The Plague We Spread

[383 ] ting the British government to make indirect withholding levies on the wages of American workers has not cured what ails our friends. The thing we have overlooked is that national strength creates wealth in any country, but in no country can outside wealth create national strength. Our foreign aid dollars have shielded weakness until the weakness has become almost permanent in many countries. We kept picking up the tabs for socialistic experiments in Great Britain. We paid the bills for British preparedness while the British, not needing to worry about where the money was coming from, went about nationalizing industries, providing cradle-to-grave 4:4:social security" and generally moving toward collectivism. We never gave them a chance to get a good look at the results. Our dollars made it seem that everything was just dandy. It was the same, and it is still the same, in more than a score of other countries. Fatheaded leaders have taken their peoples far down the withering road of socialism, and the people can't see the failure of their systems because they are propped up by American dollars. They can't see their own economic disease because its symp toms are hidden behind an American checkbook.

Germany's complete recovery from what seemed like total destruction in World War II is no accident. The Germans had their fill of socialistic measures under Hitler. When he was gone, they set to work on the capi talistic pattern, with private initiative and enterprise as their themes. They had the biggest job of reconstruction to do, and because it was so enormous, they chose the [384 ] most efficient way to do the job. Today their economy is the strongest in Europe. That, too, ought to mean something. What it means is that the rotten systems of Europe will continue to breed economic and social disease until the peoples of Europe can get a clear look at their own weaknesses. They will never do it until American dollars quit making unworkable systems look as though they're working. It's long past time to put the patient on his feet, so he may know that only his own strength will cure him.

Uncle Sam's continued handouts to smugly bedridden nations can only mean complete paralysis in the end. [ 385] FORGOTTEN COMMANDMENT tg Cltarle6 fiatt Wolle ~ DURING the 1930's, certain American intellectuals spear headed what might be called an ethical uprising in the social realm. They called for government intervention to benefit the less fortunate members of society,giving impoverished persons and groups the practical help of subsidies, price supports, and other monetary payments. The idea, as everyone knows, proved immensely popu lar. Earnest political officials saw in it a chance to extend their sphere of usefulness: now government, instead of merely restraining evil-doing, actually could do good. Many social scientists and other kind-hearted citizens likewise approved, thinking: "'What a fine thing it is that Washington is helping the needy!" And those who re ceived the aid-farmers, the elderly, the unemployed, citizens of "poor" states, and so on-saw the tangible benefits to themselves.