Evening star., 1937-09-25
LIPPMANN SCORES SUCCESS
Clear Presennent of the Case for Liberalism Document
Pertinent to Our Intimate Troubles and Offers
Suggestions for Correcting Evils.

condition the faults OF liberalism will
not exist. But this, says Mr.. Lipp-
mann, is only substitution of an out
moded form Of government to deal with
difnculties which have their root in
modern conditions. 1t is, indeed he
points out. the very introduction of COL
lectivism into our original exchange
economy which has caused much of
our trouble, for he sees the great busi-
ness corporation as collectivist Or
ganization, opposed in its operation to
the free market through which all
wealth should circulate to the general
good. To offer more collectivism as a
remedy for evils which grow out Of
the collectivism which we already
have becomes, therefore, an absurdity
in theory as well as an impossibility
in fact. Or so he says.
The remedy which this book offers
is to reform liberalism and correct
the evils which have grown up within
Its present structure. Such pro-
cedure, 1t says, would involve large
social expenditures on eugenics and
on education. the conservation OF the
peoples patrimony in the land and
natural resources; the development
OF the peoples estate through public
works which reclaim land, control
floods and droughts, improve rivers
and harbors and highways, develop
water power, and establish the neces-
sary facilities for transporting and ex-
changing goods and services; provid-
ing the organization of markets by
information. inspection and other
services; insurance and indemnif1ca-
ton against the risks and losses of
chronological and economic change;
and many other things, such as pro-
vldlng the opportunities for recre-
alton which would not otherwise exist
In specialized and congested COM
munities." But the ground on which
all this reform must be planted is the
maintenance of free and fair mar
ket, operating through the genius and
ingenuity Of the people, and not ad-
ministered from above, either through
government bureaucrats, as under
collectivism, or through favored mo-
nopolies, as under decadent liberalism.
Moreover, says Mr.. Lippmann gently,
it has to be remembered that the
state Of perfection-or the perfect
state, If you prefer-never arrives.
The condition of mortality is change
and at no time in history can men
stop and say that a just equilibrium
OF all possessions has been achieved.
A liberal state must therefore be one
adapted to constant activity and
change. A collectivist state, freezing
all the operation of its resources into
conformity with plan" automati-
cally puts repression on invention, on
the migration of people and on the
human spirit.
This is very gross resume of the
books elaborately demonstrated argu-
ment. 1t is an immensely interesting
work, If viewed only as skilled and
beautiful presentation of case. Seen
as a document pertinent to our very
intimate troubles, however, it is con-
siderably more than interesting.
40 YEARS OF AMERICAN LIFE. BY
Thomas Nichols. New York Stack
pole Sons.
THIS book is one which was
first published in England in
1854. 1t author was a New Hamp-
shire physician who. when the Civil
War broke out in this country.
found himself on the unpopular side
of opposing armed invasion of the
Southern States. He fled to England
to escape the pressure of the times in
his native land and there turned to
writing as means of livelihood. The
subject which he took was America.
its contemporary life and customs. He
first wrote articles for English mag
azines; then. finding his work popular,
he brought out the first edition of the
present book. A subsequent edition,
revised and considerably changed, re-
ceived publication in 1874. And now,
36 years after the authors death, we
have the American edition.
The 40 Years" of the title are
those between 1921 and 1851. The |
work is made up of essays on various |
aspects of American civilization as it |
was during that period-Such aspects |
as education, religion, travelling, the |
conditions of life in various American |
towns and cities, recreations, amuse-
ments and such phenomena as seemed |
to DR.. Nichols likely to illuminate our |
national existence for the English |
public which read his work He wrote |
as an American always, yielding moth |
ing to English prejudice" as a con- |
temporary critic put it. But he is
utterly devoid of Jingoism and freely |
critlcizes the faults of his countrymen |
when he thinks that necessary for a
true presentation of his material.
This honesty, however, is only to be
expected from man of DR.. Nichols |
proven characteristics. He seems to |
have been all his life a tremendously |
earnest idealist, and one who con- |
sciously ordered his life in terms of |
human perfection-spiritual and phys
lcal. He was vegetarian, feminist,
at times a spiritualist, a believer in |
temperance in eating to the point of |
asceticism, and a political reformer. |
He was founder of a colony (the
Memnonia Institute at Yellow Springs.
Ohlo) which had for its object self
improvement through fasting and
spiritual penance. In this endeayor
he met the usual prejudice from the
unlnformed, who claimed that he was
spreading the doctrine of free love
His wife was, like himself, an earnest
reformer and had for her specialties
Women's rights, women's hygiene and
hydrotherapeutics or the so-called
water cure" Both in their latter
years became Roman Catholics and
Mrs. Nichols remained a spiritualist
all her life.
1t Will be seen that from this back
ground, and from the scope of the
subjects treated in the book, 40 Years
OF American Life" gives a pretty WELL
rounded picture of our country in the
authors day. For his interests made
him of g..