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created the elite as the basis of the autocratic state and the guardianof the folk. But when it is produced—since it takes an act ofviolence to produce it, which implies the services of violent men—Mr. Mann does not like it and is now here in flight from the terriblefruit of his teachings. And he is covered with the sympathies ofsome of those who like to believe that Hitler invented all thiswickedness and that it sprang out of the evil souls of a handful offellows who are the enemies of that civilization which Mr. Mannhimself once said was the mortal enemy of German culture.Hitler did not invent national socialism any more than Mussoliniinvented fascism, which is the same thing. None of the numerousscholars credited with the dark fame—neither Othmar Spann ofVienna, nor Werner Sombart, nor Pareto—invented it. The wholecontent of fascism has been suggested from time to time eitherpiecemeal or in large doses even before Fichte. It represents few ofthe ideas with which either Hitler or Mussolini started their movements.Hitler liked to think that he was "making a front against theentire public opinion" and that national socialism must never becomethe bailiff of public opinion, never its slave but its ruler. Butactually Hitler was forever feeling around for the pulse of the greatcontrolling minorities. He played with them all, coddled them all,promised all, and lied to everyone. He courted the old nationalistHugenberg while he pampered the socialist Gregor Strasser. Hecajoled his old comrade Feder, the enemy of the "bond slavery ofinterest," while he made terms with Schacht the banker. He madeambiguous promises to labor while he dealt with Thyssen for funds.He sent Goering to Rome to assure the Vatican that nationalsocialism was rooted in Christianity while Rosenberg attackedreligion and preached his weird forms of paganism. He playedevery card, worked every side of every street until he was able toput his finger on what may be called the great mass pulse and say:here lies power. Until he came into power he sought diligently tolocate the great streams of public thought.These streams or drifts are not necessarily to be found in organizedform. A single thought or desire or a single deeply rooted impressionor belief or hope or superstition finds a home in the minds ofmany different men—men of different condition in society. They