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Franklin wanted to see the country go to wreck in order that he might have the glory of saving

it. Anyhow, there it was, wave after wave of bank failures, and people hiding their money in

mattresses, business men buying gold because of the expected inflation, and people in Europe

who had shipped their money to America now calling it back. Seventeen million workers were

said to be without jobs—a world record!

XII

Meanwhile the deadlock in Germany continued. The Socialists had lost another big chunk of

votes to the Communists, and they hated each other more than ever. Hitler had another

interview with Hindenburg, and demanded the chancellorship, but didn't get it.

The Nazi extremists were infuriated by Hitler's "legality complex," and clamored for him to

seize power. There was another violent quarrel between the Führer and his Reich Organization

Leader Number One, Gregor Strasser; the former threatened suicide again, and the latter

threatened to resign from the party and set up a new one of his own.

Strasser began intriguing with the gentlemen of the Herren Klub, who were ready to make a

deal with anybody who could deliver votes. General von Schleicher wanted to supplant von

Papen, who was supposed to be his friend and ally; he had the bright idea of a cabinet which

would combine the extreme Junkers with the extreme Nazis—they could browbeat Hitler,

because his party was bankrupt, his paymasters had drawn the purse-strings, and he himself

was in a state of distraction. Schleicher and Strasser combined would threaten another

dissolution of the Reichstag and another election, with the certainty that without money the

Nazi vote would be cut in half. Such was the X-ray picture of German politics which

Johannes Robin sent to his trusted friends; he didn't say in so many words that both the

conspirators had come to him for funds, but he said that he hadn't got the above information

at second hand.

This deal apparently went through. When the members of the Budd family drove to Bienvenu

to spend Christmas, the "office general" was Chancellor of the German Republic, Gregor

Strasser had broken with Hitler and was being talked of for a cabinet post, and Hitler had been

browbeaten into consenting to an adjournment of the Reichstag until January.

From Connecticut and from Long Island came Christmas letters in which you could see that

the writers had labored hard to think of something cheerful to say. Irma, reading them, said to

her husband: "Maybe we'd better close up the palace and save money, so that we can take care

of my mother and your father if we have to."

"Bless your heart!" replied the prince consort. "You've hired that white elephant until April,

so you might as well ride him that long."

"But suppose they get really stuck, Lanny!"

"Robbie isn't playing the market, and I don't suppose your mother is, so they can't be broke

entirely."

Irma thought for a while, then remarked: "You know, Lanny, it's really wonderful the way

you've turned out to be right about business affairs. All the important people have been wrong,

while you've hit the nail on the head."

Said the young Pink: "It's worth going through a depression to hear that from one's wife!"

14

The Stormy Winds Do Blow

I

BACK in Paris during the month of January Lanny would receive every morning a copy of the

Berlin Vorwärts, twenty-four hours late; he would find on the front page details of the

political situation, displayed under scare headlines and accompanied by editorial exhortations.

All from the Socialist point of view, of course; but Lanny could check it by taking a stroll up

the Butte de Montmartre and hearing the comments of his deputy-uncle, based on the reading

of L'Humanité, the paper which Jaures had founded but which now was in the hands of the

Communists. This paper also had its Berlin news, set off with scare headlines and editorial

exhortations. Because L'Humanité got its stories by wire, Lanny would sometimes swallow the

antidote ahead of the poison.

"You see!" the Red uncle would exclaim. "The Social-Democrats haven't a single constructive

proposal. They only denounce what we propose!"

"But you do some denouncing also, Uncle Jesse."

"The workers know our program; and every time there's an election, the Socialist

bureaucrats lose half a million or a million votes, and we gain them."

"But suppose there aren't any more elections, Uncle Jesse. Suppose Hitler takes power!"

"He can't do any harm to our monolithic party. We have educated and disciplined our

members and they will stand firm."

"But suppose he outlaws your organization!"

"You can't destroy a party that has several hundred thousand members, and has polled four

or five million votes."

"Don't make the mistake of underestimating your enemy."

"Well, if necessary we'll go underground. It has happened before, and you may be sure that

we have made plans—in France as well as in Germany."

"I hope you're not mistaken, Uncle Jesse." Lanny said it and meant it. He argued against the