Capital Comment

Washington

Just as long as Hitler is in power and through his policies forces Germany to continue on the down hill road of economic and social insecurity, Jews in Germany can expect to be blamed for all of that country’s woes.

From the very outset Nazi leaders set the Jews in Germany up as personal devils. They found this to be good mob psychology. And as long as the mob continues to be distracted from their real trials and tribulations by Nazi-designated personal devils, Hitler will remain in power.

What has happened in Germany has from time to time been in the process of formulation in the United States. Some time ago the Ku Klux Klan went on a rampage in this direction. Recently Nazi propagandists and other anti-Semitic fanatics have been trying to foment a cleavage between Jew and Gentile.

Spellbinders and unscrupulous writers such as Pelley and Representative McFadden have been doing considerable devil-shouting. They have tried to distort facts and among other things have endeavored to lead people into believing that whatever ails this country is due to a Jewish “plot.”

During the past year, this devil-shouting game apparently has been gaining impetus. Business and special interests have been clamoring in fear of government control. Now the devil-shouting is beginning to show itself in politics, particularly with the recent announcement that the German-American Conference of Greater New York has organized a committee whose avowed purpose will be to tell the organization’s members how to vote in the coming election. In as much as leaders of Nazi groups in this country are affiliated with this body, it is logical to expect that office-seekers opposed to Hitler’s policies will not be supported.

While all of this devil-shouting is going on in this country’s social, political and economic life, it is quite timely that a word of warning be heeded. In an article written by Secretary of Agriculture Henry A. Wallace, published this week in a leading national magazine, there are a few scattered paragraphs highly worthy of serious thought and consideration.

Secretary Wallace, who has one of the keenest minds and is one of the ablest leaders in the New Deal administration, says, “One of the greatest handicaps to a smoothly functioning, intelligent democracy is the almost universal belief in personal devils. Most Americans until recently have had a belief in the innate wickedness of nearly all countries outside the United States. The French, British, Japanese, Germans, Russians and Italians have all been pictured as devils at one time or another …”

“During the past ten or fifteen years the Red devil has been the outstanding favorite among business men. The Red devil came from Russia and carries the brand of Marx and Lenin. If anyone in government service says anything which business men do not like they hold up the Red devil to scare the people.

“Some business men and certain congressmen really believe in the Red devil but most of them use him because they think this is an easy way to scare people so that they will not give real thought to social and economic problems.”

Secretary Wallace points out that, “Most of us abhor the bitterness and violence which characterize the Communistic approach to economic problems. The whole devil business interferes with hard thinking and clean-cut action. Devil-shouting may be useful in gaining votes or increasing circulation of a newspaper or tightening the hold of an unscrupulous leader on his organization, but it is of very little help in cleaning up the mess. The devil-shouters are dynamic speech-makers and sometimes are excellent writers of magazine articles. They sometimes arouse the public about abuses, but beyond that their usefulness ends.

“It is necessary eventually to get beyond name-calling, which arouses human passions but prevents thinking and delays action. Modern democracy cannot be effective until our people are willing to support leaders capable of going beyond calling each other names.”

Washington views differ on the advisability of a trade agreement with Germany under terms of barter suggested by German Ambassador Luther. Secretary of State Hull has for the time being turned thumbs down on any agreement with the Hitler government.

But Senator Elbert D. Thomas of Utah, a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee who has just returned from a ten weeks’ study of conditions in Europe, particularly in Germany, is of the opinion that the United States might well enter into a barter arrangement with Germany. He points out that “Germany needs copper very badly. We have plenty. German genius has invented a copper welding machine. We need those machines, and especially does our copper industry need them because with this machine we can bring about the consumption of more copper. Now, why should not those persons in the United States who own copper trade some of it for machines?”

The Senator from Utah has commented to the effect that Hitler is more or less secure for the present. He believes that the Jewish boycott against Germany is “unfortunate, not for the Germans, but for the Jews, and from the Jewish standpoint it is bound to hurt more than it will help.” Senator Thomas is a former professor of political science at the University of Utah.

When Senator Millard E. Tydings of Maryland, introduced his resolution during the last session calling upon the Senate to protest the Hitler government’s treatment of Jews in Germany, the resolution was referred to the Foreign Relations Committee from where it never emerged.