hitler

136fered no inducement, except that of martyrdom. MatthiasErzberger, another man of the Centre, and Walther Rathenou,a genius of thought and action, had paid with their livesfor their desire to save their country. Hitler not only invitedcustomers to buy his patent medicine but he denounced theopponent as a quack and prospective murderer. Dr. Goebbelsin Berlin was applying the torch to a large assortment ofpowder boxes at the same time. The powder box might havemore sense than the torch-bearer and it might refuse to beignited. But one never knew. The patriot might yet succeedin blowing up his country.In April two million people received unemployment reliefand three months later their number was near three million.The States and municipalities were at the end of theirtethers. Berlin was overrun by an army of beggars, fasteningtheir eyes on the pavement in search of a lost penny ora soiled butt of cigarette. Immaculately dressed men andwomen, their clothes shiny from too much brushing, clutteredthe approaches to the Potsdamer Bahnhof offering newspapersand counting their pennies, earned in mortificationand in shame. Hungry faces peered into the gilded magnificenceof the Café Vaterland in which the band playedpatriotic anthems.“A change must come,” one of the cronies at a cornertable said to his friend from Tempelhof.“The Nazis are coming,” the other one commented.“I am not so sure,” the first speaker answered. “TheBolshis are strong and they are cunning.”In Wedding the ambulance picked up a score of wounded