Askov American. [volume] (Askov, Pine County, Minn.) 1914-current, 1941-08-14


mail-order form.
deceivers. If they had been en-
joying even the plain animal com
forts of life and security there never
would have been a fifth column
And so, Mr.. Politician, we agree
that in world filled with piracies a
strong front-line defense is neces-
sary. But, and we say it deliberate
ly, battleships, tanks, bombers and
guns are not enough. We insist that
homes, food, clothing and security
from pauperism, from niggardly doles
and all the other calamities that be-
set millions are also necessary. Not
just in = the far-o ff-distant-fu
promises but as a present realization
"a realization that goes hand-in-
hand and step-by-step with front line
preparedness.
The potentialities and TECHNOLOGY
cal possibilities of this country, with
all its natural resources and human
genius, must be exploited to the full
and the fruits thereof must be more
equally and equitably distributed
than they have been in the past
This nation must throw its protect
ing shelter over all-must put an
end to the robbery of the many by
the few.
A nation One-tenth comfortable and
nine-tenths miserable cannot long en-
dure as such. A nation where nine
out of ten are economically subject
to the whims of the one is not a free
nation. A nation to be free and re-
main free must not know mass
misery, mass-insufficiency and hence
ass-discOntent. 1t must daily real
ize the hopes of the day, not forever
looking forward to hopes that never
come.
1t is not enough to say "We must
first stop Hitler, then We'll see about
the other" Such promises are not
new. We've heard them before. It
is such unkept promises that makes
Hitler-ism. The ism" arrives long
before Hitler" does. 1t paves the
way for him. Neither is it enough
to ''get" Hitlers. Adolph Hitler took
the place of the kaiser we got"
Stain took the place of the Tsar we
"got"-or somebody got. Such "isms''
as Hitler himself has said, spring
out of internal social and economical
conditions.
Therefore, Mr.. Politician, we warn
you not to forget the weightier mat
ter of home-line defense. People
will resent billions for battleshipS at
the expense of bread and butter for
babies. About efforts for home
line defense will not take care of
home-line needs. 1t may give jobs
to few million during the "spree"
but it will not keep the Joads off
the road when the sobering-up time
comes. It will not take care of the
aged and the technologically dis
employed even while the spree is on.
Five billions, ten billions, twenty
billion dollars will not be enough.
You will need more and more money.
You will need an about supply of
circulating money-a supply of mon
ey sufficient to put to work every
man able to work, producing con-
sumable as we'll as defense goods.
There must be enough money to
equal productive capacity, and that
capacity must function to the limit
Not only will you have to tax money
from the top and re-enter it at the
bottom but you will, if you are to save
us from a postwar disaster, exercise
your Constitutional powers and Gre
ate more money.
1t is not enough to shake warn
ing fingers at industry and threaten
to 'take it over". 1t is more i'm
portant for Congress to lift clenched
fist and say to the money powers" !,
Zone gesture, one move of a little
finger towards manipulating, towards
contracting and restricting the money
supply and we will recapture our
Constitutional right to coin money
and regulate the value thereof" You
supply the money and We'll supply
the goods.
There's the bottle-neck that must
be smashed. We have sufficient ca
pacity to astronomically increase pro-
duction of necessaries without re-
stricting the production of defense
materials. A dozen kinds of auto
mobiles, twenty kinds of soap and
80 kinds of breakfast food are not
defense necessaries. Consumer-goods
production must be kept on an even
keel with defense-goods production.
This, to keep prices from skyrocket-
ing.
Our greatest potential market is
(not in South America) but among
the fifty millions of middle and low
income groups of our own country.
If these people had buying power
they would tax the capacity of pri-
vate industry to supply the plain
necessities of life. With such con-
ditions existing discomfort would
wither and all foreign isms vanish
and the subversive agent would
starve for the want of job.
Look to our home-line defense,
Mr.. Politician.