Evening star., 1941-06-19

III 1llS D"'AN
before a Senate committee to reveal
inadvertently the outlines of this
battle and the main reason why
Americas war effort has been slow
to get going-the reason is that the
New Deal evidently is planning to
use the billions of dollars of tax
money now being extracted or bill
lions being borrowed on defense
bonds to remake the economic sys-
tenn so as to provide wherever pos
sible for Government ownership and
operation and naturalization of in
dustry after the war.
Many businessmen have not been
able to get enthusiastic about war
effort which is camoufaged
scheme for destroying the system of
competitive individualism and for
substituting state capitalism or
national socialism analogous to that
used to exploit European peoples.
Businessmen Smeared.
Businessmen have come here I'M
der patriotic impulse to help the
Government national defense pro-
gram only to find themselves a
source of suspicion and distrust.
New Dealers carry on a constant
smearing campaign against them,
in public and private, and lately the
tactics have been to try to place
the responsibility for Americas
slow moving defense program on
the shoulders of industry itself. This
effort to shift the blame is smoke
screen to hide the real purposes of
the radicals who favor Government
ownership and control of the large
industries of the country after the
war.
A reading of the testimony of
Secretary Ickes before a Senate
committee reveals in clear outline
the conspiracy Of the New Deal to
Use the war funds and plants built
I'd during the war as a lever to
break up business and industry and
force more Government ownership
ssld control and operation.
Monopoly may be even more
dangerous in dangerous times than
IL Is IN normal times" testified Mr..
fckes. '-Our whole defense effort
becomes dependent upon the skill,
sesourceflilness and devotion to the
public welfare of a few individuals
who own and control the monopoly"
Peacetime Politics.
This Is serious charge and
sinr on the patriotism of the men
OF American business. Instead of
worrying really how to get alum
mum from the one company that
has specialized in it, Mr.. Ickes is
worrying more about how to break
up the corporate structure and busi-
ness momentum of that same COM
pany. This is peacetime politics,
but in wartime it means tragic
delay and obstruction. Mr.. Ickes is
preoccupied with what will happen
after the war, and so are many
American businessmen. He says:
There is an obligation on the
part of the Government not to take
fools risk with the peoples money.
I do not believe that we should in
vest all of this money for national
defense purposes and end up by
making Christmas present of all
of our expensive facilities to the
Aluminium Company"
This language can be applied to
any or all plants built for the emer-
gency with public funds. That ex-
ectly what is worrying American
business. Fantastic needs of eX-
pansion and alleged shortages in
almost every major industry are
harped upon by the New Dealers.
Then the administration steps in to
finance or build plants. Secretary
Ickes speaks of 2,000,00O,000 pounds
of aluminium as needed for national
defense, but neither he nor any
other New Dealer and certainly no
governmental agency has ever issued
any breakdown of just what this
aluminium is wanted for. 1t cer-
tainly isn't needed for airplanes be-
cause the plants to build planes that
would absorb so much aluminium a
pear have never been projected.
As for after-the-war use of the
facilities built up by national de-
tense, the Aluminium Company, fol-
example, does not insist that as a
sondition Of managing Government