NOV E M B E R 3. 1 9 5 2 25 ¢

Herbert. ltoover's,·Memoirs JohnCllamberlain

God and Woman at Vassar Nancy Jane Fe/le,rs

The Crime of Alpheus Ray Oliver Carlson

Once Britons Owned Their Farms George Winder photograph by d'Arazien

MANPOWER and KNOWLEDGE. • • two principal ingredients of J&l steel

MEN make steel. No mistake about it, muscle and brains This particular discussion was not for the purpose of are used a-plenty in the myriad processes from ore to ingot exchanging knowledge about steel, though that is done, too, to finished products of Controlled Quality J&L SteeL at the proper times. These men, under the guidance of a In the old days steel was as good or as bad as the iron~ skilled conference leader, have come together to learn how master's skill. Now, because improved equipment and to help solve the human problems that come up on the technical knowledge have taken out guesswork, you get job every day. uniform performance from J&L steel, order after order, day It is only one of the groups of J&L men who meet after day. But there's more to steel-making than machines regularly to learn more about economics, human relations, and technical knowledge. And there's more to a man than and whytheJ &L managementdoes things in a particularway. muscle and brains. This sharing of knowledge and experience, understandin~, J&L's management knows that. That's why these J&L and teamwork among steelmen-is just one of the activities supervisors who have come right off their jobs in the mills going on behind the J&L trademark, all directed toward one are meeting. end-better steel for you.

JONES & LAUGHLIN STEEL CORPDRATIDN PITTSBURGH 3D, PA. THE A. Fortnightly Our Contributors For MISS NANCY JANE FELLERS (Earlham '52), au­ thor of "God and Woman at Vassar," is the Individualists daughter of Brig. Gen. and Mrs. Bonner F. reeman Fellers. General Fellers ended his army career in 1946 as secretary-general of the Allied Coun­ cil for Japan. Since 1947 he has been assistant Editors JOliN CHAMBE.RLAIN DAVIS FORREST to the chainnan of the Republican National Conlmittee, writing on military affairs for Managing Editor SUZANNE LA FOLLETTE magazines, including the Free'fnan. All this is by way of saying that Miss Nancy Jane in­ Business Manager KURT M. LASSEN herits her father's aptitudes and adheres to his allegiances, a phenomenon not too usual these days. The daughter of another famous man is represented in this issue, MISS BETSEY BARTON, .daughter of the elninent author, col­ umnist and advertising agency executive, Bruce Contents VOL. 3, NO.3 NOVEMBER 3, 1952 Barton. l\1iss Barton, who herself conquered the physical handicaps resulting from a fearful motor car accident, reviews "Karen," which Editorials tells how the gallant I{illilea family overcame The Fortnight...... 77 nlany of the handicaps which cerebral palsy A Common-Sense View of the Election ~ ...... 79 had visited upon their daughter. Boo to a Pumpkin...... 80 OLIVER CARLSON reported for the Freeman A New View of Hoover...... 81 (July 30, 1951) the upheaval in Pasadena in- Strange Case of Mr. Wu 82 cident to the dismissal of Superintendent of Guilt by Association ...... 82 Schools Willard Goslin. The echoes of that con­ troversy still reverberate through the school­ Articles houses, the PTAs, the teachers' colleges and the "liberal" press. The present article presents the God and Woman at Vassar NANCY JANE FELLERS 83 other side of the shield, and this likewise from STEl~LING Most Politely MORTON 86 California. A veteran contributor to maga­ The Crime of Alpheus Ray OLIVER CARLSON 87 zines, Mr. Carlson has lectured to adult educa­ Once They Owned Their Farms GEORGE WINDER 91 tion groups and taught non-fiction and radio UN': Haven for Traitors? ALICE WIDENER 94 writing.... STERLING MORTON, chairman of the Morton Salt Company of Chicago, learned Books something of the writing trade as one of the A Reviewer's Notebook JOHN CHAMBERLAIN 98 editors of Princeton's Nassau Literary Maga­ The Omnipotent Fools HELEN WOODWARD 99 zine. His "Story of a Shirt" appeared in the Freeman of last February 1l. Miss Carson's First HENRY BESTON 100 GEORGE S. SCHUYLER, GEORGE WINDER, the Brit­ A Distorting Lens GEORGl~ S. SCHUYLER 101 ish farmer and economist, and ALICE WIDENER Cry of Victory BETSEY BARTON 102 have recently been identified in this column and Strong-Man Ruse MIL,TON EDELMAN 102 are favorably known to Freeman readers. Brief Mention 103 LLOYD MAYER, author of the poem, "Prayer For the Future," is a former magazine editor and Poems has written for the magazines, radio and TV. Prayer for the Future LLOYD MAYER 89

.-'oreign Trends Among Ourselves Depression Expected CANDIDE 90 A California subscriber, whose name shall hereafter be blessed in this sanctum, has set Arts and Entertainments WILLIAM S. SCHLAMM 97 a precedent which we offer for emulation to all other subscribers. This gentlenlan, finding Letters ••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••.•• 1.1 105 'no Freemans on the newsstand in his downtown Los Angeles office building, ordered ten copies delivered each issue to his newsdealer and is underwriting the bill. "I shall," he wrote, "see THE FaEEMAN is published every other week. Publication Offic(:, Orange, Conn. Editorial to it that none are unsold." Another subscriber and General Offices, 240 Madison Avenue, New York 16, N. Y. Copyright m. the United States 1952. by the· Freeman Magazine, Inc. John Chamberlain, President; He1'1ry earning the Freeman "E" for effort is the Hazlitt, Vice President; Forrest Davis, Secretary; Alex L. Hillman, Treasurer; Suzanne Granite Foundation, Mark Granite, chairman, La Follette, Assistant Treasurer. of Lancaster, N. H. Mr. Granite wrote us the Entered as second class matter at the Post Office at Orange, Conn. Rates: Twenty-five cents the copy; five dollars a year in the United States, nine dollars for two years; six other day that 200-odd new subscribers had dollars a year elsewhere. been added to the Freeman's· rolls as the result The editors can not be responsible for m.anuscripts submitted but if return postage is of a mail campaign conducted by himself and, enclosed they will endeavor to see that manuscripts rejected ;Lre promptly returned. It is not to be understood that articles signed with a name, pseudonym, or initials neces­ he added, "they are all getting their money's sarily represent the opinion of the editors, either as to substance or style. They are worth-and more! Good luck!" What better printed because, in the editors' judgment, they are intrinsically worth rea.ding. luck than to have the Granite Foundation on ~II our side? Printed in U.8.A., by W1l8oD •. Lee Co.. Or.. nfl~. Oonnectlcut Ca0's cOllfidelltill1 "Pin-Poinl" Industrial SUlveys

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History: Acheson Version, they must also suffer The Fortnight the double indignity of studying that history in school while training for the job of opposing the e have always been awed by the mysteries of a fecund generations of Moscow's loyal Chinese. W Planned Economy, but no Planner has ever puzzled us more than one Sir Hubert Holds·worth, lthough one general after another during the Chairman of the National Board of Britain's so­ .A past few months has told us that the Chinese cialized coal industry. Having pondered the prob­ Communists were using the truce talks as a cover lems of his ailing ward for a year or so, Sir Hubert for a formidable buildup of forces in Korea, Sec­ came up with the reassuring promise that the so­ retary Acheson went before the UN on October 16 cialized British coal industry might reach the coal and said that the enemy had been stopped. But, he output of 1937 some time in 1960-provided the added, the Communists refused to accept reason­ government authorized him to invest the bagatelle able terms for an armistice (in other words, they of a billion pounds sterling. don't know when they're licked); therefore troops The noisy Fabian argument for socializing the must be trained and committed, and food, clothing British coal industry, you will recall, was the al­ and money provided, to the end that the aggressors leged inefficiency and mismanagement of its pri­ may be taught to know when they have had enough. vate owners (may they rest in peace). It is beyond Ironically, with the exception of Mr. Austin and his us why it should take that industry, now that it is colleagues, the only delegation among Acheson's socialistically transfigured, another eight years and listeners who may be expected to respond with a about three billion dollars to match the mediocre major effort were the Russians; and their object, performance of 1937. But then, we have never of course, will be to teach their fellow members really understood socialistic economics. that aggression does pay.

upreme Court Justice William O. Douglas, who arry Truman says Ike Eisenhower is a no-good S once dismissed the government of Nationalist H bum who let the Russians steal us blind in 1945. China as a corrupt regime, is now praising Chiang So what? So Harry Truman made the no-good bum Kai-shek for having done a "fine and valiant job." his chief of staff, appointed him to the top job in We welcome Bill Douglas to the ranks of the China NATO and offered him the Democratic nomination Lobby and hope he enjoys his share of that good for the Presidency. If our junior year course in Formosa gold as much as we have enjoyed ours. Logic signifies anything, these actions and words about Ike convict Harry Truman of being (1) a ean Acheson, with his usual genius for sim­ liar, or (2) the world's worst judge of character, D plifying great issues, has informed the UN or (3) totally irresponsible. You pays your money that we must stay in Korea until the aggressor is and you takes your choice, but in any event it's a convinced that crime doesn't pay. Inasmuch as fine heritage for a Stevenson Admini~tration. Stalin, the aggressor, still has a few million Chinese enator Wayne Morse, to use up in Korea before S Republican, has de­ he need call on a single Freeman Dinner serted Ike Eisenhower; Russian, this means the Senator Harry Byrd and Korean War may some day Due to circumstances arISIng from the Bernard Baruch, Demo­ be known as the Second political campaign, the Freeman dinner, crats, have, on the other One Hundred Years War. originally scheduled for October 24 at the hand, obliquely declared The people we feel sorry Waldorf-Astoria in New York City, has had for Ike. In good baseballese, for are the generations of to be postponed. It will be held at a date we should say that the Re­ unborn GI's. Not only must to be decided upon after the election. publicans have traded off they fight in Korea for Watch this space for the announcement. a Zeke Bonura for a Lou 78 THE FREEMAN

Gehrig and a Ty Cobb. Mr. Rickey, greatest trader The latest statistics (submitted to the 24th Inter­ since David Harum, never pulled a better deal. national Temperance Congress in Paris) show that each French adult drinks, on an avera2"e, about fifty he other day our old friend Harry the Hack­ pints of pure alcohol a year. Ten per cent of the T man, offering us a thin dime in change, re­ average French family's household budget is spent marked: "That's the dime with the United States on alcoholic beverages (more than twice the average destroyer on it." The dime contained a shining family's expenditure on. rent) and the nation's to­ likeness of the late Franklin D. Roosevelt. The tal bill for alcohol is more than three times what mention of money brings us naturally to a couple la grande nation spends on public education. The of incongruous appeals for same which have British journalist to whom we are indebted for reached us in the waning days of this campaign. these official facts ended his report on a note of First, the Americans for Democratic Action soli­ moral gloom. We can not follow him there. Weare cited a gift in a letter addressed to the editors of fond, not only of French wines, but also of the ven­ the Freeman. Then came a long and hortatory tele­ erable principle that every nation must be free to gram signed by three McLiberal Senators, Ful­ go to hell in its own way. We would, however, like bright, Douglas and Kefauver, addressed to one to advise those thirsty Frenchmen to restrain them­ editor by name and urging him to help with the selves a bit from hollering about the uncivilized "huge sums" needed for radio and television time Americans who imbibe Coca-Cola. by Governor Stevenson. It would, of course, be in­ appropriate for a periodical of general circulation e can hardly cry over the fact that the Su­ to contribute to campaign funds, but were it appro­ W preme Court has refused to consider the ap­ priate we could not, we fear, spare even a Roosevelt peal of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, the atom spies dime for the purpose of perpetuating in power the who are waiting to die in the electric chair. But men of Teheran and Yalta, of Cairo and Potsdam; we do find it ironical that the Rosenbergs are about the men who have carried us from the pinnacle of to get a rap that Dr. Klaus Fuchs and Dr. Allan world prestige in 1945 to the dull and despondent Nunn May escaped. We also find it ironical that trough of 1952. certain "larger felons" who gave the Russians everything from atomic materials to zippers during arry the Hackman, a solemn wag, dispenses the war should continue to be revered not only as H Truman jokes as he threads the perils of patriots but as paragons of intelligence. It comes Manhattan traffic. That traffic, he says, has become down to this: the Rosenbergs picked the wrong time worse since the advent of the "Truman cars." "You for their treachery, and lamentably failed to get know," he explains, "shiftless." He inquires courte­ themselves some good sympathizers and press ously if you have heard of "Truman beer." "Head­ agents when that treachery was discovered. less." There is also "Truman coffee"-"White House drip." He reaches a climax with this one: "Communism,'" says Trouw, a conservative "Know why the cherry blossoms didn't do so well Dutch publication, "has four allies in the this spring? The sap wasn't running." West: the iniquities within the Western World it­ self; the secularization of the West; the fifth col­ e would like to share a rare pleasure with our umn embodied in the Communist parties devoted W readers-a few kind words thrown America's to Moscow; and a sixth column of moral simpletons, way in a radical British journal. The New States­ ministers, artists and professors who are against man and Nation (London's Nation and New Repub­ communism but who are also against 'America' and lic wrapped in one) is habitually Britain's leading who walk into every trap, no matter how simple, spokesman of rabid anti-Americanism. But its edi­ set up by Moscow." Trouw's characterization of the tor, returning from an apparently joyful vacation fourth ally of communism interests us particularly. in France, published these words in his weekly Even in sober-sided Holland they are having. to "Notebook" : ask themselves that weirdly paradoxical question, "Have intellectuals brains?" I must record that in a part of France where large numbers of American troops are stationed, their bearing and conduct are extremely good.... mitri Shostakovich, the musical idol of our This army, or the bit of it I saw, can claim to be D McLiberal intelligentsia, has announced that doing everything that can be done to avoid the su­ he is writing a new opera. He got the inspiration, perficial frictions. he asserted publicly, when he was reading the Cen­ The unmistakable tone of regret with which Mr. tral Committee's report to the recent Communist Kingsley Martin "must" record the facts only adds Party conference. His new opera, said Mr. Shosta­ to the compliment. In return, God save the Queen! kovich, will be about "the building of new factories, a gigantic hydroelectric station, architectural en­ he day we read the above impressions of a Brit­ sembles of new apartment houses and houses of T ish tourist in France, a colleague of his brought culture." This promises to be the most opaque opera far less welcome news from the French countryside. plot since Il Trovatore. But Mr. Olin Downes of the NOVEMBER 3, 1952 79

Times and other McLiberal lovers of the arts will notice should be taken of the new levels to which no doubt guide us toward an objective apprecia­ the irresponsible occupant of the White House re­ tion of Shostakovich's devotion to pure music. duced it during his spattering sojourn in New England and New York. Truman's recklessness was overnor Stevenson, who finds himself constantly astonishing even for him. The suggestion, so G reminded of a story, reminds us in turn of one carefully cultivated in his wake, that the Eisen­ which is neither less relevant nor necessarily older hower-Nixon ticket and the Republican Party in than those wIth which he keeps his audiences in general is anti-Semitic, anti-Negro and anti-Cath­ stitches. Ours goes back only to Dr. Johnson. When olic may win votes but it will do so at the cost of a visitor was making light of a speech he had heard the integrity of the whole American community. a lady deliver in public, the old huzzard repri­ Not since the days of the Know-nothings has a manded him by suggesting that a lady's public ora­ Presidential campaign been so deeply and revolt­ tory must be viewed the same way one appreciated, ingly mired in racial inflammations. a talking dog: the remarkable thing was not what On the fourth we the citizens take the stage and, he was saying but that he was saying anything at amidst a vast and urgent calm, decide issues which all. Therein, it seems to us, lies the secret of Mr. were never quite made convincing, choose between Stevenson's current success with some intelligent candidates who have not quite brought themselves people. So completely had they given up hope of into clear relief in spite of millions of words, TV encountering ever again a Democratic candidate on and incessant campaigning. The job is ours and friendly terms with English that the sound of one what shall we make of it? What of the citizen who, who can use it takes them by surprise. unimpressed by the charm of either major candi­ As for us, we asked our colleague who conducts date, wishes to do his duty by his society and his the "Arts and Entertainments" department to take time? Waiving the oratory, the accusations, the stock of Mr. Stevenson's amusement value in one irrelevancies, what is the overriding issue to be of his critical treatises. However, our colleague is determined on November 4? Is it not the safety stalling because in his opinion Jimmy Savo and and survival of the United States, beset by a ma­ Lou Holtz have outdistanced the Governor in story­ lignant foe in the Soviet empire, mistrusted and telling and histrionics. unbefriended abroad by its neighbors of the West? Do not most of the issues so belabored during the he New York Times Book Review, always eager last two months find place in this overwhelming T to broaden the horizons of its readers, assigns question: high taxes and the corruption that in­ learned foreigners to report the literary scene evitably follows upon the mulcting of the citizen; abroad. The author of a recent "Letter From Vi­ the humiliating Korean war, the drive toward ever enna" was one Franz Theodor Czokor whom the more statism in the name of the emergency? Book Review's editor introduced as "an outstanding The rise of Soviet power since 1945, in far too Austrian dramatist." To learn that Mr. Czokor is large a part the product of the American govern­ not just a fellow-traveler but a devout member and ment's complicity, is at the bottom of nearly all our hack propagandist of the Austrian Communist political and economic ills. Party will surprise no one, except perhaps the New Granted that this is so, what can the voter do York Times editors. They will continue to inform about it in the solitude of the voting booth? Where their readers about the fate of freedom with a truly shall he cast his lot if the prime question confront­ majestic neutrality toward the issue at stake. ing him is the welfare of his country versus the Sov'et Union? In the opinion of the Freeman he can do no other than vote the Republican national ticket. He cannot vote for Stevenson, however in­ A Common-Sense V;eew gratiating the Democratic candidate may be, be­ cause he cannot vote for the men of Teheran and 01 the Election Yalta, the men who (as typified by Acheson and Marshall) pulled the United States down from its Presidential campaign undistinguished for eminence of 1945 and reduced it to its present de­ A candor and dignity reaches its gratifying con­ fensive and apologetic state. He cannot, D1oreover, clusion on N'ovember 4. Soon Harry Truman's if he values the security of his country, vote for rasping execrations will no longer be heard in the the men who defended Hiss until the second jury land. Adlai Stevenson's rhymed japeries and adroit­ found him guilty of treason; he cannot vote for ly polished epithets will be with us no more, Gen­ the men who have with anger and unreason de­ eral Ike's earnest exegetics will be lost to the air nounced all who have decried treason in our midst. waves, the Columbia professors can quit jostling In the last analysis when you confront your con­ over the aspirations of their President and the science in the voting place you are not marking a metropolitan press can cease its labors on his behalf. ballot for Eisenhower or Stevenson. You are so Before quitting the subject of the campaign Inarking a ballot, it is true, but the act is by no itself, its degraded forensics and ambiguities, some means as simple as that. Behind Eisenhower itands 80 THE FREEMAN

ranged the Republican Party, an amorphous con­ nervous conformity.... At many a point in Ameri­ glomerate that embraces Irving Ives and Joe Mc­ can life, adventurous and constructive thought is Carthy, Charles Tobey, Margaret Smith and Bob stifled by apprehension." Taft. Since l\ir. Herbert Hoover's TV speech Reading this, we felt like saying "Oh, oh, Fred" the Grand Old Party is as nearly united as it ever and quitting the life of words forever. That potato has been before a national election. While it is as field which we have yet completely to harvest impossible to endorse or indict a whole party as looked more alluring than a Mohammedan's dream it is a nation, one thing is true about the Republi­ of heaven. But then we recalled ourselves sternly to can Party in this year of ill grace: except for an the point of duty to 21,000 Freeman subscribers. insignificant handful it has never condoned treason So, leaving the potato fork to rust momentarily in

nor sought to shield traitors. the i autumn dews, we challenge Mr. Allen to a re­ As much cannot be said for the Administration) porting job. Where are those useful and productive which, counting Roosevelt's and Truman's as one, people who have been frightened into a nervous has held the seats of power for twenty years. It conformity? Names, please. Dates, please. And was under the party headed by Stevenson that Hiss where is the "adventurous and constructive" worked great harm to his country's interest thought that has been "stifled by apprehension"? and Owen Lattimore contrived to influence our Far Has Mr. Thurber or Bertrand Russell or Justice Eastern policy to an end which can not as yet be Douglas, speaking or writing for a million readers discerned. of the Sunday Times, been stifled? Contrariwise, This is the common-sense view of the matter. would Lester Markel permit the words of a Free­ Whether Stevenson is a literary craftsman of high man editor to go out to a million readers of his order or not, whether General Ike can charm the newspaper? We are waiting for an invitation. birds from the trees-these things are of sec­ :r-.ro, Mr. Allen, you've fallen down on your job ondary importance. What matters is the general and your forte, which is-or, at any rate, used to climate of government and opinion that we as be-good, straight, factual reporting. There is no voters wish to see prevail during the next four terror of the sort you specify; you have mistaken years. We shall be voting for far more than indi­ a Hallowe'en pumpkin for the real thing. Archibald viduals on November 4. MacLeish, Schlesinger fils, Benny De Voto and Ken Galbraith say daily what they please in Cambridge, Mass. In Dwight Eisenhower's great university of Columbia, faculty members and the head of the Boo to a Pumpkin Pulitzer School of Journalism go all out for Steven­ son. Any idiot and not a few otherwise sane men very so often, usually in the dark reaches of can get a forum by yelling about "McCarthyism." E the night, we feel like tossing in the sponge James Wechsler may be momentarily forced off the as an editorialist and retiring to our farm to grow air by a silly sponsor who chooses to exercise his potatoes. For it becomes increasingly apparent that Constitutional right to refrain from paying Mr. the intellectual life of this mid-century period is Wechsler's grocery bills, but Jimmy still has all dominated by word fetishists, by people who insist the white space of the New York Post's editorial in the face of all the evidence that the naked king page in which to disport, and as a matter of fact is fully clothed. Things go by their opposites, a it didn't take him very long to get back on the air crazy system. We grow tired of assaulting the after his contretemps. almost universal curtain of fog which the fetish'sts have succeeded in laying down. If you ask us, what bothers the people who go The fog is everywhere. It drifts across the pages around prating of the "intellectual terror" is a of the maidenly Manchester Guardian, which reports simple thing: their monopoly of white space, their an intellectual "reign of terror" in America. (But power to dominate forums, college faculties, radio who or what is being "terrorized," deponent sayeth programs, review media and magazines, has been not.) The fog swirls through murky and utterly challenged for the first time in a generation. They unsubstantiated pieces by Bertrand Russell and react to an unfamiliar challenge by trying to brow­ Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas in beat the new opposition. It's lese majeste that a Lester Markel's Sunday section of the New York non-Keynesian economist should pretend to a job Times. It crops up in a Harvey Breit interview at Harvard! It's an outrage that a conservative with James Thurber, who alleges that "all writers, like Bill Buckley could worm his way into the even the innocent ones, are scared." Worst of all, chairmanship of the Yale Daily News! It's per­ the fog floats across a chapter of a book by a man fectly terrible that a Freeman could come into ex­ who is ordinarily the soundest and the kindliest istence and print the articles of Burton Rascoe and of men, Frederick Lewis Allen, editor of Harper's. Ludwig von Mises and Ralph de Toledano and other On page 282 of his r'The Big Change," Mr. Allen people whom Lester Markel won't print! 'writes, in all seriousness: "... a great many useful We'll let Frederick Lewis Allen in on a Iittle and productive people have been frightened into a secret: the people who started all this talk about NOVEl\IBER 3, 1952 81

"terrorization"-Le., the Communists-did it to cautions may I suggest that you consult Mr. William enforce their own terror. They got the story across F. Buckley, Jr. He had the intelligence and ability in the same way in which they spread the gospel which warrant opposition to the N ation-New Re­ public-Reporter fans, I do not.... of Chiang Kai-shek's "corruptness," or the whis­ pered theory that Senators Jenner and McCarthy No\v, Mr. Allen, just who is conducting the ter­ are "Fascists." The technique is to put out the ror? The Freeman is in possession of concrete evi­ line in the Daily Worker, then sell it via the trans­ dence that a conservative freshman in a large col­ mission belts to innocents and dupes who never lege doesn't dare speak out by name. It has the read the Daily Worker. And the sucker intellectuals concrete evidence offered by the Fellers and Carl­ fall for the racket every time. The trick is as de­ son articles in this issue. pendable as the shell game at an old-time country Where is the evidence of terror in the other di­ fair. rection? We hazard a guess that the only terror Having said this, we'll let Mr. Allen in on an­ Mr. Allen could prove is the terror of Communists other little secret: there is a terror. But it is a or ex-Communists who are asked to tell about their terror visited, not upon Leftists, but upon those own present or past affiliations. In other words, who would pursue the adventure of "constructive the terror to which Mr. Allen alludes is the craven thought" on the Right. If it were not for the terror shown by all hooded men when they are saving grace that we don't personally give a damn asked to show their faces. (we are always willing to quit writing and raise Of course, we could be wrong. Maybe Mr. Allen those potatoes if forums are closed to us), we knows a few "liberals" who will admit in private might have succumbed to the anti-Right terror to being scared into a nervous conformity. But if ourselves. he does, what right has Mr. Allen to speak of these "liberals" as being the exemplars of "adventurous Since we have challenged Mr. Allen to give his and constructive thought"? The italics, we hasten evidence, we feel called upon to display ours. Nancy to add, are ours. By definition adventurous thought Jane Fellers's article called ",God and Woman at can hardly be stifled by anything short of death. Vassar" (see page 83 of this issue of the Freeman) is our Exhibit A. We have known the Fellers family ever since 1939, and can vouch for the soundness, the unspoiled wisdom and the humor of both Nancy A New View 0/ Hoover Jane and her father, General Bonner Fellers. (Gen­ eral Fellers was adviser at Fortune Magazine on o conditioned reflex has a stronger grip on our military articles when we were writing them, N liberal commentators and educators than the and he turned out to be a man of prophetic insight. meretricious anti-Hoover cliche. A captive youth He told us we were all wrong about General Mac­ is still being taught that Herbert Hoover personi­ Arthur in 1939, and events subsequently proved fies American provincialism, isolationism, callous Fellers, not us, to be correct.) ignorance and indifference to the affairs of the Exhibit B in our display of evidence is the article Old World. on page 87, "The Crime of Alpheus Ray." We So, when the "liberal" book reviewers went to challenge Mr. Allen to read this and tell us who is work on the latest volume of Herbert Hoover's terrorizing whom. memoirs, and did their worst (for relief, see John One further bit of evidence, a letter from a col­ Chamberlain's review on p. 98) it warmed our lege student to the editors of the Freeman. We hearts to reread what a European observer at the quote for Mr. Allen's benefit: Paris Peace Conference recorded for history in 1919. Only one man, concluded that observer, I am enclosing five dollars which came into my emerged from the conference with uncompromised hands in a very unusual way. I struck up a con­ honor and an enhanced reputation: versation with a gentleman wearing an "Ike button." Naturally my statements were sprinkled with "the This complex personality, with his habitual air Freeman says." "What is the Freeman?" (my most of weary Titan (or, as others might put it, of ex.. hated question) brought forth a long pep talk which hausted prizefighter) his eyes steadily fixed on the ended in a plea. "How much1" "The best five dollars true and essential facts of the European situation you'll ever spend," I said. The enclosed check is mine, imported into the Councils of Paris, when he took but it is backed by the crisp bill of [the "Ike button" part in them, precisely that atmosphere of reality, gentleman]. knowledge, magnanimity and disinterestedness which, if they had been found in other quarters, also, would We offer this letter not for its evidence of the have given us the Good Peace. way Freeman circulation grows, but because of the postscript, which asked us not to reveal its origin. "This complex personality" is of course Herbert For Mr. Allen's edification the postscript is this: Hoover. And the faithful portrait, so cunningly hidden from the youth of this country for twenty I am at the beginning of my four years of this years, was drawn by a man whom New-Dealish academically magnificent but politically naive college and I prefer to conclude them in comparative professors otherwise quote ad nauseam-John May­ anonymity. In case you doubt the need for such pre- nard Keynes. 82 THE FREEMAN

velopment, which has to do with the use of UN Strange Case of Mr. Wu funds to aid "underdeveloped" countries. Its head is Mr. David Weintraub, whose handpicked as­ n this issue our readers will find a second article sistant, Irving Kaplan, refused in May 1952 to tell I by Alice Widener on American participation in a Federal Grand Jury whether or not he was cur­ the UN Secretariat. As we write these lines several rently engaged in spying against the lJnited States. more Americans employed by the UN have refused, And it was precisely intthat section of Mr. Wein­ at dramatic sessions of the Senate Subcommittee on traub's Division headed by Mr. Kaplan, the im­ Internal Security, to state whether or not they portant section having to do with development, that have ever been members of the Communist Party. Mr. Wu found employment. One employee, Ruth Crawford, chief writer for the After Mr. Weintraub and his reticent assistant, UN International Children's Emergency Fund at Kaplan, had appeared several times before the an annual salary of $9000, admitted that she joined Grand Jury, Mr. Wu severed his connection with the Communist Party in 1935, never formally with­ the UN, and we have it on reliable authority that drew, and is still in sympathy with it. It becomes in August or September of this year he departed more and more evident that the American taxpay­ these shores for England, which recognizes Com­ ers are footing one-third of the bill for an inter­ munist China and is presumably hospitable to Chi­ national organization in which Americans of doubt­ nese Communists. ful loyalty have been permitted to hold positions We wonder how long the American taxpayers, enabling them, if they wish, to sabotage their who pay the lion's share of UN maintenance, will ~ountry's interests. put up with an organization which not only abuses Mrs. Widener quotes Mr. David Weintraub of the their hospitality but endangers their security; an UN Secretariat as telling the McCarran Committee organization which asks American Communist ap­ that he supposed it would make no difference to plicants for employment no questions about their th~ UN' if one of its employees were a spy, so long political affiliations and is even willing to employ as his activities were not directed against the UN. agents of its own enemies. Watch for a bill in Con­ But information has come to Mrs. Widener which gress providing that Point Four funds-also de­ indicates that the UN's tolerance does not stop rived from the American taxpayers-be turned there. We refer to the strange case of Mr. Wu Hsu­ over to the UN Division of Economic Affairs for sheng, a UN employee who acted as liaison between allocation and administration. You may want to the Security Council and General Wu Hsu-chuan, write your Congressman and Senators. head of the Chinese Communist Mission seeking Red China's admission to the UN-while it was at war with the .UN. The case of Mr. Wu, which was only touched upon in the McCarran Committee hearings last week, proves that the UN does not Guilt by Association boggle at employing in a strategic division a man whose government is embattled against the UN. he State Department's "Voice of America" has The story, which should interest every American, T proudly broadcast across the Iron Curtain that especially those who have sons, husbands, or broth­ its research staff has discovered a dark spot on the ers on the Korean front or lying in Korean graves, escutcheon of Georgi M. Malenkov, Stalin's heir is as follows: apparent: Mr. Acheson's savants claim to have found out that young Malenkov was the secretary of a students' club which, in 1923, passed a resolu­ When Red China's mISSIon, after its failure, re­ tion in favor of Leon Trotsky. turned to Peiping, General Wu's liaison man, Mr. If we tried hard we could think of considerably Wu Hsu-sheng, remained in the UN Secretariat. greater crimes that Malenkov has committeed since It is hard to see why the UN should have wished 1923, when the Communist students' cell at Mos­ to employ the agent of a nation with which it was cow's Higher Technical School praised the then at war. The fact that asa student he had come here outstanding figure of the Kremlin hierarchy. Unless with a passport from the legitimate Chinese gov­ we are incapable of comprehending the wizardry of ernment could certainly have fooled no one. More­ Mr. Acheson's master propagandists, their objec­ over, the legitimate Chinese government withdrew tive was to disturb Soviet listeners with a hint that and cancelled this passport on June 15, 1951; yet even a Malenkov, when young, could bet on the Its action had no effect on Mr. Wu's status in the wrong horse. But Mr. Acheson's "research staff" UN. As late as May 1, 1952-after more than 100,­ did not offer any proof that the regrettable resolu­ 000 American casualties in Korea-he was listed in tion was written or even signed by Malenkov; and the UN' Directory as occupying Room 2678. More­ this disturbs U8. To condemn an up-and-coming po­ over, he was important enough to rate a personal litician on no other ground than his past affiliation telephone. The number was 2429. with a subversive group is precisely the sort of And where do you think Mr. Wu was employed? thing that Mr. Acheson abhors as proclaiming Why, in the Division of Economic Stability and De- "guilt by association." God and Woman

at Vassar By NANCY JANE FELLERS

"You do not hesitate to Vassar's President, Sarah Gibson Blanding, heard appalling misrepre­ break into print with your wrote of Nancy Jane Fellers: "She was not sentations of Buckley's dangerous ideas. If some­ a strong student academically speaking.... stand even from those who thing is not done, your Certainly we are aware of a difficulty in confessed that they had getting through Vassar communication...." not read his book! will be imperiled." So said Nancy transferred from Earlham Col­ My defense of Mr. Buck­ Professor Helen Druscilla lege, which enjoys an exceptionally high academic standing, to Vassar in her junior ley's book is easily under­ Lockwood, head of the Eng­ year. During her first three years of col­ stood by knowledge of my lish Department at Vassar lege, she never failed a course. Her marks background. I was born on College. Her warning was ran: seven A's, seventeen B's, four C's and Corregidor where my fath­ echoed by another teacher, one D. At the University of Denver summer er was stationed as a Lieu­ who added that if I should school she made B in English and was tenant in the United States ever say anything to the offered a scholarship for excellence in Army. In faraway lands I newspapers about the inci­ writing. became intensely proud of dent she and Miss Lock­ Immediately following her first semester being an American. I am wood would brand me as as a senior at Vassar, Nancy returned to not ashamed to show emo­ an "imaginative, overdra­ Earlham. There her marks in thirteen tion at the sight of the hours of English were: four A's and one matic child." B-plus. In political history she made A. fiag. At home I have al­ Miss Lockwood tied her Professor E. Merrill Root of Earlham wrote ways been free to express threat directly to a letter of hler in Human Events: "She is politically myself and participate in I had written for publica­ one of the most realistic and informed stu­ open debate with my tion in the Vassar Chron­ dents I have known." By Earlham standards parents and friends. icle (December 1, 1951) at Nancy's college rating is "superior." The first two years of the invitation of a friend college, I went to Earlham on the staff. It took issue with the editorial view in Richmond, Indiana. I entered Vassar in my ju­ of William Buckley's controversial "God and Man nior year. at Yale," and read in part as follows: It was on December 11, 1951, during' the first semester of my senior year, that Miss Lockwood William F. Buckley, Jr. is a radical. "God and Man at Yale" is his blueprint for revolution spoke of my "dangerous ideas." From its explosive against the vested interests of agnosticism and nature I surmised that her antagonism had been collectivism. . .. building up. It most likely began with the first as­ Freedom, the dynamo of revolution, has thriven signment I submitted for her class, Contemporary under the Alnerican Constitutional system of checks Press. We were asked to state our basic beliefs and balances. The founders of our Republic knew only too well ... that centralized government stifles about God and the universe, the state, the family, individual freedom. Buckley reminds us that Marx money, culture, attitudes toward the stranger and cited two plans of attack.... "One was violent revo­ education. The assignment was to be repeated in lution, the other a slow increase of state power June, and Miss Lockwood implied that she felt that through extended social services, taxation, and regu­ lation to a point where a smooth transition could be our beliefs would be altered between these two effected from an individualist to a collectivist dates. Thus my first paragraph may have an­ society." ... tagonized her: Buckley believes in academic freedom. "I can not sufficiently stress the responsibility of the faculty I believe in God, Human Dignity, and the United to insist upon student examination of other and States of America. Next June I shall believe in God, even unfriendly creeds." Evaluation of different Human Dignity, and the United States of America. ideas and creeds is fine provided they are properly defined. But much biased material is taught under In the course of our search for "truth" we the guise of "objectivity." The dangerous professor "learned" from Miss Lockwood that Senator Mc­ is the one who slips poison to his students bit by Carthy had stymied poor Mr. Jessup, who had bit each day, calling his cumulative collectivism any "tried to get some facts before the American peo­ name but its true one. pIe"; that McCarthy had used slurs to interfere Around Vassar it had become intellectually re­ with Drew Pearson's making a living; and that ' spectable to condemn "God and Man at Yale." I had McCarthy never made his charges away from 84 THE FREEMAN

Senatorial immunity. We "learned" that General I would go through official channels to resolve MacArthur had said "let's go on into China and the impasse. I made an appointment with the Dean, start a third world war." I found it impossible to Miss Tait, to request a transfer from Miss Lock­ accept this "teaching," for I knew that it was wood's class. I told the Dean that I was unhappy' simply not true. On January 9 I wrote home: in tlae class. She said this was not a sufficient reason for dropping a full-year course and suggested that ... Today we "learned" in class that the Catholic Church is trying to undermine the American Con­ I try to make an adjustment by talking with Miss stitution. The Catholics must be fought and we must Lockwood. feel confident that after the misunderstanding the So I returned to Miss Lockwood. I rewrote my Catholics and Protestants will grow together as did assignments in an effort to satisfy her. I wrote England and the United States after the Revolution. the Fortune article four times, the Life and Time All these views were upheld by Miss Lockwood in a most subtle manner•••• articles three times. I tried earnestly to follow her instructions. Miss Lockwood showed an extraordinary preoccu­ One thing that puzzled me was that Miss Lock­ pation with the UN Declaration of Human Rights. wood criticized parts ot the second and third re­ She paid it great tribute. She did not seem at all writes to which she had not objected in the first concerned that the Declaration might supersede papers. In the first draft of a Life paper I said: the Constitution of the United States. "By December 22 Luce had gathered his thoughts to write 'The Day of Wrath,' a patriotic essay "Dangerous Ideas" within an American flag cover." She put in the margin "Was it signed by him?" So, in the next In an assignment to analyze Fortune magazine, paper I made the suggested correction: "In the I had not satisfied Miss Lockwood. It was to dis­ December 22, 1941, issue or Life, Luce signed his cuss the second draft of this paper that we had name to a patriotic essay called 'The Day of our initial conference which ended in her impas­ Wrath.'" She wrote in the margin: "Why do you sioned threat. I had concluded the paper with: call attention to Luce's signing his name?" ... It is curious that Fortune, a magazine supported One of our assignments was to write an article by the principles of a capitalistic society, would per­ using the style of Life, Time or Fortune. Miss petrate an internationalist theory which may destroy Lockwood asked me what I planned to write the tenets of that society. Self-annihilation is the about. I told her that I planned to do an ar­ paradox of our age. ticle in the style of Time about the 1936 Anglo­ Miss Lockwood called this statement "not clear" Egyptian Treaty. She asked me where I would get and "unsound." the material. I replied that I had already sent to Another paper I had submitted for Miss Lock­ the Egyptian and British Embassies. She suggested wood's criticism was a favorable review of "Out of that I write it from the "British point of view." Bondage" by the converted Communist, Elizabeth "But, Miss Lockwood, I planned to do an objec­ Bentley, a Vassar graduate. Miss Lockwood said tive article." that I "had not read between the lines." But she Miss Lockwood retorted, "You are not ready to admitted that she had not even read the book. do the article." As I left that conference with Miss Lockwood So I changed the subject to a theater review I thanked her for her "constructive criticism." I on "Finnegan's Wake." I took my paper to Pro­ rushed to my room as fast as I could. The rage fessor Katz, who had adapted the play for the Vas­ in Miss Lockwood's voice was foreign to me. I had sar Experimental Theater. I felt familiar with the never seen or heard such an outburst. Was she subject because I had participated in the produc­ denying my Constitutional right of free speech? tion. Dr. Katz said: "You have caught much of To whom are my ideas "dangerous"? What are the theme." He appeared satisfied with the paper. the dangerous ideas in my letter in defense of But it did not satisfy Miss Lockwood. Buckley? Is it dangerous to believe in God? Indi­ It is' not my intention to suggest that the quality vidualism? Academic freedom? of my work warranted my being placed in the top And what about graduation? I thought of the of the class. But after reading the papers of the sacrifice my parents had made to send me to school. other students, I was positive that I belonged in Was it all going to be snatched away in my senior the center bracket. year? I realized that I was in trouble because I It was not until my last conference with Miss had been too open in stating my beliefs. But where Lockwood that I found I was failing the course. else should one be free to say what one believes if Contrary to standard academic procedure, she had not in a college which professes academic fr.eedom? avoided being specific on this issue. In fact I had I determined to be less vociferous in class. I to drag the information out of her. would study the State Department journals for The 1950-51 Catalogue of Vassar College states, style. I would survive as a mental prisoner until "For failure in a course marked E, one reexamina­ June. Then I could walk out of the corridors of tion is allowed. Failure in the second examination containment free, with my basic beliefs unaltered. automatically gives an F for the course." So I asked NOVEMBER 3, 1952 85

Miss Lockwood if I m.ight take an examination. She alleviate some of the last-minute rush in the re­ refused. corder's office.) Realizing that time was closing in, lVIeanwhile I was beginning to see the intimate my father called the recorder's office and asked for connection between Miss Lockwood and the head of the marks as soon as possible. my major department, who was also my adviser. Miss Tait sent for me. She was quite upset. She When my adviser first learned about the threat she said that my father had been calling the school was shocked. She said it would be a shame for me and causing "great consternation." She added that to leave because I had "so much to offer." At our they would take care of me and that there was no next meeting she did an about face. Explaining need to bring my parents into the situation. that she might be wrong, she said that I presented My parents, still hoping they would not have to the picture of a young girl sitting in a darkened intervene, felt that I needed neutral counsel. On room and looking into a mirror. There I saw only January 29 my father called the president, Miss what I wanted to see. I had never gone through Sarah Gibson Blanding, and urgently requested any "political turmoil" to find out where I stood. the name of the president of the local chapter of I was "politically naive." And if anyone should the American Association of University Professors. enter the room and want to turn on the "light," I It was refused. Miss Blanding and Miss Tait said would say "No, no. Go away and leave me with my I had no need of advice; they were looking after reactionary ideas." Miss Lockwood had said that my interest. Miss Tait suggested that my parents something must be done about my "dangerous come to Vassar to confer. My father was told that ideas." no decision about my status could be reached. until On January 12, 1952 I had a second conference a forty-page playwriting paper was evaluated for with Dean Tait. I wrote home: inclusion in my semester mark. In addition they would have to know the results of my geology exam. ... As you suggested I took some of my papers to the Dean. She agreed with Miss Lockwood that I I asked that I be allowed to take this exam on was a problem, academically. The work is not "senior Saturday morning, February 2, so that my com­ level." I give my points in "capsule" form. I am plete report could be in the hands of the adminis­ "dogmatic." She is worried about the "quality of all tration for the conference with my parents on Mon­ Iny senior work." My language is "archaic." (I had day morning, February 4. Miss Tait granted per­ used the word "lest," one that is natural to me but she felt it was false.) mission, but when I arrived at the appointed time As much as I hated to, I did tell her about Miss on Saturday morning she had sent word that I Lockwood's threat. She cast it off with, "I'Ul sure could take the exam but that it was against her Miss Lockwood didn't mean her comments as a wishes. I did not go against her wishes. The fol­ threat." But I was there! Miss Tait wasn't. I saw the look in Miss Lockwood's eyes. ... lowing Tuesday, after I had learned that I could not graduate in June, I took the exanl. My final So I had made a prophecy when· I wrote home mark in geology was B. the day of the threat:

Frankly, I suspect a plot.... I think their main Conference with Nancy's Parents tactical line is to show me up as "unintellectual," not up to Vassar standards. If they flunk me out I On the morning of February 4, 1952, there was can't fuss as much as if I'm dismissed for no obvious a long conference between the Vassar Administra­ reason. tion and the Fellers family. It began with Presi­ By the time I had undergone the runaround and dent Blanding, Dean Tait and my parents. Then many conferences in which my stupidity was la­ Miss Lockwood and the head of my department mented, I wrote home: were called. At the express wish of Miss Blanding I remained outside, although my parents asked sev­ After talking to Miss Lockwood and Miss Tait, I began to feel like an underdeveloped moron who eral times that I be brought in. I was eager to be has no business wasting time in college. But it is present because I had a hunch that I would be curious that they accepted me in the first place if misquoted. I was. I am so dumb. If the quality of my work was so poor Miss Blanding told my parents that I had ad­ why did I pass the last year? mitted (in her home) that I "was not a good ac­ Miss Tait was interested, in fact curious to the tress." This was to bolster the assertion that my point of prodding, about what I would do if I left drama marks were justified. What. I had actually Vassar. This question had been churning in my told Miss Blanding was that I was not a good mind. I thought about returning to Earlham. enough actress to pretend that I believed in the It became imperative that some conclusion be ideologies Miss Lockwood advanced in class. reached because the second semester of Earlham When at last I was admitted to the conference began on January 29. I went to the recorder and my marks were read to me. I was prepared for the asked for my marks as soon as they came in. (It F in Contemporary Press. But the two D-pluses was the Vassar policy that the professors of courses for drama were a shock. I knew that I should make in which there were no mid-semester exams would at least a C in drama. I had made a C-plus the submit their marks as soon as possible in order to year before, and my work had since profited from 86 THE FREEMAN a summer session in the drama department of Den­ ver University. Professor Katz of Vassar had Most Politely praised my performance in a Yeats play. Signifi­ cantly, the drama marks were just below transfer In these days when men of the highest character strength. I felt that they had been designed to en­ are called "liar" or "thief," when the Soviet del:.. tice me to stay to be broken or processed by June. egate to the United (?) Nations is apparently We learned from the head of my department that chosen for his proficiency in billingsgate, and when my forty-page paper had not been included in the even the President of the United States is some­ playwriting mark. My father interjected that' over what unrestrained in his choice of language, an the telephone both Miss Blanding and Miss Tait old man gets a bit nostalgic in thinking of how had stressed its importance in determining the much more politely, as well as efficiently, important semester mark. Miss Blanding replied that that rnatters were handled in times past. also was her understanding. Nevertheless, as Presi­ For example, it is related that during the dent she would not direct that the paper be in­ twenties, Alfonso, then the ruling monarch of cluded. Spain, while pursuing a more general (if less pub­ My parents asked to be shown the work in which licized) "sport of kings" in Paris, made the ac­ I had failed. My father had been an English pro­ quaintance of an attractive dancer and bestowed fessor and was interested in the papers from a pro­ on her an expensive necklace, with the request that fessional as well as personal standpoint. The ad­ the famous jeweler send the bill privily to the ministration produced no paper with a failing Privy Purse. In due course, however, the Keeper mark. They told my parents that it was not the of the Purse sent back word that sufficient funds practice to mark at Vassar; that my work was were not on hand. After several duns the jeweler "immature" and just not up to "senior level." suggested that the Queen, being a Mountbatten, My parents asked that a board of three neutral was rich and could pay the bill. educators, only one of whom they would select, be The situation was critical, but at this moment a brought in to evaluate my work. Miss Blanding real diplomat took over. He was the famous M. replied that they had no objection but that the Blanc, principally known as owner of the Monte Vassar evaluation would stand, no matter what the Carlo Casino, who also owned the Casino and some conclusion of the outside board. hotels at Deauville. For several seasons Deauville The administration felt that it was being "very had been slipping, and M. Blanc was quite worried. lenient." It would wipe Miss Lockwood's F off the So he suggested through a discreet emissary that record entirely. In my opinion this was not leni­ His Majesty might like to spend a month at ence; it was plain dishonesty. If the F was fair, Deauville; that a royal suite and a number of other it belonged in my record. By wiping off the course 'rooms would be at his disposal without charge, "as if I had never taken it," the administration together with truly royal nourishment; that His admitted that my failure was the result of Miss Majesty could keep his winnings and forget his Lockwood's unobjective marking. losses at the :Casino, and that the little matter of The conference terminated when Miss Blanding the necklace would be taken care of. presented the final arbitrary draft of their solu­ The King accepted, and Europe long remembered tion. I could remain at Vassar. After the cOlnple­ the brilliance of that season at Deauville. The tion of a summer course I would receive a degree. Prince of Wales headed a dazzling concourse of But they would not permit me to be graduated with royalty; society just had to be there; the greatest my class even though I could have qualified by stars of the theater, the movies and the tennis taking only two extra hours in the next semester court were on hand, and Deauville was reestablished to make up the deficit caused by Miss Lockwood's F. as the premier summer resort of Europe. It was then that I made my decision to return The suave master of diplomacy had evolved a to Earlham. Although I had no assurance that I solution which pleased everyone. The lady had the would be graduated by June, I preferred to finish necklace, the jeweler had his money, the Privy where my work would be evaluated on its merit. Purse was not further depleted, M. Blanc's resort My experience at Vassar was not a case of per­ was again prosperous, the King had a wonderfully sonalities, of likes or dislikes. It was the clash of good time, and the Queen remained in blissful ig­ two forces diametrically opposed to one another, norance. While today some favor "open covenants even as they are in the world. I do not hate Miss openly arrived at," I confess a longing for the more Lockwood. I wish that all the fighters on my side traditional, less strident approach, where the bick­ could possess her passion without her tyranny. ering and name-calling is done, if at all, in private, Within their academic immunity she and her kind and hard feelings do not become nation-wide. are a law unto themselves. They insist upon "aca­ As most of the principals have now "strutted demic freedom" as their exclusive right. They deny their brief hour upon the stage," this story prob­ freedom to students who do not swallow their brand ably hurts no one. I can not vouch for its accuracy; of "objectivity," which is the subjectivity of the all I can say ii, "Even if not true, it's good any­ New Social Order in disguise. how!" STERLING MOR.TON The Crime of Alpheus Ray'

Mr. Carlson, who gave to Freeman rearders the facts behind the widely condemned dismissal of Willard By OLIVE'R CARLSON Goslin in Pasadena, now teUs what does not happen when a conservative school superintendent is fired.

By a three-to-two vote they fired him. For seven It has sent no investigator to Roseville to get the and one-half years he had been superintendent of facts. It hasn't even written a letter, either to the the elementary school district of Roseville, Califor­ Board of Education or Mr. Ray, asking about it. nia. Now without a word of warning and without Even the California Teachers Association never a hearing he was "through," "finished," "washed went beyond sending a single brief letter of inquiry. up." No charges, either written or oral, were made at the time the Roseville Board of Education took Why Mr. Ray Went Undefended the action. There were only vague "complaints." Later, as public indignation developed, charges be­ Why were these powerful organizations unwilling gan to be heard: "Superintendent Ray is not a good or unable to go to the defense of one of their asso­ administrator." "He has not practiced good public ciates? Why were these staunch and vociferous relations." "He has antagonized some of the pa­ defenders of the civil rights of educators so con­ rents." "He gets involved in too many things which spicuously silent in the case of Alpheus Ray? Did do not concern our school system." "We could carry they know that the belated excuses given by the the school bond issue if we had a new superin­ majority members of the Roseville Board of Edu­ tendent." cation were not the real reasons why Superin­ So far as a great many Roseville citizens were tendent Ray had been fired? Did they feel that he concerned, these ex post facto reasons did not ring was guilty of something more serious? That he true. Soon the whole town was debating the ques­ was unworthy to be defended? There's no doubt tion, just why had Alpheus W. Ray been fired. Re­ about it-this I found from a careful first-hand percussions were felt in San Francisco as well as investigation-the crime of Alpheus Ray is serious. in nearby Sacramento. The working people of Rose­ It is basic to the future of all American education. ville (a large railroad center) rose to Mr. Ray's First, Mr. Ray is out of step with prevailing defense through their local labor unions. l\{r. educational theories and practices, and he admits George H. Mayse, Secretary-Treasurer of the AFL it. Secondly, a successful demonstration of his point Railway Employees Union and Chairman of the of view, if nationally· advertised, would be a serious local lodge of the International Association of Ma­ blow to the existing leadership in American public chinists, declared in a letter that the workers were education. Thirdly, he has had the audacity to ad­ "fighting to retain a school superintendent who vocate that our boards of education stands for teaching the three R's and the principles ... reassume their original and rightful responsi­ of democratic society." The California section of bility for operating our system of public education the Sons of the American Revolution learned what ... that they once again concern themselves with had happened in Roseville and instructed its at­ the philosophy of education and with the science of pedagogy and become really acquainted with teach­ torney, Mr. Aaron M. Sargent, to make an on-the­ ers and principals ... and that they redefine the spot study. Copies of his findings were sent to the duties of the superintendent so that he shall become, California Legislature and to Congress. in fact, the executive secretary of the school board. But the case attracted neither state-wide nor This, in the eyes of many school superintendents, national newspaper attention. Not a single maga­ is next door to treason. In addition, Mr. Ray has zine gave it so much as a paragraph. The WinchelIs,' appeared on several occasions before legislative the Pearsons and all the other widely known com­ committees of the State of California to give them mentators were obviously unaware of its existence. expert information about textbooks and educational Strangest of all, the National Education Asso­ practices which he considered unsound, incorrect ciation, which had gone all out to defend Superin­ and un-American. Beyond this, as Superintendent tendent Willard Goslin of Pasadena when he was of Elementary Schools at Roseville he issued the dismissed two years ago (and which ever since has following instructions to his teaching staff: devoted much-perhaps most-of its time and at­ tention to such problems), has remained completely We, as citizens, have the right to participate in activities toward amendment of the Constitution or oblivious to the firing of Alpheus Ray. It has not change of the laws governing the subjects, the books, reported the case in its bulletins or its magazine. and the philosophy of the public elementary school, 88 THE FREEMAN

should such amendment or change be found neces­ kids.' But if the kids won't study they shouldn't be sary or thought desirable. promoted just for attending school the way they But we, as teachers, can comply only with the do in Sacramento. Most of us working people are Constitution as it is written-now; only with the laws as they stand-now. darn well satisfied with the way Mr. Ray has made This is the essence of Democracy through edu­ the teachers teach and the kids learn." cation. What manner of man is Alpheus Wilson Ray? This-finally-is Democracy: that parents shall He is 56 years old, of slightly more than medium be secure in their right to have their children taught height, thin, broad-shouldered, with graying hair. what parents want those children to know. He has a square jaw. and a firm mouth. His gray­ To cap the climax, Mr. Ray took over the Rose­ blue eyes are usually serious but occasionally ville school system in 1944 when it was so COln­ sparkle with a glint of humor. He is married and pletely demoralized by so-called "progressive" edu­ has five children, one of whom is now serving his cation that only 35 per cent of the graduating country in Korea. I found Mr. Ray quiet and almost eighth-grade pupils were (according to tests) shy. He has no bitterness toward the board mem­ ready for high school. Tests revealed that the pu­ bers who discharged him and in no sense considers pils of the Roseville schools at that time were in himself a martyr. He speaks with great precision general far below the national average. Superin­ and confidence in his ideas. His little upstairs tendent Ray, using the same staff, brought that "study room" in the Atlantic Street school, where average up within a year beyond both the Califor­ we conversed one evening until long after mid­ nia and the national norm, where it has remained night, is stacked not only with the books you would consistently ever since. expect to find in a superintendent's office, but with In brief, the crime of Alpheus Ray consists in the most notable works on economics, politics, so­ his conviction that elementary schools must not ciology and international affairs that have been only teach children how to read, write, spell and published in recent years. Mr. Ray loves small do arithmetic, but also to obey the laws of the land towns and the people in them, but the caliber of and live by the accepted moral, social and political his mind and the scope of his reading made me feel standards of our country. In proposing and carry­ he belonged in one of our major cultural centers. ing through these (shall we say revolutionary?) "In my opinion," said Mr. Ray, "the school super­ ideas, he was running counter to the dominant intendency is the bottleneck in public education. concepts of our educational hierarchy. All over the country superintendents are asking themselves whether their jobs are becoming un· A Visit to Roseville tenable. Wherever you look at the public school system you will find ex-superintendents looking for Alpheus Ray has been a school teacher, principal new jobs. In a sense the superintendent belongs to and superintendent for more than thirty-five years. a 'tramp' profession." His life has been spent in the schools of small Ray set forth his concepts in an article published towns and cities which are, he believes, rather rep­ in the A merican School Board Journal of March resentative of America. He has strong faith in the 1945. The following passages are illustrative of his intelligence and common sense of the average nlan philosophy: and woman: In a true democracy the teachers must always Ninety-seven per cent of all our pupils can learn function as servants of the public. Otherwise, the what we offer them at the elementary level; that I public soon would become the servant of the teachers. know. Some learn more slowly than others, to be sure, so we must work harder with them. It demands Supervision, like superintendency, contains within good teaching and patient teachers. But it can be itself a fatal weakness, as revealed by the very name. done, as we proved right here in Roseville over the The word "supervision" is formed from "super," past eight years. meaning "above," and "vision," meaning "to see," thus the idea of "seeing from above." I made it my business to talk to a great many citizens of Roseville, especially young people. I Supervision and superintendency either form an alliance or clash in controversy. Both of them may asked them what they thought about their school speak the language of democracy, but they think the system and about Mr. Ray. Many said he was thoughts of autocratic control, and they do the deeds "strict" and "wouldn't let you fool around or waste of centralized power. your time"; but without exception they admitted they had learned a great deal. One teen-ager said Truly, the literature of supervision is full of praise for the democratic way of life, full of declara­ to me, "All the kids who graduated from eighth tions that the so-called "modern" curriculum is a grade in the last few years can read and write a product of cooperative effort. But the teachers know lot better than their older brothers and sisters." this claim as only one of the techniques of gradual A middle-aged railroad worker with whom I penetration by which zealous crusaders force upon talked in a lunchroom said: "I know some parents us their new religions. around here are sore at Mr. Ray because he won't To assist his teachers in the teaching of reading, go over the heads of the teachers and promote their writing and arithmetic, Superintendent Ray worked NOVEMBER 3, 1952 89

out detailed instructions from which I quote the hearing by the Roseville Board of Education, and following significant passages: whose case has been overlooked-deliberately or otherwise-by educational associations, the Civil The elementary school is a "reading" school. Unless childr~n are taught the mechanics of reading Liberties Union and the "do-good" organizations. they can not be expected to understand-to compre­ hend-what they look at in books. The Pasadena Case in Reverse What has been called a "phonetic" system is a see-say-hear-think system. ... A few children who If constructive, conservative superintendents see, say, and hear words very well may be slow in such as Mr. Ray are to be dismissed at will without learning how to think words-to get meaning from regard for their rights, while left-wingers and them. Therefore, I propose that our teachers make "progressives" are to be ardently defended, the every effort to insure that each word read by the effect on American public education can only be child be understood as being the name of a thing, an action, a relationship, a value, a quality, etc. bad. Many school superintendents who believe as Mr. Ray does will obviously keep silent rather than But the first thing to be done in the teaching of lose their positions. The report of the Sons of the primary reading-any reading-is to show children how to see-say-and hear words. American Revolution declares that The purpose of reading is comprehension. ... injury to the public school system is likely to result ... if this injustice is not corrected, it will The purpose of instruction in reading is to help be difficult for the board to obtain a successor who the child become aware of and to know the symbols is not a radical or at least a "neutral," unable to with which the reading material is recorded, so that withstand pressure from left-wing groups.... If he will comprehend. the standards which apply to private employment had been applied to the transaction of public busi­ Mr. Ray insists that though writing, as a subject ness, this thing would not have occurred. of instruction in the public schools, is usually thought of merely as a simple skill, "it is much more What happened in Roseville is the Pasadena case than a skill. It is a very complex intellectual in reverse. The intellectuals, the "progressive edu­ activity." cators," the "snobocracy" who rose so vehemently to the defense of Pasadena's Goslin were quite When a child is beginning to learn writing, he willing to sacrifice Alpheus Ray because his con­ copies letters and words that are outside of him­ cept of American public school education was not on the blackboard, on the paper in the book. To copy those letters and words, he must see them­ theirs. the symbols of recorded intelligence. But he can not After his dismissal Mr. Ray declared: "We see them until he knows them. Nor can he know them superintendents ... are employed to do a job and until he sees them. For the mind can not see what we try to do it in compliance with what the board it does not know. At first· he knows-sees-knows, or sees-knows-sees, wants. So this thing has more than personal signif­ only vaguely, partially. He "looks" clearly through cance.... What am I to think as I face the future his eyes, but he "sees" dimly in his mind. "Looking" in education? What are other men to think as they is not enough. There must be "seeing." face the future in education? ... Can't anything Instruction must point out-over and over again­ be done to prevent the slaughter of superintendents every curve, twist, angle, slant, loop, and dot1 so that children will not only "look" at letters and and principals and supervisors? Must we continue words, but will "see" letters and words-knowingly, to be a profession of tramps? Must we be dismissed exactly, critically, usably. Then-gradually-the because we have done what we have been employed symbols of writing' will become images within the to do?" body, within the mind. This, then, was the "crime" of Alpheus Ray, but With respect to arithmetic, Mr. Ray told his from my point of view the real crime is that we teachers: "Arithmetic is more than the science of do not have hundreds or thousands of men in our using numbers. It is the 'meaningful' use of num­ school system as guilty as he. bers." He also insisted: Arithmetic as a social instrument has moral sig­ nificance. A child must be shown that his work in Prayer for the Future arithmetic has not only "mathematical" rightness (After Swinburne) or wrongness, but also "moral" rightness or wrongness. From too much love of giving, The virtues of accuracy, exactness, orderliness, From rash commitments free, thoroughness, neatness and legibility have a double We'll thank with deep thanksgiving value; they are mathematical, and they are social. Moral ideals of "rightness" are far more impor­ God, if He help decree tant than mathematical ideals of "correctness." The That our blest land come ever child who wants his work to be "right," probably will Before those states that never do work that is "correct." Will, on their own, endeavor These quotations represent in brief the point of To fight for liberty. view of the man who was discharged without a 90 THE FREEMAN

Foreign Trends (See "Foreign Trends," the Freeman, October 20.) For the almost inescapable corollary of Europe's sudden business pessimism will be a fatuous but Depression Expected general scramble for trade with the Soviet bloc. The alleged prospects of east-west trade are thor­ All over Europe the climate of expectation is oughly disproved by all economic experience, but changing fast and in a strange unison. From Lon­ this matters little in an enveloping atmosphere of don to Rome, and from Lisbon to Vienna, the one panic. Europe is moving into a psychological cli­ grave concern of people whose business it is to an­ mate in which "popular fronts" may lustily thrive. ticipate the economic tomorrow is the coming Euro­ pean depression. Nothing like this has happened Tho's Base: Uranium since 1947. Few politicians and even fewer economists would Informed Europeans refuse to believe that the re­ care to offer factual evidence in support of Europe's charged Anglo-American romance with Tito has no universal apprehension. This new pessimism is a other reason than Communist Yugoslavia's strate­ matter of mood rather than statistics. But every gic position in the flank of the Soviet Empire. In­ sound economist has of course a healthy respect stead, their speculations center around apparently for intangibles, and particularly for the powers of reliable intelligence that a tremendous uranium a sudden and general wave of business pessimism: field has been discovered in the triangle formed by a bearish outlook, even unsupported by factual evi­ the rivers Morava and Ibar, near the Bulgarian dence, if only shared by enough decisive people,· frontier. According to one European source, these can indeed determine the business cycle. This much, auspicious uranium ores of the Morava-Ibar hills if nothing else, the science of economics has learned were the ultimate cause of Tito's break with Stalin: from the weird experience of the Great Depression. a scientific expedition, led by the Soviet physicist However, the pessimism that currently sweeps Globov, tried to misinform Tito in 1948 that no Europe is based on at least one tangible and unchal­ important quantities of uranium could be found in lengeable fact: for the first time since 1947, Euro­ the investigated area; whereupon Tito realized that pean production has declined for a whole year and Stalin wanted to get hold of Yugoslavia's potential­ keeps declining. With the singular exception of ly greatest trump in the international power game. western Germany (and in some business areas even This story may be apocryphal, but the uranium there), the reconstruction boom of the immediate ores are real enough. The Anglo-American experts, postwar period, synthetically enhanced by U. S. tax who have explored the Morava-Ibar triangle since dollars, is clearly over. The domestic markets are 1950, are said to agree that Tito is in possession shrinking again, overseas exports are meeting in­ of perhaps the most promising uranium mine in surmountable obstacles, and the feeble attempts the Old World. Its decisive advantage over other (the Schuman Plan, for instance) at creating the uranium-rich areas is that its ores are particularly unified European mass market are immeasurably near the surface. far from practical results. Significantly, nowhere, Fully aware how pretty he is sitting, Tito is said not even in France and Italy, has the business de­ to have agreed on a long-range development pro­ cline reached such serious proportions as in those gram with American technological and financial continental countries which (like the Netherlands, aid. Foreign Secretary Anthony Eden's recent state Scandinavia and Belgium) are traditionally linked visit was apparently undertaken to sign and seal with the British economy: the appalling passivity Britain's participation in the deal. of Britain's intimidated Conservative government has, after one year of "neo-conservative" dragging, Too Rich to Be "Right" not only suffocated British hopes but also infected the dependent continental economies. The phenomenal fact that leftism is an affliction of In percentage figures, the universal European the well-to-do rather than the "proletarians" is not production decline is as yet not dramatic. In fact, confined to Park Avenue. At the recent Morecambe if the NATO countries were to muster sufficient Conference of British Labor, Bevan's victorious nerve to fulfill their promised rearmament quotas, faction filled all five vacant seats on the Party's that impulse alone could reverse the incipient trend. executive committee. Twenty seats are occupied by But nothing is less likely than a revival of courage bona-fide representatives of the unions-and they in a Europe that is congenitally fascinated by the are all "rightists." But the five newly elected Bev­ ghosts of depression. On the contrary, the pessi­ anites-Messrs. Wilson, Driberg, Mikardo, Cross­ mistic talk that is rising all over Europe, even man and Mrs. Castle-have all gone to privileged above the pitch of that favorite conversational schools, draw their relatively high incomes from topic, anti-Americanism, is bound to strengthen privileged "bourgeois" professions and move in Europe's underlying defeatism. More important, it London's most privileged circles. British leftism, is exactly the psychological background for the too, is clearly a disease of the privileged intelli­ Kremlin to stage its new tactics of penetration. gentsia. CANDIDE Once They Owned Their Farms

The English farmers, says a British economist, BY GEORGE WINDER thought Magna Charta was still the law of the land, but the state has taught them otherwise.

London the fact of cheap imported corn or go bankrupt. General Eisenhower-his military title will never Some did go bankrupt, and the area of arable land be omitted in Great Britain, however exalted the in Great Britain dropped to less than it had been position he may hold in his own country-referred in the days of William and Mary. But the vast ma­ at Omaha, during his election campaign, to the jority turned their energies to animal husbandry, fact that a British farmer can be dispossessed of and found in this the road to success. his farm by the government. "If you were not as So great was the expansion in this branch of efficient as the government thought you should be," farming that the total production of British agri­ he told his audience of Nebraska farmers, "you culture, according to the index issued by Mr. O. J .. could be thrown off your land." Beilby, of the Oxford Institute of Agricultural He added: "This is happening today in freedom­ Research, increased by 33 per cent between 1924 loving England. A Republican Administration in­ and 1936. When the second World War broke out, tends to see that it does not happen here." Britain's livestock population was higher than ever This statement will no doubt arouse the interest before. Unfortunately, the cutting off of feeding of many Americans, and will bring about a desire stuffs from abroad meant that a large number of for further information concerning the entirely pigs and poultry had to be killed. Milk production new status now enjoyed, or endured, by the British declined considerably. farmer. It was decided that for the duration of the war Before the war the British farmer was a free at least, Great Britain must reverse the trend to­ man. Nobody could tell him what to grow on his ward animal husbandry and revert to arable farm­ land, or could take it from him for farming it as ing. Milk production was made an exception to the he pleased. If he owned a freehold farm-and one­ general policy, and given first claim on the reduced third of British farmers own their own land-he supplies of imported animal feeding stuffs. had complete security of tenure as long as he paid his debts. If he was a tenant farmer, he could not The Dispossessed be turned off his land save at the expiration of his lease, or, if he had no lease, after one year's The task of switching the country's agricultural notice to quit. In either case, the Agricultural production from animal husbandry back to arable Holdings Act provided that the outgoing tenant farming during a war was no mean one, and a great should be compensated for improvements made effort had to be made by the farmer and the gov­ with the consent of the landlord, and also required ernment. Agricultural Committees, made up of ex­ that a sum of money, usually the equivalent of one perienced farmers who gave their services free of year's rent, should be paid in compensation for charge, were appointed for each county. These were disturbance. staffed by paid officials from agricultural colleges, Between the two world wars, British farm pro­ together with all kinds of unsuccessful farmers and duction experienced a period of remarkable transi­ unemployed farm managers. Under powers granted tion and expansion, brought about by the applica­ by war emergency -legislation, _these committees, at tion of the internal combustion engine to agricul­ the instigation of their paid officers, did not hesi­ ture. This development had tremendous repercus­ tate to dispossess a farmer of his land when he sions on British farming. Ever since the 80s of the failed to plough up sufficient acreage, or showed last century the British farmer had been struggling evidence of inefficient farming. to grow corn _against the competition of overseas When the dispossessed farmer was a freeholder, producers, and for thirty years he had been slowly the committee either worked his farm or sublet it losing the fight. The use of the tractor for plowing to a tenant of its own choice. The owner received in the New World now made his struggle hopeless. from the committee a rent, which in some instances The price of corn, which had been 80 shillings was less than that paid to the committee by the a quarter before the repeal of the Corn Laws a hun­ new tenant. The tenant farmers, however, were the dred years before, dropped, between the two wars, chief sufferers. They found themselves faced with as low as 20/9 a quarter. In these circumstances a forced sale of their stock, and there can be no the British farmer had either to adapt himself to doubt that many of them suffered very great loss. 92 THE FREEMAN

Also, when a committee had once evicted a tenant, These three incidents are only a few of the many no landowner dared rent him another farm. which occurred during the war, when the emphasis In every instance where a committee evicted a of British agriculture was being switched from man from his farm, it also took possession of the animal husbandry back to arable farming. Men farmhouse, although sometimes this was not wanted whose sons and women whose husbands werQ by the new tenant. Mr. Griffin, for example, of serving in the war, were evicted at a time when it King's Coughton Farm, Alcaston, was evicted from was almost impossible to find another house. his house and farm, although the committee's new tenant, a young man of military age living nearby, Exchange for a Mess of Pottage did not want the house and it remained empty for a considerable time after the eviction. With Mr. A policy such as this, which gives committees Griffin were evicted his daughter-in-law and her appointed by the state such powers over individual two children. She was the wife of Mr. Griffin's farmers, will naturally be abhorrent to all Ameri­ eldest son, who was abroad serving in His Majes­ cans. It must not be forgotten, however, that the ty's Forces. Fortunately, a neighbor accommodated examples I have given occurred during the war; this daughter-in-law and her children, but the only and, in the eyes of most people, this justifies actions shelter Mr. Griffin could find was one of his own which should never be tolerated in times of peace. fowl-houses. The committee ordered him to remove What, however, can never be forgotten is that this fowl-house from the farm. after the war the Socialist government, in its Agri­ When they took over the farm, the committee cultural Act of 1947, made these wartime measures confiscated Mr. Griffin's two shotguns. The act, into a permanent peacetime policy. Even the pres­ though illegal, may have been wise, for shotguns ent Conservative government has shown no signs figured in more than one committee eviction. For that it will repeal this Act. Farmers can still be instance, Mr. George Bell, of Hallingdon Hill Farm, evicted without the right of defending themselves Northumberland, when the committee arrived to before an independent Court of Law. The only right evict him, took up his shotgun and, retiring to his that a farmer, so threatened with eviction, has is barn, killed himself. Mr. Bell, who was 67 years to appeal to a body called a Land Tribunal, the of age, had made"' the mistake of supposing that majority of whose members are appointed by the he could run the farm to the satisfaction of the Ministry of Agriculture, the very Ministry that ap­ committee without the aid of his son, whom he points the county committees from whose decision had allowed to go to the war. the farmer would be appealing. Furthermore, as Only once did an Agricultural Committee meet these tribunals are not bound by clear-cut legal with spirited opposition to eviction. This came from precedents, they can give purely arbitrary deci­ Mr. G. R. Walden, of Borough Farm, Itchen Stoke, sions, and there is no appeal to a higher court. A Hampshire, a farmer 65 years old and made of right of appeal to such a body can scarcely be con­ sterner stuff than most. Mr. Walden was of a third sidered a fair substitute for an independent court generation of tenant-farmers who had held land of law presided over by one of Her Majesty's judges. near Winchester on the Tichborne Estate, which One may wonder what resistance this system has has been in the same family since before the N'or­ aroused in the farming community. In individual man Conquest. He had a house and six acres on cases it is strong and bitter, but the Farmers' the banks of the beautiful River Itchen, and some Union, which represents the great majority of forty acres on the higher down land about half a farmers, has not opposed the system. The reason is mile away. The Hampshire Agricultural Committee that the Socialists cleverly associated this system ordered Mr. Walden to plow, summer fallow and of committee control with the farmer's receipt of prepare for cropping some four acres of this down guaranteed prices. The farmers feared that if they land. The order was given only in the middle of opposed committee control they would lose their April, yet on June 20 the committee ordered him guaranteed prices and perhaps their subsidies. It to quit his farm for non-compliance. was not fair, the Socialists claimed, to guarantee Mr. Walden, who considered that Magna Charta prices to farmers who were not pulling their was still the law of the land, who had been taken ·weight. The farmers may be said to have sold their before no court nor served with any court order, liberty for the customary mess of pottage. refused to budge. When the officers of the commit­ The majority of farmers, too, always believe tee came to take possession, he chased them off the that a committee's displeasure will never fall on land with a shotgun. The police were sent for, and them. The marginal farmers-that is, the men on instituted a siege. Walden kept them at bay. He poor land-are in particular danger. It is probably could be seen from time to time going to his barn true that such men are not first-class farmers. to feed his cattle-but always with the shotgun in First-class men could not he bothered with such his hand. Finally the police threw tear-gas bombs land. Nor does such land justify the expense of through the windows of the farmhouse, and made keeping it up to the ideal standards of the agri­ a concerted rush. Mr. Walden, still resisting al­ cultural textbooks. It is a simple matter for an though nearly blinded by tear-gas, was shot dead. employee of a committee to make out a reasonable NOVEMBER 3, 1952 93 case of inefficient farming against almost any mar­ 12 per cent, while in 1950 it was 13 per cent, and ginal farmer. in 1951, 19 per cent. This improvement occurred, There is also a tendency on the part of many however, at a time when there was a partial return farmers to argue that agricultural committees are to the old system of relying on feed from abroad. made up of decent men like themselves, and why, When we consider that within twelve years be­ therefore, should they fear their powers? The idea tween the two wars, agricultural production in that decent men, placed in power, can be corrupted, Great Britain increased 33 per cent compared with do~g not occur to the RverR£re ungophigticated coun­ 19 per cent during the last twelve years, we can tryman. However, stories are getting abroad about only conclude that the system of agricultural con­ relatives of committeemen who obtain farms of trol Great Britain has now adopted, and which which the committee has dispossessed the owners. General Eisenhower so rightly condemns, is not It is difficult to get at the facts, as most disposses­ only an affront to human liberty but a distinct sions go unreported in the newspapers. Appeals to economic failure. a tribunal are open to the public, but the press has Under the new postwar system, Britain pays her not the same freedom to report a case without fear farmers, in subsidies, untold millions which she of action for libel as it has in the established courts. can ill afford, guarantees the prices of their prod­ One of the very few transactions of a committee ucts and, at the expense of many more millions, which, because a case of defamation was involved, retains agricultural committees with power to put did reach the courts, revealed a very sink of cor­ farmers off their land without trial before an in­ ruption. This was the case, already reported in the dependent court. Yet in spite of all this terrible Freeman ["British Bureaucrats Kill Some Cows," expense and injustice, farm production does not January 28, 1952J where a herd of Friesian cows, expand as rapidly as it did before the war, when, which produced the famous Manningford Faith Jan except for very slight subsidies and tariffs, Britain Graceful, the world's most productive cow, was dis­ did nothing for her farmers beyond giving them persed, and part of it destroyed, as the result of a the inestimable boon of freedom. committee's ineptitude and folly. In this case the The present emphasis on grain-growing is a re­ judge branded the chief executive officer of the versal to a policy which most economists thought committee as a liar, and declared that the commit­ had disappeared with the repeal of the Corn Laws tee had tried to represent the owner of the farm in 1846. Sometimes it is excused with the argument as inefficient, to cover up its own mistakes. that grain-growing would be necessary if war broke out and we were cut off from overseas supplies. The The Price of State Control truth is that the precautionary measures we should take are exactly the opposite. Grain is the great General Eisenhower was overwhelmingly right robber of the soil's fertility. Under the prewar when he warned the farmers of Nebraska against system we grew Iittle grain and imported large the danger of traveling along the road which leads quantities of animal feeding stuffs. A proportion to the destruction of human liberty. We must, how­ of the richness of these feeding stuffs reached our ever, answer one more question. Has the British land in the form of manure, steadily building up farmer's loss of liberty brought any material ad­ a rich fertility under the soil, so that, when our vantages? Has the power· of committees to dis­ supplies of artificial fertilizers were cut off by war, possess those who they claim are bad farmers two or even three crops could be taken off the land brought about more efficient farming in general? without putting anything back. The case of the dispersal of the Manningford If another war breaks out there will be no stored­ herd points to the fact that committees are not up fertility in the land now used for grain-growing, infallible, and this view is supported by the finding to act as a standby. Some land now used for wheat of the Select Committee on Agricultural Estimates would turn almost into a desert if its supply of fer­ which, in 1949, discovered that the average loss on tilizers were cut off. all the land taken over and worked by the county Further, the prewar system encouraged us to use committees was £6 per acre. No farmer could sus­ our overseas exchange for the purchase of cheap, tain such losses without facing bankruptcy. The but bulky, grain and feeding stuffs. This calls for committees are now in the anomalous position that, the use of a great deal of shipping. The result of for good husbandry, they ought-on their own the present system, with its emphasis on grain­ principles-to be deprived of the farms of which growing, must be, in case of war, that we shall not they have dispossessed others. only have fewer fertile fields to sustain us, but Has that steady expansion continued which was fewer ships. The possibility of war constitutes the so clearly marked before the war? We find that final reason why we should go back to the prewar until 1949, under the new system, expansion prac­ system that was serving us so well. tically ceased. In 1947 gross production was '7 per If General Eisenhower's stricture on British cent, and in 1948, 2 per cent, less than the average agriculture is noted in Great Britain, he may yet for the last three years before the war. In 1949, do this country another great service, and add to however, the increase over prewar production was the great debt we already owe him. UN: Haven for Traitors?

This is the second in a series of articles on the By ALICE WIDENER UN for whick Mrs. Widener did special research. The first appeared in the Freeman for October 20.

Apparently members of the UN Secretariat may when in 1950 the UN received from the government engage in espionage against any nation, including of Afghanistan a request for technical assistance, the United States, with impunity and without fear he personally recommended that Lattimore be ap­ of loss of jobs. This sensational information was pointed Chief of a UN Mission to that country. It stated quietly under oath to the u. s. Senate In­ is a highly strategic region, as everybody knows, ternal Security subcommittee of the Judiciary on for the defense of Asia from further penetration May 15, 1952 by David Weintraub, director of by the Soviet Union. Kabul City, its capital, is Economic Stability and Development in the UN considered by top U. S. military authorities to be Division of Economic Affairs. Mr. Weintraub ap­ one of the most important listening posts in Asia. peared there under subpoena as a result of his and other UN officials' previous testimony before a Just Happened to Recommend Lattimore Federal Grand Jury in New York City hearing evidence concerning Communist activities and espi­ Mr. Weintraub testified that though he had never onage by American members of the UN Secretariat. met Lattimore, hadn't read anything Lattimore Mr. Weintraub had admitted to the Senate com­ had written about Afghanistan, and didn't know mittee that he himself had recommended for UN whether or not Lattimore had ever been there, he employment an American assistant, Irving Kaplan, felt no hesitation in recommending Lattimore's ap­ who refused in 1952 to tell the Grand Jury whether pointment solely on the basis of expertness "in or not he was currently engaged in espionage and general Far-Eastern affairs." where his loyalties would lie in the event of war When Mr. Sourwine, General Counsel of the between the United States and the Soviet Union. Senate Judiciary Committee, asked, "What coun­ tries adjoining Afghanistan had Mr. Lattimore SENATOR FERGUSON: Mr. Weintraub, is this a fair statement, that you never inquired about any of been in, to your knowledge?" Mr. Weintraub, who these people when you were recommending them as is largely responsible for spending approximately to whether or not they were Communists'! $39,000,000 of UN Technical Assistance funds to MR. WEINTRAUB: That is correct.... which the United States contributes 60 per cent, SENATOR FERGUSON: You do not ask a man whether he is a Communist or not'! replied: "Mongolia." MR. WEINTRAUB: That is corr~ct. Mr. Sourwine inquired: "Where does Mongolia SENATOR FERGUSON: If he is working in an espionage adjoin Afghanistan?" ring, how would that affect his job there at the "I am sorry," said Mr. Weintraub, "I would like United Nations'! ... As far as the rule is concerned to have a look at a map to help me on that. I just that if the espionage, the spy ring, was not a spy ring against the United Nations it would not make don't have that clearly enough in my mind." any difference, would it'! Mr. Weintraub admitted he hadn't approached MR. WEINTRAUB: I would suppose that it would not the U. S. State Department to inquire about Latti­ make any difference. more or any other American who might have valu­ Thus the alarming fact seems to be established able knowledge about Afghanistan; nor had he that espionage, policy-subversion and what is often consulted with any other government to find out called cold-war treason against the United States whether it had a subject or citizen qualified to do or any other free country may be practiced in the the job for the United Nations. United Nations Secretariat. And the American UN Hearing this, Senator Ferguson prodded incredu­ official who so testified under oath had had the bene­ lously: "Out of a clear sky" the name of Owen Lat­ fit of advice from the UN' legal department, headed timore came along1" by an American, Dr. Abraham H. Feller. "I don't know how names occur to one, sir," fal­ It is not astonishing, therefore, that the investi­ tered Mr. Weintraub. gating Senators soon learned of a connection be­ Mr. Weintraub then testified that he and David tween UN' official Weintraub and Owen Lattimore, Owen, then his UN superior as Assistant Secre­ who was described in a Senate Internal Security tary-General for Economic Affai.rs, arranged a UN subcommittee report of July 2, 1952, as "a conscious, luncheon for Lattimore which eventually resulted articulate instrument of the Soviet conspiracy." in his appointment as Chief of the UN Mission to :Mr. Weintraub admitted to the Senators that Afghanistan in March 1950. NOVEMBER 3, 1952 95

It was during Lattimore's stay there that he economic system with "modern government central was charged with being a top Soviet espionage planning." In December 1941 it analyzed the prob­ agent by Senator Joseph McCarthy. Lattimore able postwar situation and prophesied: later described in "Ordeal by Slander" how he heard th~ news in Kabul City and determined not The overriding interest of the Soviet regime will be security, to repair the devastation of war and to hurry home to try to defend himself, because return to the interrupted task of building up a So­ his quick departure from Kabul "would harm the cialist civilization within the borders of the USSR. United Nations Mission to Afghanistan and it ... The Russian land-mass is and will remain a would certainly be a terrible blow to American largely self-contained system, with proportionately prestige." His decision to remain in Kabul was small influence, at any rate for some years to come, on the course of world economics. fortified by a cordial telegraln from UN Secretary­ General Trygve Lie, expressing his conviction that In the same issue Planning remarked that Britain Lattimore would perform his duties in the best in­ could diminish certain differences between the terests of Afghanistan and of the United Nations. Anglo-Saxon and Soviet ways of life "by breaking Continuing the story of his "ordeal," Lattimore down class barriers and by an increasing adoption declared that in his mission to Afghanistan, "there of planned institutions and methods of which Soviet was a lot at stake." Undoubtedly the stakes there Russia was the pioneer." were high in 1950; they are even higher now. The New York Times published last August a U. S. Cash hut UN Credit front-page story, "Red Designs on India," which stated that the Chinese Communists are setting up It would appear that Mr. Owen and his right­ an army of 200,000 in Tibet, and are planning to hand leftist man, David Weintraub, would like to infiltrate near-by Nepal, Sikkim and Bhutan, as use similar "planned institutions and methods" to well as Kashmir and Afghanistan, in preparation bring economic welfare to the world through the for moving into India itself. This, said the Times, United Nations. would be preparatory "to the penetration of India, During his testimony before the Senate subcom­ and Chinese Communist domination of all the main­ Inittee, Mr. Weintraub was asked if he'd ever taken land of Asia." the position that the U. S. Point Four program The American public, however, has never been should be administered by an international organi­ officially informed by the United Nations precisely zation and not by the United States. His reply was what it considered to be at stake in its 1950 Afghan "Yes." He testified that the United States had sup­ adventure, for which the U. S. footed 60 per cent plied 60 per cent of the $39,000,000 contributed by of the bill including payment of $40 to $50 a day different countries to the UN's technical assistance plus incidental expenses to Owen Lattimore. program. And he explained: Neither has the UN issued for public study any The program in question [D. S. Point Four] is report on Lattimore's recommendations concerning a program of technical assistance for the economic technical assistance for Afghanistan; nor has the development of underdeveloped countries. That ques­ UN Technical Assistance Administration revealed tion has been under discussion in the United Nations to UN member nations exactly what its experts for years ... and along with others, I felt that kind of activity is peculiarly suited for an international or­ accomplished in Afghanistan. An article by David ganization so as to put underdeveloped countries in Owen in the United Nations Bulletin of July 1, a position of receiving economic assistance of that 1952, does report that the UN Food and Agricul­ character fronl an organization of their own rather ture Organization distributed about 500 scythes than receiving it on a bilateral basis from individual to the mountain farmers there and "at the request governments. of the government, sent a Swiss farm implement If the United States were to hand over its Point expert to Afghanistan, accompanied by two Aus­ Four program for administration by the United trian assistants experienced in the scything of high Nations, then our country would put up all the pastures." cash and, in theory, have only one-sixtieth of the David Owen, a British subject, was Weintraub's say-so about how, where and when it should be superior in the UN' Division of Economic Affairs spent. And as far as U. S. cold-war gains in in­ and was recently made executive chairman of the ternational good will are concerned, fifty-nine six­ UN Technical Assistance Board, with greatly in­ tieths of the political credit would go to UN mem­ creased administrative powers. During 1933-36 ber nations, including the Soviet Union. Owen was Secretary, and during 1940-41, General U. S. appropriations for Point Four technical Secretary, of a British society called PEP (Political aid alone to countries in Asia, Africa and South and Economic Planning), which has been described America increased from $8,000,000 in 1950 to $19,­ by a correspondent of an international news agency 000,000 in 1951. In addition, Point Four gave as "in reality the nuclear brain trust for the social­ $25,000,000 to the UN for its Relief and Works ization and/or communization of England." Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East; On July 15, 1941, PEP's fortnightly bulletin, an equal sum in final payment to the now-disbanded Planning, came out for a unified scientific world UN-sponsored International Refugee Or2'anization; 96 THE FREEMAN and $5,000,000 to the UN International Children's government agencies, induding the National Re­ Emergency Fund, to which the Soviet Union does search Project and the War Production Board. Also not contribute a red ruble. Total U. S. aid to for­ during the war, Dr. Feller was general counsel of, eign nations reached $4.7 billion in the fiscal year and Wilder Foote was employed by the Red-infil~ ended June 30, 1951, with only $1.2 billion allotted trated Office of War Information; and Mr. Schach~ for military Mutual Defense. tel' was legal adviser to the Board of War Com­ Naturally, all socialist-minded political and eco­ munications. During the period 1944-46, Feller, nomic planners striving to establish a single world Schachter, Weintraub and Kaplan worked together economic system are avid for control of American in the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Ad­ Point Four and foreign aid funds. Some of these ministration. From 1947 until Kaplan's dismissal people are sincere Utopians and idealists, and some last May, all four were in the UN Secretariat. are cynical plotters in the service of the Kremlin. Mr. Foote was a representative of the U. S. De­ partment of State at the first sessiorf of the UN Mr. Weintraub~s Associates General Assembly in London, 1946, when the prin­ cipal adviser to the U. S. Delegation was Alger Mr. Weintraub has shown a marked predilection Hiss. Foote and Hiss were two of the three "State for association with persons cited in sworn testi­ Department experts" whom Secretary of State mony as members of the Communist underground, Stettinius named as having traveled with him to especially with those who operated in three alleged the Yalta Conference in his book, "Roosevelt and spy rings centered in the U. S. government before, the Russians." during and after World War II. His testimony to Stettinius wrote on page 36 of having reviewed the Senate subcommittee shows that while he was questions with Hiss and Foote "for subsequent dis­ working in various government agencies he knew cussion with Roosevelt." Further excerpts are: six out of ten members of the "Silvermaster After luncheon [with Eden and Molotov] I met group," eight out of ten in the "Perlo group," and hnmediately with Hiss and Foote to go over my notes six out of seven in the "Ware-Abt-Hiss group" for the afternoon meeting of the three leaders which included Alger and Donald Hiss, Lee Press­ [Roosevelt, Churchill and Stalin]. man, John Abt and Harold Ware, Communist son of the American Communist heroine Mother Bloor. President Roosevelt, Prime Minister Churchill and Marshal Stalin on the last day of the Yalta Con­ Mr. Weintraub also lent his name as reference ference, signed the "Agreement on Terms for Entry for several members of the alleged spy rings when of the Soviet Union into the War Against Japan." they sought government employnlent. Abraham ... The British and Russians had virtually no George Silverman was a "social and business asso­ changes to suggest in the American document pre­ ciate" of Weintraub and used his name as a refer­ pared principally by Wilder Foote. ... ence when trying to get into the U. S. Air Force. Several of Mr. Weintraub's UN colleagues are But when Mr. Silverman was called before the old hands at whitewashing the Chinese Reds. While House Committee on Un-American Activities in Lattimore was in Kabul City in March 1950, Sec­ 1950, and was asked: What was the nature of your retary-General Lie distributed to members of the association and relationship with David Wein­ UN Secretariat and to theSecurity Council a mem­ traub?" he refused to answer ". .. since what I orandum drafted by Abraham Feller. Its contents would say might tend to incriminate me." Silver­ amounted virtually to a plea for the admission of man also refused to answer a similar question Red China into the UN' through advocating UN about his relationship with Irving Kaplan. acceptance "of whatever government exercises It is evident from Weintraub's testimony and effective control over Chinese territory." When Na­ also from official statements made and documents tionalist China's UN delegate, Dr. Tsiang, read the issued, that he and several of his highly placed memorandum he blasted it not only as "bad la-w UN colleagues are in substantial agreement on and bad politics," but as "a deliberate attempt to many political and economic questions. These col­ prejudice China's case before the United Nations." leagues are: (1) Weintraub's handpicked assis­ The freedom-loving, conscientious employee$ and tant, Irving Kaplan, who would not tell the Grand officials who constitute a majority within the UN Jury whether he is a spy; (2) Dr. Abraham H. Secretariat have become disheartened. Frustrated Feller, General Counsel and director of the UN Le­ and intimidated by a powerful clique of totalitari­ gal Division; (3) Oscar Schachter, Feller's deputy ans and left-wing radicals, they are looking to an director (see the Freeman, October 20, p. 48); (4) aroused American public opinion for help toward Wilder Foote, UN director of public information. their own liberation and toward the achievement It is necessary only to look at these gentlemen's of UN ideals. For the kind of representation the employment records to arrive at the inescap.able U. S. has within the UN is 'a matter of concern for conclusion that they probably have known of and all Americans. It is linked with the success or been in agreement with one another's views for failure of our forei~n policy, with our internal and a long time. Before and during World War II, Wein­ international security, and with world hopes for traub and Kaplan worked together in several U. S. peace and prosperity. NOVEMBER 3, 1952 97

To start the casualty list with Milton Berle Arts and would be not only obvious but also wrong. Though he was promoted to the position of "Mr. Television" by the most glaring publicity scandal in my memo~ Entertainments ry, no honest critic could possibly deny that Mr. Berle's talents would under normal conditions dis­ qualify him for membership in the Amateur Dra­ matic Club of Paducah. To deplore his fall from The television comedians, instead of killing their comic grace requires the untenable presupposition audience, are killing themselves. The thought that that he ever had any. So my list of dead comedians this nation may soon be left without a laugh, ex­ ~tarts with one who has been alive-Bob Hope. cept perhaps in election years, is staggering but At his recent TV appearance I felt that it em­ must be seriously entertained. For the casualty list barrassed one person even more than me-namely, is growing alarmingly. Mr. Hope. The attractive impudence has evaporated Yet my own will to live makes me first consider from his familiar babbling, a flabby greed for the survivors. Moreover, a rollcall of the winners "topicality" has asphyxiated the zany rascal of (annotating my recent love letter to Jimmy Du­ yesteryear. Nothing can be more unpleasant than rante) might expose the common denominator of a professionally offensive comedian who is ill at their success and the virus that is killing the others. ease. Mr. Hope was; and that is to his credit: the Nobody, of course, could tempt my monogamous cocky fellow was visibly aware that, in the parlance fidelity to Jimmy, but I do enjoy those occasional of his trade, he was constantly laying eggs. innocent dates with Jack Benny. If Durante is a Or consider Herb Shriner whom, only a year ago, torrent of elan vital, Benny is a mere ripple of the one could enjoy with hardly a hangover. A year mind; and he knows it. Far from simulating pow­ ago, his patter used to be deceptively irrelevant. ers he simply has not got, Benny has built his own Now there is no deception-it is all irrelevance. As little cosmos with the scarce material at hand­ the psychoanalyst pensively said to a patient whom his low metabolism, his chilled sensuality, his re­ he had studied for months: "Mister, you haven't duced passion for anything but dough and, above got an inferiority complex-you are inferior!" all, his incorrigibly jerkish outlook on life. Any­ That Herb Shriner, who only a year ago reminded body who doubts that such negative assets could me of Will Rogers, now reminds me of that story be laminated into quite a lovable figure of a man hurts me more than it will hurt him, I hope. has no idea of Benny's mastery and is advised to To be complete, the casualty list would have to see his show (every fourth Sunday, channel 2). include the indescribably horrifying. Mr. Amster­ Every fourth Sunday, too, I am astonished to find dam, the sweetish Mr. Levinson, the exploded Mr. myself enjoying Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis. To Gleason, and even Sid Caesar who begins to look call the winning quality of their show madness pretty second-rate when compared, inescapably, would be to overestimate it. Madness (the .demonic with his co-star on "Your Show of Shows," Miss element in W. C.Field's, Charlie Chaplin's and, Imogene Coca. But it seems to me that some sort yes, even Jimmy Durante's comedy) is a result of of conclusion can be drawn from the limited funeral the artist's painful (and hardly ever conscious) service I have been able to arrange in a limited alienation from affirmative life. But Martin and space. Lewis would not understand the preceding sentence My conclusion is, in short, that the surviving TV even if I translated it into jive. They are not mad comedians are those who, having created their own but just crazy, if not well-nigh normal in a Brook­ little cosmos, transport the audience into a world lyn sort of way. They strike me as two young men unmistakably their own. Those comedians, however, who have noticed the zaniness of urban existence, who invade the living room to tell jokes will lose approve of its juvenile antics and exploit its stu­ their audience in no time. Which is another way pidity to the point of abandoned exaggeration. The of saying that a master of ceremonies would of real reason for my liking them is, I guess, that they course be a comedian, if he were good enough; and never try to look smarter than their material. that a comedian who is not good enough to be one, And there jlist are no more winners. I would not will end up as a master of ceremonies-a fate worse deny that three or four times over a period of two than death. Durante, Benny and even Martin and years I have requited Red Skelton's disarming Lewis have created their own system of coordi­ grin; that, about as often in the same period, nates, far away from "events of the day," and Groucho Marx's by now boring insolence made me when they bounce within that fantastic system, we laugh against my better judgment and taste; that wistfully join the dance. Hope, Shriner, Jessel et ale once or twice Abbot and Costello did hit my solar are desperately trying to be "topically" witty; and, plexus, though not my funny bone; that once Mar­ like all unsuppressable wits of saloons and commu­ tha Ray floored me with superior muscular force. ters' trains, they end up as bores. But these were just accidental moments of levity on In short, masters of ceremonies fade away. a TV screen strewn with dead comedians. Comedians never die. A Reviewer's Notebook ~..t::;> Bv JOHN CHAMBERLAIN

I belong to a generation that was suckled on the decade back the same type of car would have cost literature that took form in the so-called "Progres­ $45 a month to purchase. So the bills went until I sive" era of 1893-1913. It was a literature in which came to the Connecticut Light and Power Company the psychological bias was individualist, which was light bill. It was for $7-just about what it was all to the good. Unfortunately, however, the basic in the nineteen thirties. The Connecticut Light and philosophical assumptions of that literature were Power Company is a private company, and it is Statist and collectivist. The clash has made for extremely well-run to the end of giving the cus­ terrible confusions, and the impact of the confu­ tomer a break. Yet Mr. Truman, giving 'em hell in sions on the mental and moral life of the nation has the Northwest, was still trying to raise the hobgob­ been all but disastrous. lin of the "power trust," a literary legacy of the Michelson-Shouse smear campaign days. I turned One of the unforeseen but quite VICIOUS results back to Mr. Hoover's book in bed that evening with of the literature of 1893-1913 was the intensive a feeling that no records can ever be set straight "smear Hoover" propaganda put out by Jouett in the climate created by the stereotypes of "pro­ Shouse and Charles Michelson from 1929 to 1933. gressive" thinking. But Mr. Hoover, in the course In key with the almost crazy pattern of our recent of 503 closely-packed pages, certainly gives it a past, this propaganda was financed by certain in­ good try. dustrialists who should have known better. At the time I, in common with most people of my age, It is a heart-breaking tale that our ex-President believed that proP9-ganda. Whether consciously or has to unfold. Much of the book has to do with unconsciously, it played upon the stereotypes technical economics, with details of banking prac­ created by our literary conditioning with great tise, rediscount rates, gold movements, tariff sched­ skill. Seemingly plausible though it was, however, ules, foreign exchange activity and the like. But the propaganda was based on lies. The utter men­ out of the multiplicity of detail there emerges a dacityof it is proved to the hilt by the third install­ stirring story of old, unhappy, far-off things and ment of "The Memoirs of Herbert Hoover" sub­ battles long ago. There is a note of Grecian tragedy titled "1929-1941: The Great Depression" (Mac­ to it, for Fate was crushingly arrayed against Her­ millan, $5). bert Hoover. He played his part of protagonist in the tragedy with humility and bravery and dignity. I was busy reading Mr. Hoover's book on the New This was not a man consumed by Greek hubris, York-N'ew Haven commuting train one day last but rather, a "parfit gentil knight" of the Western week when I looked up and out of the window. Christian tradition. The knight refused to bow to There, standing stark against the twilight sky, was Fate, but his people ran out on him both in the the Connecticut Light and Power Company station the interim Congressional elections and in the cam­ at the Housatonic River. I had just been going paign of 1932. through Mr. Hoover's chapter on "Introduction to Socialism Through Electric Power." The sudden What the record shows is that Mr. Hoover was apparition of the power company station set me disregarded in the Coolidge years when he ob­ off on an ironic course of thought. All through my jected to a Federal Reserve policy that was helping youth I had heard of a sinister hobgoblin named to feed the forces of stock speculation. The record J. Henry Roraback. He was the big Connecticut shows, furthermore, that overseas economic disas­ Republican boss, the reputed minion of the power ter, created by the thoroughly unsound "solutions" company, and he was supposed to hold the state in of the Versailles settlement, snuffed out more than the hollow of his palm. And all supposedly to the one American business upturn after 1929. Yet in end that people might be soaked for electricity. spite of all the mishaps the Hoover policies were successful in combating the ravages of the de­ That night I happened to be paying the monthly pression. There was belt-tightening in the land, bills. The food bill for a family of six was $140, but nobody starved who had a voice to call attention not counting milk. Not so long ago a bill for the to his condition. The Hoover voluntary committees same amount of food would have been $70. Then :were doing as good a job as could have been done there was a $90 monthly installment on a car. A without turning the nation into collectivist chan- NOVEMBER 3, 1952 99 nels that would lead to an ultimate ruin far more premises. What he could not see was that all Mr. horrendous than anything connoted by mention of Roosevelt had accomplished was the institutional­ "1929." izing of depression. When a depression is institu­ tionalized, it does indeed take money tossed out of In 1932 the bottom was finally hit, and the upturn airplanes to g~nerate necessary spending power. began. Mr. Hoover arrays statistic after statistic But it is written in the records of humanity that and authority after authority to buttress his point. such money must buy progressively less, until the The signs abroad in all the free economies were end is reached in the ultimate purchase of dicta­ propitious. But the drip-drip-drip of the Michelson­ torship, disaster and war. Shouse poison had done its political harm. Mr. Hoover lost the election to Mr. Forcible-Feeble from Albany, who promised economy and delivered the The Omnipotent Fools opposite. True, there was continuity between Hoover and Roosevelt. Hoover's government had The Traitors: Klaus Fuchs, Allan Nunn May, taken Statist action; it had created the RFC it Bruno Pontecorvo, by Alan Moorehead. New had utilized the devices of the Farm Board, it had York: Scribner. $3.50 loaned big sums for public works, it had given credit assistance to farmers to handle their mort­ Dr. Allan Nunn May is to be released from a British gage problems, it had secured the calling of a prison at the end of this year. He was the most World Economic Conference, it had set up Home important of the atom bomb traitors caught in Can­ Loan banks. An ironist, seeking to confound by ada. He is not to be on parole but will be a free paradox, might be justified in saying that the New man. His is the first story told in this skillful and Deal sprang from Herbert Hoover's head. But Mr. lively book by Alan Moorehead. One may well Hoover's devices for stemming the depression were speculate on May's future. The Communists, behav­ almost uniformly provided with self-liquidating ing as usual, will probably toss him aside as no gimmicks and terminal facilities. The loans made longer useful. The British government will keep by his RFC were eventually paid back. His "repro­ a wary eye on him. And after reading in "The Trai­ ductive" public works-the San Francisco Bay tors" about the soft-headed actions of his fellow Bridge, the Los Angeles water supply from the scientists, it seems likely indeed that some one will Colorado River, the Jones Beach project in New take pity on him and take care of him. York, the Mississippi River Bridge at New Orleans Moorehead has traced the lives and, as far as ~were set up under a financial regimen that per­ possible, the motives of these spies for the Russians. mitted the government to recover their cost with He has tried to find out what made them tick. The interest. stories are brilliantly told, and there seems to be much that is new even to those who followed the On the basis of the inside evidence provided by news stories at the time. But in spite of Mr. Moore­ Mr. Hoover, it can be said definitely that the bank­ head's expert journalism, I am still troubled by ing panic of 1933 could have been avoided if Frank­ his book. First, there is a conviction that the author lin Roosevelt had been willing to cooperate with has not told all he knows. Perhaps he was forbidden the outgoing Administration between New Year's to do so. One result is that the Pontecorvo Day and March 4. But Roosevelt, the consummate story is not convincing. Pontecorvo was (or is) a politico, wanted an aggravated crisis so that he handsome, gay Italian with a beautiful wife and might pose as a savior on March 5 and thereafter. two attractive children. He was a top scientist in The trick is as old as politics, and it often works England, highly paid, popular, gay, a tennis expert, for the short run. But in the long run such tricks a fine dancer, an extrovert. add up to a mighty poor character reference, and Taking wife and children, he went to Italy for those who utilize them occupy very low places in a vacation, where he swam and camped close to well­ history. The worst thing that can be said of Her­ loved kindred. Suddenly he and his family took bert Hoover is that he was a poor politician. But a plane to Helsinki and all of them disappeared. that, in itself, is high praise. Their property, bank accounts and clothes were left behind in England. Pontecorvo's father and mother, In 1932, in commenting on a Garner-championed his wife's father and mother, all are dazed and bill for straight non-reproductive public works, heartbroken. President Hoover let fly with an epigrammatic This is a wild story, fascinating to read, but it thrust that should be in the school books: "Our does not button up. What is left out? Is Mr. Moore­ nation was not founded on the pork barrel." Five head, as Rebecca West says, manipulating facts on years later, within my hearing, the effervescent orders from the British Division of the Ministry of Tommy Corcoran said: "The best way to spread Supply? Is he trying to relieve that Division from purchasing power is to take money up in airplanes responsibility for fatal leaks, as she says? and shovel it out." Tommy was a logical Keynesian, Certainly it is clear to the reader that Moore­ and he drew the honest conclusions from his head minimizes the guilt of Fuchs and puts a good 100 THE FREEMAN face on all his actions. Fuchs was silent, unfriendly, take the scientific vision of :p.ature as complete. remote for most of his life. Suddenly he became Not that a scientific sense of nature is without kindly, generous, friendly, considerate, so that the value. It is, on the contrary, of high value; the point scientists who worked with him came to love him. is that the scientific view, being one-sided, creates Mr. Moorehead thinks that this change came about an entirely incorrect picture of the 'natural world. because Fuchs met so much warmhearted kindness Let us remember, too, that what Science says about in England. Nevertheless, he did not give up his our world is amazingly subject to change. Some double life. Many of us who can remember the second scientist is always contradicting, amending, thirties in this country saw just such a change in or somehow reinterpreting either a first scientist's many a left-winger. From being rude and careless facts or his conclusions. COnly consider, for in­ in dress, they became soft-spoken, well-bred and stance, what has happened during the last quarter cordial. But they also were leading double lives. of a century in the field of anthropology.) The scene of Fuchs's confession is high drama. The truth is that a real awareness of nature But the sweet generosity exhibited toward him by must be sustained even more by the poetic percep­ his fellow-scientists afterward is horrifying. Mr. tion than by knowledge. The poetic sense is the Moorehead condemns all these traitors and writes justification of man's humanity; it is also th~ of them with scorn, but perversely the total effect justification of his inexplicable world. Poetry not is to arouse sympathy for them. Perhaps this is a only provides a perspective, it widens the bound­ concomitant to understanding. But nothing that I aries of understanding. No matter what astron­ have read anywhere makes it possible for me to omers make of the sun, it is always more than a understand the final act of treason, any more than gigantic mass of ions, it is a splendor and a I can understand the final act of a murder. mystery, a force and a divinity, it is life and the They are all strange people, of course, these symbol of life. traitors. Characteristic of Mr. Moorehead's trio It is Miss Carson's particular gift to be able to is that each has a high opinion of himself. Not blend scientific knowledge with the spirit of poetic only do they believe that man is all powerful, but awareness, thus restoring to us a true sense of the that each of them as an individual controls his world. Surely, it is to the credit of naturalists who portion of that power. And the double life they are writers that they have written so magnificently, led not for days but for years? Schizophrenia? If and that their work is lasting in an age of moral that is the case, when they come out of prison they and intellectual confusion. I only hope that Miss should be put in asylums where they can do no Carson has readers who can read her as a stylist further harm. HELEN WOODWARD as well as a writer on nature. That beautiful, direct, harmonious prose of hers would be a joy in any age, and only a writer of the first rank has ever managed such a style. What a classical quality it Miss Carson's First has and what a feeling it gives of complete in­ tellectual honesty. Under the Sea-Wind, by Rachel L. Carson. New "Under the Sea-Wind" concerns itself more with York: Oxford. $3.50 living creatures than did "The Sea Around Us." "Under the Sea-Wind" is Miss Carson's first book. In this book Miss Carson deals with marine birds, Published in the late fall of 1941 when, to use the with the life of the littoral, with the creatures of publisher's phrase, "the nation had its mind on waters adjacent to the continent, with the pilgrim­ other things," it disappeared for a while behind ages of the eel. Here you have it all, as set down the chaos of events. So fine a book, however, has a by one of the very few writers of her time in whom vitality of its own; once aware of its existence, one does not detect the malady of this age, the fear humanity will not suffer it to die so precious is of life, the "peur devivre." Here is the glimpse the literary moment when something is said with of nature in the full cosmic perspective-nature beauty and rightness concerning the world of portrayed in her inexhaustible variety and gigantic nature which surrounds and animates our own ruthlessness. Here is the element of nightmare, perplexing existence. "Under the Sea-Wind" is thus here the haunting element of chance, here the with us again, both to the enjoyment and advantage splendor and the terror and the beauty of the of the contemporary mind. waters and the air. There is never the slightest Depend upon it, the literary work of Miss Carson humanizing of the creature or its world, for which and its immense success is more than an event in may Miss Carson be ever blest. Her world of the literature, it is a portent. It means that an age sea and air is ruled by its own gods and its own which has seen poetry die out of life has had an values. To make this world, really so alien and awakening and a reassertion of the human spirit remote, a part of the world of the human spirit, is and has sought and welcomed a presentation of a very great achievement. "Under the Sea-Wind" nature made valid by a sense of beauty and a is a book for all who do not fear the adventure of superb power of poetic perception. Some spiritual living. We shall live more fully for having read it. instinct has shaken itself free, and has refused to HENRY BESTON NOVEMBER 3, 1952 101

Charleston, S. C., to Miami, through Florida and A Distorting Lens Georgia to Atlanta, to Birmingham, N'ew Orleans, South of Freedom, by Carl T. Rowan. New York: through Mississippi, Arkansas and Oklahoma, and Knopf. $3.50 learns much about the slights and proscriptions he underwent, and how he occasionally challenged the A visiting foreigner seeking accurate information legal jim crowism. Unhappily there is little else. about race relations in the South today will close The Columbia, Tenn., race riot of some years Mr. Rowan's account of a SOOO-mile journey through back is rehashed and so is the much-publicized case Dixie in 1951 almost as ignorant as when he opened of Willie Magee in Mississippi. A tribute is paid to it. This propaganda screed, which is characterized Federal Judge J. Waties Waring of Charleston, throughout by malice, distortion and imbalance, is S.C., and his wife, who incurred the enmity of little more than caricature. The author, a Minne­ white society by boldly espousing the cause of jus­ apolis Morning Tribune reporter, rings the changes tice and fair play for colored citizens. Not a word in the familiar pattern of racial segregation and is said about the militant Negroes of prominence discrimination, but there is little here of the round­ who initiated the equal rights cases on which the edness and objectivity one might expect from an good judge passed. Indeed, it is strongly implied author concerned with presenting a true picture of that these Negroes are "Uncle Toms" unworthy of the South today. It is almost entirely a one-sided mention. account, sketchy and superficial. The author, a young Negro native of McMinn­ Nor is this fury at Southern Negroes who sen­ ville, Tennessee, and a Navy veteran, began his sibly refuse to adopt suicidal tactics restricted to journey by revisiting his home town, where assert­ those in South Carolina. Mr. Rowan finds no words edly nothing has changed since he left and the plight of praise for the activities of the vastly expanded of the Negroes continues dire. The reader is then branches of the National Association for the Ad­ given a review of all the hurts and frustrations Mr. vancement of Colored People throughout the South Rowan experienced growing up as a colored youth which have contributed so much to the growing in a backward Dixie town. It is the familiar sub­ militancy of the area's Negroes. There are no kind jective narrative we have come to expect from most words for the various colored state teachers' asso­ colored writers, and there is no reason to suppose ciations who brought the legal actions that led to the that it is not essentially true, as far as it goes. high court decisions to equalize teachers' salaries Unfortunately this mood runs throughout the and educational facilities. The Negro business and book and consequently lessens the value of Mr. professional folk who are everywhere in the fore­ Rowan's writing for all those at all familiar with front of the fight for equal rights in the South are the South today. Such writers are furious that less derided because they are thrifty and live well. About than ninety years after a most sanguinary civil war the remarkable increase in Negro home and farm ending generations of chattel slavery and its by­ ownership (unparalleled anywhere among any products, the traditional social pattern has not dis­ colored peoples) the author is mum, except to men­ appeared, and they vent their spleen and frustration tion some isolated bombings of newly-acquired with reckless irresponsibility. Carried away by Negro homes in "white" sections. One learns noth­ their lugubrious recitals, they are not averse at ing of the Negro builders who have erected thous­ times to prevarication. ands of FHA homes nor of the colored banks, in­ For example, the author moans "I would have to surance companies, newspapers and smaller busi­ remember not to wear· a tie in several small towns nesses in the very cities he visited. in Georgia, Mississippi, South Carolina, Louisiana, Instead, we are told that Negro businessmen (who or anywhere in the Deep South. A Negro can get support and lead the NAACP) are "afraid to at­ killed in those areas for 'dressing and acting like tack" the system because of feat that ending segre­ white folks.'" This is repeated at least twice more gation would mean the end of their businesses, in the book to illustrate the supposed reign of terror although this has not happened where there is no existing. This reviewer has visited hundreds of segregation. In Birmingham we hear that " 'big­ small Southern towns and villages dressed the same shot' racial leeches are sucking at the bloodstrealn as in New York City and has been unmolested. The of progress," while the generality of Negroes are truth about our bi-racial society is doleful enough damned as apathetic. Of Miami, Oklahoma City without manufacturing evils. and New Orleans, where significant progress has Again, we are told that "No human beings ever been made interracially, we learn absolutely noth­ lived under more deplorable circumstances than do ing. No Negrophobe could have written more dev­ Negroes in the big-city slums of both the North astatingly of the colored Southerners than this and South." This is truly a singular statement in journalist who presumably loves and sympathizes the face of government housing statistics and with them. ordinary observation here and abroad, but it is It is not surprising that the Book Find Club characteristic of this phony panorama of Dixie. selected this distortion as its Book of the Month. One follows Mr. Rowan to Washington, D. C., to GEORGE S. SCHUYLER 102 THE FREEMAN of Victory ter the techniques of reeducation for Karen. Using Cry every weapon at their command including humor, cajolery, repetitious hours of exercise and the most Karen, by Marie Killilea. New York: Prentice­ difficult of all therapies, letting Karen struggle to Hall. $2.95 help herself, Marie and Jimmy Killilea had the "Whether we are teaching our child to swim or faith to help remake their daughter's life. walk or use her hands deftly, fear is the monster In the process they discovered the many thous­ that can crush and completely destroy," writes ands of other parents and children who had fol­ Marie Killilea in this absorbing story'of Karen, her lowed the same dark road without hope of success, physically handicapped daughter, and Karen's re­ and being dedicated people who believe it is more education to a wholesome"active life. With the wis­ blessed to give than to receive, the Killileas set dom won from their battle against any kind of limi­ themselves to help these others as well. They tation for Karen, Mrs. Killilea enumerates her formed the Cerebral Palsy Association which, in its daughter's fears, the terrible fears, against which relatively short life, has brought hope to many, she and her husband pitted their tremendous faith: success to some, and correct information wherever "Fear of falling, fear of breaking an object, fear of and whenever there was need for it. ridicule, fear of being a burden." For whatever else Yet there is still much to be done, for in this this book may be, and whatever the service it ren­ country alone one child with cerebral palsy is born ders humanity, it is primarily a book of faith. every 53 minutes and only one out of a hundred is When Karen was a few months old, the Killileas getting treatment. There are still too few institu­ noticed that although she smiled and gurgled and tions that will take them; the ignorance concerning had bright, intelligent eyes, she was slow in be­ their potentialities continues to be widespread. ginning to sit up, to crawl, or to move her legs. Against the public's many superstitions the Kil­ At first, they blamed her premature birth and her lileas continue their magnificent fight, knowing long stay in an incubator. Months later, when Ka­ that all who read "Karen" and come to know her ren still showed no signs of being able to move at will want to help continue it also. For when they all, fear became a permanent lodger in the Killilea get discouraged, as they often do, and even their household and with the reluctant admission that great faith grows dim, it is rekindled by the sight Karen was not normal, the cruel trek from one of I(aren's expanding achievements and by the specialist to another began. sound of her cries of victory: "Let her die." "She is a hopeless case." "Men­ "I can walk. I can talk. I can read. I can write. tally deficient." "We can do nothing." The doctors Mom Pom, I can do ANYTHING!" BETSEY BARTON agreed unanimously and against such verdicts as these, the Killileas began their fight. One evening, after years of searching for help, Strong-Man Ruse when her husband was ill in the hospital (as much The State of Latin America, by German Arcinie­ from despair, Marie Killilea thought, as anything gas. Translated from the Spanish by Harriet else), she answered an ad in a paper announcing de Onis. New York: Knopf. $4.50 that a certain specialist was to hold a clinic in town the following day. If this did not work, Mrs. There may be something to say for a foreign policy Killilea vowed it would be her last try. which adheres to the classic dictum: "The enemy The doctor who was to mean Karen's new life to of my enemy is my friend." This dictum offers the her was very gentle. He took his time; he didn't only rationale for an anti~Communist front which frighten her. "Your daughter is very intelligent," unites such politically dubious characters as Tito he said finally, "She can be taught many things, and Franco in Europe and the melange of midget but she has cerebral palsy." Caesars who govern the majority of countries in From then on, the Killileas began learning about Latin America. In the face of a life-and-death the nature of their daughter's disease. It is not struggle with world communism only the ideolog­ hereditary, they found. It can happen to anyone ically squeamish will be troubled by the glad hand at any time in their lives as the result of disease -and the small and medium arms- which America or injury to the brain. There are five types of extends to the Trujillos, Somozas and Per6ns. cerebral palsy: spastic, athetoid, ataxia, rigidity, But there is at least one basic flaw in our policy. and tremor. Treatment differs for each type. Little This is the assumption that these friends-by-ex­ Karen suffered from rigidity. She would need pediency must consider world communism as grave physiotherapy to learn to walk; occupational thera­ a threat to their existence as we consider it to be py to learn self-help. Such therapy, the doctor said, to ours. would train some other part of the brain to do th~ Do they regard it as a threa.t? "N'o," says Pro­ work of the damaged areas. fessor German Arciniegas, a distinguished Colom­ The Killilea's fight against fear novv took con­ bian intellectual and a leading member of his crete form, for with hope and correct information country's now virtuallY outlawed Liberal Party. The began an epic struggle. They formed a team to mas- real enemy of these dictators, he asserts, is the NOVEMBER 3, 1952 103 people. How secure can the repressive regimes of Brief Mention Argentina, Colombia, Peru and Venezuela be? And what is the feeling of the people toward a U. S. Let There Be Bread, by Hobert Brittain. Ne\v government which supports the Strong Man? York: Simon & Schuster. $3.00 These are disturbing questions and Arciniegas Mr. Brittain, the author of this book, has an ar­ means them to be. resting but somewhat disquieting way with statis­ How many heads of states [he writes] would be left tics. He starts off with the statement that the 2400 in power if Latin America were to say: arman1.ents million people on this planet will be illcreased to are for international war or for maintaining order 4000 million by the end of the century; and when and soldiers will leave their barracks for no other reason? The irony of this situation is the fact that you consider that only half the present population the dictators first received machine guns frOlTI the has ever eaten what we Americans consider a United States to safeguard liberties ... menaced square meal, it doesn't take an Einstein to figure by Hitler, and received more machine guns later to out what the world's up against in the matter of reinforce the United Nations system based on re­ food. Of the 36 billion acres of the globe, less than spect for hun1an rights. But a survey of the present chiefs of staff of n1any Latin American nations re­ one-tenth is being used. veals that those who now hold the machine guns What is needed, therefore, is a pooling of scien­ were at one time Hitler's most fervent admirers. tific knowledge and a coordinated' attack on lands The enemy they pursue today is not the Communists, not now producing. We must delve deeper into but anyone who stands for freedom. Arctic agriculture, learn more about the potential­ The political line-up in Latin America presents a ities lurking in the jungles of the tropics, reclaim disquieting picture. Even Ecuador, described as one swamps and even pioneer into the depths of the of the three remaining democracies in Latin ocean itself. Inasmuch· as the ocean comprises America, has recentlyrejected the enlightened dem­ seven-tenths of the world's surface, it's a promising ocratic viewpoint represented by President Galo frontier, and by 1992 we may be thickening our Plaza Lasso's Radical Liberal Party, to elect a man soup with all sorts of exotic algae. Then there are jointly sponsored by the local Falangist and Com­ the undiscovered foods under our noses. Of the munist parties. 200,000 known species of plants, we are cultivating less than four hundred. An illuminating and dis­ Today (and the picture can change tomorrow) turbing book. A. DU P. only little Uruguay and even littler Costa Rica, of the twenty countries south of the Rio Grande, can A Chance to Live, by John Carroll-Abbing. Trans­ conscientiously be called democracies. Chile, Mexico, lated by Carol Della Chiesa. New York: Long­ El Salvador, Haiti and now Brazil seem to be mov­ mans, Green. $3.00 ing with varying speeds toward democratic govern­ ment. The thirteen remaining strong-man govern­ Monsignor Carroll-Abbing gives us the story of ments comprise the bulk of the population, area and some of the lost children of the war and the part strategic resources of this hemisphere. Some of he played in saving them. At the time of the Ital­ them are fertile breeding grounds for Communists ian armistice the author was stationed in a hos­ -notably Guatemala and, to a lesser extent, Pan­ pital in Rome and had an opportunity of observing ama, Bolivia and Paraguay. All have attempted to conditions in that city. Due to the fact that most stamp out all vestiges of free thought. fathers had been either killed or were languishing What, then, should American policy be toward in concentration camps and mothers were out hunt­ these dictatorships? If Arciniegas is correct in ing food, children had a freedom they had never asserting that the Liberals in Colombia, the Radi­ had before. Young boys had already demonstrated cals in Argentina, the Apristas in Peru, and other their courage and enterprise by taking part in the such opposition parties, represent the majority will, Resistance. Stealing from the hated Germans was then the answer is clear; we must stop trading considered an act of heroism. Now, suddenly, they principle for expediency, or we shall forfeit the were fighting another enemy, hunger, with the only friendship of 150 million Latin Americans who weapon they had-their wits. "given education, well-being and opportunity­ They called themselves "The Shoe Shine Boys" three things they have been denied-could play a but their real metier was thievery. They stole major role in the world of tomorrow." everything from cigarettes to automobile tires. This is a fascinating and provocative book. It is Often they became the titular heads of their house­ written with skill, accuracy and sprightliness. If holds, for they were the ones who kept the larder Professor Arciniegas seems somewhat naive about filled and the family clothed. Monsignor Carroll­ the Communist threat in Latin America (and he Abbing saw possibilities for good in these bright does seriously underestimate it) he is nonetheless young adventurers and founded a village for them. clear that we can not-and dare not-strengthen It became popular and the movement spread. Now the Black, Green or Brown Dictator in Latin these incipient little criminals are on the way to America to help us fight the Red Dictator in Europe becoming honored citizens in a functioning democ­ and Asia. MILTON EDELMAN racy. A. DU P. Success Story

A MEMORANDUM motion effort of the kind put at large cost into every other su,ccessful magazine. We have lacked the funds for such effort. We owe this accomplish­ From: The Freeman's Editors ment to you, the most devoted body of magazine To: T'he Freeman's Readers readers in America.

Our magazine, yours and ours, celebrates its But that is not the full measure of our success second birthday this fall. Two yea'rs are noth.. story. Our success lies also in the ever-widening ing in the life of a society; they are a significant impact of the Freeman's editorial influence. span in the history of opinion iournalism in Measured also by the fact, cited as one example America. It is a cu.rious paradox that in this of m'any, that last year on two occasions a Mary­ country, so deeply concerned with its past and land professor supplied copies of the maga­ ostensibly dedicated to, freedom of the market zine to his classes as a corrective to the collectivist place as well as the polling places, few iournals material they were otherwise being flo,oded with. celebrating our free traditions on intellectual grounds have long survived. We believe that, thanks to you, we have made a go of the pilot plant. We want now to get into The Freeman entered its pilot plant stage two ~eal pr,oduction. In order to make the impact we years ago with the usual misgivings attaching to should like to make upon thoughtful America, a new publishing venture. In ,our original editorial, we need a far wider reade,rship. O'ur next step liThe Faith of the IFreeman," we expressed the is to double our circulation. We want your help hope that there was room, in the intellectual life not for our own sakes, not from motives of pride of our ,country for an individualistic, traditional or revenue, but solely in order that the principles fortnightly review that would swim resolutely in which we all believe shall have enlarged hear­ against the currents of fashionable "liberalism," ing in the intellectual life of our country-among of 'Fabianism, the nthilistk pragmatism of the the universities, the professional groups, the schools and the encroachments 'of BigG:overn­ f,or.mers of opinion. m,ent upon our social and economic life. In at-' tempting to realize this hope, we have tried to It is, of course, clearly evident that if each of you edit the Freemlan without oonscious ,compromise were to solicit one reader, we could double our as a iournal of principle: challenging but not in­ subscripUon lists in no time. That is, in truth, our temperate, pungent in its iudgments of men and goal. What we hope is that each of you will measures but not ill-natured. obtain one new subscriber within this, our an­ niversa,ry m'onth-or, if that is not possible for all Where do we stand at the end of two years? of you, we hope that some of you will obtain two The Freem,an has won a far wider reader ac­ or thre'e new r,eaders. We ask this as a birthday ceptance than was envisaged in our swaddling gift not t,o us, not av,en to the Preemlan, but to the days. Then it was hoped we 'might have 15,000 cause in which we all believe. We are appending subscribers at the end of two and one-half a birthday subscription coupon to make the years. Actually, w,e have 21,000 net paid circula-' task easier for you. Knowing of. y,our dedication tion. What makes this figure remarkable is that in the past, we trust your iudgment in what you it 'has been reached without any substantial pro- are about to do. ------BIRTHDAY SUBSCRIPTION

Name -n THE Address . City ••.•.••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••• ~...... Zone •••••••••••••••••••••• Stat...... •...

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o $ ncl,05ed :0 Bill me later J_reeman Please list adclitional subscriptions on separate sheefs. (Subscriptions: one year $5.00. Two years: $9.00) THE fEMAN; 240 MADISON AVENUE, NEW YORK 16, N. Y. Letters 'H:,E'NRY G,E'OIRGE Russians in the Olympic~ Social Thinker Ys. Land Communist I read with great interest the editorial Controversy Rages Anew "Olympic Shell Games" in the August Was Henry George the founder of "Agrarian Communism" in America? Has the 25 issue of the Freeman. total communism ir..herent in his great masterpiece escaped until now even the I was not a "minority of one" at the keenest of minds? Socionomist Spencer Heath says: "Tax-,slaves forfeit freedom for meeting in Vienna, because there were servitude; the future free-man will pay only the market-gauged site-rent value of a number there who felt that only if whatever public services he receives." Tax-Lords versus Landlords! Judge for yourself! the participants are free can there be Read Henry George',s PROGRESS AND POVERTY for the Land Communist sport, and who suspected that there argument and point of view. Then read the-ANSWER-in 26 pages of critical was no conception of amateuriSln, fair review ar..d clarification, showing Landlords and private property in land as Society's first and last-its only ultimate defence-against total enslavement by the State. play or good sportsmanship in the USSR under the present regime. The John Dewey says of Henry George: "No man, no graduate of a higher educational institution, has a right to regard himself as an educated man in social thought unless basis of the Olympic Games, however, he has some first-har..d acquaintance with the theoretical contribution of this great is to welcome the youth of the world American thinker." Tolstoi, Helen Keller, Nicholas Murray Butler-all have regardless of class, creed, color, or written in ,similar and even stronger vein. politics. The Committee had an appli­ Yes, PROGRESS AND POVERTY is an appealing book. Grossly fallacious in cation for recognition from the Rus­ its economic argument and inevitably totalitarian ir: its proposed application, it is sian Olympic Committee, stating that yet idealistic, rhetorical, poetical, beautiful-thus subtly deceptive-in its world-wide renown. Order Ylour copy now at the special low price of $1.50 and you will receive, our regulations had been read and were in addition, a free copy of its definitive expose, PROGRESS AND POVERTY accepted. The majority vote to give REVIEWED and Its Fallacies Exposed, a 26-page booklet by Spencer Heath, LL.B., them recognition was with the idea LL.M. that the exposure of Communist youth to Olympic principles might be ben­ eficial in the long run. The FREEMAN, 240 Madison Ave., New York 16, N. Y. No country wins the Olympic Games, Please send me the book PROGRESS AND POVERTY, Aniversary Edition, which are strictly a contest between 571 pages, cloth bound, with free gift of Spencer Heath's booklet PROGRESS individuals. There is no official scor­ AND POVERTY REVIEWED and Its Fallacies Exposed. I enclose $1.50. ing and the International Olympic Committee has gone on record re­ NAME ADDRESS . peatedly, deploring the practice of CITY ZONE STATE . publishing national point scores. The OlympIC Games will lose all their purpose if they are adopted by nations and become contests between hired gladiators, who attempt to prove by Any person in our country is entitled Defending the Single Tax relative scores the superiority of one to express his opinions outside of his I have prepared a review of Mr. Spen­ political system over another or who employment as he see fit, but what cer Heath's "Progress and Poverty are seeking to build national prestige. authority, Constitutional or other, ex­ Reviewed." Those of your readers who It might be appropriate to extend ists for a professor to teach doctrines have copies of Mr. Heath's booklet the theme of your editorial to wider in line of duty not in accord with will be interested in an answer. They fields. Association with the Commun­ those his employer desires him to can obtain one free by writing to me. teach? Is there an engineer's freedom ists in political; economic and cultural 170 Winthrop Road LIDIA ALKALAY to run his train on the schedule he matters deserves the same attention. Brookline 46, Mass. We send and receive diplomatic repre­ thinks best? A judge's freedom to render decisions not in accord with sentatives, we buy from and sell to A IIousewife's View them, we sit with them in the United the law? .... Weare trying to keep the Republican Nations and a score of its commit­ It is about time to explode the myth Club running after the election. I think tees, and we allow them to make fools of academic freedom, apparently in­ we should bring issues out into the open of us in Korea; and, of course, the vented, or at least most loudly ex­ and discuss them. I'd like to push the fact that we act in this fashion in­ pounded, by the more radical element Freeman as required reading. Others fluences many others who are not fully of the teaching profession. are afraid a definite policy will alien­ informed. How true is your statement Westerville, Ohio L. B. MOODY ate our more "liberal" members. that "the world is yearning for moral People will accept any wild-eyed guts." Can't Miss an Issue theory slanted to the Left by a col­ AVERY BRUNDAGE Enclosed please find check for a sub­ lege professor or clergyman just be­ President, International scription. I have been buying copies cause they have degrees. Why can't Chicago, Ill. Olympic Committee at our local drug store, and now and they accept common sense even though then I miss out on getting it. I carry it comes from a housewife or a mer­ Academic Freedom some copies to meetings and loan it chant? We can think, manage and In your issue of September 22 Robert to my friends, and now I must get the save quite often much more efficiently E. Carter wrote that "the trustees of Freeman regularly. than the theorists. Why shouldn't we Columbia University would be trifling "A Reviewer's Notebook" is the best be considered just as good authorities with the principle of academic free­ I've found anywhere. And the articles on what is good for the country? dom if they dismissed her [Dr. Gene on current affairs are exactly what I Polo, Ill. FRANCES DEMPSEY Weltfish] because she did not agree am looking for in our confused times. with popular opinion in the U.S.A." Hamden, Conn. MRS. HAROLD J. LUTZ (Continued on page 106) Letters (Continued front pag~ 105)

Break Relations with Russia The USSR is demanding the recall of Ambassador Kennan for the usual spe­ cious reasons. Have we not taken enough slaps from the Soviet govern­ ment? Why do we not revert to the position we maintained under the Presidents prior to Roosevelt and can­ cel all diplonlatic representation? Our Embassy staff and the few con­ sular offices which we may still have in Russia are so restricted in their activities as to be virtually useless, whereas the huge staff of the Soviet Embassy in Washington and the con­ sular offices Russia maintains in dif­ ferent U.S. cities are hotbeds of spy­ ing and propaganda. I can not see that the closing of all diplomatic relations would increase in any way the dangers of war; on the other hand it might prove a serious shock to the Kremlin and would encourage all the unfor­ Your decisions-faster tunate victims of the Soviets. It is too much to expect that such action will be -with KARDEX taken by Acheson or Truman, but the new incumbent of the White House "Just one moment- I'll give you the answer ..." (and he knows his might look with favor on such a decision is going to be right, based on complete, accurate data). suggestion. Perhaps one of the arguments against That's Kardex administrative "fact-power" in action ... and my suggestion may be that ... the thousands of progressive companies, in every field of comlnerce Russians will still have the use of the and industry, are profiting by it daily. Polish, Czech and Hungarian Lega­ tions, etc. Would we lose very much You, too, can profit through the finer yet firmer executive con­ by also closing up the satellite lega­ trol Kardex can give you over sales, production, inventory and tions? Are not the movements of our other phases of your business. Kardex not only integrates and representatives. in these countries also very restricted? concentrates related facts for quick reference - it signals major Newport, R.I. N. O. WHITEHOUSE items of information in convenient, bar chart form. You can see ... compare ... analyze ... execute ... all in a matter of seconds. For a Liheral Education Now, moreover, you can profit by new Kardex developments ... the Freeman is doing a good job, such as Kardlok (see picture below), and by the host of engineer­ and maintaining enough of variety that ing improvements embodied in the new Kardex Imperial equip­ there is no monotony in its columns. ment. See for yourself at the nearest Remington Rand Business Picking titles at random, to provide a liberal education, I would suggest the Equipment Center ... or vvrite for free folder No. KD 613, Man­ following: "Clergymen and Socialism," agement Controls Reference Library, Room 1519, 315 Fourth Stewart M. Robinson, August 13, '51; Avenue, New York 10, N. Y. "Oscar Ewing's Surprise Package," Burton Rascoe, November 5, '51; "Edu.. cators vs. Free Inquiry," Henry Haz­ • litt, June 30, '52 and "Undermining the I N c:~ Republic," John C. Vivian, July 28, '52. KARDLOK ... illustrated here in the record card, permitting with three overlapping record quicker, easier setting of signals New Castle, Ind. H. E. CONN pockets selected from a typical ... caliper-accurate positioning Kardex record. Blister~ formed of signals ... and positive locking Another Birthday Greeting of signal settings. in the signal mate with die-cuts Over and over again, reading the Free­ rrtan, I find my own confused questions clarified and answered. No other maga­ zine-I get them all, off and on-does that so sanely and so steadily. Palo Alto, Cal. KATHLEEN NORRIS "Hand me my crutches, Mary!

rrDoc or no Doc . .. no wounded leg is keeping ME home on Election Day! When I was over in Korea, one of the big things we figured we were fighting for was the right to vote as we please. "Just look at that crowd! Seems like everybody in town's turning out to vote today. In fact, it's been predicted that more than 55 million people all over the nation will be voting! "Heard a fellow the other day call it 'National Bee} Day'. Says he, we all beef at one time or another about our local, state, or national governments, or certain people in them. And today's the day we get a chance to back tiP those beefs with ballots! "Whether we squawk about corruption by public officials ... about wasteful squander­ ing of our hard-earned tax dollars ... about government interfering in public utilities and private business . . . a bout overload­ ing government payrolls with un-needed workers ... or about government employees with red sympathies- Election Day is the big moment for us citizens to get it off our chests with those votes our Constitution guarantees us. "I say, thank God we don't live in one of those commie countries where people have only hand-picked red candidates to vote for. Those poor devils just don't get a chance to vote for anybody else. Sometimes, Mary, I think we don't fully appreciate how lucky we are. We vote for whom we honestly think best ... and nobody on God's green earth knows how we vote! "So hand me those crutches, Honey. And get your hat and coat on, too. We're going to vote together ... bum leg or no bum leg." REPUBLIU STEEL • Cleveland 1, Ohio

Republic BECAME strong in a strong and free America. Republic can REMAIN strong only in an A merica that remains strong and free. To answer the urgent needs of Defense Production, Republic is taking a signifi­ cant part in the development of Titanium ... whose structural strength compares favorably with that of many steels, and whose corrosion-resistance ranks it with some of the stainless steels. Yet Titanium is only 56% as heavy as alloy ste·et. No development project (except that of atomic energy) has commanded as much attention and research in so short a period as has Titanium ... the metal of the future. Keep your eye on Republic Titanium and Titanium Alloys! * * * Jr For a full color reprint of this advertisement,} l[ write Dept. D, Republic Steel, Cleveland 1, Ohio Which comes first - Engine or Fuel? o answer that question, we need engine that develops high efficiency The point about engines and fuels Tfirst to ask what kind of engine from this kind of fuel. is-neither comes first. The job is to you have in mind: Jet engines will burn a wide range bring the two together, with the best An engine for low-octane fuel-or of petroleum fuels. The challenge is results and that is just what General an engine for high-octane fuel? An to improve their design and effi­ Motors engineers have been doing, engine for the fuel of tomorrow­ ciency and bring down their pro­ year after year. or the fuel of today? duction costs. All of which adds another reason The fact is, General Motors engi­ In automobile engines, we work first why the key to a GM car is your neers are continually studying of all to give you a balanced com­ key to greater value. engines of all kinds, and meeting bination of high performance and the challenge that each presents. maximum miles per gallon from GENERAL MOTORS The Diesel, for example, is a very present fuels-and at the same time "MORE AND BETTER THINGS FOR MORE PEOPLE" high-compression engine, using we work with dream jobs which use CHEVROLET. PONTIAC· OLDSMOBILE kerosene-type fuel oil. The chal­ fuel so far beyond present standards BUICK • CADILLAC • BODY BY FISHER lenge is to build a light, compact that it must be laboratory-made. GMC TRUCK Be COACH

Your Key to Greater Value­ the Key to a General Motors Car

Hear HENRY J. TAYLOR on the air every Monday evening over the ABC Network, coast to coast. 30 Tons of Engineering Enterprise-To produce the new Drilling Diesel Fuel Injector Holes- 6/1000th Inch in Diameter four-barreled carburetor now available in several -Fuel is forced into the combustion chamber of a n1akes of GM cars, our engineers came up with this Diesel engine through tiny holes. To drill them­ ingenious 3D-ton machine that drills, reams and taps GM production experts have developed this highly thelTI out with automatic precision. sensitive machine that insures precision work.