"Hot News!"

Should President Calvin Coolidge spend a fortnight as the guest of Premier Benito Mussolini and then return to advocate a Fascist government for the U. S., editors would cry "Hot news!"

Such a cry went up at Budapest last week when Premier Count Stephen Bethlen de Bethlen of Hungary returned from two weeks spent visiting Signor Mussolini at Rome and said: "My Government will undertake in the immediate future a thorough study of the Fascist system, especially its social aspects. . . . We shall then adopt those Fascist reforms which have been tested and found practicable. . . .

"Naturally we , do not intend slavishly to copy Fascism; but I must express now my warmest admiration for Signor Mussolini as a man and a statesman, and for his great accomplishments as the Duce of Fascismo. . . .

"With the fruits of my journey I am completely satisfied. I went to Rome primarily for the twofold purpose of obtaining an outlet to the sea at Fiume for Hungary and to conclude a treaty of friendship with Italy. Before undertaking the trip I already had received assurance from the Government of Jugoslavia that no hindrance would be placed on Hungarian goods enroute across Jugoslavia to Fiume. Naturally the agreements arrived at upon this point and supplementing our new treaty of friendship with Italy are only the foundation and framework of a system of friendly cooperation the details of which will be worked out singly as occasion arises. . . ."

Because Hungarians are so reactionary that they retain the form of their government as a kingdom, although deprived of a king by the Allies, and because arch-reactionary Premier Bethlen has been continuously in office longer than any other European prime minister, there is strong likelihood that his new program of openly Fascistizing Hungary will be put through.