Evening star., 1948-06-20
|snns Are Epithets or ernns of Pride
Political Porty Labels
Cause Babel Of
Confusion

the German temperament. One
was the martial cult. The other
was the establishment Of an all
powerful state, under a chief Sc
lected by destiny, with abject obedi-
ence as the supreme virtue of the
masses. Hitler's original and sim
lister contribution was the Nazi
racist theory, demanding the ex-
termination or enslavement Of sub.
human" species Of mankind. These
were defined as Jews, Slavs and
gypsies.
Carbon Copy of Fascism
Out Of their hatred for material
istic" communism, Mussolini and
Hitler pretended for their move
ments a lofty spiritual foundation
Most men have judged its origin to
have been Internal rather than di-
vine. The claim has been stated
thus: TN the modern world, sordid
and commercial, fascism and ma
tional socialism represented perhaps
the last stand of the heroic prin-
ciple."
Falangism was a Spanish carbon
copy of fasciSm. 1t was never a
controlling factor in the Franco gov
ernment, especially after the dis
missal of it's leader, Serrano Suner,
as Foreign Minister. Gen. Franco
hoped the Axis would win and de-
stroy communism, but he hoped far
more passionately to keep Spain out
of the war. He prevented Hitler
from taking Gibraltar and becoming
master of the Mediterranean, and
held quiet 10000 troops in Spanish
Morocco which could have stabbed
the North African invasion in the
back.
The cooperative state" was in
vented by Mussolini and has q sur
vival in Portugal. As the name
indicates, the executive is a kind of
holding company" with DR.. Alonzo
Salazar as manager" and with
government departments in the role
of subsidiaries. DR.. Salazar's
dictatorship has been so successful
that the escudo is the only solvent
monetary unit on the continent,
except the Swiss franc.
Social democracy, of which Leon
Blum is an exemplar. has no wish
to overthrow existing states and
parliamentary institutions, but pro-
poses to capture them through the
ballot and use them as instruments
of social transformation. 1t wages
no quarrel with democracy and the
bill of rights. Public ownership, 1t
holds, should be gradual and selec-
tive. But there are economists who
argue that socialism cannot work,
in the long run, without govern
ment control of wages, prices, pro-
duction, distribution OF raw ma
terials and assignment of labor.
Social Democracy Rules
Social democracy rules in Bel
gium, Holland, Denmark, Norway
and Sweden, and is in joint con-
troll of France. In all but name it
is sovereign in Great Britain. 1t is
powerful in Western Germany.
Christian socialism has captured
Italy and partly rules France. Its
political parties and labor unions
draw spiritual breath from the
Catholic church and economic pre-
cepts from the great philosopher of
compromise, st. Thomas Aquinas.
The chief difference between secular
and Christian socialism is that the
latter holds tenaciously to private
ownership and private enterprise
insofar as they do not menace the
public veal.
In American parlance, liberal
is a progressive who stands at the
left of center between the con-
servative and radical. One would
have been In error if the same
meaning had been applied to the
Liberal Party Of italy which figured
in the April election. Liberalism,
In the European sense, means ad-
herence to the Manchester school
of economic thought, which clings
to Adam Smith, the doctrine of
laissez faire and untrammeled indi-
vidualism.
Thus, before American eyes. Eu-
rope has spread great variety OF
social organisms. Certain Of them
have perished and others have tri-
umphed. Still others are struggling
in the experimental stage. As If in
a laboratory, citizens of the United
States can weigh the virtues and
dement's of their own system of de-
mocracy. political and civil liberty
and the competitive order OF free
enterprise. Even here socialism has
made large inroads. A titanic in
stance Of collective ownership is
Federal monopoly Of atomic energy
By special arrangemen with the
st. Louis Post-DispatchJ