Evening star., 1940-07-28

the changes throughout the world during
the past Is years. Speaking before an
Alabama Publishers Association several
years ago, he observed:
Some newspaper publishers, like
plenty of other people, were taken aback
by the sudden changes that seemed to
be happening to our economy. They
saw the changes without seeing the
reason for those changes. They did not
take into account the crisis which pre-
vailed and the necessity of adapting our
system to changed economic clrcum-
stances, if that system was to survive
at all. Some of them did not see the
resistless forces which brought an in
evitable choice between change and
chaos"
And when it comes to denouncing
economic royalists," Wallace can equal
the force if not the invectives of Secre-
tary Ickes or Attorney General Jack
son. To a college audience he said:
Democracy inevitably tends to put
human rights first and property rights
second. Many of the bankers, indus
trialists and the larger merchants tend.
therefore, to fight democracy. Most of
them do not want a government devoted
to the interests of farmers. workers and
small businessmen. They fear such
government will destroy capital and,
therefore, civilization itself. These
wealthy men who control the great
financial and industrial corporations be-
lieve in the outward forms of democracy
provided the real control is left in their
hands.
Many of them believe that they and
they only have the wisdom to run gov
ernment with such discretion that civili-
zation can be maintained over the long
years ahead With passion and fervor
they believe that the longtime welfare of
civilization is best served by having
capitalistic oligarchy in control of the
various key functions.
Many wealthy people who say they
want democracy and the absence of
RECOMMENDATION, really want anarchy so
far as farmers and workers are con-
cerned. Some of them want to hold on
to the governmental privileges which
they have obtained from tariffs and the
corporate form of organization, so that
they can deal with helpless farmers and
workers.
Approaches Mature" stare.
Like the President, Secretary Wallace
believes that this country is approach
ing the mature" stage of it's life, and
he is fearful that the prediction 25 years
ago of British writer, w. M. Flinders
Petrie. in his Revolutions of Civiliza-
ton will apply to this country as Hitler
would say it is coming true in Europe
today. The Petrie quotation which WAL
lace often uses is as follows:
when democracy has attained full
power, the majority without capital nee
essarily eat up the capital of the mi
nority, and the civilization steadily de-
Gays until the inferior population is
swept away to make room for a filter
people"
To escape this gloomy fate, Secretary
Wallace urges the dominant groups in
this country to cooperate for "the gen.
eral welfare" as proclaimed in the pre-
amble of the Constitution.
Our country" he says, with its
wealth of natural resources, with it's
ingenuity and mechanical skill, ought
to have and can have national income
of $10O, ,00O,0o0,000 But such an income
cannot be attained without teamwork
among all our great groups, without mu-
tual understanding among agriculture,
labor and industry.
IF agriculture and labor gang up on
business, or labor and business gang
up on agriculture, or agriculture and
business gang up on labor, the whole
country will suffer"
To emphasize this point, Secretary
Wallace contends that at times the
actual preamble is interpreted as follows:
1--WE, the warning classes Of the United
States, in order to continue confusion,
promote disunity and hard feelings, do
hereby declare that each of us will do
as he pleases and that our endeavor
shall be to increase our respective
profits by doing less work"
A few months after he entered the
cabinet, Secretary Wallace wrote for the
Foreign Policy Association q provoca-