Show s real warfare of dollars r 11 Is on in south america JUN U S wages trade and economic battle in effort to oust axis influence 21 from western hemisphere A by BAUKHAGE national farm and home hour commentator service 1343 H street N W washington D C about a month ago I 1 wrote that there was a rumor to the effect that the united states was in an undeclared war which had been marked private and confidential and that therefore nobody would talk about it it was a war of dollars instead of bullets this new brand of warfare is economic and it has broken out on two new fronts with the blacklisting of the pro axis firms in south america and the freezing of japanese trade the whole story can now be told although some officials still shy at the word w warfare when discussing these m methods of attack there are others who feel that it should have been used frankly and the methods and purpose explained long ago they say this strategy would have been received sympathetically by the people as a preventive measure against actual warfare just what is the diff difference arence be tween the battle of dollars and warfare of bullets what is the purpose of each the word war goes back to the anglo saxon which meant a quarrel and in those days a quarrel meant a fight since quarrels no longer necessarily mean fights some people cling to the hope that war need not always mean shooting senator recently said in the senate that he did not think the president was leading the united states into war of the shooting variety and the people who believe in the battle of the dollars say that this kind of a to may prevent shooting the object of war in the military sense is the destruction of the m military iii forces of the enemy in t these hese days the theory seems to be th that at in order to destroy the military forces it is necessary to destroy everything else the object of economic war is to destroy the economic forces of the enemy unlike military war dol lar warfare according to its opponents checks the steps which lead to actual combat south america As battlefield using south america as the battlefield tle field this is the way they explain their thesis the germans set about to control the latin american trade by making the economy of a country dependent on the wishes of B erlin berlin the nazis obtain political influence just as business and other pressure groups sometimes control political power in this country once the germans have control of the economic forces in a country they supplement this control with bribery and intrigue and finally attempt to put a per cent pro axis government in power nazi control of a number of key governments in south america according to the proponents of the theory of economic warfare will result in a menace to the safety of this nation the recent attempt to overthrow the government of bolivia is an example of nazi fascist methods it was broken up with the help of united states agents who discovered documents revealing the plot and turned them over to the bolivian government A similar plot you may recall was discovered in uruguay in the early days of the war what are the methods which the united states government employs to stop the german economic and political penetration and pursue its own economic warfare well they are in part the methods employed in the early days when the great trusts were built up in the united states except that the united states government itself is a trust organized to benefit all and not to exploit any of the peoples in the western hemisphere two methods of trust operation A trust has two principal methods ot of operation one is a perfectly honest attempt to perfect the manufacture and distribution of its products or its services the second is the use of a means now dis countenanced and forbidden by law in the united states of ruthless cutthroat competition to drive its competitors peti tors out of business r by tl the ae germans in south america the united states is now applying similar tactics insofar as pro axis business is concerned there is a difference however the united states is working with the help of the south americans in most cases to an end which ch they recognize will benefit all As in the case of military warfare sacrifices are necessary in economic warfare as well american manufacturers are not allowed to trade with the axis controlled firms in south america which have been put on the blacklist by the president the south americans suffer temporarily pora rily too much as a nation suffers when it is the ally of another nation fighting an enemy on its own soil incidentally it is interesting to note that the grandson of the man whose trust is famous in history for its ruthless methods of obtain obtaining in 9 a monopoly john D rockefeller is now heading one of the organizations which is attempting to bri bring ng the southern and northern nations of the western hemisphere into one great combine to compete with the axis trust in americas economic warfare there is no rough stuff that Is s V the competitors stores and warehouses are not burned or destroyed nor is violence resorted to but every possible use of the dollar which is the most powerful economic weapon in the world today is employed to destroy the efforts of the axis four campaigns are under way there are four separate campaigns n now ow being conducted against the axis in south america by our economic general staff one is based on agree agreements ments to purchase over a period of time south american surplus products especially war materials such as zinc lead tin copper nitrates this not only prevents such materials from falling into axis hands but provides a dollar exchange with which south america can buy from u us things which she might otherwise buy elsewhere the second economic drive is to force the transfer of commercial agencies from axis into native south american hands blacklisting black listing pro axis firms helps this for instance for years the dominating commission business in the city of la paz has been handled by germans suddenly these germans lose all american ican accounts are cut off from american credits their business is ruined the united states encourages a prominent bolivian family to establish a commission business it gets the profitable united states accounts american personnel and other help is furnished the axis firm is smashed another means of ousting As affus influence is to eliminate foreign control of the airlines for this purpose jesse jones secretary of commerce has organized an airlines development company a government corporation this company will lend money to any south amer ican country for the development airports give it priority on the purchase of planes provided that country gets rid of the german or other foreign owned lines within its borders this step has been taken in bolivia which has nationalized its internal airlines and removed german pilots this action has also removed a vital link in the german international transports tran transportation tion system which has served peru bolivia brazil and argentina in many of the countries the airlines are already nationalized but in some places german pilots are still flying the planes in brazil german controlled lines exist but many concessions have been granted to the united states in central america the lines are all controlled by a new Zealand Zealan cor who started out with an old ford plane hauling freight the fourth plan of economic battle is the government loan loans are advanced to south american go governments v ern ments for the purpose of keeping the local currency stabilized liz ed loans are also made for internal developments irrigation projects and port developments which it is expected will pay out over a long period of years which will tend to increase the standard of living in in the locality and thus open new markets tor for american goods |