The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1935-01-14
Liberal Viewpoint
by DIR. HARRY ELMER BARNES

l-BY DR.. HARRY ELMER BARNES
THE Battle for Democracy" by Rexford
G.. Tugweu columbia University Press, So
"Redrecting Education" Vol. l. edited by
Rexford G. Tugwell and Leon H. Keyserling
columbia University Press, So.
Sold Out to the Future" by Roy Heton
Harper & Brothers, $3.50.
! DROF. REXFORD G. TUGWELL has in GER
l. tain ways been the scapegoat for the New
Deal Recognized as probably the most con-
spicuous exemplifcation Of the Brain Trust, he
has been the target for those who dislike the
idea of intelligence in public affairs and has in
particular received the concentrated venom Of
| the old guard in both industry and politics
OF late he has seemed to many to be taking
! his licking lying down But he could we'll afford
! this temporary quescence, for in his latest vol
ume he answers his critics along broad front
and carries his battle into the enemy's country
with great effect.
The book represents the more notable articles
! and addresses which he has contributed since
his connection with the Roosevelt Administration.
1t is a clear, lucid constructive, and at times
| defiant manifesto of the New Deal AS an attack
upon the old order of rugged indvidualism and
corporate thievery it is one of the most effective
volumes to emerge from anybody connected with
| the New Deal.
Unfortunately, the New Deal needs less de-
tense against the old guard of industry and poll
tics than it does against those who apparently
have sold it out to reactionaries from within.
The New Deal is invincible to attacks from the
right, and is almost equally vulnerable to as
saults from the left. 1t is not the John w.
Davises but the John T. Flynns and their like
that New Deal apologists must answer today.
WHAT we would like to see Mr.. Tugwell
w Wrestle with would be the recent income
statistics for 1885, revealed by the Bureau Of
/ Ty,+or hp RI
and farm income moving ahead as rapidly as
corporate dividends, the Roosevelt tax policy, the
labor policies of Mr.. Richberg, and the shutting
of of food production in the face Of the priva-
ton of millions. What the New Deal needs
today is to be saved from it's friends not from
! its enemies.
1t was we'll known that Professor Tugwell
was very successful and progressive educator
before he became associated with the Roosevelt
campaign and Administration. In the volume
on "Redirecting American Education, he clearly
| indicates his realization of the necessity for
courage and realism in the reconstruction of
our educational system. The key to his outlook
here is we'll afforded by the following paragraph:
This is no time for a weakened liberalism.
! 1t is rather a time to accept the consequence OF
all we and our predecessors have been saying
since the inception of lalSsez fare, to admit that
protests have come to nothing for so long that
now the changes which must be made ap-
proach for the moment the revolutionary rather
than the evolutionary tempo. Only by some
such process can the confusion of the present
| be resolved.
The greater part of the volume is devoted
to an argument for the necessity of giving more
attention to the social sciences in our higher
! education and to the desirability of developing
a more thoroughly progressive point OF view IN
| each of them New Workers will be interested
to note that the volume closes with a very slim
ulating chapter by Comptroller McGoldrlck on
political science in college education.
Il
10th economic reactionaries and extreme
! ID radicals unite on ore thing, namely gam
bling on the future The mogus of corporate
finance mortgage the country on the possible
outcome of investments which may prove futile
and unproductive. The extreme radicals Will
have nothing to do with reforms which will
make the present more livabe and satisfactory
lest in doing so we might lessen the attractive
ness of the Utopia OF the future and dlmlnlSh
| the drive for revolution.
Mr. Helton delivers a fervent rebuke to both
of these groups Conservatives will doubtless
use his book in order to damn radical programs
| for the future but they will do well to read his
observations on the decade of normally and
Coolidge prosperity:
During those time-stealing years from 1921
| to 1929 when we were f1inging our capital to the
| four winds in loans to provide markets for our
indefinite growth, and when we were working
our factories double shifts to provide luxurieS
| for ALL no class save parasitic women and the
pampered young had much leisure to enjoy our
outpourings. Our children got out of our control
to their own damnation or establishment, but
everybody else was too busy selling out the flu
ture to do more than snatch at brief moments
of feverish pleasure"