Changes

by Ralph Raico, Future of Freedom Foundation, February 2001.  </ref> of the ‘first New Deal’ (roughly, 1933–34),” said, “I find Italy doing many of the things which seem to me necessary…. Mussolini certainly has the same people opposed to him as FDR has. But he has the press controlled so that they cannot scream lies at him daily.”<ref>Jonah Goldberg, ‘’[http://books.google.com/books?id=wHihWKJE3asC Liberal Fascism: the Secret History of the American Left, from Mussolini to the Politics of Meaning] (Random House, Inc., 2008) ISBN 0385511841, p.156</ref>

by Ralph Raico, Future of Freedom Foundation, February 2001.  </ref> of the ‘first New Deal’ (roughly, 1933–34),” said, “I find Italy doing many of the things which seem to me necessary…. Mussolini certainly has the same people opposed to him as FDR has. But he has the press controlled so that they cannot scream lies at him daily.”<ref>Jonah Goldberg, ‘’[http://books.google.com/books?id=wHihWKJE3asC Liberal Fascism: the Secret History of the American Left, from Mussolini to the Politics of Meaning] (Random House, Inc., 2008) ISBN 0385511841, p.156</ref>

As head of the NRA and thus “FDR’s leading bureaucrat,”<ref>http://www.arlingtoncemetery.net/hsjohnson.htm</ref> the President appointed<ref>http://www.condenaststore.com/VanityFair/ProdDetail.aspx?prodId=19968</ref> General Hugh Johnson, who was granted “almost unlimited powers over industry.” <ref>http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=FB0716FC3E5F1A7A93CBA8178ED85F478385F9</ref> According to economist Thayer Watkins (who  teaches economic history<ref>http://www.sjsu.edu/depts/economics/faculty/thayer.htm</ref> at California’s San José State University), Johnson was “an admirer of Mussolini’s National Corporatist system<ref>http://www.sjsu.edu/faculty/watkins/corporatism.htm</ref> in Italy and he drew upon the Italian experience in formulating the [[New Deal]].” Walker F. Todd, research fellow at the American Institute for Economic Research, agrees that Johnson “did admire greatly what Mussolini appeared to have done,” and identifies the NRA as a “thoroughly corporativist” <ref>http://www.aei.org/docLib/Todd%20-%20The%20Federal%20Reserve%20Board%20and%20the%20Rise%20of%20the%20Corporate%20State.pdf</ref> idea.

As head of the NRA and thus “FDR’s leading bureaucrat,”<ref>[http://www.arlingtoncemetery.net/hsjohnson.htm Hugh Samuel Johnson],

Arlington National Cemetary Website.</ref> the President appointed<ref>http://www.condenaststore.com/VanityFair/ProdDetail.aspx?prodId=19968</ref> General Hugh Johnson, who was granted “almost unlimited powers over industry.” <ref>http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=FB0716FC3E5F1A7A93CBA8178ED85F478385F9</ref> According to economist Thayer Watkins (who  teaches economic history<ref>http://www.sjsu.edu/depts/economics/faculty/thayer.htm</ref> at California’s San José State University), Johnson was “an admirer of Mussolini’s National Corporatist system<ref>http://www.sjsu.edu/faculty/watkins/corporatism.htm</ref> in Italy and he drew upon the Italian experience in formulating the [[New Deal]].” Walker F. Todd, research fellow at the American Institute for Economic Research, agrees that Johnson “did admire greatly what Mussolini appeared to have done,” and identifies the NRA as a “thoroughly corporativist” <ref>http://www.aei.org/docLib/Todd%20-%20The%20Federal%20Reserve%20Board%20and%20the%20Rise%20of%20the%20Corporate%20State.pdf</ref> idea.

Johnson was said to carry around with him a copy of Raffaello Viglione’s pro-Mussolini book,<ref>http://www.econlib.org/library/Enc/Fascism.html</ref> ''The Corporate State''<ref>‘’http://books.google.com/books?id=vIJQHAAACAAJ</ref>, even presenting a copy to Secretary of Labor [[Frances Perkins]].<ref>Frances Perkins, ‘’[http://books.google.com/books?id=AIEhAAAAMAAJ The Roosevelt I Knew]’’ (The Viking press, 1946) p. 206. Socialist (Kent Worcester, ‘’[http://books.google.com/books?id=TwTTArAPWswC C.L.R. James: A Political Biography]’’ [SUNY Press, 1995] ISBN 079142751X, p. 175) George Rawich wrote that Perkins told him Johnson gave each member of the Cabinet a book by [http://www.marxists.org/archive/rawick/1969/xx/self.html Fascist theoretician Giovanni Gentile], “and we all read it with great care.” Schivelbusch suggests the book was actually [http://www.lewrockwell.com/dilorenzo/dilorenzo172.html Mussolini advisor] Fausto Pitigliani’s ‘’The Italian Corporativist State.’’ (‘’Three New Deals’’, p. 203, n. 28)</ref> In his 1934 retirement speech, he invoked what he called the “shining name” of Mussolini.<ref>Arthur Meier Schlesinger, ‘’[http://books.google.com/books?id=mj3VmJ38tHIC The coming of the New Deal, 1933-1935]’’ (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2003) ISBN 0618340866, p. 153</ref> According to Jonah Goldberg, Johnson displayed a portrait of ‘’Il Duce’’ in his NRA office and actually “distributed a memo at the Democratic Convention proposing that FDR become a Mussolini-like dictator.”<ref>http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=Mjc0ZmFlMDFiNDJkODdjYjE3NDY5OGVlY2JiZWRmNjM= </ref>

Johnson was said to carry around with him a copy of Raffaello Viglione’s pro-Mussolini book,<ref>http://www.econlib.org/library/Enc/Fascism.html</ref> ''The Corporate State''<ref>‘’http://books.google.com/books?id=vIJQHAAACAAJ</ref>, even presenting a copy to Secretary of Labor [[Frances Perkins]].<ref>Frances Perkins, ‘’[http://books.google.com/books?id=AIEhAAAAMAAJ The Roosevelt I Knew]’’ (The Viking press, 1946) p. 206. Socialist (Kent Worcester, ‘’[http://books.google.com/books?id=TwTTArAPWswC C.L.R. James: A Political Biography]’’ [SUNY Press, 1995] ISBN 079142751X, p. 175) George Rawich wrote that Perkins told him Johnson gave each member of the Cabinet a book by [http://www.marxists.org/archive/rawick/1969/xx/self.html Fascist theoretician Giovanni Gentile], “and we all read it with great care.” Schivelbusch suggests the book was actually [http://www.lewrockwell.com/dilorenzo/dilorenzo172.html Mussolini advisor] Fausto Pitigliani’s ‘’The Italian Corporativist State.’’ (‘’Three New Deals’’, p. 203, n. 28)</ref> In his 1934 retirement speech, he invoked what he called the “shining name” of Mussolini.<ref>Arthur Meier Schlesinger, ‘’[http://books.google.com/books?id=mj3VmJ38tHIC The coming of the New Deal, 1933-1935]’’ (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2003) ISBN 0618340866, p. 153</ref> According to Jonah Goldberg, Johnson displayed a portrait of ‘’Il Duce’’ in his NRA office and actually “distributed a memo at the Democratic Convention proposing that FDR become a Mussolini-like dictator.”<ref>http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=Mjc0ZmFlMDFiNDJkODdjYjE3NDY5OGVlY2JiZWRmNjM= </ref>