Montana labor news., 1948-03-25
eERllAn SAYS Is. FAILS m SELLING
DEMOCRACY TO MS coUn1RYMEN

anyone in Germany believe in ITO au,h.
enticity! They do not. We've been
through all that before. We had 50
many protocol Ms at the time OF
the Csechoslovakian crisis. the Polish
crisis. the wal with England and the
war with Russia that we wouldn't be.
lieve one even II you proved II to be
true-which you haven't in the ease OF
protocol M"
The professor went on s.you fol,
Us u pres is free and that Won exert
only the remotest kind Of control over
It. We don't believe you. Good heav.
ems. the minute a German politician
opens his mouth in criticism OF the
military government, you fire him.
(The professor was referring to the
case Of DR.. Semmler. an official OF the
joint economic committee who address.
sed . party meeting and made a Wit.
ri0lic denunciation OF the military gov.
eminent. Semmler a fired for max.
ing false statements and indulginp in
malicious" criticism.) You people
claimed that what he said was false
maybe 80, maybe not. All we know
10 that when he dared to open his
mouth. out he went
"Alll day long over the radio and in
the newspapers. you let out with your
propaganda. mostly in the form OF slo-
gans. Don't you know we Germans
are sick to death of slogans
"Oh, we're all trying earnestly to he
good democrats. Democracy is based
on faith and that's just what we Germ
ans haven't got today. but we 20
through the motions for you anyway.
Do you seriously expect us to be
democrats today? We're too busy
getting food and keeping body and
soul together to bother with political
theories. l know and You know that
the mess we're in today is the result
of actions taken by the Germans. But
does the average German think OF
that? Not at all. He takes a look
at his position two and a half years
ago when the war ended and com
pares 1t with his situation today and
he asks himself II democracy is SO
good. why is he so much worse of
today?
your military government is ad,
mittedly, from the German point OF
view, the best in Germany. But put
the citizen Of any country into a uni
form and he becomes either a fool OF
a tyrant. You had lots OF good mer
here after the a Why did you al
low them to 60 home? Don't you
realize it would be cheaper for you ir
the long run to pay those men decent
salaries and have them handle things
than keep these bureaucrats in office
over here who don't know anythinf
and have no desire to learn?
Here at this university (the Uni
versity Of Munich), we are short O
everything books. teachers, heatinf
material, space and paper. If we coult
have half the paper your military gov
eminent expends on questionnaires
public opinion polls, useless CORE
spondence and heaven knows wha
other absurdities, we could set abou
teaching these youngsters somethin
about democracy.
so far you haven't sold your de
mocracy to us and II you don't d.
something about that In a hurry
there's only one solution to the Ger
man problem. Your propaganda line
sounds as II Communism were a Rus
sian government; that Russia Is try
ing to impose an alien form of govern
ment on Germany. Don't you people
realize that Communism is a German
movement? That its roots are deep II
German tradition? That we had Com
munists here long before they hat
them In Russia? We don't want an,
part OF totalitarianism, but unles.
your democracy begins to show som,
results. Wen just have to take Oul
chances elsewhere"
Thus spoke a German of the in
tellectual class.