The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1934-05-16
Liberal Viewpoint
by DIR. HARRY ELMER BARNES

LIBERALISM is decidedly under fire at the
i present time. BY comparison, reactionaries.
fascists and communists are becoming almost
respectable Liberals are attacked from all sides
and liberalism has come very much into the
position of when a feller needs friend"
To the defense of liberalism now comes Dr.
Everett Dean Martin than whom no other
American is more capable of discussing the
whole issue of liberalism. In an article on rs
Liberalism out Of Date?" in the journal OF
Adult Education" he frankly considers the weak
nesses of contemporary liberalism and offers
suggestions as to how it may be brought up to
date and adapted to present conditions:
Liberalism is on the defensive. 1t is at
tackled by radicals and conservatives alike. 1t is
attacked in every field where for century and
more it has been applied with what seemed to
be increasing success.
Liberalism in religion has made great head
way but in recent years it stands challenged by
a Catholic revival abroad, and we are witnessing
certain manifestations Of this revival in America
The theology and philosophy of Thomas AquinaS
make increasing appeal to youthful students; his
rigorous logic seems to stand out in, sharp con-
trast to what are held to be the loose thinking
and humanitarian Sentimentality OF pragmatiSm
and liberal Professionalism.
IT LIBERALISM as theory of government, to-
IL gether with the liberal party in many ma
tions, is regarded with increasing Impotence.
The liberal is said to be middle of the road
man; man of half measures and cheap COM
promise, seeking to evade issues which our age
must fight through.
1T is significant that in the recent riots in
Paris, the liberal Republican government of
France attacked by mobs made up of royal
lists and communists fighting side by SIDE To
many minds the liberal party in England has
been discredited; so also has that of Austria.
I'll IS
demned like that of Kerensky in Russia for its
weakness and its vacillation in the face of the
threat of dictatorship.
In education also there is movement away
from liberalism. It is said that liberal educators
today are lacking in conviction; that they have
no clear-cut philosophy of living to impart to
their students; that their discipline is bad; that
they responsible for the confusion and fad
dism which characterize much progressive edu-
cation.
In general liberalism is accused of futility
when confronted with the stern realities of
twentieth century life. The suspicion is grow
ing that it is nothing other than a confused
Bourgeois theology, the philosophy of a passing
capitalist industrial system, condemned along
with the system itself"
DUT DR.. Martin insists that it is not liberalism
- itself but our contemporary liberals who are
confused and out of date:
THE average liberal today does not know
whether he is an individuast or a socialist He
does not know whether he believes in the free
spirit or in planned economy. He has not de-
cided whether he wishes to retain parliamentary
government or concentrate authority in the
hands of the executive; whether he wishes more
law or less law He never has solved the dilemma
of the conflict between the RouSseauist return
to nature and the progress of the machine age
He tried to be both a mechaniSt and roman
ticist On Tuesday he is a Voltairian nationalist
and on Wednesday a Bergsonian institution
aliSt'
In the current belittling of democracy we
tend to overlook the fact that most of those
things associated with decency and civilization
IN our culture have been the product of the
liberalism of the past. 1t is liberalism which
spells the difference between the United States
on the one hand and Germany and Italy on the
other.
What liberalism needs to do today Is to di-
Vorce itself reSolutely from the century-old in
dlvldualiSm of Adam Smith and Herbert Spencer
which has been used the theoretical defense
OF irresponsible capitalism, and from the crude
democratic doctrine of the desirablity of mass
action, which today is everywhere leading to
tascism or some other form of dictatorship
What liberalism may subscribe to TODAY is
extensive social control by government under
the leadership of trained and superior leaders
even If tempered by democratic forms.