Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1948-05-23
Author Aikmon
Takes q Look
AtOur Future
THE TURNING STREAM
BY Duncan Altman. Double
day; So 49,.
Reviewed by
CARTER BROOKE JONES.

ny bullSdA AAhildLs lDOUO|C-
day; So 49,.
Reviewed by
CARTER BROOKE JONES.
What lies ahead for America
what shapes will she find around
the bend of a stream of history
turned turbulent and menacing?
Mr.. Altman has some thought
provoking answers. He analyses
the current scene, looking at the
present over the shoulder of the
past, puzzling over the future, in a
penetrating and witty book.
What We need most of ALL he
thinks, is to throw our dogmas
in the ashcan and use our collective
intelligence calmly, trying mean
while to keep our prejudices and
hatreds from boiling over.
Economic security, he points out,
requires a balancing of productive
capacity with "society's equally
enormous but latent consumption
demands and capacities"
This result could be brought
about, at least in part, he comedies,
by the economic regulations of a
totalitarian state. 1t could be
achieved more effectively and much
more in line with our established
economic patterns, he adds, by
business and labor leadership, with
comparatively little control by gov
eminent"
Colliding Policies.
On the international side, Mr.
Altman is more pessimistic. Our
policies and Russias, colliding with
out compromise on either side, have,
ss he sees 1t, sharpened the spirit
Of conflict and widened the circle
Of fear.
Our year-long debate over the
Marshall Plan, he says, produced
mot relief for distressed popula-
tions, but strong meat for Com
munist propaganda wherever eco
nomic chaos stalked or threatened"
Nor does he feel that our support
Of "reactionary" governments abroad
has contained" Russia whenever it
chose to extend its sphere. Mr..
Altman also points to Communist
comfort in the United States in the
conduct Of Southern politicos who
chose an era of profound inter-
national peril to re-emphasize, In
contrast with Soviet Russia's I'M
usual virtue Of racial tolerance, their
deathless code of white supremacy
and racial prejudice"
On the other hand, the author
does not acquit Russia of blame for
the international stalemate. He
thinks the Russians could have held
American sympathy after the de-
Tense of Stalingrad If they had made
the slightest effort to understand
public opinion in the United States
and to respect 1t. But "the dog
matte furies of the Soviet high
priests of the Marxist religion" pre-
vented any simple offer of friend
ship.
Mr.. Altman deplores the general
acceptance in this country of two
alternatives-stop Russia or let her
eventually stop us. These are muir
derous alternatives" he contends.
Domestic Solutions.
He feels that Americans could go
far toward solving their domestic
problems if they would approach
them realistically, without fear OF
being considered communistic or
fascistic or something else. And
Mr.. Altman has scant patience with
either Marxists or those rightists
who think we should turn back the
calendar so years and forget all this
nonsense about trying to regulate
our economy.
He points out that such a
Specialization measure as the Ten
nessee Valley Authority, assailed by
some as crackpot radicalism, seems
a worse abomination to Stalinists.
Such projects. the "all-believing
Marxists" charge, are "devitloniSt," y
and they exclaim that Hitler did
the same sort of thing for Ger
many. And Mr.. Altman recalls
that when it first was proposed that
the Government establish postal
service, the project was denounced
as rabid socialism, and that public
school system once was attacked as
a threat to the freedom of the new
republic. The first public highways
were under similar fire.
How much further should we go
in "socializing' enterprises for the
common good? Mr. Altman has no
didactic answer He speaks of the
success of some public ownerships
of utilities But he does not feel
that railroads, say, should necessa-
rily be run by the Government per-
manently, it might be current to
observer if they serve their stock
holders and the public effectively
in the future.
Not every one will agree with Mr..
Altman that the 18th century
phrase that the least governed are
the best governed is only half
truth. He predicts that the Fed
eral Government will expand rather
than decrease forecast that some
will deplore and hope to the
contrary-and he thinks it has done
a pretty good job, considering the
capricious way its agencies have
been created, expanded. abridged
and abolished from time to time.
In the early chapters, he traces
the historical events and ideas that
influenced the founders of the COL
onies that became the United States
The book is written in a style so
entertaining, so easy to read that
one is apt to forget the scholarship
and erudition that went into it. To
whatever extent you may agree with
Mr. Aikman's conclusions, I think
you'll find The Turning Stream"
q stimulating summary.
Mr.. Altman is a journalist living
In Washington.
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