THE PEOPLE'S CENTURY
299
that he was a Nazi at home. The trouble with him was that he
would not stay at home."] By implication, Mr. Eden indicated
that Russia was determined to retain her form of government but
would not try to spread it over the world."
(N. Y. Times,
Jan. 5)
2.
On this shaky ideological foundation Wallace rears a shining
vision of the (Naziless) future. It is ,this vision which has made
his speech so powerfully attractive to the liberals. He quotes his
"half-serious" remark to Madame Litvinoff: " The object of this
war is to make sure that everybody in the world has the privilege
of drinking a quart of milk a day." ("Yes, even a pint," cautiously
amends the wife of the Soviet Ambassador.) Or, in more grandiose
terms:
The people are on the march toward even fuller freedom
than the most fortunate peoples of the world have hitherto en–
joyed.... The peace must mean a better standard of living for
the common man, not merely in the United States and England,
but also in India, Russia, China and Latin America-not merely
in the United States, but also in Germany and Italy and Japan.
. . . No nation will have the God-given right to exploit other
nations.... Those who write the peace must think of the whole
wo rld. There can be no privileged peoples.
These are heart-warming words. (Though one recalls that
another idealist, General Smuts, wrote in 1918: "There is no
doubt that mankind is once more on the move.... The tents have
been struck and the great caravan of humanity is once more on
the march.") There is no question but that Wallace's speech is
the most exhilirating variation yet played on what has significantly
become the major theme of war-aims propaganda
on both sides of
this
war:
the promise of a world-wide economic reconstruction
which will give the masses that social security they have so con–
spicuously lacked under capitalism.
"Two years ago," Dr. Goebbels complained recently, "the
Allied slogans called for the defeat of Reichsfuhrer Hitler and his
regime so that world democracy might be saved, but now there is
scarcely a newspaper in the United States or Britain that is not
propagating with holy zeal an equitable world order and a just
distribution of raw materials as against plutocratic exploitation
and imperialistic power politics."
(N. Y. Times,
May 30) Goeb–
bels also charged that the Anglo-American leaders are "stealing
National Socialist thunder." Hitler's use of propaganda was as
skillful and daring as his use of other war weapons, and the
