The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1933-02-02
"A Job OnlyMcAdoo Could Do
An Analysis of His Revealing Book "Croevded Years"
by B~sck

OF the foreign agencies was devoted
to verbal propaganda and the dis
Senlination of lies"
British publicity in America was
characterized by an artistic unity
and singlenesS Of purpose. The
main idea was to create an i'm
preston that the Germans were
barbarians. The British agents
managed to make a large part of
the American people believe that
German soldiers had cut off the
hands of Belgian children, etc."
The Germans did organize "a
camouf1aged news bureau" says
McAdoo, but "they were not step
ahead of the allies. The English
and French governments control
led the cables. Nearly everything
In the newspapers which. came
from Europe during the war was
censored and colored in the Allied
interests"
These remarks are worth re-
membering in connection with
the offensive against the Soviet
Union and the Chinese Revolu-
tion--in which not only national
but CLASS INTERESTS are in
volved, with the imperialist coun-
tries controlling the cables!
The "Wilsonian idealism" that
was the moral justification for
Americas entry into the war is
shown to be nothing more than the
vulgar Yankee desire to do bust
ness at all costs. There is no
doubt says McAdoo, that we
would have sold munitions and
food direct to the Germans ii they
had been able TO take their pur-
chaSes home. 1t was a cash-and-
carry system"
His explanation of the broader
reasons for the declaration of war
are important:
ITO have stayed out after the
insults that had been slapped in
our faces for more than two years
would have made the word AIneri-
can a synonym for coward in every
quarter of the world" No one
likes to be called a coward, espe-
cially the Wall Street government
with its billions of dollars of in
vestments in a score of countries
and when the bankers are not re-
CURED to do the fighting! But the
main reason:
after Europe had settled its
gigantic roW--With Germany, in all
probability, on the top of the heap
the United States would have
become the universal target of
contempt. Our rights would have
been trampled on everywhere and
the Monroe Doctrine would have
gone the way of Belgium's historic
scrap of paper" C"Our rights
says this spokesman of U. S. i'm
perialism.)
1mperialist prestige, as well as
dollars, was involved. Once this
became clear there was no further
hesitation.
now were the Liberty Loan
III drives put over? McAdoo's
book answers the question from
the official imperialist viewpoint:
you may be sure that men and
w'men who send their sons to
battlefield will not hesitate about
sending their dollars after them if
the need for money is properly
presented. We capitalized the
profound impulse called patriot
ISM
But nothing which EfcAdoo writes
is SO important (and his book is
a cross section of American ruling
class political life in an important
historical period, written from the
standpoint Of conscious leader of
capitalism as his description of
the breakdown of the railway
transportation system in the rich
est country In the world. 1t af-
fords a measuring stick by which
to judge the innumerable criticisms
and denunciations of the Soviet
Union, its transport and industrial
difficulties arising out of their
rapid expansion, the huge problems
that have to be met for the simp.s
but not too we'll understood rea,On
Of its rapid advance.
Little" things like chaos on
American railroads, long before
America went into the war, are
easily forgotten by the capitalist
press. One does not recall that
Walter Duranty, for instance, in
his detailed description of the RI
way difficulties in tho Soviet Union,
has ever felt moved TO make the
comparison that would be under
stood at once by the American
masses.
HERE are the facts as presented
~ by the man who was Director
General OF Railroads during and