TOPICS OF THE DAY

Waikato Times, Volume 127, Issue 21230, 28 September 1940, Page 8

TOPICS OF THE DAY

Two Failures Mussolini was once a Socialist; Hitler was once a social failure. For quite different reasons both have boasted of what they and their regimes have done for the welfare of the masses, says the Times, London, But as soon as war comes the Socialism is forgotten and Nationalism is revealed naked and unadorned. The transitory benefits are forgotten; the liners of Strength through Joy carry German troops to their death in the Kattegat; the factory built to produce the people’s car turns out tanks. Both ships and factories had been built with those tasks in view. All the safeguarding labour legislation of a civilised nation is scrapped, and men and women are shifted from factory to factory, from fortress to fortress, like chain-gangs. So much for the Socialism of Germany, made possible only by the multiplication of little party tyrants, three millions of them, whose determination to cling to their ill-gotten power and comfort is the chief motive of their loyalty to Hitler. A plutocracy is ruled by the rich. If in Britain some rich men are called to rule, in Germany ail rulers become rich men.