Evening star., 1953-10-14
Buffers Views on Liberalism

We should like to take issue with the
attack on American liberalism made by
Maryland's Senator John M. Butler
which appeared in your paper on Oc-
tober in a column substituting for
Constantine Brown.
Unfortunately, Senator Butler re-
sorted to the old debater's trick of
misstating the opposing view in form
SO extreme that it refutes itself. To
attribute to liberals, for example, the
view that wages are good and profits
are sinful" is as absurd as if we were
to infer from Sentor Buffers concern
for the welfare of business that he
believes the opposite, that wages are
sinful and profits are good. The prob
lem is to find that balance of wages
and profits that will provide the pur-
chasing power needed to absorb our
great production, and at the same time
provide business with incentives to pro-
duce and to invest in expanding pro-
duction. This, after all, is the essence
of capitalism, whether defined by Adam
Smith or by Lord Keynes. It is an ex-
tremely complex economic problem and
. one on which American liberalS-and
other thinking Americans-have de-
voted great deal of thought and
analysis in order to arrive at the proper
economic solution.
The Senator's charge that liberals
are "crypto-socialistS" Chat is, social
lists in disguise) is either absurd or
meaningless, depending on what he
means. If he means that American lib
erals are MarXiSts, he is simply mis-
taken. Marxism is the doctrine of pub
lie ownership of the means Of produc-
tion. and American liberals do not SUBJ
scribe to it. On the contrary, they have,
devoted their best thought and their
best efforts to making capitalism work
to the benefit Of the people of this
country. American capitalism, after 20
years of the kind of effort that the
Senator so bitterly denounces, is
healthier. more productive, and more
profitable than ever before.
If, on the other hand, by "crypto-
socialist" Senator Butler means that
the United States has adopted some
measures that had been advocated by
socialists long before the New Deal
the graduated income taxes, for exam
ple-the charge is true, and meaning
less. One wonders if Senator Butler
would like to reopen the question of
government operation of the parcel
post, which as he will remember, was
attacked as socialist" when it was
proposed by President Wilson 40 years
ago!
We would infer from the Senator's
letter that the real issues that divide
him from the liberals are those asso-
ciated to what is often called the "wel-
fare state"-the idea that in demo-
cratic country the people, acting
through their governments, have both
the means and the obligation to pro-
mote the welfare of individual citizens
and ato safeguard them from some of
the hazards of our complex, impersonal
society and economy. This idea has
been given form and substance in much
of the legislation Of the New Deal and
the Fair Deal. The record of the liberal
position is written in the messages of
Presidents Roosevelt and Truman, in
the programs of liberals in and out of
Congress over the past 20 years, and
in much Of the New Deal and Fair
Deal legislation. There is no need for
Senator Butler to torture this record
to invent political straw man to be
demolished by political rhetoric.
Sidney HOIIander, Jr.,
Chairman, Baltimore Chapter,
Americans for Democratic Action.