Affairs have been so long in a state of crisis in Austria that the high tension is assuming normality. Herr Dollfuss is still ruling by the skin of his excellently white teeth, the Nazis and Heimwehr are making a great deal of noise and suffering a wild persecution, and the Socialists are biding their time, suspicious of both parties, with a general strike trump up their ragged sleeves in case of emergency. The Chancellor has ordered gallows to be erected for public punishment; mass demonstrations have been outlawed; the opposition press is now effectively muzzled. One thing which this situation ensures is that the German coup d'etat will not be reproduced in its original form in Austria. No single party will be able suddenly to toss aside democratic forms and seize power while its adversaries sit dazed by the Unexpectedness of It All; every faction is keenly aware of the danger which the others present to it. The country exists in a condition of armed suspense.

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Obedient to the stentorian voice of II Duce, the Italian Fascist newspapers have instituted a new typographical policy: the names of Mussolini and King Emmanuel will be printed in special type in the write-up text as well as the headlines, and what is more significant, the names of all lesser men will be rigorously, and perhaps conspicuously, omitted. The effect of these two rules naturally will be to exalt the Leader even more; and in consequence it may heighten the belief of the populace that when he passes, there will be none to replace him and things will go rapidly to pot. While that idea if accepted would be convenient for Mussolini, no doubt, it seems a hazardous thing to place a nation's hope in the hands of one man. Would it not be better to rally their loyalty more exclusively about the revolution of 1920, the Corporate State, or the sanctity of the nation? Or would loyalty find too meagre nourishment from myths?

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For those who have cried out that the optimism and idealism which once graced this land have vanished into shadowy memories, the farewell declaration of Cord Hull will come as manna in a barren country. On leaving American shores for Uruguay, gem of South America, he stated that "common interests, similar problems, and mutual devotion to the freedom offered by democratic forms of government support us as we approach the problems" of the Pan-American Conference--in short, the old formula which spawns every year a new school of invincible pow-wows.