DECEMBER 28, 1953 25¢

The Case Against Progressive Income Taxes F. A. Hayek

Does Europe Hate America? Bogdan Raditsa

Balance Sheet for 1953

THE A Fortnightly Our Contributors Fer F. A. HAYEK is universally regarded in both Individualisttl Europe and America as one of the foremost rreeman economists of our day. He has writtenexten­ sively on monetary theory, collectivis,m and Editor HENRY HAZLITT capitalism, and related subjects. As a result Managing Editor FLORENCE NORTON of his studies he has made some observations about the principle of progressive taxation which are of significance and special interest to everyone who pays an individual income tax.

LOUIS ROUGIER, enlinent French scholar, is well known for his contributions both to the history of philosophy and the development of scientific VOL. 4, NO. 7 D:ECEMBER 28, 1953 logic. He has, in addition, written several criti­ Contents cal works on political and economic doctrines.

Editorials PETER SCHMID appears in this issue with an­ other of his reports on key spots of the world The Fortnight 221 (see "Battle for Italy," November 16). In his Eisenhower's Dud 223 present piece he describes some of the cir­ A Republican Split? 224 cumstances contributing to the recent removal The Newspaper Fiasco 225 of the Sultan in Morocco.

Gouzenko Trouble 226 BOGDAN RADITSA, who became an American Mme. Pandit's Little Joke 226 citizen not long ago, had therefore a special interest in revisiting the continent to learn the attitude of his former colleagues to the country Articles of his adoption. His conversations with them enabled him to answer the much-discussed ques­ Balance Sheet for 1953 227 tion: "Does Europe Hate America?" Mr. Raditsa The Case Against Progressive Income Taxes teaches modern European history at Fairleigh F. A. HAYEK 229 Dickinson College. France',s Worker-Priests LOUIS ROUGIER 232 BEN RAY REDMAN has had considerable opportun­ Carpet Bargaining in Morocco PETER SCHMID 234 ity to become acquainted with all facets of

Does Europe Hate America? 0 •••••• BOGDAN RADITSA 237 American popular culture in a career as maga­ zine editor, motion picture executive, and writer. Our Culture Complex 0 •• 0 BEN RAY REDMAN 239

Redcoat Herring .... 0 ••••••••••• 0 •••••••• M. K. ARGUS 241 LAWRENCE R. BROWN, engineer and former jour­ nalist, was Assistant Dh;ector of the Chemical Branch of the War Production Board during Books and the Arts World War Two.

The Kremlin's War on Russia 0 • MAX EASTMAN 242 HENRY C. WOLFE has long been a student of Space Flight-Fact and Fancy 0 ••• LAWRENCE R. BROWN 243 Russo-German relations. His books include·The

Religion Under Red Rule 0 ••••••• ASHER BRYNES 244 German Octopus and The Imperial Soviets.

Uneasy Axis 0 ••••• 0 ••••••• HENRY C. WOLFE 245 JOSEPH WOOD KRUTCH enjoy.s a long-standing

A Desert King 0 •••••••••••••••••••••• SERGE FLIEGERS 245 reputation as one of America's leading drama Briefer Mention 246 critics. Until recently. professor of dramatic literature at Columbia University, he is now Minerva, 1953 JOSEPH WOOD KRUTCH 248 living in Tucson, Arizona; his latest book, A Celebrity SERGE FLIEGERS 250 The Best of Two Worlds, was reviewed in our December 14 issue.

THE FREEMAN is published fortnightly. Publication Office, Orange, Conn. Editorial and To Our Readers General Offices, 240 Madison Avenue, New York 16, N. Y. Copyrighted in the United States, 1953, by the Freeman Magazine, Inc. Henry Hazlitt, President; Lawrence Fertig, Vice President; Claude Robinson, Secretary; Kurt Lassen, Treasurer. As we come to the end of 1953 the editors Entered as second class matter at the Post Office at Orange, Conn. Rates: Twenty-five want to thank you for your friendly interest cents the copy; five dollars a year in the United States; nine dollars for two years; and firm support throughout the past year. six doUars a year elsewhere. Your many heartening letters, your enthusias­ The editors cannot be responsible for unsolicited manus~ripts unless return postage or, better, a stamped, self-addressed envelope is enclosed. Manuscripts must be typed tic response in recent weeks to our ,special double-spaced. Christmas gift subscription offer have been Articles signed with a name) pseudonym, or initials do not necessarily represent the olf)ifii'On of the editors, either as to substance or style. encouraging indeed. To all of you we wish a ~ 11 Printed in U.S.A.,· by Wilson H. Lee Co., Orange, Connecticut. very Merry Christmas. An ancient river provided these ideal plant sites

One of the most nearly perfect indus­ ancient valley is now a broad, gently cinnati. The fastest-growing subur­ trial locations we have ever seen is rolling plain set in the Ohio hills. ban areas of Cincinnati already reach the result of an unusual geological Down in the gravel a great stream out to within 8 or 10 miles of the site, history. Ages ago a once-great river of fine water flows through the old so ample labor is readily available. cut a mile and a half-wide channel river bed. Plenty more water is avail­ The main line of the Chesapeake through what is now southwestern able from the nearby Miami River. and Ohio Railway crosses the area Ohio. The glacier filled it deep with While this is a rural area, it is only and connects with other trunk lines gravel. After the glacier had passed, 12 miles from the center of Hamilton to afford excellent transportation to new rivers dug new channels and the and 17 miles from the heart of Cin- all parts of the country. It is served by the Cincinnati Gas & Electric Company. The C&O owns 88 acres alongside its tracks. There is plenty of adjoin­ ing acreage available. Seldom have we been able to offer industrial sites which had so many desirable features. For a Pin-Point Survey giving full information write to: Chesapeake and Ohio Railway, Industrial DevelopmentDepartment, Cleveland .1, Ohio, Detroit, Michi­ gan, or Huntington, W. Va.

Proposed development of part of the Fernald, Ohio industrial area.

.~. ~. Chesapea.ke and Ohio Rallvvay • SERVING VIRGINIA • WEST VIRGINIA • KENTUCKY • OHIO INDIANA • MICHIGAN • SOUTHERN ONTARIO reemanTHE

1\10NDAY, DECEMBER 28,1953

This is the only possible way (if there is any way) The Fortnight for an understanding with the Communists to be reached. But it is inconsistent and foolish of us, President Eisenhower's speech to the United at the same time as we take this firm step, to be Nations, which we comment upon elsewhere, was pleading with the Communists for still other meet­ a fresh move in the direction of appeasement ings, where they can again haggle, obstruct, and of Soviet Russia. The Communists responded as stall, and once more humiliate, insult, and abuse they responded to the.Baruch plan and all other us, while we vainly try to "reach an understanding" such previous efforts. The IV[oscow radio rejected on an "atomic energy pool" or any other subject. the President's plan and denounced it as "war­ Unless there is good faith on both sides (and who n10ngering." This was a sufficient excuse for Mr. any longer is really so naive as to expect good faith Eisenhower to abandon a proposal that, if we from the Communists?), such understandings or tried to put it into effect, could only increase agreements can only prove disastrous for the side the threat to American security. Instead he chose that abides by them. to ignore "any twenty-four hour reaction by Soviet officials" and to press for acceptance. There stin trying to wisecrack his way into the White is grave danger, therefore, that Russia's reaction House, Adlai Stevenson declared at one of those will have its intended effect-which is to force Democratic $100-a-plate dinners that "four fears" us to go even further in our offers and conces­ had replaced the "four freedoms." These were sions in order to prove that we are not "war­ fears of depression, of Communism, of ourselves, mongering." Peace is a precious prize, but seldom and of freedom itself. We submit that at least won by those who too obviously seek it. When three of these are fears that Mr. Stevenson him­ will we learn that the road to peace is not self is busily trying to instill into the American through appeasement? It was appeasement of people. It is he and his left-wing clique who keep Hitler which brought on a frightful war that trying to intimate that a "Republican depression" early firn1ness on the part of the democracies may soon be upon us, that our present government could have prevented. It is precisely our earlier is not to be trusted, and that freedom of discussion appeasement of Soviet Russia that has built it is in danger. up to such a menace today. If it i.s in danger, it will be because the Stevensons Yet the Eisenhower Administration, and its envoy, succeed in intimidating anybody from mentioning, Arthur H. Dean, must be congratulated for at last for example, that Harry Dexter White was discov­ showing a capacity for resentment, firmness, and ered by the FBI to be a Soviet spy and that Harry decision. After listening through three hours of Truman promoted White after he was told this. studied abuse and vituperation from the Communist It is not this appalling act, but Attorney General delegates, during which they once' more accused the Brownell's courage in making it public that United States of having "plotted" with Syngman Stevenson once more denounces. If Adlai does not Rhee to free the 27,000 North Korean prisoners of himself fear Communism, it seems to be almost the war who were unwilling to return to' Communist only thing he doesn't fear. But then, as he revealed control, Mr. Dean got up and walked out of the when he served as a character witness for Alger meeting hut at Panmunjom, leaving the Chinese and Hiss, Adlai can't even tell a Communist· when he North Korean Communists with their tirade ap­ see'S one. parently uncompleted. He then announced that the break-off was "indefinite", that he would wait one At the beginning of the 1953 marketing year on ~Neek and no longer for the Communists to retract April 1, the government was loaded down with their charges of American perfidy, and that if they 429,000,000 pounds of dairy products. Instead f ailed to do so "the time will have come for a of being able to get rid of them, it has now definite decision" by the U.N. on the next step. accumulated 931,000,000 pounds, a.nd further

DECEMBER 28, 1953 221 additions seem likely. In fact, a report of the it proper to record that by all accounts he has Department of Agriculture indicates it has about conducted himself admirably on his round-the­ given up hope of selling its current supplies of world mission. The ace-ounts are in this case good 251,000,000 pounds of butter, 254,000,000 pounds evidence, because they are for the most part of cheese, and 425,000,000 pounds of dried milk writte'll by reporters who are not admirers of the back to the trade before next spring. The trouble Vice President. It is a long time since ,any official IS, the department says, that milk production is or semi-official world traveler has given so forth­ unseasonably high. Of course one of the things right and yet friendly a defense of the American that helps to make it unseasonably high is the point of view as Mr. Nixon has expressed in his government's buying program itself, which raises public addresses and interviews during this trip. the price and increases the incentive to over­ The Vice President's political style has always been production. Thus our farmers are encouraged to flavored with a certain amount of what is called produce milk, butter, and cheese to be piled up "corn," but this doe,s not seem to have proved and allowed to turn rancid in government ware­ offensive. It apparently went down well on such houses. occasions as the day in Burma when he jumped out of his car to argue personally with the anti­ But the hallmark of your true economic planner American demonstrators. The contrast between the is that he never learns anything-,at all from the whole performance and the' soft, urbane, and collapse of his preceding plans. The delegates "cosmopolitan" turn recently put on by Adlai of thirty nations who have been meeting in Stevenson on the same circuit seems to us altogether Geneva, Switzerland, have drafted an agreement in favor of Mr. Nixon. to "stabilize" the world price of tin. If enough tin consuming and producing countries can be Some odd discrepancies are coming to light be­ got to ratify the program it could start next tween the version of the Ickes diaries as they spring. The planners will seek to keep the price of appeared in Look magazine and as they appear tin in London between the equivalent of 80 cents in the book of some 364,000 words published by and $1.10 a pound. To stabilize prices arbitrarily Simon and Schuster. The Look version, for ex-' is automatically to unstabilize production. But ample,contains the following entry under the date the world planners have learned nothing from of July 16, 1935: "I had an interesting talk with the failure of practically every preceding com­ Secretary of War Dern ... He feels about Red modity price stabilization plan, from AAA to hunting just as I do and thinks it is ahsurd to the British rubber restriction scheme. deny Communists an opportunity to express them­ selves or to have a ticket on the ballot. He thinks, Another session of the United Nations Assembly as I do, that we are working toward a society has come and gone. For three months, hundreds of modified communism .. ." This last sentence, of delegates from all over the world, with their ,"vhich throws at least as bright a light as any thousands of aides and hangers-on, have been in the diary on the ideology of the early New milling about the eastern seaboard. Most of them Dealers, does not appear in the book version. have "diplomatic immunity," and a lot of them What editor deleted it? And why? have been using it for all it is worth. And there is plenty besides espionage that "immunity" can In our issue of N'"ovember 2 we called to the enable you to get away with. Some of the scandals attention of our readers a petition to the Presi­ are, indeed, becoming notorious. Counting the dent launched by IIerbert Hoover and many other charges to the individual nations and to the U. N. important public figures expressing opposition itself, the cost of this session must easily run to the admission of Red China to the United above $20,000,000. Will someone please tell us Nations. Originally, the aim was to obtain 200 \vhat it accomplished-what one single thing of the signatures to the petition. However, the response slightest va'lue to ,any of the world's taxpayers was so great that it was necessary to form a from whom that money is extracted? Granted, special committee to take care of the thousands three or four good speeches were delivered. But of requests to sign. This group is called the Com­ you don't need to spend $20,000,000 to get a few mittee for One Million (the number now aimed good politica'l speeches telecast. The networks at); copies of the petition for signature may be will do it free. Apart from that, nothing: just obtained by writing to this group at 36 West 44 'exactly nothing. N'ot one issue squarely faced; Street, N'ew York 36, N. Y. not one issue settled. A motion to deplore this, another to refer that, ,and the rest swallowed up in Humans are a contrary lot. Every time there is East Rivers of verbiage. a particularly bad storm, hurricane, tornado, fog, smog, or smaze, a lot of people start blaming the Richard Nixon has had to absorb a lot of jeers, atom bomb. Over most of the country, this autumn and smears, since the day when he was nominated has had some mighty fine weather, but we have as Dwight Eisenhower's running mate. We think yet to hear anyone give the bomb credit for it.

~22 THE" FREEMAN Eisenhower's Dud

As an old soldier President Eisenhower should especially in its Asiatic regions, little known before recognize the difference between a live shell and a the 1917 Revolution and completely shut off now dud. His much publicized address in the United from foreign visits. A good many forbidden plants, Nations falls in the second category. Framed in a operated with slave labor, could be tucked away in "Let's Pretend" spirit that was most appropriate Northern Siberia or Central Asia, while a U.N. to the audience ,and the setting, the speech seems inspection team would be kept cooling its heels in clearly destined for a familiar fate: polite applause Moscow and other large cities. and quick oblivion. In addressing the United Nations-the very name 'The central practical proposal for 'a kind of of which has become a piece of unconscious irony­ fair-shares-of-uranium scheme, under which a U.N. the President was obliged to use the language of agency would develop for constructive purpose'S make~believe and "Let's Pretend." But few Amer­ contributions of fissionable miaterial from nations icans, with the memory of the Korean fiasco so now in possession of atomic facilities, seems likely fresh and vivid, will share the President's con­ to founder on several obstacles. The first and most vi'Ction that the United Nations will or can provide obvious of these is the extreme unlikelihood of any great share of "wisdom, courage, and faith." Soviet participation in an arrangement which would In repudiating the idea that "we shun the con­ cast some light on the size of the Soviet atomic ference table" it would not have been out of place stockpile. to summarize the dismal results of past conferences Nor would there be any reason to believe that the with representatives of Communist state,s~the two Soviet contribution, if, surprisingly, it were made, futile conferences on 'Germany in 1947, the dreary would be in fair proportion to Soviet atomic run-around at the Palais Rose, where months of talk resources. The difficulties of obtaining agreement failed to produce an agenda in 1951, the endle'Ss between the United States, Great Britain, Canada, sessions at Panmunjom. and the Soviet Union 'as to worthwhile project1s of development are formidable, to put it mildly. And As if to emphasize the optimistic unreality of on the basis of past experience it would be hard to the President's declaration that we approach the obtain safeguards that Soviet representatives in projected meeting of Foreign Mini,gters "with hope­ such a project vvould have any real objective except ful sincerity," the Communist Chinese and North to carry out as much e'Spionageas might be feasible. Korean deleg,ates, almost simultaneously vvith the The President's suggestion is a much diluted delivery of Eisenhower's speech, were rejecting as version of the Baruch Plan for international owner­ "absurd, meaningless, and stupid" the final U.N. ship of all atomic resources ~and manufacturing offer for a conference on a Korean settlement. Com­ facilities. This plan was approved by other leading munist stalling and obstruction had already delayed members of the U.N. but immediately encountered this 'Conference far beyond the date contemplated in a stone wall of Soviet negation. And perhaps this the armistice agreement. was just as well, because the hard truth of the It has been suggested that the President's ad­ matter is that no scheme of limited or complete dress before the United Nations was designed to disarmament, in atomic or "conventional" weapons, divert attention from the failure of the Bermuda depending on Soviet good will and good faith, Conference to produce any visible results. Certainly, could conceivably be a good American security risk. in spite of the political stature of the participants, Agreed limitation of armaments can only be Bermuda seems to have led to nothing except a effective when it is unnecessarY,as between two chill for French Prime Mini,ster Laniel, resentment nations like the Unjted IStates and Canada, which in France over alleged snubs to French represent­ under no conceivable circumstances would go to atives, and some hurt feelings on the part of Sir war ,against each, other. There is no such thing Winston Churchill over Eisenhower's taking of the as a foolproof arms limitation convention hetween spotlight so quickly at the U.N. two po\vers which are distrustful of each Another negative fruit of Bermuda was general others' intentions. And there are' two special resentment of newspaper and radio correspondents charaeteristics of the Soviet ,Union which would over the exaggerated secrecy in which the meeting make any such convention,even if it were hacked was held. This Ise'Crecy was apparently a cover-up by provisions for mutual. inspection, a scrap of not for important decisions, but for the failure' to pape'r of very dubious v,alue. reach important decisions. One of these is the terrorist dictatorship in the It is doubtful whether anything was accomplished Soviet Union, which would make it impossible to at Bermuda that could not have been done through expect any cooperation from Soviet citizens in un­ use of the mails and normal diplomatic channels. covering violations of the convention. T'he other is It is even more doubtful whether anything but new the vast unexplored space of the Soviet Union, evidence of disagreement can come out of a meeting

DECEMBER 28, 1953 223 with repre;sentatives of Soviet Russia at any leve'!. government that ar,e also and by design part of But one dud does not excuse another. The Ber­ our system. mudameeting might just as we'll not have been It is, therefore, not strange but rather healthy held. The President's speech might just as well and normal that the White House should dispute not have been delivered. with Congress, that President Eisenhower and Secretary Dulles should cross political swords with this or that Republican leader. But the enemies of the Republican Party, who A Republican Split? are in some cases also enemies of the' nation, are trying to aggravate these disputes into some­ Whenever a public dispute arises between the thing that is not healthy or normal. Their aim­ White House and one or another Republican in natural enough, since they are enemies-is not to Congress, the sound of ,eager purring and of chops promote the vigorous growth of the party, but being licked can be heard wide in the land. Over to destroy it. This they believe they can do by the past couple of weeks, the three-cornered opening and widening a breach between the Pres­ skirmish featuring the President, the Secretary ident and the conservative wing of the party. They of State, and Senator McCarthy has particularly find it expedient to picture the' conflict as "Eisen­ whetted a number of appetites. To some noses it hower vs. M0Carthy." This is a distortion of the smells as if a juicy feast of split elephant is shap­ real situation. Senator McCarthy, as everyone ing up. knows, is atypical. What they are after is to cut We believe that these hungry hopes are going the Pre'Sident off from the solid, substantial bloc to be disappointed. We are confident that the of Republican Senators, Congressmen, and Gov­ responsible leaders of the Republican Party are ernors, many from the Midwest, who are the en­ not going to permit an irrevocable break that during core of the party. would prove suicidal for the party itself and This tactic has recommended itself to the gravely injurious to the interests of the nation. Democrats, which is not surprising. It has At the same time we do not dismiss the danger, also been consistently pursued by many of the nor minimize the shrewdness of the tactics that newspapers and columnists who, after years of from the moment of Dwight Eisenhower's nomina­ service to N,ew Dealism, became prominent pre­ tion have sought to provoke a split. Convention Eisenhower supporters. The Alsop There is some misunderstanding even in this brothers and the Washington Post are examples. country about one feature of our two-party system The slogan used by the promoters of the tactic -the system that experience has shown to be the is: "President Eisenhower should assume the firmest foundation for our form of government. le'adership of the Republican Party." Agreed. That We do not have strict and narrow "ideological" a President should be the leader of his party is or "class" parties in the European manner. If surely proper. But why should "leadership" in each social class (farmers, workers, businessmen, this case be interpreted to mean setting himself aristocrats, refugees, or whatever) and each point against a large group of the party's tested and of view (socialism,monarchy, liberalism, conser­ loyal nlen1bers, and most of those citizens who vatism, etc.) is going to insist on its own inde­ voted the party into office? pendent political organization, then there inevit­ For the President to "lead," does it mean that ably develops that multiplicity of parties which he is supposed to act like a N'ew Dealer? in the end stultifies the' democratic process. Unfortunately, President Eisenhower has allowed Each of our two great parties is in reality a himself to be surrounded by advisers who almost national coalition in which many differing ide­ seem to think so. This appears to be true of ologies, groups, and tendencies are loosely united. Sherman Adams, and we gather that it is even What holds each together is its practical function­ more strikingly so of, the President's brother, ing as an electoral machine, and certain very Milton Eisenhower. By all reports, Milton Eisen­ general traditions, ideas, and sentiments. It follows hower is a very active influence within the Pres­ that the internal structure of both parties is fluid ident's immediate circle. It is observable that this and changing. Within each the differing groups recent White House "offensive" against fellow­ and tendencies battle for supremacy, with varying Republicans followed close upon Dr. Eisenhower's fortune. Sometimes one group wins a .clear-cut return from his Latin American trip. (though never more than temporary) victory. More It would be our notion that for the President often there is a compromise that is likely to prove to "assume leadership" would mean: first, that offensive to ideological purists but is of the essence he should give bolder, more inspiring leadership of the two-party system. to the nation along the lines of his campaign The party in power, unrestrained by the sorrows pledges and the voters' expectations; and second, of opposition, is always the more open in displaying that as occasion decently permits he should its ,conflicts. Moreover, it is plunged into the ad­ strengthen and preserve his own chosen party ditional conflicts among the three branches of against the attacks of its enemies and rivals. It

224 THE FREEMAN may be necessary now and then for the President But the refusal of photo-engravers to work to criticize, if he disagrees with it, some policy would not by itself have shut down the newspapers. that has been advocated by Senator M.cCarthy or That achievement must be credited to the several some other Republican. But if so, it would seem unions of mechanical, editorial, and commercial to be at least equally appropriate that he should employees. For it was these unions which ordered once in a while criticize, or even attack quite their n1embers not to cross the engravers' picket sharply, policies advocated by Democrats and semi­ lines and thus effectively prevented the news­ or fair-weather Republicans. papers from operating. All of these unions de-­ It is a profound error to suppose that in our liberately and knowingly adopted this policy of system a politi.cal leader can be "above party." acting in concert with the 'engravers, although A king or a dictator can be ~above party, but our they and their members were bound by contracts system is a party system, and our politics are which they had voluntarily entered into with the party politics. There is no point where President employers. There is nothing in these contracts Eisenhower's political inexperience is more spe­ which permits unions to strike or employers to cifically a handicap than in his lack of acquaintance lock out whenever they feel like behaving that with the complex processes of a party. Robert Taft way. If there were, such contracts would have could have helped him through these rough shoals. slight value and there would be little point in If no one can yet quite replace' Robert Taft, there making them. are among the Republican Governors and members No agent of the Department of Justice would of Congress men of vision, experience, and tact have much difficulty in deciding what similar con­ upon whom the President can call, and who will give duct by groups of employers would mean in the him far better aid and advice in these matters than eyes of the law. Concerted action ·of this type is he has recently been receiving. plainly a species of conspiracy, entered into for the Dwight Eisenhower will do well to understand purpose of fixing prices. It is, or should be, no that no Pre'Sident can lead our country well unless less conspiratorial when done by labor unions. All he is a good leader of his party; and no man leads of the surrounding circumstances in this episode a party well who allows its enemies to smash it. made the actions by the unions, which themselves were not in dispute with the publishers, a clear case of conspiracy. The sympathetic strike of this collection of newspaper unions afforded the pub­ The Newspaper Fiasco lishers an excellent opportunity to find out what protection, if any, they had in the law. The great The settlement of the photo-engravers' strike, mystery is why the publishers failed to assert their which caused most New York newspapers to sus­ rights and to undertake to make some little con­ pend publication for ten days, is much less tribution to public enlightenment and to the public important than the damage the strike did to the interest. Our large met~opolitan newspapers pub­ rights of the press, the validity of union contracts, lish a plethora of words about labor unions, labor and the whole business of what we elect to call col­ law, labor relations, government policy, and the lective bargaining in this country. The strike itself like. But when, in the conduct of their own affairs, was in the best tradition of American labor rela­ they encountered the pure and unadulterated force tions. The union of photo-engravers is an old, of private power, of which organized labor is the tightly-organized craft union of skilled workers. obvious embodiment, they seem hardly to have As these things go, its members have done well by read what so often and so voluminously appears themselves, earning before the strike $3.31 an in their columns. hour for day work and $3.61 for night work. Their The Administration in Washington, which is normal work-week is thirty-six and a quarter hours; again wrestling with the task of making Tart­ for the first four hours of overtime they receive Hartley more palatable to the A.F.L. and the C.I.O., time and a half and for additional hours double might, likewise, to its profit study the course of time. The terms of the settlement will raise their events in this latest manifestation of the extensive present wages and other benefits still further, power possessed and wielded by labor unions in the exact amount to be determined after a fact­ the United States. Sober consideration of this finding board announces its findings. potent and threatening feature of our organized If all that had happened was the strike of the labor movement might persuade the authorities in photo-engravers, this episode would be of no spe­ Washington to strengthen, not weaken, the coun­ cial significance. The photo-engravers made de­ try's basic labor law. And, while it was engaged mands, sensible or foolish,excessive or moderate, in this piece of research, the Administration m'ight and they were within their rights to accept or learn something from· the warnings sounded by reject the newspaper publishers' ,counter-offers. representatives of newspaper publishers in the They were also within their rights to choose to period of code-making under the NRA when the strike rather than arbitrate, ill-advised as that fear of "what unionization might do to freedom of action may under all the circumstances have seemed. the press was clearly and forcibly put on the record.

DECEMBER 28, 1953 225 Why is it that there are still so many persons Gouzenko "Trouble in public life who get indignant not at the Com­ munis,t underground but at thos(i} who want to There must be something more to the recent expose it? Who is hiding what? Who is covering flare-up over Igor Gouzenko than has been per­ for whom? mitted to reach the public eye. On the surface the incident seems much too trivial to have caused such a ruckus in both Ottawa and Washington. Gouzenko, it will be recalled, is the cipher clerk Mme. Pandit's Little Joke who in 1945 walked out of the Soviet Embassy in Ottawa with a case full of secret documents. IVlme. Vijaya Lakshmi Pandit, president of' the Canada gave him asylum, and his testimony un­ United Nations General Assembly, told 900 boys covered an espionage ring that stretched the length and girls from New York City's schools, at the and breadth of North America. A dozen or so New York Mirror Youth Forum, that "there has Canadian and British citizens were fined or jailed. been too much talk of advice from us of the older It was reported that Gouzenko had implicated generiation who have bungled the affairs of this United States citiz'ens also, but the:se links were world and now is the time for us to take a back never pursued in public. seat and let young people come forward so that Since then Gouzen'ko has become a Canadian a way may be found out of the impasse' that con­ citizen and been "living under an assumed identity fronts us today." If Mme. Pandit is referring to "somewhere in Canada." Some weeks ago an inter­ herself as one who has bungled the affairs of this view, allegedly with him, appeared in the Chicago world, we wouldn't think of contradicting so shrewd Tribune. He was reported as criticizing the author­ if belated an observation. But if Mme. Pandit is ities for having failed to follow up his leads, which, really sincere in thinking that it is time she took he insisted, would have exposed additional espio­ a ,back seat, and is not merely spoofing the school nage rings still operating in the United St,ates as children, then we suggest that she resign im­ 'wen as Canada. mediately as president of the United Nations Gen­ 'Thereupon the Senate Internal Security sub­ eral Assembly, and recommend, say, some fifteen­ commit1tee, through the State Department, requested year-old girl to take her place. permission of the Canadian government to ques­ The truth is, of course, that no one is supposed tion Gouzenko. Ottawa refused on the ground that to take Mme. Pandit's statements very seriously, the Tribune interview was spurious. Gouzenko got and least of all Mme. Pandit. This is just one word out that it was, on the contrary, authentic, of those specimens of mock-humility that it has and the State Department renewed the request. been considered clever and fashionable for a whole Amid furious clamor in the Canadian press and generation of self-styled "progressives" to pass parliament, External Aff'airs Minister Lester Pear­ along to Youth. They have been passing along this son granted a permission hedged in with various particular specimen, in fact, ever since the out­ restrictions. Gouzenko could be questioned only break of World War One. What they forget is under Canadian supervision and procedure; Canada that Youth, lacking experience, knowledge, hack­ could prevent use or publication of any sections ground, and wisdom, takes these things literally. of the tes'timony. The State Department concluded, It believes what it is told, especially when it is no doubt correctly, that nothing further could be told that it is wiser than its parents. It proceeds done, and the subcommittee has agreed to go quite literally to act as if such statements were ahead on this unsatisfactory basis. true, and blithely dismisses most of the accumulated Meanwhile, though the Jenner committee ques­ knowledge of the race, without troubling too much tioning will be thus hedged about, newspaper re­ to find out what this knowledge wa-s. It thereupon porters seem able to question Gouzenko much more' makes more of a mess of things than ever. freely, as reflected by Tania Long's interview with In general this goes on under the name of him in the New York Times of December II. Progressive Education. It seems about time some We hope that the mysteries will soon be dis­ of us pointed out that while "we of the older pelled. But it is impossible not to suspect, in vie"w generation" have made many mistakes, we also have of what has happened so far, that someone is some considerable achievements to our credit, and trying to obstruct the truth. Canada is doubtless that these achievements are in the main the result, within her diplomatic rights. Nevertheless, this not of being ignorant of the discoveries of everybody is a most strange procedure for so intimate a older than ourselves, but of humbly learning what friend and neighbor, faced with exaetly the same these were and building on then!. Perhaps some day basic problems" as our own. If Gouzenko has told even the lVI:me. Panditswill learn that the direction everything he knows, as Canada at first claimed, of ,affairs might be best entrusted not to the hands then it couldn't do any harm for him to tell some of Youth as such, but to the hands of the wise, the of it over again. If he hasn't, it is surely high time informed, and the competent, from whatever age th.at he be given an unintimidated ,chance to do so. group they may happen to con1e.

226 THE FREEMAN Balance Sheet for 1953

The FREEMAN lists below its Credit-Debit summary of the major events of the year. Certain important items are omitted because of uncertainty about the facts or outcome: the removal of Beria, Russia's possession of the A-H bombs, the Trieste affair, the Bricker Amendment.

CREDITS many. The Soviet Army suppressed the riot, but it could not suppress the knowledge that an aroused Inauguration of a Republican President people had dared to oppose the poliae state. After twenty years of the Democratic Admin­ istration with its enormous patronage, a change Truce in Korea was essential if a shift in the direction of a one­ On July 27 all military action in Korea officially party state was to be avoided. halted. 'The very fact of peace must be set down as a gain, entirely apart from offsetting conse­ Deneutraliza,tion of iFormosa quences that cannot yet be foreseen. In his State of the Union Message President Eisenhower announced: "I am issuing instructions Election of Konrad Adenauer that the Seventh Fleet no longer be employed to In choosing Chanc€llor Adenauer in their elec­ shield Communist China." The question had long tions on September 6 the people of West Germany, existed in many minds why Truman's orders to the by an impressive majority, voted for a free market Seventh Fleet were continued a single day after economy, for the military, economic, and political the Chinese Communists opened their attack on us. integration of West Europe, and for association with the responsibilities and risks of defending Abolition of Price and Wage Controls Europe against the totalitarian threat. The first positive act of the new ,President was the immediate removal of all wage and most price New Loyalty-Security Program controls which had been in effect since January 26, Early in February the Eisenhower Administra­ 1951, and were due to expire April 30. On March tion abolished the distinction between "loyalty"·and 17 the last price controls were completely abolished. "security" which had prevailed in Truman's pro­ Contrary to the dire warnings of the controlists, gram concerning federal employment. In conse­ no substantial increase in prices or wages followed. quence by September 30 1,456 persons were out of government service-by dis'missal or resignation. Death of Joseph Stalin On March 4 this astute and powerful leader, this The 'HarryD,exter White ,Case ",genius of patience, continuity, cruelty, and fraud" On November 6 Attorney General Brownell was removed forever from the commanding staff of identified the late Harry Dexter White as a spy the world Communist conspiracy. The advantages for Soviet Russia, and announced that this fact to accrue from his death are still undeveloped, was duly reported by the FBI to former President but the East German riots (see below) gave Truman in December 1945, while White was still evidence that the Kremlin was weakened by the Assistant Secretary of the Treasury and prior to loss both in force of will and prestige of one of his appointment in 1946 to the post of U.S. the bloodiest tyrants mankind has ever known. Director of the International Monetary Fund. In all the ensuing controversy those statements re­ Tidelands IOiI IBilI Passed mained unquestioned. For the first time information The principle of states' rights was furthered in the FBI files on Communists in government VI/hen on May 22 President Eisenhower signed the was made public. After the silence and denials of Submerged Lands Act, ceding to the states the the Truman Administration on this question, the title to 17,000,000 acres of submerged land and airing of the White case by the head of the depart­ resources along the American coastline to a distance ment in charge of the records was reassuring. of from three and a half to ten miles offshore. Prosperity East ,German Riots Measured in dollar terms, 1953 was the most pros­ On J unel 17 workers in the Soviet zone of Berlin perous year in American history. Our estimated rose against the "dictatorship of the proletariat," gross national product-total output of goods burned Soviet flags, stoned Soviet tanks, and de­ and services-was $369,000,000,000, compared with manded the r~signation of the Kremlin's puppet $348,000,000,000 in 1952. (This reflected, of course, government. Within a few days similar uprisings not only high production and "full employment," occurred in a number of other cities of East Ger- but inflated prices.)

DECEMBER 28, 1953 227 DEBITS who were hostile to Communism and unwilling to be repatriated were subjected to prolonged Taxes detention and what amounted to inquisitorial On the basis of R,epublican promises in the 1952 "explanations" by the officers from whom they had campaign the American people looked for early fled. 'To date, five months after the end of the action in the direction of a general tax reduction. war, 3,421 Allied prisoners in the hands of the They were disappointed. The excess profits tax Communists are still unaccounted for. Korea re­ which was scheduled to expire June 30, was ex~ mains divided; South Korea and Japan are open to tended to December 31. The 11 per cent boost in aerial attack from new bases in North Kore'a. The individual income taxes, imposed as a result of prospects for an e,arly or effective political con­ the Kore'an war and due to expire at the end of feren'ceare almos't hopeless. the year, was" retained. Likewise, the Administra­ tion opposed pushing forward the date for a De,ath of Rohert A. Taft 'The passing of Senator Taft on July 31 left a decrease in excise taxes and a 5 per cent reduction in the corporate income tax, both scheduled for se-rious vacuum in the political Ufe of the nation April 1, 1954. Despite views to the contrary among that has not been filled. Not only did the Republican some members of Congress, the President insisted Party los'e its irreplaceable guide and leader. Con­ a balanced budget must be the condition for lower­ gress lost a man who knew and understood more ing taxes. about government than any other of its members, and the American people a forceful spokesman for The Budget their individual Jibe'rties. Though President Eisenhower had stated before his election that the federal budget could be cut as Labor Relations much as $40,000,000,000, when he presented his A break between the unions and the Administra­ own budget for the fiscal year that began last tion occurred August 31 when Secretary of Labor July 1, it turned out he was planning to spend Martin P. Durkin resigned because President Eisen­ more than $74,000,000,000, a figure higher than hower failed to submit to Congress nineteen amend­ was spent in any fiscal year under Truman. In ments to the Taft-Hartley Act endorsed by labor. addition, by mid-summer the national debt had On the part of the C.LO. that break turned into reached the staggering sum of $272,000,000,000. open hostilities at its convention in November. The The President's re'quest that, Congress increase the Administration was accused of making government legal debt limit from $275,000,000,000 to $290,000,­ a "subordinate ally of big business"; there was a 000,000 was temporarily shelved. Any serious pro­ unanimous vote for repeal of the Taft-Hartley Act. posals for a responsible budget system that would Judging from the spee-ch at that convention of the bring expenditure's down to a reasonable level of present Secretary of Labor, James P. Mitchell, and taxation have not been forthcoming. reports as to amendments the Administration in­ tends to propose, it would seem that Mr. Eisenhower Italian Elections will make some concessions to labor, try stop-gap On June 7 the Italian people went to the polls measures, generally follow a so-called middle-of­ for their first national election since 1948, when the-road position. That leaves still unresolved the' they voted overwhelmingly on the side of the important question of what is to be done with the West. Not so in 1953. The Center parties, dominated basic law to make it better serve the whole public by De Gasperi's Christian Democrats, lost 20.4 intere'St, not labor alone. per .cent of the vote they received in 1948. The loss was in f,avor of the Communi.sts and the left-wing Farm Policy Socialists, headed by Pietro Nenni. In the sub­ In the first months of the year the Administra­ se'quent debacle, when De Gas'peri, leader of the tion showed signs of favoring a shift from the Christian Democrats, was unable to form a work­ dependence of farmers on high price-supports to able cabinet, the right-wing Socialists threw in their integration into a fre'e market economy. their votes with Nenni. De Gasperi's colleague and The Secretary of Agriculture, Ezra Taft Benson, successor, Giuseppe' Pella, has proved an able backed a sliding-scale supports system, which premier, but his position is insecure hecaus,e of this would decrease supports when production is high, trend to the Left. increase- them when production is low. After ten years of fixed high supports, the farmers bitterly Terms of the Korean Truce oppose such a change. They are further disgruntled No American could feel anything but relief at by a continuing price-cost "squeeze~'-a 4 per cent the end of the war in Korea, which cost the United drop in farm prices against less than 2 per cent States 140,000 casualities. But the terms of the in farm costs'. In a speech on October 15 the truce made it a defeat in all the essentials of President promised that the "price' support prin­ the war against Communism. The United Nations ciple must be part of any future farm program." failed to honor its promise of protection to deserters Prognostications are that the farm program will to its side. Instead, prisoners of the United Nations continue as now on the books.

228 THE FREEMAN The Case Against Progressive Income Taxes

TIley violate basic political and economic principles, By F. A. HAYEK contends an eminent economist, and should be replaced by a systeln built on the principle oj proportionality.

The demand of Marx and Engels in the Communist somehow designated as "good" and yet which all Manifesto for "a heavy progressive or graduated the ingenuity of its supporters could not quite income tax" was a revolutionary proposal intended reconcile with the basic tradition that a law, to be to serve the main aim of their program-"to just, must mete 'Out equal treament to all. These centralize all instruments of production in the hands economists paid little heed to Alfred Marsall's of the state." warning that an economist should distrust himself During the century which has passed since then, most when he finds his conclusions are extremely progressive taxation has not only become a highly popular. They were, rather, carried away by the respectable and almost universally practiced in­ unwonted popularity of their theoretical construc­ strument of social policy, but the rate of progres­ tionand heaped refinement upon refinement to sion in some countries, such as Greiat Britain, has "prove" what they felt must be right and to pro­ reached levels which even Marx and Engels, though duce what our authors call "the tantalizing com­ they would approve, would view with surprise. The bination of plausible, ingenious, and improbable violent battles which, until forty years ago, were ideas which make up the case for progression in fought over the principle have been forgotten. terms of sacrifice and ability to pay." For about a generation progression has been ac­ ceptedas a matter of course. The Marginal Utility Theory 'This development has at last caused a revival of interest in the argument in support of the prin­ The worst case of misspent ingenuity, I am ciple. We have recently been given a very instruc­ afraid, seems to me now the attempt to use marginal tive academic study of' the history of the progres­ utility analysis in support of progression. Although sive principle in the British income tax!, which the late Lord Stamp once seriously contended is exceedingly useful to the student, though quite that "it was not until the marginal theory was neutral in its attitude. And now we have before thoroughly worked out on its psychological side us a highly important essay by two University of that progressive taxation obtained a really secure Chicago lawyers2 ' which has recently appeared in basis in principle," it seems now clear that it book form, and which subjects the whole range of was only in the rashness of its immaturity that it arguments advanced in support of the principle to could have led careful thinkers to draw such con­ searching criticism. clusions from it. The early recognition that there The aim of Messrs. Blum and Kalven is mainly to was no 'obj ective way of comparing the utilities examine the arguments which have been advanced of different persons should have been sufficient to in the past in support of progression. No more' is stop all this. But when it was fully realized that claimed for them than that "if a strong case for utility had meaning only as a relative concept, progression can bernade out affirmatively, thes'e as stating a man's prefe'rences between different objections would not stand in the way. But if the goods, it further became clear that the application doubts about the affirmative case for progression of the concept of decreasing marginal utility to in­ increase, these objections would take on greater come as a whole, counting in eve'rything which a ·weight." This they do increasingly as one follows person enjoys, was meaningless. Even for anyone the two authors through the central part of their person there could then be no foundation for saying essay. that successive increments of income had for him a It is a disturbing experience to pass in review decreasing utility. the various and divergent attempts which were made The situation is of course different if 'we ex­ to give intellectual respectability to a prejudice' clude some elements of human welfare, such as ef­ -to something which the spirit of the time had fort or leisure, from our conception of income. For such a restricted income concept it makes at i. F. Shehab, Progressive Taxation, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1953 least sense to say that as money income increases 2. \iValter J. Blum and Harry Kalven, Jr., The Uneasy Case for Progressive Taxation. The University of Chicago Press, 1953 its marginal utility in terms of effort or leisure

DECEMBER 28, 1953 229 is likely. to fall-though we should still find it doubt correct. Its only justification is that the difficult to ascertain by how much it will fall. majority in its present state of mind regards But if we' introduce the assumptions commonly progressive taxation as just. And to this belief all made to justify progressive taxation, a curious that effort has no doubt contributed a good deal. paradox results. If it were true, 'as the supporters But even the opinions of a majority are in the of progressive taxation would have to contend, long run not impervious to a convincing demonstra­ that the utility of proportional additions to income tion of the harmfulness of what today they thought­ decreases in terms of effort ,an income increases, lessly approve. It is for this reason that one this would mean that in order to provide the same would wish that Messrs. Blum and Kalven, after incentive for the rich man to exert himself, having exposed the flimsiness of the case for pro­ an increase in income would be required more than gression, had once more returned to the arguments proportional to what is sufficient for a poorer man. against it. Surely the experience of a generation From an incentive point of view this argument with progression reaching rates of which its early would thus lead to the advocacy of degressive tax­ advocates never dreamed has taught us a great deal ation, since it is clearly as important to stimulate ahout its harmful effects which is not yet generally the efforts of those whose. services are of the great­ understood. est value to society. What is perhaps least understood is the strong The conclusion we must draw, it seems to me, is moral case that can be made against progression, that in this connection we ought to leave the util­ because it infringes the one basic rule of eco­ ity theory severely alone in the future and try nomic justice: equal pay for equal work. This is to do our best to undo the disservice which its the inevitable and highly inequitable result of abuse has done in the past. increasing the rate of taxation with the income earned during a period of time. Two professional The Real Aim men may render exactly the same services during the month of December, but if the one has been Perhaps the most striking feature of the story very active during the earlier parts of the year told by Messrs. Blum and Kalven is how long while the' other did little, the net remuneration after nearly all the advocates of progressive taxation, taxation of the former for what he did in Decem­ except the Socialists, have insisted on· treating ber may be very much less than that of the latter. it as if it were a problem of distributing a given The whole principle of progressive taxation tax burden and have ignored the fact that its aim tends to fix what the majority regards as appro­ was a redistribution of incomes. It was, as our priate annual incomes rather than rewards com­ authors rightly point out, the great merit of the n1ensurate with services rendered. Under it there late Henry Simons to have made clear that "the is no real remedy for the effect that, if the reward case for drastic progression in taxation must be for a man's lifework is concentrated in a fe'" rested on the case against inequality." But a years, it will be more heavily taxed than if it redistribution of incomes which we can call just were spread evenly over a long period. But ·while presupposes that we have a standard of distribu­ it 'make'S sense to use the aggregate income of a tive justice other than the values which the serv­ man during his life as the basis of taxation, it ices of the different people have on the market­ does not makes sense to base it on the rate at which we haven't. It is for this reason that once which he earns it during an arbitrary period. we embark upon it we are, in a ,famous phrase of The viewpoint which has determined the whole J. R. McCulloch of which the authors remind us, approach to this problem is entirely that of the "at sea without rudder or compass and there is no salaried man, who thinks of income in terms of amount of injustice or folly you may not commit." time sold rather than in terms of the value of It is for this reason also that the old objection, particular services to society. Only to such minds that progression is "a politically irresponsible could an argument appealliike that expressed in the formula" because it means that "a majority are phrase, much used as ,an argument for progression, allowed to set the rates which fall exclusively that" no man could be worth more to society than on the minority," is even more serious than our $100,000 a year." As soon as we leave out the authors seem to n1ake it. It is rather ,alarming reference to the year, and ask whether there is a how lightly some earlier authors treated this point. limit to the value to society of what a man might One wonders whether fifty years later Professor do in an hour or pe'rhaps even in five minutes, the E. R. A. Seligman would still have brushed it emptiness of the contention is at once obvious. away with the sentence: "There' is no advantage in There is no space here to show at length the in­ conjuring up fanciful dangers which have been appropriateness of this whole conception to profits, disproved by experience." and the results which are produced if profits are The general impression which the present essay :treated as if the'Y were income in the sense in which conveys, that two or three generations of effort the salaried man thinks of income. The well-known to provide an intellectual justification for pro­ effects which progression has as a deterrent to risk­ g-ressive taxation have been unsucce'Ssful, is no taking, which Messrs. Blum and Kalven show very

230 TIlE FREEMAN clearly, are part of this story. In f.act, from a social large amounts of capital. But pe'rhaps governmental point of view, at least the larger part of profits promises are no longer sufficiently trusted to have should not be regarded as income at all in the sense any such effect. in which the average man thinks of income, hut There are still many aspects of progressive rather as part of a constant process of redistribu­ taxation about which much more statistical in­ tion of capital from the unsuccessful to the success­ formation, both about this country and compara·· ful. And the high taxation of profits, which consti­ tively, ought to be available than in fact exists or tute the largest share of the income in the highest is generally known, if we are to form a just picture tax brackets, amounts in fact to a tax on the turn­ of its tendencies and effects. But even on the over of ,capital. basis of what we have, one thing seems clear; not the least danger of progressive taxation is the How to Perpetuate Inequality illusion it creates about the extent to which the burden of rising government expenditure can be Probably the most serious implication of this shifted to the shoulders of the rich. It is not bureaucratic approach, which thinks in terms of at all unlikely that because of this illusion the "appropriate incomes," is that in effect it denies majority today pay higher taxes than they would that the accumulation of capital is a legitimate otherwise have been willing to devote to govern­ aim of an individual's efforts, and in practice ment purposes. makes it impossible. The whole justification of These are only a few of the reflections to which the system of private" property, however, rests on this excellent book gives rise. The authors certainly the assumption that it is possible for the success­ have made it clear that progressive taxation is ful person to build up a fortune. It is indeed one a subject which badly needs to be re-examined. of the paradoxes of modern policy that a sup­ Their survey ought to be the beginning of a new posedly egalitarian measure like progressive tax­ discussion. ation has already gone' far to destroy the one fea­ There are of course many issues on which neither ture which in the past has mitigated the inequality they nor this article could touch. But there is of fortunes: the chances of the poor to rise to be one more point on which a few words must be added. wealthy. By reducing vertical mobility m'odern There is a widespread impression that the need to taxation in fact perpetuates the inequality of in­ exempt the lowest incomes from taxation makes dividuals and creates a new rigidity of class dis­ progression inevitable. Now this may be true for tinctions. the progressive features of some particular tax, The character of progressive taxation, as a such as the income tax. But it is by no means method by which the majority arbitrarily fixes obvious with respect to the progressive character what it regards as an appropriate scale of remun­ of the tax system as a whole. It is on this aspect eration for a successful minority, also produces that our authors rightly concentrate and to which the inevitable result that ,what is regarded as an our strictures on the principle alone apply. So far appropriate remuneration for a given service de­ as the tax system as a whole is concerned, the pends on the average wealth of the community. argument about the necessity of exempting the This leads to the curious result that the same poorest is, however, just humbug: no government income is quite regularly much more heavily taxed has ever refrained from taxing them indirectly or in poor communities than in rich ones. probably ever could raise enough revenue 'without The extent to which this is true is best shown doing so. by a few figures. Today the aver,age rate of income Moreover, it should be remembered, the tax-ex­ tax reaches 25 per cent for a family with three empt minimum today is never an absolute minimum children in the United States at approximately of existence but a cultural minimum, i.e., a min­ $36,000, in Canada at about $21,000, in France at imum determined by the general standards of the $8,800, in Ireland at $8,100, in the United King­ society, and there is no reason why this cultural dom at $4,300, and in Austria at $1,840! This can minimum should not also be reduced when in­ in no way be explained by the greater need in creased government needs lead to a reduction of poor countries to use progression to raise revenue, income standards all round. It is not the need to since the financial results due to the higher part exempt the poorest from taxation which forces us of the progressive scales are everywhere com­ into progression; but it may well be that some paratively small. It is almost entirely due to the progression of the income tax in particular may be fact that to the majority ina poor country in­ the most convenient way of offsetting the heavier names already appear as "excessive" which in a indirect taxation of the poor and making the tax rich country are still regarded as reasonable; and burden as a 'whole as nearly as possible propor­ the result is that poor countries which have the tional. This is probably a valid argument for some greatest need for rich me'll are usually the least progression in income tax rates, but neveT an ar­ attractive to them. One wonders when a poor gument for making the tax system as a whole pro­ country will first discover that by merely abolish­ gressive. ing progressive taxation it could today attract But if this is the only valid argument for making

DECEMBER 28, 1953 231. the income tax progressive, it seems at the same necessary that on the whole everybody contributes time also to suggest a definite' limit how far his proportional share, and it will make it im­ progression may be legitimately carried. Even if possible for the tax system as a whole to become we assume that some parts of the larger incomes significantly progressive. bear no taxes other than income tax, there could 'That some limit to the' scale of progression is s,till be no case for taxing them at a rate higher required, if we are' not to drift gradually into the than the proportion of all the income of the com­ practice of confiscation, is widely understood. munity which is taken for government purposes. Whether a fixed constitutional limit to the rate of If the share of the national income which is claimed taxation, expressed as such-and-such per cent, is for the government is, say, 25 per cent, let the practical may weU be doubted. But that nobody highest rate at which increments of income are should be taxed on his income at a marginal rate in taxed also be 25 per cent. This will assure that excess of the share which the government takes, in the highest incomes will contribute at least their one way or another, of all incomes as a whole, is a proportional share to the common expenditure, rule which may prove both generally intelligible and and probably a little more. But it will make it more practicable than any other.

France's Worker-Priests

By LOUIS ROUGIER

The French Ghurch is suffering from a crisis of their parochial apostleship with 'work in the factory. self-analys'is. This results from an experiment They apply for jobs in factories without reveal­ which is laudable in itself but which often deviates ing their status as priests. Wearing the same kind from its aim: ~he experiment of the worker-priest. of clothes as their co-workers, a sweater and The experiment grew out of a book and the a pair of overalls, they work exactly as other mind of a great Cardinal. The book is entitled workers do, sometimes live' in the s,ame houses, France, Pays de Mission and w,as written by the eat at the same canteens, are subjected to the Abbe ,Godin. Its point of departure is the fol­ same weariness, to the same' hardships. ,Poorly con­ lowing. Workers as a whole have completely broken ditioned for such a life, some have died ont,he job. with Christianity. Among 'them the gospel of Karl Abbe Favreau, for instance, was crushed to death Marx has replaced the gospel of Christ. The' com­ as he labored on the docks of Bordeaux. ing of the Kingdom of God is no longer expected by These new apostles follow the example of Simone means of the Communion of Saints, but by Weil, ,an intellectual wirth a doctorate in philosophy, means of the class struggle, which will establish the when she voluntarily 'be-came a worker in a factory D'ictatorship of the Proletariat as a step toward and on a farm in order to understand "proletarian the realization of classless society. life" better. It is an impressive ideal. But in prac­ 'The Abbe Godin teaches a new kind of apostle­ tice the problem becomes complicated and the ship. He advises the young priest to put away his results dramatic. The worker-priest has, generally cassock, his sacristy, his church, part of his the­ speaking, only a small amount of training in ological training, his community life in order to economics. He is struck by the low standard of go into the world of workers and live their prole­ living of his fellow-workmen. The priest does not tarian life with them. If he wishes to speak to the know that the low level .of wages in France is workers, to set them a good example, to attract due largely to the leftist partie'S, who have para­ them by acts of charity, to convince them by faith, lyzed industrial progress, lowered the value of he must first be a worker himself. money, introduced high prices, and promoted Cardinal Shuard, Archbishop of Paris, was im­ IVlalthusianism in order to introduce social reforms. pressed by this idea. He organized on July 1, 1943, Living and working with laboring men, the priest the Mission de Paris, which today includes aibout quickly comes to think very much as they do. He twenty-five members, all of the secular cIeTgy. shares their feelings of 'resentment and their fre­ Following the Parisian example, the Mission de quent lack of understanding. Being more learned France was organized. This w,as first established than the others, he is chosen 'by his comrades to at Lisieux, then moved to the Great Seminary of be the secretary of the workers' committee. In this Limoges. In addition to the. secular clergy, J'esuits, position he becomes the delegate of the entire Capucins, Dominicans, and Franciscans are ad­ [Iactory to 'the workers' union, which may be· the mitted to the Mission. They are sent to the country F.O. (Force Ouvriere), theC.F~T.C. (Confederation as well as to the cities. Some of them combine Fran~aise des TravaHleurs Chretiens), or, ,more

232 THE FREEMAN often, the Communist-dominated C.G.T. (Confed.. capitalism. The C.F.T.C.'s attitude is virtually erationGenerale du Travail). Little by little, he serving the interests of capitalism. A Christian is entangled in political and soc'ial problems. He or a priest surely has a right to recognize that becomes more and more occupied with temporal only· the whole working-clasls united can preserve business, partly to the det'riment of his spiritual liberties that have been acquired by so many aims. Then, the pretre stalinien appe'ars, such as struggle's and so much bloodshed. Desgrand's case Jthe Abbe Barraut, who is one of the leaders of is in no sense Ideviationism.' but it is merely anorther the great Communist Center of Labor Unions. example of the efforts of the French bosses to He participates in political strikes, when he does divide the worke'rsas a class." not organize them himself. Some of the priests Some bishops finally became alarmed by these even blame the Christian Trade Unions fOT being strange attitudes. His Eminence, Cardinal Saliege too prudent, too cautious, too "bourge'ois-minded" of Toulouse, summarizing the ten years' activity as compared with the C.'G.'T. of the worker-priests, criticized the effective alli­ The general strike of August 1953 was started ance 'between them and the Communists. "Every ,by postal workers for professional re'asons which day it seems more and more a fact that some had nothing to do with working conditions, but people are preparing a haven for Communism in only with public service. The Laniel government the very heart of Catholicism, but Marxi,sm has not had issued a decree in order to raise the age of yet heen converted." Cardinal SalU~ge condemns retirement for certain state employees. The strike those pseudo-theologians who, citing the example w,as directed against neither the' "bosses" nor of St. Paul in opposing himself to St. Peter, con­ the "bourgeoisie," but against the state and its tend that there are two churches, one hierarchical political bodie'S elected by universal suffrage. and ano:her subject only to the free' will. This is Fundamentally, it was nothing bu~ a political a kind of neo-Protestantism. strike. The Christian Workers Union (C.F.T.C.) On October 16, 1953, the official Catholic maga­ declared that the strike should be 'brought to an zine of the Diocese of Chartres published the com­ end. But the worker-pries'ts ,as a whole joined in plete text of a letter written by His Eminence, publishing a very aggressive and violent pamphlet Bishop Pizzardo, Cardinal-Prefect of 1;he 8acred against 'the C.F.T.C., the bosses, and the govern­ Congregation of Seminaries, absolutely forbidding ment, calling for "unity of the workers" as con­ the Seminarists to work in factories. The opening ceived by the C.G.'T. This pamphlet denounced any of the Grand Seminary of Limoges, where 150 s'em­ kind of cooperation between workers and their inarists had enlisted in order to become worker­ employers, in the name of "social justice" and priests, was put off sine die. Finally, theapos­ "Christian morality." But in this ca,se there was tolical Nuncio, His Excellency Monsignor Morella, only one boss, the state! was ordered by the Holy See to ask the French bishops to dismiss the priests ,as worke'rs and to The Abbe Starts a Strike send them to normal ministerial work. The General Assembly of Cardinals and Bishops The same thing has happened in other parts of of France, in its last meeting in October 1953, gave' France. Let us take the case of a pilot-factory precise orders to the Catholic Action leaders among like Durrschmitt in Lyons as an eXiample. A priest, the workmen (A.C.O.). They were to avoid in the Abbe Desgrand, was employed without reveal­ their activity the kind of unity Which would sound ing his identity. Afrter a while he became the totalitarian. They were told rthat the Church does secretary of the workers' committee and the not have to espouse any special system of economics factory's delegate to the C.iG.T. A short time there­ or politics. In short, they were told that they after the m;anager introduced a system of rational­ we're working for spiritual not material aims. izing production, resulting in a wage' increase of The assembly though~, however, that Mission de between 30 and 50 per cent for the workers. The France had awakened too many hopes to be sup­ Ahbe Desgrand was afraid the workers would lose pressed immediately. At the be'ginning of Novem­ their fighting spirit undeTsuch a system. He in­ ber Cardinal Feltin, Archbishop of Paris; Cardinal stigated a twenty-four day strike. The net result Lienart, Bishop of Lille, and Cardinal Gerlie'r, was a loss of important customers for the corpora­ Archbishop of Lyons, went to Rome to explain tion and about 18,000,000 francs in wages for to the Pope' the point of view of the French the workmen. Episcopa~e. 'The Abbe Desgrand was subsequently fired. The The Holy See and the French Episcopate seem local branch of the C.F.T.C. published a pamphlet to have come to a compromise. Apostleship among on his case and approved of the DurrschmiM's staff the worke'rs is to he continued, but the priest act­ decision. Immediately the priests of the Rhone and ing as a workman is asked to break with any union Loire re'gions wrote a bitter pamphlet in answe'r responsibility, and thus to avoid any political to thatt of the C.F.'T.C. "Never since 1945," they ac'tion. On the other hand, he is to be linked with wrote, "has the working class waroched with so a ;religious ;community or a pari,sh, land must face much attention the repe'ated ass'aults of a desperate the full re'Sponsibility of his priesthood.

DECEMBER 28, 1953 233 Carpet Bargaining in Morocco

The recent removal of the Sul,tan was not the act of By. PETER SCHMID a repressive colonial power bu,t a move toasBure the evolutionary developm,ent of ,this French pr:otectorate.

"You'll have to be brief," said the French c.aptain modern bathing suit. That's why the earnest and who introduced me to His Majesty, EI-Glaoui, pious among the tribal chieftains had decided to Pasha of Marrakesh. "You ean't imagine how m'any remove the Sultan from his throne. journalists from all over the world have come every Well, I knew what had happened. These pious day to see the old gentleman. And all of them ask MosJems had driven out their modern-m'inded the same question-though the answer to it has ruler, the Sultan, with the help of the French, the been given and printed a hundred times." very Christian power that had brought modernism We we're standing in the central court of the to Mor,occo, What a strange contradiction. Wasn't Pasha's palace. Outside, behind the high walls, there something fishy about this? I looked around milled the massive crowd of strange and wild-look­ and noticed the same contradiction everywhere. ing tribesmen who pour down from the slopes of The Pasha's Moorish tables were covered with busi­ the nearby Atlas mountains to visit Marrake'Sh's ness papers. Under his djellabah, the White native fantastic market place, the Djemrna el Fna. In this cloak of ra,w wool, I discovered a European shirt vast inferno all kinds of mysterious cure-peddlers, and a shiny silk tie. Alas, this guardian of holy dancers, acrobats, baHadiers, and animal trainers tradition was neither the pious saint from the fight to be heard and seen. It is one of the most Atlas Mountains nor the venerable chieftain he picturesque sights in the world. And its sounds pretended to be. Everybody in Morocco knows that reach even into the corners of the Pasha's court. he Hkes to discard his native garb now and then I had to disappoint my interpreter, the French and spend several months' at swank seaside resorts captain. What ·els'e could I ask the Pasha but Why on the French Riviera. IIis son, the'heir presump­ he had become a foe of-and final,ly a victor over­ tive, has taken on the habits of a miniature Ali his great adversary, the Sultan of Morocco? For l(han, being an experienced friend of fema,le stars years these two men had opposed each other. For of the French movie industry. And the old Pasha years the Sultan, the cold, supreme ruler in the himself is one of the greate'St bus,inessmen in capital of Rabat, with his mischievous eyes and his Morocco. fIe holds a large amount of stock in eagle-like profile, had fought against EI Glaoui, Morocco's manganese and cobalt mines and owns the old tribal chief now sitting in front of me, his huge estates with the most modern equipment. His wrinkled' face adorned with large, dreamy, and assistants scan American magazines to find new almost· melancholy eyes. gadgets which might be introduced to .Morocco. The Sultan, a fanatical nationaHst,although the­ When I left I did not hide my doubts as to the' oretically bound to his French protectors by a sincerity of his traditionalist attitude. treaty of friendship, had actually sponsored the "liberation" movement of the Istiqlal Party which Politics as l\'lercballdise wan'ted to drive all foreigners out of Morocco. That's why, as far back as 1951, the Pasha had The captain smiled. "Think of one thing,'" he challenged the Sultan to an open fight. said, "you are in the land of the carpet-dealers. The P'asha's answer to my' question now bub­ I think you know these fellows down in the bazaars. bled in Arabic from his wrinkled throat. "The They praise their merchandise, they swear, they majority of the Moroccan people love the French, entreat, they flatter, they threaten you, they go because they have brought order and wen-being away in disgust, and they come running after you into this country." The old man raised his hands in again, they pretend to be friendly or offended. Final­ an entreating gesture. He looked like a savant or ly, having brought down the price to a quarter of a saint. The Sultan, he told me, had gravely neg­ what they asked before, they convince you that you lected his duties as suceessor of the prophet. As are getting a terrific bargain. Yet you still pay Allah's re'presentative in Morocco he was supposed double what the object is really worth. That's exact­ to uphold sltrictly the laws of religion. Instead, he ly the way politics are conducted in this country. had joined the nationalists who associated thenl­ Do not believe anything. anyone tells you here. selves with the Godless Communists. And, horror Everything anybody says is just a trick to sen you of horrors, the Sultan's daughter had eve'll dis­ his carpet. That is his idea-be it independence,or carded her veil and had her picture taken in a religion, progress, or a comhination of all of

234 THE FREEMAN these. It applies to our friends as well as to our for their exquisite, ancient beauty. White, and with enemies. And this is what makes our task in Moroc­ face'S that resemble the clear-cut features of Euro­ co so difficult. How can you coopeTate with people pean mountain farmers, they have reany nothing so utterly deprived of a sense of reality? How in common with the Arabs who inhabit the cities can you trust them, if you do not know which of on the plain. How did these people ever get to them you can rea,J1y believe?" Africa? Where do they come from? Are they the It took me several weeks of intense traveling remnants of the Ibe'ric people who were pushed out . to discover how true the French captain's words of Spain? Or are they t,he last survivors of the had been. Morocco is a bewildering, crazy country, long lost Vandals who were swept to Africa by the full of passionate distortions on aU sides. I have migration of nations ? Nobody has ever been able spent hours talking with nationaHst leaders-whose to answer these questions. addresses, by the way, the French information Democratic traditions have been alive among service was eager to supply to me-checking their these people since ancient times. The tribal land complaints about the horrible persecution and in­ was traditionaHy administered by a council, the so­ human suppression they supposedly must endure. called djemma, and every spring the council dis­ Verifying the facts later, I found that 90 per cent tributed the land among the members' of the tribe. of their stories were highly inaccurate. Not many In some places this tradition has survived to the correspondents, unfortunately, have enough time to present day. In other areas, howeveT, it was re­ check every conversation. Thus the French rule in placed by.the feudaHsm of the Caids, the powerful Morocco, one of the noblest achievements of Euro­ leaders of some tribe'S who forced the free peasants pean colonization, has become such a controversial linto servitude. It was the French invader Marshal subject in world opinion. Lyautey and his troops who forced the Berber tribes to submit to the'Sultan's administration and The Plain and the Mountains to adopt Arabic as the official language. Today the French realize that this was a mistake. For thus When the French invaded Morocco in 1912, with modern Arab nationalism eould develop where it the somewhat e'uphemis,tic intention of "pacifying" had no' legitimate place. Today it is rather dif­ this North African territory, they divided the ficult in some places to distinguish between these country into two zones---.,a "useful" and a "useless" formerly sO distinctive' racial groups. 'To find the one. Le Maroc utile they called the wide, fertile true, unspoiled Ber,ber world, the visitor must ven­ plain that stretches from the Atlas Mountains to ture into the once secluded area in and behind the Atlantic. This region had been turned into a the Atlas Mountains. wasteland under the' agonizing rule of the Sultan and the constant plunder,ing of marauding tribes. A Medieval .World But today, with the help of plow and tractor, this plain has been transformed into a virtual Garden Even for a tourist it is not difficult today to of Eden, covered with sweeping cornfields and vine­ travel there. The roads are excellent and the yards. And a bustling industry has sprung up on growing fame of this romantic region is attracting the fringes of the larger cities. more and more visitors. For here the Middle Ages The Atlas mountains and the wOI~ld be,tween its live on. There are no village'S, no towns, on~y Ksars, peaks and the sandy desert of the Sahara was not earthen fortresses with mighty, impenetrable walls. only "useless" for the French colonists, it was Countless turrets raise their crooked, s:trangely also dangerous, inhabited by warring Berber tribes ornamented walls toward the battlements from who resented and defied any kind of authority. To which even now an attacking foe could be blasted protect the "useful" Morocco from ,their raids, the with a hail of bullets. French had to move into this no man's land. For When you enter one of these !{sars, which look as more than b;venty years they waged a romantic but though they had been built by giant termites, you also exasperating war, constantly faced by an in­ have towe'ave your way through winding alleys that visible, mysterious enemy who struck suddenly and lose themselves in darkened corridors. Your eyes, then vanished without leaving a trace. The French 'blinded from the strong mountain light, hardly dis­ pushed forward cautiously, securing strategic posi­ tinguish the doors which open into dark courtyards. tions with high-walled forts, and slowly they drove But then you climb the steep stairs and step out the Berber tribes from the inhabi;ta~ble' parts into upon an airy terrace atop one of the many turrets. the arid desert and the barren mountains. The Before your eyes spreads the valley, crossed by a Berber's medieval methods ,of warfare were no river. Innumerable' small ditches distribute the match for the modern weapons .and means of com­ river'water through the valley floor and turn it munication of the invaders, and finally they had to into gre'en fields. Yet hardly a stone's throwaway, give in. wherever the water fails to reach, stretches the I asked an old French colonial officer about this sandy desert. War and his eyes lit up. The Berbers are a magnif­ This is medieval, romantic, and yet only yester­ icent people, he said, and the French respect them day it was bloody reality. Aeross the valley, only

DECEMBER 28, 1953 235 about a mile away, stands another Ksar. Before the ,One may justly raise objections against F,rench French enforced peace in this region both Ksars colonialism in various territories----but not in were engaged in a bitter feud. They raided e'ach Morocco. Here the spirit of the first conqueror, other's crops, they plundered each other's homes. Marshal Lyautey, is s,till alive. Lyaurtey reg;arded And some'times both of them were attacked by coloniaUzation as an idealistic undertaking in the marauding hordes who emerged f,rom the desert old Roman sense, as a kind of sacrifice' in the service and kidnapped women and children. Outside of the of civilizat,ion. One could talk for hours about the prote'cting walls nobody was safe. Everyone was modern agricultural centers which ,acquaint the fighting everyone else. Thus these tribes were a;ble natives 'with rtJhe use of plows and tractors. One to resist the French invaders for many years: they could talk about dams and irrigation systems that had been trained to fight all their lives, and human have turned wastelands into blooming gardens. life was not v,ery precious in a place where it was Naturally all these things benefit the Europeian threatened every minute. settler who pays for them with his taxes, but the real beneficiaries are the natives who receive all P'roblems of Modernization these things from the administr,ation a1most as a present. The French administra~ion even protects Today the mighty walls of the Ksars are an the natives ,against their own compat~iots, the land­ anachronism. There is no reason why the people hungry French colonists. A special officer at Rabat should continue to live in these' dark, dusty holes. sees to it that no real est,ate may be sold to spec­ A few wealthy sheiks have already begun to aban­ ulators. don these pri,sons and to build themselves pretty country homes amid their date plantations. The The Sultan Blocked RelorlDs enemy is gone, but the entire region is stiB under military government and Frenoh fortifications com­ The Berbers, indeed, are a tragic pe'ople. Their mand most of the strategic spots. But even these anarchic, tribal consciousness has not allowed them forts are practi'Cally deserted except for small to organize themselves into a nation of their own, groups of hired indigenous goums. And the few and they have been by nece,ssity subjected to for­ remaining French officers no longer brandish eign rule. For this reason, also, they do not really swords but walk round with rubber stamps and objeer: to the presence of the French, especially as fountain pens in their hands. ,Most of them are they have proved to be far more benign rulers than regular army officers who have served in Indo­ the Arahs ever were. There has been much criticism China and finally traded blood and thunder fora that the French administration has been siding secure administrative post. They live in lonesome with the conservative, f,eudal Caids against the mountain outposts where they may encounter tribes progressive and modern-minded Sultan. But things who have never even seen a Europe'an. Or they ,are not as simple as that. The Istiqlal independence dwell at the edge of the Sahara Desert where movement is far from be'ing sociaHy progressive. fierce sandstorms cloud the sky during nine months Its leaders belong to the French-trained merchant of the year. Their duty is not easy ,and it certa,inly class who made a lot of money during the war and, is not very stimulating. These offi'cers lead an al­ by driving out the foreigners, would probably like' most monkish existence, and I have actually found to make some rnore-at the expense of the common a spirit of mystic contemplation among many of people. If the now deposed Sultan had had his way, them. In their solitude' pihilanthrophy has become some kind of Farouk regime would probably have a personal passion for them. been installed in Morocco, run by a despotic ruler The influx of civilization into this medieval surrounded by a clique of cronies. world has created many problems. Since the French The French, though backing the conservative, ended the fratricidal bloodshed between the various feudal forces, limit their influence. They control tribes, the population is increasing at an alarm­ the jurisdiction, they prevent extortions. Simulta­ ingly rapid rate. The barren soil cannot support neously, they are introducing reforms to modernize all of them and so they drift down into the cit'ies. the old social structure. For years they have been They make up ugly slums on the fringes of Ra;bat planning the crea1tion of a sort of modern version and Casabl,anca. These slums are not so much a of the ancient djemma in order to educate the peo­ manifestation of colonial incompetence on the part ple for self-government. It is a paradox that all of the French as the direct re'sult of the longer life these laws and measure,s aiming at more independ­ exp'ectancy ,among the natives. The French try with ence for the Moroccan people have heen refused the all possible means to fight the creation of the shift­ necessary endorsement by the Sultan. He blocked the less city proletariat. They make great effort,s to safety valve because he wanted the locomotive of increase native agricultural production. Also, since Moroccan politics to explode and no~ to move for­ the end of World War Two, they have concentrated ward. His removal does not constitute a triumpih on the creiation of new schools. Next to m,any a of the reactionary elements but rather a necessary Ksar now risQ's a simple building bearing the in­ adjustment which make's it possible for the positiv~ scription uecole" in shining letter&'1 evolutionary forces to have their way.

236 THE FREEMA~ The two articles" which follow discuss diflerent aspects of the same theme­ that it is time lor A.mericans to drop their intel·national inferiority com­ plex and take a firm stand in defense of our democratic culture. Bogdan Raditsa describes the anti-A.mericanism of Europe's intellectuals; Ben Ray Redman defends our culture against the disdain of A.merican intellectuals.

Does Europe Hate America?

By BOGDAN RADISTA

This past summer I revisited Europe for the first tar I heard a distinguished young jurist and uni­ time since I came to America seven ye'ars ago to versi'ty professor proclaim that intellectual life in make my home here. I traveled through France, America is controlled by the mass dissemination of Italy, Switzerland, Greece, and Turkey, all of ·which propaganda and advertising. When a friend of I know well from my days as a student and la:er mine, an American of recent vintage, asked him diplomat. I talked with hundreds of people from if he ever read a certain well-known, highly re­ all walks of life-teachers, lawyers, workers, bus­ spected American newspaper, he insisted its news inessmen, artists, farmers. I never thought that could not be unbiased, that he would never look at hostility to the United States could be so wide­ such a paper. spread. Of course, I had read 'the attacks printed The European intelligentsia, of course, never had in the European press. But I had not believed that an accurate view of America. But I was sure that the printed words represented the actual feeling the ItaHan or Greek pe'asant-especially one who of the people in the streets, coffee shops, and had a relative in the United States-would have no homes. prejudice toward this country. When I asked such When Europeans ask you questions about Amer­ a man privately what he thought about America, ica, they are seldom interested in your reply, but he would tell me with a sigh: "If you could only immediately proceed to give the answers them­ 'take me back with you in your trunk!" But when selves. I noticed this tendency even before reach­ he was in a group, he would join the "smear ing Europe. On the boat were some young French America" chorus. pilots who had been training in Texas and Illinois as part of a NATO project. To them Americans Imitation, if not Flattery did not know how to live, love, ,eat, enjoy life, or eve'll how to make things. French industry they In spite of all the anti-Americanism one hears, found superior to American. One did concede that the Europe one sees is Americanizing rapidly. At he would like to stay in the United States long the popular markets and fairs, which once displayed enough to make money, then go back to France only the work of individual artisans, today mostly to enjoy it. mass-produced goods are for 'sale. The French, During my years in the United States I have though they constantly grumble about cocacolar­ never felt that I lived in a society with no undeT­ ization, are becoming addicts of American soft standing of intelligent conversation, no appreciation drinks. Dressing a l'Americaine is a fad, and done of art. It has never occurred to me that Americans in an exaggerated style. The way children and are not sensitive to quality or that they do not grownups alike go for comic strips and comic books appreciate good food or good wines. In American makes one wonder if AmeTica isn't taking over homes I have been received with a warmth rarely Europe's taste in this regard. The growing con­ found in Europe. I will always recall the· whole­ quest of the land by enormous billboards advertis­ hearted welcome my family and I received in a ing local goods, the fanatical adoration of all sorts little Connecticut town when we first came to this of gadgets, and the fact that young couples prefer country. The people made us feel a part of the town to go without the traditional servant in order to in a way that would not have been possible in buy a ,car-all these are voluntary reflections of the France or Italy. America that Europeans seem to despise. But I could not defend America to European It is in the people's attitude toward Communism intellectuals without hearing: "What! You want to that one finds the greatest paradox in the free convince me that in Ame'rica there is really a counrtries of Europe. The popularity of Communism posstbility to develop and create freely?" is linked with the unpopularity of America-this Around a dinner table in an Italian cultural cen- is the Communists' most dangerous success. In

DECEMBER 28, 1953 237 Paris and Rome crowds get hysterical over the only one weapon against Communism-atomic war.. Rosenberg case, while nobody pays any attention And all Europeans from Le Havre to Athens to thousands of peasants uprooted from their agree on one point-they do not want war. The homes, to the execution of such democratic leaders belief that Malenkov is following a more conciliatory as Petkov behind the Iron Curtain. policy than Stalin also helps to make Russia at­ tractive. Unseen Russians; Ubiquitous Americans "Look," I have been told, "'the fact that Beria has been arrested means an improvement, a limita­ Why are European intellectuals so articulate tion of the power of the police in Russia. But the about the dangers America is involving them in Americans are relying on the police more and more, (when she tries to keep them strong and free) and the only hope they hold out to us is the in­ but never mention the Soviet ~hreat to their free­ evitability of war." dom? Why does this general attitude of anti­ Even to hint at the possibility of a liberation Americanism pervade also the minds of the white of eastern Europe will cause western EurO'peans to collar, middle, and working classes, even the burst into rage. That would mean war, they say. peasants? An important reason is the complete And then, who knows what really goes on over invisibility of Russia and the Soviets in western there? The facts of what has happened to hundreds Europe'. In France, Italy, Greece and the other of thousands of people behind the Iron Curtain countries the cause of the Soviet Union is advocated are conveniently overlooked. by French, Italian, Greek Communists, pro-Com­ The intelligentsia believe' that when the Commun­ munists, left-wing liberals, and fellow-travelers. ists mobiHze them and give them economic security The people have no direct experience with Soviet they can think, produce, write, paint, and invent representatives in positions of power and influence. without worrying how they will pay their bills. The On the other hand, thousands of Americans are in middle class, convinced it can become the backbone their midst carrying out official missions that stem of a new Socialist society in the making, wants to from Washington. The cause of the Americans is be in the vanguard of the left-wing trend. defended almost solely by public officials in the The European leftist-of any shade from the countries affected, who have a special interest in liberal to the Communist-blames America for being friendly with Americans, or by the A'mer­ trying to impose "reactionary" governments. The icans themselves in their various official and semi­ European rightist blames America for having official capacities. The very fact that Americans are "undermined" his class. thought to be supporting the ruling class makes If Americans are see'll with members of the America unpopular. former wealthy ruling class in Rome, the man in ' The hordes of American bureaucrats and founda­ the street draws the conclusion that the policy tion fellows who go around western Europe' taking of the United States is against him. An Italian notes and eternally asking everyone how the moderate writer told me: "What can one expect of Americans could make the" Europeans happy and the Americans when they spend their time in the how Communism might best be fought make the company of counts and nobles who themselves European intellectual angry and impatient. He has believe their time is up, and that the only thing a difficult time making ends meet, and he has been left to them is to have a good time before the Com­ asked these questions for years without any prac­ munists take over?" On the other hand, if Ame'r­ tical result. icans are seen in the company of leftists-which Another thing that baffles Europeans is the sud­ happened immediately after the liberation-people den, unexpected changes in American foreign policy. on the right immediately conclude that the United Many Europeans believe that there is in Washing­ States wants to promote a left-wing revolution. ton a monolithic Politburo which gives orders to Particularly lacking in Europe today is a sound everybody; therefore, whatever an American says conservatism, which has been destroyed by two or does is' taken as the result of a premeditated wars and many revolutions as well as by a and well-drawn policy. parasitic form of capitalism. The European capital­ Mostly neutralist, the European intelligentsia ist is even more anti-American than the worker, does not want to follow the American pattern of as he believes that the American capitalist has resolute resistance to Soviet expansionism. "If capitulated to the working class. He does not America thinks that Communism is a threat to us, understand that in America capitalism is produc­ let her worry about it and pay for European de­ tive, creative, and dynamic. If the Italian, Greek, or fenses," I heard it said. "Communism is an his­ French capitalist would learn from his American torical process. Why should we oppose it to defend counterpart, he 'would have a better chance of what is rotten and decadent among us? And why survival. It is among the industrialists, the ship­ should we believe that Communism is as bad as owners, and the bankers in Europe that there is the Americans say? American materialism is as particular need to present the truth about America. great a threat to our humanistic values." Where the national leadership is sound and con­ Europe is more than convinced that America has structive, as in Turkey and Germany, Americ'an aid

238 TIlE FREEMAN has produced the best results. France and Italy, least be able to see It c1eariy in a comparative and Greece to' some extent, have not taken the frame of reference; and see it clearly for what it fulle'st advantage of U. S. help and know-how. is, without surprise. What should America do? I believe we should Our prov:incialism is older than our nation. In leave Europeans alone to think through the mean­ colonial days it was a part of colonialism. Later, ing of their own deep crisis. They must know that when New England was beginning to express itself the conclusions they reach and the answers they culturally, it was natural that writers and artists find are entirely their own. Above all, Americans should look back across the Atlantic for models. should no longer take an attitude of inferiority Still later this provincialism became less excusable while speaking to their European .counterparts. We and more comical. Perhaps the thousands of Amer­ ourselves must believe that the case for the United ican women who crowded to the support of third­ States is strong and clear. rate British lecturers, before and after the First vVorld War, are more to be pitied than censured; but they are also funny. Nor were ladies of the type drawn by IIelen Hokinson alone in their fool­ Our Culture Complex ishness. What shall we think of the· reasoning of the expatriates of the "lost generation," as expres­ sed by a reputable spokesman of the group, Mal­ colm Cowley, in Exile's Return? Mr. Cowley writes: It has long been custom'ary in our more enlightened All during the 1920s many, and perhaps most, circles to view popular American culture with vary­ of the serious American writers felt like strangers ling degrees of disdain and disgust. B,ook publishers in their own land ... The country in those days was have been condemned for publishing trash, maga­ being managed by persons for whom they felt a professional hostility. It was the age when directors' zine editors damned for serving up mountains of meetings were more important than cabinet meet­ rubbish, newspaper,s scolded for selling sensa­ ings and when the national destiny was being de­ tionalism, movie-m'akers censured for dealing in cided by middle-aged bankers and corporation execu­ day-dreams instead of reality; radio has been tives ... These rulers of America, as they were scorned for blasting our ears wiith imbecilities, and called in magazine articles, showed little interest in books or ideas ... television is being wept over because it is following in the foolish steps of its elder sister. So what did Mr. Cowley and his fellows do? They These products or elements of our popular culture set sail for France, where politics and press were have been denounced with maximum pleasure by more corrupt than those they left behind. They Communist propagandists, with growling pleasure settled down delightedly in a land ruled by the by anti-Americans all over the world, and with Comite des Forges, the Confederation Generale de sometimes ill-disguised pleasure by those of our la Production Franr;aise, the Bank of France, Le native intellectuals who, like SheHey, happily man­ Temps, and the "200 families." Most of them saw age to combine within a s,ingle skull extremely little of France whole and real. They did not sit democratic political ideas and extremely undemo­ in the Chamber of Deputies, they did not work cratic artistic ideals. This popular culture complex in the offices or the shops, they did not perch on has been branded generally as the inevitable con­ straight gilt .chairs with remnants of a stuffy, dull comitant of an adolescent, materialistic society that Parisian society, or exchange correct banalities with worships money above all other gods, mistrusts the the prosperous citizens of Nantes 'and Lille and man of ideas while honoring the m'an of action, Lyons and Bordeaux, or explore the vast areas of and regards the serious artist, in whatever medium, middle-class and lower-mriddle-class French life tha~ as 'at best a harmless eccentric and at worst a would be appallingly empty were they not so con­ useless fraud. spicuously filled with money-grubbing activities. That worthless books and magazines and sensa­ And because the expatriates did not see France tional newspapers· litter the land, that radio and real and whole, because they did not recognize the television devote hour after hour to silly programs, fact that they were far more "strangers" in the are facts. But I believe that when we are disap­ land of therir chosen exile than in their own land, pointed or disgusted by these facts we 'are victims they could think of France and the' French as a of the excessive, delusive, self-defeating idealism country and a people that valued artists and writers which seems to plague the American character in at their true worth. They were intoxicated by the many spheres of activity. And I believe further heady atmosphere of Montparnasse, they mistook that when we accept unquestioningly the Com­ the Left Bank for France, and they exaggerated munist and anti-Ameriean estimate of ourselves­ the significance of their discovery that French in­ accept it sometimes with a delight in self-abase­ tellectuals were sometimes given government jobs. ment that recalls scenes in Russian fiction-we 'They were in France, but they were no more of it are guilty of shortsightedness and provincial senti­ than were the foreign students who thronged to the mentaHty. If we cannot defend our popular culture Univers,ity of Paris in the thirteenth century. on the basis of its absolute values, we should at This bit of ancient history is important because

DECEMBER 28, 1953 239 the provincialism it reveals is still with us, and velopment in the history of the' world. To 'what rnakes too many of us all too ready to agree humbly can we compare this massive creation-satisfaction with the Communist and anti-Ameriican charge that of 'mass-man's taste, this truly democratic phenom­ we are peculiarly contemptible among the nations enon? Ours is the only nation in which the masses of the earth. Recently, Edgar Ansel Mowrer, writ­ have achieved a position that enables them to play ing in the Saturday Review, even while rightly patron to the arts, bring them down to the1ir own claiming for Americans a European cultural heri­ level, and pay the piper for the tunes they wish to tage, remarked that the average American bus1iness­ hear. And who but an excessively idealistic Ameri­ man finds himself at a disadvantage when his can, who but a self-defeating idealist, would be British and French opposite numbers begin to surprised and disappointed to discover that a mass discuss things artistic, and said that the American culture is not a "quality" culture? Who but an G.L suffers the same disadvantage in the com­ !incorrigible Utopian could hope that American pany of British warrliors who trace their ancestry popular culture would abolish or rise above the back to Hengist and Horsa. I should like to meet traditional antithesis of quantity and quality? Mr. Mowrer's average businessmen in Birmingham This culture is the product of democracy in and Leeds, Rouen and Roubaix, who would make action; it is the result of diffused prosperity, uni­ their American counterparts blush for lack of versal educat,ion-of-a-kind, social leveling, and in­ culture; even more, I should like to chat with those creased leisure in all walks of life. It is a culture British enlisted men who casually ref-e'r to their in which even the children have their say, picking foref;athers, Heng!ist and Horsa. and trading comic books, applauding or boycotting TV programs, with all the' authority of connois­ Not Invented in America seurs. Nothing could be more ironical than that this truly democratic culture should he most severe­ When our hordes of pocket books are scorned as ly castigated by critics who proclaim their own fit reading for children and barbarians, we should devotion to democracy, and their faith in the bless­ remember that the most worthless of them are ings that mankind must enjoy when democracy is direct descendants of the cheap reprints that were carried to its logical conclus,ion. already crowding British railway stands a genera­ The }ate, brilliant Albert Jay N'ock was afraid tion ago, with Edgar Wallace and Garvice and that the spread of mere literacy in our nation their peers leading the pack; and we should note would bring into operation a variant of Gresham's that the ranks of the pocket books are being more Law-that bad writ,ing would drive out good. I do and more infiltrated by writ,ing of quality. If we not think his fears were justified. What is happen­ are asked to blush for our sensational journalism, ing is not that good writing is heing driven out by we should not blush without remembering the bad, but that the bulk of the bad and mediocre is British press' reporting of certain divorce cases, dwarfing the bulk of the good. The same trend is or the fact that the sensational tabloid is not an observable in the other arts; and what could be American invention, but a Brlitish export. When more natur1al in a denl0cratic society? Who would "ve compare Hollywood's average product with the expect, or wish, to be otherwise? Indeed, if excel­ foreign pictures that we see, we must realize that lence ceased to be rare and suddenly became com­ we see only the best foreign pictures. As for Holly­ mon, those of us who pride ourselves on our wood's traffic in daydreams rather than reality, superior taste would have to set up new standards it should be pointed out that literature has been of excellence. engaged in the same traffic for centuries, with such Meanwhile, on levels unreached by our popular diverse authors as Malory, Ariosto, and the hacks culture, serious writers, painters, actors, sculptors, of the Minerva Press among the hucksters. It singers, dancers, and musicians are being rewarded should also be pointed out that our moronic motion at least as well as in any other country; there is picture fans, screaming in their pursuit of celebri­ a. living interest in living literature among our ties, had their forerunners in the London theater's professors of literature that can hardly be matched swooning gallery girls, and their eager imiitators elsewhere in academic circles; good music crowds in the Italians who not so long ago mobbed the the air-waves, good symphony orchestras play in Roman wedding of two Hollywood stars. cities from coast to coast, good plays manage to And what are we to say of our radio and tele­ attract audience'S large enough to enable them to vision? One thing we can say is that in the United survive the exorbitant demands of featherbedding States the air-waves are free to all who can pay unions, good pictures are made at least occasionally, for them, and persuade people to listen and look, good books can be bought more che'aply than ever whereas in England (the only country w,ith radio before-and even avant-garde poets and painters and television facilities at all com'parable to ours) receive as much attention and respeot as is con­ the programs are strictly rationed from above for sonant with their chosen function in life. the benefit of those below, who sit on the receiving Thus, it seems to me, we might as weHaccept end with their right of choice narrowly limited. the "evils" of popular culture and enjoy the things Our popular culture as a whole lis a unique de- we like .best, be they high-, middle-, or no-brow.

240 THE FREEMAN an inve'stigation of someone's accounts was as good Redcoat Herring a demons'tration of congressional zeal as any. Forthwith 120 members of the faculty of King'5 (American IIistory Rewritten after the Too College in New York signed a statement in which Concentrated Perusal of Recent Headlines) they criticized all investigations as harmful to By M. K. ARGUS academic freedom and the welfare of the colonies at large. Rumors that Benedict Arnold was a traitor began General Washington, in the mean:ime', had ap­ to circulate early in 1779, when he was military pointed Arnold commander of West Point, and it governor of Philadelphia. Three self-confessed was shortly thereafter, in September 1780, that former couriers for a Loyalist spy ring reported Arnold's last act of treason feU through. He had that Arnold had been carrying on treasonable cor­ invited Major Andre to Wesrt Point in order to respondence with Sir Henry Clinton, the British hand over to him the plans of the fortress. Andre commander. However, the rumors were quickly received the plans, but was apprehended, while quashed. George Washington, when informed of Arnold escaped to the British. At his trial Andre the danger of treason among his command, brushed invoked the Fifth Amendment to the Constitution the warning aside with the curt remark that it of the United States and refused to answer all was nothing but a "Redcoat heTring." questions that might tend to incriminate him. The The Philadelphia Society of Friends adopted a Court told him that neither the Constitution nor resolu'tion voicing full confidence in the Governor its Fifth Amendment had been adopted yet, and and condemning all those who tried to spread sentenced him to hang. "hysteria, fear, and suspicion" in the country. A group of Boston clerics issued a statement declar­ Herring Comes Home to Roost ing that all Loyalists ought to be regarded as members of a secular religious movement and, It ,vas three years later, after Washington therefore, converted to the cause of American had retired to Mount Vernon, that the Benedict independence by peaceful and democratic means. Arnold case came up again. Someone accused Wash­ The clerics said that educating- the Loyalists was ington of having knowingly promoted the traitor to the most effective weapon against them. a post of considerable responsibility. But no one The Redcoat Worker printed a series of articles of any consequence, it turned out, had ever heard in praise of Benedict Arnold. It called him an of Arnold, or knew who he was. Washington said he outstanding American patriot and lashed out remembered that someone by the name of either against "the cowardly and vicious campaign being Benedict, or Arnold, had held some commission in waged by the enemies of peace and progress." his army. However, the General s,aid, upon dis­ Those who went· so far as to point out that covering that this Benedict, or Arnold, or whatever Arnold was the son-in-law of a man with strong his name was, was a traitor, he had promptly fired Loyalist leanings were branded as character as­ him. When it was pointed out to vVashington that sassins by the Pennsylvania Lawyers Guild. Peggy Arnold had not been fired but promoted to the Shippen, Arnold's wife, protested vehemently post of commander of West Point, the General sug­ against all attempts to smear the reputations of gested that his questioners ge't in touch with Gen­ her husband and her father. eral Henry ("Deep Freeze Harry") Lee. Lee, who Thomas Jefferson declared that although he dis­ had made an unsuecessful attempt to snatch agreed with Arnold's political views he strongly Arnold from the British headquarters after the deplored the tendency to establish guilt by asso­ traitor's escape, at first said, "No comn1ent," the'll ciation. Arnold's friendship with the British secret conceded that he remembered Arnold vaguely, and agent, IVlaj or John Andre, Jefferson said, did not finally declared that Arnold had been promoted so warrant any accusations against him. that the authorities could keep an eye on him and Sir Henry Clinton declared he knew of no Amer­ find out who his accomplices were. ican traitors in His Majesty's service. This was Lee was then asked if he had ever found out immediately seized upon by the Colonial Council who Arnold's accomplices were. "Yes," he answered. of American-'Bri~ish Friendship as incontrovertible' "The British." proof of Arnold's innocence, integrity, and devotion Thomas Jefferson, when asked about Arnold, to the cause of the American patriots. replied that he would have to consult his diary Alexander Hamilton suggested that all candidates to refresh his memory. Only the Redcoat Worker for public office sign a non-Loyalist oath. There­ remembered who Arnold was. It started ,a collec­ upon Thomas Paine published a pamphlet denounc­ tion for the Benedict Arnold Defense Fund to ing witchhunters and merchants of hate, and warn­ counteract the campaign against a man who, being ing against 'the imminent suppression of all civil absent, was unable to defend himself. liberties in the country. Benedict Arnold himself was made Brigadier Congress finally decided to investigate Benedict General in the British Army and awarded the Arnold's accounts, having already discovered that £ 6,000 George III Peace Prize.

DECEMBER 28, 1953 241 The Kremlin's War on Russia I By MAX EASTMAN ~------_--I

Eugene Lyons, whose Assignment in Utopia (1937) new policy makers-are in sympathy with their marked a turning of the tide of American opinion government. And if its war against the free world in regard to Soviet Russia, has again come forward is merely a natural expression of the desire of a with a crucial ,book (Our Sec1~et Allies: The Peoples strong nation to extend its frontiers, ,vhy shouldn't of Russia, 376 pp., Duell, Sloan and Pearce-Little, they be? Brown, $4.50). I call it crucial because our official Against this almost unbelievable retreat to stu­ attitude toward Russia and the Communist con­ pidity Eugene Lyons' book is a timely and. terrific spiracy is evidently taking a turn which may be blast. It leaves nothing, absolutely nothing, of fatal to the survival of the free world. It is just the Communist-propagated notion that the peoples possible that this book, if widely re;ad and talked of Russia are "in sympathy" with the bloody­ of, may bring into the minds of our foreign policy handed gang that is ruling them from the' Kremlin. makers a few of the essential facts upon which the You might think that such a foolish notion would policy should be based. Ignorance at Washington, need no further refutation than the fact that the as I have long insisted, is the central cause' of population of GU,LAG, the Soviet slave empire for all the main calamities which afflict the civilized political prisoners (with a sprinkling of criminals), world. This book contains a big chunk of the knowl­ has bee'n maintained at about 14,000,000 for the edge which might still save it from destruction. last twelve or fifteen years. As the life expectancy 'The change of policy I spe'ak of is a retreat from of the average inmate of these camps is not more the slo,vly acquired understanding that the cold war than five or six years, this means that the Russian is a war against world Communism. The present people are replenishing the supply of dissenters Administratrion is creeping back to the more com­ and potential subversives at a rate never heard of fortable notion of Dean Acheson that the enemy before in the history of the world. is nothing new at all, just the old-fashioned Rus­ And what of the families and close friends of. sian imperialism. Dulles gave voice to it, almost in these people who are dragged out of their beds and Acheson's words, or words as crudely blind to the sold into slavery without a trial? Are they all "in facts, in his speech at the C.I.O. convention in sympathy" with a government that will not let Cleveland. More recently it was blared forth with them even have news of their loved ones? And is naive recklessness at a press interview by Theodore it not mathematically deducible that they constitute S. Streibert, the new head of the U. S. Information some 60 or 70 per cent of the population? It is Agency, which includes the Voice' of America. His so foolish to imagine that the Russian people, or exact words (which it is understood he, or those any people, would be "in sympathy" with such a behind him,would now like to eat if they could) government that one might wonder in normal times were as follows: how a man harboring such a notion could have Question: "Mr. Streibert, can you define for us drifted into an Information Agency except on the ·what the enemy is on a world scale? ... Is it Russian receiving side of the counter. expansionism, is it worldwide Communism, just But the times are not normal. The notfon has what is it?" been so firmly implanted in the official mind by Answer: "It is Russian expansionism and im­ Communists and their stooges that it required perialism. I wish I knew more why it exists. It may almost an entire political history of modern Russia be through fear on their part if there is another to displace it. Eugene Lyons has written that strong power in existence ... At any rate, there history, and he has done it with devoted hard work is this expansionism." and yet with swift-moving eloquence. His book is Having thus confessed his ignorance of what the dramatic story of an intermittent civil war, every alert American knows, Mr. Streibert went an "enduring blood feud," between the Russian on to say that in broadcasts directed to the Soviet government and the mass of the people, or peoples, Union the Voice of America would soft-pedal the of Russia. And since October 1917 when the "anti-Soviet" propaganda. But "the opposite is Bolsheviks seized power, it has increasingly as­ true in the satellites. There they are given the sumed the form of a "military occupation" of the works ... because they [these people] are not in country by a minority hostile to the interests, sympathy with the government at all." instincts, wishes, and beliefs of an overwhelming The people of Russia, then-according to the majority.

242 THE FREEMAN Lyons, who lived in Russia six years as cor­ decree, despise, resis,t, and fight against it with respondent for the United Press, found it impos­ stubborn continuity. sible not to take side'S in this civil war. "The few It is always a grand spectacle to see a multitude who accomplish it by dint of cheating their in­ of puzzling facts fall in line at the command of telligence and drugging their conscience, become a true and penetrating idea. And this spectacle moral schizophrenics. The healthy-minded observer in so vital a nlatter as understanding the bewilder­ may postpone and rationalize and squirm, but in ing history of Soviet Russia has urgent importance the: end the choice between loyalty to the rulers as well as grandeur. There is no space here to and loyaJty to the ruled becomes unescapable." That list the queer and inexplicable pieces of news from background of personal experience, together with Moscow that have baffled all ordinary modes of his subsequent years of work in behalf of the understanding, and are explained by this simple refugees, has enabled Lyons to enter into the truth that the country and its government are at history of the "civil war" he is describing with war. The inmates of the slave camps, to cite one a vividness of imaginative understanding that an example, are "prisoners of war." If this fact could outside observer, no matter how studious, could be pounded into the heads of our policy makers, never attain. Scholars and litterateurs are ac­ such schoolboy boners as those recently commit,ted customed· to look down their noses at journalists, by Dulles and Streibert--Jfed into their minds, no but a journalist of stature, when he does go in for doubt, by Acheson's flourishing holdovers in the studious hard work, brings something to it that State n'epartment-might at last find their way is lamentably missing in many a sc.holarlY tome. into past history along with Teheran and Yalta and Potsdam, and a thousand other calamitous Lyons' book would have been more effective, as results of the central misfortune of this present well as truer, if he had explained the motives of day in history-ignorance at Washington. the revolutionary Marxists, Lenin and his fol­ It is hard to believe that any free American, 10'wers whom Stalin massacred, instead of dis­ having read Our Secret Allies, could tolerate the missing them with epithets that apply to common present tendency of the Administration to with­ criminals. It was not criminality, but zealotry­ draw from the Russian people the moral support a rabid, mystical, pseudo-scientific belief that they receive from our upholding of the idea of their deeds were leading to a millennium-which their liberation. drew the old Bolsheviks, by a force stronger than logic, into armed assaults against the very "'prole­ tarians" whom they were theoretically supposed Space Flight- Fact and Fancy to represent. To call Lenin and his professional revolutionists highway robbers, to impute a Flight Into Space, by Jonathan Norton Leonard. "homicidal urge" to Trotsky, a "thirst of blood" 307 pp. New York: Random House. $3.50 to Lenin, to say that the impassioned revolutionist, The Mars Project, by Wernher von Braun. 91 pp. Dzerzhinsky, was "incapable of human emotion," Urbana: University of Illinois Press. $3.95 besides being psychologically erroneous, is polit­ ically inexpedient. It does not help young people The idea that we should be able to leave the surface who are inclined toward this belief, or have got of the earth and explore our planeiary neighbors halfway tangled up in it, to find their way out. has at last become respectable and to this fact we It is too easily dismissed as a smear. After all, are indebted for Flight Into Space. It explains with the Bolsheviks did not invent the idea of killing cons'iderable thoroughness and professional com­ in behalf of an ideal; the whole "capitalist" world petence the present s:atus of our efforts to build had been doing it for four years when they seized space-worthy rockets. Leonard has great skill-as the power. perhaps should be expected of the Science Editor of Since Lyons himself, when he first 'Nent to Rus­ Time-in conveying to an entirely untechnical sia, was rather deeply tangled up in the same reader the nature of the basic mechanical and belief-"my eyes were still glazed with pro-Soviet biological problems of space flight. He gives a good illusions," he says-he would have been just the resume of our knowledge' of the surface conditions one to untangle others. His moral revulsion of the planets and his discouraging estimates of against the whole business is natural and under­ currently agitated schemes for :Th!Iartian flights and standable, but it does not exemplify the mature artificial satellites are soundly based on our as yei political wisdom that we have learned to expect totally inadequate technology. from him. Unfortunately, Leonard did not limit himself to Otherwise there is not a disappointing chapter these matters he knew and understood at first hand. in this book. It proves to the hilt its thesis that His philosophical ponderings on evolu:ion and the Russian people, far from choosing or enjoying history, comparing projected voyages by "man" a tyrant state which rests on slavery, torture, into space with the evolutionary spread of life from mass deportation, execution without trial, state­ the seas to the land, are philosophically very thin planned stiarvation, and massacre by administrative and historically wrong. The problem is a knotty

DECEMBER 28, 1953 243 matter of mechanics very far indeed from the atmosphere of unknown composition, and, when evolutionary spread of life out of the ancient seas. they reach the equator, build with unspecified tools And it is a glib comparison to set the exploration and in unspecified clothing and masks, a long aiT of the planets as a stimulus to a new technological strip for the other landing boarts. liberalism alongside 'the sixteenth-century oce'anic That Von Braun has im'agination no one can deny, voyages which, Leonard thinks, helped destroy the and to go to Mars would be an attainment of benighted superstitions of the Middle Age's. eternal glory and honor and perhaps vast benefit. Leonard should have discovered in his own field, for It should be done. But Von Braun has not planned example, that the diurnal revolution of the earth, how to do it because no one can plan how to do it along with the basic concepts of celestialmech­ until we 'have reaction motors that can do the job anics were all brought forward and substantiated required of them with the normal margin of safety. by the physicists of the fourte'enth century. These' do not yet exist, and the enthusiast for Von Braun's work is something altogether dif­ space exploration would be better advised to press ferent. It pretends to be an engineering study of ,for that development than attempt to launch some­ a practicable flight to Mars. It is not. It is a piece' thing which-if it were all we' could do toward of propaganda. Whether Von Braun is conscious space exploration~would not be a bold step but of this or simply carried away by his imagination an improvident and reckless adventure. does not matter. Since he is the man who talked LAWRENCE R. BROWN Hitler into -building the V-2 rockets and is now the chief advocate of diverting our own military re­ sources into building an artificial sateHite, his ideas cannot be dism'issed as of no consequence. Religion Under Red Rule Von B'raun's proposition is to build ten space ships in an orbit about a thousand miles above the The Russian Church and the Soviet State, by earth's surface. These are to be built, supplied, John Shelton Curtiss. 387 pp. Boston: Little, and manned by the use of forty-seven three-stage, Brown and Company. $6.00 manned ferry rockets which, he figures, must make Normal relations between church and state in a'bout a thousand flights up. and back in the pro­ Russia have followed a Byzantine pattern since cess. Quite aside from the fact that no rocker: time immemorial. There never were independent motor exists which could fly even one such ferry sovereigns of religion and politics such as the vessel to this altitude, it is even less clea'r how kings and popes who quarrel so much in the his­ such a rocket could get back. Von Braun plans to tory books of the Western world. Until the reign glide back despite the fac't that at the speed at of Peter the Great the head of the Orthodox which he would enter the earth's atmosphere his church was a priest appointed by the Tsar; rocket would, by his own figures, attain a skin afterward he was a layman, a sort of Director temperature of 1350 0 F. Noone knows how to of Religion, also appointed by the Tsar. The build a ship that can take such a skin temperature, reason for the change involved no complex points and any upward variation between fact and Von of doctrine. Lay directors were more manageable; Braun's assumptions would simply burn uphis ship. they could be told what to do and summarily Concerning Mars his planning is as bad. He appointed and fired with less offense to the proposes, reasonably enough, to throw his space orthodoxy. Any revolution, Kerensky's or Lenin's, ships into an orbit and land from smaller boat­ was bound to cut the connection beitween church glider combinations brought along. His first land­ and state; but the fact that the Communists ing is to be made with a skid-equipped glider on triumphed brought in an element of dogmatic the "snow surface" of the Martian polar regions. bitterness on both sides. He is positive, therefore, of something tha: no The Communists wanted to abolish religion, astronomer is sure of, that the white caps of Mars of course, but to their surprise it seemed to are snow, not solid carbon dioxide or hoar frost. toughen under· rough treatment. After enduring But even if he knows that, how does he know the a decade of incredible hardships the clergy of physical condition of 'this "snow" surface? Is it the Orthodox church continued to function in smooth or a mas'S of blocks ?The questions are of almQst as many parishes as had existed before some moment because Von Braun must land in a the Revolution; on the other hand churchmen glider that cannot return to his space ship. He had failed in every effort to rouse the people cannot figure the power to return except in a ship against the Soviet regime. In 1928 an uneasy that requi'res a long, wheeled landing, and Von compromise was reached: the Soviet government Braun, .for all his zeal, does not expect to find would continue to educate the young away from finished air fields on Mars. To huild such a field religion in the state schools, but on the whole will be the task of his first glider crew. They will would refrain from interfering otherwise; and the have a wheeled vehicle (type and power source church would accept the government as the unspecified) in which they will cross some 3,000 legitimate authority in temporal affairs. Through miles of the unknown surface of Mars, under an the successive Five-Year Plans until the out-

244 THE FREEMAN break of the war in 1941 the number of church­ Hitler, Stalin,and the many army officers, dip­ going persons declined with the movement of lomats, journalists, and industrialists who, at one population from the countryside to the towns time or another, worked to promote Russo-German as the result of indus'trialization. coalition. Mr. Hilger strongly opposed Hitler's Then quite suddenly the situation changed. 'attack on the Soviet quasi-ally. German-Soviet From the first day of the German attack the relations, he points out, "gave proof that a notables of the church lent their support to the bourgeois state can maintain relations with the cause of national victory. They were rewarded Soviet Union which are useful and not immediately with a lavish distribution of medals and with dangerous as long 'as it is at least as strong, or permission to open theological seminaries for at most as weak, as the Soviet Union." He is under the regular tl'aining of clergymen. And for the no illusions about Soviet policie's or intentions. first time children attending state schools were Rapallo, in 1922, was the "agreement between permitted to have religious instruction-not in a blind man and a lame man." Neither had any public buildings, to be sure, but in the homes interest in destroying the other. Each could use of priests. In 1950 the liaison between the govern­ the other's help. The Nazi-Soviet deal of 1939 ment and the Orthodox church was so close that was merely a "marrige of convenience," to be the latter was protesting repeatedly and vehe­ broken by either party when expedient. As for mently against "American aggression in Korea." Hitler's brutal, stupid policies toward the people' The wheel had turned full circle and religion of the conquered regions of Russia and the Ukraine, was again a department of the st1ate. However, Mr. Hilger observes: "Suffice it to say that G,erman the basic hostility of Communist· theory to any rule' in the occupied territories succeeded in a form of religion remains, says Professor Curtiss very short time in alienating a population many in his well-compiled and documented book. So of whom had greeted Hitler's armies as liberators does the Soviet policy, which has been consistently from Soviet terror." applied since 1928, of quietly choking the life out l\tIr. Hilger's long residence in Russia, his knowl­ of it. ASHER BRYNES edge of the language, culture, and customs give him certain extraordinary advantages. It is possible, however, that his closeness to the Russian scene sometimes throws his views out of focus. One can Uneasy Axis applaud the industry and knowledge that have gone into this volume without always agreeing with the The Incompatible Allies: A Memoir-History of opinions and conclusions. This reviewer, who serv­ German-Soviet Relations 1918-1941, by Gustav ed on the Hoover Commission in the U.S.S.R., for Hilger and Alfred G. Meyer. 350 pp. New York: once does not agree' at all with Mr. Hilger's estimate The Macmillan Company. $5.00 of and verdict on the foreign contributions to the The specter of a .R usso-Germanalliance, combining alleviation of the famine, epidemics, and economic the manpowe'r, raw materialS, and industry of an breakdown of the e'arly twenties. area extending from the Rhine to the Pacific, has HENRY C. WOLFE long haunted Europe. Wars between the Russians and ,Germans have not allayed this fear. Both powers have envisaged such an 'alliance as a short cut to world domination. And each did expect to A Desert King have the controlling voice and the final mastery over the other. Arabian Jubilee, by H. St.J. B. Philby. 280 pp. The Incompatible Allies is an invaluable contri­ New York: The John Day Company. $6.00 bution to the discussion of this subject, which is When King Ibn Saud of Saudi Arabia died last as vital today as it ever was. Gustav Hilger, a month in his summer palace at Taif, he was one Russian-born German who spent many years as a of the wealthiest and least known men in the Counselor of the German Embassy in Moscow, was world. His annual income amounted to approxi­ pro'bably as close to Russo-German relations as mately $150,000,000 (tax free) and came mostly anyone on the German side. His collaborator, in the form of oil-royalty checks from the' Uni:ed Dr. Alfred G. Meyer, born in Germany, is an States. Yet he lived in virtual seclusion from the historian on the Harvard faculty. Their volume Western world, with American and British diplo­ is lucid, revealing, and documented. There is a mats as well as all other foreigners barred from great deal of material for the specialist, but in his capital city of Ryadh. its first-person narrative form, it makes fascinat­ Thus a book about Ibn Saud by a Westerner ing reading for the layman. should be of much interes~ to those concerned Nearly all the characters in the Russo-German with Arab affairs. H. St.John B. (for Baptist) drama between the two world wars play their roles Philby, born in England, is, however, not as much here: Von Seeckt, Chicherin, Rathenau, Radek, a We~sterner as his name might imply. "English­ Liebknecht, Molotov, Ribbentrop, Schulenberg, men in the East," it has been said, "can be

DECEMBER 28, 1953 245 divided into two categories: the Kiplings and the Briefer Mention Lawrences of Arabia." Philby, no doubt, embraced the latter category. Actually, he preceded Lawrence Unconditional Hatred, by Captain Russell Gren­ by several years as a British a:gent in the then fell, R. N. 273 pp. New York: Devin-Adair unexplored lands south of Mesopotamia. He also Company. $3.75 became a Mohammedan, went to Mecca, and changed Captain Grenfell, as he so well proved in Sea his name to el Haj Abdullah-Abdullah the Pilgrim. Power, is one of the most brilliant living writers Dr. Mahmoud Azmi, the Arab litterateur and on strategy and geopolitics. His analyses always diplomat, recalls that once, while talking to Ibn proceed·openly from the starting point of British Saud, the king suddenly clammed up. And soon interests, a fact which eliminates all hypocrisy Azmi discovered the reason for this royal reticence: and much nonsense. crouched in a dark corner of the reception room His new book has two theses, one historical, was Philby, wearing a da'rk beard and the native abaya, who had crept in on naked feet to listen the other programmatic. First he demolishes the myth of Germany as the eternal aggressor, terror­ to the interview. Although some of the material in Arabian Jubilee seems to have been gathered by iS1t, and. barbarian. So far as Britain goes, he recalls the almost forgotten record to prove that Philby creeping around palace rooms in bare feet, until this present century British policy has been the book sheds considerable light on the .character of Ibn Saud. rather consistently friendly to Germany. Second, If the.reader is patient enough to wade through he argues that the only workable solution for Britain's strategic situation is coalition and if Philby's arid prose and his recitations of Saudite genealogy, Arabian Jubilee emerges as .the story possible political unificqtion with West Germany and France. These are the "citadel states" of of a desert king whose ambition was as boundless Europe. United, most of the lesser nations would as the sand dune'S of his native· landscape. A group themselves around, and Europe would be­ princeling of the Wahabi Arabs (a sect of in­ come a Third Force--.-in the sense not of an un­ tensely puritanical Bedouins), Ibn Saud set out to committed weakling but of a genuine power able unify the vast lands between the Red Sea and the to recreate a world equilibrium that is now im­ Persian Gulf. His initial operations were little possible because of the exclusive division into more than daring horseback skirmishes. But when two power blocs. This would give the best chance Britain began to look for a thorn to stick in the not for perpetu-al peace, which is utopian, but side of the Ot~oman Empire, Ibn Saud offered his for "peace as long as possible," which is Britain's cooperation. Aided fi'rs't by Britain's fascinating most rational objective. agent, Captain Shakespeare-and later by PhHby, Captain Grenfell's style is a model of clarity Lawrence, and others-Ibn Haud outwitted all his and precision, mixed with just the right propor­ competitors and established a unified state that tion of irony. included the Moslem holy places Mecca and Medina. But even with 'these two cities added to his domain, The Doctors, by Andre Soubiran. Translated from and the proceeds of their lucr.ative pilgrim traffic the French by Oliver Coburn. 441 pp. New York: added to his purse, Ibn Saud might have remained G. P. Putnam's Sons. $3.95 just another ruler in the Middle East. It was an American who opened the d~O'r to fortune and M. Soubiran is a French doctor who admittedly fame for 'him. turned novelist out of indignation. His first, and When Charles Crane, a former adviser to Wood­ highly successful novel was a spirited defense of row Wilson, arrived in Jidda in 1933, Ibn Saud the French Army against those who ascribed the presented him wi~h a pair of magnificent Arabian French defeat in 1940 to cowardice and weakness. stallions. In return the parsimonious Californian Now, in The Doctors, his second literary attempt, gave the King a box of Ame'rican-'grown dates. M. Soubiran rallies to the defense of his own The King, to put it mildly, was insulted---"he gave much maligned profession. Through the eyes the dates to Philby. But a few years later, Crane of a young student, Jean Nerac, who has come sent his personal oil engineer to prospect on Ibn to the gray old world of medicine in Paris to Saud's land. When the first gusher came in, -this conquer life and his chosen field, M. Soubiran proved to be a gift that more than m,ade up for unwinds a long and detailed panorama of the the dates, the stallions, or any bad feelings the experiences, sentiments, and problems that go King might have harbored toward Americans. into the making of an earnest young doctor. He Ibn Saud, indeed, became a sincere f1riend of is at his best when he explores the grim, painful, Americ,a. And his sons-e'Specially the now reign­ callous and yet heroically dedicated and compas­ ing Saud, and Emir Feisal, the foreign minister sionate atmosphere of medical student life, char­ --seem to continue the policy of 'their father who ity wards, stench-filled waiting rooms, and flood­ knew how to blend profitably Western technology lit operating tables. But he loses much when he with the resources of the Middle East. dwells on the amorous exploits and romantic SERGE FLIEGERS notions of his growing hero. For although M.

246 THE FREEMAN Soubiran obviously knows how to write well for lIe explores the "creative imperial abdication" of popular consumption, he is, first of all, a sincere, the British, the assimilation policy of the French, intelligent doctor, not an accomplished novelist. the "managerial revolution" of the Belgians, and the "defensive oppression" of the natives in the A Study of Bolshevism, by Nathan Leites. 639 pp. Union of South Africa. He views with critical con­ Glencoe, Ill.: The Free Press. $6.50 cern the dangers inherent in premature self­ government and in ruthless, thoughtless national­ In this impressive and important volume, Nathan istic and racial agitation. And, speaking from a Leites has compiled and analyzed a major portion British, as vvell as European point of view, he of the incidental and sacred writings of the lead­ \varns that only a patient, responsible effort on ing Bolsheviks, notably Lenin and Stalin, as well the part of Europe's colonial governments and as parts of the pre-Bolshevik Russian literature Africa's nationalistic leaders to find a modus which deal with psychological aspects that recur v'ivendi can avert a major catastrophe. as central points of Bolshevik doctrine. IIis aim was "to portray the spirit of the Bolshevik elite" The Marmot Drive, by John Hersey. 273 pp. New and thus to pin down the "operational code" of York: Alfred A. I\~nopf. $3.50 the Communist leadership as a possible guide to their future conduct. For, Mr. Leites surmises, "This is the heyday of the worry-wart," says the Politburo probably considers the record of Selectman Avered to his prospective daughter­ the Communist Party as "largely one of success" in-Ia\v in this curious book. "People don't have and ~hinks "a considerable part of this success to be so nervous about everything, but they are, is attributed to the use of 'correct' rules of and I always wonder why." lVlr. I-Iersey, no doubt, strategy evolved early in the history of the Party." is nervous about something himself. And he has In a carefully qualifying introduction, Mr. Leites done a bit of wondering, too, in this queer story points to the inevitable limitations of any his­ about a mythical woodchuck hunt in a mythical torically retrospective analysis as the basis of New England town. But what, exactly, he is future evaluations. But he maintains correctly nervous about !vIr. Hersey does not say. Perhaps that nothing fundamental has changed in the it is the pent-up aggression of the gnarly towns­ Bolshevik doctrine, that the Politburo still holds people his heroine, a city girl weekending in the belief that it must either overcome its enemies Connecticut, encounters. Or the mob violence, or ultimately be annihilated. And, in a clear and released by a piously false accusation of im­ concise prologue tracing the postwar relations morality, 'which straps the willing, martyrlike between the Politburo and the West, the author Selectman to the whipping post. Or the cruel shatters once more the fatal "belief in the sheer loneliness of the girl who loses her innocence power of 'negotiation' to reduce 'tension'-a belief to a stranger, so to speak en passant. Whatever which is not held by the Politburo," but which it is, 1\11". Hersey, though writing skillfully, apparently is becoming one of the mainstays of abstains from expressing it. And for all his dreamy present American foreign policy. quality one wishes he had called a woodchuck a \voodchuck and not a marmot. Struggle for Africa, by Vernon Bartlett. 246 pp. New York: Frederick A. Praeger.$3.95 My Mission in Life, by Eva Peron. 216 pp. New York: Vantage Press. $2.75 This timely" comprehensive, and informative re­ port fulfills two necessary functions extremely First published in Argentina in 1951 this book is well. It raises the long neglected, yet vital ques­ clearly a propaganda job for the Peron regime. tion: What is happening to the 3,000,000 Whites The author presents herself as a humble, lowly, south of the Sahara, who live surrounded by 'weak woman, a "sparrow," whom God chose from some 130,000,000 Africans and 500,000 Asians? among the many for a "position close to the And it provides us with a handy and objective Leader of a new world." Peron is a gigantic guide to the complex and highly explosive prob­ condor, the Sun, one of those geniuses who create lems which European colonialism has brought to new philosophies and new religions, gr~at be­ this multi-faceted but historically blank continent. cause he knew how to put his love for humanity Mr. Bartlett, a renowned British journalist, diplo­ into practical form. Although the jacket calls mat, and former M.P., holds that geographically the book an autobiography, there is little in it of and economically Africa is Europe's "hinterland," the short life story of its enigmatic author. She that, for better or worse, Africa needs Europe does relate that as a young girl she escaped her just as much as the latter needs the first. But can obsession with the problem of the rich and the Europe, in the face of Africa's fervent desire for poor by dedicating herself to "my unusually strong independence, for freedom from European dom­ artistic vocation." But she does not disclose what ination, keep her position in Africa? Mr. Bartlett that vocation .was or what success she had in traces the various ways in which Europe has tried pursuing it. If she had, this would be somewhat to channel ,the awakening spirit of the black man. more fascinating reading.

DECEMBER 28, 1953 247 can go cheerfully along,giving a pat here or a slap there and finding i: fun to be a naughty boy at seventy. Minerva, 1953 Though this may be an e'asygoing approach, it is still a long way from By JOSE,P,H WOOD. KRUTCH that recomlnended by Mr. J. J. Shubert who (according to a report on the season in Chicago included Launching a new annual "best ever were before except during those in the Kronenberger volume) told plays" volume (Theatre '53, edited twenties just mentioned. the cri'Mcs that the' theatric'al busi­ by John Chapman, 56.1" pp. Random A great many native plays of the ness was like the department store House, $5.00), Mr. John Chapman season just past were literate, COln­ business and that no newspaper sent of the Daily News strikes a defiant petent, and sincere, at least by com­ critics into a store' to disparage the note. People, he says, are always parison with what was written dur­ merchandise. To which some mem­ asking what is wrong with the New ing the lartter half of the nineteenth bers of the public replied that they York theater. Why not ask for a century or the first .part of the' would accept Mr. Shubert's analogy change what is .right? twentieth. And because the compe­ if he himself would accept it also by The perpe:ually dying institution tencies as well as the limitations are allowing them flreely to examine' his does keep alive de1spite television so obvious, there is not much re'al wares and, then, jf. they decided to and everything else. There was a difference of opinion concerning buy, to pay on the way out. shortage of availahle playhouses either the merirts of "the season" or Yet Mr. Nathan finds it necessary during most of the 1952-1953 season the relative merits of individual to say that "the An1erican drama in and the number of hits was respect­ plays. Mr. Kronenberger's The Best these years of the fifties has'in none able. There were some' pretty good Plays of 1952-53 (374 pp. Dodd, of its Inanifestations anything of the plays, thoughthe.re were none by Mead and Company, $."-.50) offers poetic in1agination and literary mu­ dazzling neWCOlners and none by old­ condensed versions of ten; Mr. sic of an O'Casey or of the com­ timers as good as their previous Chapman's Theatr-e '53 of twelve. bined tragic imagination and dram­ best. "Faced with selecting a dozen But there is only one piece ("The aturgical skill of an O'Neill"-which plays and musicals as the best of the Emperor's Clothes," a comrn.ercial doesn't make the contemporary year, a critic might shrug off the faHure, by the Hungarian George drarna any less likely to provide task by claiming that there weren't Tabori w'hich deals with the plight occasions for such cracks as: "I am any best but only mediocrities." of a professor under the rule of a sometimes criticized for leaving ~he And that Mr. Chapman just doesn't police state in 1930) among the ten theater after the first act. ... the like to do. best not among the twelve. The theory of the objectors being that In these remarks of his rather Pulitzer Prize' Committee and the the particularly venomous play more is implied than said. What they Critics' Circle-which much prefer might improve as it wen~ along, an really mean is that the judgment to disagree when possible-both gave hypothesis established by experience you pass on the contemporary Amer­ their awards to "Picnic." As a mat­ to be as questionable as the belief ican theater win depend almost en­ ter of fact, even those who damn ~he that if one does not do anything tirely upon what you expect of it. If the'ater would agree with the pro­ about a serious case of pneumonia you are thinking about the great fessionals that a number of the plays it ,vill gradually disappear and end days in Athens, in EHz,abethan Eng­ were "pretty good." The only dif­ up only as a cold." land, or in seventeenth-century ference between the two groups Of the "ten best plays" one is a Franc'e----pe1'lhapseven if you are would be that one says, "I like pret'ty musical; one is' a much-better-:ihan­ thinking of'the American twenties good play,s"; the other, "I don't." average murder mystery; one is a when there was some solid accom­ highly competent farce; two are plishment .and a gre!at deal of jus­ Perhaps the attitude most li~ely "serious"; three are'''fantasies'' (if tifiable enthusiasm, then the con­ to make the professional commen­ you count Mary Ellen Chase's temporary scene is discouragingly tator happy in himself and to keep "Bernardine," Which strikes me as unexciting though tolerably enter­ him fresh at his j oh is thar4; adopted less fantastic than simply unreal); taining. If on the other hand you by George Jean Nathan whose new and two ar,e polite sex comedies. happen to be among the prophets volume (The Theatre in the Fifties, That all, except the farce and the concerned less with the past than 306 pp., Alfred A. Knopf, $.1".50) is two "serious" plays, have to do with with a distressingly vague "theater in the style of more' or less random unconventional sex behavior is per­ of the future," your dissatisfaction comment which many previous vol­ haps not surprising, since' uncon­ will probably turn into more or less umes have made familiar. He never ventional sex behavior has been in­ eloquent denunciation of the com­ allows either his reade'rs or himself volved in a very large proportion of mer0ial attitude, the determination to' forget that "pretty good" is no all the literary works except the very to write hits, 'etc., etc. But if you are more than just that but neither does greatest. But it may mean some­ ready, as Mr. Chapman is, 'to take a he prevent himself from taking his thing rthat four out of the five "sex" professional's a,ttitude toward show fun whe're he finds it. He has con­ plays have to do with Americans busine'Ss-and I use the term with­ templated show business for some­ who appear more or less ridiculous out moral indignation-we in Amer­ thing like fifty years without either because they can't take so much as ica are a lot better off S'O far a's IOSling his zesit or becoming subdued a nibbl,e at the forbidden fruit with­ playwriting is concerned than we to the stuff he works in. Hence !he out suffering pangs of conscience,

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Cable address: cause of freight train delays. they'll save $190,000,000 a year and ~~TIMROSCO" @THET.R.B.CO.. 19i3 and that one play in the twelve, but w~s such a thing as a witch, not from the fact that there seems to be not in the ten, is also concerned with even an ardent Communist can very something a little inconsistent in the san1e the'me. well deny tha't Communist spie-s are the p'roposal that a democr,atie gov­ In "The Seven Year Itch" a hus­ real, whether or not their number ernment should tax the people to band summering in town invites in and danger have been e~agge'rated. pay for something they would not the girl from the floor above; in More:over, and even when our s,erious willingly pay for at the box office, "The Time of the Cuckoo" a lady plays are not illogical, the contem­ there is certainly no assurance to be touri~t succumbs to the profe'a~ion:al porary drama tends to suffer from drawn from history that a state­ attentions of an Italian.philanderer; the conviction that "serious" means supported theater will necessarily in "Picnic" the gr.eat God Pan ap­ only political, sociological, or re­ be a great and lively theater. Per­ pears .in the guise of an itinerant formist. True, politics and sociology haps Horace was nearer right than young man on th'ebum and inspires are serious subjects. But on the l\tlarx. Perhaps Minerva does not put several of the characteTs to kick over whole- literature has dealt most suc­ in an appearance when the dialectic the tl"a'ce,s; in "The Love of Four cessfully with seriousness of other of a material culture invites her. C!olonels" an A,merican Army officer kinds, and Ibsen and Shaw a're much Perhaps she just happens along sta'tioned.. abro'ad dreams himself beiter than Galsworthy or Brieux. when she feels like it. into the role' of a minister s'aving pros,titutes; and in "Bernardine" a Turn to history as it i,s written in group of adoleseents have begun ".;0 Lloyd Morris' Curtain Time (380 sniff at the apple. pp., Random House, $5.00) and wha~ What strik~s one about an this is do you find 1 Mr. Morris' entertain­ A Ce~ebrity that though the theme' and the point ing chronicle is lively, picturesque, of view we're both "daring" in the full of curious facts, and often For those who take their celebrities twenties when our native drama lightly scandalous. Its subject is with a grain of salt Columbia Pie­ began to show some signs of ap­ manners, morals, conven:ions, and, tures has provided an amusing and proaching maturity, it was also above all, the person~lity of players. amazingly perspicacious s'atire' en­ pret:y thoroughly exploited then and It touches only incidentally upon titled It Should Happen to You. nothing new seems to have developed plays. But that is almost inevitable. Aimed at the sophisticated trade, it since. Put "Strictly Dishonorable" During the nineteenth century there revolve,s around a girl from B,ing­ alongside "The Seven Year Itch"; were no plays worth· talking abou~ hamton, one Gladys IGlover (played "They Knew What They Wanted" written in America and precious few by Judy Holliday), who comes to alongside "Picnic"; and "Differn't" in England-not one in either place New York with no talents, fair good alongside "The Time of the Cuckoo." as good as two or three of the be'st looks, a thousand hard-earned dol­ The result is that all the themes, ten of 1952-1953. The nl0ral of that1 lars, and an enormous ambition to moods, and morals of the plays of Perhaps it is merely that 'the theater "make a name for herself." She is 1952-1953 are matched by those in can flourish on a few classics plus getting nowher,e with the latter plays of the twenties. Perhaps a ce'rtain number of bad plays, an­ when her simple mind hits upon Americans still need-as the twen­ cient and contemporary. Great plays the idea of putting her savings into/ tiesbelieve,d they did-----:o be taught have be.en· written less often· than the rental of a billboard high above how to take light love in a light great works in other forms. Ours Columbus Circle and having her "continental" fashion. But if so, then does not seem to be one of the epochs name painted on in it large 'Gothic it begins to look as though play­ when 'they are written. lette1rs. wrights· couldn't teach them. There are a dozen answers to the The ensuing complications involve Ought, then, our playwrights be question "why not1" and at least a famous soap company, which for urged to be more serious1 Unfor­ two dozen proposed remedies. The reasons of its own wants nothing tunately, if we are to judge by the theater is too cent'ralized, production so much as that parti.cular billboard. one "serious" play among the ten costs are too high, the grip of the To get it they give her eight other best, the advice would be very dubi­ unions is too tight, the competition well-placed display signs all hearing ous. Arthur Miller, a man of obvious of the movies and television is too the name of ",Gladys Glover." The talents, has e~hibited in all of his great. From all these handicaps the public is intrigued, a commentator previous plays, from "All My Sons" conte'mporary theater really does picks up the story, gets the girl on to the rewriting of "An ,Enemy of suffer. But from the admission of a television show. Advertising and the People," a curious tendency to this fact to the assumption that if publicity men seize upon her stunt use some sort of logical non-sequitur all the handicaps were removed as a new angle for selling their in order to arrive at a left-wing we should certainly enter upon a wares. Thus overnight she becomes social position. In "The Crucible" he great period of theatrical activity is a bona fide celebrity, with constant executes this maneuver in an espe­ a step not possible unless we take public appearances. A branch of the cially outr,ag,eous way. Obviously his more completely for granted than Air Force even names ,a new plane play about withcraft persecutions in some of us do that when "conditions" after her. Except fora slow start, N,ew England is intended to serve are right, genius necessarily ap­ when Miss Holliday overdoes her as a parallel to the hunt for Com­ pears. "dumb blonde" bit, the film moves munist conspirators in· present-day In accordance with :he spirit of with pace and ingenuity, hitting America. But the parallel is just as the times, the practical proposal hard with some good laughs at a obviously false- for the simple reason most often made is, of course, gov­ real weakness of the' American that while we believe there never ernment ~ubsidy. But quite aside pUblic. SERGE FLIEGERS

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