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at the level where middle class and proletariat meet.
 
 
 If one were to average the opinions of all my informants, opinions
which on the whole are not widely divergent, I think the upshot would
be that three or four years ago a considerable majority of Germans were
at least somewhat favorable to the Nazi regime, and that generally the
German people could have been divided into three large classes: the
strong partisans of the government, the strong opponents, and the rest.
Today my informants believe that there are only two large classes, the
strong adherents of Hitler and the strong opponents, the adherents
making hardly a third of the population, the strong opponents more than
half. Of course, I have no independent means of knowing whether my
informants are anywhere near right in their quantitative estimates.
When one thinks of the different opinions honestly held about the
outcome of a presidential election in the United States, it is clear
that very little importance attaches to guesses of this kind. But I
should like to say at this point that I found myself more and more
convinced as I talked with more and more people that there has been for
something over a year a strong trend away from Hitler.
 
 
 Naturally there was a good deal of talk about what is coming. The
general opinion is that the Nazis will remain in power for a long time
and the only hope is an evolution within the party. But further, I was
repeatedly told that decent men find it quite impossible to enter the
party,
not merely because of their dislike of its policies, but also because
of
the dishonesty, stupidity, violence and ignorance that are everywhere
present.  In this connection certain other remarks about Hitler are
much to the point.  I was told that one of Hitler's most unfortunate
virtues is loyalty to his