Evening star., 1937-12-04
Two Authoritarian Bills
Crop Control and Wage-Hour Measures Lead to
Undemocratic Fascism. No.

"Kulak" is the Russian word for
farmers who own and operate their
own farms-or who cnce did, for there
are no kulaks left It is the farm
owner and operator VINO Is mud in the
path Of progress" and must be swept
aside"
That was, 1t seems tenabls to say,
= fair Interpretation Of the attitude
Of Prof. Tugwell toward the American
farmer who owns his own land and
farms 1t according to his own judg-
ment. And though Prof. Tugwell has
departed, his ideas remain in the De-
partment Of Agriculture. That OBJ
jective-the ultimate reduction Of pri-
vate ownership or private operation
OF farms-is the distant objective, or
distant effect, Of the farm legislation
that has emerged from the New Deal.
What it contemplates, or tends to-
ward, ultimately, is the wiping out Of
private ownership or private operation
OF farms, the reduction Of all farmers
to the staus Of employees Of the safe.
The carrying out of this policy in
Russia involved, at late stage, after
the Russian experiment had been
under way about IL years, the execu-
tion Of thousands Of farmers who clung
to the ancient conception Of private
ownership Of farms, and the exile Of
many thousands OF others from their
farms to the mines Of Siberia.
Fascism the Same.
The Russian Communist attitude
toward private ownership does not
differ materially from that OF Nazi-
ism in Germany and Fascism in Italy.
The essential identity Of these three
systems exists not only with respect
to private ownership of farms, but in
practically every other respect. Nan-
ism and Fascism. when they begin,
proclaim themselves as enemies OF
Communism, as antidotes to it. They
proclaim that they viii preserve the
principle Of private ownership. But
quickly they move toward the Com
munist ideal The principle common
to all three Is the authoritarian gov
eminent, the subjection Of the in
dividual to the will of the state.
That principle underlies the present
crop control bill. This bill does not,
yet, go as far as the Russian practice
about the kulakS. 1t does, however, 70
about As far as NaZi-ism has gone in
the same direction. In the present
status OF farming in Germany, the
farmer must raise what crops the gov
ernment tells him to raise, and as
much OF each crop as the government
dictates. II the farmer does not come
up to the government quota. he is re-
moved from his farm and upon it the
Nazi government puts a man more
willing and able to do what the gov
ernment demands. A person who is
exceptionally familiar with the Eazi
regime says that the Senate farm bill
might be copied from the agricultural
regulations of Nazi Germany"
With bfthe carelessness on the part
Of some, with blindness on the part
OF maryland with cunning deliberate
ness on the part Of a few, America is
being carried step by step toward the
authoritarian society and the one
man government. These few who
know what they are doing, who
planned it that way" are not in Con-
gress. They have their beverages of
power in the executive departments
and many Of them have access to the
White House. There are not in Con-
gress 20 persons. out of the total of
53l, who would consciously take Amer
lea to the status Of Germany, italy
and Russia. Yet the chief business
about to be done by Congress has Just
that effect.
Copyright, 1877