The Charlotte News

SUNDAY, MARCH 20, 1938

BOOK-PAGE EDITORIAL

Hitler Told the Truth:

The Fanatic Fuehrer

--By W. J. Cash

IT SEEMS to me about time that somebody brought out for consumption in this country and in England a complete translation of "Mein Kampf." There already is an "authorized" translation, of course, going under the name of "My Battle." But it seems to have been pretty thoroughly toned down and emasculated. I haven't read the original, but I have seen here and there freelance translations of various of the suppressed portions, and they were almost incredibly hot stuff.

There would be the difficulty of copyright, of course. But the Heel is such a vain donkey and is currently so inflated with the sense of his star that he could probably be inveigled into consenting now to let everybody read all that he has to say.

Meantime, even the emasculated version ought to be coming in for a great deal more careful conning than it has had. A great many people seem still to lie under the impression that Hitler is a mere opportunitist, who means to grab all he can short of what will mean war and rest content with that. But that is the sheerest nonsense. He is a man as fanatical as was ever Mohammed when he began the march that carried Islam over half the world and once threatened to inundate Europe itself--a fanatic with a very definite program, which he himself tells us about in all candor. The program for which, as he tells us just as candidly, he is prepared to go to any length--the program which he quite frankly expects to involve the world in war.

HE SAID HE WOULD

More than that, he has already taken several of the steps he outlined in the book--exactly in the order he outlined. First, he said he'd remilitarize the Rhineland. He did it, too, and got away with it--though his troops were actually under sealed orders to retreat if the French advanced. Next, he said, he'd build the greatest military machine in Europe. He has just about done that, too. Official figures, indeed, do not give him the largest army on the continent, but somebody discovered the other day that a fourteenth army corps is already in existence, though the official reports mention only twelve. And then, he said, would come--the annexation of Austria. He didn't really mean annexation, everybody agreed. He only meant economic penetration and a certain amount of political influence from Berlin. They found out last week, however, that when he said annexation he meant annexation.

And what does the future call for? the recovery first of the "ancient realms" of Germany and Austria-Hungary. That means Czechoslovakia, Hungary, hunks of Yugoslavia, Rumania, and Poland. After that, he proposes to grab the Ukraine and Russia. And will he let the west off scot-free? Not according to his program. The Netherlands and Belgium are to be absorbed. And then it will be France's turn. One of the original objectives of the German Army in 1914 was the annexation of the northern province of France, with a view to the Channel ports. And that, says, Mr. Hitler, he means to realize in his lifetime. And Alsace-Lorraine? He told France recently that she need have no fear for those provinces. But he did not say that in the book, and his word is notoriously worthless.

AND MUSSO TOO

Another piece of reading which deserves as careful reading as "My Battle" is Mussolini's own statement of what Fascism is and what its aim may be--a quite candid exposition in the Encyclopedia Italiano. That exposition is available in English, but who translated it and who published it I don't now recall.


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