THE "NEW ORDER"
299
policy is to a larger extent used politically rather than economi–
cally; that syndicates, corporations, conventions are now enforced
by governmental decree when previously they were established by
both consent and force; the fact that non-profitable enterprises are
now operated whereas, previously, unprofitable industries were
state-supported; all this and more does not indicate the ascendancy
of a new economic system. All this indicates is that the distribu.
tion of the surplus products appropriated from the workers has
changed once again as it always has throughout capitalist develop–
ment.
The differences between state controls in the various nations
are differences only in degree.
12
Further development in this direc–
tion will make all capitalist nations once more look alike as they
appeared to look during the hey-day of liberalism because nobody
~ared
to look closer. The difference between the German Four
Year Plan and the American armament program is the difference
between an early start and a belated reaction to current war needs.
The new government-financed enterprises in the U. S. for air·craft,
aluminum, magnesium, steel and synthetic rubber production differ
from the
Goering Reichswerke
only in size. In the "war of produc–
tion" now waged, the difference of size will disappear or even shift
in
favor of the "democracies."
If
private property, private initia–
tive, the profit motive and economic competition still exist in Amer–
ica, so do they exist in Germany. In the latter nation, it is true,
they exist only by virtue of government support and toleration;
but the development in America shows clearly that here, too, pri–
vate property and all that goes with it become increasingly sub–
ordinated to the needs of government. The war which hastens this
development is not a "state of emergency" that will disappear as
soon as peace breaks out. It is the outcome of the previous "peace";
the structural changes it brings about are based just as much on
previous events as on the war itself.
The fact that the capitalist market contracts until nothing is
left but the buying and selling of labor power does not transform
.UFor a good description of this see Monograph No. 40 of the Temporary National
Economic Committee,
Regulation of Economic Activities
in
Foreign Countries.
For
capital concentration and monopoly control and related questions see
The Structure
of the American Economy
of the National Resources Committee. Also the respective
Monographs of the "Investigation of Concentration of Economic Power" by the
T.N.E.C.
