Winston Churchill Quotes

Churchill detested Attlee both personally and for his political philosophy which was left wing especially favoring government nationalization of all large industry and business. Churchill walked into the very large men’s room and saw Attlee at a urinal and one end. Churchill, setting Attlee up, walked all the way to the other end of the row of urinals and began to use one there. Attlee commented that Churchill was appearing very standoffish to be urinating so far away. Churchill, then let loose with this repartee. See {620650} for another put down of Attlee.

1st Viscount Snowden. Nationalization is when a nation or state determines that certain industries of areas of the economy should be reserved for the government to operate. Private companies, if they have been operating a nationalized industry losse their rights to continue in that business and may even lose their physica assets in which case th form is supposed to be paid a fair price. In 21st century America we have very few nationalized industries. One of these is the manufacture of nuclear weapons. Communist counties have many if not most of the economy nationalized. From the 19th century socialism has evolved from a belief that most people will best be served by nationalization of most of th major economic functions. However, over time this did not meet Socialism’s other objectives and nationalism became less popular with socialists. Snowden, a leading socialist, wanted to get rid of the concept entirely, and today there are very few situations where there are calls for nationalis. Even the few remaining communist nations are privatizing (the opposite of nationalizing) some of their economy.

The first part of this quotation has defined the attitude of most Americans towards private enterprise and government since then. The second part of the quotation—the undesirability of public ownership of railroads has given way to the modern problem that no passenger railroad can be operated profitably by anyone—private or public. So Roosevelt’s “far-reaching disaster” was finally complete with the Federal Government taking over responsibility for Amtrack.

This is a very interesting quotation in that right wing parties are usually opposed to any kind of Government ownership and control of business and industry. However, Fascist parties have usually wanted to commandeer business and industry for the central purposes of the dictatorial state. The French National Front Party had its roots in the WWII French Vichy Government—which was allied with the Nazis to bring Fascism and racism to France.

Ironically the far right wing Fascists and the far left wing Communists agreed on this point: nationalization.

The founder was Charles E. Coughlin, 1891-1979, a demagogic Catholic Priest who drafted the principles and invited others to join him. Hundreds of thousands did in this organization which began in idealism, and ended in scandal and hate mongering, so much so that Father Coughlin was ordered off the radio and out of politics by the Catholic Church. The National Union in 1936 had morphed into the Union Party which ran Presidential candidates in the 1936 election. The Coughlin and the Union were a mixture of Fascist and Socialist principles. The prohibition of private ownership of banks and utilities was one of the radical socialist notions.

Von Mises was one of the few right wing conservatives who would admit that private business could not operate government functions well. It was the very nature of government service and operation which makes its operation inimical to profit making business practices and methods.

This rigid view left no room for regulation which is what almost every modern industrial democracy has chosen. To some of his extremist followers, any government regulation of business or the economy whatsoever, regardless of how little, means that the nation has embraced socialism. It is in this sense that many extreme right wingers viewed Presidents like Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Harry Truman, John Kennedy, Bill Clinton, and Barack Obama as socialists while they saw themselves as opponents of socialism.