OCR Text |
Show Pressure Groups Point Way ' C To Mild Fascism in U. S. , - v -i Government by Majority Rule Ceases to t ' Exist When Various 'Interests' Begin ,s ' . Trading Votes for Concessions. j By BAUKHAGE Noils Analyst and Commrntator. WNU Service, Union Trust Building, Washington, I). C. At a recent White House press and radio conference, the President was explaining his pre-Chr stmas remark that it was time to discard the term "New Deal" the remark that gave the cartoonists so much fun. He used a fable about "Old Dr. r-'ew Deal" who had healed the patient of "internal troubles" (the depressions). depres-sions). But when the patient had an accident and had broken his arms and Icrs, he had to call in his partner part-ner "Dr. Win-the-War" to heal him. A correspondent asked: "Doesn't that add up to a fourth term declaration?" declara-tion?" The President showed his irritation irrita-tion in his answer. He said that that hadn't been under discussion, that the question was picayune. Then he caught himself, leaned back, half smiled, half apologized, with the remark that the questioner would understand that he had to answer an-swer that way. Two things came to my mind at once. First, that the President was thinking about the war and postwar problems, and to be brought back to earth with a bump was very much like being awakened by an alarm clock in the midst of an interesting interest-ing dream. That wag one thing I thought of. Another was just what the United States, and the whole world for that matter, would be suffering from after aft-er the war and what the cure would be, if any. Recently there have been several predictions that we were in "for a dose of mild fascism." Background for Bfilief I never took that so very seriously until three news items were called to my attention. One was the statement state-ment that the CIO committee of political po-litical action was planned as a nucleus nu-cleus of a labor party. That didn't smell of fascism but it had a slightly collectivist aroma. The next item was in the London News Letter, a little pamphlet edited edit-ed by Commander King-Hall, member mem-ber of parliament, the contents of which are cabled to Toronto, Canada, Can-ada, where it is printed as an American Amer-ican edition. King-Hall is an independent inde-pendent in politics with slightly conservative con-servative leanings. Here are the excerpts to which I refer:- ". . . There are many indications indi-cations at what might be called the lower levels of domestic practice, that there are forces and tendencies at work in Britain Brit-ain which are gc;ng to produce great changes in our political system. Some of these changes were foreshadowed in a pamphlet pam-phlet entitled "The Future of Party Politics" written by Commander Com-mander King-Hall in 1937. It was there argued that a crisis, both domestic and international, was developing and demanding for its solution a high degree of national unity in Britain, and that the political expression of that unity, and the instrument for making it effective must be a national government . . ." In other words, the writer means by a "national government" a coalition co-alition government such as England has now with no opposition what amounts to a single party. The Mood in Britain And here is another excerpt, a quotation from a speech in the house of commons which the London News Letter says was given a "wide measure meas-ure of assent." . . Government must always al-ways be by majority but let it not be by party controversy and ' party majority. In this country at the present time, there seems to be coming irito being a central cen-tral body of opinion very well and adequately represented on all sides of this house. It is to that central body of opinion that I should like the government to appeal in a bolder and more forward-stepping policy . . ." This speaker continues his appeal for a single "central body of opinion" opin-ion" and warns against "dividing a people (the British) v ho provide some bridge between the extreme capitalism of the United States and the extreme collectivism of Russia." Just what all this was getting at, I understood a little better when I read an article by Freda Kirchway in the Nation on the mood in Britain. Miss Kirchway had interviewed a number of people in England and 1 she says that "big business forces in England have recognized more i clearly than these forces in Amer- , ica the need for government control." con-trol." They are ready, she says, to accept the government as a partner part-ner to save themselves from liquida- ' tion. Some of the people interviewed by Miss Kirchway gave her the impres- i sion that they saw in the set-up ahead "a successful, polite form of semi-fascism," which will prove ac- i ceptable to the key people of these , groups. She doesn't agree with this herself and she believes British labor la-bor will be ready to fight it at the 1 second election after peace but she believes these people believe it. j How much of a similar feeling ex- ists in the United States, I do not know, but, quite independent of Eng- ' land, many people are shrugging their shoulders and saying it is a possibility here. One thing may point in that direc- i tion. That is the way the various pressure groups are now operating in' congress. Already many trades have been made even to the point j of those "unholy alliances" (all alliances alli-ances except those in which we belong be-long are unholy, of course) which it was charged in the senate had been formed between southern Democrats and some northern Republicans. ! As soon as powerful pressure groups can agree among themselves to trade concessions for votes, gov- 1 ernment by majority rule ceases 1 and the moment you begin to break down the party lines, you are in I danger of having one party which in the end is no party. i I can well understand how when ! anyone contemplates the problems ! of our domestic affairs in the postwar post-war period, it is hard to keep one's mind on the war. I The Change in j Invasion Plans It is a perilous thing these days ! to write more than an hour in advance ad-vance of the invasion if one uses the future tense. The majority of ; opinion "as I write-" (that's the sav- ' ing line) believes that the invasion inva-sion won't get under way until late spring although one report through Sweden said the Germans were expecting ex-pecting it between Christmas and New Year's. But from the time that General Eisenhower was named as commander com-mander and the other changes in command were named, it appeared that the shape of the whole Allied plans for the assault on fortress Europa began to change rapidly. The speed with which the Russian armies were moving toward the German frontiers set new forces in motion. Suddenly the Mediterranean became be-came less important in the picture as Washington saw it. It was pointed point-ed out that the British had a larger 1 force of men, ships and supplies in that theater than the Americans. What had seemed the most important impor-tant thing in Europe to America ever since our troops landed in North Africa suddenly grew less important. im-portant. The Middle East, which had looked as if it were the gathering gather-ing point of a new blow through the Balkans, perhaps with the help of Turkey, shrank on the horizon. The shifting of British commanders seemed to make this clear. And then there were calls for greater speed on the part of the Allies, it seemed as if a fear that Russia might get to Berlin first was stirring new activity and there were stories that Spain was not as anxious for Allied friendship as she was to keep the "Bolshevists" from getting nearer her borders, that if she must make new enemies, at least it was better to have the Allies against her than to have Russia get too near her. But even without these rumors, it grew clearer and clearer that the job ahead was colossal. Hopes that Germany Ger-many could be brought down by bombing alone were given up. It really seemed as if her .factories and indeed her cities had moved underground. B R I E F S . . . by Baukhage Ernesto Lecuona, chi f song writer writ-er of Cuba and cultural attache of the Cuban Embassy in Washington, has recently signed one of the largest larg-est song publishing contracts of Broadway history. Colombia's entrance into the war November 27 makes it the 14th American republic to join actively in the stnggie against the Nazis. Suspender buttons are to be restored re-stored to men's work pants, according accord-ing to an amendment of WPB's Or- j der L-181. ! ... 1 The navy's famous PT boats and ' all they have accomplished is owed to tiie mahogany tree of Middle America and to the men of histor , who discovered its value in ship j building |