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Show i Pressure Groups Point Way To Mild Fascism in U. S. Government by Majority Rule Ceases to Exist When Various 'Interests' Begin Trading Votes for Concessions. By BAUKHAGE News Analyst and Commentator.' In WNU Service, Union Trust Building, i Washington, D. C. At a recent White House press and ' radio conference, the President was ., explaining his pre-Christmas 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. New 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 legs, 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, j that the question was picayune, j Then he caught himself, leaned j 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 1 once. First, that the President was !i 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 was 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 Belief 1 I never took that so very seriously until three news items were called to my attention. One was the state- ment that the CIO committee of po- Jitical action was planned as a nu- i ' cleus of a labor party. That didn't smell of fascism but it had a slightly collectivist aroma. i 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, Can-j Can-j ada, where it is printed as an Amer- lean edition. King-Hall is an inde-1 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 Brit ain which are going 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 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. Just what all this was getting at, I understood a little better when 1 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 she says that "big business forces in England have recognized more clearly than these forces in America 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 liquidation. liquida-tion. Some of the people interviewed by Miss Kirchway gave her the impression impres-sion that they saw in the set-up ahead "a successful, polite form of semi-fascism," which will prove acceptable ac-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 second election after peace but she believes these people believe it. How much of a similar feeling exists ex-ists in the United States, I do not know, but, quite independent of England, Eng-land, many people are shrugging their shoulders and saying it is a possibility here. One thing may point in that direction. direc-tion. That is the way the various pressure groups are now operating in congress. Already many trades have been made even to the point 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, government gov-ernment by majority rule ceases and the moment you begin to break down the party lines, you are in danger of having one party, which in the end is no party. 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. The Change in Invasion Plant 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 saving 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 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 gather- 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 into 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) who provide some bridge between the extreme capitalism of the United States and the extreme collectivism of Russia." ing point of a new blow through the Balkans, perhaps with the help oi 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 hei 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. II really seemed as if her factories and indeed her cities had moved underground. |
