POLAND: Nietzschean Election

During the campaign which ended in Poland’s general election last week, opposition papers were so mercilessly censored that some were reduced to printing pictures of the late, great Friederich Wilhelm Nietzsche (1844-1900) with the caption : He Died Crazy.

Because Dictator Josef Pilsudski has publicly made such statements as that “Parliament is a prostitute!” (TIME, July 9, 1928) and because he somewhat resembles Philosopher Nietzsche in face and whiskers, his government promptly confiscated all Nietzschean campaign pictures, all papers in which they appeared.

Another feature of the campaign was that the government placed 64 opposition candidates in jail “permitting them to stand for election but not to electioneer.” One of these was M. Wincenty Witos, leader of the Peasant Party, thrice prime minister, locked up in the military prison at Brest-Litovsk without any charge being preferred against him.

Returns: The Pilsudski bloc, which had 120 seats in Parliament before the election, won last week 247 seats, a thumping majority in a parliament of 444 members divided among 22 parties. Even when in a minority, Marshal Pilsudski and his army clique have no difficulty in dictating to Poland, but they decided recently to become the majority in order to revise the constitution, rivet their power.