Proletarec. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1906-19??, 1945-05-30
KILLED" AGAIN

Socialism is being killed" again. This time it is being done to
death by The Readers Digest, aided and abetcd by Book-of Month
Club, Inc. And it is being done in six languages, no less: English, Span
ISL, Portuguese, Swedish, Arabic and Chinese-not to mention BraiIe
and Talking-Record editions Of the Digest.
The killing is being done at present through world wide circuIa-
ton, by the aforementioned organizations. of a condensation OF a book
called The Road to Serfdom,o by Frederick A. Hayek. an Austrian
now at the University of London.
Now the road to serfdom is what, according to our professor? You
may have guessed it already: it is socialsm--and economic planning.
Il was German and Italian socialists who created the prototype of the
a my n came 70 power, says a professor, adding that ito many
who have watched the transition from socialism to fascism at close
mgly obvious.
Since fasckm, both German and Italian brands, is now universally
condemned, this seems to be a sly trick to connect socialism with il,
in the hope that it will share in the condemnation. But the whole world
knows by this time that both Hitler and Mussolini were put into power
by 1ndustrialsts and financiers, both enemies O. the socialist and trades
union movement. Prominent socialists and labor leaders were the first
to fill. the concentration camps and to be brutaly killed and tortured.
Socialists in this and other countries have been the most determined
unremtting enemies of fascRm during the past quarter of a century;
but to try to connect the System" advocated by socialists with that of
the fascists isn't just plain stupidity.
The Austrian professor says in his book: at is not difficult to de-
prIve the great majority of independent thought"
Another Austrian, named Hitter, said that people will believe any
~ 4 ts'big enough andarepeated often enough. In this respect the two
Austr a nave something in common; and the organizations circuIat-
ing his stuff seem to think also that independent thought" can be in
nuencedounder sufficient pressure Hence the connection" between
inc TWO systems which Is SC obvious" to the professor, and II o doubt
In addition to killing off socialism, the book attempts to do the
same thing with all kinds of economic pIanning-al but one. We must
plan Sc that composition must be left to function unobstructed." in
crder to preserve individual freedom" Anything else means serfdom,
"a i enterprlse- unrestricted compettion"-is the road to
italistic concerns, especially the larger ones. 1T like cola o. a hot dav.
it gives them a lift. And they need it right now as news and reports
o. Europe indicate that the chief struggle for power over there is
between socialism and communism, with capitalism a poor third.
And this seems to indicate that socialism isn't dead after all, in
spite of Hayek's best endeavors. Bismarck and his anti-socialist laws
OF three-quarters of a century ago failed to kill socialism in Germany:
the murderous brutality and concentration # Hiner ad Me-
Lni failed to kill it, and The Readers Digest, Book-of-the-Month Club.
Inc, and the corporations circulating Hayeks misleading attack will
And they'll fail to kill, economic planning, too, for the simple
reason that without such future planning their profit system would
soon collapse about them. But the kind of planning capitalists and their
supporters wnldq will be for the protection of profits, not for peace
and plenty and freedom for their exploited workers. For the latter,
democratic socialism as advocated by the Socialist party, is the road
to economic freedom and abundance. Reading Labor Advocate.