NEWS VIEWS AND REVIEWS
News Views and Reviews Editorial Opinions from the Press of the Nation Some Facts on the First World War (From the Warehouse Workers Bulletin) DEATH Nearly 10,000,00 soldiers were killed. Over...
...Over 20,000,000 more were wounded...
...was included in this list...
...The Soviet-Finnish peace has narrowed the theater of war...
...Starting at the book's end—the effect in California—the committee is now proceeding to its beginning and beyond—to the cause that lies in the dust bowl and the deep South and in ever' state where the farm worker has felt the bite of an agricultural situation he never made and is powerless to circumvent...
...While II Dnce Decides (From The New York Times) THERE are three possibilities: an Allied victory, a stalemate or German victory...
...Anything but shrill is a slick little illustrated weekly called "Facts in Review," turned out to New York by the German Library of Information...
...But even if Germany is victorious, and Italy escapes almost whole, Mussolini must depend completely for what he finally gets—as Thyssen and scores of others did—on Hitler's sense of gratitude...
...Famine, disease, and pestilence took a total of over 28,000,000 people "among the civil population alone," according to the Swedish statistician...
...For the United States alone, during 2 years, the direct cost was over $22,000,000,000...
...STETTINIUS REPORTS BETTER STEEL TRADE...
...Is a man free when he must pay a price dictated by the monopoly and there is no free market where he can go for those necessities that he and his family must have to live...
...TO those who might be inclined to can Mr...
...It was obliged to disaffiliate the Chicago chapter and to request that contributors to Spanish refugee relief refrain from giving money to the Chicago unit...
...The grosser forms of Nazi propaganda are scrupulously avoided...
...Certain liberals might object to Mr...
...Eh„" he said, "there be a trick in it sum-where...
...The radio on the evening of Apr...
...You read the editorial pages of such newspapers and you are told that New Deal curbs have business in stagnation and that the country is going to pot because Roosevelt reforms have stifled private enterprise...
...Arnold, to restore this free market...
...Still arriving from Bavaria via Siberia is "News from Germany," a 64-page fortnightly with which is usually included the texts of speeches by Adolf Hitler and pro-Nazi letters from unknown Americans...
...Davies Address On The Significance Of War Arealistic view of what is happening in Europe today and the effect ot the war and its outcome on the United States was taken by Joseph E. Davics, special assistant to the U. S. secretary of state, in his masterful address in Madison on Sunday...
...8. SOCIAL SECURITY—Adequate old age pensions, unemployment insurance and an improved security program...
...This Chicago example is the familiar undercover technique of the communists, who know they can get nowhere under their own name and so they start organizations with liberal, plausible sounding names and grab control of other groups, when they can...
...Davies, it seems to us, presented a calm and careful analysis of the world situation as it exists today and the probabilities that will come when the war ends...
...Besides carrying the usual Communist line of attacking Roosevelt and the New Deal, the pamphlets declared: "In spite of the attacks of the big money interests of the world, the Soviets have proved that they can secure peace in the interests of the people...
...asked his wife...
...What's the news, mon...
...The number of known millionaires in the United States increased from about 7,500 In 1914 to about 25,000 in 1918...
...Vincent Millay, Prof...
...lassie," said the Scot...
...Our big foreign market lies in Soutn America...
...A final series of hearings in Washington is taking up the national implication of the facts unearthed in California...
...If there is any cause in which the rank and file citizen, the worker, tne farmer, has a great stake, it is this move against monopoly...
...COST Direct net money cost of the war for all belligerent countries amounted to over $200,000,000,000...
...And—something our literary editor tells us cannot be said for every book review—the documentation has been unimpeachable...
...Communists Hard Put To Keep Party Line In Tune With Events THE day before the Apr...
...If the war ends in a stalemate, Italy will probably be exhausted with the ether participants...
...The Central Fact In The World Totlav...
...The march of Hitler into the little nations of Europe also removes them as friendly buyers and sellers with the United States...
...NO one could follow Mr...
...And take the April bulletin of the National City Bank of New York, a publication whose viewpoint is about as tar away from that of the Roosevelt New Deal as it is possible to get...
...9 primary election in Illinois, thousands ol pamphlets were distributed in that state, particularly in Chicago, which carried the notation: "Issued by the Illinois State Committee of the Communist party...
...A Free Market For Free Men' IN his brilliant address in Madison on Saturday night, Thurman W. Arnold, chief of the anti-trust division of tne U. S. department of justice, said that if democracy is to function properly there must be maintained in this country "a free market for free men...
...there's nothing to rejoice about in that...
...SEARS APRIL SALES SHOW 10 PCT...
...Is a man free when he is dependent for the necessities of life upon a giant corporation or a combination of giant corporations...
...9. RELIEF—Adequate poor and unemployment relief and the restoration of purchasing power in the hands of the great masses of the people...
...Arnold believes that the Sherman anti-trust act, on the statute books for years, will do the job if it is really enforced...
...A single day's headlines in the anti-administration Milwaukee Sentinel and the bulletin of the National City Bank ot New York tell the story...
...Jennie...
...It will create jobs and restore jobs because a strong consumer demand means good business and busy factories...
...But it is being whispered in America: "All this is none of our business...
...Most business men would agree that to form an estimate of the health of American business from this ultra-conservative bulletin of one of the nation's largest banking institutions would be eminently safe...
...Profits of leading American corporations ranged from 25 per cent to 3,000 per cent and more during the war years...
...SI DIVIDEND DECLARED BY GENERAL MOTORS...
...Yes, the Communists certainly are having a difficult time these days trying to keep their party line in tune with fast moving developments in Europe...
...He would be unwise to overlook now this particular bit of advice from that political philosopher: A prince ought to take care never to make an alliance with one more powerful than himself for the purpose of attacking others * • 'because if he conquers you are at his discretion...
...Arnold urged the American consumer to interest himself in this drive against monopoly...
...Oh, yes...
...The Red army has closed the door to the threat of imperialist invasion in the north...
...The council is taking steps to prevent the use of its name by Communists in Chicago...
...MR...
...4. MARKETING CO-OPERATIVES—Development of a strong farm producers' co-operative marketing movement...
...Financial and Editorial Pages Disagree THE best answer to the anti-Roose-velt editorials that are appearing in reactionary newspapers today is to be found on the financial pages of these same newspapers in their stories ot the earnings and sales of American business firms...
...Though defensive in tone, the argument for Hitlerism is maintained on a high plane...
...Why...
...8 told how Nazi Germany, the ally of the "peaceful" Soviets, had grabbed Denmark and turned Norway into a destructive theater of war...
...Such monopoly practices also result in the reduction of purchasing power in the hands of the consumer, which means less business, slowing down of factory production, more unemployment, more depression...
...ARNOLD tied this whole problem into the problem of distribution ot wealth...
...Arnold's ex- planation of his colorful and dramatic activities in seeking to stop big business from restraining the healthy economic life of the country without being convinced of his sincerity and of the far-reaching significance of his crusade against monopoly practices...
...5. PURCHASING CO-OPERATIVES — Development of a strong farm-urban consumers cooperative purchasing movement...
...Cause for Joy Sandy was all smiles when he returned home...
...Something Fishy The two English yokels at the theater gazed open-mouthed as the famous magician proceeded to saw a woman in half...
...Abraham Flexner, Miss Helen Hayes, Miss Fannie Hurst, Miss Helen Keller, Dr...
...The La Follette committee, it strikes us, is doing the most careful and complete job of book reviewing that has ever been done...
...The consumer pays a terrific price for the operation of monopoly...
...The American Telephone and Telegraph Co...
...Davies' words were a complete answer to those who are trying to maintain that what is happening in Europe is none of our business and that we can simply ignore the whole show and not be very deeply affected...
...Arnold pointed out that some years ago the farmer received about 50 cents out, of the consumer's dollar spent for goods that, had their source as raw materials on the farm...
...The evening of the very day tnat these pamphlets were scattered on the doorsteps of Chicago and Illinois voters—Apr...
...Where monopoly takes too large a share of the national income, when the beneficiaries of the trusts milk the economic system for every drop they can get, there is not enough left to provide adequate incomes for the great mass of the people...
...have ye gone crazy...
...War widows numbered about 5,000,000...
...On the Sentinel's financial page of last Tuesday appeared the following headlines: "ELECTRIC FIRM SHOWS INCOME OF 52,590,665...
...governmental monopoly on the manufacture and sale of munitions...
...Fiction...
...Today, he said, the farmer gets only 30 cents out of the consumer's dollar...
...Then you turn to the financial pages of these newspapers and your eye is greeted by a flock of headlines telling of increased earnings, increased sales, and an atmosphere of general optimism...
...Total indirect costs (property damage, etc...
...amounted to about $150,000,000,000 for all countries...
...a plebiscite on wars which would send American soldiers to foreign soil...
...John Steinbeck's "The Grapes of Wrath" has been cruelly overworked as a parallel to the actual conditions upon which it was based, but we can't refrain from giving it one more fling...
...Wonderful...
...A Hitler victory in Europe would put, Nazi Germany in a position to menace our friendly trade relations with the continent to the South...
...A successful campaign on the part of government, then, to stop monopoly practices and the unreasonable restraint of trade will actually pay huge dividends to the consumer...
...3. INCOME TAX—High inheritance and income taxes to be'levied on the beneficiaries of monopoly...
...These figures include 11 steel companies, principally smaller units, whose net income of $6,328,000 was more than three times the previous year's figures, six auto accessory companies which boosted earnings from $3,076,000 to $4,-800,000, and five railway equipment manufacturers which tripled their profits, earning $3,752,000 against $1,334,000 for the same period last year...
...Facts' From Nazis [From 'Uncensored'] SINCE the outbreak of the war...
...Ye ken that when I used to go to the free library to look through it I used to save a penny—now I shall save two pennies...
...THE COURTS—Liberalization and reform of the federal judiciary, including the U. S. supreme court, to curb the threat to democratic government that lies in judicial autocracy and usurpation of power...
...Arnold's "conservatism" because he advocates doing things, even busting the trusts, along traditional lines...
...Besides the feeling ot revulsion at the action of European dictators in overrunning and threatening to overrun little nations, those invasions have a practical side and do our own system of economy serious damage...
...BRUNSWICK - BALKE DIVIDEND INCREASED...
...Putting out the fire is more important than quibbling about the past record and the past character of the fireman...
...Oh...
...The object of the anti-trust division in proceeding against corporate interests that have entrenched themselves in certain fields and practice what the Sherman act calls "unreasonable restraint of trade" is, according to Mr...
...La Follette as Book Reviewer (From The New Republic) IT IS ENCOURAGING to hear that the La Follette committee is extending the scope of its researches into the problem of migratory farm labor...
...As Sen...
...And the consumer, because of monopoly control in many industries, is compelled to pay far higher prices than he would have to pay on a free market...
...I've just heard that next week they are going to put the local paper up to two pennies...
...The National City Bank bulletin reveals that 1,440 manufacturing firms having a net worth of about $23,000,000,-000, earned nearly $2,000,000,000 in 1939, which amounted to a net return of 8.5 per cent, as compared to a 4.6 per cent return by the same corporations in 1938...
...If Mussolini enters the war on the side ot Germany, and the Allies are victorious, it will be disastrous for him...
...It will build sound prosperity because it will strengthen buying power of the worker and the farmer...
...With a reported circulation of 200,000, "Facta In Review" attempts a sophisticated presentation of German virtue and Allied vice...
...Well, when a great conflagration that threatens to envelop the world breaks out, we are not disposed to criticise tne fireman who is trying to put out the fire...
...The carefully selected facts in "Facts in Review" are analyzed and supplemented in a publication established for that purpose by a group of Amert-cans...
...Only a small percentage are in California...
...Harold L. Ickes is honorary chairman of the group, and its sponsors include such outstanding names as Dr...
...More Good News Of Better Times SUPPLEMENTING facts and figures that have been mentioned from time to time in this column on the favorable financial records being made by American business and industry under the New Deal is an Associated Press compilation of the earnings of 90 corporations...
...In a country like ours that operates on an import ana export economy— where the jobs of hundreds of thousands of workmen and the welfare of a large proportion of our farmers depends upon a substantial foreign trade, what happens to our foreign markets IS our concern...
...Mr...
...there is...
...A unit of the Spanish Refugee Renet Campaign was set up in Chicago...
...The claim or the Illinois Communists was refuted almost before the ink was dry on their propaganda handbills...
...HOME Left fatherless as a result of the war were 9,000,000 children...
...When combinations for the restraint of trade exist and are all powerful, the price which the consumer must pay for the daily necessities of life are fixed and dictated...
...These corporations represent about half of the industrial activities of the country...
...By one means or another, Chicago Communists got into the Chicago group and took over its direction...
...Culbert L. Olson, and Miss Dorothy Parker...
...Influenza alone took over 15,000,000 lives...
...Is it any wonder that the Republican bosses who would like to make political capital of "hard times" are disturbed by the boom in American business...
...THE PROGRESSIVE believes that the central fact in the world today is Hitler...
...Hersch...
...These corporations, the Associated Press reports, had earnings for the first quarter of 1940 which were 43 per cent greater for the same period of last year...
...Franco in Spain...
...GAIN...
...La Follette says, "Over one-third of the persons gainfully imployed in American agriculture, according to the 1930 census, were either ordinary wage workers or sharecroppers...
...Thomas Mann, Miss Edna St...
...It is called "Facts vs...
...In other words, farm purchasing power has drastically declined because the trusts and the cartels and the monopolies are today taking a larger share for processing and distributing the products of the farm because of their monopoly control of the channels of trade...
...Those die hards who maintain that conditions are no better than before ought to put facts like these in their pipes and smoke 'em...
...The national executive council of the organization was forced to take action in the Chicago situation...
...Wisconsin has cause to be proud of the statesmanlike viewpoint that her distinguished native son is showing in his prominent place in national affairs...
...That is sound advice...
...Communist 'Boring from Within Aflagrant example of how communists bore from within and obtain control of organizations with altruistic purposes comes from Chicago...
...6. UNIONS—Development of a strong trades union movement...
...In such a situation, living as we are in a complex economic world, the big question is how, without free markets, can free men remain free...
...For South American markets, the United States would have to compete with the products of a Nazi slave labor system...
...The central issue in the world to-day is—shall the cult of brute force, as exemplified by Hitler, emerge as tne dominant factor in the future destiny of the world...
...Arnold an extreme liberal or a radical in his views, it should be a startling revelation that he does not advocate any broad legislative program of reform for an effective means of stopping monopoly practices...
...Robert A. Millikan, Gov...
...Jarge turned to Joe...
...The daily cast of the war in 1918 was $224,000,-000...
...England is just as bad as Germany...
...Prisoners or "missing," nearly 6,000,000 (about half of the "missing" can be counted as dead...
...1916-18, or almost four and a half times the prewar average...
...Take, for instance, a recent single issue of the Milwaukee Sentinel, a newspaper that is bitterly anti-Roosevelt in its editorial columns and continually cries the blues about how business men are harassed by the New Deal...
...MILLIONAIRES Eighteen leading United States companies increased their net profits of $74,650,000 for the period 1912-14 to $337,000,000,000 for the period...
...Nazi relations with organized religion are described as serene...
...THE PROGRESSIVE PLATFORM 1. PUBLIC OWNERSHIP of natural resources and of those activities with a public interest—light, heat, power and transportation 2. WAR PROFITS — Elimination of war profits...
...8—the news broke from Europe that the Nazis had invaded Norway and Denmark in a brutal Blitzkrieg...
...asked his wife, puzzled...
...Sen...
...PROFIT For every casualty in the World war a profit of 50,000 marks (roughly, $12,000) was made by the capitalist class, according to Lehmann-Russbuldt, German expert on war...
...Judging from the vigor.of the anti-trust division under the guidance of Thurman Arnold, it is safe to say that here is a man who is truly literal,—that he reveres democratic ideals and is fignting to give them a chance to work...
...Albert Einstein, Dr...
...Sandy went on...
...7. BANKS—A government owned central banking system to break the grip of the money trust by carrying out, among other things, the congressional power "to coin money, and regulate the value thereof...
...The Spanish Refugee Relief Campaign is an outstanding, accredited organization formed to raise funds to assist civilian refugees from the semi-fascist government of Gen...
...the Nazis have used enormous quantities of printed matter' in a thankless effort to justify their case in the eyes of Americans...
...One such organization, the so-called "American League lor Peace and Freedom", formerly the "American League for Peace and Democracy," became so shot through with Communist control and influence that it was thoroughly discredited and was disbanded...
...Some 10,000,000 were rendered homeless due to the war...
...Full of shrill imprecations and patent lies, ''News from Germany" is exactly what Americans can use to confirm their worst suspicions about the Third Reich...
...Instead of using money collected for Spanish refugee relief, the Chicago unit used it for Communist literature and Communist political propaganda...
...There Is no anti-Semitism and no name-calling...
...Excluding that corporation, profits of the remaining 89 corporations were 68 per cent greater than a year ago—an increase Of from $42,744,000 to $72,004,000...
...The horrors of concentration camps are overlooked...
...The people of the entire world, and especially the people of Scandinavia, welcome this peace...
...The enslavement of conquered people in Europe would reduce them to working and living under a Nazi economy of forced labor...
...The Italian dictator has shown by past performances that he is a student of his fifteenth-century countryman Machiavelli...
Vol. 10 • May 1940 • No. 20
