Detroit evening times., 1945-07-04


degree of dependence scarcely distinguishable from
slavery. 49, y
1t has been well said that a country where the
sole employer is the state, opposition means death by
slow starvation.
Background to Danger
Indivdualsm in contrast to socialism and all other
forms of totatarianism is based the respect of
Christianity the individual man and the belief that
1t is desirable that should be free to develop their
own individual gifts and bents.
This philosophy first fully developed during the
Renaissance grew and spread into what know
western civilization. The general direction of social
development of freeing the individual from the
ties which bound him in feudal society
Perhaps the greatest result of this Enchanting of
individual energies the marvellous growth Of science
Only since industrial freedom opened the path to
the free OF knowledge only since everything
at his risk-hus science made the great strides
ohich the last $50 haUe changed the face OF
the World
The result of this growth surpassed all expectations
Wherever the barriers to the free exercise of human
genuty removed became rapidly able satisfy
overwhelming ranges of desire.
BY the beginning of the twentieth century the
ing in the western world had reached degree OF
material comfort security and personal independence
which 100 years before had hardly seemed possible
rINHE effect of this to create among
OF power their fate the belief
in the unbounded possibilities Of improving their lot
What had been achieved be regarded
secure and impershable possession acquired and
for ALL and the rate of progress began too slow
Moreover, the principles which had made this prog
possible to be regarded obstacles speeder
progress, mpatiently to be brushed away.
1T NIGHT BE SAID THAT THE VERY SUCCESS
OF LIBERALISM BECAME THE CAUSE OF IT'S
DECLINE.
No sensible person should have doubted that the
economic principles of the nineteenth century only
a oegnnng-that there were immense possibilities OF
advancement on the lines which we had moved.
- But according to the uieuuy dominant. he
question longer hoW make the best of
the spontaneous found in free society We haze
Eft fnRp IN hose nnH
to replace them by collective and conscious direction.
1t is significant that this abandonment of liberalism,
whether expressed socialism in its radical form
FECFEB IN GERMANY.
During the last quarter of the nineteenth century
and the first quarter of the twentieth Germany moved
far ahead in both the theory and the practice of social
ISM SO that today Russian discussion largely carries
on where the Germans left off
THE GERMANS, LONG BEFORE THE NAzIS,
WERE ATTACKING LIBERALISM AND DEMOC-
RACY, CAPITALISM AND INDIVIDUALISM.
I ONG before the Nazis, too the German and Italian
IL Socialists using techniques of which the Nazs
and Fascists later made effective
The idea of political party which embraces all
tvties of the individual from the cradle to the grave
which claims to guide his views everything put
into practice by the Socialists
1t not the Fascists but the Socialists Who began
to collect children at the tenderest age into political
organizations to direct their thinking.
IL not the Facists but the Socialists uho first
thought of organizing sports and games football and
hiking, party clubs Whee the members vouid not be
II the Socialists uho first insisted that the
party member should distinguish himself from Others
by the modes of greeting and the forms of address
1t was they who by their organization of "ces" and
devices for the permanent supervision of private life,
CREATED THE PROTOTYPE OF THE TOTALI-
TARTAN PARTY.
BY the time Hitler came to power, liberalism was
dead in Germany And socialism that had killed it.
To many who have watched the transition from
socialism to fascism at close quarters the connection
between the two systems has become increasingly obv
but in the democracies the majority of people still
believe that socialism and freedom be combined
THEY DO NOT REALIZE THAT DEMOCRATIC
SOCIALISM, THE GREAT UTOPIA OF THE LAST
FEW GENERATIONS, Is NOT ONLY UNACHIEV-
ABLE BUT THAT TO STRIVE FOR 1T PRODUCES
SOMETHING UTTERLY DIFFERENT-THE VERY
DESTRUCTION OF FREEDOM ITSELF
AS has been apty said:
What has always made the state hell on earth has
been precisely that man has tried to make it his heaven
(To BE Continued)