conscientious examination, I have signed the Young Plan laws. . . . Economic and political progress lies along the thorny path of Germany's liberation. I could not refuse to sign in view of my sense of responsibility to Germany and her future, because the consequences of such a step would be incalculable for German industry and German finance. . . .

"I am fully aware that acceptance of the Young Plan will not free us from future worries, but I nevertheless confidently believe that the course we are now pursuing, which grants the occupied territory hope of liberation and affords us all hopes of future progress, will prove the right path. . . .

"It is now almost 60 years since I experienced the jubilation which swept the whole German people upon achievement of unity—the occasion of the founding of the Reich. I cannot believe that this spirit has vanished and yielded to permanent political and domestic discord. Despite and because of the present distress we must come to our senses and again become an entity with the thought 'Deutschland Uber Attes.' "*

Only the ultra-Nationalist press objected to the Young Plan's ratification last week. The Fascist Deutsche Allgemeine Zeitung celebrated the occasion with a front page heavily bordered in black.

"As the chief of state," it wrote, "Marshal von Hindenburg has proved an ignominious failure, and his Presidency has been one of increasing martyrdom for all his faithful followers and admirers."

The world thought differently. With the publication of the news that the Young Plan had been finally signed, German stocks and marks recovered much of the ground they had lost the week before.

This rally, however, was not entirely due to the Young Plan signing and President von Hindenburg's statement. Chosen to succeed disgruntled Dr. Schacht as President of the Reichsbank (TIME, March 17) was Dr. Hans Luther, twotime Chancellor of Germany and Minister of Finance.