February, 1939
T H E K I N G ' S B U S I N E S S
55
Views and Reviews of Current News
ty U
By DAN GILBERT Washington, D.C., and San Diego, California
SURPRISE FOR DIES: Chairman Dies of the House Committee Investigating Un- American Activities was the most surprised man on Capitol Hill when the President announced that he was putting the G-men on the trail of the Nazis, Communists, and other subversivists. Previously, the President, along with Secretaries Ickes and Perkins, had criticized and ridiculed the investigation of un- Americans being conducted by Mr. Dies and his associates. When the President or dered the Department of Justice itself to take up the radical-hunt, Chairman Dies joyfully commented that the Administra tion, which had started out to laugh off the whole idea of a subversive menace, was now taking it seriously. Properly enough, the Texas Congressman counted it as a vic tory for his position on the subject. Some observers interpreted the Presi dent’s move as one calculated to "steal the show”—or rather the "show-up” of sub versivists—from the Dies Committee. However, it now seems likely that the Dies investigation will go on, also. Public sentiment, as revealed by Mr. Gallup’s American Institute of Public Opinion, is strong behind an additional appropriation for the Committee. Administration spokesmen, who at first had opposed an additional grant to carry on the Committee’s work, have completed a careful survey of the situation. They do not believe the measure can be blocked without going to inexpedient lengths in the applying of "pressure.” Hence, it now seems likely that Mr. Dies’s Committee will be given a new financial lease on life. How ever, there may be “strings attached” to the new appropriation, which will keep the Committee from operating with the free hand it enjoyed in the past. CONFIRMATION: In this department last month, the present writer reported the fact that expert observers are seeing multiply ing signs of a possible Nazi-Soviet "get- together.” Week by week, the foremost students of world affairs are coming to see what to Christian students of prophecy has been clear for a long time. One of the latest is Demaree Bess, writ ing in the Saturday Evening Post, Decem ber 24, 1938. He says, "To the casual student, the notion
that Stalin’s Russia and Hitler’s Germany could ever get together may appear p repo sterou s. Are not these two dic tators formidable rivals and implacable enemies? Do they not profess creeds which have initiated the great est holy war of modern times? "Yes, these things are true. But it is also true that these two dictators and these two creeds have once before composed their differences, and work ed together for years in a surprisingly amiable fashion. The strange inner story of Soviet-German relations, as pieced together from bits of authentic evidence, makes painful reading for those statesmen who are now gambling on a Soviet-German war.” Mr. Bess says of Hitler, "He knows very well, from his own experience, that Russia’s Soviet system of government is much closer to his own Nazi government than it is to any true democracy. Nazi Germany has never had difficulty in dealing with Soviet Russia, whereas all democra cies have . . . . So Herr Hitler can afford to make up his mind about Rus sia in a very leisurely fashion. He oc cupies the driver’s seat in Europe, and nobody is likely to rush him any more.” Contrary to the opinion of the ordinary observer, Hitler has "played ball" with Moscow before: as Mr. Bess points out, there have been undercover dealings be tween the two dictators ever since Hitler gained power. Despite sharp reverses at the polls in November, the Democratic Party has a commanding majority in both houses of the 1939 Con gress. Many observers seem less interested in what the Party will “do for the country” than they are in what it will do to itself! Gestures toward a reconciliation of the “liberal” and “conservative” wings of the Party are only surface deep. The President and the Vice-President may smile at one SHOW-DOWN STRUGGLE:
Courtesy, Los Angeles Times
another for the photographers, but behind the scenes they are preparing for a show down struggle. Opinions differ over whether the President will seek a third term or the Vice-President a first term in 1940. But, in any case, both personalities will be “built up" to form a rallying point for their followers. Inside information is that Mr. Garner will rally the maximum conservative strength about himself and then at the last minute before convention will transfer it to a younger and more "logical” lead er- such as Senator Clark of Missouri. General opinion is that the President wishes a third term. But he will not strive for it unless the politically shrewd Mr. Farley assures him he can get it. In any case, he will fight to the finish for the right to name his successor. The mobilization of forces during the current session of Congress may prede termine the victor in the 1940 Democratic convention. The destiny of the Party, and possibly of the country, for years to come doubtless will be decided by whether the conservatives or the liberals control the convention in 1940. NEW BRAIN TRUST? Wide comment is being excited by a new book published by some seven professors of Harvard and Tufts Universities. The book is a fulsome and fantastic praise of the system of "spending oneself rich.” According to the professors, spending is not only the way out of a depression, but it is also supposed to function as a veritable Aladdin’s lamp in making prosperity permanent and perpet ual. If spending hasn’t promoted prosperity during the last five years, the reason is that there hasn’t been enough of it! That—in short—is the extravagant thesis of the professors, who “prove” it all by stream lining the science of economics! [Continued on page 59]
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