Evening star., 1946-11-17
Potomac River Basin to Be Cooperative Proving Ground
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swinging to the right in a world in
which everybody else is going the other
way. For If that is what the voters were
saying on November S, or if that is what
the leaders of the Republican Party
decide the vote meant, then we must
face up to the truth that, whatever our
intentions, we are dealing the hard
est possible blow to the faltering cause
of freedom in the world
There is plenty of reason to believe
that the triumph Of the Republicans was
in no sense vote for reaction and that
the party leadership knows it.
But we must think hard and clearly
about this, for the risks are incalculable
il we misunderstood our situation. This
is time in which the United States
must ponder some Of the age-old politi-
cal fundamentals as it has not pondered
them for long time. We have been
thinking internationally about power
spheres and atom bombs, peace treaties
and military bases-we must also do
some thinking about ideas. Now that
we have expressed ourselves in an elec-
ton is good time to start doing it,
Oppose Totalitarianism.
Most Americans agree in their oppo-
Sition to communism, by which is meanU
here and henceIorth not the theoretical
Utopia dreamed about by Karl Marx,
but rather the system of totalitarian
rule which goes by that name today.
Most Americans are OPP POSED to this
system because it violates all their be-
liefs about the dignity and rights of
man and his capacity to rule himself.
They have no quarrel with the Utopian
end at which this system processes to
aim-the improvement OF the lot of
the common man. But they refuse to
believe that man can help himself by
enslaving himself.
If people are afraid of something or
opposed to something, they do one OF
two things.
They may try to get as far away from
1t as possible. This is what the psychol-
ogists call the panic reaction" It is
dangerous and foolish. We have already
seen lot of it in this country in cur
opposition to communism. The ques-
ton is whether the Republican victory
is to be taken as making this reaction
official.
On the other hand, they can move
boldly up to the thing they oppose, look
it over and then take steps to deal with
it. II the thing is, an idea, the way to
deal with 1t is to. cut the theological
ground out from under it. This is what
the world. with our help. must do to
communism.
Americans seem to sense that mis-
understanding as to what the recent
elections mean may have dangerous
effect on the world picture What the
danger is has not been clearly defined.
Many apparently think it Is that we
will revert to the physical isolationism
from which Pearl Harbor snatched us
in the nick of time. They are being
reassured, but this is not the real danger.
The real danger is that we will sink
deeper into the isolation of ideas which
already threatens us, an isolation that
results from our SNUG inability to under
stand what the rest of the world-less
tough, or perhaps just less rich, than
we-is thinking about.
This danger is not appreciated here.
Oddly enough, Communist Russia is
perhaps the only other important coun-
try where it is not appreciated The
Kremlin went out of its way to plug for
the Democrats on the grounds that the
Republicans were reactionary and Fas-
cist. But If the Republican swing should
turn out to be real reactionary move
ment. 1t would hurt us and the rest of
the non-Soviet world more than it
would hurt the Russians.
The danger, however, is only too well
understood by those who are trying to
fight off communism and totalitarian
rule in foreign lands, where freedom is
struggling to hold up its head. What
they are afraid OF is that an America
gone conservative will turn it's back on
the great political no mans land in
which people abroad, outside the Soviet
sphere, are trying to work out their
destiny along lines which we would re-
gard as socialistic-and trying to do SO
without surrendering their liberty.
Socialism in Middle.
In spite of the fact that Americans
do not like the word socialism-and in
spite of the fact it may not be the
name this kind of thought goes by in
many OF the lands where it appears
let u.s.. for the present cut the Gordian
knot of terminology by calling social
ISM a'wide area of economic ideas lying
between our capitalist position and that
OF totalitarian communism.
Differing among themselves in de-
tails and in degree, the men who in
habit this area have this much in COM
NOR: They have abandoned the 18th
century idea that mans material needs
can best be satisfied by unregulated
competitive enterprise.
They think economic systems work
better when subject to man-made rules
than they do under the laws of supply
and demand. They think the way to
get and keep higher standard of living
is to put production in the hands of
the people. They do not think the profit
motive is the best insurance for the
welfare of the ordinary man.
But they believe, as we do, in the es-
sential dignity OF people, and to them
the state exists for the people, not the
people for the state. They do not pro-
pose to sacrifice these beliefs in the at
tainment of their economic goals.
We have been slow to learn about
these men of Socialist persuasion, slow
to recognize to what an extent theirs