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AS WE GO MARCHING by John T. Flynn

AS WE GO MARCHING

By

Pub Date: Feb. 4th, 1943
Publisher: Doubleday, Doran

One can know in advance pretty much the line John Flynn (author of Country Squire in the White House) will take in any book dealing with the elements of fascism. Heat for the anti-administration forces, as he proves to his own -- and their --satisfaction that the elements of fascism are not indigenous to any one country, that total-itarianism dictatorship, are just two elements of a type of society and governments. Using Italy, then Germany, as subjects for analysis, he traces the collapse of economy, of social and political institutions opened the way for an opportunistic leader who introduced a program of heavy spending, syndicalism, militarism to sap up unemployment, imperialism to justify the militarism. The crime -- he points out -- was not fascism but aggression. Most of the elements are found in the United States today: -- heavy government spending, the development of syndicalism, militarism, imperialism, the last mile of totalitarianism in the New Dealers' demands for increased power for the executive. He concludes that we have been moving away from free enterprise and constitutional government. Towards Fascism--Anyone thoroughly conversant with the fasts of history in Italy and Germany can find many flaws in his arguments, historically and factually speaking. One might even recommend that he read Konrad Heiden's Der Fauhrer, on its publication, for a closeup picture of the development of Nazism, by someone who cannot be tagged with the New Deal label.