SEP TE MB ER 7, 1 9 5 3 ~~ ~

Will Taft-Hartley Be Scuttled? Theodore R. Iserman lowitt's "Objectivity" C. Dickerman Williams

Germany: Key to Europe W. H. Chamberlin

Portrait of a Fellow-Traveler James Burnham

Time for Disentanglement An Editorial

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~~uuo.~ Watch the railroads Go ... on TIMIEN& tlAo....m .. Tapered Roller Bearings THE d Fortnightly Our Contributors For THEODORE R. ISERMAN has worked and written Individualists extensively in the field of labor relations. As reeman a lawyer, he has concerned himself particularly with OUI; federal labor law and is the author of Editor HENRY HAZLITT two books on the subject, Industrial Peace and Managing Editor FLORENCE NORTON the Wagner Act and Changes to Jl!Iake in Taft­ Hartley, the latter published in June.

C. DICKERMAN WILLIAMS began his career in law as secretary to the late Chief Justice William Howard Taft. He was subsequently a VIOL. 3, No. 25 8EPTiEMBER 7, 1953 special assistant to the U. S. Attorney General Contents and more recently General Counsel for the Department of Commerce.

Editorials Back in the early 1940's ALICE-LEONE MOATS created considerable cOlnmotion as well as a The Fortnight...... 871 sensation when, in the course of her travels Time for Disentanglement...... 873 as a war correspondent, she went to Soviet Central American Yenan 874 Russia and did not see or report that country Facts About UNESCO...... 875 and its rulers through the rose-colored spec­ tacles so fashionable those days. She later wrote Did We Win the VVrong War? 876 of her wartime experiences in Blind Date with Mars. A more recent 'book A V'iolent In,nocence, Articles published in 1951, tells of her amazing and un­ conventional childhood in revolutionary Mexico. Will Taft-Hartley Be Scuttled? THEODORE R. ISERMAN 877 Lord Jowitt's "Objectivity" C. DICKERMAN WILLIAMS 881 R. G. WALDECK, our roving epistolarian, has been Letters from Europe spending the mOl).th of August in Germany. A 1. How London Sees America..ALICE-LEONE MOATS 885 note that reached us today says she will take off soon for Austria and promises an early 2. 'Adenauer on Vacation R. G. WALDECK 887 "Letter" on that country. Germany: Key to Europe ..WILLIAM HENRY CHAMBERLIN 888 Is Laughter a Weapon? TIM TAYLOR 891 In his report from Frankfurt in this issue on the current political situation in West Germany, WILLIAM HENRY CHAMBERLIN rounds out the Books and the Arts two-part description of pre-election Germany be­ Portrait of a F'ellow-Traveler JAMES BURNHAM 892 gun in our August 24 issue with Wilhelm Ropke's analysis of its economic position. Story with a MoraL ANATOLE SHUB 894 In the Money JOHN VERNON TABERNER 895 TIM TAYLOR is a free-lance feature writer and A Poet Gone Astray. ~ E. MERRILL ROOT 896 columnist, resident in Manhattan. Briefer Mention...... 897 The Straw Hat Circuit SERGE FLIEGERS 898 ANATOLE SRUB is an associate editor of the New Leader.

Poems E. MERRILL ROOT, poet and critic, is a professor On a Hilltop K. WHARTON STURGES 887 of English at Earlham College in Indiana. Garden of Eden LOUISE TOWNSEND NICHOLL 891 In Our Next Issue From Our Readers...... 868 C. Dickerman Williams, who with this number makes his first appearance in the FREEMAN, will be represented again in our September 21 issue when he will cast his legal eye on the highly THE 'FREEMAN is published fortnightly. Publication Office, Orange, Conn. Editorial and controversials'ubject of Congressional commit­ General Offices, 240 Madison Avenue, New York 16, N. Y. Copyrighted in the United States, 1953, by the Freeman Magazine, Inc. Henry Hazlitt, President; Lawrence tees. Are Congressional investigations the abom­ Fertig, Vice President; Claude Robinson. Secretary; Kurt Lassen, Treasurer. ination upon the land inany latter-day critics Entered as second class matter at the Post Office at Orange, Conn. Rates: Twenty-five proclaim them to be? In his article Mr. Williams c~nts the copy; five dollars a year in the United States; nine dollars for two years; SIX dollars a year elsewhere. will discuss this and a number of related ques­ The editors cannot be responsible for unsolicited manuscripts unless retl1rn postage or tions and, furthermore, come up with the bdetter, a stamped, self-addressed envelope is enclosed. Manuscripts must be typed ouble-spaced. answers to them. Articles signed with a name, pseudonym, or initials do not necessarily represent the New European writers will be the subject opinion of the editors, either as to substance or style. of James Burnham's survey of the literary ~ 11 Printed in U.S.A., by Wilson H. Lee Co., Orange, Connecticut. scene in our Septemher 21 book section. ., II FROM OUR READERS II Why Don't F,rom a Former Senator I have found the FREEMAN a most stim­ You ulating journal and an excellent anti­ dote to much of the left-wing propa­ ganda that seems to frequent the columns of all too many publications Safeguard in these unsettled times. While it some­ times seems a voice crying in the night, I have a profound faith that your penetrating analyses of the pass­ America's ing scene are serving a great purpose in mobilizing the minute men and women of America who will sup,port a righteous government and serve well Future the cause of American freedom. Washington, D. C. OWEN BREWSTER

Fluorida,tion of Walter Supplies The whole problem of fluoridation is still very much in question. The ar­ ticle by James .Rorty in the FREEMAN of June 29, 1953, presented a very fair and honest appraisal of the situa­ tion. I think the best evidence ... is that foreign countries such as Switzerland have committees working upon the action and have come to no decisions thus far. This means that there is much question about the whole procedure and its effect upon people. America's :rowth, from thirteen proved to be an effective tool of bu­ In time these foreign countries that straggling colonies to its present reaucratic control of the people, and stature, has been inspired by individ­ has never been a bandoned - even have bad teeth justa,s we do, and ual independence and initiative. Faith though we have two-thirds of the very often fewer dentists, will take in .the. future was justified because world's gold-an 11% reserve against action if they feel it is justified and the people had a common denomi­ currency and bank deposits. safe. Therefore, I believe we should nator by which to measure success­ American industry, struggling under not only keep our eye upon the evi~ a gold dollar of known and stable the handicaps of inflation and depre­ dence here at home, but also watch the value. ciating dollars, has achieved remark­ actions of other nations. America,ns have always been a sound able increases in productivity. As an c. M. MCCAY money people. They repudiated the example, Kennametal-as a tool ma­ Professor of Nutrition, heresy of "free silver" in 1896. They terial - has tripled the output of Ithaca, N. Y. Cornell University neither sought nor sanctioned the metal-working industries. This pro­ seizure of their gold or the govern­ ductivity has only partially disguised ment's departure from a redeemable the.effects of the dollar's shrinkage. Truly Libertarian gold standard in 1933. It was accom­ Fortunately, the new Federal admin­ A big "Hurrah!" for Ludwig von plished by executive order and later istration is committed to the princi­ Mises' exceptionally fine article on the legalized by a subservient and pan­ ple of a Gold Coin Standard.* The return to the gold standard [July 13]. icky Congress. President, his most important mone­ Keep up your thought-provoking and The government asserted that it was tary advisors, and members of the stimulating crusade as the true liber­ a temporary, emergency measure. It Senate and the House have declared tarian publication of our time. themselves. Then, why delay? Fort Wayne, Ind. LUCILLE L. ZINK We owe it to ourselves and to our Excerpt from Republican children to restore soundness and sta­ "Monetary Policy" Plank bility to our money system. Only on What to Call Yourself this basis can individuals, and indus­ If Mr. Max E,astman is still looking try-of which Kennametal Inc. is a for a meaningful name for . . . a key enterprise-plan intelligently for group of real Americans ["What to the future. Call Yourself," August 24] he has not We must resume without devaluation *The right to redeem far to go to find it~ He can shortcut currency for gold will or delay. help keep America his "etymological atrocities," such as One of 0 series of advertisements published in the public free .•• ask your Sen­ "scientific liberalism." ators and Congress­ interest by man to work and vote Th~ name is Constitutionalist. It is to restore the Gold Coin StCllOdord. Write a name to be proud of: an appellation to The Gold Stand­ which any right-thinking person ... ard league, latrobe, Po., fot' further infor­ should treasure. As to persons outside mation. The teague is an association of pa­ our country who don't like Constitu­ triotic citizens joined tionalists, a good name for most of in the COmmon cause WORLD'S LARGEST Independent Manufacturer Whose Facilities are of restoring a sound' Devoted Exclusively to Processing and Application of CEMENTED CARBIDES them would be "gangsters." monetary system. Chicago, Ill. HARLEY L. CLARKE take one part: scrap

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France cannot keep a government for more than The Fortnight a few months or weeks. The French franc is down to 4 per cent of its prewar value and still sliding. The preposterous position in which we now find About as many Frenchmen vote Communist as ourselves in the United Nations is the direct re­ before Marshall Aid began. And it has now been sult of the childish fictions and slogans on which proved that no French premier can dare to take we have operated in foreign affairs since the end the steps that are absolutely necessary to restore of World War Two. It was we ourselves (i.e., the sanity and solvency without facing paralyzing Truman-Acheson clique) who pretended that when strikes from unions of every political color. Yet we jumped into a war in Korea and did nineteen­ President Eisenhower is planning to spend this twentieths of the fighting and dying it was the year on foreign aid the huge sum of$6,652,000,000, "United Nations" that was carrying the fight. So and he has implied in a message to Congress that now our United Nations "allies," exploiting this foreign aid must continue indefinitely. fiction by solemnly talking and acting as if it were true, insist that the United Nations, and We wish we could see hope of substantial im­ not the United States, must discuss and decide provement in the new seventeen-member Commis­ the terms of a Korean settlement. sion on Foreign Economic Policy. But this com­ mission is. not to report to Congress until next The U.N., for example, is to decide whether India, year, when we will have already thrown away which never lifted a finger in the conflict, should pointlessly billions more of our substance, in­ have an equal voice in the settlement terms; and creasing our debt, unbalancing our budget, and whether the conference should be divided into continuing inflation in order to do it. And the "two sides," which our U.N. allies think deplor­ record of some members of the commission makes able, or whether it should be a "round-table" it more than probable that they will advocate discussion, which they regard as so much nobler. still more foreign giveaway programs. No doubt They did not object to a two-sided rather than they will also advocate the reduction of barriers a round-table war, of course, as long as the United to foreign trade, which is highly desirable. But States was carrying nineteen-twentieths of the the nations that need that lesson most today are burden of that war for them. They wish to treat the recipients of our aid, who still insist on ex­ our 140,000 casualties, in short, as if they never change control and discriminations against Ameri­ existed. How long, to be blunt about it, is Uncle can goods. So far we have never shown any Sam going to be the world's sucker, the fall guy, disposition to do anything about this except, at the patsy? Just so long, apparently, as our Wash­ worst, to deplore it verbally while continuing to ington bureaucrats regard this as the "states­ subsidize the nations that practice it. manlike" role for us to play. It is not yet possible to sift the clear truth from Which brings us to the foreign aid program. Noth­ the infinitely distressing reports about what hap­ ing has more completely demonstrated the futility pened to the American prisoners in the camps of that program than what has been happening of North Korea. We hope that there will be no in France. From 1948 to early this year, France off-the-cuff conclusions or improvised disciplinary has received over $10,000,000,000 in economic and measures. A careful and sensitive investigation military aid from us, which is more than that is urgently needed. It is plain that there is no turned over to any other country. The declared precedent in our history for what went on. The purpose of this aid was to make France economi­ Communist methods, physical and psychological, cally and politically stable, to reduce or nullify succeeded in turning not simply a few individuals the influence of the Communists there, and to but whole groups of young Americans against build the country into a firm and dependable ally. each other. Some were indoctrinated ideologically, Not one of these purposes has been achieved. and became what the prisoners called "progres-

SEPTEMBER 7, 1953 871 sives." Others were transformed into demoralized Giuseppe Saragat's swing toward Moscow is not "rats"-spies and provocateurs for the enemy. an exception in the recent European picture. In Until we know more, we must go slow in judging many nations the Socialists have begun dancing just why and how these things came about. One a few slteps to the Popular Front tune that the thing is certain,.however: that our soldiers were Communists have begun to revive a la 1936. In sent into the Korean war intellectually and mor­ the German election campaign, Eric Ollenhauer, ally unprepared. They were given no help to the Social Democratic leader, attacked Adenauer understand the nature of the enemy, or the mean­ for rebuffing and provoking the Soviet Union. ing and objective of the war which they were The British Labor Party demands full Soviet called upon to fight. This unpreparedness-no less rights in all matters concerning Korea. The vital than if they had been sent without military French Socialists, perhaps without intending it, training-undoubtedly was a factor that made found themselves sucked into the Communist some of them more malleable subjects for the stream during the general strike movements. This brainwashing, starvation, and terror of the behavior, which only repea1ts what Socialists have Communists. often done before, from prewar France to postwar Czechoslovakia, raises in a special form the criti­ Whatever may be thought of the A.F.L. attitude cal question: who are our true allies? on domestic economic issues, its persistent anti­ Communist activities abroad deserve the good will In this issue we publish an article by C. Dicker­ of all friends of freedom. The new President of man Williams on the legal aspects of the Earl the A.F.L., George Meany, remarked recently in Jowitt's book, The Strange Case of Alger Hiss. England that appeasement is just as distasteful Speaking for ourselves, at least one sentence in with a big cigar as with an umbrella. The A.F.L. that book seems to deserve some sort of immor­ representative in Europe, Irving Brown, has been tality. After laying great emphasis on the fact one of the most tireless anti"'Communists in Europe, that Hiss was well thought of by the fashion­ trying to plug up weak spots in the European labor able leftists before the trial, the Earl Jowitt movement, and bringing to the struggle against asks: "Is it to be seriously suggested that the Communism a well-informed mind and a fighting burden of proof should be precisely the same heart. The A.F.L. behavior toward Yugoslavia could in the case of a man of proved integrity, as lit serve as a corrective model for some of our diplo­ would be in the case of an unmitigated rascal?" mats and pUblicists. As American citizens the Surely this rhetorical question ought to be em­ A.F.L. leaders support material aid to Tito as a bodied in every future book on logic or jurispru­ barrier against Soviet imperial Communism. As dence as a classical illustration of what is meant free trade unionists they refuse to deal with the by bias, partiality, and the fallacy of petitio Yugoslav trade unions so long as these organiza­ principii, or begging the question-"the fallacy tions are stooges of a dictatorial government. in which that which is to be proved is implicitly taken for granted." Nevertheless, it might be advisable for the A.F.L. abroad to stick a little closer to the trade·, unions, If, as the Earl J owitt assumes, we already know and to stop its occasional tendency to run a foreign before a trial opens, or before the evidence is office of its own. Its interventions in North Africa in, that the accused is a man of "proved in­ in favor of extreme and irresponsible local na­ tegrity," then the judge and jury can obviously tionalist groups have injured our relations with save time by refusing to listen to any evidence France and aggravated the troubles of the Penta-:­ against him at all. For how can a man of "proved gon, without visible benefit to the peoples of North integrity" lack integrity? If we assume that we Africa. Its apparent assumption that "Socialists" already know, on the other hand, before the trial always make good allies against Moscow needs a and before the evidence is in, that the accused little more precise examination. We recommend is an "unmitigated rascal," then perhaps we can that Irving Brown study the last month's news again save time by refusing to attach any weight reports from Italy. The right-wing Socialist, to any evidence in his favor. To accept the Earl Giuseppe Saragat, repeatedly blocked the attempts J owitt's implied principle would be to reject the of the Christian Democratic friends of NATO modern principle of equality before the law, and the West to form a workable cabinet. Saragat ·which means among other things the equal ap.;. stated that he would support only a government plication of rules of evidence to everybody. The which would have the approval of Pietro Nenni's EarlJowitt's principle would carry us back to left-wing Socialists, who, as is well known, are medieval jurisprudence, when the word of a the faithful allies of Moscow. Saragat and his serf was not to be compared with the word of party have been recipients of much aid and com­ a lord. It adds to the rich irony of the situation fort from the A.F.L. foreign representative and. that this sentence is contained in a book by an it is rumored, from various agents and agencies Englishman to show the inferiority of American of the U. S. government. criminal procedure to that developed in England.

872 THE FREEMAN Time for Disentanglement

"Why, by interweaving our destiny with that of But our United Nations allies had a great any part of· Europe, entangle our peace and pros­ deal more than one-twentieth to say about the perity in the toils of European ambition, rival­ military strategy of the war. If some of our own ship, interest, humor or caprice? ... 'Tis our leaders are to be believed, it was these allies true policy to steer clear of permanent alliances, who vetoed any effort for victory. And now that with any portion of the foreign world." we have secured a humiliating and uneasy truce, So declared George Washington in his Farewell we are given to understand that we are not going Address. But over the last generation we have to have too much to say about the terms of not only neglected his advice; we have been busy settlement. These will be largely discussed and explaining it away, or even deriding it. It is determined not only by fourteen·"allies" who not merely that we are now so fond of pointing assumed one-twentieth of the burden of battle, out the purely physical facts that the airplane but, some of them suggest, by nations which as­ and the atom bomb have transformed all distances sumed no burden whatever. and all perspectives, but that we have reversed all our former ideas of what constitutes wisdom This is a preposterous situation from which we in diplomacy. A day hardly goes by in which we should make it our first business to extricate do not take on more world entanglements and more ourselves. The procedure ought not to be too world commitments. Anyone who raises the slight­ complicated. We should insist that no nation est question about the results or the trend of that failed to contribute to the war should have this policy is denounced as an "isolationist." It anything to say about the conditions of an arm­ is considered a sufficient reply to him to point istice or of a settlement; and that those who have out that America cannot live to itself alone, or contributed to the war should have a voice only that we need this or that import from abroad, in proportion to their contribution. Next we or that it is a good thing to have allies-or some should call upon all our allies in the Korean war other such truism that no sel'!ious person disputes. to man the truce lines in Korea, by contributing It is completely forgotten that it is not alliances now troops in proportion to their population. To per se that our first Presid~nt warned against, these nations we can point out that we threw our but entangling alliances. As a result, we now have forces into Korea on the assumption that the entanglements without 'allies. United Nations meant something; that whatever How did we get into our present unrealistic temporary arrangement it may be necessary to and absurd "foreign policy"? Mainly by trying make about financing the war in Korea or any­ to please our friends, instead of thinking out a where else, we do not consider American lives foreign policy for ourselves. We were told by more expendable than other lives, and that if Europeans, and by some of our own more emo­ our allies really wish the United Nations to be tional leaders, that we must assume something a fighting organization for punishing aggressors, called "world leadership" and "world responsi­ no other formula but that of a proportional con­ bilities." These phrases have turned out to mean tribution of manpower is either just or workable. that we are supposed to support the rest of the If our allies reject this proposal (as most of world in the style to which it wishes to become them probably will) then we can point out to them accustomed, to guarantee it against attack, to in a polite and friendly way that however pleas­ pay for at least part of its defense, to do most of ant it was on sentimental grounds to have them the fighting and dying in its 'wars, and to let as token allies, the military value of their token somebody else decide what the terms of settle­ contribution has certainly not been great enough ment should be. to make it worth our while, in exchange, to con­ Anyone who thinks this is a cal"icature need tinue to surrender our independence of policy merely examine our present situation in rela­ and action. For it is intolerable that we should tion to Korea. We blundered into a land war not be free to decide ourselves what to accept or there through a series of errors and fictions. reject in a peace conference, or whether or not President Truman was able to bypass Congress, to bomb beyond the Yalu in the event of a re­ which has the sole power to declare 'war, through sumption of hostilities, except with the consent of the fiction that the "United Nations" had under­ allies who have borne or will bear a negligible part taken a "police action" in Korea. The "police of the burden of the war. action" turned out to be a three-year war which If our allies reject the proposal of a contribu­ cost us 140,000 casualties. The "United Nations," tion of manpower proportionate to population, it so far as nineteen-twentieths of the fighting and is they and not we who will take the responsibility dying were concerned, turned out to be ourselves. of announcing in effect that they do not regard

SEPTEMBER 7, 1953 873 the United Nations either as a military alliance interfere lin your affairs or tell you what to do." or as a suitable or workable instrument for pun­ . There is still time to follow such a policy. It ishing aggressors. will mean the termination of our economic aid But disentanglement would only begin here. and arms aid programs, which seem to have Our next step must be to re-examine, not the earned us only ill-will. As the example of France principle of a military alliance with the free so outstandingly proves, .our aid has been com­ nations of Europe, which we must wholeheartedly pletely futile in trying to prop up a country that accept, but the particular kind of alliance that does not wish to take the measures necessary for we have in fact set up in NATO. The kind of its own recovery. There is more than one indica­ alliances in which we should enter are those in tion, in fact, that it is precisely our aid program which we pledge ourselves (in return for a re­ that has delayed the self-reform and the self­ ciprocal pledge) to come to the aid of any nation defense that is Europe's only hope for survival. that is attacked or invaded by the Iron Curtain countries if that nation itself resists the attack or invasion by force. The best form of such a pledge, not only from our standpoint but that of Central American Yenan Europe itself, is one that is made conditional on the making and fulfillment of such a pledge by There has been little public recognition of the other European nations. Neville Chamberlain's seriousness of what is happening in ,Guatemala. guarantee to Poland was so futile because he had If the present trend is not soon reversed, we never considered how it could be made militarily shall wake up one morning with an American effective in the event of Russian neutrality or "Yenan" solidly established inside our primary hostility, in addition to German hostility. strategic frontier. None of this means, of course, that we need to The 'Guatemalan President, Jacobo Arhenz Guz­ give military or financial aid now to those who man, is not himself -a Communist, so far as is may possibly (but not certainly) be our allies in known, but he is a willing tool of the Communists. the event of ,a war. It makes no sense to export Politically his regime is based on the Communists, our manpower now to nations that collectively vvho, using the name of "Labor Party," are now have far more manpower than ourselves. It makes the dominant organized political group in the no sense to pour our military supplies into a country. Colonel Arbenz is faithfully administer­ Europe that could turn out to be a mere "ware­ ing the Communist program which, under the cover house" for Soviet Russia. The greatest deterrent of standard "anti-imperialist" demagogy, is planned to an attack by the Communists on Europe is to eliminate all anti-Communist organizations and the knowledge of our certain participation in its individuals, and to achieve' by stages absolute defense. It is our immediate use of air power, Communist control of Guatemala. rather than our immediate use of any token man­ 'The analogy with the procedure in China is power, that would really count. It is Europe itself precis-e. The Communist hand is disguised under that must be prepared to meet the first shock of the "agrarian" (Land to the Peasants!) and anti­ an attack wholly with its own land power. If it colonial (Down with Wall Street and the United cannot do this, it is hopelessly lost. Fruit Company!) slogans. 'The name "Communist" One of our fundamental mistakes was our is dropped: just as in China, we're only "peasants" well-meant effort to "assume world leadership." and "agrarian democrats" struggling to get a rod Though European politicians urged us to do this, of land, and to shake off war and imperialist they were not sincere. What they wanted us to exploitation. Meanwhile, Guatemala, like the geo­ do was to implement-i.e., to pay for-the policy graphical area controlled by the early Communist that they' thought we should follow. Our -effort Yenan government in China, is transformed into to decide European policy ourselves, and par­ a regional base from which operations for the ticularly our effort to push Europe into defending subversion of the two Americas can be mounted. itself more than it thinks it needs to, has merely In the July 3, 1953, issue of the official Comin­ been resented, and has led to much of the anti­ form journal, For a Lasting Peace, For a People's American feeling that now exists. Democracy, part of the disguise is dropped. An Our real role in Europe was not to lead there, article by Jose Manuel Fortuny, 'General Secretary but to follow-literally, to offer to "back it up." of the Guatemalan Labor Party, writing frankly What we should have said is something like this. as an agent of the international organization, dis­ "You and we may not agree regarding the extent cusses the Communist outlook, -and refers to "the of the danger of a Soviet attack on you. We'll Party of the Guatemalan Communists." have to leave that to you to decide. But if you Comrade Manuel Fortuny discloses the Com­ fellows will pledge to support each other, we munist aim of smashing the inter-American al­ will pledge to come to your defense in the event liances based on the Treaty of Rio de Janeiro and of any attack which you yourselves decide to the Bogota and Washington Conferences. ("This repel by armed force. Otherwise we won't try to treaty and these decIsions' are directed against the

874 THE FREEMAN interests of the peoples of Latin America.") He is discreetly silent about the central strategic ob­ Facts About UNESCO jectives: using ,Guatemala as abase, the ComIllun­ ists will be in 'a position to sabotage the neighbor­ What about UNESCO-the United Nations Edu­ ing Panama Canal, to cut communications between cational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization­ North and South America, ~nd to undermine the one of the ten specialized agencies of the United U. S. naval and air system in the Caribbean basin. Nations? Is this fledgling organization-which is With this prospect becoming daily more prob­ already reaching into every schoolroom that will able of realization, we have been doing almost admit it-the panacea for all the world's ills? nothing to counteract it, and have indeed hardly One would think so from much of the propaganda paid it serious attention. In spite of all the water put out in its favor. that has flowed under the Chinese bridges during 'Those wanting more and more government con­ the past decade, there are even signs that persons trol of every facet of human life, those who believe in this country, including some in the government, in the welfare state, as distinguished from the are once more being deflected by the "peasant state whose activities are severely limited to those revolution," "anti-colonial" angle. It is surprising functions which are necessary to prevent injury that Dr. Milton Eisenhower has so neglected Guate­ to its citizens, will be enthusiastic champions of mala in his public remarks since returning from UNESCO. On the other hand, those who dis­ his Latin American tour. And nothing very clar­ believe in the welfare state, who want as little ifying has come from IMr. John M. Cabot, the government as possible consistent with the sup­ State Department's current expert on Central pression of all those forces which would injure America, once assigned to the China service, with or pose a threat to the citizens, will just as pas­ no record of having dissented from the John Carter sionately oppose UNESCO. Vincent""Acheson-Lattimore policies. Dr. Luther H. Evans, recently appointed Di­ The situation is by no means hopeless. Strong rector General of UNESCO, says: "The delib­ as the !Communists are, they have not yet con­ erately cultivated misconception that U,N'ESCO is solidated their hold or eliminated all opposition. making propaganda for World Government... Apparently they do not fully control the army. is something we cannot let pass without challenge." Colonel Arbenz is going along with them now, But Milton Eisenhower, as Chairman of the but he seems an opportunist rather than a Mus­ U. S. Commission for UNEiSCO, referred to the covite, and he might quite possibly yield to non­ United Nations, of which UNESCO is a part, Communist pressures if they should be applied. as "our latest attempt to create out of inter­ More important, the remaining nations of Cen­ national anarchy a true World Government." tral America are ready to resist the Guatemala Moreover, the United States Senate Appropria­ drift. On July 10-12, the Organization of Central tions Subcommittee reported to the Senate on Jupe American States (ODECA), which was founded in 26, 1952: "The Subcommittee heard a great deal 1950 by Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Honduras, EI Sal­ of testimony [on UNE!SCO] relative to a very vador, and Guatemala, met without Guatemala, clever propaganda campaign to sell the people and passed a quite remarkable "Resolution of Man­ , of this country, and particularly the school child­ agua." This document is obviously directed against ren, the doctrine of one World Government and the Communist advance in Guatemala, which na­ World Citizenship." turally is a grave threat to these other nations In the second place, Dr. Evans denies that also. It reaffirms hemispheric solidarity, and is UNESOO "is a party to subversive Communistic "justly alarmed by the activities of the agents of schemes." But U. S. News and lVorld Report for international ICommunism." It recommends "mea­ December 12, 1952, reports the presentment to sures designed to prevent, counteract, and penalize the N'ew York Grand Jury of evidence disclosing the subversive activities of the Communist agents." "the infiltration into the United Nations of an The hand of Nicaragua's flashy military ruler, overwhelmingly large group of disloyal United General Anastasio Somoza, is recognizable. But are States citizens-many of whom are closely as­ our liberals once more going to fall for the old sociated with the International Communistic Communist game, and get indignant about Somoza­ Movement-their positions at the time we sub­ Chiang Kai-shek, while the ICommunists go mer­ poenaed them were ones of trust and responsi­ rily ahead? Why was there V1irtually no publicity bility in the United Nations Secretariat and in in our vast press concerning this July meeting its specialized agencies." Now UNESCO is one and this resultant R'esolution ?Why has there been of those specialized agencies. And if the Com­ no word of support from either the State Depart­ munists have infiltrated at least some of the others ment or influential editors for the provislions of and made them parties to "subversive Communis­ the Resolution, which coincide throughout with the tic schemes," it hardly seems likely that they fundamental interests of the United States? Surely 'would have overlooked UNESCO, unquestionably we are not reconciled to Central America's com­ the most important specialized agency of all. pleting the dolorous journey along the Yenan way? Next, Dr. Evans denies that UNESCO "is try-

SEPTEMBER 7, 1953 875 ing to revise our school textbooks." But, in The Now there is no absolute rule as to whether "8" in UNESCO, publ1ished by the Los Angeles wars should or should not 1)e, fought to decisive City School Districts, we read under the heading, conclusions. :The chances ~re that Europe and "Basic Program of UN!EISCO": "The final pro­ the world would have fared better if the First gram adopted by the First Session of the General World War had ended lin 1916 or 1917 on the Conference included the following undertakings: basis of Woodrow Wilson's "peace without victory." ... 2. Plans for a comprehens1ive revision of text­ A treaty conclud~d before the "bitter end" was books and teaching materials .. ." reached, framed in a spirit different from that Lastly, Dr. Evans denies that UNESCO "is "un­ of Versailles, might have averted many evil things: dermining our· sense of national patriotism." But Commun~sm in Russia, Hitler's rise in Germany, the closing paragraph of Volume 5 of Toward perhaps the Second World War. World Understanding, in reporting an interna­ There are other conflicts, such as the American tional seminar under UNESCO auspices, says: Civil War, which, in all probability, had to be "The activity of the school cannot bring about fought to the finish, because the clash of opposing the desired result unless, repudiating every form principles was too clear-cut to admjt of compromise. of nationalism, the policy of the nation itself is It is, therefore, theoretically conceivable that one of international understanding and coopera­ total victory and complete political and military tion." [italics added] destruction of the vanquished was the only ac­ A Gallup poll taken some four years after the ceptable outcome of the Second World War and founding of UNESCO showed that only 1 per that "peace without victory" was the most ac­ cent of the people of this country had ever even ceptable formula for the Korean conflict. But heard of UNESCO. This, said George D. Stod­ there is also the disquieting possibility that the dard, speaking as a member of the UNESCO reverse proposition holds good. We might be much Executive Board, "is not depressing. It means better off if we had not insisted on unconditional that hardly anybody has been turned against it!" surrender in the last war and if we had been willing to settle for nothing less than decisive victory in Korea. Suppose, for example, that the present fashion­ Did We Win able theory that an aggressor should not be crushed, but merely put back within his original bounds, had been applied to Japan in the late The Wrong War? war. A Japan in control of Korea, Formosa, and There is a good deal of the sour grapes element Manchuria would have been 'a most effective coun­ in the elaborate efforts to represent as all for terweight to Soviet imperialism and Chinese Com­ the best what the great majority of Americans munism, and we should not have felt obliged to instinctively feel is an unsatisfactory ending of put a man or a dollar into the indecisive struggle the war in Korea. There is an amazing difference in K,orea. in yardsticks of j udgment. In the same way we should have a vastly more It was generally accepted doctrine from 1941 satisfactory situation in Europe if our policy had until 1945 that German and Japanese aggression aimed not at the pUlverization of Germany, to could be adequately punished only by the com­ be followed by a queer combination of Morgenthau plete military defeat, occupation, and territorial Plan revenge and naive missionary spirit, but at mutilation of the offending countries. Now we a negotiated peace with a non-Nazi IGermany, on are told, often by the hot gospelers of "Uncon­ the basis of the German frontiers of 1937. Most ditional Surrender" in the late war, that there Americans have slowly come around to the con­ is something a little improper, if not indecent clusion that without German rearmament there about winning a war, that the ends of justice is little if any prospect of a ground defense of and of the United Nations are best served if western Europe. But 'German rearmament would the aggressor is merely halted lin his tracks. have been much easier to achieve if there had 'There is shocked repudiation of the idea of never been a commitment to total disarmament. "unifying Korea by force," by which is meant On the other hand, there is nothing· in the rec­ removing the brutal force by which a handful ord of the Chinese Communist regime to suggest of Korean Communists, mostly trained in the that genuine and lasting peace with it is possible. Soviet Union and in China, have imposed a re­ Imagine what a Pandora's Box of troubles we gime of oppression and exploitation on the ma­ should have prepared for Greece if we had con­ jority of the North Korean population. There sented there to a division of the country, leaving is convenient oblivion for the U. N. resolution the northern districts in the Communists' hands! in the autumn of 1950 which 'authorized General It maybe that the historian of 2000A.,D. will MacArthur to cross the 38th Parallel and thereby pronounce the retrospective verdict that America to knock out the Communist roadblock to the uni­ twice employed the wrong political philosophy at fication of Korea. the wrong time in the w,rong war.

876 THE FREEMAN Will Taft-Hartley Be Scuttled?

Our federal labor law remains a political football By THEODORE R. ISERMAN with evidences that its proposed revision may mean a return to the abuses of the one-sided Wagner A.ct.

The Second Session of the 83rd Congress, when it to bargain with it, thereby depriving the employees convenes next January, will confront an old prob­ of their right to bargain for themselves or to lem-how to deal with the Taft-Hartley Act-but choose another union. the problem will take a new form. And recent Although Congress in 1947 undertook to protect events, sinister and shocking, have made the prob­ the employers' right of free speech, the Board sets lem more complex than ever. aside elections that unions lose when employers Most union officials, for the time at least, have exercise this right. It restricts and qualifies the stopped demanding repeal of Taft-Hartley. They right in other cases. have substituted for this demand another that ac­ ,Congress forbade secondary boycotts, in which a complishes the same object, changes that would union puts pressure on an employer with whom it restore the one-sided Wagner Act as it existed be­ has no dispute in order to stop his doing business fore Taft-Hartley amended the law. with an employer with whom the union or some Until the closing days of the first session of other union has a dispute. But the Board's rulings Congress, it seemed unlikely tha,t Congress would have all but repealed the clause. accede to most of the unionists' demands. It seemed The new law forbade unions to "restrain or also that Congress probably would make some coerce" employees, but the Board protects em­ changes that unionists oppose but that are in the ployees against only the most violent and extreme interests of the public and of working people, as forms of coercing. distinguished from union officials. In hearings before the House and Senate Com­ Abolish or Enlarge the NLRB? mittees, witnesses showed by actual experience that abuses that Taft-Hartley sought to correct in fact These rulings and others that equally conflict still continue, that new abuses have developed, and with the terms and purpose -of the amended Labor that the National Labor Relations Board, which Act have given rise to demands that Congress do administers the National Labor Relations Act (this something about the Board. Proposals range from is now Title I of Taft...Hartley), had made or dis­ (1) abolishing the Board and giving its deciding covered loopholes in the law that enabled it to functions in unfair practice cases to the federal ignore or evade ,the intent of !Congress. courts to (2) enlarging it and adding fair-minded Unfair rulings of the Board from 1935 to 1947 people to it. Most proposals contemplate abolish­ were largely responsible for the changes that Taft­ ing the present office of 'General Counsel of the Hartley made in the Wagner Act. Important among Board and setting up a new agency that would do these were rulings that subjected foremen and all that the General Counsel now does and that other supervisors to control by unions of the men would do, also, the administrative work for which they supervise, that discriminated against inde­ the Board now is responsible. This would include pendent unions and in favor of those affiliated with determining bargaining units and setting up and the C.I.O. or the A.F.L., that in effect denied to holding elections in representation cases, in which employers the right of free speech, that held em­ employees vote for or against having a union as ployers guilty of unfair laibor practices when the their bargaining agent. overwhelming weight of the evidence showed they Some people think that abolishing the Board or were not guilty, and that denied any protection changing its personnel would make unnecessary whatever to employees against abuses by unions. many changes that past rulings of the Board call Since 1947 the Board and its staff have shown for. This is true to some extent, but the tendency the same bias against employers and the same re­ to follow precedent would be so strong in any new luctance to protect i11-dividual employees that it agency or in new members of the old one that showed before Congress amended the National Congress cannot, with confidence, assume that Labor Relations Act. Let us see some examples. either of these changes would be enough. Even after employees vote in the Board's own It seemed clear, after the hearings, that Con­ elections against having a union, the Board some­ gress therefore would try again to forbid infring­ times orders the employer to recognize the union ing the right of free speech, plug loopholes that the as the employees' exclusive bargaining agent and Board has found or made in thec1auses against

SEPTEMBER 7, 1953 i77 secondary boycotts, restore to employers the right control by great·international unions of collective to lock out, which the Board now denies to them, bargaining in the plants of competing employers, and equate the right to lockout with -the right to andtobrlllg under the anti-trust laws conspiracies strike; provide for employees greater protections to restrain trade that go on in the guise of collec­ against violence and threats of violence, and cor­ tive bargaining. rect the Board's cumbersome, time-consuming, and PossIble, if not probable, changes on the debit unfair procedures. It seemed probable that side of the ledger that Congress seemed likely to Congress· would permit direct appeals to the United adopt included one that General~lsenhower, in States Courts of Appeals in representation cases, campaigning before the A. F. L. convention, per­ and would get rid of many employees of the Board mitted himself to be led into sponsoring. It would who, as .holdovers from Wagner Act days, are permit economic strikers whom the employer had strongly biased against employers and non-union replaced, and who therefore had no job rights in employees. the plant, to vote in an election to choose a bargain­ ing representative for employees in the plant. Thus, Power of the States former employees could choose a bargaining agent for current employees! Another important change that had widespread Notwithstanding these considerations, it seemed support both in and out of Congress concerns the probable that Congress would consider itself power of state courts and agencies to enforce state obliged to act on the President's recommendations. laws. Unions now urge the view that by regulating IOther possible, if not probable, changes on the to some extent the activities of labor unions, debit side included extending compulsory union Congress has "preempted the field," and·that many membership in the construction industry and in state laws no longer can apply to unions whose other industries where employment is casual, sea­ activities affect interstate commerce. sonal, or intermittent; excluding some employers, In accordance with this view, the Supreme Court and particularly small employers, and their em­ has invalidated a Wisconsin statute forbidding ployees from the protections of Taft-Hartley; strikes against public utilities. The same ruling eliminating the requirement that the General affects similar statutes in New Jersey, Pennsyl­ Counsel of the Board seek temporary injunctions vania, and Virginia. The Supreme Court also has against secondary boycotts, and changing the defi­ held that a Michigan law requiring secret ballots nition of "agent" to make it more acceptable to on an employer's last offer conflicts with Taft­ unions. Hartley. Other rulings raise doubts as to the power of the states to enjoin against secondary boycotts, Secretary Durkin"sDemands violations of collective ibargaining agreements, strikes for recognition, mass picketing, and like One is hard put to it to find justification on their activities. merits for any of these proposed amendments, but It was clear, on the basis of testimony that the realism required those who appraised the situation Congressional committees received, that Congress to recognize political factors that might induce ought to restore to the states power to enforce laws Congress to follow a course other than the one that are not inconsistent with the specific terms that pure reason might dictate. of Taft-Hartley, and there was reason for hoping After the hearings on Taft-Hartley, the Presi­ that :Congress would do so. dent directed the Secretaries of Labor and of Com­ There are other needed changes. The Supreme merce to agree on amendments to Taft-Hartley. Court has, in effect, wiped out the altogether too The Secretary of Labor, doubtless with an eye to mild restraints that 'Taft-Hartley purported to put the time when he again will wish to be head 'of the on featherbedding. The Labor Board requires em­ A. F. L.'s plumbers' union, proposed a program ployers to disclose to unions that deal also with that echoed, item for item, most of the changes the their competitors confidential information concern­ A. F. L.'s president had proposed, and some that ing the employer's past and prospective operations. went beyond even these extreme demands. 'The It holds employers guilty of refusing to 'bargain Secretary of Commerce was willing to make some when they do not grant concessions that the Board concessions, but Mr. Durkin would agree only to thinks they ought to grant, or when they insist on those that met his demands in full, and would agree contract clauses that the Board thinks they do not to no change that was in the interest of employers, need. It assesses back pay against employers and employees, or the public, or thalt limited in any way unions even.though only the unions are at fault, the already tremendous power over working people and it refuses to assess back pay against unions and our economy as a whole that the law gives to that keep employees from work .by intimidating labor leaders. them. These· rulings Congress ought to correct, A group of lawyers for unions and for employers, even thoughit manages to put the Board's present 'working independently, agreed upon ,a number of deciding duties in the hands of fair-minded men. amendments. The changes included enlarging the There is a crying need to aboliSh the centralized Board, completely separating its deciding functions

878 THE FREEMAN from its administrative duties, and vesting the that it resulted from a deal to which the Secretary latter in an independent administrator; enabling of Labor, leaders of the A. F. L., .and members of the administrator to replace many members of the the Whit'e House staff were parties, .and was a present staffs .of the Board and of the General down payment for a promised pat on the back for Counsel who have been largely responsible for mal­ Republicans at theA. F .L. convention in Sep­ administration of the act; forbidding the Board to tember. force employers to bargain .with unions that the Senator Smith of New Jersey, Chairman of the employees have not chosen by secret ballot; plug­ Senate Committee on Labor and Public Welfare, ging loopholes in the secondary boycott provisions has expressed doubt that President Eisenhower of the act, and defining precisely the circumstances saw the message. This seems plausible. It is a in which employees may refuse to do work that purely political document, based not on merit but, struck employers farm out to secondary employers; evidently, on hopes of luring the A. F. L. leader­ strengthening, not weakening, the non-Communist ship into the RepubHcan fold, or at least of render­ oath that labor leaders must take; forbidding the ing it less vocal against Republicans than it has Labor Board to find unions or employers guilty of been in the past. President Eisenhower, in one of an unfair labor practice when they refuse to bar­ his first meetings on Taft-Hartley, rebuffed a gain on new terms while a collective bargaining political approach to the problem. He had de­ contract is in effect; providing for direct appeals clared that labor policy must not be governed by from rulings in representation cases; restoring·the "the vagaries of political expediency." It therefore right to lock out, and applying the rules of evidence is hard to believe that he knew of the deal, or if he and, so far as practicable, the rules of procedure of saw the proposed message, that he read it with the federal courts in cases before the Board. In the attention and understanding. negotiating, the union lawyers waived many of ,the changes on which union officials had been How Protection Would Be Whittled Away insisting. On the debit side, the agreement included some To understand the message, one must study it of the concessions that Congress seemed most likely carefully. No one of the nineteen proposals, taken to make to union leaders. by itself, scuttles the Taft-Hartley Act. But taken 'The Secretaries of Labor and of Commerce tenta­ together, they go far in that direction. tively approved most of the changes this agreement Take, for example, the Taft-Hartley provisions included, each reserving the right to propose other on compulsory union membership: an employer and amendments. Later, however, the Secretary of a union may agree that employees must join the Labor withdrew his approval. union within thirty days. The union may expel a As the first session of the 83rd Congress drew member for any reason, thereby depriving him of to a close, it became obvious that Congress could any voice in fixing his own wages, hours, and work­ not deal with Taft-Hartley this year. Nevertheless, ing conditions, but it may require an ·employer to on Friday, July 31, 1953, the day before Congress fire him only if the employee fails to tender initia­ adjourned, and the same day that Senator Taft tion fees and regular union dues. died, the story broke that the President was about Six clauses of the message whittle away the slim to send to Congress a message on Taft-Hartley. protection that the present law provi(les against According to this story, the message proposed agreements between unions and employers that nineteen changes. It constituted abject surrender force people into unions'against their will. to the demands of labor leaders. The assumption is One clause would allow unions, under agree­ that the Department of Labor "leaked" the story ments compelling union membership, to require in order to "nail down" the concessions it had employers to fire employ'ees for disclosing "con­ gained. fidential information of the union." What informa­ Vice President Nixon is credited with having tion is "confidential" and what is not presumably insisted' that the White House, in deference to would lie in the discretion of union officials, who the memory of 8enator Taft, if for no other could use the clause to oust from their jobs anyone reason, delay sending the message to Congress. they claimed had disclosed something that the The text of the proposed message confirm'ed the offi·cials called "confidential." worst fears of friends of ,the Taft-Hartley Act A second clause would allow unions to require and was a major shock to millions who thought employers to discharge employees that the union that last year they had voted for a change fron1 officials think are Communists or "in sympathetic domination of the federal government by labor association with" subversive organizations. In view bosses. of the freedom with which rival unionists accuse Of the nineteen changes, only one, and a minor each other of being Communists, and in view also one, could be deemed a concession to employers or of the tolerance that some unionists show to' Com­ to the public interest. All the rest were concessions munists when that suits their purposes, one well to labor leaders. None was in the interest of in­ may shudder at the abuses to which this clause," if dividual employees. The message 'followed'closely adopted, would lead. Aside from the'question of a. the Secretary of Labor's proposals. The story goes union's being able to have a man fired ' because ,of

SEPTEMBER 7, 1953 879: his actual or suspected political beliefs, .the least their control, regardless of the effect upon the pur­ that any fair clause would provide would be a hear­ pose of the act to promote output and thus to ·.in:­ ing on his beliefs by a government agency, or an crease the flow of goods in the stream of interstate objective.standard, such asa refusal to take a non­ commerce. Communist oath. Without plugging loopholes in the secondary Union officials could use and abuse these pro­ boycott ,clauses that enable unions to involve dis­ visions freely, safe in the knowledge that, as the interested employers and their employees in dis­ La:bor Board administers the law, if it found a putes between other employers and their employees, union had forced an employer to fire a man unfair­ the message would leg'alize secondary boycotts and ly, the employer, not the union, ordinarily would sympathy strikes in wide areas, including secondary have to give the man back pay. boycotts to force employers to deal with a union The third clause that would whittle away the that their employees do not wish to represent them. protection the law now gives employees would allow This notwithstanding that responsible labor spokes­ unions to require employers to. apply to the unions men concede that many secondary boycotts the for new employees. This, at least, would restore message would allow cannot be justified. And not­ the hiring hall, and is little short of restoring the withstanding also that small businessmen, the closed shop, unless one is so naIve as to think that backbone of the Republican Party, and their em­ unions would refer members and non-members, in­ ployees are the principal victims of secondary discrimina,tely, when employers need employees. boycotts. A fourth clause would authorize unions and em­ ployers to enter into agreements specifying "the Other lVarning Signs minimum training or experience qualifications" for employment and the order in which employers will Far from meeting the widespread demand that hire applicants for jobs, based on the applicant's Congress restore to the states their traditional experience. This would legalize, throughout in­ powers to deal with breaches of contracts, organiz­ dustry, the method by which the Typographical ing strikes, secondary boycotts, and other tortious Union has sought to get around Taft-'Hartley acts, the message would do the opposite, making prohibitions against closed shops and closed unions. the greatly weakened federal law the "paramount A fifth clause would give to unions in the con­ authority," and limiting still more, and more struction industry (Mr. Durkin is a plumber) and clearly, the right of the states to enforce their laws. in other industries where employment is "casual, In addition, the message proposes, apparently, temporary, or intermittent" (it suggests no clear legalizing checking-off fines and assessments whose standards) further exemption from the watered­ amounts are unknown to the employee when he down restraints on compulsory unionism. authorizes the check-off; lessening still more the To cap it all off, a sixth clause would, in effect, inadequate protection the law now gives to em­ repeal statutory and constitutional clauses of at ployees for whose benefit employers pay billions least a dozen states that forbid any form of com­ of dollars a year into so-called "welfare funds"; pulsory unionism, and would subject their citizens redefining the term "agent" to please union of­ to the increased domination and control that the ficials; reducing from sixty to thirty days the new clauses would confer on union officials. The "cooling-off" period during which there may be fact that all of these states went for Mr. Eisen­ no strike or lockout at the end of a contract's term, hower in 1952 reflects upon the political sagacity relieving unlawful strikers of present penalties, of the authors of the message. Mr. Eisenhower, but leaving present penalties on employers who lock throughout his campaign, championed states' out; forbidding an election to determine a bar­ rights. 'The authors advancing these proposals re­ gaining representative within four months after a flect upon their opinion of Mr. Eisenhower's sin­ strike begins; taking away from employees who are eerity and' integrity. subject to a contract compelling union member­ Although' almost everyone, including many union ship the right to revoke, by secret ballot during the lawyers, sees the need of revising the administra­ contract's term, the authority of their bargaining tion of the act, the author of the message, taking agent to compel them to remain members; repeal­ to the last resort of the obstructionist, recommends ing, not strengthening, the non~Communistaffidavit "further study" of the problem. provisions of the present act, with a promise of Following World War Two, unions sought to further recommendations on this subject; repeal­ gain control of people who supervise the rank and ing the clause that requires the General Counsel of file in the plants, keep the work going, and main­ the Board to seek temporary injunctions against tain order. This would put into their hands the secondary boycotts; and proposing "further study" most important duty of management. Taft-Hartley of the national emergency provisions of the act, forbade the Labor Board to subject supervisors to without a hint that Congress should deal with the unions" control. The abortive message· would give greater and basic problem of labor monopoly. A unions conn-ot of many' supervisors, and would minot" "neutral" change would say that neither authorize s'tate agencies' to subject still others to unions .nor employers need to bargain over new

880 THE FREEMAN terms and conditions while a contract is in effect. out with the right to strike (employers almost But completely ignored are important changes never lock out) or one giving employers and unions that compelling evidence and a mass of it shows to the right to appeal directly to the courts from be in order, that Congress once seemed likely to rulings in representation cases. adopt, and that many labor spokesmen privately But this much seems certain: that the influence admit are in the public interest. on the White House staff of the Secretary of Labor, In view of the outcry over the proposed message, and of promises of the A. F. L. officials, will play its authors douhtless will revise it, and this may an important part in the coming battle over Taft­ even happen before this piece appears. They may Hartley; that the act remains as much of a political include in it some recommendations benefiting em­ football as it ever was, and that, unless the Presi­ ployers to which union officials object only mildly dent repudiates the proposed message, Congress or not at all, such as one equating the right to lock will find it difficult indeed to do its duty next year. Reprints or "Will Taft-Hartley Be Scuttled?" may be secured at the following rates: single copy, 10¢; 12 copies, $1.00; 100 copies, $6.00; 1,000 copies, $45.00. Address Dept. R· 23, the FREEMAN, 240 Madison Avenue, New York 16, N. Y.

Lord Jowitt's "Objectivity"

A former Assistant U. S. Attorney discusses the legal By c. DICKERMAN WILLIAMS validity of the argument of the ex-Lord Chancellor in his much-discussed book on the case of Alger Hiss.

The Lord High Chancellor is a most distinguished cited by Miss Rebecca West in her review in the officer, with most varied duties. Seated on what is London Sunday Times. called the "woolsack," he presides over the sessions According to the jacket, Lord J owitt "makes no of the House of Lords; he is a member of the pretense of being wholly objective." The word cabinet; he may sit as :a trial judge or as presiding "wholly" is superfluous. Lord J owitt sums up for judge of the COLrrts of appeal; he directly appoints the defense and ,suggests that the conviction was judges· of the lower courts; he recommends the due to the frailties of judicial procedures and rules judges appointed by the Crown to the higher of evidence in the United States. courts; he takes precedence over all temporal peers Under the principle of "comity" the judiciary of except dukes of the royal family and over all spir­ one country as a matter of courtesy respects the itual peers except the Archbishop of Canterbury. judgments of the courts of other nations unless to But the 'Lord Chancellor's tenure is only 'So long do so would violate its own policies or interests. It as that of the ,cabinet of which he is a member. is therefore somewhat astonishing that Lord Jowitt And when forced from office he is in a predicament: should criticize the outcome of a trial conducted by traditionally the Lord Chancellor has been selected one of i~ur most experienced and respected judges. because of his record at the bar and in ,the House Lord Jowitt does, however, express himself with of Commons, but the ex"Lord Chancellor may not moderation and without sarcasm or invective. He appear in court because so many judges owe their sticks to the Hiss case, and does not digress to appointment to him and may not renew his career denounce "McCa,rthyism," "witch hunts" or "reigns in the House of Commons because he has become of terror." Although his attitude toward our proce­ a peer. dures has been described as supercilious, "plain­ Confronted with ,the problem of what to do, ex­ tive" seems a more accurate word. He appears both Lord Chancellors have turned to the pen. Lord sad and mystUied that with such excellent examples Halsbury edited a legal encyclopaedia known as as the ,British have provided, ,the Americans should Halsbury's Laws of England; Lord Hailsham sub­ choose to do things differently. sequently edited a revision of it. Lord Birkenhead Lord J owitt's principal grievance against the wrote books on famous English trials and judges. conduct of the proceedings is that the trial covered The Earl Jowitt, displa'ced ,Lord Chancellor of the so large a field. In England, we are told, the pros­ Labor government, has introduced a new note in ecution would have 'been restricted to direct evi­ the writings of ex-Lord Chancellors, that of :advo­ dence of espionage; the Communist aspect would cacy, in The Strange Case of Alger Hiss. 'This book have been confined to cross-examination of Cham­ has finally been published in the United 'States bers on his "discreditable activities as a Communist purged of the' inaccuracies in the English edition agent." Yetevid-ence of motive is always admissible.

SEPTEMBER 7, 1953 881 Certainly that is true in the United States, and it that in a highly publicized case such comment may had been my understanding that in this respect the adversely affect the defendant with the jury. But law of England was the same. In the absence of in the Hiss case prior to the conviction comment evidence of Communist sympathy espionage by w,as not all one way by any means. To forbid com­ Hiss would have 'been wholly inexplicable. 'The ment on pending cases would open the door to grave government's case could :be understood only in that abuses and smacks of,the totalitarian state. Un­ background. doubtedly our present system has its dangers, but The complaint is the more difficult to understand it is hard to think that jurors who lived with the because Lord Jowitt, when he can thereby buttress char.acters of the drama throughout a trial lasting his contentions, does not hesitate to put forward over two months, heard them testify, saw the ex­ evidence beyond that received at the trial. He hibits, and had the benefit of the argument of frequently relies on Chambers' autobiography counsel on both sides, could have been influenced Witness and regards himself as "fortunate" that by stories in the press. its "materials are :at hand," despite the assertion The bulk of the hook is taken up by a description in the preface that he "desires merely to review the of the trial and analYlsis of the evidence, inter­ evidence which was presented in the course of the spersed with lively comments. The analysis may case." Again, he draws conclusions adverse to the properly be called a summation for the defense prosecution because it did not prove Communist becaus'e repeatedly he emphasizes and clarifies affiliations on the part of Donald Hiss. To have matters helpful to Hiss, while glossing over, or incidentally tried that issue would have required an failing to mention, those matters which support excursion far more remote from the basic questions Chambers. than the admission of the evidence Lord J owitt On the principal issue, Lord J owitt takes what particularly criticizes- testimony by Hede :Massing seems the only possible position-that the cru­ that Alger Hiss talked to her as a Soviet agent. cial evidence was the typewritten documents: And although Lord J owitt condemns the admission There is, I think, no escape from this conclusion: of the psychiatric testimony-a point on which he either Hiss was guilty, or Chambers had at some is on firmer ground-he himself uses that testimony time got access to the typewriter and had either at length to rationalize Chambers' actions on the himself, or by some agent, caused the forty-three hypothesis that Hiss was innocent. documents produced at Baltimore to be typed on that machine. Trial Procedure 'Criticized The reference is, of course, to the typewritten copies or summaries of confidential State Department A second procedural defect, as seen by Lord documents which Chambers produced at Baltimore Jowitt, was the failure of the trial judge, Judge in November 1948, in his examination before Henry W.Goddard, to include a review of the evi­ trial, in the libel action brought against him dence in his charge to the jury. Now it is almost by Hiss. 'The defense conceded at the trial, ,and impossible for a judge, or anyone, to review the Lord Jowitt repeatedly states his agreement, that evidence of an entire trial in which the testimony the papers had been typed on a Woodstock type­ is in sharp conflict, without indicating his own writer that had belonged to Mrs. Hiss. appraisal of the 'credibility of the witnesses. Nec­ It is remarkable that Lord Jowitt, who so freely essarily the trial judge in a criminal case will often uses Witness, published in the spring of 1952, helieve the prosecution witnesses, so much so that makes no mention of the latest theory about the tbe "reviews" tend to become "exhortations" to typewriter ,advanced by defense counsel on a motion convict. The expression is quoted by Lord Jowitt for a new trial made in January 1952. The Hiss from the reminiscences of a British criminal law­ attorneys then asserted that the documents had yp.r, who says that for that reason he prefers the been typed between August and November 1948 American practice by which the judge does not re~ on a typewriter specially fab~icated for that pur­ vipw the evidence. In this instance J udgeGoddard pose by Chambers or some confederate. Judge must have accepted the testimony of Whittaker Goddard denied the motion, and the Court of Ap­ Chambers, for he told the jury at the end of the peals affirmed in January of this year. Why does trial that it had "rendered a just verdict." Accord­ Lord J owitt fail to reveal this last contention, in­ ingly his review of the evidence, if he had included consistent as it is with what he presents as agreed one in his 'charge, would have reflected that accept­ fact? ance. The indignation of the partisans of Hiss at Its inability to develop any persua1sive explana­ such a charge to the jury can well be imagined. It tion of the typewritten documents has always been is impossible to escape the feeling that the review the chief ,stumbling block of'the defense. Unques­ of the evidence Lord J owitt thinks the jury should tionably Mrs. Hiss gave the typewriter to the have had is one by himself. Catlett boys, sons of their maid. But when?Mrs. Lord Jowitt's other principal dissatisfaction with Hiss and the !Catletts identified the time as the our procedures is the absence of restriction of occasion of the Hisses' move to Volta Place in newspaper comment on pending cases. He thinks December 1937. As many of the documentswerp

'382 THE FREEMAN dated in early 19'38, the typewriter would on that This was an old-fashioned machine, possibly an theory have been out of their pos1session at the Underwood, but I am notat all certain regarding the make.... Possibly samples of Mrs. Hiss's typing time of typing. But Perry Catlett said that as soon on this machine are in existence, but I have not as he got the typewriter he took it to be repaired located any to date, but will endeavor to do so. Mrs. at a shop that, it. was dis'Covered, did not open until Hiss disposed of this typewriter to either a second- September 1938. Another possible shop had not hand typewriter concern or a secondhand dealer in Washington, D. C., some time subsequent to 1938, opened until May. exact date or place unknown. The whereabouts of this typewriter is presently unknown to me. The Hiss Type,writer Mrs. Hiss said on December 7: Lord J owitt does not throw any new light on this I do not recall the make of this typewriter. I do problem. His principal reason for thinking that not recall how I disposed of it. Chambers may have gotten hold of the typewriter Also, Mrs. Hiss told the Grand Jury that Mrs. and typed the documents is a familiar one­ Catlett had died, and that ,she was not aware of Chambers' failure to make the accusation of es­ any samples of her own typing in existence. It pionage until N'ovember 1948, after having said subsequently developed that Mrs. Hiss had seen one under oath several times between August and No­ of the samples, her report as President of the Bryn vember that he had no evidence of espionage by Mawr Club of Washington, only a few weeks before Hiss. Lord J owitt finds support for thils belief in her Grand Jury testimony. On cross-examination the suicide attempt made by Chambers between the she said she had forgotten it. time he produced the documents and the Grand The term of the Grand Jury expired on Wednes­ Jury's indictment of Hiss. The original print of day, December 15. On Friday, December 10, the this book placed this attempt before the production foreman reported that the iGrand Jury was unable of the documents, but the present edition Istates to find an indictment. On Monday, December 13, that on "further consideration" the author has con­ the FBI independently of the Hisses located a long cluded that the ,attempt came afterwards. The letter typed by Mrs. Hiss. As the typing matched stimulus to the "further consideration" was of that of the documents, the Grand Jury voted an course Miss West'ls review. Lord Jowitt learned of indictment. But Alger Hiss had very nearly the suicide attempt not from the "evidence pre­ escaped. sented in the case," but from Witness, in which the Of course, after the samples had been found, the timing is entirely clear at first glance. He hammers defense case would be helped by evidence that the at the attempt again and again, describing or Hisses had disposed of the typewriter before the referring to it on no less than seven separate occa­ dates of the State Department documents. Mr,s. sions, and deduces that it shows a sense of despera­ I-:Iiss was then able to recall a gift to the Catlett tion on Chambers' part. According to Witness, our boys in December 1937, ,and an energetic Hiss law­ only source of information, that attempt was in­ yer traced the typewriter through the hands of the spired by the erroneous statement of an expert, Catletts and several others. The typewriter was subsequently corrected, that the microfilm with offered at the trial by the defense, although, as the typewritten documents had not been manu­ already noted, on the motion for a new trial made factured until 1945. The error was the last straw in January 1952, the defense claimed that this for Chambers' mood of depression induced by machine had been fabricated by Chambers, and, the expectation that, becaus'e of Hiss's high-level indeed, that it had been "planted" on the defense. friendships, President Truman's "red herring" What thus appears to have been a deliberate statement, and the fact that the Department of effort by the Hisses to conceal both the typewriter Justice official in charge of the case was a de­ and samples of its typing was stressed by the pros­ voted 'Truman henchman, it was he, not Hiss, who ecution and may have weighed heavily with· the would be indicted. ":God is against me," he thought. jury. Yet Lord Jowitt nowhere makes that effort In none of his seven references to the suicide at­ clear. tempt does Lord J owitt mention this explanation. Lord Jowitt concedes that there is no evidence Chambers' delay in. charging espionage, and his that Chambers had access to the· typewriter. It prior inconsistent statements, do tend to impair would seem, on the contrary, that if he had known the credibility of his testimony. The jury must have or had any clues to its whereabouts he would have concluded that the corroboration of hilS testimony, informed the FBI in those crucial days in December together with the absence of a persuasive explana­ 1948, when the· case was before the Grand Jury tion by Hiss, decisively outweighed that impair­ and hung in the balance. ment.The elusiveness of the Hisses about the Lord Jowitt's exposition of the evidence of typewriter was particularly significant. friendship between the Hiss and Chambers families When Chambers·produced the documents the FiBI is on the whole straightforward, but he tends to naturallYisought to locate the Hiss typewriter or "point,up" evidence favoring the Hisses. And he samples of work done on the typewriter. Hiss said occasionally omits altogether little items which the to the FBI on December 4: prosecution relied on. For instance, he does not

SEPTEMBER 7, 1953 8,83 disclose that after Mrs. Hiss had withdrawn $400 stolen; at·another place, apparently it was Wad­ from the bank on November 19, 1937, she or Mr. leigh, after all; at a third place" it was some one in Hiss made a number of small cash withdrawals. the Far Eastern Division (of' the IState Depart­ Chambers asserted the $400 was a loan to him. ment) , to which neither Wadleigh nor Hiss was The Hisses maintained that they needed more cash assigned. But if Lord J owitt does "not doubt the on hand because they were about to buy additional passionate sincerity of Chambers to protect the furniture for a house for which they signed a lease free world against the perils of Communism," why on December 2 and into which they moved on should he think that Chambers would expose the Decem:ber 29. They already had house furniture; wrong man? it is quite true, however, that they were moving Despite Lord J owitt's sympathy for Hiss, his into a larger house. The explanation is, as Lord ultimate conclusions are mild. After reviewing such Jowitt says, "unconvincing" and becomes more so evidence as the rug, the ca'r, the trips, and the $400 when the small cash withdrawals are taken into loan, Lord J owitt in substance concedes "that the account. association between Hiss and Chambers was much In one or two instances Lord Jowitt is affirm­ closer and more enduring than Hiss admitted." atively misleading. He asserts it to :be a "serious That, however, he says, does not "begin to prove" blemish in the trial" that the prosecutor took "two that Hiss handed over secret documents to Cham­ paragraphs" in summation, paragraphs which he bers. As to espionage, "it might well have been a does not quote, to ,argue that "peculiarities in .the case in which the equivalent of a Scottish verdict of typing could be used to identify not merely the 'not proven' would have been returned" (appar­ machine but also the typist." In fact the prosecutor ently referring to a jury disagreement). took one paragraph, not two, in a forty-nine-page For what purpose other than espionage a :State summation to point out that common errors fre­ Department official would have a "close," "endur­ quently appeared both in the copies of the secret ing," and secret "association" with a Communist documents and the agreed samples of typing by courier, Lord Jowitt does not suggest. Mrs. Hiss. These were "1"" for "i," "f" for "g" Although the book is not at all persuasive that and "f" for "d." The papers were all in evidence a miscarriage of justice occurred, it does raise and available for comment by counsel and inspec­ many questions which one can only hope the future tion by the jury. Defense counsel made no objection will solve. What, for instance, on the hypothesis to the argument. Lord Jowitt implies that the pros­ of guilt, did Hiss do for the Soviets between 1938 ecutor should have laid a foundation for this argu­ and 1948? And the book, together with an examina­ ment by expert testimony. But it does not require tion of the record, reminds the reader of the fright­ an expert to identify common errors of that char­ ful tragedy of Alger and Priscilla Hiss. The sam­ acter.The criticism is unfairly stated and unwar­ ples of her typing introduced in evidence throw a ranted. strong light on the personality of Mrs. Hiss. Her Bryn Mawr report is intelligent, witty, cheerful, Confusing Arguments competent; her letter to her son's school shows her to bea sensitive and conscientious mother; in the Some of Lord Jowitt's arguments are hard to Mercy Hospital letter her industry and desire for follow. That Hiss should bring a libel action he self-improvement are apparent. The brilliance and thinks strong evidence of good faith. But else­ charm of Hiss himself have been everywhere where he emphasizes that Hiss was under heavy recognized. pressure to maintain his reputation in order to keep Alistair Cooke wrote of "a generation on trial," his job with the Carnegie Endow,ment, and it might meaning the young intellectuals of the New Deal be added, in order to continue in any way in what era. But is not the true culprit the mature intel­ had become his career. Could not that pressure be ligentsia of the 1930's who were, with honorable the explanation of the libel action? And he finds exceptions, so blind, so stupid, so false to their in the assertion by Chambers in Witness that he responsibility as to create an atmosphere in which kept the documents so as to have a "life preserver" two young people such as Mr. and Mrs. Hiss, with should he be kidnapped by a Communist murder their sense of social responsibility and their legit­ gang,a motive for falsely accusing Hiss. Yet the imate ambitions, should decide that their most Communist Party would hardly spare Chambers in fitting work should he the betrayal of their country order to save an ordinary government official. It to the Soviet Union? Poignant as their case is, it would be only on the hypothesis that Hiss was a is only a minor, although dramatic, part of the highly valuable man to the Communists that doc­ wreckage of the lives of countless individuals and uments tending to incriminate him would serve as the subversion of nations brought about by the a "life preserver" for Chambers. same inability of the intellectuals to appraise the If Hiss was not guilty, who was? Lord Jowitt Soviet Union. One would be more sanguine of the wavers on this point. At one place it cannot be future if tha,t inability were more often humbly Wadleigh for the very good reason that he was out recognized and not arrogantly defended as a mere of the country when many of the documents were lack of the benefit of hindsight.

884: rrHE FREEMAN every point. It is true that the difficulties that have Letters from Europe arisen in the past few months are not dangerous and should lead to no violent breach, but their effect on British public opinion has been very 1. How London Sees America marked. Resentment against us is noticeable in the press and becomes shrilly apparent in any con­ A few days after Adlai Stevenson's arrival in versation that veers in the slightest from light England the London Times carried an editorial social chitchat. entitled "A Remarkable Private Citizen" which The Labor Party never misses a chance to foster led off: this resentment for reasons of political expediency. Even in this Coronation year, when -Britain has Because a major point of conservative policy is the been glad to welcome hundreds of distinguished strengthening of the bonds of friendship with the foreigners, there must be many people for whom United States, the opposition chooses to be anti­ Mr. Adlai Stevenson is the summer's most interest­ American and tries to make it appear that every ing visitor. Because the defeated candidate in an effort at reaching an amicable understanding with American Presidential election has no official posi­ tion, it is as a private citizen that Mr. Stevenson us lis nothing more than groveling appeasement. has come to us. Such an obvious political maneuver should fool nobody, yet the Labor Party apparently retains so Had the Times not pointed out that he was much influence over the minds and emotions of the traveling as a private citizen, it is possible that EngUsh people that even the most stubborn Tories no one would have suspected it, for the reception talk as though their opinions had been formed by accorded Stevenson would have been quite suitable the ,Opposition papers. For that matter, the news for a big shot on an official ,mission. He visited columns in the conservative press sound as though Lord Salisbury, was received by Sir Anthony Eden, they had been written by members of the Opposi­ and with most un-English disregard for the regu­ tion and seldom match the conciliatory tone of the lation that bans divorced persons from court editorials. functions, was invited to a garden party at Buck­ ingham Palace. He was interviewed in the news­ On various occasions in the past, the English papers and on television, laudatory pieces about have disliked us, or felt contempt for us, or been him appeared in all the press, and the critics irritated by us. Now something new has been added greeted his book of speeches with fulsome praise. -fear. To anyone who has spent the last three or Since ticker tape welcomes are not customary over four years in the United States and been con­ here, it is difficult to see what more could have ditioned to think of Soviet Russia as the major been done to pay tribute to a vanquished hero. threat to world peace, it comes as a surprise to English people, whether Labor or Tory, speak discover that in England America is regarded as of Stevenson with the deepest admiration, and any a kind of White Peril, more dangerous to the safety comparisons drawn between him and Eisenhower of her allies than any enemy could possibly be. are unfavorable to the latter. Last year the cor­ Russia is almost forgotten in all the criticism of respondents of British newspapers in the United our hotheadedness, inexperience, irresponsibility, States, carried away by their own enthusiasm and childish naivete, and bellicose spirit. indulging in much wishful thinking, led their [This fear of us is, of course, the reisult of leaders to believe not only that Stevenson must win deliberate propaganda. 'The resentment, on the for Europe's sake, but that he would win, and dis­ other hand, has not needed much artificial stimulus. appointment at the result of the elections is still The groundwork was laid by the ineluctable course felt over here. Nevertheless, the reception he re­ of history which caused the decline of the British ceived was not entirely due to his personal appeal­ Empire and shot America into preeminence as a it was somewhat like the fuss made over Charlie world power. The English may have to aecept Chaplin and the protests against the execution of second place, but they can scarcely be expected to the Rosenbergs, intended as a slap at the United like it. States, particularly at the Republican Party. For twenty years a Democratic administration All in all, this is not a year in which it can be in Washington did its best to help Britain preserve said that Americans are winning any popularity the illusion of being the most powerful and in­ contests in England. The government itself is doing fluential nation in the world. Our politicians so everything possible to keep friendly relations be­ often followed where the British led that now that tween our two countries and its attitude was they find themselves up against a group of men summed up by Lord Alexander, the Minister of who seem somewhat more inclined to lead than to Defense, in a recent speech when he said that it follow, they are reacting with the stunned in­ would be a great mistake to take too seriously the credulity of a train passenger who has been called frank exchanges which occur from time to time George by the Pullman porter. between Britain and the United States. The best As it would be too alarming to many Britishers to of friends, he adped, don't always see eye-to-eye on think that all the representatives of the Repub...

SEPTEMBER 7. 1953 885 lican Party could be so arrogant·as to wish to make here that Eisenhower might have built up an im­ their own decisions, a villain has had to be found munity against S,irWinston's persuasiveness dur­ who can be accused of mesmerizing them into sub­ ing the war years. Although Ike's reluctance to mission to his diabolical dictates. Senator McCarthy, agree to holding the Bermuda conference was most with his genius for getting into any act, obligingly evident, its cancellation took England by surprise. took over the role when, in May, he sounded off When Churchill',s breakdown was announced a against Attlee's speech. Ever since then the vio­ couple of days before he was scheduled to sail, there lence expended on attacking him would have more were a few quotations printed from American than sufficed for use against a man of far greater newspapers hinting at the possibility of a diplo­ stature and importance. He has been turned into a matic indisposition, but such cynical doubts were kind of mythological figure-a fiend, bred by the quickly snowed under with paragraph after para­ Minotaur out of Medusa, whom even his bitterest graph of regrets that the grand old man's robust American critics would hardly recognize. health should have failed at such an inopportune Senator McCarthy occupied the center of the moment. The admission that a B,ritish Pr,ime stage all through the months of May and June, but Minister might have been told by an American early in July he was pushed into the wings and President, "You got into this, get out of it the Secretary of State Dulles was brought forward to best way you can," would have involved such a loss receive the boos and catcalls of the British public. of prestige that no one was unpatriotic enough to For some reason, Eisenhower (or Eissenhower, as speculate as to how a man seventy-eight years old Churchill prefers to pronounce the name) has not could be too ill to travel but not so ill as' to cause been held responsible for calling off the full-scale serious worry for his condition. conference at Bermuda or for what are regarded As far as could be judged by an outsider, the as the disappointing results of the minor one in B,ritish public accepted the version of the facts Washington. presented by the government with no reservations A Labor M.P., writing in the Reynolds News at all. Which would seem to indicate that the about Stevenson did say, "Everything in him English have not studied Ike's career and character [iStevenson] is at variance with the clumsy methods carefully enough to note that he's a man with a of Mr. Dulles or the heavy simplicity of President very .special talent for never letting himself get Eisenhower," but, as a rule, Ike is treated gently. boxed into a corner. Or, perhaps, they have noted This may be merely caution arising from a feeling it, and that explains why they are suddenly viewing that it's wise,r not to pick on the top man who is America with alarm. ALICE-LEONE MOATS going to have to be dealt with for the next three and a half years. Or it may be slight embarrass­ ment at turning so quickly against a man who was 2. Adenauer on Vacation so strongly endorsed by Europe for the Republican nomination when it looked as though Taft might Tucked away in somber woods redolent of sun and get it. Whatever the cause for overlooking Eisen­ pine needles, the Kurhaus Buehlerhoehe looks out hower, it is Dulles who is made to bear the full on valleys bright with flowers and fruit. The weight of the blame for sabotaging English pol,icy Kurhaus is actually a three-winged, rose-colored and plans. castle built just before the First World War by Lord Salisbury has also taken a bit of a beating the widow of General Isenhart as a memorial to from the Opposition which, having labeled Church­ her late husband. This highly cultivated but some­ ill "warmonger" not so long ago, now turns around what eccentric woman hit upon the idea· of con­ and praises him as the cabinet's only wise and structing a convalescent home for twelve generals farseeing member and berates Salisbury for failing and presenting it to the Kaiser as a gift. The to carry out the program laid down by the Prim~e castle was completed in the spring of 1914. Frau Minister· in his speech of May 11. The sudden turn Isenbart set out at once for IIamburg to see the of events in Russia, the shakiness of the French Kaiser,carrying with her a model of his prospec­ government, are swept aside as unimportant con­ tive property. But the Kaiser hedged. The elaborate siderations, and,. with true British tenacity, both luxury of the place, he thought, was out of keeping the Opposition and the government continue to with the proverbial austerity of .his generals. Be­ cling to the conviction that a four-powe,r confer­ sides, its upkeep .would be too costly. Now if Frau ence is the only solution to all problems and to the Isenbart wished to provide the necessary funds, belief that if Churchill could be brought face to of course, that would be a different matter. face with Malenkov, his charm and eloquence would That she could not do. She had already spent work miracles. Nobody cares to remember that seven million goldmarks on· the castle and several former conferences of heads of state have created millions more on a farm and sanatorium connected problems instead of solving them and that the with .it. Her wealth.was not sufficient to endow it famed Churchillian charm and .eloquence didn't into the bargain. Before she could find a way to work any visible miracles with Stalin. use or dispose of it, the First World War broke Neither doe,s the suspicion seem· to have arisen out,' making her sumptuous· 'establishment more than ever superfluous. The disappointed woman from the Christian Democratic Union (the party shut herself up in her dream castle and committed of Adenauer), lacks the funds to conduct a bang-up suicide. campaign. It seems that the Nazi fringe of the If she had only waited a little, she would have F .D.P. frightened the wealthy Rhine and Ruhr seen at least a part of her idea realized. In 1920 industrialists who originally backed it. The Nau­ the entire estate was converted into a health resort. mann case was an eye-opener. Several high-ranking Since then tired businessmen, sick and worried Free Democrats have confided to me that further politicians, overweight divorcees, and neurotic conspiratorial activities will ,be disclosed before wives have flocked here fora regime of diet, baths, long and will be highly compromising. They don't massage, and electric wave treatments. Germany want to risk dirtying their hands. They prefer to abounds in health resorts. But what distinguishes vote for the Christian Democratic Union, although Buehlerhoehe is the quiet perfection with which it it is too Catholic for their taste. As for the Social­ cares for the veterans of life. Informed as to the ists, one of the 'leaders of the Social Democratic latest medical discoveries, the most recent theories Party told me they would rather sit it {)ut four on the treatment of sick souls and bodies, it more ye'ars than enter a coalition with either the scrupulously avoids all fads. Yogurt and vegetable C.D.U. or the F.D.P.Why they are relUctant to juices have been on the diet list here for over enter a coalition in electing memhers to the thirty years, but nobody regards them as miracle Bundestag it is difficult to figure out, since their foods. All of which is a result of Dr. Strooman's coalition lin the Laender elections worked excellently. gentle wisdom. Dr. Strooman has directed the Kur­ At any rate, on the whole the prospects would haus Buehlerhoehe since the beginning. To him be fairly sure for Dr. Adenauer and our policy in man is not just a mechanism whose tired heart or Germany (for Adenauer is our policy and no mis­ overworked stomach is in need of repair; he is a take) were it not for the matter of reunification. human being whose soul must be refreshed. This Since June 17 the pressure for reunification has concept of the person filters down to the last little become so intense that no German,statesman can nurse in the place. It makes for a quiet, somewhat ignore it. There is even the possibility that the distant serenity which is extraordinarily restful. Soviets will suddenly come forward with agtand offer for general elections in a united 'Germany Buehlerhoehe has always been a favorite retreat and make the September elections in West Germany of German statesmen. It is natural, therefore, to impracticable. Even if nothing untoward happens find Dr. Konrad Adenauer here this summer. Were before Septemher6 and Adenauer is voted in it not for his seventeen secret service agents who, again, there is no doubt that the reunification of clad in showy yellow tweeds or sporting tyrolean Germany rather than the European defense com­ hats, lurk in the corridors and passageways, one munity will be the subject of chief consideration would hardly suspect that so important a personage in the future. Adenauer and his associates talk and is in our midst. He keeps pretty much to the first act as though Germany can achieve both reunifica­ floor, which is reserved for him and his small party. tion and a place in the European defense com­ He takes his meals regularly, goes for walks and munity. But nearly everybody else knows this is drives, receives visiting high officials and parlia­ simply a polite fiction kept up to make the Amer­ mentarians. There are no journalists around watch­ icans happy. Reunification now, they realize, would ing and reporting his comings and goings. The involve too high a cost-among other things, guests for the most part take no notice of him. Germany's membership in the IEuropean army. At mass on Sunday morning in the tiny local Dr. Adenauer is perfectly aware of all this. chapel, the tall spare figure with the sharp, chiseled Kneeling silently in that bare little chapel in.the features that seem almost to be cut in wood pine woods, he might well have, been praying that arouses little attention among the other communi­ this cup be taken from him. R. G. WALDECK cants. Whether this attitude indicates hostility, in­ difference, or merely respect for the statesman's privacy it is hard to say. 'The 'Germans are becoming On a Hilltop more and more impenetrable,even to one who grew up among them,as I did, and knows them inti­ For the briefest instant mately. At any rate, the outcome of the elections The earth stopped spinning of September 6 w.ill give some idea at least of what And there was no end they think of their present Chancellor. And no beginning. In Bonn and Godesberg and the Rhineland, where I have just spent ten days, the general consensus I stood on tip-toe is that Adenauer will be returned to office, and Like a dancer with a good majority. Even his political opponents And almost-sh-almost are of this opinion. The Free Democratic Party, Heard the answer. which might perhaps have taken away some votes K. WHARTON STURGES

SEPTEMBER 7. 1953 887 Germany: Key to Europe

Ho,w Soviet and Western policies com,pare on the By WILLIAM HENRY CHAMBER'LIN issues of defense and reunion will decide the German elec,tion, sa,ys. an on-the-s,pot observer.

Frankfurt, August 15 West or with the East. Germany would not slip I have now spent a month in Germany-my fourth behind the Iron Curtain, but retain close cultural trip since the end of the war. Never has one sensed and economic ties with the West. Ultimately it such a ferment of mingled hope, fear, and uncer­ might occupy a position comparable with that of tainty, this latter element aggravated by the fact Sweden, wi,th an independent national army for that Germany will have its second national elec­ self-defense, friendly to the West but not com­ tion on September 6 for a new Bundestag. Never mitted to any Western military bloc. has the possibility of reunion seemed so close, never have the obstacles which stand in the way of re­ A Realistic View union on a basis of genuine freedom stood out so clearly. All this, in the opinion of tough, resilient, con­ Germany is the object of an extremely compli­ sistently all'ti...Communist Chancellor Adenauer and cated chess game, of which the Germans are inter­ the Bonn officials and Bundestag deputies who ested and sometimes critical spectators. On the share and support his views, is dangerous 'self­ proposition that Germany should be reunited on a deception. 'Germany cannot be compared with basis of political and civil liberties there is no Sweden; its population and resources make it too serious difference of opinion. This is common tempting an object of Soviet imperialist designs. ground for the parties of Chancellor Konrad Aden­ Imagine the precariousness of Germany's position, auer's coalition and for the leading opposition if American troops were withdrawn across the party, the Social Democrats. Indeed the latter take Atlantic and Soviet troops were withdrawn-a few special pride in the fighting courage·and spirit of mBes into Poland. Germany is a key factor in an the East German workers, whom they claim, on the effective European defense set..up. (This viewpoint, basis of pre-Hitler voting, as Social Democrats. as I know from earlier talks in Paris with ,General (They say less about the fact that the rebellion was Alfred 'Gruenther, new head of the European directed against the Soviet puppet party, the SED, armies united under SiHAIPE, and with high MSA which includes, along with Comimunists, a fair pro­ officials, is shared by virtually all Americans portion of renegade Social Democrats.) charged with responsibility for European defense.) But in the matter of priority and methods of Disrupt this set-up by taking Germany out, leave achieving this goal the inquiring visitor to Ger­ Europe with small and weak national a'rmies, and many finds sharp differences of judgment and the continent lies open to piecemeal Soviet infiltra­ ovinion. These differences are complicated because tion and conquest. many Germans 'Seem unable to decide between the 'The positive proposal of Adenauer's supporters arguments of those who would have the country is to press on with the project for a six-nation align .itself·· unreservedly with the West and those European army, despite French lukewarmers, while who would sacrifice more or less of the Western at the same time assuring the Soviet Union that orientation for the sake of winning back the this army, with its multi-national character, could 18,000,000 Germans in the East. never be used except for defensive purposes. On The latter is the position of the majority of the this question of the European army, however, Social (Democrats (,there are exceptions, like Mayor there are serious doubts among some Germans who Max Brauer of Hamburg, a militant anti-Commun­ are unquestionably in the Western camp. ist) and of some Germans who have no Social One of the most interesting and informative Democratic affiliation. Their line of argument runs evenings I spent in Germany was at the house of as follows: Despite the heroic stand of the East Mayor Brauer, in the company of some fifteen German strikers and demonstrators one cannot local Hamburg journalists. Our talk naturally beat Soviet tanks with sticks and stones. It is turned on the issues which are absorbing Germany unrealistic to expect that the Soviet Union will today-how reunion could be obtained, whether and· evacuate East Germany and let that area be ab­ how Germany should be rrearmed. In·my·capacity sorbed into a hostile bloc. A price must be paid as an inquiring foreign reporter I took a few votes. for unification. This price could be ,German agree­ All were for some form of German rearmament. ment to abstain from any military alliance with the No one favored a German national ar,my. Where the

888 THE FREEMAN split in opinion came WaS on the choice, if it is a abroad. This approach was received with satisfac­ choice, between the European army and German tion in Bonn. German critics of the Chancellor's membership in NA'TO. A sizable minority was for position as too inflexible argue that nothing in the accepting the European army arrangement as it notes would be calculated to make evacuation of stood. But the majority, following the lead of the the East z9ne attractive to the Soviet Union. Mayor, favored 'German membership in NAITO, on Most German observers, regardless of political the ground that only this method would assure sympathy, believe that the GhanceHor will get a German equaHty in making decisions of war and vote of confidence in the September election and peace and create the morale necessary for an will be able to carryon with the right-of-center efficient army. coalition which has given Germany stable and rea­ This experience was only one of several indica­ sonably efficient government during the last four tions that the blankly negative reaction to sugges­ years. One usually hears, however, a qualification tions for rearmament famBiar in G'ermany two or for this prediction. No one is quite sure what the three years ago is on the way out. This was a mood effect on the election would be if Moscow would compounded of bitterness after two lost wars, a make a really tempting offer on German reunion. sense of grievance. against both East and West, and So long as a regime of ruthless terror and oppres­ a feeling of Schadenfreude (spiteful pleasure) be-. sion is maintained in the Soviet zone, so long as cause Germany's two principal enemies in the last brutal sentences are meted out to participants in war were at odds. The mood was strengthened by the June uprising, even the Social Democrats can­ the total demilitarization proclaimed as an alUed not be very hopeful about the prospect of reunion war objective and preached to the Germans during on tolerable terms. the first years of occupation. N'ow, however, there If the Soviet government has nothing to offer is a growing realization that there is such a thing but old records cracked with much playing, such as as cutting off one's national nose to spite one's the often repeated suggestion that Grotewohl and face, that some form of rearmament is unavoidable other Red QuisUngs should meet representatives for a nation in Germany's geographjcal position. of the Bonn regime to discuss conditions of reunion, 'The position of the advocates of the European the course of the election will not be very much army is somewhat undermined by Firench balkiness affected. In this case Adenauer's chances seem in implementing what was originaHy a French pro­ favorable, especially if he can broaden his coalition posal. The average German has little confidence to include ,representatives of the "All...German Bloc" in the French and Italians as prospective allies, (formerly "'The League of the Homeless and Dis­ partly because of their showing in the last war, inherited"). This party draws most of its following partly because both countries have such large from Germans and people of ,German origin who Communist minorities. have been driven from their homes in the provinces 'The Germans are primarily interested in the mil­ east of the Oder-;Neisse frontier line and in Czecho­ itary backing which they can 'expect from the slovakia, Poland, and other countries of eastern United States, secondarily in British support. By and southeastern Europe. It was not organized on sheer driving leadership Adenauer pushed the a national scale at the time of the last Bundestag treaty ratifying the European army through both election. houses of the Bonn parliam'ent. A further hurdle remains to be cleared: a ruling of the Constitu­ Trump Card for the West tional Court on whether the treaty represents a modification of the federal Constitution which Markedly improved living conditions, the obvious would require a two-thirds vote of affirmation, not a and direct result of the courageous, consistent simple majority in the Bundestag. But Germany application of the principles of a free market has now advanced farther toward ratification than economy, should be a trump card in the election any of the other five signatories. propaganda of the coalition parties, such as the Some Germans approve of and support the Euro­ Christian Democratic Union and the Free Demo­ pean army as an important step toward the goal crats. The iGerman economic recovery so ably de­ of a united Europe. More probably accept it as scribed by Wilhelm Ropke in a previous issue [see apparently the only means, at the present time, of the FREEMAN, August 24] remains one of the most obtaining an assurance of United states perma­ spectacular achievements of Europe since the war. nent military cooperation. A Soviet proposal for free, internationally super­ 'The American, British, and French notes to the vised elections in all Germany, on condition that a Kremlin, proposing a four-power conference of united Germany should dissociate itself from any foreign ministers in the autumn, were more cal­ Western military combination, would put Ade­ culated to please Adenauer than his opponents. The nauer's pro-Western policy to a severe test. For notes contained no hint of bargaining and simply the emotional pull of rescuing 18,000,000 Germans called for a discussion of means of organizing free from Communist slavery is strong. And West Ger­ German elections and creating an aH·.;German gov­ many, while overwhelmingly anti-Communist, is ernment, with freedom of action at home and not correspondingly pro..;Western. There are still

SEPTEMBER 7, 1953 889 bitter memories from the war and the. early phase should be the cause not only of West Germany, but of the occupation; there is resentment over the of· the free world. We cannot, however,. allow our­ detachment of the Saar by France; one senses a selves to be blackmailed in this matter, or to con­ growing skepticism about the brave new world of sent to a settlement in which the Soviet govern­ a united Europe, although the European idea still ment, by temporarily abandoning its present crude makes a strong appeal to many idealistic young terrorist oppression and exploitation of East Ger­ Germans. many, would clear the way to fastening its tentacles Many Germans are inclined to feel that, if a on all Germany. price must be paid for the reunion of their un­ naturally divided country, the sacrifice of stiH Aims for U. S. Policy uncertain and hypothetical military alliances with the West would not be an excessive ransom. There America should take every opportunity to show is speculation about means of guaranteeing a demonstratively that we regard West Germany as united Germany's independence by some system of an equal sovereign state, entitled to the reattach­ non-aggression, neutrality pacts. ment of the eastern zone not as something to be However, to withdraw foreign troops from Ger­ bought, but as a matter of right. The Soviet moral many while West Germany is completely disarmed and propaganda position in East Germany has been would leave a vacuum of the most perilous kind. fatally weakened by the June revolt. There is a No paper pact (and it would be hard to count how fair chance that, if the Western powers stand firm many non-aggression pacts the Soviet regime has and pay no heed to siren voices of appeasement, the violated) could give Germany the security which Soviet rulers wiH agree with Talley-rand that one it now derives from the simple fact that any Soviet can do anything with bayonets except sit on them, military move against West Germany or West and write off its plundered German colony as a Berlin would automatically mean war with the bad investment. United States, Great Britain, and France. The raising of the American High Commissioner, It would· be a much healthier situation if German Dr. James Conant, to the rank of Ambassador was divisions were standing side by side with American a good move; so was the reported agreement to put and British,and it should be a Number One task in force a mixed commission to review the cases of of American diplomacy to overcome French resist­ so-called war criminals. It would be still more ance to German rearmament. There will probably effective if it could be made 'Olear that Dr. Adenauer be a suspension of major diplomatic activity until wiH be invited to participate as an equal partner it is clear what kind of German government will in any future councils of the West. emerge after the September election, although It should be possible to think of -more and more Soviet blitz tactics are always a possibility. imaginative ways of demonstrating sympathy and But after the election, assuming that German solidarity for the oppressed people of East Ger­ cooperation is assured, the United States should many and for the stout-hearted people of West make it clear that the time for action on German Berlin, who have been an invaluable outpost of rearmament is due and overdue. The French gov­ freedom during these last years. American policy ernment should either ratify its own original should be guided by the constant consideration that project, the European army, or accept an alterna­ Germany, united or even in its present truncated tive, such as German .membership in NATO. Should borders, is potentially much the most solid obstacle the French reject both these alternatives, some to the Soviet sweep to the Atlantic. And German more extreme American decision, such as uni­ policy, as it comes to be framed more and more lateral rearming of Germany or abandonment. of independently, should be guided by the parallel the' whole present assumption that America should consideration that American military and indus­ participate in the ground defense of Europe may trial power, both present and potential, was a main be called for. Quite probably a really convincing factor in saving the whole of Germany from suffer­ intimation that the United States was considering ing the fate of the ISoviet zone. one of these courses would suffi-ce to change the The liberation of Germany in freedom should be French attitude. the first step, the liberation of the satellite -coun­ 'Meanwhile the ferment of hope and uncertainty tries of eastern Europe the second, in an American in Germany and the possible maneuvers of tortuous policy which, looking beyond timid and defensive­ Kremlin diplomacy require an American diplomacy minded containment, aims at expanding the that should be informed, alert, sympathetic, and frontiers of freedom and contracting the bounda­ flexible. We should never forget that Germany is ries of tyranny. If these two aims can be accom­ the key to Europe, that the answer to the question plished (and weakness and dissension in the Soviet whether Europe will be free or totalitarian depends hierarchy open up new prospects for disintegration more on what happens in Germany than on through political and psychological warfare), the anything else. sorry aftermath of the Second World War will be The reunion of Germany in freedom, the rescue undone and the prospects of enduring peace will be of 18,000,000 East Germans from Communist rule, immensely strengthened.

890 THE FREEMAN simultaneously in New York, Chicago, and Los Is Laughter a Weapon? Angeles about Molotov missing out on the top spot "because he refused to sell his General Motors stock." This joke benefited the anti-Communist movement in this country just about as much as the Recently the Literary Gazette, a ISoviet govern­ gag about the size of the Communist Party aided ment periodical, printed a strong editorial about the underground forces in Russia. the "wicked tellers of lies and slander who· stand The main difference between political jokes heard in little groups, chuckling and smirking over the in Russia and those heard in this and other democ­ latest piece of subversive, anti-state propaganda racies is that the gag writers behind the Iron Cur­ camouflaged as a so-called 'funny story.' " tain don't get paid. There is no Milton Berlovitch Anti~Communist forces throughout the world, in­ who would dare poke fun at the golf game of cluding the Voice of America, employ "funny Georgi Malenkov, even if the successor to Stalin stories" in their·campaigns. When Pravda reported were disposed to take up the game of the Scots. that too many Soviet publications tend to overuse And it is a safe bet that no Soviet comedian tosses technical language, a Voice of America broadcast off remarks about the coiffure of the First Lady beamed to the Iron Curtain countries suggested of the Kremlin, whoever she may be. that Communist journalists brighten up their Even in a democracy, laughter carries little stories with anecdotes like this one: weight as a political weapon. The Democrats were A small Russian boy was asked by his teacher: not defeated last November because of the hun­ "What is the size of the Communist Party?" He dreds of jokes about mink coats and deep freezes, replied: "Five feet, two inches." although one of the reasons for the Republican "Idiot!" exploded the teacher. "I meant how victory may have been the situation which gave many members does it have. How do you get five rise to these witticisms. feet, two inches?" Only the most egotistical of political leaders lose "Well," answered the boy, "my father is six feet sleep because they know the people are laughing tall and ,every night he puts his hand to his chin at jokes in which they are made to appear ridicu­ and says, 'I've had the Communist Party up to lous. Malenkov and Company seem to be realists here!' " who face tomorrow with the comforting knowl­ This apocryphal story-and any anecdote about edge that their subjects are armed with little more the size of the Communist Party has to be apocry­ than weak jokes. And they have taken the strongest phal-and others of similar nature have been ap­ precautions to ascertain that the joke tellers do pearing in American newspapers and magazines, not lay hands to more formidable weapons. Laughter, as a political gun, is a laugh. And a and on the radio and television, for years as evi­ dence of the true feelings of the Russian people. shallow one at that. One of the more recent magazine articles of this type was titled, "Laughter Is a Weapon," and told of the Voice of America campaign using laughter "to bombard the Iron Curtain in a world-wide Garden of Eden battle of wits." The writer went on to say that the Don't go till we remember it together, international radio system is using humor "to Grasp it and hold it like a misty thistle puncture the egos of humorless Communist leaders Whose leaves are sharp within your hands and and expose their distorted propaganda," that politi­ mine: cal jokes are not meant to be genial or whimsical The way the cove lay like a curled white feather, but to sting, that anti-state anecdotes are "poison" The night a glass, a sacramental vessel, to dictators, and that laughter can be a potent Filled with a purple wine. weapon because it has destroyed tyranny by ridi­ cule in the past, and will again in the future. The ecstasy was on us, wild and stark, Now we could sing and shout and .madly run, This is so much nonsense. Laughter is not a The hard wet sand beneath our feet, the salt weapon of the oppressed, but a relief from the Translucent odor in the crystal dark rigors of totalitarian-style living, a means of So luminous the world was just begun, sniping at the inaccessible. Laughter is not a Pristine, without a fault, weapon, but an excuse for inaction. Laughter is a bee sting, not a heart thrust. Like us, the lovers, come alive in Eden No dictator has ever been laughed off his throne. Where the primeval ocean first and fully The same kind of stories-and in some instances Broke on the crescent of the new-made shore. ~he identical stories-now being told about Malen­ That was the young Creation, that the Garden, kov were told about StaHn and HitIer and Mus­ The early passion innocent and holy, solini and even Nero. When Malenkov emerged as Never revealed before. the new Soviet strong boy, a· gag was heard almost LOUISE TOWNSEND NICHOLL

SEPTEMBER 7. 1953 891 Portrait of a Fellow-Traveler ··1 By JAMES BURNHAM

The advancing bureaucratization of the world some early in his career, when he was charged, after his time ago overran memoirs, in particular the service as military attache in Washington during memoirs of official or once-official persons. Ordi­ the First World War, with instigating the Black narily, nowadays, a memoir is not written, but Tom explosion and other acts of sabotage. From produced like a truck by assembly-line methods. that time on he seemed always to be near when the Teams of secretaries and novice Ph.D.'s, working dark bell tolled. His chancellorship in 1932 seemed under research or journalistic foremen, process to prepare Hitler's in 1933; his vice-chancellorship tons of memoranda,files, and daily journals. The during the first period of Hitler's rule, to open the end product is imposing in bulk, and about as road for the full totalitarian dictatorship to come. interesting to read as the Budget. He secured the early Concordat with the Vatican As an autobiographer, Franz von Papen has been that helped to gain international acceptance of the more fortunate, at least from his readers' point of Nazi regime. It was he who was Minister to Austria view, than he understands. (Memoirs, by Fr'anz during the years that ended in forcible Anschluss. von Papen, translated by Brian Connell, E. P. As wartime Ambasador to Turkey, h~ engineered Dutton and Company, 634 pp., $6.50.) He makes the fabulous "Operation Cicero," which gave the grumpy complaints about the loss of his records. Wehrmacht the plans of its enemies, and with·the "It would be hard to devise conditions more difficult cinematic title Five Fingers has so fascinated the and more discouraging ... The personal files and movie-goers of the world. It is a formidable list. public archives to which a person in my position Von Papen insists that his career is a paradox. would normally have had access have been denied "I stand accused as a supporter of Hitler, yet his to me. Most of my own papers have been seized by Gestapo always had me on their liquidation lis,t.... one or other of the Allied powers, or destroyed in As a convinced monarchist I was called upon to the final stages of the war." serve a republic. ... By family connection and The result of this happy loss is that Herr von conviction an outspoken protagonist of Franco­ Papen has had to rely on himself in place of his German rapprochement, I have seen both countries filing system, and has written a living book instead beat each other to a standstill.... Seeking only a of a dead report. No doubt the surface account peaceful solution of the G'erman-Austrian prob­ is less accurate than the records could have made lem. ...I stand accused of organizing Hitler's it. Most of the conversations in quotes come, we Anschluss. ... Although an ardent Catholic, I must assume, from an old man's memory, colored carne to be regarded as the servant of one of the by the bitterness of the defeated and the bias of most godless governments in modern times. I am self-justification, rather than from a stenographic under no illusion as to the reputation I enjoy transcript. But the story is marvelously interesting abroad." every page of the way. It is the contention of his personal defense that 'The victorious powers put von Papen among the he has lived his "long and industrious life ... twenty-one defendants whom they prosecuted at according to the best of my ability in the service the great Show Trial of Nuremberg, in which the of God and my country." His country's true mis­ democratic nations of the West so shamefully sion, to which he regards himself as bound, re­ imitated the juridical practices of their totalitarian mains, he says, what it has been for more than a enemy and ally. The imitation was incomplete, thousand years: to "spread Christianity to the inasmuch as three of the defendants,.von Papen eastern provinces and the Baltic: to build a dyke one of the three, were found Not Guilty. In part, against the threat of Slav aspirations and aggres­ these Memoirs are a continuation of the defense sion," to rise "as a bulwark of Western thought that von Papen began at Nuremberg. There is no against the advance of totalitarian ideas." doubt that the well-known charges against him, This all has a lofty air, and contains a certain ~nd the seeming facts of his career, are in need of proportion of truth. It is a little too pat, though, skilled defending. after the night of the long knives and the death 'To many, and with some plausibility by the chambers. It seems to me clear, and clearer than chronological succession, von Papen has appeared ever with these Memoirs as additional evidence, as the Judas sheep of his flock, the springer .of the that von Papen is not and never was a Nazi. Spirit­ trap door to disaster. His evil reputation be~an uallv and morally it was impossible that he should

892 THE FREEMAN be a Nazi ; he is simply not that kind of person. He Hitler had attempted an immediate revolution is obviously sincere in portraying himself as con­ such as Lenin brought about, he would have met servative, monarchist, religious, attached to family, overwhelming opposition ... Historians are mis­ home, and tradition. Nazis are none of these things. taken in assuming that the details of this process At the same time, it is equally certain that von were laid down in advance." Why was it that "a Papen collaborated with the Nazis, that he served dictator was granted [by the Western govern­ the Nazi regime after it had come to power, or at ments] concessions and recognition which were least served objectives which were simultaneously denied to the bourgeois Governments that pre­ the regime's objectives. Von Papen-successively ceded him?" Vice~Chancellor, Minister, and Ambassador under He now holds that his own "fundamental error HitIer's government-does not pretend to deny this. was to underrate the dynamic power which had His explanation of his conduct is fourfold. awakened the national and social instincts of the First, he contends that the Weimar Republic, masses ... As a professional soldier, I should functioning in the aftermath of defeat, a vindictive have realized that even in the political field, de­ peace and a financial breakdown, was impossible fensive tactics can never prevail against concentric as a political system for Germany. Second, he attacks. The dynamism of a mass movement could believed prior to 1932 that the best chance for a only have been met by equal dynamism-never with political solution under the Weimar rules would the doctrinaire ideas of a thin layer of liberals have been a government based on a right-wing and intellectuals." coalition that would have included the N'azis as well In terms of behavior, Franz von Papen resembles as his own Center Party. If faced earlier in its a type with which we have become familiar in career with a share in the responsibilities of gov­ another connection. He is the fellow-traveler, erning the nation, Nazism might·have developed marching along with the totalitarian movement its positive aspects-which he still insists were under the mixed stimulus of idealism, ignorance, contained in it-instead of exclusively its destruc­ vanity, and opportunism. As with all fellow­ tive tendencies. travelers, his own goals and "ideals" seem partly Third, he argues that even "when Hitler formed to interest the professed goals of the totalitarians. his first coalition Government, both his Conserva­ His failure to think things through combines with tive colleagues and the nation as a whole hoped to his opportunism to lead him into the totalitarian assimilate his movement into .the normal frame-:­ parade. His vanity makes him suppose that he is work of our existence." It became the duty of a influencing and "moderating" the revolutionists conservative like himself to collaborate, with the whose puppet and front he in reality is. Shift the aim of reinforcing the positive goals (combatting labels, and we may compare von Papen with Henry unemployment, rousing the nation's spirit, fight­ Wallace, although Wallace is a less substantial ing Communism, revising Versailles) and braking person. As Presidential candidate of the Communist­ the negative (anti~Semitism, lawlessness, material­ controlled Progressive Party, Wallace is not at ism, worship of the State). all unlike von Papen as fussy and impotent Vi~p.­ After 1938, by which time the impossibility of Chancellor in Hitler's Cabinet. checking the Nazi nihilism had become apparent, Unlike many one-time fellow-travelers, von there arose a "dreadful dichotomy which affected Papen has observed carefully and learned a good every honorable patriot ...I can well understan4 deal. His book, as a consequence, has remarkable the disdain and disbelief of those abroad when they historical as well as person'al interest. read memoirs and articles on life in the Third Reich which proclaim that nobody was really a According to our various standards, we will con­ National Socialist, that everyone was secretly in demn, detest, pity, or merely try to understand opposition to Hitler and that he therefore attained Franz von Papen. The vast spiritual gap that his ends against the resistance of the whole Ger­ divides his personality from the type of the true man nation. This picture is, of course, false ... Nazi is strikingly shown by the map of Hitler's Germany was entirely responsible for the Second mind drawn in Hitler's Secret Conversations World War." This situation justified the attempt (translated by Norman Cameron and R. H. to remove "by internal means ... the head of a Stevens, with an introductory essay by H. R. State whose activities are damaging the nation." Trevor-Roper, Farrar, Straus and Young, 597 pp. But von Papen, even in the face of Nazism, re­ $6.50) . mains a German patriot: "I cannot understand The text of this book is, according to Mr. ... how people calling themselves patriots can lend Trevor-Roper, Martin Bormann's corrected ver­ their services to an enemy to ensure the downfall sion of notes taken, chiefly during 1941 and 1942, of a Government by contributing to the nation's at Hitler's changing military headquarters. ,They military defeat." are the Fuehrer's "table talk"-his running re­ Finally, von Papen says that he was mistaken marks and monologues delivered at lunch or dinner, llbout Nazism, and he argues that it was not he "more often at his last, most sociable meal, the alone or Germans alone who were mistaken. "If long succession of tea and cakes which-generally

SEPTEMBER 7, 1953 893 long after midnight-closed the working day." two great scourges: the pox and Christianity"). I cannot agree with Mr. Trevor-Roper's rather The quintessential plebeian has no stake in the frenetic and high-pitched estimate of the content world. Thus, when under extraordinary circum­ of these talks and the mind that they reveal. He stances he finds himself at the trigger of vast discovers Hitler to be "a systematic thinker and power, he is a nihilist, absolutely irresponsible. his mind is, to· the historian, as important a prob­ Unlike the member ofa genuine social class or lem as the mind of Bismarck or Lenin." 'Trevor­ profession-any class, worker, or peasant as well Roper judges Hitler to have a "crude but clear" as aristocrat or doctor or bourgeois-he respects interpretation of history and an "astonishing nothing, least of all himself, and has nothing that memory" ; his mind is "restless, rigid, systematic "he wishes to preserve. Therefore he is ready, as ... From at least 1923," his ideas were "abso­ he falls, to pull all down about him. lutely clear and consistent." I cannot reconcile This is a long step beyond the world scheme of such comments with what I read in these curious the good-natured, sly,cynical, and non-plebeian and on the whole rather drab "conversations." Ciano, and beyond the outlook of his master. (Al­ HitIer unquestionably had certain key insights­ though it is notable how close Mussolini would insights rather than intellectual concepts-about come to Hitler's expressions when "he accused the the nature of man and history. Around these much intellectual and bourgeois classes of cowardice ... of the texture of his tp.ought and feeling was woven and declared that as long as he is alive he will keep or stuffed. But these insights were neither con­ them on the move 'to the tune of kicks on the shin,' " sistent among themselves nor the principles of or when he says "he is ready to break a few blud­ any consistent system. His thought, and the theo­ geons on the backsides of the priests.") This pre­ retical side of Fascism in general, is distinguished war s:ection of Ciano's diaries (the later parts have from, for example, Bolshevism (the most obvious previouslv been published) show, however, almost and relevant comparison) precisely by its intellec­ step by step, how Italian Fascism was pulled into tual shallowness and its lack of any systematic the wake of the onrushing ship of Nazism. They structure. What Hitler possessed was not intellect, prove ahlO~ in the most specific way, the vanity of but passion·and an incredible will. appeasement. "There will not be war," M ussolini exclaimed on the news of Munich, "but this is the Malcolm Muggeridge, in his admirable short intro­ liquidation of English prestige." It became no duction to Ciano's .early diaries, makes a more con­ longer pm:;sible for 11im even to think of holding vincing summary. (Ciano's Hidden Diary, 1937-38. back from. Hitler. translation and notes by Andreas Mayor, with an introduction by Malcom Muggeridge, E. P. Dut­ ton and Company, 220 pp., $4.00.) He describes "the·character of the Fascist regime" as "a strange Story with a Moral mixture of" bombast, lies, cynicism, and sincerity A New Slavery, edited by Roger Baldwin. 158 pp. which furnished its mystique, the bizarre person­ New York: Oceana Publications. $1.25 paper, alities and lurid atmosphere it generated." Hitler $2.50 cloth is more weighty and terrible than anything in Italian Fascism, but he is on no comprehensible Every worker under Communism is really a forced account a thinker. laborer. He can't quit, he can't strike, he is hemmed The spirit that seems to speak through these in by internal passports, workbooks, the speed-up, "conversations" that the disciple Bormann checked compulsory overtime, and the supervision of the each day is that of the quintessential plebeian, the M.V.D. mass-man of Ortega y Gasset, without place or Nevertheless, when Roger Baldwin describes status or wisdom, whirled by a gigantic will to Communist "forced labor" in this book, he is not a summit of power and unleashed egotism. All the speaking of the hundreds of millions who try to frustrations, envies, snobberies, vulgarities, long­ earn a living under such conditions. He is describ­ ings of all plebeians seem to get utterance through ing only the more horrible fate of another group­ his voice. In these hours of the night, to three or the estimated 15,000,000 suspected oppositionists four intimates, he lets go with his hatred of all who are forced to work on superhuman projects persons and social classes that rest on tradition, under inhuman conditions for no wages at all. As order, established hierarchy, measured knowledge: Mr. Baldwin describes it, what these men and "the arrogant idlers of the aristocracy"; the bour­ women experience in the giant camps across geois-"the top hat is the signature of the bour­ Eurasia is not so much forced labor as it is death geois"; "the frock. coats"; "the.pretentious upper on the installment plan. They work in freezing +'en thousand"; "specialists" and "theoreticians" climates with scanty clothing and only about a (HI hate those specialists' jobs. I regard every­ third of the food the normal body requires; they thing that comes from a theoretician as null and sleep in harsh, crowded billets with hardened void") ; the Jews, of course, "and above all "the criminals as their "trusties"; they can be torture.d, parsons," as his phrase goes for the Church ("the starved, .or shot at will.

8911 THE FREEMAN Mr. Baldwin has himself done much, over the wald lay not so much in theNazis' murders as in years, to publicize in the free world the facts about the apathy and ennui of the world that discovered Communist forced labor. In 1925, he helped publish them. And the one question Mr. Baldwin's b~ok the famous Letters from Russian Prisons, which does not raise is the only question about forced spoke for the Russian democrats who were the first labor that really matters, now that the facts are inmates of Bolshevik concentration camps. It has established. That is: What do we intend to do taken more than two decades for the world to about it? recognize the lesson that book contained. About a year ago, a congressman shoved a map In 1930 the Hoover Administration-prompted of the slave camps into the hands of a Soviet by a bi-partis·an campaign led by Matthew Woll of diplomat. This was the boldest "action" on slave the American Federation of Labor-placed an labor yet taken by anyone connected with the embargo on Soviet goods produced by forced labor. United States government, and it was a "psycho­ But during the Popular Front and wartime alliance logical warfare" pr,ank at best. It seems to me that with Communism, the forced laborers were for­ the very least conclusion to be drawn from Mr. gotten. During the war .no one bothered to ask Baldwin's book is that we should arraign the why one of the top Russian commanders-Marshal Soviet ruling clique before an international tribunal Rokossovsky-had himself spent several years at for its crimes against humanity, bar its representa­ forced labor, and was pardoned only when Stalin's tives from the U.N. and all other diplomatic chan­ back was to the Kremlin wall and he needed every nels, and enforce a world boycott of its slave Russian officer he could get. economy. It is a measure of our intimidation that V-E Day brought new evidence-the testimony even such a tireless fighter for human rights as of thousands of former forced laborers who had Roger Baldwin has failed to draw that conclusion. esc-aped to freedom. In 1947 David Dallin and Boris ANATOLE SRUB Nicolaevsky wrote their authoritative book, Forced Labor in Soviet Russia, and that same year the A.F.L. urged the U.N. Economic and Social Council to launch an official investigation. For four years In the Money both the Economic and Social Council and the The Legendary Mizners, by Alva Johnston. ,304 International Labor Organization (to which the pp. New York: Farrar, Straus and Young. $3~75 A.F.L. had also appealed) failed to act. But mean­ while David Rousset, a French slave laborer under What has frequently been called the era of elegance the Nazis, had formed the International Commis­ in America began somewhere in the sixties and sion against Concentration Camps, which collected came to an abrupt end with the Depression. It was evidence and held dramatic open hearings during the heyday of snobbish resorts, millionaires' wives 1950 and 1951. with their playboy arbiters of fashion, and of the Largely because of this pressure, the Economic touts, pimps, and hangers-on who battene'd upon and Social Council and the International Labor them. Alva Johnston's story deals with two of the Organization jointly sponsored an official investiga­ most famous-and notorious-figures in the "best" tion in 1951; its findings were released on June 23 society and its attendant underworld during that of this year. The U.N. verdict completely supports now fabulous period. It is a brilliant and most that of Mr. Baldwin, who calls forced labor "one amusing book. of the most glaring aspects of the inhuman Com... Bizarre, flamboyant, irreverent, amoral, the two munist police state." Mizner brothers clowned, toadied, and exploded Mr. Baldwin's book tells the story of this long their way from San Francisco to Alaska, from New fight for world attention; it summarizes the testi­ York to Palm Beach. They prospected in the great mony which led the U.N. investigators to their Klondike Rush of '97, Addison on the lookout for findings; it reproduces key Communist documents gold, Wilson for suckers. From there they migrated on forced labor and maps loc·ating the principal to New York, where the idle rich quickly became camps. In presenting this material, Mr. Baldwin enchanted by their escapades and wisecracks. Addi­ shows that wherever Communist guns rule­ son was· a stickler for form; he confined his atten­ whether it is "Western" Czechoslovakia, "Con­ tions to what the society columns call "socially fucian" China, or "independent" Yugoslavia-the prominent" women, whose husbands '. were kept barbed wire of the camps follows. He also shows busy making the millions their wives (and how, under the m·anagement of Lavrenti Beria, the Addison) spent. Wilson was less fussy; he married political motive for slave labor was supplemented the widow Yerkes, some thirty years his senior and by an economic one-namely, the desire of the not-to Addison's distress-in the Social Register. Communists to cut both labor costs and popular "Addison Mizner hurried to the' Yerkes man­ consumption in an economy geared not to its sion ... He found Wilson in bed ... on a dais with citizens' wants, but to a global war against dem­ two green velvet steps ... Propped up among ocratic peoples. pillows of peach-colored satin, covered to the. waist It has been said that the true horror of Buchen- with point lace, the' bridegroom was wearing a

SEPTEMB~R7, 1953 89S gray woolen undershirt, the sleeves of which had nothing, his obvious distaste for anything that lies shrunk ne'arly to the elbow. He was holding a sayk to the Right of Roosevelt, his facility in second-rate of Bull Durham between his teeth and rolling" a Eliot, his general nihilism, never glimpsing eter­ brown-paper cigarette. Addison excitedly asked the nity, and you understand why he won the Pultizer reason for the marriage. 'The service is good here,' Prize. said Wilson." MacLeish is the sort of man who sees "winter­ But married bliss was not for Wilson. He filled stiffened trees" as his wife's house with professional boxers and race­ (Posthumously sucking pap track touts, meanwhile emptying it of whateveT From the pores of a dead planet portable treasures he could get his hands on. When Like the bristles on a butchered pig). detectives (e'mployed by ,Mrs. Mizner) took to searching him as he left the house, he quit. After His poems "mean" but they never quite manage to a season or two of cardsharping on transatlantic "be." This is a pity for him-and a loss for us. liners, he holed up in New York, where he ran the Somewhere on his soul's pilgrimage (probably in Rand Hotel for women-which was not exactly World War One), his too sensitive heart was hurt; high class-and went in for opium smoking. Addi­ he withdrew into an eclipse of himself; as a poet he son meanwhile had set himself up as an architect died. His early poems, the poems from The Tower (the fact that he had no vestige of professional of Ivory (1917) and from The Happy Marr'iage training he brushed off as irrelevant) and hap­ (1924), prove the poet he was-and might have pened to be in Florida about the time when the remained. They sing and shine, they are exquisite we'althy discovered that its climate was a welcome in technique and wise in insight; they not only change from the rigors of a northern winter. He mean, but are. There alone lives the great Mac­ quickly got in on the real estate boom; in fact he Leish: the rest was written by his ghost. It has no was the boom. The brothers cleaned up millions; center in him, no singleness or centrality in a living later they lost it all. cosmos. Like Picasso (but with inferior art), he Though Wilson was the more celebrated, both flickers from style to style, from mode to mode: he were noted wits. Seated one night in a Horse Show never stands, like EI Greco, rooted in the god of box with a couple' of glittering dowagers, Addison himself. His poems fluctuate from such tawdry to his dismay saw Wilson bearing down on him. stuff as "Corporate Entity": Addison had "arrived" in Fifth Avenue society and feared his brother might disgrace him. He The Oklahoma Ligno and Lithograph Co Weeps at a nude by Miehael Angelo ... tried desperately to ignore him. But Wilson was not the 'ignorable type. He came to the box and to "Ars Poetica" (which seeks vainly to carve in greeted Addison. "After an embarrassed moment American granite what IGautier carved in French or two ... the architect asked Wilson where he marble) ; from the often very beautiful "American was living. 'In a house of ill fame' on Forty-,Eighth Letter" to the "Conquest of Mexico" written in Stree·t,' said Wilson. This statement was overheard obsidian rubble. They waver between wanderlust by the ladies. They were charmed." for Europe and nostalgia for America; there is a This is a lusty book, not for the prudish. But hollowness in all, and never a home. Never do we for those who like their humor straight from the say, as of Whitman: "Whoso touches this book shoulder, The Legendary Mizners is a powerful touches a man." inducement to desert television, at least for a couple MacLeish has no grasp of eternity, no roots out­ of hilarious evenings. JOHN VERNON TABERNER side time. So, like the other secular collectivists who at the moment seem to rule American culture, he is most nearly passionate when he praises the pol­ itics of the Left. He 'takes the part (rather feebly) A Poet Gone Astray of the slick, eel-slippery Eleanor against Cardinal Spellman; he extols Laurence Duggan as "Pure Collected Poems, by Archibald MacLeish. 407 pp. heart, sweet spirit, humble, loyal, true," and.says: Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company. $4.00 "God 'help that country where informers thrive!" Archibald MacLeish was recently awarded the Thus he upholds them against such great spirits as Pulitzer Prize for his Collected Poems. This liter­ Whittaker Chambers. ary dis'aster was prohably inevitable, under the In his "Hamlet of Archibald ,MacLeish" we see mass hypnosis which makes all but great and his own desolation: original minds-and where are they?-incapable Giggle of the wind along of transcending our little metallic day. M'acLeish's The empty gutters of the sky. taut, nervous, gray-and-white style; his tempera­ Snigger of the faint stars. Catcalls. ment, realis'tic without being real, stony without And look behind the broken chair. being strong, are the very idiom of our ruling in­ And look along the shadows on the tellectuals. Add to this his visionless Vlision; his dis­ Wall. Rat turds. Spiders. missal of life as a gray bubble breaking on a sea of His enigmatic "Trojan Horse," if it has any mean-

896 THE FREEMAN ing, has a bad one. Apparently he tries to wrench propaganda and aggression than military the ancient legend into a denunciation of conser­ alliances." vatism: "Bring that enormous image in [he says], As a review, addressed to the general reader, To make official patriots of us." He seems very of "the responsibilities in the Middle East" that much afraid of being a patriot, and the danger of "have been thrust upon the United States by the the Greeks seems dwarfed by the danger of Troy decline of the British position at a time of rising to Troy. His style degrades and his mind confuses Soviet aggression," Middle East Dilemmas can take the 'clear, beautiful, ancient symbol. It is a sad day a modest, if undistinguished, place in the now when this is supposed to be great American poetry. quickly growing but still inadequate list of avail­ E. MERRILL ROOT able books on the Near and Middle East. The Time of Indifference, by Alberto Moravia. 303 Briefer Mention pp. New York: Farrar, Straus and Young. $3.50 In this first novel, written twenty-four years ago, Socialist Thought: The Forerunners, 1789-1850, Mr. Moravia already gave evidence of his special, by G. D. H. Cole. 346 pp. New York: St. Martin's and since ,then much-lauded, gift for portraying Press. $5.00 realistically the sordidness of some people's lives. The plot revolves about a down-at-the-heels fam­ This is the first volume of a projected general ily-mother, daughter, son-and the mother's history of socialist thought by the dean of living lover, who happens to hold a mortgage on their British Marxists. The word "socialist" (which shabby villa. As the story opens, Leo, the lover, dates only from the first part of the nineteenth in his jocular way, intends to foreclose the mort­ century) is used in the widest sense. "The gage. He intends also-or, perhaps, else-to se­ 'socialists' were those who, in opposition to the duce the ripe daughter of the household, having prevailing stress on the claims of the individual, wearied, as any man would, of her faded, painted, emphasized the social element in human relations vain, and stupid mother. The daughter is not and sought to bring the social question to the entirely averse to the idea, having wearied of front in the great debate about the rights of her mother and her own aimless life. A secondary man ... The theories rest on a belief in the theme is provided by some scuffling between the virtues of collaboration, as against competition, son, a sulky, will-less boy, and a blowzy, middle­ or of planning, as against what their opponents aged ex-mistress of Leo's. The goings-on of these call 'free enterprise.'" unlovely, tiresome creatures is related with a Mr. Cole has a friendly bias, but he is by no measure of suspense and an excellence of style means uncritical. He deals informatively not only that has lost none of its quality in the trans­ with figures like Godwin, Saint-Simon, Fourier, lation by Angus Davidson. Owen, Proudhon, and Blanqui, but with many others who are less familiar: Cabet, Sismondi, Introducing Asia, by Lawrence H. Battistini. Bray, Flora Tristan, Lamennais, and the British 289 pp. New York: John Day Company. $3.75 "Christian Socialis,ts." Even those who believe This is a kind of briefing handbook. It deals par­ this socialist tradition to be the great heresy of ticularly with China, Japan, and India, and in­ modern times will find a lively intellectual and cludes very short sections on Southeast Asia. The human interest in Mr. Cole's account of the author served with SCAP until 1951, and has con­ thought of these men (and one woman) who were tinued to reside in Japan as a lecturer at Sophia its early prophets. University, Tokyo. Mr. Battistini's quick surveys, and his easy maps Middle East Dilemmas, by J. C. Hurewitz. 273 and statistics, are useful for a reader with little pp. New York: Published for the Council on previous knowledge of Asia. On the whole, the book Foreign Relations by Harper & Bros. $3.75 is reasonably objective in relation to a subject­ Professor Hurewitz, now at Columbia University, matter toward which that quality is most rare. He was formerly in OSS, the State Department, and exhibits no fellow-traveling traces (his positive the U. N. Secretariat. He has written a book estimate of Mae-Arthur would alone damn him which is typical of this background, and of the eternally in the Communist ledger), but the per­ Council on Foreign Relations, which sponsored it. sistence of the shadier half of the LP.R. tradition It contains a considerable amount of information, is suggested by some of what he writes about most of it of a more or less official character, China, and by some of the implications, positive unintegrated by any compelling political, moral, and negative, of his bibliography. His first prin­ or strategic ideas. Professor Hurewitz is a solid ciple is a beginning of wisdom about Asian "containment" man, and a believer in the Truman­ affairs that is usually obscured by journalistic Acheson doctrine of "belly Communism": "The and semantic habits: "Asia is a geographical eradication of hunger, disease, and illiteracy was expression, and nothing more. It has no racial, a more effective long-range weapon against Soviet cultural, political, religious, or historical unity."

SEPTEMBER 7, 1953 897 Circuit encompasses thirty-eight the idea was St. John Terrell, theat­ states, the District of Columbia, rical ringmaster at Lambertville, III-:__T_H_E_A_TE_R__II Canada, and Bermuda. New Jers'ey, where he recently per­ Mr. Swett's original summ'er formed the tour de force of staging theater, the Lakewood Playhouse, Offenbach's incomparable Orpheus The Straw Hat Circuit still operates profitably in Skowhe­ in the Underworld underneath the More actors·· will be eating this sea­ gan. And about five hundred simi­ canvas. son-and 'eating well-than at any larenterprises open their barn­ Not only have barn shows been time since the golden days of Edwin doors or tent flaps during the latter a boon to producers, directors, and Booth. This sudden access of pleni­ part of June and close them around playwrights. IThey have also been a tude among American thespians is Labor Day. In between those dates, welcome development for actors­ due mainly to the business acumen the Summer Theater has become big stars and strugglers alike. "Appren­ and resourcefulness of Herb L. business, attracting such top pro­ tices" (a new class of drama neo­ Swett, who operated a trolley line ducers as Richard Aldrich and The­ phytes developed by the summer in Skowhegan, Maine, at the turn ron Bamberger and giving more or theater) and hopefuls have had of the century. Every summer Mr. less remunerative employment to countless opportunities of gaining Swett would notice that his trolley three thousand Equity actors and experience and perhaps evenrecog­ business rolled to a virtual stand­ almost double that number of young nition. Equity has even reduced the still. In order to make a few extra hopefuls. strictness of its membership require­ dollars, he therefore organized a ments for young aspirants with two summer theater and very wisely The success of Straw Hat pro­ seasons of summer stock to their placed it at the end of his trolley ductionshas come as a deus ex credit, and has thus opened Broad­ line. machina to help the legitimate the­ way's door to them. Since that time, the trolley bus­ ater, caught in the crossfire of tele­ Stars, m,eanwhile, have enjoyed iness has gone mostly downhill, and vision, 3D movies, and theever-in­ the unique opportunity of appearing the old interurban trolley has nearly creasing wage demands of stage­ in roles they have always wanted to disappeared from the American hands, carpenters, and electricians. play, at salaries ranging up to $3,000 scene. But summer theaters have While Broadway has been mainly per week. Needless to say, these roles multiplied and prospered until to­ reduced to presenting a tried-and­ have always been the direct opposite day a survey by this correspondent true formula of musicals and come­ of their advertised personalities. shows that the so-called Straw Hat dies bolstered by star names and Rough-and-tough Marlon Branda enormous bankrolls, the summer chose to play the meek mercenary operator with his small rentals and in Arms and the Man, and was a low labor costs has been able to surprising success. So was singer A New Book by the Author of the experiment, and has thus recap­ Ezio Pinza, acting his first straight Famous Bestseller Man the Unknown tured· the traditional vigor and pio­ role in The Play's the Thing, while HAnalysis of ••• modern failures, and ••• suggestions for man's reconstruction neering spirit of the American brash, blonde Carol Channing gave in a world where science and religion must be used for mutual support ••• theater. a sensitive reading of the cockney The dear touch of a limitless spirit and girl in Shaw's Pygmalion. a philosophy of extraordinary depth." This summer, for example, barn Charles A. Lindbergh theaters presented more than twenty­ five new plays, revived scores of It's the theatergoer, however, who others, and produced a one-woman has profited most by the success of show, At Home with Ethel Waters, summer theaters. Those of us who which has been optioned for Broad­ do not like to wait three months in day. The season also proved the order to pay $14 for a couple of success of a theatrical innovation: bad seats to a mediocre musical the Music Circus. This Circus is have been able to see fine plays and structurally similar to aNew Eng­ competent performers at prices rang­ land clambake, in that you first dig ing between $1.20 and $3.60, with a large hole in the sand. But instead reservations usually available a fe"v of lobsters and hot stones, you fill days in advance. And others, who the hole with canvas seats and a dreaded the tedium of interminable stage. Then you drape a tent over evenings of summer bridge on, the REFlECTIO,NIS ON LIFE the whole and charge admission. porch, can now look forward to the by Dr. Alexis Carrel Under the aegis of Richard Aldrich, 'alternative of IShaw, Shakespeare, author of Man the U,nknown such circuses have played to ca­ and Cole Porter, usually performed Dr. Carrel climaxes his work as a great pacity audiences in Hyannis and Co­ only a few minutes' drive away. scientist and original thinker in this pro­ hasset along the Massachusetts To the younger generation, the vocative study of the problems of mod­ em man which presents a practical coast. The Cohasset Music Circus is Straw Hat Circuit has also been a philosophy for living that is stimulating, challenging and controversial ••• directed by Hans Blisch, son of the revelation. As one moppet remarked because it dares to be different. famous conductor, who has done a during a presentation ofJohn Ef­ $3.00 at your bookstore or magnificent job of staging Broad­ frat's Island Visit with Sir Cedric HAWTHORN BOOKS, Inc. 70 Fifth Avenue way musicals and operettas "in the Hardwicke: "Why, Mommy, it's even New York 11. New York round," with the audience completely better than 3D-and you don't need surrounding the stage. Originator of any ~o~gles." SERGE FLIEGERS A STORE IS PEOPLE

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