Monday, Dec. 26, 1932
"Miraculous Deeds"
Trying his best to look, act and talk like a civilian, Germany's new Chancellor, General Kurt von Schleicher, has put away his bemedaled uniform, hung up his service cap. Fortnight ago he cajoled the hostile Reichstag into dissolution over the holidays (TIME, Dec. 19). Last week he made the program speech of his new Cabinet--which should have been made to the Reichstag--directly to the Damen und Herren of the Fatherland's radio audience. German tuners-in. accustomed to the rasping, imperious radio delivery of former Chancellor Colonel Franz von Papen, were pleasantly surprised as muftified General von Schleicher addressed the microphone in soft, even tones, pitched his program speech to conciliate all classes.
"I am neither a Capitalist nor a Socialist," straddled the General. "I cannot be bothered about economic doctrines. My program consists of one single point: the creation of work. . . . Germans of all classes are dominated by only one thought: 'Give us work'. ... In order to fight unemployment I shall not reject promising measures even though they may be not strictly in line with orthodox economic reasoning."
Spicing his speech with a bit of secret history, Chancellor von Schleicher told a story on himself & Cabinet which made the Fatherland chuckle. Two of his ministers, he said, recently quarreled. Minister of Agriculture Baron Friedrich Edler von Braun insisted on retention of Germany's high agricultural tariffs, while Minister of Economics (Industry) Professor Dr. Hermann Warmbold demanded agricultural free trade.
"There was only one thing to do," said Chancellor von Schleicher. "I locked the two of them in a room and urged them to agree by midnight. They did."
As to what had been agreed, the General was not specific. Close listeners to his program speech detected a lack of program. Jokingly he said that he was "perfectly willing to equip our army with knives and paper shields, provided only our neighbors do the same." Seriously he promised no further tax-upping, no further Federal wage-cutting, greater freedom of the press and other pleasant things. "Joyous co-operation on the part of all classes," he declared, would enable him to keep these promises and he warned the Communists not to misbehave.
"Joyous co-operation," concluded General von Schleicher "is asking a good deal in these critical days.
"'A socially minded General' I hear some of you saying with a doubtful or even scornful shrug. Yes, indeed, there has never been anything more social than the old army with compulsory service, where the poor and the rich, the officer and the rank & file, stood together and showed the spirit of comradeship in the miraculous deeds of the World War."
Even enemies of the smart, soft-soaping Chancellor--Germany's modern Machiavelli--admitted that his program speech was a masterpiece of soap.
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