Timely Topics

Northern Advocate, 13 January 1941, Page 4

Timely Topics

“People in general are in danger of becoming fifth columnists fc their own cause by giving too much thought to its imperfeeCAUSE TO FIGHT tions,” states an FOR. American writer. “There are 1 new friends of democracy today who spend altogether too much time on ’plans for making democracy I really worth while after they have managed to save her from Hitler. | “Of course we must try to build a ■ better world after the present crisis 'has been surmounted. But by harpling too much on the better world to loome we are in danger of making [people here and there wonder if the i present world is worth fighting for. \ “After all, in pqst history, when [men have fought for home and wife land country they have fought for [these things as found. They have [never suggested that men should r fight only for apartments on Park [Avenue, New York, for wives like [Hollywood queens, and for a country [with a 100 per cent unblemished reciord.” * * * • [ “The essential feature of the new [German economic system is not its [self-sufficiency,” says “The Times.” [ “When they resolved [ GERMAN to import nothing [ ECONOMICS. which could be made i at home, and to find [substitutes wherever possible for [what they could not make themselves, [the Nazis were to a great extent mak•ing a virtue of necessity. [ “More characteristic was the rigid [control which they established over [the foreign exchanges to insulate their i currency from the inflationary effects of what was the mainspring of their system—the so-called closed financial circuit by which money made available by jhe State to set industries going was carefully sucked back again by loans and taxation, aided by a vast network of controls and restrictions which kept wages down and hours up and prevented all spending except such as suited the Government. “For its success the system needed the recurrent conquest, or at least the economic absorption, of new territories to provide fresh stocks of materials and fresh markets for expansion. It has involved also the piling up of an enormous debt, which, no doubt, Hitler hopes in due course to shift on to other shoulders. In fact, the whole system has been based upon the prospect of war. and the hope of victory.”