THIS IS THE ROAD TO SLAVERY
This Is The Road To Slavery By SEN. ROBERT M. LA FOLLETTE, Jr. PRESIDENT ROOSEVELT'S shocking demand for the enactment of a totalitarian national serviee law for forced labor in America can only...
...The period of preparation is coming to a close...
...In some communities," he added, "there will even be a serious unemployment problem...
...It cannot be justified as a serious constructive proposal based on the nation's needs at this time...
...The plain facts of the domestic situation, upon even momentary reflection, show that the crucial tests in the battle of production have been won on the home front...
...Now it is largely a question of following through...
...Once we start down that road in America, there will be no turning back until we reach the bitter end of slavery or revolution...
...An Ominous Similarity Let there be no mistake about it...
...Steel is being released for civilian production...
...Total war production in 1944 is expected to exceed 1943 production, but the increase will come about through the more efficient utilization of existing labor and machine resources now on the job rather than through further mobilization either of labor or facilities...
...The big adjustments have been made...
...Such a law has not prevented strikes in England...
...Fascist Scheme Or Political Hoax The war is not won and we cannot afford to relax our necessary efforts toward victory, but in determining what is necessary and what is unnecessary there is need for clear thinking...
...there can be no compromising with force...
...Since this estimate the total has reached 11 billion and there are more to come...
...Harry Truman estimated only two weeks ago that the Army and Navy had already cancelled about eight billion dollars worth of contracts and he said, "This is only the beginning of such cancellations...
...The President did not advocate national service during those dark days...
...The President's message gives ground for the latter conclusion...
...Employment in the construction industry will be reduced by an estimated 700,000 by July 1. Another 100,000 workers will be released in the building materials industry, 100,000 in other manufacturing industry, 600,000 in non-industrial employment, and 100,000 in agriculture...
...The dictators of Europe persuaded the people of their nations to give up their civil liberties in order to win economic security...
...Production Crisis Met There can be no denying the fact that the crucial tests upon the battlefield still lie ahead of us but that is no justification for Nazifying men and women at home...
...Nevertheless this demobilization is beginning...
...In the face of the obvious facts of the situation on the home front at this time, the proposal for a national service law is either a diabolical scheme to bring fascistic controls into this country under the false guise of wartime necessity or a political hoax to curry favor among the labor-hating elements in the nation...
...Great Britain, with less than half the labor force we have, had 1,300 strikes in 1942 and 1,248 strikes in the first nine months of 1943...
...There is an ominous similarity in the message sent to Congress by the President...
...He relied then upon voluntary efforts to mobilize the nation in that grave emergency when entire industries had to be converted and retooled, when new production centers were being built from the ground up, when workers were being brought by the thousands from distant parts of the country to put expanded war plants into operation, when the labor force was being expanded at the rate of between five and six million workers per year...
...Demobilization Ahead Sen...
...Let them remember what happened to the industrialists who assisted Hitler in seizing power in Germany...
...He too speaks of economic security—a new "Bill of Rights" he calls it—while in the same breath he proposes to put every adult in the United States under the shackles of compulsory service...
...Evidence is piling up on every hand that the crisis of production has been met successfully...
...It will be slow at first until there is unmistakable proof that military operations are going according to plan and it will be necessary to keep industry in readiness for a new emergency if our military planning has proved defective...
...The Iron and Steel Branch of the War Production Board has recommended lifting the ban on iron and steel for 543 civilian products...
...Whereas from July 1940 until July 1941 we added 4 1/2 million workers to our total employed labor force, including the armed forces, and added 5 1/4 million the next year and 5 1/2 million from July 1942 until July 1943, the War Manpower Commission estimates that we will be able to get along with a million fewer workers in civilian employment by July 1944...
...The experience of other countries with service laws demonstrates that they do not prevent strikes...
...Of course if Americans are prepared to enforce a no-strike rule with a firing squad the way it is done in Germany or Russia, it is futile to talk about a national service law or any law...
...But the American people should be wary of delegating totalitarian power to any man even though his name be Roosevelt and not Hitler...
...The production records which labor and management have accomplished have proved that compulsion is no longer necessary now that we are over the hump...
...He argues that the mere existence of national service legislation "makes unnecessary the widespread use of compulsory power...
...For several weeks concern has been growing over the increased idleness in the steel industry, not from strikes but from lack of orders...
...Canada likewise has had strikes...
...Useless motion is not going to bring victory any sooner and pointless regimentation is a menace to public morale as well as subversive of our fundamental liberties...
...PRESIDENT ROOSEVELT'S shocking demand for the enactment of a totalitarian national serviee law for forced labor in America can only be understood as another political move toward appeasement on the home front...
...Our production machine has been rolling full tilt for months...
...If so drastic a measure was ever necessary to win the war, it was immediately after Pearl Harbor when gigantic adjustments of both industry and manpower had to be made quickly to get the nation on an all-out war footing...
...Machine gun rule does not depend on law for its results...
...And to those who think it will not hurt them because they expect labor to be shackled, recent experiences in other countries ought, to give them pause...
...Drastic cutbacks in the military procurement programs have been announced in recent weeks as our war needs become clearer in the light of military developments and additional cutbacks are expected in the months ahead...
...It was during that period that we experienced the crisis in the battle of production...
...Industrially we are entering a period of gradual demobilization rather than mobilization...
...He certainly cannot justify destroying the last vestige of democracy now when every production goal set has been achieved or surpassed...
...He urged the enactment of a national service law "which for the duration of the war will prevent strikes and with certain appropriate exceptions will make available for war production or for any other essential services every able-bodied adult in this nation...
Vol. 8 • January 1944 • No. 4
