Evening star., 1948-10-22
Whats Dynamic About 1t?

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lean theological discussions to make much
of the "dynamism" of the Soviet Union.
The latest example of this occurred in q
speech delivered here the other night by
former Undersecretary of State Sumner
Welles. According to Mr.. Welles, the sys-
tenn run by the Kremlin is "eminently
dynamic" and we cannot hope to counter
it unless We make our policy the policy OF
"a democracy which is quite as dynamic"
No one with common sense will deny
that the stronger and healthier we are
economically, socially and politically-and
not merely militarily-the less chance
communism will have to prevail against
us. But Mr.. Welles, along with many
others who refer from time to time to
Russian "dynamism," seems to have i'm
piled in his speech that the United States
needs to do some catching up If 1t wants
to be as dynamic" as the "eminently
dynamic" Soviet system.
But If to be dynamic" means to be
vigorous in ones self and to be capable
of imparting energy to others, then cer-
tairly the United States has no reason
to feel inferior to the Soviet Union. It is
true enough, of course, that the latter
has tremendous "dynamism" in the sense
Of greatly excelling all other nations in
threatening human liberty and creating
trouble everywhere in the world. As far as
constructive effort is concerned, however,
nothing could seem more undynamic than
the Kremlin dictatorship when compared
to our free American way of life.
Thus, when it comes to economic COM
parisons we find such things as these: (l)
Our American production Is overwheim-
ingly greater than that of the Russians,
our steel capacity, for example, already
trebling, in some categories, the total they
hope, to attain by 1850; (2) after thirty
years of Communist rule, the people of
the Soviet Union have a national income,
In terms Of purchasing power, not much
better, If better at all, than they had under
the Gar in 1918, and co their guns before
butter standard of living Is one of the
lowest and most miserable in the world,
our own being estimated at about ten
times higher.
Similarly, in political and social sense,
the Soviet system, despite its modern
Marxist trimmings, is essentially one of
history's oldest and most backward and
reactionary forms of government-an alb
solute tyranny. It is system 80 unsure
of itself, so afraid of letting its subjects
have contact with the outside world, 80
vulnerable to the free interchange Of
ideas, so incapable of facing opposition
parties and genuinely democratic elections,
that 1t must operate behind an iron cur
tain and maintain itself in power by
means Of terrorism, refined and unrefined.
A good measure of its nature is that one
seldom, if ever, hears of anybody emf
grating to live under it; one hears only
of millions wanting to flee it.
In view of such facts, dynamic" seems
scarcely the word to use in describing the
Soviet dictatorship-not unless 1t may be
said that there can be "dynamism" in the
process of turning back the clock, destroy
ing liberty, and saying mo" to human
progress, substituting debasement instead.
Nevertheless, although the United States
and every other free nation shine by COM
parison with present-day Russia, Mr..
Welles Is right in suggesting that we can
not afford to be complacent and that the
more we improve upon our imperfect
democracy, the less difficult 1t will be
to check the Red totalitarian tide.
In this connection, as President Conant
of Harvard declared this week at the
Herald Tribune Forum in New York,
special educational effort is needed. For the
Soviet Union, though undynamic in most
other respects, is on its toes in the field
of propaganda, and its distortions and
fabrications are not without appeal to
the immature, the naive and the dis
contented In DR.. Conant's words, through
our schools and other means of informa-
ton and instruction, we should study
Russian communism just as we study
cancer, thoroughly learning its arguments
and methods and then exposing them.
Such program could do much to strip it
Of its so-called "dynamism."