Evening star., 1941-09-11

The latest individual to give con-
firmation to the exploitation of the
war emergency to obtain the adop-
tion of pet theories of social control
is Assistant Attorney General Thur
man Arnold.
In remarkable speech delivered
recently in Arkansas, Mr.. Arnold
frankly confessed that the New Deal
has ulterior purposes and that the
impulses that are supposed to govern
war emergency policy are not alto
gether concerned with international
affairs. Mr.. Arnold said, for in
stance:
There is silver lining to the war
clouds which hang ominously on the
horizon. The necessity for full pro-
duction today in steel, in aluminium,
in chemicals, in drugs, housing-in
all the manufactured necessities of
life, heretofore successfully re-
stricted and controlled, is tremen-
dous force which may, if properly
directed, break down the control
of dominant monopolies."
Each a Monopoly"
Every large scale enterprise, in Mr..
Arnold's mind, is monopoly" so
his recommendations are directed
largely toward the elimination of
large private enterprises. He blames
them for having failed to expand
irrespective of demand. He de-
clares in effect they should have
ignored the investors stake in a
company by. spending money for
facilities without regard to how the
money was to be recovered.
Mr.. Arnolds theory is that busi-
ness should have expanded espe-
cially in these last seven years, and
in the case of aluminium, should
have built more factories even
though President Roosevelt failed to
recommend an airplane program of
any substantial size until France
fell in June, 1910.
When one reads the Arnold
speech, the impression Is created
that American industry has been in
charge of foreign policy during the
last several years that Hitler has
been in power and that all the mis-
takes Of underproduction are at
tributable to industrial management.
Mr.. Arnold hammers away at the
Aluminium Co. and other American
enterprises and calls them all
"monopolies" because this gives his
Antitrust Division something to do
with the surplus amounts of money
obtained from Congress. Likewise,
the Antitrust Division under Mr..
Arnold's leadership harasses .execu-
tives of America with lawsuits at a
time when they should be con-
eentrating on war business.
Attack on SaIesmanship.
The most recent outburst from
the Arnold headquarters is against
salesmanship. The attack is for
the moment indirect, but it looks
toward Government control of a
function hitherto lodged with man
agement. Government, under Mr..
Arnold's arbitrary policies, now is
asserting the right to say what the
selling departments of business may
or may not do. This is but another
way of forcing certain businesses
to the wall so that Government
funds will have to be used to take
over many concerns. In this way,
first by building up competitors
against large private enterprise and
ultimately by drastic regulation of
all and by public ownership, the
administration in power will be able
to bring about a system OF state
socialism with Government funds
primarily appropriated for war pur-
poses.
If the President really wants to
bring about national unity he will
ask his colleagues in the admins
tration to stop sending shivers of
apprehension up and down the
spines of the investors in private
enterprise; he will tell Mr.. Arnold
and the radicals inside the New
Deal something of the real history
of the American free enterprise sys-
tenn, which is not to waste money
on unnecessary facilities when there
is no apparent demand
There was no extraordinary de-