The times-news. [volume] (Hendersonville, N.C.) 1927-current, 1933-09-11
FASCIST DICTATORSHIP PREDICTED
BY BABSON


Roger w. Babson, business statistician,
who predicted the collapse of the 1929
boom some time before the crash came,
now turns prophet again and makes the
prediction that this country will soon wit
ness a Fascist dictatorship with the NRA
Blue Eagle as its symbol.
Mr. Babson believes the regime will be
a middle-class dictatorship. He asserts ii
is now being crystalized by the conflict
between capital and labor, between union
ism and open shop management of indus
try. The great middle class of the country,
composed of land-owning farmers, small
manufacturers and business men, those OF
modest wealth, now being ground between
the upper milestone of Capitalism and the
lower milestone of Labor, will soon rebel
against such conditions and will respond
to the leadership of the Fascist dictator
when he appears.
Mr.. Babson believes the time has arrived
for great changes in the United States.
The government is about $50 years old,
which, he asserts, is about the average
length of the life of nations without eX-
periencing radical and fundamental
changes. He expects the Fascist dictator
ship to be of benevolent character, but
does not think this will be found a salts
factory solution of the country's govern
mental and economic problems, for he con-
cludes his statement with the prediction
that when the people have come to their
senses" they will throw off the dictator
ship.
Mr.. Babson evidently believes, as The
Times-News does and has so stated more
than once, that this country is now in the
throes of the biggest and most malignant
national brainstOrm that has ever afflicted
any country in the history of civilization.
Babson's prediction is being received
with conflicting views by the nation al
large. No doubt large majority of the
cOuntry's population will roundly criticise
him and laugh at the idea of full-fledged
dictatorship in control in the United States
but it will not be ridiculed as it would have
been twelve months ago. There will BE-
less laughing at this expression of the
fears" of a doleful prophet than would
have greeted Babson six months ago.
1t is a fact, however, that the country
has had far too much talk about revolu
tons and relationships so far in the yeal
1888. The talk and the newspaper space
given to such expressions has not been jus
titled by conditions in this country bad a.
they have been. If, after a hundred anc
fifty years of representative government il
the United States, and under condition!
which are better on the whole than thu
economic conditions existing in any othel
great country in the world, the American
people are swept to their doom by the ap
peals of dictator, they will deserve thei
fate. We have greater confidence thar
that IN the American people, although
compelled to admit that the national brain
storm is the most virulent form of govern
mental and economic insanity recorded il
history, with the possible exception of tn
Russian Soviet experiment Our hope fo
the country is in the expectation that it i
only temporary alteration.
The American people have heritage il
their country and government that i
worth preserving from the Vaccination
OF would-be dictators and all who woult
do hurt to its people. The government ha
not at all times functioned perfectly, bu
its chief failures have been in connectio
5aseE