Evening star., 1947-05-28
On the Record
u. S. Seen Seeking AIibi
In German Food Crisis
Europe Must Be Integrated or
Perish, Writer Contends
By Dorothy Thorn bson

0y D0r0fHy Ih0mpS0H
The food crisis in Germany is horrible and
we are attempting to alibi it. Thomas Mann has
contributed by saying that the German people
have no sympathy with the sufferings of Others.
DR.. Mann Is German, more fortunate than
the rest, having-through his international
fame-been able to escape the sufferings Ger
many imposed on others and now suffers her
sell. He neither languished In concentration
camp nor risked the gallows as did thousands
hoping to end the sufferings OF all
DR.. Manns early record is one OF aloofness
In the artists ivory tower. His only political
contribution during that period was his "ob-
servations of Nonpolitical,' an extenuation
OF Germanic aims. Today he repudiates that
viewpoint and his conversion should be ao-
cepted, for great minds change, and Or. Mann's
IS great. But for the nonsuffering to attack the
starving Is not great.
Inc ability to put oneself in the shoes and
nearts OF others Is a rare attribute. seldom
extending in any case beyond ones own clan.
The late Clarence Darrow commented on nick
ing jury: mo one is sorry for any one except
himself. If you want to get a defendant off,
choose those who might have done It,"
Result Of Policies.
The German people, except the peasantry.
are starving. Their starvation contributes to
the misery OF Europe. And this is because of
policies the results of which could be predicted
and were predicted by this column-after
Potsdam.
The granarles of Germany and Europe lie
east OF the Oder and Danube Rivers These fed
millions OF Europeans There is hunger in Po-
land, which took Silesia and other territories,
driving out the agricultural population Poland
has not the agricultural population with which
to settle that area, and miles and miles of it
lie fallow
The German speaking peasants of the Bohe-
milan forests and mountains inhabited some of
the worst soil of Czechoslovakia but they culti-
waited 1t, from their villages. Only a few weeks
ago, the Czechoslovak government announced
that more than l60 of these villages would
never be resettled. They have no surplus Czech
agricultural population willing to tackle reset
ting them.
Hungary, one of Europes richest granaries.
is itself starving while the necks of the peas
antry are broken by the Bolshevists
Farmers nowhere are cheerfully delivering
their full quotas-the Germans have as good q
record as any. Since when have farmers, un-
like others, worked for nothing? Would Amer
leans? There are no goods for exchange, no
currency worth anything. no incentives Mr..
Saul K. Padover of PM now suggests collective
farms for Germany, apparently choosing to for
get that that process cost Russia famine with
toll Of lives equal to war
The Inevitable Crop.
Nothing will save Europe except frank ac-
acknowledgement that hatred, revenge, and ir-
responsible judgments-of which all the Allies
are guilty-have borne the inevitable CROP All
Europe must be integrated into common eco
nomic plan, or it will be a wasteland around q
few more slowly perishing islands
In Germany, economic administration must
be taken out OF the hands of military men and
put under civilian food dictator, until the
economy is going again.
German industrial brains must be put to
work.
If political pasts can be waived by the Rus
slams and ourselves, in order to make 1t pos
sible for men with Nazi party records to help
us develop weapons with which to blow each
other into kingdom come, they can be waived
for the peaceful salvation of Europe If DR..
Mann can change his mind SO can others.
Secretary of War, Patterson said, This is the
first time in history that conquerors have
made an effort of any such size to feed their
defeated enemy"
That is half-truth. This is the first time
since the dawn Of the Christian era that con-
querors have made policy certain to starve
millions and complete the wreckage of civiliza-
tions. Now we have to pay for that policy.
For nature is absolutely merciess to those who
disobey her laws. You cannot carve into the
body of an economy-uprooting millions, dis
mantling and wrecking plants, sending able
bodied men into slavery, disemploying millions
by bureaucratic screenings destroying not
government, but all governments without
unhappy results.
The end is not yet, and in about year
what we have done to Europe will come home
to roost, throughout all the nations respon-
sible
released by the Bell Syndicate, Inc)
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