The Führer’s early goals included physical education, a return to rural life, health care for all -- and foreboding plans for the Jews.

 

 Almost everything this remarkable man believes stems from his conception of the Germans as a 'chosen people.'

 

During the first years of Hitler's political activity he spent some time studying economic matters, principally under the tutelage of Gottfried Feder, a present member of the Reichstag who figures as the economic expert of the party. The ground plan of his economic thinking seems to be something like this: Capital is always the result of labor, and is dependent upon the same human factors as labour itself. Capital relies upon the freedom and power of the state, but must not be allowed to dominate the state. Though capital is the property of individuals, its use also affects the welfare of the state; it must therefore be directed to promote the national well-being. In short, Hitler believes that economic boundaries should coincide with political boundaries; hence he denounces 'the economic bourse capital controlled by the Jews,' which, he says, is manipulated to work the overthrow of national states.

 

Prophecies of the chaos and paralysis that would be brought about by adopting this policy of economic isolation are as fantastic, Hitler thinks, as the solemn opinion of the Bavarian medical profession, in the early days of the railroads, that passengers would become dizzy and sick. For National Socialists he asserts, there is but one doctrine People and Fatherland. What we have to fight for is to ensure existence and increase of our race and our people, the support of our children and the maintenance of the purity of their blood, the freedom and independence of the Fatherland; so that our people may be able to carry out the mission assigned them by the Creator of the universe. Every thought and every idea, every teaching and all learning, must serve this purpose. From this point of view everything is to be tested, and, according to its suitability, either applied or rejected.

 

From this it will be seen that the Nazis base their economic ideals upon a conception of commerce and trade which is already outmoded. They are still thinking in terms of free and unlimited competition, and have not even begun to see that economic rivalry between nations must give way to international cooperation, with an organization of the whole world for the benefit of all its inhabitants. Liberals of every stripe have perceived this, and have realized that national selfishness is not an ideal it is a way of destruction; but the Fascists, whether German or Italian, are not Liberals.

 

Hitler objects particularly to the complications of modern industrial life. He wants to get back to simpler and more personal conditions. His mind, like Gandhi's, turns longingly to times that are dead; both have committed themselves to an outgrown form of social organization, identifying the virtues of an older order with its exterior features. Gandhi asks his people to spin because he cherishes the human values which he associates with the period when each family made its own cloth. Hitler fears international capital for much the same reason. He does not see that 'national economics' is a thing of the past; that, instead of trying to restore a more primitive social system in order to revive the virtues which he associates with it, a modern statesman should seek to adapt to the needs of mankind the economic integration of the world which is now in process and is bound to go on. He does not realize that the existence of international capital is no longer an issue; that the important problem is to determine who is to control it, and how.

 

II

 

When Hitler discusses the national collapse of Germany at the close of the war, he gives us a very clear insight into the way his mind works. The cause of the collapse, he says, was not the defeat of the army, but the demoralization behind the lines. He affirms over and over again that it was a great mistake, in the pre-war years, for Germany to renounce the winning of more land in Europe and to aim, instead, at the economic conquest of the world. This led to limitless industrialization, with a consequent weakening of the peasantry and overgrowth of the proletariat in large cities; eventually the sharp contrasts between rich and poor engendered dissatisfaction and bitterness, and the people were divided into political classes. In proportion as 'big business' became mistress of the state, money became the god to be served. The Kaiser gradually let the nobility of gold get the upper hand over the nobility of the sword, and the combative virtues of the race declined.

 

 

 

German education before the war was bad, for it put emphasis upon learning rather than upon power to act; instead of training character, it bred lack of will, fear of responsibility, and half-heartedness. The press, which ought to have been controlled in the interest of the state, took advantage of these popular defects. Now there are three classes of readers, says Hitler: those who believe all they read; those who believe nothing they read; those who reason, test, and think. The great majority of people belong in the first classification, and the pre-war press taught them pacifism and internationalism, thus weakening the will of the people to defend to the death their racial heritage. Force only is effective, and the press must be supervised by the state and kept out of the hands of strangers and enemies of the people. The present generation, Hitler adds approvingly, is less squeamish about using force than its fathers were: 'A 30 centimetre grenade hisses louder than a thousand Jewish newspaper vipers.'

 

He berates the authorities in pre-war Germany for neglecting to take adequate measures against syphilis and tuberculosis which, by their increase, threatened the strength of the nation. He discusses at length the degenerative effects of wrong sexual life and the prostitution of love to social or financial considerations. He declares that a foul theatre and an insane art, such as cubism, are indications of a Bolshevist state of mind. He notes that most of these degenerative influences are concentrated in the cities, which lack individuality and artistic treasures, and have no magnificent buildings to serve as foci of city life, as did the cathedrals of the Middle Ages. In refusing to grapple with these social evils, the pre-war state failed in its first duty,— that of maintaining the health and soundness of the race, and to this end Hitler offers a concrete programme of his own:—

 

1. Earlier marriage must be made possible by providing new housing facilities and such financial help as may be needed.

 

2. Education must train the body as well as the mind.

 

3. Medical treatment must be made available to all classes; hopeless incurables must be remorselessly sterilized

 

4. Public morals must be taken in hand and all entertainments, placards, and advertisements made clean.

 

5. City life must be broken up by inducing slum dwellers to return to the land.

 

All the Social ills of the last twenty five years, says Hitler, have been brought about by the people's lack of a positive philosophy of life. The masses will not cling to religion unless they have a definite dogma to believe in. The upsetting of religious faith is therefore not in the public interest. For the politician, the value of any religion is comparative; he should espouse the prevailing cult unless he can devise a better substitute. This is to say that religion is a tool in the politician's bag of tricks (a view, be it noted, which has also been ascribed to Mussolini). But religion must not be dragged into politics for temporal ends; that is always thoroughly bad. This last principle is quite in accord with American political thought, though in Hitler's mind it has a very special reference to the German Centre Party.