The Wilmington morning star., 1946-12-21
As Pegler Sees 1t
Bv PEGLER

the Rev. Martin Nlemoeller, the German Luth-
eran clergyman and a nazi. too. l understand,
down to the point at which the nazi authority
would have substituted Adolf Hitler or some
pagan mist or fume rising from the German
soil for the God Of Christianity.
The Reverend Niemoeller has come to the
United States to explain. his position to those
who are willing to listen, but with no sugges-
ton that anyone should be compelled to listen
or forbidden to disagree.
AS one of those who disagrees with him on
certain matters I am mindful, nevertheless,
that Mrs. Roosevelt has often held that COM
munists should be allowed to explain their
theory of government and advocate its adop-
ton here. The Supreme Court has so held, too,
with the proviso, however, that in advocating
this change they must not incite persons to
use violent means. l understand that Niemoel-
Ter doesn't advocate national socialism for the
United States at all, but, at most, merely re-
veals it for our inspection.
There was much more to national socialism
than the ostracism, then the persecution and
finally the massacre of Jews. Some oft Gle
ments have been present in some phases of
the new deal in which Mrs. Roosevelt herseE
believed from kiver . to : kiver. National So
cialism is said to have wiped out the unions
and the labor movement" in Germany.
never understood that to be the case at all.
l thought national socialism merely converted
the labor movement into an auxiliary OF
the ruling party under dictatorial bosses and it
has seemed to me that The new deal did this,
too, only with less success. Here, the new
deal swept millions Of workers into unions
whose bosses were fierce partiaas Of the par
ty and, when we got into the war, the agencies
OF the government, which were actually party
cells, took over the functions Of the wages a
man should get, which, under true unionism,
is the duty of the union representative in col
lectlve bargaining. In the recent John l.. Lewis
case, the government pretended to seize and
operate. the coal mines and thus to become
the employer. We know the government did
not possess" or operate" those mines in the
honest sense, but merely established a techni-
cal legal position as the employer. However,
here was the government acting as both en-
ployer and bargaining agent to fix wages,
which was just what the national socialists
did in Germany.
Not only that, but in 1914, when her late
husband was running for his fourth term, Mrs.
Roosevelt must have observed that many un-
ions in the Roosevelt political party collected
forced contributions from workers who oppos-
ed Roosevelt politically, and used them to re-
elect him. The Italian fascist party thought
of that first and the German national socialists
adopted it as a good idea. Then the Roosevelt
party adopted it, too. We were told that it was
Just nonsense to say that our workers were
forced to join these unions, but, if that was
the case and they were willing and enthusiasts
tic members, why did the unions insist on the
closed shop and why did the new deal govern
ment give it to them? And il the new deal
n9rtV qhhnrr6d national cnnioJicpo ayrLxx III -
permit these unions to levy political taxes for
ITS benefit from unwilling donors, and why
didn't it repudiate this device and spur. the
money?
If all this was national socialism in Ger.
many it seems to me to follow that it was
still national socialism here, although l
heard it called democracy.
One phase of national socialism consisted of
mass athletics under government direction.
True, the final purpose was to produce a gen.
Grafton of nimble and magnificently healthy
young men for an army to conquer the world
but, OF itself. the sports program did wonders.
The Germans developed some great athletes
and the result in Submarines yas apparent to
anyone. Their youth were, as one of our
Journalists observed ominously just before
Munich, bullying with muscle"
The national socialists undertook to stop i'm
but other countries which are not
$500 " lac lOllS nave uOUS Ile
same. Australia draws a color line. So does
Mexico and, for that matter, so do we. Would
we call southern Ireland a fascist or nazi ma
ton because Fire undoubtedly would block any
mass immigration or heavy infiltration which
would impair the Irishness Of the Irish people
in a generation or two or antagonize the re-
ligious unity of the nation? I say Americans
generally would recognize her right to pre-
serve her characteristics and her integrity,
whether you call it racial" or facial" Ire
land is their country. not a public ground
open to all the world.
Mrs. Roosevelt once wrote that Niemoeller
Sounds like a gentleman who believes in the
German doctrine of the Superiority OF race"
He may at that, but 1 think most Ameri-
cans believe in something comparable, al
though not identical. ] don't agree that it is
fair to say that we believe in the superiority"
OF one race over another. We obviously do,
however, believe in, or have an instinct for,
our respective kinds. For example, although
l am willing to believe that the Roosevelt
family has no such sense of superiority, . I
have casually observed that among the many
Roosevelts and Delanos there are no colored
members Of the Family. l would be the last to
conclude from that that the Roosevelts hate
Negroes or that they feel superior to them.
I know the nazis preached hate and went
out for conquest and I hated them for that no
less than I now hate those private ~gestapos in
our own country which preach hatred of
Americans merely because those Americans
disagree with them on immigration, for ex-
ample, and the iniquity Of the new dears
adantatiop If Adolf Hit1er's '1abor nrarran, ,,