HE strength of the old State rested on three A pillars : the monarchical form of State, the administrative bodies, and the Army. The Revolution of 1918 swept the State form away, disorganized the Army and delivered the administrative bodies over to party corruption.
Thus, the props essential to the State’s authority were cut away from under it. The latter depends always on three elements, which lie essentially at the foundation of all authority.
The first constant factor essential to authority is popular support. But authority, resting on this founda¬ tion alone, is utterly weak, unstable and wavering. The second element of all authority is evidently power. If popular support and power are joined together and can survive for a certain period in unison, authority may then be found to rest on an even firmer foundation, the authority of tradition. If once popular support, power and the authority of tradition are united in one, authority may be considered to be unshakable.
It is remarkable that the mass of the people—the intermediate class, as I wish to call them—never come into prominence, except when the two extreme classes meet in conflict, and that, if one of the extremes is vic¬ torious, they at all times readily submit themselves to the victor. If the best men achieve dominion, the masses will follow them, if the worst come to the top, »07 the masses at least make no attempt to resist them ; for the intermediate mass will never fight.
The spectacle at the end of the War was as follows : The great middle stratum of the nation had, as in duty bound, paid its toll of blood ; the extreme section of the best men had sacrificed themselves almost to a man with typical heroism; the extreme of the worst, protected by utterly