Evening star., 1946-10-12
Letters to The Star
Finds Basic Fault in System
of I'm Christian Economics


Of Dr. Philip Marshall Brown Of the
American Peace Society In The Sunday
Star, october g. is worthy Of serious
comment and even commentator in
respect to its belief that the views Of the
Soviet and those Of the West are, as they
stand, irreconcilable and must lead 70
showdown" But would 1T not serve
more constructive and peaceful ends If
the much that needs changing in
our % economic and social system
the beam In our own eye-were plucked
as aggressiveiy as the mote OF Soviet
sins?
1t is neither our beam OF omission nor
their mote of commission that is the
source OF trouble. mean that the
Augean Stables that need cleansing are
world wide in scope and pertain to the
whole OF civilization The imminent
showdown" therefore, is not between
right and wrong but between two
wrongs; and no showdown can make
either OF them quite right. 1t is the
old old story; politics is presenting only
a choice of evils. What can be done to
break this stall on sociological dead
center? Is the answer spiritual"
revival?
It seems to me that the use of this
word tspirituaD has in it an element of
equiyocation that contributes to con-
fusion rather than to understanding.
It suggests disbelief in the intellectual
factors OF human society as artificial
and soulless' because they are not
normal and natural" in their ministre-
tions to the system Of human relation
ships" which is fast becoming Tower
of Babel and confusion of tongues for
lack Of adequate intellectual controls.
Nor does 1t help any to cite an alleged
belief that man is simply the product
Of his economic environment" as II to
discount the idea, that the conflict
between capitalism and communism
might be-resolved by measures to change
the elements that we can change in our
economic environment" namely, the
artifices or institutions of the financial
world. Without some positive attention
to the much that needs changing in
our economic and social system" bitter
clash-an atomic war, If you please
Is inevitable. But why rule out the
possibility of settlement OF the argu-
ment over private property and freedom
of enterprise which will take all the
wind out of the sails Of turbulence over
this issue?
No one believes that the motion Of an
automobile Is simply the product OF Its
electrical equipment. BY analogy. no
one believes that man is simply the
product Of his economic environment"
But why divert attention to something
spiritual in the gas tank when the
battery-the economic system-is in fact
at fault? Today the lives Of us all rest on
mechanization. But the support afforded
human welfare by this materialistic
development Is rendered extremely pre-
carious and insecure because we have
not matched this material technology by
correlatiyely necessary progress In the
institutional mechanics of an industrial
society. This metaphysical (spiritual?)
field Is essentially mathematical in char
acter. 1t therefore is not normal and
natural" but rather is artificial and
soulless" in its method and it should be
pointed out that in this respect it par
takes of the scientific ideal Of seeking
truth for its own sake"
Nor can 1t properly be contended that
this is un-Christian; for when Christ
stood before PLATE on the way to cruci-
fxion, His final Judgment of His mission
was that He had come to bear witness
unto the truth. And what could have
been more logical climax to ministry
that had been devoted very largely to
bitter denunciation of the hypocrisy
of the religious. educational and legal
lights Of the community of Jews in
which He found Himself? As Cowper
once wrote:
He stripped the impostors in the :
MONDAY sun,
Showed that they followed all they
seemed to shun!
For theirs was precisely the religion
(that) is the opiate of the people!
Finally. let it be pointed out that
demand that science shall provide. not
an impoSsibly endless frontier" to pro-
duce new Garden of Eden, but rather
an intellectual aid to justice, hardly is
to be called a "crudely materialistic
philosophy Of behavior" On the con-
trary, the moral problem Of assuring
justice and so peace in the competitive
struggle to survive is not supinely and
hypocritically evaded by those who in
sist that there Is only delusion in the
idea that purely materiaiistic, tech
biological development of science-now
that 1t has broken into an atomic
aegean assure freedom from want
for every one everywhere and SO abro-
gate any need for justice as social
requisite. The theory that only such q
materially perfected economic environ
ment can afford setting for peace is
implicit in the idea, allegedly Christian,
that there is enough and to spare" If
we will but convert human nature"
from its dog-in-the-manger to BROTH
er's-keeper character. beg to suggest
that Christ was no such communist or
utopian as this implies-no believer in
society that has no need for justice
because it has eliminated poverty by
science and social security" provided by
Caesar. "The poor We have with you
always" ALDEN A. POTTER.
Wants Freedom From OPA
To the Editor Of The Star: