The Wilmington morning star. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1909-1990, 1944-10-04
The Morgenthau Plan

| There is a semi official report in Washing
ton that President Roosevelt has tabled the
plans Secretary of the Treasury Henry Nor
genthau drafted for the postwar treatment OF
Germany Joseph c. Harsch, who keeps fin
ger on the capitals pulse and is particularly
adept in diagnosing political and diplomatic
ailments, has analysed this report and the
general situation regarding the policy toward
Germany when peace is restored. He writes:
This leaves the official record as reading,
more or less, that Mr.. Morgenthau proposed
Draconian peace for Germany and that his
proposals have now been rejected in favor
of relatively milder terms favored by t h e
Secretary of State. Mr.. Hull, and the Secretary
of War, Mr.. Stimson.
This writing of the official record va S
deemed necessary to undo some OF the damage
already done by the prompt and adept use
Dr. Goebbels made in Berlin of Mr.. Morgen-
thaus alleged plan. Our shortwave broadcasts
to Germany can now attempt to persuade the
German people that they need not be quite
so apprehensive as I. Goebbels tells them
that German defeat in war means the complete
economic suppression Of Germany.
1.-THE semi official version also has the
superficial merit OF rectifying the administra-
tive anomaly of prime foreign policy mat
ter being in the hands of the head Of the
Treasury Department rather than of the De-
partment OF State.
perhaps it is necessary for appearances
to adjust the whole episode in this matter.
Harm has been done because the alleged Nor
genthau plan leaked out just at the moment
when the Germans scored their first signif-
cant military success in many months at the
Anthem bridgehead. DR.. Goebbels was armed
at one and the same time with a military
reason for offering hope to the Germans n d
also an argument why they should fight hard
er.
"Candor would have explained the matter
in a somewhat different manner, and done a
gin with, his proposals were never as DRAGON
ian as represented. And in the end they have
not been pigeonholed quite as completely as
officially represented.
'Mr. Morgenthau never proposed that Ger
many should be stripped Of all industry and
converted to a primitive pastoral life He is
much too intelligent to believe that peaceful
and prosperous Europe could be founded on
such an absurd objective. Europe needs much
Of what Germany is specially equipped to pro
duce. To stiffle all German industrial produc-
tivity would impose severe hardship on Eu-
rope, as well as driving the German people
to desperation.
What Mr.. Morgenthau did want to do was
to see to it that in the rebuilding of German
industry the emphasis be put on those instru-
ments Of production which would not be con-
vertible to wartime uses After the last war;
American, and also some British, capital Great
ed in Germany the heavy industry on which
Hitler built his war machine. There won't
be much to destroy after this war, even if
that were the intent. It will be a question Of
what to allow to be rebuilt
1.-The personal friction engendered by thu
affair in the relations between Mr. Morgenthau
one one hand and Messrs Hull and Stimson
on the other inevitably require dissolution of
the Cabinet Committee on Germany which the
three constituted. But Mr. Morgenthau never
differed from the others as widely as reported,
and the degree of his difference has left its i'm
print on the American plan. public disavow-
al of non existent proposal clears the propa-
ganda atmosphere"