Askov American. [volume] (Askov, Pine County, Minn.) 1914-current, 1941-07-31

settle" nothing. Today battles are
being fought over battlefields CEN
turtles old, each, as of old, trying
to exterminate the other.
Our Revolutionary war was fought
to free us from England, but the
"Old Lady" (the monetary system)
of Threadneedle Street in London
and Old Shylock of Wall Street in
New York, are still Giving together"
and the old woman is still telling"
the old man what to do-and he's
doing it.
Our Civil war freed, three million
black slaves and today we have thir-
teen million black and fifty million
white slaves. Conquering people
solves nothing. Proving that ma
tons have been brutal proves too
much. Somebody could be embar-
raised by asking about the American
Indian, or Mexico or the colored race,
or the submerged twentieth of our
own people. Let's not embarrass any
body by asking what about South
Africa, the Congo, the East Indies and
the many other "under-the-hee" peo-
piles of the earth. We should try to
forget the bloody past and come down
to the present. The world faces
grave problems, most of which rise
out of blunderings. All of us have
lundered-usually with our eyes
open. We are still laundering, stumb-
ling, falling down-and not getting
up very fast. The kettle should not
point the finger of scorn at the pot.
If we want civilization to survive,
and become really civilized, we must
choose between three courses that lie
before us. One is called right, or
Nazism, one is called left, or Com
munism, and the other capitalism.
Nazism in Germany is just a new
phase of capitalism-just capitalism
that has taken over the state political
ly-with guns. The German Year
Book shows that during the period of
1932-1937 the number of German
millionaires increased by 1896, and
billionaires by $50.
So why shouldn't capitalism favor
Nazism? And why shouldn't the
Nazis favor capitalism? The big capt.
talists financed Nazism. Germany
uses the same method to divide the
people as do our own capitalists
promising bigger business for the big
ones and urging the youth to set upon
and exterminate racial minorities and
radicals.
Over on the left is Communism
seeking to destroy enthroned capital
ism, but what is really happening is
the destruction of middle-classism
between the millstones of Nazism and
Communism. The middle road is just
plain commercialism, competitive
commercialism, not monopoly COM
mercialism. Commercialism is up
against the dead end" of shrinking
market and the shrinking market is
due to empty pockets. Between the
comparatively few radicals at the bot
tom and the fewer capitalists at the
top is the great majority Of free-en-
terprise commercialism. Monopoly
capitalism and proletarian commun-
ism both seek to destroy the game"
called private enterprise. That's the
reason capitalists cast longing glances
and extend ''under-handed" gestures
towards Nazism. It's also the reason
the submerged down-and-outs make
eyes at Communism.
But, and this is important, there
are two kinds of capitalism-com-
mercial and financial. Commercial
capitalism is producing, processing,
buying and selling goods. Finance
capitalism is producing with pen and
ink) and renting Qoaning) money.
Finance capital is the real dictator
of all.
Finance capitalism is the private
control over money-the power to
create or destroy money by making
and calling loans. Finance capital
ism loans money to produce goods
but not to buy goods. When produc-
ton gets ahead of consumption pro-
duction stops, men are Laid off, con-
sumption diminiSheS and we have a
depression-poverty amidst plenty.
The solution to the problem is not
in war, not in revolution but in pro-
viding people with money to buy
what they want, enabling the have
nots to buy from those who have,
both individuals and nations, thus
opening up, not closing, the markets
of the world
We're all a-jitter in this country
for fear Wen lose our foreign mark
cts. But for the past 20 years our
exports have been only about five
per cent of our production Our own
people would have licked the platter
clean if they had had the money to
buy with
Machines have taken the place of
men at production, but machines do
not eat much, hence goods pile up.
Men cannot buy much, hence goods
pile higher. Yet there are millions
living on a dole, and millions of others
who can't get even the dole. If these
people were paid decent-standard-o
living pensions our surplus" goods
would vanish quickly and millions of
employables now unemployed would
have to 60 to work.
The world as a whole can feed,
IL fho ~,