Toledo union journal. [volume] (Toledo, Ohio) 1942-current, 1948-09-10

OuT DIOlSSSlOIlS OI Q6H1OCIdCy q
hypocritical ring in the ears OF
those men and women on whom
we must ultimately rely to keep
Germany in the democratic
camp.
We are going to have to
choose between reprisal and re-
construction. We are going to
have to take the position that
the Marshall Plan calls not for
indiscriminate punishment, but
for all-out production. We are
going to have to insist that dis
mantlement, now almost aban-
doned in the American zone, be
discontinued as well in the
French and British zones. We
are going to have to make these
decisions because the dismantle-
ment campaign is the greatest
single a ct of sabotage of the
European Recovery Program,
and because every day it con-
tinues we lose precious ground
in the battle to salvage and in
spire the democratic forces at
the heart of the continent.
This is not a matter of in
dustrial facilities alone, or even
primarily. 1t is a matter of con-
vincing millions of people that
we mean what we say. 1t is a
matter of ending, once and for
all, the fear which is general
among Europeans that in the
war of nerves and of ideas be-
tween Russia and the Western
democracieS, German militarism
and aggressive nationalism will
rise again to dominance.
We cannot quarantine the
German people forever. We cam
not tolerate a perpetual slum
and concentration camp in the
later, Germany must take her
center of Europe. Sooner or
place as an integral part of a
united, democratic western Eu-
ropean community. That is the
intent of the Marshall P a n.
That should be the aim of our
occupation policy. And so we
must do much more than choose
between punishment and pro-
duction; we must make clear
cut choice between business and
professional men who support
ed Hitler and those trade-union-
lists and other democrats who
fought Hitler and landed in
Dachau for their pains. We are
going to have to rely on the
latter, on the forgotten men of
Berlin who will wind up behind
barbed wire again if Commun-
ism takes over.
We have not ct, in effect,
made that choice. And because
we have not made it, the Bri-
tish and French have not made
it. They take their cue from
us. We have the wealth and the
power. Therefore, we have the
responsibility. We must decide
that we prefer Hitler's enemies
to Hitler friends.
In the area of the Ruhr, the
western occupation authorities
retain control over the distribu-
ton of production, but not over
management itself. In the west
ern zones generally, industry is
back under German control or
is being operated by German
managerial and technical per-
sonnel under Allied trusteeship.
Under this set-up there is an
unmistakable trend toward re-
viving the social and economic
groups that supported the Nazis
and who formed the respectable
core of Germany's aggressive
nationalism.
And while the old gang
inches its way back to the seats
of privilege and control, the
workers who could keep them
in check and whose unions
could keep German productive
potential from becoming war
potential - these workers are
denied an elementary voice in
the operations of the factories
where they work. In the pro-
vince of Hesse, for example, a
democratically elected legisla-
tive body passed Works Coun-
Gil Law, which would grant, the
of plants in that area
the right of co-determination of
policy directly affecting their
American occupa-
ton authorities have vetoed
that law, and another victory
has been scored for those forces
in Europe who proclaim tn a t
American breaches democracy
but does not pratice it.
We have not acted forcefully
to return to the trade
unions the property tn a t was
stolen from them by the Nazi
Labor Front. The e Russian
sponsored unions of Germany
are well taken care of out OF
Communist Party funds, but the
free labor movement is without
typewriters, without mimeo-
graph machines, without paper,
without newsprint, w / t n
- z.l-.,,a,.4oxs, x.y;fhoytt funds