Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1940-10-09
British Victory to Help
Democratic Cause
But Writer Insists
Hitler Triumph
Would Be Disastrous
BIZ J. ANTON DE HAAS,

lions, Harvard orsduat. School Of Business
Administration.
Will it make any difference to Amer
ica's future who wins the war? If Ger
many has imperialistic ambitions can
any one deny that the British Empire
was established by similar ambition?
This question is still being asked and
| it is proper that as Nation we carefully
should weigh the effect of German or
a British victory upon our welfare.
A British victory will not result in the
establishing of an economic heaven.
Under the pressure of war necessity the
free competitive system in Great Britain
| gradually is Being displaced by govern
ment-ccntrolled economic life. The
banking world and all the essential in
| dustries are now under government con-
troll. The textile industry, shipbuilding
and mining, the steel industry and the
electric power concerns have established
system of nationwide cooperation
which leaves little of the old free COM
petition. Foreign trade and the flnanc-
ing of foreign trade are placed under
governmental direction. Purchases Of
essential imports are made through gov
eminent agencies and exports are pro-
NOTED through government-nurtured ex-
port bodies. In order to pay for imports
so far as possible by exports the pur-
chases of the British government are
made in countries willing to take British
products in payment or to give credit to
Great Britain to be liquidated by British
products when the war is over.
All this means that purchases in the
United States are paid for by gold, by
the liquidation of American securities,
or by the sale of raw materials purchased
with deprecated pounds in Latin Amer
lea or the dominions. And the goods
bought in this country will continue to
be largely manufactured products used
for war purposes. 1t means that our
farmers are progressively losing their
export markets.
Nor is the outlook bright if a British
peace is achieved. over production
stimulated through large buying opera
tons in the countries where Great Brit
ain does its purchasing will lay the
foundation for increased competition in
the products we are in the habit of ex-
porting The ever closer ties between
Great Britain and Latin America will
make sales of American products there
more difficult. The barter agreements
now made by Great Britain with the
countries supplying them will leave
these countries without free foreign eX-
change and will hamper their ability to
buy in the United States.
All this means that a long war ending
in a victory for Great Britain will not
produce a world without economic prob
lens for our farmers and manufacturers.
But the results Of Nazi victory will be
far more destructive. Nazi victory will
spell definite disaster for this country.
1t will be difficult for Great Britain to
change back to domestic and inter-
national economic life free from gov
eminent control But two factors will
soften the effect upon the United States.
Great Britain will come out of the strug-
gle more and not less democratic. The
intermingling Of city and country, OF
Door and rich is relatively new expert
ence for the British people. A new unity
will inevitably come from having faced
a common danger with common courage.
The financial burdens borne Of necessity
more heavily by the well-to-do will act
as leveling influences upon the still rigid
class structure. After British victory
we shall deal with a democratically
minded world, with democratic hopes,
hospitable to the principles of free
economic life.
Great Britain and the Western Euro
pean continent will need financial as
sistance in the painful process OF re-
construction. No one can supply the
necessary finances except the United
States. We shall be in an excellent posi-
ton to bargain with democratic world
for the gradual but effective liquidation
of the system of government control
established under the pressure of war
necessity.
A German victory will tell different
story. The regimented economic life of
the German state is not the result OF
a reluctant yielding to pressure of a war
emergency. It represents the ultimate
ideal of a new social philosophy. Proudly
it is proclaimed as the highest form of
economic organization. For Nazi-ism
is denial of our capitalistic system Of
free enterprise as it is the denial of all
social organizations based upon freedom
and the worth of the individual. The
Nazi reorganization Of society is the in
evitable and logical end of social phi
losophy which sets up the state as the
only value and recognizes no individual
rights.
Once Great Britain is defeated all Of
Europe will be organized on the Nazi
pattern and it is useless to hope for a
modification of Nazi trade methods
through the democratic method OF ne
gotiation. With Europe under the Nazi
heel, practically the entire world will
be compelled to join the goosestep. Con-
quest is not necessary. In the colonial
possession Of the conquered states all
errors favorable to the Nazi regime. And
in Latin America the process will be
equally simple. Economically the Latin
American countries have always been
linked more closely to Europe. We can
not absorb their agricultural products.
No enthusiastically conceived all-Amer-
lean marketing scheme can change the
unacceptable fact that Latin America
poedc RI coll m EIIropa opd E,1ropo roede