Evening star., 1941-10-26
Present Hitler's Greed


THE power which set the greatest
historical avalanches of political and re-
ligious nature sliding was, from the be-
ginning of time, the magic force of the
spoken word alone
The great masses of a nation will
always and only succumb to the force of
the spoken word. But all great move
ments are movements Of the people, are
volcanic eruptions of human passions
and spiritual sensations, stirred either
by the cruel Goddess of Misery or by
the torch of the word thrown into the
masses, and are not the lemonade-like
outpouring of estheticizing iterati and
drawing room heroes"
After Hitler attained power he was
not concerned about the property rights
of the industrialists, as Fritz Thyssen
and others learned to their sorrow.
Speaking in Nuremberg in September,
1888 he told the party members
mo one has moral right to demand
that others should work for him so that
he will not have to work himself Each
has a right to demand that the political
organization of his nation, the state,
find ways and means to give work to all"
'Mein Kampf" gives Hitler's plans for
a reorganized Germany that will last for
thousand years-a period for which he
has a special fondness-while My New
Order" shows how he is trying to carry
out these grandiose ideas "Mein
Kampf' is the foundation, MY New
Order" is the superstructure
Unworried by Critics.
Criticism meant little to Hitler. In
fact, he turned it to his own advantage
by attacking those who criticized him.
I'm my eyes" he told q Hamburg
audience in 1894. criticism in itself is
not an important function in life The
world can live without critics. it cannot
live without workmen. I protest against
the notion that there should exist
profession whose sole reason for its ex-
istence is that its professors, without
personal responsibility, should of their
superior wisdom continually interrupt
those who are working and who carry
responsibilities. In my own life have
fought for IA years against a govern
ment, but not with negative criticism,
but always pointing to that which
should be done. I have accepted re-
sponsibility when it was offered me.
And no action will be taken by me which
I am not prepared to defend before this
people with my head and with my life"
Hitler sccrned what he called the
scientific intelligentsia" and told his
lieutenants they must appeal forever
and only to the masses" Versatility, he
declared, was ali wrong. 80
The great masses receptive ability
is only very limited, their understanding
is small, but their forgetfulness is
great. AS a consequence of these facts,
all effective propaganda has to limit
itself to a very few points and to use
them like slogans until the very last
man is able to imagine what is intended
by such a word AS soon as one sacri-
fees this basic principle and tries to
away. as the masses are neither able
to digest the material offered or to re-
tain it. Thus the result is weakened
and finally eliminated"
An Opportunist.
But the up-and-coming politician
knew when to compromise. My New
Order" contains the text of his talk to
a private meeting of the Industry Club
of Dusseldorf in January, 1882, in
which Hitler appealed for support of
big business. This speech was replete
with sycophantic gentlemen" and omit
; ted references to Jews Hitler knew his
audience, and compared his demand for
political leadership with the actual Sit
uation in industry. He told the employ
ing group:
1T is absurd to build up economic
life on the conceptions Of achievement,
of the value of personality, and there
fore in practice on the authority of per-
sonality, but in the political sphere to
deny the authority Of personality and
to thrust into its place the law Of the
greater number democracy"
In other words. he was promising a
"businessman's government"
The German businessmen, he knew,
feared Communism, and well they might,
because Berlin and other industrial cities
had elected large numbers Of Com
munists to their city councils. On this
point Hitler told the industrialists:
How is people to count for anything
abroad when in the last resort so per
cent are inclined to Bolshevism and so
per cent are Nationalists, or anti-Bol-
shevists. 1t is quite conceivable to turn
Germany into a Bolshevist state-it
would be catastrophe, but 1t is conceiv-
able. 1t is also conceivable to build up
Germany as a national state. But it is
inconceivable that one should create a
strong and sound Germany if so per cent
of its citizens are Bolshevists and so per
cent acknowledgements. From the So
luton of this problem we cannot
escaped"
A Gangster Plus.
1t is impossible here even to enumerate
the many contradictions of word and
deed, the deliberate fakidcations, the
temporary shifting of policies. David
Cushman Coyle, the pamphleteer, in his
best-selling booklet America" compares
Hitler his Storm Troopers and his Ges-
tapo to our own racketeering gangsters,
This perhaps is over-simpliflcation, al
though the methods of gaining and using
power are almost identical, as the read
ing Of Hitler's words will show. Ameri-
cans cannot be supercilious and say
ut can't happen here" Huey Long
- ,,>10, Il -
were he alive today.