The times-news. [volume] (Hendersonville, N.C.) 1927-current, 1938-07-20
CHANGING AMERICA

IL,
lutte autocat? Five controls would make any man
the absolute ruler over his fellowman:
! First: Control of his earnings and savings;
Second Control of productions
| Third: Control of his wages;
! Fourth: Control of his hours of work;
Fifth: Control of the prices he must pay.
| These are the fundamental powers which Mus
solni has, and which Stain has. There is es
sential difference between them In Italy, a small
group of nine industralists the stooges of Mus
solini and his controls thus called the corporate
state or Fasesm. In Russia, labor leaders Sta
Inns eutenants and his controls called the pro-
lctarian state or Communism. Both autocra
cies.
In the United States have well-nigh turned
over the first of these controls, namely, the con-
troll of our earnings and savings, to chief ex
ecutive In fact. congress has Just declined to ear
mark an appropriation of several billions
Nearly one-third of the combined earnings of
all of us. man. woman and child. are now comman-
deered yearly by politics and slowly but surely are
Cravitating tc the control of man. The savings
of other years are daily being appropriated or con-
iscated
Karl Marx was the father of Communism. The
first plank in his platform control of the peo-
pies capital and c,edit. Lenin declared that with
this control 1.-The small business men"-always, as
we have pointed out in these columns, the greatest
stumbling block in the paths of dictators-"may
be tied hand and foot" with capital under con-
trol--that is, the earnings and savings of the PEG
pe--he said at another time, I'VE have nne-tenthS
of the socialist apparatus
Why is such control of earnings and savings SO
important? Because it permits dlctators to spend
them in their way. 1t permits INSCRIPTIONS
ones to spend the public money in order to keep
themselves in power. One billion is collected, for
example, in social security taxes. 1t is spent Tor
dams and Arthurdales. for tree belts and Green
belts for outhouses and electric coasters, for Pas
samaquoddies and post offices. The point ls--and
it is the fundamental change occurring in the Unit
ed States today-that political agents now deter
mine how the greater part of our earnings and
savings to be spent
Few realize the distance we have gone down this
un- American road. Whereas only ten per cent of
our deposits in the banks seven years ago rep
resented by government l. O. US, today it is 40
per cent. Whatever you deposit in savings or COM
mercia banks. you can figure that do per cent OF
it has been borrowed and spent by your federal
government; and more of your life insurance saw
ings the money back of your policies that makes
them safe have likewise been Communicated The
government has 10 great lending agencies 1t lends
our money. not perhaps you or | would lend 1t,
but as it sees fit to this citizen, group of cltl
Gems to this section or that fo this undertaking or
the other
We are taking the same course in the other four
controls Agricultural products today controlled
by the secretary of agriculture, an appolntce OF
the chief executive. Here is an example of this
autocratic power: Recently he said he might after
consideration reduce the penalties-hne and M
prisonment--of those who disobeyed his orders.
Indirectly this control Of production is likewise
being extended to industry.
Similarly, wages and hours are now under con
troll of Madame Perkins, an appontec of the chlet
executive on all materials used in governmental
contracts As an illustration of this power. she has
fixed wages of pottery workers at $1710 week
and hat and cap makers at $26. The wages and
hours bill will carry this control still further.
Prices of food products-from wheat to rice
from meat to potatoes-are set by Washington as
we'll as prices of gold and Silver-and the price for
the use of money. The surplus commodity control
is one agency of price fixing. when it buys eggs
or prunes or cotton. Of course, as in Italy, the
fixing of prices must follow the liking OF wages
and hours. It is hare-and-hound operation.
So though we may wake up some morning to
find life on the American plan completely changed
the discovery will he made to accompaniment
of goose-stepping pomp and circumstance, We shall
have been beaten not through test of courage
but by our own apathy and MISREPRESENTATION :
Business