Now-editorial Notes

Adolf Hitler gave toothache as an excuse for postponing his much-heralded reception of Reichbishop Mueller and the provincial bishops of the Nazi Church, at which the Nazi church dictator was to swear allegiance to Hitler. As a matter of fact, Hitler was suffering from what Zangwill once described as “truthache” The diplomatic illness of Hitler which prevented him from meeting the Nazi churchmen did not prevent him from receiving the French Ambassador on the same day.

It is reported that Hitler had decided to have the leaders of the church opposition arrested and thrown into jail, and to proclaim his full support to Reichsbishop Mueller. Preparations had been made for a world-wide radio broadcast in which the Nazi leader was to explain his attitude toward the Protestant Church. But at the last moment he yielded to more conservative counsel and changed his plans. The Reichsbishop and his Nazi church associates were snubbed. The scheme of an open war against the non-Nazi Protestant church has been postponed for the present.

Hitler has been given to understand by his more moderate advisers that his proposed move would call forth strong condemnation in the Christian world outside Germany. And the dictator yielded. He has defied world public opinion and Germany has paid for his defiance by ever-growing economic distress and moral isolation. He has now reversed himself, for the present, because the Nazification of the Protestant church in Germany not only served to antagonize Protestants abroad but also stirred up a most vigorous, courageous and dangerous opposition at home.

The Nazi dictator is commencing to back down, under pres### of the consequences of his reign of mad terror.

CHARACTERISTIC METHODS

The “Recovery Party” petition nominating Judge John F. Hylan for Governor was thrown out by Supreme Court Justice Gilbert V. Schenk. The petition was disqualified because of numerous irregularities and falsified names. Criminal investigation is to be instituted, and several people who obtained signatures for the petition have been detained.

While Judge Hylan is undoubtedly personally guiltless of any attempts at irregularities and illegality in connection with the “Recovery Party” petition, it is characteristic that the candidacy endorsed by the Nazified German-American is involved in scandalous compromises. The Nazi theories of race hatred are based on falsehoods and forged documents. It is not surprising that falsification and forgery should figure also in connection with this Nazi-endorsed petition.

SHAW IN NAZILAND

Bernard Shaw’s “Saint Joan” was revived recently in Berlin. In place of the German-Jewish actress Elizabeth Bergner, who played the title role in the Reinhardt production ten years ago, and who created a real sensation, Paula Wessely acted the part in the manner of an enthusiastic Hitler girl. She was not a success as Saint Joan, even though the present “co-ordinated” German dramatic critics praised her.

But Shaw himself did not fare so well with the Nazified dramatic critics. Thus the critic of the Berlin Boersen Zeitung attacked Shaw’s “destructive wit” and declared “Shaw has nothing in common with our period.”

The Nazi Angriff and Voelkischer Beobachter criticized the play, demanding “heart” and not “head,” The Angriff wrote that “the play is more an essay than a dream, more dialectic than poetry.”

A Catholic reviewer of Shaw’s play in Berlin expressed the hope that Shaw will soon find his way into the Catholic Church. And the same critic dared to refer to Elizabeth Bergner by name, but stated that she was “a real daughter of over-cultivated, over-bred intellectualism.”

Drama, literature, science, art judged in Germany today according to Nazi standards, Bernard Shaw, who was perhaps the most popular dramatist on the German stage until the advent of Hitler, is no longer in vogue under the system which is seeking to eliminate from its culture both “heart” and head.”