FASCISM MAY DOMINATE IN UNITED STATES

Manawatu Times, Volume 60, Issue 99, 30 April 1935, Page 3

FASCISM MAY DOMINATE IN UNITED STATES

Dangers Arrayed Against Roosevelt Regime

POLICY OF RECOVERY NOT FULLY IMPLEMENTED

That Fascism may develop in the United States of America to the extinction of liberty, unless Roosevelt is able to stem its advance with rapid decision and forceful action, was the thought given to the Palmerston North Rotary Club yesterday by Dr. W. M. Smith, M.A., Ph.D., 8.C0m.. in the course of an address on the President, his policy and his future.

Tho advent to power of Mr. Roosevelt had been ono of the sublime events of recent times, said Dr. Smith. It was the spectacle of a man exalted to power with no display of force, with no parade of political shirts, with no lying and hypocrisy. Receiving the wellnigh unanimous support of a nation, he had enjoyed au opportunity of contributing to the welfare of humanity that, was hitherto unknown. The Roosevelt administration had got off with a magnificent start. Tho banking crisis was at tho moment one of great magnitude, but Roosoveit magic had sufficed to restore banking stability. He then proceeded to formulate a policy, the two great features being the control of capitalism and the protection of human

dife. Ho believed the extremely predatory form of capitalism in 1929 was ruining tho people, and he sought above all to arrest this evil tendency. Desire to Torpedo N.R.A. The President’s method of implementing his policy was interesting. Ho was bound to give concrete form to his avowed proposals, and to this end set ud a number of gigantic organisations, operating the various codes that had later been the butt of so much facetiousness. ' He had attempted the control of investment exchanges, and also gave a form of social security including unemployment insurance and a genre of bid ago pensions. The industrial system adopted by the National Recovery Administration was somewhat like our own arbitration system. The codes embodied a labour award and provision for the regulation of competition. The difficulty in the way of making these codes operative was that, some of the great concerns, while subject to the scheme, were unwilling to observe the spirit of tho laws, and were waiting an oppor-

tunity to torpedo tho whole lot. A Lunatic Policy. The A.A.A. was from the first, and even regarded as a short-term policy, lunatic in essence. It was wholly negative, paying people not to grow wheat, cotton, etc. Up to £IOOO was paid individuals’for not producing, and the scheme became a national joke. Its objective was to raise prices and restore an equilibrium between agriculture and industry, but even to this end it failed. Another phase of tho programme was that of public works, which was intended, among other things, to assist tho banks in thawing their frozen securities. Immediately it becamo evident that it was difficult to find up and down the country sufficient suitable construction works. Yet more could have been dono had the local authorities been consulted. Once the programme was prepared, it was destined not only to undertake tasks of national importance, but also to provide employment on a large scale. Roosevelt was handicapped at the outset, however, because tho secretary who should have supervised public works was sidetracked in a disputo with the oil companies, and so the project was given a bad start.

Fighting Nature. Another body of magnitude was tho Civil Conservation corps, established to minimise waste by erosion and deforestation. Much of America was being ruined in this fashion, the recent dust storms being an example, and the corps had, even now, a great opportunity for large-scalo rehabilitation. The great danger was that it might become a semi-military formation. A Thorny Path to Tread. But, no matter how great his capacity for leadership, and no matter how great tho measure of public support, huge difficulties confronted tho President. Initially, ho was mistaken in the presumption that capitalism, particularly American capitalism, could bo controlled, particularly in its worst and most militant phases. It was quite possible that, had he forced his hand with the utmost vigour, the country might have been plunged into civil war. This predatory Frankenstein monster was beyond control. Further, the very conditions that exalted Eoosevelt to power were inauspicious for his subsequent rule. As leader of the nation by an almost unanimous opinion, he was at first denied that element of criticism so essential to all men in public life, who must bo made constantly aware of public opinion, desires, ideals, thoughts. In America sustained criticism of the regime was virtually impossible; d: loan daring to raise his voice for tho oppressed was at once dubbed a “Bed,” and he could be silenced by tho most dastardly methods without penal consequences. Thus, certain industrial forces whoso wish was to raise their, voice against Eoosevelt immediately he assumed office were bound to keep silent for a time, resolving to undermine his system as occasion presented itself.

Wealth of Obstacles. Constitutional difficulties were a further stumbling block for tho President, as indicated by the necessity of referring to the Supreme Court to implement his currency schedule. Ho had, too, to share certain vital powers with the constituent States, which had sometimes refused co-operation. The President found tho labour organisation of the country quite inadequate. Many of the industrial unions in the United States of America were but rackets for the blackmailing of members into making payments. There wore no effective unions of labour such as those which had contributed to stability in Groat

Britain for 100 years. He could not rely on “organised labour’’; it did not exist. The country was a comparatively lawless one; the power of monov was too much for the judicial system. Roosevelt was at the outset humiliated by having to continue the system of spoils in politics. He made a great blunder by failing to recognise that American economy was part of a great world economy, to which it . must inevitably react.

Admittedly Roosevelt had achieved a great deal; the mero fact of lifting his country out of the chaos in which he found it was a great tribute. But his labour codes had not been made effective. Tho N.R.A. provided that the workless should be guaranteed in collective bargaining, but the President had never stood foursquare behind this. Statistics did not reveal any general riso in wage rates in the Republic and tho embittered labourers felt that the courts and the President were bot: against them, and that any recovery would as usual bo achieved at their expense. Despite that unemployment had decreased by from 20 to 30 per cent, during his term of office, he had made no constructive attempt to remov& the canker of mass unemployment; tem million people sought work. Under the terms of the A.A.A., a pledge was given, not only to restrict acreage, but not to dispossess the share croppers, yet many had been simply thrown out. Other countries had simultaneously extended their cotton crops, depriving U.S.A. of the anticipated price benefits of restriction. New Deal in Doldrums.

“The New Beal is at present in the doldrums,” declared Br. Smith. Becovcry is not at all general. Tho chief outcome of the A.A.A. has been to benefit, not tho producer or tho public, but tho food middlemen. The motor industry has been ruthlessly speeded up. It is too true that here a man is too old at 40, but instead of being told so he is left trying to keep going. Fascism Possible. “It is time Eoosevelt as well as other statesmen realised that the only policy of any merit is ono seeking to benefit the masses. Pocket-filling politics aro gone. Eoosevelt has compromised too much. Ho is conceding lilore and more ground to big business. His future can be analysed only in terms or Eight and Left, of Fascism or Communism. There is little probability of Communism dawning in tho United States of America, but there is a real threat of a Fascist denouement. If Eoosevelt is going to head it off he can do so only by keeping his promises—by controlling capital and safeguarding life.”

It was remotely possible that Eoosevelt himself might turn Fascist if, after the next election, ho went far enough to the Eight to win the confidence of big business. But it was far more likely the Fascism would take shape as a radical movement emanating from tho Left, later to be captured by big business and adapted to its purpose. There were two men at present round whom opposition to Eoosevelt centred — Father Coughlin and Senator Huey Long. Both had intriguing titles for their pet schemes of social justice. Both these men were now drawing together, and at a suitable time their radical movements might withdraw enough support from the President to become the supreme force in the continent, and then might be seized and wedded into Fascism.

Seize the Nettle. Eoosevelt could prevent such developments if he were prepared to seize the nettle of rising dividends and falling wages that now disfigured the country. If he did not seize the present opportunity the consequences might he momentous for, if the mass hysteria swayed the United States, and the lamp of liberty was extinguished there, where would it conjUnue to burn'’