Toledo union journal. [volume] (Toledo, Ohio) 1942-current, 1943-10-29


Clayton w. There is some
Fountain thing b out
words and books that does not
appeal to the military mind. Po-
liticaI warfare is something at
which the generals shy like balky
horses.
1t is a simple thing to do an
effective job of blasting the en-
emy back on his heels with bombs
and bullets. The military master
minds are keen on this phase of
warfare.
You point a finger of hate at
the nasty Jap, the nasty German.
He is a bad man. He is full If
evil. He ought to be wiped off
the face of the earth. This is the
type of war psychology with
which the military high COM
mand on our side is most con-
cerned.
Rarely do you hear it explained
why the Jap is nasty, or why the
evil German became Nazi ro-
bot.
THE FACE OF FASCISM
We fight Fascism with one
hand, the military hand, while
the hand of political warfare is
tied behind our back, because too
many of our leaders refuse to
look Fascism in the face.
Some are ashamed to look Fas-
cism in the face. 1t makes them
highly self-conscious. They see
reflected in the Fascist features
some prominent attributes of big
business elements in the demo-
cratic camp.
For instance, how can a conscl-
entious Park Avenue patriot find
it i'm himself to denounce Hitler
for destroying the European la
Dor movement? The odds are
better than even that our patri-
otic hero of the penthouse is him.
self party to a plot against or
ganized American labor.
1t is easy to damn the German
as a biological brute-but never
mind what Hitler did to labor.
This is the war psychology of
the penthouse patriots.
TWO-FACED WAR AIMS
Others are afraid to look Fas-
cism in the face. This is because
they think it has two faces, and
they hate to think of ever having
to make up their minds about
which face it is they want to
fight.
According to this theory, the
one face Of Fascism is horrible,
while the other is not so bad.
There is the face of Fascism
at which American business
smiled coyly for so long, and
with which American monopolies
entered into deals designed to
diyvy up international profits.
This is also the face of Fascism
which not only frowns on labor
unions, but ferociously flays la
Dor organizations with lethal
sticks and stones, not to mention
firing squads and lead pipes.
The other face of Fascism is
the one that whispers sweet moth
ings in your ear while it steals
your pants in the realm of trade
and commerce. This is the face
Of Fascism that American busi-
ness wants to fight
KICK IN THE PANTS
In effect, we are supposed to
politely ask Fascism to turn its
back to us while we sneak up and
kick it in the pants. This is what
the war amounts to so long as we
look upon the enemy as nasty
Japs and Germans, rather than
as men representing a political
faith which means death for de-
mocracy.
The string that binds our left
hand behind our back is the re-
fusal of too many of our leaders
to fight political dictatorship
with words and books and under
standing of what Fascism really
is.
They are unwilling to admit to
the people that Fascism is a sys-
tenn of political gangsterism
which has had the support of
the bulk of the bankers, land
lords, industrialists and putrid
politicians in every country in
which it has come to power. The
purpose of Fascism is to prevent
the people from sharing political
power on a democratic basis and
making democracy work in shop
and field.
The expose, recently published
in the TOLEDO UNION JOUR-