743

June 22, 1940

who had previously tended to follow the Moscow line
in regard to the war, announced his sympathy with the
Allies and asserted that
the workers of L a t ~ nAmerica
have always fought fascism andwlllcontinue fighting
it All In all,signsofachange
of atmosphere 111
MexicoCity lendsupportto
thecurrentrumorsthat
Britain IS seeking a renewal of diplomatic relations wlth
Mexlcoandasettlement
of thedisputearising out of
the exproprlatlon of the Royal Dutch Shell 011 properties.

>c
EVIDENCETHATTHEITALIANCONSULATE
in New Yorkdirects at least three national Fasclst organizations and is engagedinextensive
pro-Fascist propaganda was revealedlast week by PoliceCommissioner
Valentine. New York City alone has been found to contain at least sixty Centvi Edtlcativi (cultural centers) devotedto
the spread of Fascist doctrines. Whilethe
existence of these activities is not exactly news-as witness the extensive revelations regarding the Casa Italiana
at Columbia University in The Nution some years agothey take on a much more serious character as a result of
Italys entrance into the war. How many Italian-Americans actually support Italy is an open question. Captain
for eightNewYork
Bertolini,Italianconsularagent
counties, boasted thatall of the 6,000,000 persons of
Italian descent in the UnitedStates are backing the asplrations of Mussolini. This is refuted by the unmistakable
demonstrations of loyalty to the United States of hundreds of thousands of former Italian citlzens But if there
are only a few thousand Italians workmg under thedlrection of the Italian consulates, such activltles constitute a
genuinefifth-columndanger, In contrastto the Trojan
so manyfishermens
redherringswhichareinspiring
tales. That such activities are also anillegalabuseof
diplomatic immunlty is beyond dispute. W e are glad to
note that Secretary Hull is conducting an investigation
independently of the FBI.Havingobtainedthe
necessary information, we trust that he wrll not hesitate to act
even to the point of breaking off diplomatic relations.

>c
A BILL TO DEPORTTHECONSTITUTION
ought to be the title of the blll Just passed by the House
to deport Harry Bridges. The vote, 330 to 42, in favor of
a proposal which violates the most cherished of our constltutional safeguards, is a measure of the extent to which
Congress is losing its head. Left wingers hke Marcantonio
and Geyer of California, middle-of-the-roaders like Sabath of Illinois and Martin J. Kennedy of New York,
professionalanti-CommunistsllkeDlckstein
of New
York, conservatives like Bruce Barton and Wadsworth,
and even Hobbs of Alabama, author of the famous concentration-campbill,were
among thosewho found I t
imposslble to vote for so shockingameasure
as the

Brldges deportatlon bdl. Congressman Havenner of Califorma ably argued the pomt raised by The Ndtzon In Its
Issue of May 25 that the measure was really a bill of attamder, notorlous Instrument of Tudor tyranny, forbidof
den by A r t d e I of theConstltutmn.Thorkelson
Montana and Schafer of Wisconsin, whose peculiar brand
of Amer1canm-n has a strong Munich accent, supported
thebill as a wayof fighting the fifthcolumn.Sabath
of Illmols, In a speech against the measure, called attentlon to Schafers position and said, I am commencing to
feel strongly that this [stand taken by Schafer) may be
for the purpose of distracting attentlon from the
zctivitles of the fifth columnists, namely, the Nazis.

>c
HEADLINE READERS MAY BE STARTLED TO
learnfromtheDepartment
of Commercethatthenet
debt in the United States declined by $~O,OOO,OOO,OOO
between 1929 and 1939. The $22,000,000,000 increase
in the publlc debt during the period was more than offset
by a $32,000,000,000dropindebts
owed by private
Individuals. It must not be assumed that the reduction in
debt is entirely a gam. A large part of the reduction was
achieved thehard way-through bankruptcyandforeclosures. To some extent it merely is indicative of lower
prices and a lower level of business activity. The rise In
government debt reflects the fact that the government is
now engaged in many of the constructive activities formerly carried on by private enterprise. But there is room
for gratification in the substantial lightening of the burden of indebtedness, particularly since carrying charges,
owing to reduced interest rates, have been cut to an even
greater extent. This situation has been further improved
by the fact that the interest on government debts tends
to be considerably lower than that on private indebtedness. For the real test of the burden of debt is not the
amount of the debt but the amount
of the carrying charges
in relatlon to the population. But though we know that
our per caplta Indebtedness was reduced from $1,410 in
1929 to $1,230 in 1939, we do not
yet have figures on the
annual savings involved for the American people.

What Next ?
BYFREDAKIRCHWEY

H A T comes next2 Let us hopethat it willnot

be panlc and a tidal wave of despair. The greatest dlsaster In theworldwould
be, notthe mllitary
defeat of France or even of France and Britain, but the
acceptance by the Unlted States of the myth that Nazi
Germany is invincible. The terrlfyingunion of organization and armed mlght wlth implacable aggression may
overwhelmtheunreadyEuropean
democracies. Butit
need not and must not overwhelm us. For we have their

744
mistakes to warn and guide
us. The record of the past
four years, so packed wlth bltter wisdom, is open before
US.W e have only to study It wlthout bllnklng and then
act-confidently and strongly.
It 1s natural that the lmmedlate reaction to the French
surrender should be a feeling that the game is up, that
Hitler cant be stopped this slde of his ultimate deslre5.
But fear can be as unreallstlc as easy optlmlsm. We can
easilygive the victory toHltler by takingfright,and
runningfor
cover, andplannlngfuture
concesslons.
If we do any of thesethlngsweshall
be ignoring
the exampleprovlded by France andBntain. Instead
we should recognize certaln basic facts and bulld on
them our opinlons and our pollcies.
The first fact is that the Unzted States ZJ atwar wzth
Germuny and bus been for years. So farthe struggle
has been carried on inthe field of tradeand finance,
throughdlplomatic pressures andwithdrawals,through
thehelp provided,behlndinadequate
camouflage, to
the Allies. The war was forcedupon us by the very
nature of fascism, andwhde we have tried to avold
the full implications of OUK involvement we have been
drlven further and further into the struggle. And
now
w e are in for the duration. Hltler IS not llkely to modlfy
his methods when hls power on the European continent
is supreme; nor will he forget the part the United States
has playedin the efforttoprevent
his fulltrlumph.
FromthemomentPresident
Roosevelt announced his
intention to quarantine the aggressors, our partlclpation
was settled. Unfortunately we dld not implement these
words with appropriate actions. Instead of promising to
support any honest move for collective securlty, we dupllcated the fatal procrastination of Brltain and France. W e
allowed Hitler to pick off his opponents one at a tlme,
pretending meanwhile that our share m the struggle was
nothing more than a rather lopsided brand of neutrallty.
Our mistake lay inthe pretensesandhesitations
with
which we clothed our commitment. At no time was there
hope of a genuine peace with Hltler.
Today the chance and the tlme for pretense are gone.
W e haveopenlysidedwithFranceandBritain.
We
shall not by any last-minute repentance be able to dodge
the consequences of that alllance. W e should not, therefore,repent.
I do not say that we should, instead, declare war
on
Germany. To propose such adeclaration at this time
would precipitateastrugglewhlch
mlght proveadisastrous obstacle to continued aid for Britain and dramatize differences now buried, temporarlly at
least, under
the generalconcern
for American security. The proposalwould
probably be defeatedandinitsdefeat
carrydown many necessary measures of defense.Even
if it werecarried,adeclaration
of war might have the
undesiredeffect of deflectingefforttowardthe
hasty
mobhzatlon of man-powerand
the hoarding of re-

The NATION
sources thatshouldstlll
be putatthe
dlsposal of the
powers reslstlng fasclsm In the field.
And thisbrlngsmetothe
secondfact
on which
pollcy shouldbe based.
The Britzsh Empzre has not been defeated. It is fightingIt is strong In resources andmen; its fleets still
dominatethe oceans. Beforethlspage is read we shall
probablyknowwhether
the Admiralty can prevent the
surrender of the French fleet to Hitler. If it can, Britain
may hold out for a long time. The greatest weakness
of the Brjtlshdefense is theshortage of trainedmanpower and of planes. TheUnited States should pour
into Britam the redoubled
aid promised by President
Roosevelt to France in Its last fightlng hours. The United
States should
look
upon
England
as
an
American
fortress standing off the coast of Nazi Europe, a bastion
between our shores andthe most powerful aggressor
theworld has known.Aslong
as England resists we
havearmedprotectionandtlmetopreparetoprotect
ourselves. InEnglandandthe
BrltlshEmpiresurvive,
precariously, the last standards outslde the New World
towhichfree
men can clmg.TheUnited States must
helpdefendBrltain
as long as theBritisharmyand
fleet defendit.
Mr. Roosevelt knows thls. In splte of past errors and
delays, thePresident
hasdemonstratedmoreunderstandmg of thenature of thestruggleagainst
fasclsm
than any other public man in Amerlca. And
this is the
third fact on which policy should be based.
Franklin D. Roosevelt must be reelected. In an article
on another page of this issue Max Lerner expresses his
bellef that a thirdterm is certain.Butthedisasters
of
the past few days haveraiseddoubts
in manyminds.
It is beingsaldthat
Mr. Roosevelts pollcy is fatally
identified wlth the defeated or beleaguered democracies
of Europe, and that the President hlmself, should favor
office untheelection of a manwhowillcomeinto
trammeled by such commltments. To accept this positlon
is both to admit the triumph of fascism and to prepare
toplacateit.
Until very recent weeks I havedoubted
the wisdom of puttlngMr. Roosevelt in office for a
third term. Today hls reelection seems to me vltally important. N o othercandidate in eithercamprepresents
avigorous resistance tothedoubledanger
of fascism
worklngthrough reactionaryforcesinside
the country
and throughpressure or attack fromoutside.
The fact is, Mr. Roosevelt standsalone as a symbol
of the w ~ l to
l make democracy live. The most immediate
danger that faces the United States is not military attack
orpoliticalpenetratlon.
It is the growth of aspirit of
acqulescence in the new order now being imposed upon
the world by fascist arms. T o replace Roosevelt with a
manfree of anti-fascistentanglementswould
be comparable to the replacement of Reynaud by PCtain. We
are not yet ready to surrender to Hitler.

745

June 22, 1940

Why France Fell

XHAUSTED by Its vam efforts to hold back the endless waves of fresh N a n troops and tanks, the French
armyhasbroken.Premler
Repaud, unzble to rally his
Cabinet for a no-surrender pol~cy, has reslgned, and the
aged Marshal PCtain is provldlng a front for a government committed to peace at any price. At the tlme of
writing we do not know what that prlce wlll be; we can
only be sure that it will be crushing.
Why hasFrance so tragically fallen?Why has the
French army, so often proclaimed the finest In the world,
collapsed a few weeks after the war started In earnest?
W e cannot at present glve any adequate answer in military terms, for only fragments of the picture have yet become avallable.But we can see thattheAlliedHlgh
Command, no less thanthe
majority of civilians In
France, Britain, and America, has been bllnded by wishful thinklng. The trainlng of the German army and the
value and extentof its equlpment were allke badly underestimated. Undue faith was placed in the Maginot Line,
and a belief that it would make possible a cheap and safe
war was fostered. Too little regard was paid to the possibility that the line would be turned by an lnvaslon of the
Low Countnes, the defensive possiblllties of which were
grossly exaggerated. The strength of the famous Dutch
water line and of Belgiums forts and canals were cheerfully assumed to be capzble of delaylng the invader for
weeks. Thus, when Hitler did in fact strike through the
Low Countnes, the Allledarmies left their preparedpositions in the Llttle Maginot Line along the Belgian fronttler to march against the foe, leaving a weak spot in the
Meuse valley through which the Panzer divislonswere
a
able to pour. Thereafter the Allieswerenevergiven
chance to establishasoliddefensivepositionbehind
which they could rally their reserves.
But the defeat of France In the field is only the last
lmk in a long chain. The weakness and unpreparedness
whichbothBritain
and Francehaveshownhave
deep
roots in the wllful blindness of the governing classes in
both countries. Eager to be deceived, they gladly accepted
Hitlers false facade of antl-bolshevism and on this pretext acquiesced in and evenencouraged one aggression
afteranother.Theyhadamagnlficentopportunityto
make collective security a reality when Mussolini invaded
Ethlopia,but they shirkedit because they dreadedthe
posslbility of an overthrow of Itallan Fascism. In Spam
they threw away perhaps their last opportunity, allowing
theGermansandItalians
to murderopenlyafriendly
democracy andestablish a totalitarian stronghold on the
flanks of both the British and French empires. It is the
bitterest irony of the French defeat that
they should be
forced to ask for Francos medlation to obtain clemency
from thelr conquerors.

An attempt IS bemg made in thls country to blame the

lack of preparedness In France on the Blum government
and ~ t program
s
of soclal reform and nationaiizatlon of
the arms industry. This is amost u n p t accusation obvlously made for domestlc polltical purposes. It takes no
account of thefact that laborstandardsinFrancehad
been allowed to lag far behind those of other industrial
countrles It omlts to mentlon the pressure maintained on
the workers by the concentration of wealth in the hands
of a few famdies who had battened on French resources
ever slnce the end of the last war Nor does it explam
the equal unpreparedness of Britain, where conservative
interests had held polltlcal power for nine years and the
to private
task of budding defenses was fully intrusted
buslness interests which fell down on the job.
In so far as treachery has played a part in the French
defeat it is the treachery mainly of those in
high places
who intrigued with the Nazis before the war and are now
getting ready to creep back as Nazi puppets. It is the
treachery, also, of those who placed class interests higher
than the safety of their country, and in this category we
must include the Communists, who betrayed France
on
Russian orders, as well as the reactlonaries of the right.
The great mass of the French people-peasants, workers,
small business men-suffer from their guilt but do not
shareit. Theyhavefoughtwith
magnificentcourage.
May those that survive live to see a new France which
wdl be free both of Nazis and the native rats which have
gnawed at its vitals.

Our Enemies Within

F bhis country allows itself to be deceived by its real

fifth column, American democracy will soon enjoy the
privilege of choosingweapons for its own suicide. It
may revokethellbertieswhichareits
very essence ih
order to crushthose whochallengethewhole
idea of
Ilberty;orit
may leavethesellbertlesintact,enabllng
of the
thosesameelements
todigdeepintothelife
country against the day when they can betray a corroded
Amerlcan democracy tothe enemy Either way, hope
theproponents of thetotalstate,wearedoomed;
either way, they win.
The time has come to show that this choice of alternatives 1s falsetothe core. If democracy can confront
itsenemiesonlywith
paraIysis or tyranny, then democracy IS no way of life, since it lacks the prime essentials of alllivingorganisms.thewillandmeansfor
self-preservation.
If the choice, as we hope to show, is false, the problem is neverthelessalltoo real Norwayfellovernight,
the victim of an inside job; Dutch democracy, strug
gling manfully with the invader, abandoned
hope when
Dutch traltorslined the roofs of Rotterdamand
The

Tbe NATION

746
Hague to shoot down Dutch soldiers in the streets, and
when Dutch homes, by prearranged plan, were thrown
open toGerman parachutists. It was Belgian officers
who failed to blow up strategicBelglanbridgesbefore
theoncommg enemy, and Republican Spainharbored
i n the hlghest ranks of its army the traitors who by the
grace of foreign dictators now rule that rumed country.
Thesesame
treasonableelementsarefeverlshly
at
work now throughout the Americas, and not least of all
i n theUnited
States. Thelr presence ruses twoallimportantquestions. W h o arefifthcolumnists?
What
canwedoaboutthem?
Thequest~ons areof
equal
importanceand complexlty, and we proposehere
to
discuss only the first, reserving foranother issue an
analysis of specific proposals.
What makes the problem of identifying fifth columnistsandpotentialfifthcolumnists
most difficult isthe
mountmg fever of thecountry. In itself thispopular
revulsion is atrlbutetotheanti-fascist
spmt of the
people. But it is a spirit that is being brazenly exploited
by the very forcesagamstwhlch it shouldbedlrected.
The tinpotHltlersandtheirmoresubtlecounterparts
i n polltlcs andIndustryhave
done aquick-changeinto
the regalia of minute men and are off in full cry after
the fifth columns of thelr choice-the New Deal, the
trade unlons, and every other genuine anti-fascist force
i n the country. The Hearstpress,wlth
Its record of
slobberingadmirationfor
Mussoliniover a period of
years, now takes abowforhaving
set thecountryon
the track of thefifth column, by which it means the
Communists and only theCommunists. The Associated
Farmers of California,one of whoseleadersreturned
from Germanyseveral
years ago expressingadmirationforthe
works of AdolfHitler,
now announce
the mostintensiveAmericandriveeverdirected
at
fifth column-in
this case theOkiesandtheArk:ej
and all who wouldprotectthem
from the association;
vigilante labor poldes. Hamdton Flsh, who busied himself in Germany last fallin desperatemaneuvers
to
produce more appeasement for the Fuhrer, wants Harry
Bridgesdeported because he is a symbol of thefifth
J, ParnellThomas,whose
columnists inourmidst.
Congressional career has been confined to loud-mouthed
attacks oneverythingthatsmells
even faintly of democracy, tellsthecountryoveranational
hook-up that
the surest way of removing the fifth column from our
shores is to remove theNewDealfrom
the seat of
government. And as though to crownthis monument
of brass, former Magistrate Leo J. Healy demands that
a jury free his warmly and avowedly pro-Hitler clientsthe ChristianFrontists
ontrial in Brooklyn-on
the
ground that it was naturalforthemto
wantto shoot
Communists, who are the only true fifth columnists.
There are two great reservom of anti-fascism in this
country:organizedlaborandthegreat
body of allens

who fled beforethe fasclst terror or whoare close to

those who suffered under it. Any attemptto cut off
thesegroupsfromthe
fightagainst
fasclsm andthe
of thecountry
fifthcolumn is adeliberateweakening
against the real enemy. It IS the strategy of the genuine
fifthcolumnists, the men to bewatched.Theyarenot
hardtoidentlfy.
If you meetalabor-baiter,aunionbuster, a racist of anti-Semltic or any other complexion,
or onewhowould
have you belleve that the redsare
the real andonlydanger,
you are confrontmg afifthcolumnist, p o t e n t d or full-blown. This is not to defend
the Communists; if they are notthe core of thefifth
column, they areatleast
Its fellow-travelers for the
present and they must expect to bear the consequences.
But It shouldberemembered
that all the democracm
which In these past few years have been delivered over
to totalitarlamsmhavebeenbetrayednot
by Communlsts but by fasusts. Even in F d a n d , where the Communists had the great Red Army at their back, they were
unable to deliver the goods, andtheirphony
Peoples
Government of Otto Kuusmen was so sorry a joke that
Stalln had to inter it without so much as a prayer.
The feverish effort of Americas fifth-column shouters
mustnot be interpreted simply as an attempt to divert
theIlghtningfrom themselves. It is deeperthanthat;
it is a flankmg movement to divest the countrysantifascist forces of the only kind of leadership which can
posslbly be effective,theonlyleadershipwhichhates
fascism and canbecounted
on to fightittotheend.
Englandand France had to free themselves of control
by the Chamberlam, theBonnets, andtheDaladiers
before they could really fight Hitler. Here we w ~ l have
l
to keep our Fishes and J. Parnell Thomases, our Dieses
and Healys, ourHearstsand
our Assoclated Farmers
from takingover if weare honestlytocome
to grips
with our own fifth column For whatever laws we pass,
w ~ l lbe no stronger than
whatever precautions we take,
themenwhoadministerand
executethem. The first
prmciple in combatmg fascism is to put the fight in the
hands of anti-fascists.

Dont Appease Japan

S A by-product of the European crisis a movement

has developed in the past few weeks infavor of
making a deal with Japan. In the vanguard of this movement are papers such as the Chlcago T n b m s and leaders
such as Senator Vandenberg, who have consistently opposed any action by the Unlted States which mlght hmder
the Japaneseinvasion of China.This group hasnow
beenjoined by WalterLlppmann,who,whileadmittedlynotarecentconvert,
has neverbeforeopenly
adopted
the
appeasement
position.
Mr.
Lippmanns

741

June 22, 1940

argumentseems plausible because of itssimpliclty. H e
declares that we arefacedwithserlousthreats
to our
securlty frombothEuropeandthe
Far East, wlthincomparablythegreaterthreat
c o m q from Europe.
Therefore it behooves us, accordlngto Mr. Lippmann,
to make terms with Japan so as to face one enemy at a
tlme. Thls would permit us to move our navy into the
Atlantlc, and thus strengthen our nationaldefenses.
Mr. Llppmanns argument rests on twoassumptions,
both of whlchrecentexperiencehasshown
to bedangerous illuslons. The first is that a military clique such
as holdspower In Jdpan is responsive to reason and
conchation; the second IS that aggression can be held in
check in one area whde it IS encouraged in another. For
nearly three years Mr. Chamberlain struggled under these
delusions indealmgwlth Italy, andthe result is now
fully apparent. T o fascists an effort at conciliation is invariably a sign of weakness. The concessions offered are
accepted as a sort of trlbute from a weaker power and
used to strengthen the armed force of the aggressor for
the inevltable showdown.
Britainscapitulatlon to Japanat Tientsin last week
on the Issue of Chlnese currency was perhaps inevitable
for a country engaged In a struggle for its very existence.
It was followed, slgnlficantly enough, by a Japanese demand that all Allied troops and warships be withdrawn
fromChlna.ButtheUnlted
States is under no such
duress Our fleet is notneeded in the Atlantic at this
the Allles to the utmost,
moment. If we desiretoaid
our navy IS still more useful in the Pacific than it would
be in the Atlantlc. The Japanese navy would dominate
the Pacific if it werenotfortheAmerican
fleet at

Hawali.Withdrawal of the Americanships,with

or
without an agreementwith Japan,wouldinvite
the
selzure of theDutch EastIndies,whichwould
be a
severe bIow to the Allied suppIy lmes in
the East.
Presumably forjust suchrealisticreasons
the State
Department appears to haveturnedadeafeartosuggestions for appeasing Japan. Secretary Hulls statement
denouncingthe recent frightful Japanese alr raids on
Chungking indicated that there has been no substantial
change in American policy. Passage of Senator Shepto imposedispardsbillempoweringthePresident
criminatoryembargoes on munitionsandwarsupplies
tootherthanAlliedcountries
may injure Japan far
more than the moral
embargoes now in effect. A complete stoppage of the shipment of scrap iron to Japan
is insight.Machine
toolsarealreadybeingheld
up,
andthe bill wouldpermit
even the embargo of 011
exports, withoutwhich Japancouldnotmaintain
its
invasion of China. The adoption of these measures will
undoubtedly increase the pressure within Japan for
the
seizure of theDutch EastIndies. In the face of this
threat,appeasementtalk
is especially dangerous.
The democratic countries might do well to tear a leaf
out of the notebook of the fascist powers when it comes
tostrategy. For years the fascists gainedconsiderable
success and a reputation for infalllbllity by nibbling
away at the weakest sectors of what might, for want OF
a better name, be called the democratic front. At presentJapan is probably the weakestIink in the fascist
front It is only sound sense, then, that the pressure on
thislink
be accentuated rather than relaxed at this
critical moment.

Rites f o r the G. 0.P.

BY CHARLES MALCOLMSON
Washmgto?z, lune 17
OT that It matters much, but next Monday the
Republicans open
their
conventlon
in
Phdadelphia,whereanational
title-pugilistic or
political-has notchangedhands
since Tunney licked
Dempsey in 1926. Republicans,however,profess
to be
encouraged by theirPhiladelphiaconventlon
record,
havingwon
the electlon on the onlyother occasions
(1872 and 1900) when the party convened on the banks
of the Schuylkill.
But thosewere
the days of Grantand McKinley.
These are days when a minority party-the Republicans
have at last accepted and are actlng that role-can
only
pray for a miracle. Yet not prayer but deep melancholy
will be the Lezt-naotzf of next weeks Phlladelphia story,

and so I t IS difficult not to descrlbe conventlon arrangementsinfunereal

terms. Services are expected to last
about a week, withinterment on Saturday, though the
catafalque may remain on dlspiay longer if there is any
real dlficulty about selecting the pall-bearers.
Hardly any Republicans In Washington stillbelieve
or thatthe
thatthe conventionwill
be aquickie
nomination will be won without a real fight. They are
now convinced that if the Taft-Hoover-Wdlkie combine
prevents a Dewey majority
on the first few ballots, any
one of thesethreehas
a good chance for the nominatlon. Thls is a sharp reversal of the picture of a month
ago, when Buster Dewey was the odds-on favorite in the
betting and
nobody
was takingHoover
or Wlllkie
serlouslyexcept
themselves. As for SenatorTaft, he