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egan to increase. Industries closed their doors and many failed.The banks, which had loaned their short-term deposits on long-termsecurities to these industries, began to fail. There was a bankingcrisis. The government declared a banking holiday. It guaranteedthe deposits of the great Darmstadter bank, financed its reorganization,and finally forced all banks to become state institutions infact though remaining private in name. The government forcedbank consolidations. As the banks controlled large-scale industry,the nationalization of the banks actually put private industry at themercy of the government. Dr. Heinrich Bruening, able and incorruptibleleader of the Center, became Chancellor. He had inveighedagainst the irresponsible fiscal policies of the government.But it was too late. Actually it is possible to suggest several coursesthat would have saved the situation if they had been followed.But it is that fatal if that cannot be expunged from the picture.The courses were not followed because the power of decision to takesuch courses was wanting. The edifice of republican Germany wascrumbling. In two years Hitler would be in power.The significance of all this lies in its exhibition of the practice ofall German governments to use public debt as an instrument ofstate policy until finally the government which preceded Hitleractually adopted it as a means of creating national income. This itdid with the consent and approval of the controlling groups in thesociety. So that we may say, in view of the surrender of all typesof government to this inevitable policy, that it represents a definitestream of opinion and desire in the community—a stream too strongfor purely political ministries interested primarily in remaining inpower to resist.V - The Supreme ProjectWE NOW COME to another powerful stream of thought. Probablyone of the most completely misunderstood of all modern institutionsis militarism. While military organizations take their origin inman's lust for war, militarism is something more than a mere war98