The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1934-06-27
Liberal Viewpoint
BY DIR. HARRY ELMER BARNES

THAT We are in for sweeping economic
l. changes is accepted as a truisra by all, who
have any realistic contact with modern life. Just
what direction this will take whether evou-
tionary or revolutionary, can not be ascertained
with any assurance.
| The editors of Fortune have performed an
extremely useful piece Of work in setting forth
the major chronological improvements intro
duced by a number of important American
manufacturers of our day Understanding the
Big Corporations. By the the Editors of For
tune Mcbride. So
Unfortunately this is not the best approach
to understanding the big corporations" 1t is
to be discovered, rather, in such book as Berle
and Means The Modern Corporation and Pri-
vate Property"
The Fortune volume tells us in reality about
the work of individual inventors which has been
exploited by industrialists. Berle and Means
make clear how the big corporations have intro
duced the gambling ideals and technique which
have helped TO wreck the achievements of both
inventors and induStrialistS.
One of the defects of the great American
corporations is that they have made little or
no provisions for dealing with the serious prob
EN- of unemployment. In periods of depression
purchasing power falls off and the economic
SNOWFALL rolls up with disastrous results.
DR.. Bake has written extremely useful
analysis of the effect of British unemployment
relief-the so-caled doe-upon the unemployed
cial Study. BY E. Wight Bake Dutton $500
XXTHILE conscious of the inadequacy of the
w British method, he makes it clear that it
is overwhelmingly superior to our slipshod COM
bination of sporadic private relief and govern
mental intervention in emergencies. In par
ticular, he dissipates the frequent assertion of
American reactionaries that unemployment in
surance pauperizes the poor and makes out of
them malingering loaferS who would not work
if they could
One of the most notorious examples of the
inability of those in actual control of American
political life to eliminate the evils which have
brought us to our present sorry condition is the
extreme popularity of the sales tax throughout
the United States.
We are in our present mess in considerable
part because of inadequate purchasing power
The sales tax, falling primarily upon the mass
of consumers, still further reduces their pur-
chasing power and enables the rich few to
escape relatively unScathed in proportion to
their income
Professor Haig and his associates have
brought out monumental summary of the facts
relating to the theory and practice of the sales
tax in the United States (The Sales Tax in the
American States BY Robert Murray Haig and
Carl Shoup. Columbia University Press. So
A CONTEMPORARY liberal honored the
N memory of liberal of past generation
when Walter Gippmann delivered the E. l.. God
kin lectures at Harvard university last month.
(The Method of Freedom. BY Walter Lipp-
mann. Mcmillan. $1.50) They deal with the
necessity of altering our attitude toward gov
arnmental intervention in social and economic
affairs.
The content Of these lectures admirably il
Illustrates Mr.. Lippmann's almost uncanny ca
pacty for linking up abstract liberalism with
complete evasion of specific and detailed sug-
gestions which might offend the financial rulers
Of America.
Mr. Soule devotes himself to the same gen.
aral problem that claims Mr.. Lippmann's atten-
tion but he faces far more resolutely the ne
cessity for changing the economic structure of
contemporary society as well as modifying our
general intellectual perspective (The Coming
American Revolution. By George Soule. Mac
milan. $500
Both Communism and FascSm have been
elevated to the plane of religions by their devo-
tees. Secretary of Agriculture Wallace now per-
forms a comparable service for the New Deal
Craftsmanship and Religion. BY Henry A. Wal
lace Round Table Press So The latter he
envisages both as a spiritual adventure and an
experiment in practical religion. If Mr.. Wallace
is able to induce the majority of Americans to
put the same Interpretation upon the New Deal,
he will gain it for a tremendous increase OF
emotional support.