Evening star., 1934-07-29
BUSINESS VITAL ISSUE
IN CONGRESSIONAL VOTE
Administration Would Feel Affects OF
Failure of Russian, Italian or German
Systems, With New Deal Still in Balance.

citation Is justified think the fol-
lowing generation would be correct:
In principle, every fundamental
feature Of the new deal. with one ex-
ception. has It's inspiration. or its
precedent. or a parallel to It, in italy.
Russia or Germany. The one ma
terial exception Is that part Of the
new deal which reduces plenty--the
plowing under OF cotton. the killing
of Of pregnant hogs and young hogs.
That is the only aspect Of the new
deal that Is new with the new deal
ers. The rest is as I have said.
make that statement with some
confidence, though without minute
research. The statement may be sub
ject to corrections. II so. I wish
somebody would supply the correc-
tions. I wish. indeed. that I could
stimulate some one to make q careful,
detailed comparison of the items Of
the new deal in America with Tascism
in Italy. Nazi-ism in Germany and
Communism in Russia. Not with the
purpose of discovering identity. for
identity does not exist II is quite
true-and also meaninGless-to say
that the new deal is not Fascism nor
Nazi-ism nor Communism. What is
being done In America Is not q CODY
Of anything that existed before.
Neither was Nazi-ism in Germany q
copy of Italy's Fascism. No country
ever adopts literally the system Of
another country; in each country
making the adventure there Is adapta-
tion to local conditions.
Lessons Of other Nations.
But If a comparison be made be-
tween the new deal and what is
common to Fascism, Nazi-ism and
Communism, the result Is startling.
The most nearly accurate way OF
putting 1t is as / have stated Il
before: For every important feature
of the new deal. excepting the one
feature of the destruction of plenty,
the inspiration or the precedent or
the parallel can be found In Italy
or in Germany or in Russia,
II this is so. 1t follows that failure
OF the German experiment or the
Italian one or the Russian. or failure
OF all three. would have a profound
influence on American thought. II
the failure should come before No
vember the congressional elections
might be affected.
Partial failure has already come In
Germany-and the fact that such
failure influences us In America a
proved by Gen. Johnson's confession.
The general, and also President
Roosevelt, had jeered rather bitterly
at American newspapers when they
insisted on writing into their N. r. A.
code provision explicitly stating
that they did not surrender the con-
stitutional guarantee of freedom OF
the press. Subsequently when Gen.
johnson saw what happened in Ger
many, he was, he said. profoundly
shocked. He then, in his Waterloo
Iowa, speech. made his new eonfes-
sion Of faith:
i know the normal reaction OF
this the German assassinations on
N. r. A. efforts. It Is that II power
OF any kind can be seized, there is
no limit to its application. For
long time thought sincerely that the
newspapers insistence on writing into
their code clause saving their con-
stitutional rights was pure surplusa0e
but ! now see more clearly why
these gentlemen we're apprehensive !"
If Gen. johnson, author of some
| of the new deal, was thus moved.
even more is the average American
likely TO be moved.
Possible Effects In q. s.
In its possible bearing on the No
vember election, the point Is this:
The blow-up In Germany almost GER
tainly will go farther, And there Is
at least the possibility of some sort
of difficulty In Italy and in Russia.
The menace TO Italy is fiscal. The
Fascists, like our new dealers, have
been practicing the device of budget
divided into regular and extra, thus
diverting public attention from the
quantity OF money that is being spent.
the immensity Of the public debt that
Is being piled up. This practice.
kept up over 10 years in italy, has
led to q rather critical fiscal con.
dition. The suggestion is put In words
by recent writer in Fortune:
1T would be ironical II Mussolini
eventually failed simply because he
couldn't pay for his show : There
are plenty Of people who think II
Duce Is In danger OF It,"
In Russia. the peril is famine. In
an immense, rich land. Communism
as mechanism Of society does not
succeed in producing and distribut-
ing enough food to avoid Widespread
starvation. In Russia during the
Winter 1928, more than 5000 600
people died Of starvation, typhus
and other diseases. And this year the
Russian wheat crop is expected 10
be less than that of 1892.
The system of American indIvldu-
alism Is much under attack from
those who look toward newer forms
Of society. But as Mr.. John w: Davis
said recently, the American system
has year In and year out fed and
housed and warmed and clothed our
people. Even when some of the feed
ing Is public relief, the feeding is
done. In America no one starves,
1t may be that Communism, Ease
ism and Nazi-ism. II they fail-and II
the failures come soon enough--may
save America from going farther In
the direction of those experiments.
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