CIVIL WAR IN SPAIN.

Evening Star, Issue 22463, 7 October 1936, Page 13

CIVIL WAR IN SPAIN.

TO TBS EDITOR. Sir, —In reply to your footnote stating that there were few Fascists in Spain before the revolt, it may bo said that Fascism is the only modern alternative to constitutional democratic government. The number of active Fascists in Spain before the revolt is problematical, but it is certain that the vast majority of those individuals enjoying a privileged social status were potential Fascists. “ Where the treasure is, there is the heart also,” and those people would naturally support the rebels as the defenders of their own class and the opponents of any tendency towards Socialism. Only in the period of its growth is democracy the most suitable form of government for Capitalist claw rule. Fascism arises only when the growing enlightenment and needs of the common people | make it clear that they will no longct tamely submit to economic slavery, but will use the ballot box and the institutions of democracy to achieve their freedom by a revolutionary change in the basis of society. Fascism is the political expression of the needs of a small minority. To be strong, they must have a mass following. This they obtain by exploiting the ignorance and credulity of the people—especially tbe young. They use pseudo-revolutionary language to delude the workers, and they’ promise everything to everybody. Once in control of the forces of the State, however, the disguise is thrown off. Fascism exposes itself as the armed

force of the great financiers and industrialists for the coercion of the people. Vain and ambitious demagogues, such as Mussolini, Hitler, and Mosley, offer themselves as ready instruments of these anti-social forces. The recent history of Europe affords abundant proof of the ferocious and destructive nature of Fascism. It constitutes the most terrible danger that threatens human society. The suggestion that Spanish Socialism is independent of economics is rather absurd. Every political movement has an economic purpose and is the expression of soipe interest or group. The peculiarity of scieueific Socialism lies in the fact that it expresses the immediate economic interests of a majority and the ultimate and highest interests of the whole of society.—l am, etc., October 7. A. B. Powell. [The real point is that neither Fascism nor Socialism in Spain—any more than Communism in Russia—was content to leave decisions to the ballot box. Elections in too many parts of Europe can be still only a mockery of democracy. To include “ potential ” Fascists among Fascists is to make argument impossible, though the inclusion might be justified on the ground that Communists manufacture Fascists.—Ed. E.S.]