Amerwan s±jjairs A Quarterly Journal of Free Opinion OCTOBER, 1950 Autumn Number VOL. XII, No. 4 Principal Contents Comment , • »By the Editor 185 Winds of Opinion 1$£ What Do You Read? Garet Garrett 194 The Dichroic ITO Washington Correspondence 202 The Idea of Liberty Is Western. Ludwig von Mises 207 The United States More Socialist Than Britain Earl Browder 211 Up, the Welfare State R. C. CornueUe 212 living on the Atom Bomb.. Winston Churchill 217 Strangling Our Machine Tools Tell Berna 219 What's in It for Everybody Washington Correspondence 223 The Supreme Court's Thoughts on Communism A Digest 226 British Socialism Goes Nationalist Staff 230 Book Reviews 232 Writings of the Apostates—G. G. History by Toynbee—G. Allen Huggins We Are All People Mrs. Jean Shepard 236 Size The Honorable Charles Sawyer 240 End of the Voluntary life Donald R. Richberg 244 Index to Volume XII 248 SUPPLEMENT Autopsy on Our Blunders in Asia BY WALTER H. JUDD Member of Congress An American Affairs Pamphlet By the Year $2.50 Single Copies 75 Cents Notes on the Contents What Do You Read? This is a book review treated as a lead article. The book reviewed is "Prejudice and the Press," by Frank Hughes. It is a devastating analysis of the recent report to the public by thirteen wise men, headed by Chancellor Hutchins of Chicago University, calling themselves the Commis- sion on Freedom of the Press. It is a large and costly book and will perhaps never have the circulation it deserves. Nevertheless it ought to be every- body's reading. The Dichroic I TO. Our Washington Correspondent chose this title. Dichroic means in two colors. It is literal. Here is ITO in two colors. Up, the Welfare State. R. C. Cornuelle, as a member of the AMERICAN AFFAIRS staff, is not discussing here the merits of the new Social Security Law either pro or con. He is merely reporting the blindfold debate on it that took place in Congress. The Idea of Liberty Is Western. Dr. Ludwig von Mises is bringing out another book entitled, "Liberty and Western Civilization." This is one of the chap- ters. His last book was the prodigious work entitled "Human Action." Dr. von Mises is the most distinguished representative in this country of the Austrian School of Economics and the foremost exponent of the doctrine of a free economy. Strangling Our Machine Tools. This article by Tell Berna, general manager of the National Machine Tool Builders' Association, is very timely in view of what is running in the news about the sale of machine tools to Soviet Russia and her satellites by Great Britain and other Marshall Plan countries. The Supreme Court's Thoughts on Communism. How can this American society protect itself against the Communist conspiracy without putting its own Bill of Rights in jeopardy? The ground has to be made up as we go along. That is what the Supreme Court is doing. Mr. Justice Jackson's contribution is a brilliant discussion of dangers, difficulties and distinctions. Size. This discussion of bigness by the Honorable Charles Sawyer, Secretary of Commerce, is sane all the way through. The question is: What impression will it make on the mind of government? End of the Voluntary Life. Another essay by Donald R. Richberg, the militant liberal, on how and why the Welfare State is bound to devour freedom. American Affairs is a quarterly journal of thought and opinion. In that character it is obliged to touch many subjects that by nature are controversial. Its pages are inten- tionally open to views and ideas that provoke debate. By printing them the National Industrial Conference Board does not endorse them; it undertakes only to acknowledge the integrity of the contributors and the good faith of their work. Published Quarterly by National Industrial Conference Board, Inc. Editorial Office, H7 Park Avenue, New York 17, N. Y. Cable address, NICBOARD, New York. Subscrip- tions, $2.50 per year postpaid. Single copies 75 cents. Multiple subscriptions for mailing to more than 25 separate addresses, $1.50 per year. On sale at: Brentand's, 586 Fifth Avenue, New York City; E. P. Button & Company, 270 Park Avenue, New York City; Johr's, 51 University Place, New York City; Murray Marcus, Grand Central Palace Building, New York City; M. Rosenthal, 120 Broadway, New York City; Stern Bros., 247 Park Avenue, New York City; Star News Cart, 11th Street & Pennsylvania Avenue, Washington, D. C. Copyright, 1950, NATIONAL INDUSTRIAL CONFERENCE BOARD, INC. American Affairs GARET GARRETT, Editor OCTOBER, 1950 Published Quarterly VOL. XII, No. 4 are able, to use Nehru's phrase, to 'deliver the Comment goods.' Otherwise our pledges may turn out as By the Editor deceptive as we now claim Communist pledges to be." For all their power to work magic, American NCLE JOE never brought anything to billions can neither compete with Uncle Joe's U the nursery. In fact he mooched on the promises nor buy the moon. children's sweets, which of course they minded, but immediately forgot as they listened to his promises. His promises were so wonderful that the children were always disappointed with the things Uncle Sam brought. They said to him: DEOLOGICAL warfare is a diabolical "Why can't you bring us things like Uncle Joe is going to bring?" I myth. So long as we persist in thinking of Uncle Sam brought more and more, and the communism as idea we shall act as accessory more he brought the more Uncle Joe promised. to the destruction of our own institutions. If One day the children threw on the floor every- it is idea, then the right of Communists to thing Uncle Sam had just brought and said: propagate it is guaranteed by the Constitution, "We want the moon." which forbids freedom of speech to be abridged Uncle Sam said: "I can't bring you the moon. Nobody can do by law; and again, when some criminal aspect that." of their behavior appears, they may invoke The children said: Article V of the Bill of Rights, which says that "Uncle Joe is going to bring us the moon." no one shall be compelled "in any criminal Uncle Sam said: case to be a witness against himself." But "He is fooling you. He can't do it." communism is not idea. It is force disguised The children said: "How do you know that? We want the as idea. It is force the like of which has never moon." acted in human affairs before. Even the bar- So now in the August 25th Bulletin of the barians heretofore had their pagan gods and Foreign Policy Association Vera Micheles Dean their superstitions. They were bound by some- takes the part of the children. She says: thing. This Russian force, directed by Mach- "The Asian peoples indirectly owe a great deal iavellian intelligence, is bound by nothing. to Russia. For fear of Russia and communism has It is in that sense the only absolutely free acted as a goad on the Western nations since thing in the world. It has no god. It is not 1945, greatly accelerating the rate of changes in bound by its people, from whom it demands relations between advanced and backward na- tions as well as between white and non-white both servile obedience and idolatry. It is not peoples. Our attempts to persuade Asians that bound by its word, nor by truth of any kind, they are threatened by Russian imperialism will and knows no moral code. Its pure motive is not carry great weight unless we can give them a conquest; and for purposes of conquest its convincing preview of what we propose to offer total amorality is a tremendous advantage. them once Russia has been checked. Nor will any- This is the evil thing that calls itself idea. It thing be accomplished by glowing promises of rapid improvement in living standards unless we demands to be protected by the Constitution 185 186 AMERICAN AFFAIRS of a free people. And we are loath to cut off Indochina, Burma, or the Philippines, or two or its head lest in doing so we inflict injury upon three at the same time. They can bleed us to the American traditions of tolerance in which death in the fingers all around the periphery of the Communists lie coiled. As it is not a conflict the hand, which is China, here in the center." of ideas, so neither is it a conflict between How much blood can we afford to lose? That East and West. It is a struggle between, on is the question we do not ask. It is a notorious one side, all people who even dimly distinguish weakness of our foreign policy that the govern- light from darkness, and, on the other side, ment forgets the first axiom, which is that the a power that has made its own compact with use of force is but a continuation of diplomacy, evil. For an American to embrace communism with the same ends in view. A nation, there- is treason. It is treason because, first, it re- fore, that makes political decisions beyond the quires allegiance to an alien enemy, and be- power of its military establishment is absurd cause, secondly, it contemplates not merely a and invites disaster. But even if foreign policy change in the American form of government be shaped within the strength and readiness but the surrender of American sovereignty to of the military arm, there is still the danger a foreign power. Yet until now any American that the diplomats and the soldiers and even has had a perfect legal right to commit this Congress will proceed on the assumption that treason; and we are involved in the amazing the amount of bleeding the country can stand contradiction that whereas eleven leaders of is X.