Evening star., 1936-08-01
By NJ. G.. r.

" magazines toward the New
a Deal been more definitely set
forth than in the present August.
OF the Big Four-the Atlantic, Har-
per's, Scribner's and the American
Mercury-not one Is without an
article, usually leading article, at
tacking or criticizing current govern
mental policies.
All Of these attacks or criticisms
are directed toward single tendency
OF the administration, although the
approaches vary. That tendency Is
toward the destruction Of liberty and
liberal institutions. George Sokolsky,
in the Atlantic: Robert Hale, In
Harper's; Charming Pollock, in the
Mercury, and Nathaniel PETER, in
Scribner's-all have outspoken pieces
In the current issues of the periodicals
named, and the unanimity of their
conclusions Is highly interesting.
The Atlantic and the Harpers
articles were reviewed here last week.
Briefly, the former expressed fear that
the threat Of the present administra-
tion toward the system Of capitalistic
business would result in simultaneous
destruction of the liberties which We
have enjoyed under this system since
the founding Of our Nation; the Har-
per's piece criticized the President
for his hostility toward business and
his seeming desire to burden the sue
ceSsful man to the advantage Of the
army Of incompetents.
In the current Mercury We find
both these fears repeated in Chan
ming Pollock's lively article, called
THE Survival of the Unfittest." NJ.
Pollock goes considerably beyond his
fellow writers In the freedom Of his
expression and the conservatism OF
his views. He sees the Nation as
being given over to strange doctrines
inculcated through the means OF de-
nberately famed class hatred. The
day when We worked for our Evings
and felt ourselves disgraced to accept
even private charity has gone, he re-
marks. and in its place We have the
dawn OF a period in which We are
encouraged to believe that the world
(the Federal Treasury simply owes us
living.
THERE were between nine and ten
millions unemployed in 1888"
he notes, land in 1885, when the ad-
ministration was well along in its
eleven-billion- dollar expenditure for
relief and reconstruction there were
still between nine and ten millions
out Of work. Nearly half the popula-
ton Of New York City had applied
for a handout, and q quarter Of the
population was getting it. Theoretical
ly, all these are deserving people pitt
fully unable to find jobs. Actually.
the inevitably growing demand for
legitimate labor fails to keep pace
with the Governments corruption Of
its citizens, or the spreading realiZa-
ton that it is no longer necessary to
work in order TO live. On the au-
thority of the Government itself, in
the same week this year that witnessed
the congressional enactment of a de-
ficiency bill providing another billion
and a half for relief, there were
five million more persons employed
than in 1933-and three million more
on the relief rolls"
Mr.. Pollock, however, does not blame
persons as wholly responsible, but,
rather, says that our statesmen are
the instruments of recognizable his
torical phenomenon.
In what passes for everyday life"
he observes, scarcely a year passes
without some emergency in which a
few superior men try to gain or re-
gain control Of the mob, on the battle
field or in a sinking ship or smoke
filled building, for the mob's safety
and for their own. In history, the
same thing occurs on an immense scale
about every second century. Only
the ignorant and needless can be un-
aware that it is occurring now. ="
In other words, Mr.. Pollock sees us
passing into a period Of mob rule, if
not by armed mobs in our streets, then
by Government-supported voters act
ing as a mob, rather than as thinking
members Of a citizenry. He blames
the present Government for encourag-
ing this responsibility, instead Of
curbing it. His piece is lively reading.
MR.. PETER, in scribner's. offers
a much more restrained piece
called, "a Path for Liberals" However,
his conclusions are perhaps even
more startling than Mr.. Pollock's.
He foresees dictatorship in America,
and that shortly, unless the LIBERAL
thinking groups are prompt to act
against it.
The triumphant air CT vindication
worn by liberals today" he writes,
leaves me little uneasy. Liberals
are taking too much comfort out of
Italy. Germany and Soviet Russia.
They look at the mad escapade of
Mussolini in Africa. the sadistic ex-
ercises in Germany and the punic
purges in Russia and they cry @. E. D.
Dictatorship is proved hideous by its
own acts . we can breathe easier.
A dangerous non seQuitur, call 1t.
The paeans Of victory are premature.
We may be letting down our defenses
too soon"
He then discusses what liberalism"
means in modern terms. 1t is MOTH
ing. he says, but freedom of thought
and freedom of expression. Economic
liberty cannot exist in machine age;
it is an Illusion, says Mr.. PETER. We