Evening star., 1936-06-23

particularly at
this moment, by n $
Americans. For Dorotbv Tbompson
whether 1t start
ed out consciously to be so. the New
Deal has become, essentially. an
American expression Of social democ-
racy. And there Is every sign, here
In Philadelphia and in the country
at large, that sooner or later it will
60 the way Of its predecessors. The
handwriting Is on the wall and legible
to any one who has learned, in the
past II years, to read it.
Social democracy is more pat
tern Of behavior than a precise philos-
ophy, but the term Is more accurately
descriptive of what has been going on
in the United States than is the word
liberalism" to which it is, in many
respects, the antithesis. The liberal
believes in the free play Of economic
forces, with the state reduced to the
function Of seeing that the game re-
mains fair. The revolt of the liberal
is against those forces, economically
powerful, and representing themselves
as conservatives. who, by concentrated
power, aggrandize special privileges
for themselves.
Liberal Wants Freedom.
Such privileges may take the form
of price fixing agreements, other
monopolistic practices, special tariffs
calculated with no view whatsoever
to the total economy. above all Of
complicated laws enabling clever law
yers to secure interpretations Of them
in the interest of powerful clients.
The liberal wants, above all things,
freedom. He wants freedom from the
economic domination of powerful
groups, but he also wants freedom
from the meddlesome interference Of
Government bureaucracy And he
fears the all-powerful state above all
things. Because the State has behind
1t, eventually, armed force, and posi-
bilities Of coercion which not the most
powerful capitalist can command.
The Social Democrat accepts the
rise Of huge combinations of wealth
as an inevitable development Of capi-
talism and machine production. He
does not seriously try to introduce
greater duidity in the interest of free
competition. but to force these COM
binations into popular service. With
out the relentless logic of the tough
minded Communists, he hopes to
achieve this by democratic methods
and by the collaboration of all people
OF goodwill.
Fertile Soil for Seed.
Meanwhile. without attacking the
matter of ownership, fundamental to a
true Socialist program, from the
revolutionary implications Of which
he shrinks, he expands the paternal-
istic powers Of the state, making up
to the masses In one form or another
for the defects Of the economic sys-
TEN. The process appeals at the outset
to people Of humanitarian instincts.
It also appeals to all politicians who
have the disposal Of such doles. To
keep the process going inside political
democracy, one thing is essential
that the burden Of taxation for 1t
should fall visibly on too large a
section Of the population. Therefore
1t must be financed by visible taxes
only on the well-to-do, or by borrow
ing. II the taxes on the rich tend to
break down the powerful economic
groups, so that eventually they yield
to the state out Of sheer weariness,
so much the better. But there is no
robust policy for what should then
be done.
Failure Causes Obvious.
The social democratic approach has
failed elsewhere in the world for rea-
sons which should be obvious. The
first is that such q program attracts
to itself groups which have no es-
sential ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS against
economic injustice, ministers and So
cial workers conscious of the prob
lens of the poor, small business men
in revolt against finance capitalism,
timid and tender minded revolutions
lists. ambitious politicians and the i'm
mediate and obvious benehciaries. But
these groups tend toward dispersion.
The second is that gratitude is one
of the rarest human qualities and
that only consequence of doles is the
desire for larger and better doles.
So that at any moment the followers
Of the social democracy may desert
to those who promise them more-to
a DR.. Townsend who promises them
old-age aff1uence instead of merely
of old-age security or to q Huey
Long who offers them $4,000 apiece.
The third Is that the source of
wealth for distribution tends, eventu-
ally, to run dry, since the state has
taken no power to produce wealth,
but only to tap it. The fourth is the
danger of a combination of Govern
ment charity and political corrup-
ton, which drives into revolt people
of all classes who deteSt the de-
bauching of Government. The fifth
is that eventually the economically
powerful consolidate themselves for
last stand. If the debauch has been
sufficiently prolonged they consoli-
date with the support Of patriotic
citizens who normally would not be
on their side. Then only the revolu-
tionary weapon is at hand with which
to oppose them. And nowhere has the
social democracy grasped it.
Wings Deserving.
A.. xo+ oil the SIGNS that foreto1d
the doom of other social democratic