Freedom and its Problems

...Reviewed By C. PETER MAGRATH Department of Political Science, Brown University America has always been a liberty-conscious society...

...What was sufficient for the citizen of the Age of Jackson proved inadequate to his descendant in the Age of Enterprise: Industrialization and the advent of a complex economy brought with them a dramatic increase in state action...

...The American, whether businessman, immigrant, newspaperman, farmer or laborer, has invariably sought liberty for "me...

...None of our rivals and very few of the neutrals can be called libertarian societies...

...Unfortunately, what constitutes a useful working paper for the Center's researchers is a less than satisfactory book...

...Beyond this, the American participates in such associations as business corporations, churches and trade unions...

...No matter how far-reaching the scope of government, the assumption remains that its intervention is for the purpose of furthering individual liberty...

...Patrick Henry and the irrepressible John Randolph of Roanoke, both Virginia aristocrats, are described (along with the more likely Tom Paine) as "permanent revolutionaries...

...The Center is weighing the answers to such questions as the content of liberty, the conditions under which it flourishes and its future in our cold war, urban, industrial society...

...A wooden style and, especially, the extreme compression of material make for some disconcerting passages...

...Significantly, though, America's progression toward the Welfare State has not dampened the individualistic faith...

...All these groups act with notable liberty: A small union can bring national air travel to a halt...

...Individualism could not, however, survive the reality of post-Civil War America...

...Yet I suspect that the 20th century American enjoys more real liberty than do most of the earth's inhabitants...

...Patrick Henry's words, "Give me liberty or give me death," have by now been memorized by millions of school children...

...Despite these flaws and the scatter-gun approach, a consistent theme emerges...

...Perhaps the answer lies in a modern version of tie "commonwealth" idea which the Handlins find in the early American experience...

...Hopefully, some of the Center's future studies will address themselves to this problem...

...Not only in the political sphere—where the democratic processes remain relatively open—but in social and economic matters as well, the American operates with significant independence...

...But in the present struggle for survival, the question must be faced whether we can continue to live by the faith of extreme individualism...

...Starting with a European-inherited concept of the "commonwealth"—the state as a distinct and active entity with its own overriding interests—American society moved steadily toward individualism, fragmented communities (with a plurality of social organizations) and "government by citizens jealous of their rights...

...But words are, after all, a form of action, and it is revealing that in America United Steel Workers' President David McDonald and United States Steel President Roger Blough cast their appeals in similar rhetoric...

...The preservation of liberty," the Handlins declare in the book's opening sentence, "is the pre-eminent problem of our time...

...Certainly the pre-eminent condition confronting modern America is a permanent semi-war in which the dominant elements are the SinoSoviet bloc and the uncommitted nations...

...A proper emphasis on the laissez-faire character of mid-19th century America fails to take account of such phenomena as protective tariffs, land grants and sundry aids to railroads...

...True to their title, the Handlins try to cover the many dimensions of American liberty—all in 162 pages...

...Eventually, it is hoped, the Center will produce "a long work of synthesis that will tell the story of the continuing development of American liberty...

...In 1958, Harvard University established a Center for the Study of Liberty in America with the noted historian, Oscar Handlin, at its head...

...Equally striking is the persistence of the rhetoric of liberty...

...In The Dimensions of Liberty Oscar and Mary Handlin present a preliminary outline of the major propositions to be tested...

...a corporation is free to set its own investment and price policy with major consequences for the nation's economy...

...Government action by no means disappeared, but the basic pattern, encouraged by the mechanics of a federal system and the economic opportunities afforded by an exploitable continent, was one of high individualism...

...A more compelling question, it seems to me, is the open society's capacity for survival...

...Indeed, the freedom private-interest groups possess is a crucial problem in our libertarian society...

...In the face of this unpleasant reality, can we go on with liberty as usual—consumers spending with disregard to public needs, business managers investing solely in response to their own policy desires, and unions demanding "more, more, and more now...

...Union leaders no less than corporation directors, Negro integrationists no less than white supremacists, left-ofcenter politicians like Hubert Humphrey no less than right-wingers like Barry Goldwater—all speak the language of individualism and liberty...

...To be sure, much of their talk is merely special interest pleading...

...Undoubtedly, careful study would reveal many discrepancies between rhetoric and reality...

...The Supreme Court's ruling in the famous Charles River Bridge Case of 1837, which narrowed the privileges of corporations, is bracketed with the earlier Dartmouth College Case as a decision which placed corporations beyond the power of the state...

...However great the gap between theory and practice, few notions have been more persistent than the one which happily proclaims liberty as the primary purpose of our national life...

...Generally, he has sufficient education, purchasing power, leisure and freedom from restraint to lead a life of his own choosing...

...Only an anti-democrat would demand that we abandon our political liberties...

...Henry's liberty was for "me," and this has been its appeal...