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Show Real 'Warfare of Dollars' Is On'in South America U. S. Wages Trade and Economic Battle In Effort to Oust Axis Influence From Western Hemisphere. By BAl National Farm and He WNU Service, 1343 H Street, N. W., Washington, D. C. About a month ago I wrote that there was a rumor to the effect that the United tates was in an undeclared un-declared war which had been marked "private and confidential," and that therefore nobody would talk about it. It was a war of dollars instead in-stead of bullets. This new brand of warfare is economic eco-nomic 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 "warfare" when discussing dis-cussing these 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 sympa-thetically by the people as a preventive pre-ventive measure against actual warfare. war-fare. Just what is the difference between be-tween the battle of dollars and warfare war-fare of bullets? What is the purpose of each? The word "war" goes back to the Anglo-Saxon "werre" which meant a quarrel. And in those days a quarrel meant a fight. Since quarrels quar-rels no longer necessarily mean fights, some people cling to the hope that war need not always mean shooting. Senator O'Mahoney recently re-cently 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 dol-lars say that this kind of a "werre" may prevent shooting. . The object of war in the military sense is the destruction of the military mili-tary forces of the enemy. In these days the theory seems to be that in order to destroy the military forces it is necessary to destroy everything every-thing else. The object of economic war is to destroy the economic forces of the enemy. Unlike military war, dollar-warfare, according to its opponents, oppo-nents, checks the steps which lead to actual combat. South America At Battlefield Using South America as the battlefield, bat-tlefield, this is the way they explain their thesis: The Germans set about to control the Latin-American trade. By making mak-ing the economy of a country dependent de-pendent on the wishes of 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 eco-nomic forces in a country they supplement sup-plement this control with bribery and intrigue and finally attempt to put a 100 per cent pro-Axis government govern-ment in power. Nazi control of a number of key governments in South America, according ac-cording to the proponents of the theory of economic warfare, will result re-sult in a menace to the safety of this nation. The recent attempt to overthrow the government of Bolivia is an example ex-ample of Nazi-Fascist methods. It was broken up with the help of United Unit-ed 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 Uru-guay 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 of operation. One is a perfectly honest attempt to perfect the manufacture manu-facture and distribution of its products prod-ucts or its services. The second is the use of a means, now discountenanced dis-countenanced and forbidden by law in the United States, 'of ruthless, cutthroat cut-throat competition to drive its competitors com-petitors out of business. The latter method has been used JKHAGE ime Hour Commentator. by the 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 they recognize will benefit all. As in the case of military warfare, war-fare, sacrifices are necessary in economic eco-nomic 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. i The South Americans suffer, temporarily, tem-porarily, too, much as a nation suffers suf-fers 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 obtaining a monopoly, John D. Rockefeller, is now heading one of the organizations organiza-tions which is attempting to bring the southern and northern nations of the Western hemisphere into one great combine to compete with the Axis "trust." In America's economic warfare there is no "rough stuff." That is, the competitors' stores and warehouses ware-houses are not burned or destroyed, nor is violence resorted to. But every ev-ery possible use of the dollar, which is the most powerful economic weapon weap-on in the world today, is employed to destroy the efforts of the Axis. Four Campaigns Are Under Way There are four separate campaigns cam-paigns now being conducted against the Axis in South America by our economic general staff. One is based on agreements 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 us things which she might otherwise other-wise buy elsewhere. The second economic drive is to force the transfer of commercial agencies from Axis into native South American hands. Black-listing pro-Axis pro-Axis firms helps this. For instance, for years the dominating commission commis-sion business in the city of La Paz has been handled by Germans. Suddenly, Sud-denly, these Germans lose all American Amer-ican accounts, are cut off from American credits. Their business is ruined. The United States encourages encour-ages 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 Axis influence in-fluence is to eliminate foreign control con-trol of the airlines. For this purpose, pur-pose, Jesse Jones, secretary of commerce, com-merce, has organized an Airlines Development company, a government govern-ment corporation. This company will lend money to any South American Amer-ican country for the development of airports; give it priority on the purchase pur-chase of planes provided that country coun-try gets rid of the German or other foreign-owned lines within its borders. bor-ders. This step has been taken in Bolivia which has nationalized its internal airlines and removed German Ger-man pilots. This action has also removed a vital link in the German international transportation system which has served Peru, Bolivia, Brazil Bra-zil and Argentina. In many of the countries the airlines air-lines 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 grant-ed to the United States. In Central America the lines are all controlled by a New Zealnnder who started . out with an old Ford plane, haulmg freight. The fourth plan of economic battle is the government loan. Loans are advanced to South American governments gov-ernments for the purpose of keep- , ing the local currency stabilized. 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 the locality and thus open new markets mar-kets for American goods. |
