The Wilmington morning star., 1943-08-01
BY WESTBROOk PEGLER

BY WESTBROOk PEGLER
NEW York; am not saying that in a
war against a totalitarian power it is wrong
to adopt temporarily, in free country some
of the devices which the enemy employs.
believe it is necessary and that just how far
the free country must go in such imitation
depends on the length and pressure of the
emergency. In our country, however, some
such measures we're useo long before We rec
ognized the inevitability of military war,
against foreign power They were resorted
to in tnat emergency which was described
as the war on want, in the course of which,
incidentally. a few conspicuous Well-connect-
ed individuals of the ruling group seized op-
portuntles presented by the emergency and
pyran1iGed their incomes and their fortunes
to great heights.
l have been frisking my books for some
presentation of the methods of fascism in
Germany to serve as a standard by which
we may determine whether, in fighting fas-
clsn, we have been going fascist and I SUBJ
NIT for consideration some observations writ
ten by Otto D. Tolschus who was the CORE
spondent of the New York Times in Berlin,
in his book, They Wanted War, published in
1910. I think this citation is pertinent to the
discussion aroused by the remarks OF Vice
President Henry Wallace in Detroit last Sun
day in the course of which he touched up as
American fascists, some Americans who had
turned against the new deal administration
1t seemed to follow that anyone who had
turned against the administration was fas-
cistic in his view.
] will point no parallels myself, but some
may present themselves to you as you read.
Mr.. Tolischus wrote that Hitlers economic
mobilization was the key to the whole ma
tionalst socialist economy and consisted of
the total conscription of manpower, which
Mrs Roosevelt has earnestly proposed for us,
thus far without success and of it's resources
-"of capital and labor, producer and con-
sumer, of men, women and youth and their
coordination in system ruled not by eco
non1ic calculations but by iron discipline which
still provides certain paternalistic socialism
for workers and leaves the limited profit mo-
tive to employers to spur their energies
Mr.. Tolschus said Hitler had created a
gigantic trust devoted to total economic and
military war and that those who would have
opposed his methods were forced to adopt
them in selfdefense. When her rearmament
began Germany was in an economic crisis
with her industrial production down nearly so
per cent and great unemployment. Our own
state of affairs was very bad, too, about the
time we entered the war on want.
By bringing her idle production capacity
and idle labor together through total con-
scription," Hitler wiped out unemployment and
created his war machine. To do this, he
fixed prices a cost plus basis, and limited
profits by price control and the compulsory
investment in government loans of all profits
above to per cent However,, some profits
remained as high as IA per cent and the
investments in the loans, of course are theo
retically sound and are not confScations or
taxes. Companies were made to invest their
surpluses in war-essential enterprises d
were forbidden to build non-essential plants
or, if permitted to build them, had to yield
them to government control Another econom-
ic measure was the control of industry by
the allotment of government orders for raw
material and yet another was a limitation
on the wages of the heads and directors of
corporations
The wages of labor were fixed as of
certain date, subject to minor adjustments,
workers were frozen to their jobs to prevent
shifting the right to strike was abolished and
independent labor unions outside the labor
front, subsidiary of Hitler's party were for
hidden. Virtually all food was rationed, 20
the detriment of the living standard and the
kets were regulated to compel delivery of
products to the control agencies
workers." Tolischus wrote "enJoy a So
cialism' which improved working conditions
through beauty of work organizations, es-
tablished paid vacations for all, organized
leisure and vacation recreation t h o u h
strength through joy organizations, provided
labor courts for appeals against dismissal and
honor courts for appeals against insults to
workers. honor
For farmers, Hitler's brand of fascism re-
duced interest rates and provided cheaper
fertilizer ZIG other supplies ana prices above
those of the world market but below those
which they might command in free domes-
tic market in time of shortage.
1 recommend Mr.. Tolischus' book to Mr..
Wallace and all others who denounce as fas-
cists those who have opposed portions or all
of the new deal program from the beginning
of the war on want to the present stage of
the war on fascism and well to those who
have been so denounced.
-V-