Last week Germany’s economic planners dishedup a heaping spoonful of disappointment to the ever hopeful German people. Just as the Strength Through Joy automobile, for which Germanshad paid installments for nearly two years against indefinite futuredelivery, was junked in favor of the less joyful tank and airplane, solast week was scrapped a grandiose plan for old-age pensions. AdolfHitler gave Dr. Robert Ley, head of the Labor Front, administration ofthe pension plan as a present on Dr. Ley’s 50th birthday last February.Last week Dr. Ley let it be known that the plan would be shelved untilafter the war.
Lest the German people should become worried about their decliningyears, Dr. Ley assured them that victory would more than make up for wartime’shardships —rationing, shortages, forfeited automobiles, postponedpensions. “The plutocracies,” wrote confident Dr. Ley,”will pay for all that!”