SOCIAL DEMOCRACY.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVIII, Issue 156, 3 July 1937, Page 23

SOCIAL DEMOCRACY.

VEILED FASCISM. POSITION IN U.S. A. THREAT TO INDUSTRY. i (By PAUL MALLON.) WASHINGTON. Senator Borah has his own private method of statesmanship. He generally , knows about things before they happen,' and has an uncanny way of spearing them before they are apparent. j For instance, just a couple of days before President Roosevelt submitted his Supreme Court packing plan, Mr. Borah went to a microphone and told the country it would be a national calamity to destroy confidence in the Courts. Such Borah coincidences have developed too often to warrant any suspicion that the Idahoan is clairvoyant. Rather, he has developed the reputation of being exceptionally well informed. Who is New Dictator? Consequently, when the Idaho oracle J arose in the Senate the other day with a very carefully prepared attack on I Fascism, certain knowing Senators in ! the front row began looking at each other ominously. Ostensibly, the attack was aimed at Mussolini, but nearly everyone knows Borah would not waste his strength trying to reach Mussolini with a spear three thousand miles across the ocean. He was obviously tossing at a few suspected downtown Mussolinis a few blocks away. Rumours have been going around for some time that Mr. Roosevelt's most advanced thinkers have advanced their line of thought to an idea of controlling the production of industry. There is even supposed to be a bill extant, but no one has been found who claims to have seen it. The supposition is that it represents an alternate new NR.A. plan. One of his Cabinet members is not only mentioning it, but advocating it. The least that Senator Borah knows is that Agriculture Secretary Wallace lias made three lectures at Chapel Hill. North Carolina, recently, laying down a completely thought-out argument for control of industry. It has escaped public attention because he failed to offer the formula for it. That is. lie had no mechanical arrangement putting it into easily understandable form. But he had everything else. In fact, he crave all indications of being an advance agent for a new movement. Control of Farmer. What Mr. Wallace seemed to have in mind is this: The Government now controls farm production in effect, if not ir fact. At least it is establishing the machinery for such control. It is alsc establishing machinery for some similai measure of labour control through itf new-found strength in the National Labour relations board. So what if now needs to complete its economic con trol over everything is to get contro of industry. Mr. Wallace wants par ticularly to control its production anc prices. Now, Mr. Wallace protests specifically that this is not Fascism. He says he i: thinking about some arrangement

whereby industrialists (meaning, apparently, all corporations) could co-operate among themselves like the farmers do through their county committees. That is, the farmers elect their representatives to the governing county committees and the corporations would presumably be permitted to do likewise. Mr. Wallace eays flatly he would abolish corporate rights and, of course, the Federal Government would be the guiding and enforcing power over the whole business. In other words, Mr. Wallace is careful to preserve the name of Democracy, but not the substance. He would not call his new set-up Fascism. In fact, he has already officially titled it "Social Democracy." But what difference this would make to the ordinary citizen is not apparent. All would live in a wholly Federalregulated state, where prices, production and wages would be largely controlled by elective councils under Federal domination instead of a Duce or a Fuehrer. But few authorities believe the President will go for the idea.— X.A.N.A.