Evening star., 1953-11-25
Senator to ADA

On october IA, The Star published
letter from Sidney Hollander, jr.,
chairman of the Baltimore Chapter of
the Americans for Democratic Action
taking issue with my views as expressed
on October in your columns. I regret
that my reply has been delayed, but
congressional hearings in San Fran
cisco and Pittsburgh claimed my prior
attention.
I am rather surprised that Mr.. Hol-
lander objects to my description of our
latter day liberals as ''crypto-socialistS,
on the ground that they are not fol-
lowers of Karl Marx. Does he thus pre-
sumo to exclude his group from the
socialist ategory-"crypto" or other
wise? Surely, he is aware that, his
torically, socialism is movement both
older and broader than Marxism, which
is merely another form of socialism.
Neither did British Fabianism follow
Marxism, but it was, of course. mill
family socialiStic. Since this fact is
established beyond any possibility of
refutation, it is difficult to understand
how Mr.. Hollander expects us to be
conforted by the bland statement that
the ADA and other liberals do not
subscribe merely to Marxism.
1t may be relevant in this connection
to mention that during it's first year,
ADA brought Jennie Lee to the United
States for lecture tour under it's aus
pices. The wife of Aneurin Bevan, and
herself an extreme left-wing Socialist
member of the British Parliament,
Jennie Lee expounded socialism during
her tour from coast to coast. This, pre-
Sumably, is an example of how American
liberals devote their best thought and
their best efforts to making capitalism
work to the benefit of the country"
Il quote from Mr.. Hollander'S letter..
Note the implication that capitalism,
which even in the darkest depression
days provided standard of living i'm
measurably higher than any of the COL
lectiviSt economies in the world. has
not worked in the past. ADA laborS in
other ways to make capitalism work."
Its spokesman, Arthur SchleSinger, jr.,
advocates turning over political control
to "some combination of lawyers, buSi-
ness and labor managers, politicians
and intellectuals." ADA official an
nouncements advocate that +. The
Government must set balanced produc-
ton targets for the whole economy :.
The Government must undertake to
build firm foundations for enduring
prosperity Government subsidies
and financing, and, if necessary, Gov
ernment plants must be used to provide
more steel, more power, and other vital
necessary raw materials" and so on.
This is capitalism? Aside from the
cy1.n 40 oh n
king provides when placed along side
the straight-faced declaration that they
are devoting their best efforts to max
ing capitalism work." these excerpts
perform the very important function of
unmasking the real objectives of the
ADA. No, the question at issue is not
social security, nor government opera
tion of parcel post, as Mr.. Hollander
facetiously suggests. The very serious
question at issue is the basic attitude
and intention toward our capitalist free
enterprise system of the liberals and
their self f-appointed spokeSmen in ADA.
For it is hard to believe that when ADA
advocates that THE Government must
set balanced production targets for the
whole economy" it is unaware that this
proposal, implemented and applied,
would virtually socialize our economy.
And whom does the ADA hope to use
to accomplish this end? Francis Biddle,
chairman of ADA, has declared
we believe that no liberal movement of
this character will be successful in the
United States without the active CO.
operation of organized labor" But. Mr..
Biddle may not find this "co-operation"
so easy to secure.
Enlightened resistance has arisen in
every segment of our society. Social
ism under it's own name has been un-
able to enlist the support of more than
an infinitesimal fraction of the Amer
lean electorate, and the Socialist move
ment in the United States, as such,
has shown a steady decline since the
days of Debs, Hillquit, Berger and the
early Norman Thomas.
But the "planner" is of a hardy
breed and not to be deferred by even
the cleareSt rejection of what he is
selling. He will accommodating re-
wrap the same product in different
package. And so it was that the Amer
ican socialist minded adopted a new
approach a more beguiling and insid-
ious one, designed to achieve socialism
while avoiding it's label. This approach
consists in advocating every possible
measure to increase Federal govern
mental power, particularly executive
power. over production, distribution
and every other facet of our economy,
and to resist savagely any attempt to
reduce that power or to halt it's expan-
sion. Measures of this type. designed
to meet a specific emergency and
clearly intended to be temporary, re-
main on the statute books long after
the emergency has passed. Temporary
emergency legislation such as price
controls always have the support of the
liberals for their indefinite continual
tion. I challenge Mr.. Hollander to pro-
duce single major instance where
the ADA recommended repeal of Fed