Evening star., 1944-02-13

|:'::=*::::.,, !: 81 d
control found in the annals of history.
1t has gone far beyond every one of
them. 1t has created something new.
Actually, it has accomplished a revolu-
ton"
Scattered through the report are in
stances of what has happened to busi-
ness under the Nazi regime, and would
presumably happen under authoritarian
control anywhere. Brought as nearly
up to date as the summer of 1943, the
following are some of the more illumi-
mating examples:
The Reichs chamber OF culture-em-
bracing authorship, journalism, the
theater, music, painting, the plastic arts,
motion pictures and broadcasting-re-
quires that membership must be applied
for and may be rejected with the result
that the applicant is precluded from
exercising his trade or vocation. There
is thus in Nazi Germany a closed shop
for business as well as labor.
Every One Frozen"
The Nazi regime not only freezes the
worker to his machine and the farmer
to the soil, but ties the landlord to his
estate and the industrialist to his desk.
Under Nazi law, conscription applies
to management as well as labor. A busi-
nessman refusing to work would imme-
diately be drafted and would presumably
be put back on his former job. He can
not retire to enjoy life or cultivate an
avocation. Neither is it possible for him
to sell out because business is unprof1ta-
BILE or to cease operations because he is
fed up with government regulations.
The Nazi government does not appeal
to the public to buy war bonds or en-
ploy banking syndicates to underwrite
loan issues. 1t simply estimates the VOL
ume OF liquid funds available, issues
bonds in proportion and allots them to
business, which is compelled to buy.
Little more is required than few tele-
phone calls and letters. The process is
known as "noiseless" financing
Because of memories of the food block
ade Of World War I, the Nazis adopted
agriculture as the pillar and mainstay
of their regime. The problem was to
raise prices paid to farmers and still to
hold wage rates constant. Instead of
passing on the increased cost of farm
products to the consumer or having re-
course to subsidies-which is the policy
of the Roosevelt administration-th
Hitler government assessed the required
amount against the middlemen, or the
professors, wholesalers and retailers of
food commodities. They were compelled
to absorb a substantial part OF the in
creased prices paid to agriculture.
In lieu of government subsidies to
business, it has been the NaI policy to
| compel business to subsidize business, by
means of levies upon selected groups or
classes Of enterprise. In the early days,
non exporting industries were compelled
| to pay bounties to exporting firms which
could not otherwise operate in the world
| market. Later producers of milk for
| consumption paid levies to milk pro-
cessors, and sugar ref1neries. breweries
and wheat flour mills had to compen-
safe rye -four mills. Active businesses
have been compelled to make payments
to firms that were inactive or working
| at low percentages of capacity. These
| exactions are not recoverable through
| higher prices. Their effect is to reduce
net profits.
Goering Iron Works Excepted.
The growth of private enterprise in
Germany has been enormous, both in
the development of new industries and
the expansion Of existing ones. These
activities are owned and operated by
businessmen. The Nazis actually re-
turned substantial portions of state
held property to private possession.
Banking, virtually nationalized by the
Weimar Republic, was denationalized by
Hitler. The one great exception is the
Hermann Goering Iron Works. which
are largely owned and are wholly op-
| Grated by the government. This corpo-
ration is personal monument to Goer-
ing-a fief, a business principality, an
industrial dukedom for the first vassal
of the ruler of the Third Reich.
It took the Nazis more than three
years OF steadily expanding controls to
achieve what may be called an eco
nomic high command Overall CO.
ordination was accomplished in 1886
with the appointment of Goering as
dictator of the German economy. One
of its manifestations was system of
licensing under which businessman
could be forbidden to enter or expand
a given undertaking, or compelled to
enter a field even when he desired to
keep out
Compulsory engagement in various
enterprises could be monetary, as in
the case of exactions of capital levied on
the iron industry to finance the Goer-
ing Works. In addition, corporations
were frequently required to establish
ana operate new enterprises. For ex-
ample, Ignite producers were compelled