Evening star., 1937-09-25
By Mary.Cdrfer Roberts.

TdE l}OOD S(NlEI4. BY waiter
Lppmann. Boston: Little, Brown
b Co.
"HAT large but generally silent
portion of the public which
feels a deep and honest con-
- Germ today for the future of
civilization as the world stands con-
fronted by the fact of relationships
and war and by the threat of de-
struction to democracy, that portion
of the public will read this book of
Walter Lippmann's with sober agree
rnent For it is profound and at
the same time devastatingly factual
analysis Of the time. There is nothing
startling in it, nothing sensational,
save only this-that 1t states the OBJ
vious, those truths of which the si-
lent and democratic-m portion
OF the populace Is perfectly aware,
but which, in the current melee of
new prophets and old tyrants, are
- generally disregarded that their
very utterance is in itself sensational.
Mr.. Lippmann makes a fine mel
ancholy music with his prose as he
restates them: he writes with the
weary patience of one who explains
to q child for the hundredth time
tina the sun does not really march
across the sky though it may seem
10 do so; and, in naming and charac-
terizng the ills which have plagued
Our generation, he is as levelly accu-
rate as death, and as impartial
Yet it is to be feared that because
his name has been grossly and I'M
thinkingly associated with "conServa-
tiSm" in many minds, these same
minds which could most profit by
his exposition, will be closed to the
facts which he is here presenting.
The true democrats, however (and
In spite of some evidence to the
contrary we may assume that they
still make up the body of the Amer
lean people, will appreciate his clear
delineation Of the problems which
confront us.
He has divided his book into four
parts as follows: The Providential
State, the Collectivist Movement, the
Reconstruction of Liberalism and the
Testament of Liberty. The first two
parts were published in the Atlantic
Monthly, though for book publication
they have undergone some revision.
Mr.. Lippmanns purpose is to ex-
anime the world today and deter
mine whether it be true, as the COL
lectivists cry, that the liberal torm
of government which has grown I'D
In capitalist democracies is, at last,
at the end of its service to mankind,
and il mankind, in turning to collec-
tivism communism, national So
cialism and fascism) is taking the
choice best calculated to serve its
progress, welfare and liberty.
His answer to both questions is no,
but it is not the dogmatic, instanta-
neous and prejudiced no which those
who decry his conservatism" will
declare it to be 1t is instead mega
ton based on the evidence of history,
and the presentment of this evidence
makes up the greater part of the
book being by far the most de-
tailed, the most reasonable. the most
complete statement on the issues con-
cerned which the reviewer, in much
contemporary reading on the subject,
has yet encountered. 1t is indeed q
ssddening thing that Mr.. Lippmann's
reputation as a conservative
which is in no way just-should
stand between his clear presentment
of the case for liberalism and those
of his possible readers who might
most usefully acquire little informa-
ton on the question of what liberalism
actually is and what 1t demands of
government and a people.
According to Mr.. Lippmann, liberal
ism is the philosophy of the industrial
revolution, that change in social struc-
ture which substituted the interde-
pendence of communities for local
self-sufficiency, or which, to use Mr..
Lippmann's own phrase, brought into
being the Great Society in place Of the
autonomous village. Such a society,
he points out, has existed in history
only in conjunction with an exchange
economy based on free market, for
it is only people who live unde- an ex-
change economy who have ,.ny use for
liberty, the self contained community
being concerned with maintaining its
defenses against its neighbors rather
than with encouraging invention, So
cial development and the free move
ment of mems minds. The autono-
nous village, in other words, belongs
to the past Yet today we have whole
nations seeking to return to that form
of life, We have governments struggling
to create on national scale the self
sufficiency of the medieval community,
erming to the teeth and whipping up a
spirit of frenzied nationalism by every
means known to propaganda. These
are the three dictatorships-the three
collectivist states-Germany Italy and
Russia. Opposed to them and their
imperialism are the capitalist democ-
racies with their tradition of liberalism.
The book examines the merits of these
two regimes successfully.
1t finds, in the case of the collectiv-
ist states, that their real reason for
being is mobilization for war All other
explanations of collectivism, such as
the establishment of order, the need
for practicing racial purity, the more
benevolent government of the people,
these are incidental or propagandistic.
Collectivism, as this author sees it, is
neither possible nor explicable on any
but militaristic grounds. In the cases
of Italy and Germany the preparation
Is probably for aggressive war. With
Russia it is for defense. But Russia,
as the book mentions, is rapidly de-
parting from its collectivism, which,
as it further mentions, has never
borne more than theoretical resem-
blance to MARKHAM communism any
way
As against this, the case of the lib
eral states is presented in an
equally critical manner. The pioneer
lfberalists of the eighteenth century,
according to Mr. Lippmann, visualized
exchange economy as system under
which fair trade would flourish and as
one which would render the increase