the tax rates. In March 1925, he spoke at its congress, and was mandated to present it grivences to Premier Ion I. C. Brătianu. This movement was consolidated as the Property Owners' Syndicate, founded on December 21, 1925, and presided upon by Constantin Tamara. In parallel, he represented an informal union of medical reservists, who petitioned government to grant them higher ranks and pension rights. Sterian also made a brief return to politics following the Great Depression, when he founded the activist Association of Mortgaged Owners and Debtors. It was especially active during early 1930, when, together with the larger League Against Usury (LCC), it preached anti-capitalist rebellion at agricultural shows. The authorities kept it under watch, viewing it as an outside associate of the outlawed Romanian Communist Party. By May, Sterian had broken with the National Liberals, whom he depicted as corrupt, and had joined Jean Th. Florescu's political club Omul Liber (or "Liberal-Democratic Party"). Sterian's Association finally merged into the LCC in November 1930. Sterian was a minor candidate in the June 1931 general elections, seconding Florescu on the LCC list for Ilfov County. The national group was dissolved by September 1933, when Sterian was recruited by the Guard for the Defense of Private Property, presided upon by former LCC chairman Eftimie Antonescu. Sterian later made returns to medical research, and, in 1936, claimed to have cured Pott disease using seawater ("marine plasma") injections. Over those years, Paul Sterian had surpassed his father's renown, becoming one of the leading poets of the Gândirea circle, as well as a noted economist, sociologist, and diplomat. He may have joined the fascist Iron Guard at some point in the early-to-mid 1930s and was alleged to be hosting shooting practice for its members on one of Eraclie's properties. Married to artist Margareta Sterian, Paul was later head of legation in Washington, D. C., then, during World War II, a public servant of the Ion Antonescu regime. The regime adopted hard-line antisemitic policies, and Paul Sterian was tasked with auctioning off confiscated Jewish property. The family again had to dismiss public rumors according to which they were Jewish (though Eraclie's son Constantin would marry a baptized Jew, Silvia Sterian). At that late stage of his life, Sterian Sr returned to publishing under the pen name Ave Caesar, with Încercări de etimologie ("Essays in Etymology", 1939–1940). Under his real name, he presented his findings