First-Class Steamroller

What he called a "widespread public misapprehension" was scotched last week by Nazidom's hot-eyed little Minister of Propaganda & Public Enlightenment, Dr. Paul Joseph Goebbels.

The German public, Dr. Goebbels discovered, still thought last week that new political parties could be formed before the Reichstag election Nov. 12. On the contrary, he declared, there is now in Germany one Party--all others have been dissolved and to form a new party is a "statutory offense, covered by drastic penalties."

Coached by Dr. Goebbels, the German Press explained elaborately how to vote. There is only one circle at the top of the ballot--the Nazi circle. The thing to do is to put a cross in that circle since "anyone failing to do so will simply forfeit his vote. His ballot will be declared invalid."

If this plan is not changed--and Nazi plans are notoriously fluid--the entire Nazi slate must thus be unanimously elected Nov. 12. But the voters will have a Ja circle and a Nein circle in which to vote for or against Chancellor Hitler's policy since he took office last March, especially the withdrawal from the Disarmament Conference and the League of Nations (TIME, Oct. 23).

As the Party's "primary election plank'' Leader Hitler announced last week, "Our Honor Above All." The Party's campaign slogan, he said, would be, "We simply refuse to be treated as a second-class nation."

As supervisor of the election, Minister of Interior Dr. Wilhelm Frick announced after anxious cogitation that the plebiscite question will be put in highly personal language on the ballot thus: "Dost thou, German man or German woman, approve of the policy of the Reich government, and art thou ready to acknowledge this policy as the expression of thy own viewpoint and will and solemnly pledge thyself thereto?"

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