Minneapolis spokesman., 1963-07-18
Nonsense About
The Welfare State

lNOAASCHSC ADOuL
The Welfare State
OF a great deal Of nonsense that has been writ
ten and spoken in recent years about the welfare
State perhaps the most utter nonsense Is that pre-
sented in ignorant and preposterous article in
June Harpers by Irving Kristol, entitled Us the
Welfare State Obsolete?"
The times do of course, call for discussion and
debate Of our welfare policies, only In view Of the
increasing Importance Of welfare measures in
society. But intelligent debate calls for than
the misnformation and distortion that Harpers and
Kristol contribute to the subject
For example Kristol divides us into "the liberal
community|e. the teachers, the journalists, the
civil servants, the trade unionists, the leaders Of
minority groups" who "env1sage the welfare state
the institution through which it can exercise
power; and "the conservative community-i.e bus
inessmen and their associates"-which "sees the
walfare state parveny authority that usurps its
traditional authority :"
From this preposterous thesis Krstol scars
into flights of fantasy even more completely separ-
ated from the realities Such as the utterly and
demonstraby false assertion that THE kind of crit
icism of foreign aid that once reserved for use
by Representative Passman has recently been echoed
invention.
Passman is the Didecrat obstructonist who has al
ways opposed all foreign aid and who has written
categorcaly that he considers all foreign aid to be
bad. Chester Bowles is of course one Of the most
intelligent and most effective proponents of the
judicious of foreign aid to stimulate economic
development throughout the world. Their positions
are irreconcilably opposed, and why Harpers wants
to represent it otherwise is mystery.
Mr.
as 1t is appalling He tells U.s. for example that the
Rural Elecrificaion Administration has announced
that, with American farms electrified its mission
Is now completed-and 1t will henceforth be SELL
ing its electricity to suburbs In highly unfair COM
petition with private utilities" This is another piece
Of pure invention, which the Harper's writer made
up out Of whole cloth without benefit Of any work.
ing knowledge Of what the REA is
REA never made such an announcement Its
mission Is far from completed as the rural electric
cooperatives are In a continuous struggle with a
power shortage problem requiring REA finances
for transmission lines and generating plants for a
long time into the future R1A does not have cleo
ticity TO sell It neither generates nor distributes
power, but finance local distribution utilities and
regional generating plants Thus the assertion that
REA plans to compete with private companies in
the suburbs Is flat falsehood. So far competition
sort oeNelOpeu DoCWeen companies
and electric cooperatives 1t has about through
the growth Of suburbs out into areas already served
by cooperative lines and the insistence Of private
companies upon distribution rights there.
This sort Of ignorance and confusion In the well
fare debate Is mischievo'n and damaging There are
many real questions that need debate and clouding
the issues In this way impedes intelligent discussion.
What is Harper's up to? In the name of welfare
reform does It want to arrest me Identification of
American farms? Does It join Representative Pass
man on the foreign aid issue? Does It want to
terminate the public housing program? Does It want
TO turn our local mass transportation systems over
to General Motorsr
A study Of the magazine suggests that it looks
favorably upon all these propositions which Is
bit shocking when you consider Harper's d1sttng-
uished history and tradition.