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Show tfN GENERAL Od HUGH S. Ij JOHNSON ivfj Jour: Washington, D. C. WAR EFFORT It is being said with increasing repetition rep-etition and insistence that a democracy democ-racy can't fight a dictatorship without with-out creating a dictatorship in itself. It is not true but, like so much other sloganeering, things constantly repeated re-peated have a way of getting themselves them-selves accepted even without much debate, especially if they have some truth or an appearance of truth. It is true that complete involvement involve-ment in major war requires increased in-creased centralized power in government gov-ernment and temporary surrender of some civil right, but what is thus necessary falls far short of a domestic do-mestic dictatorship. What this country did in industrial mobilization for our last war was so effective that most warring nations na-tions have copied the general plan with their own variations especially, especial-ly, Germany. Woodrow Wilson got about what he asked for, but the statutory dictatorial powers he used were very slender. As far as industry was concerned, the whole structure was built on two powers one was the power to commandeer com-mandeer factories, the other was the prescribed "priority lists" statements state-ments of government needs for the products of industry which the administration ad-ministration decided must be filled before any other orders. Commandeering Comman-deering differed very little from the peacetime power of eminent domain if the government needs a property proper-ty and the owner is unwilling to sell, the administration takes it over and the courts determine what is "just compensation" to be paid to the owner. It was not the use of these powers, pow-ers, but their existence and the threat of them that enabled the government gov-ernment to get what it wanted. In almost all cases, a mere request with no threat or use of power was all that was needed. In time of war, in this country nearly all of business busi-ness is eager to do its part But as in all such community efforts, ef-forts, there is always a little "chiseling "chisel-ing fringe" of slackers who try to take advantage of the burdens borne by their more unwilling competition. Both to make the combined effort effective ef-fective and to protect the patriotic from the greedy, it is advisable sometimes to get tough with this gentry and it is necessary to be able to do so. Except for the railroads and a telegraph company, which rested on a different basis, outright commandeering comman-deering was used only once. That statement once before made in this column has been challenged. It is correct. The case was that of the Smith and Wesson Manufacturing company for refusal to accept an award of the national war labor board. There was no press censorship except ex-cept the willingness of the entire press voluntarily to comply with suggestions of the administration. There was a tight control of exports, as there is now. Food supply was pretty thoroughly regulated by a control of profits rather than of prices and of a licensing system governing distribution. That was as near as this country came to dictatorship in the greatest military and industrial effort ever made up to that time. It is as near as is necessary now. AID TO BRITAIN William Allen White, who is chairman chair-man of the Committee to Aid Britain, Brit-ain, thinks congress should pass some kind of a resolution announcing announc-ing which side we are on in the present world conflict not a declaration dec-laration of war. There isn't much doubt which side we are on in our hearts. Actions speak louder than words. By our actions, as the President has said, we are sending Britain all the aid we can just now unless we decide to finance her war. Short of a declaration dec-laration of war such a declaration of sympathy seems unnecessary and, at first glance, not very important. On the other hand, many people in this country fear the direction in which we are headed as a path leading lead-ing straight to war. They are for aid to Britain with two important qualifications. First that we do not weaken our own defensive preparations, prepara-tions, second, that we do not do such things as will make war inevitable. inev-itable. In this state of affairs and uncertainty un-certainty about public opinion and in this fog of misinformation or no information about just what is Involved In-volved in this question, I doubt il Mr. White's idea about a congressional congres-sional resolution is as unimportant as it seems. There is yet time and there is not yet any such hysteria as would prevent a full and fairly free debate. Congress is closer to the sentiment senti-ment of this country than any sampling sam-pling poll or any other branch of government can possibly be. If our present course of conduct and the purposes of Mr. White's people are. in fact, leading unnecessarily toward war, the debate on such a resolution resolu-tion would reveal both that fact and the popular judgment on it. i For all these reasons, while this column doesn't agree with what il thinks Mr. White's committee stands for, It docs agree with his recem suggestion that congress be con suited In the way he describes, |