The Rape of Democracy
Frank Chodorov
[Reprinted from The Freeman, October, 1938]
The betrayal of Czechoslovakia is indicative of the immorality of
monopolists and privileged groups in all countries. Our own landlords
will act likewise when their privileges are threatened.
The Chamberlain government and the Daladier government agreed --
while their respective parliaments were not in session -- to the
partition of a country which is not theirs.
With whom was this agreement made? With a madman, to whom the
monopolists of Germany have entrusted their vested rights because,
being, mad, he is capable of that inhumanity which best serves their
selfish ends.
Why was this atrocious agreement made? Because Chamberlain and
Daladier are themselves tools of monopolists who fear the effect of
war on their privileges. Increasing war taxes, may toe levied on their
rent-income to such an extent that there may be nothing left, and they
may have to go to work. Worse than that is the hideous spectre of
revolt. Arms in the hands of their long-robbed nationals may be turned
from the new enemy without -- to the ancient enemy within.
Those who own the earth and charge others for the privilege of living
and working on it Have one code. Greed. It is their .international
language. It is blazoned across their universal flag in letters of
blood. In spite of their veneer, of gentility, the niceties which
their fawning victims enjoy vicariously, they are rotten at heart,
their moral fibre is decayed, their sense of real decency completely
gone. They live on rent, for rent. To get more and more is their
primary passion.
The. gangsterism of landlordism is demonstrated in the present
European situation. Hitler, Mussolini, Chamberlain and Daladier have
torn away the mask of refinement. The machinations of the monopolists
were somewhat undercover in the rape of Spain. In Czechoslovakia the
job was done unashamedly.
This is no plea for war. We who know that only through democratic
institutions can economic freedom and human happiness be attained,
realize that war may bring about a slavery under bureaucracy far worse
than the present slavery under landlordism. We. know too well how the
masters entrench themselves behind the smoke screen of war hysteria;
how to dislodge them afterward is to fight the battle for liberty all
over again. Whether war brings on Fascism or Communism is immaterial;
in either case humanity is crushed, civilization is set back.
But, the solution of these international problems is not in conflict
-- it is in freeing mankind, in letting people alone to work out their
happiness. If Chamberlain and Daladier want a real solution of the
European problem all they have to do is to, break down their tariff
walls. Let the people of Germany buy butter and bread and the raw
materials they so sorely need. Flood Germany with the things the
German people want, and Hitlerism won't have a leg to stand on. His "self-sufficiency"
economy would melt before his astonished eyes. With what would Germany
pay for these things? With what Frenchmen and Englishmen would go to
work making these things, instead of making instruments of war.
But, suppose Germany insisted on maintaining tariffs even after
France and England had removed theirs, it may be argued. She could
not. For the only way to liquidate international bills is with goods.
(Germany could not sell unless she bought. Hitler could not resist the
clamor of his industrialists, his workers, for an opportunity to get
to these markets, and the only way to do so would be to break down his
own tariff walls. The way to defeat Hitler is to do business with the
German people.
The free exchange of goods between peoples is followed by a free
exchange of ideas. Cultural values are the inevitable by-product of
trade. Isolationism breeds a distrust of other peoples; commerce
brings mutual understanding;. The crazy ideology of fascism would
dissolve into thin air if brought into direct contact with the ideals
of democracy.
But no. The monopolists whom Chamberlain and Daladier serve do not
want a solution of the problem that may put ideas into the heads of
their people. Seeing that free trade between countries is a good
thing, the people might ask for free trade among themselves -- free
from monopolists, free from tax-gatherers.
To avoid this danger to their privileges they calmly offer to their
more arrogant fellow-gangster part of a country which they are morally
and legally bound to protect from aggression. But they know no law
save privilege, they recognize no code of morals which serves not
their selfish interests.
Americans, beware! Beware the landed aristocracy!
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