The Home Front

...To the extent that it exists within such a framework, it does not mean what it does in a system of free enterprise...

...It is not a question of absolute equality or absolute inequality...

...HuMAN beings esnnot live together in this world without conflicts of interest* arising at some point...

...Both are unattainable...

...But every social philosophy must accept either one or th* other a* a regulative ideal...

...This, if I understand it, is involved in Professor A. P. Lerner's idea of a "controlled economy...

...Fgr many commodities and services, a decentralized system of planning by regions and municipalities might be more efficient despite some overlapping and conflict...

...With this must go a realization of the central importance of a democratic philosophy of education...

...Only on* piece of evidence must snffice us here...

...But who will argue that they must disappear with the disappearance of capitalism...

...The heart of the democratic social philosophy is found in its dedication to those institutions and methods that negotiate conflicts wih a minimum of coercion, overt or implicit, and a maximum of collective participation...

...Here everything depends not so much on this or that specific detail—although details are important—but on how thty ere planned and carried out.* The terms "planned economy" and "property" are net 1V«*, from ambiguity...

...Our knowleage of post evils as sighposts of present dangers may guide ss to s ssfer future...

...All this remains to be determined...

...In this be woo s mistaken Utopian...

...It tolerated a etrteia range of cultural .variation in relation to which bunas knowledge, ideals, and valor, such as they sre, totass* seteclive and creative factors...

...Those who clamor for guarantees should oak themselves what guarantees freedom in the unplanned system of fro* enterprise...

...trade unions independent of the government, to pass on these qualifications, whose primary function is not to stimulate production but insure the best working conditions and to protect their members from srbitrary administrative power...

...Democratic Socialism interprets equality not as a pattern of uniform treatment in all respects—although there sre good reasons for making the basic wage payments for nit types of socially useful work Identicalhut ss an equality of concern...

...Their meaning shifts with different social contexts...

...In a family it is easy to see how it is possible to treat all individual* equally snd yet not uniformly...

...Where it succeeds, the material conditions must be transformed to support the valuable effects, and give them a direction man can morally approve...

...The aim of the planned economy of a Socialist society is public welfare...

...Once a community undertakes a scientific organization of its productive resources to achieve public welfare under democratic political controls, "private property in instruments of production" (as distinct from private property of articles of personal use) changes its meaning...

...The heart of a social philosophy lies in ite conception ofyhe institutions snd msthods that can be relied upon to negotiate these conflict...

...He sought to discover the material conditions wherein the ideal* of culture!, religious, snd political freedom, formulsted during these progreesiv* period* ia human history, could reach their greatest fulfill ment...

...For it may be interpreted in such a way as to make it hostile to freedom and the development of free personalities...

...Assume we want to retain the freedom of individuals m choose occupations, for which they can qualify, to •ore freely around the country, and to select from •atonga wide variety of goods and services in clothes, fumsking*, books, amusements, etc...

...Some sectors might even be planfully omitted from a planned economy and left to private ownership or individual initiative...

...If it is...

...The First World War was characterised by two feaojmai the practice of businesses usual, on the one mast, and the*practice of a very unusual terror...

...At beat they fall back upon soma degree of government intervention and control to prevent monopolistic combination from throttling, first, free economic acivity, and then cultural freedom...

...The excesses of the First World War produced s widespread revulsion...

...But a planned emaeaay need not take this form, and the reasons are obvious...

...But a mixed economy of this kind, assuming it to be workable* would be s variant of democratic collectivism...

...Marx a***m*d that the historic development of planned society would...

...That-Is why sclen- ' tific method ss spplied to human values may reach ite greatest fruition under Socialism...

...The picture of a totalitarian planned economy, with ite workers esalavad to a clooa more ruthless than the eapltaliste, would have appalled him a* • greet betrsytl of Soci«li*m, all the mora so if it were glossed ov«r with word* and phrases torn from hi* writings...

...To find the devices and mechsnisms which in on* specific situation after another reconcile equality snd freedom Is the task of intelligence or scientific method...

...Some of the specific provisions which, it seems to me, should be sn integral part of any planned economy, if the democratic values of Socialism are to be preserved, are: a vested right in * job (or a minimum income or annual wage) which cannot be alienated once certain qualifications of skill hsve been met...

...Equality «• a regulative ideal is necessary but not sufficient for democratic Socialism...

...lead to the disappearance of the stste or organized coercion in every farm...

...See the American Civil Liberties Union Report) The answer, it seems to me, mast recognise the present effects of consciousness of tbi suet Past history as remembered and interpreted esaMkeiuas-to history as presently enacted...

...In the nature of the rase, even when a community accepts planning in principle, it cannot be carried out en bloc, but from sector to sector...

...No specific device, or any set of them, Is by itself sufficient to insure the preservation of democracy ia a planned society...

...This brings us to the concept of property...

...But the hump of the totalitarian camel can just •• readily follow it* no** into the tent of regulated capitalism or of mixed economy as of Socialism...

...One of them has called ma a "x*»lot" because in an essay a decade ago, I urged the possibility of encoursging "diversity, creative individuality and catholicity of tests" in a plsnn*d society [Kimball Young, Sociology: A Study of Society and Culture, pp...

...The aim of a planned factory-economy in a system of free enterprise is primarily profit...

...In a mixed economy of this kind the role of the government as stabilizer and regulator between the various sectors of industries and the different levels of planning is just ss great as in • totally planned economy...

...Where it is not competitive, it is prevented from exploiting its monopolistic position...

...Historically it is true thst modern democracy as a political system came into the world with capitalism, ('rude economic determinists, who ars happy that they are liberated from the dogma* of Marx, therefore infer that with the decline of capitalism, democracy I* doomed, too...

...control (without the right of disposal) of newspaper plants, news and wire services, radio stations, by organizations like cooperatives, political parties, trade unions, scientific and cultural societies...

...In the past, economic planning for * society as a whole was envisaged on the model •f planning in a modern mass production factory...

...These are in no danger of being lost but their expression in the future may lead to terrible, results unless they are wisely controlled...

...But we do have an approximation to (nth a situation in the war economies of the United amies and England...

...For its function and nature are different...

...In line with these a**fer*i)ces we could organize a system of planned econ•»y that would be less efficient, in the sense that a part * therprodncte of human labor would be unused and ***tnd...

...In ultimate belief and allegiance ho was one with philosophical anarchism...

...949-950...

...everything ehm is incidental...

...It becomes * kind of competitive control on possible bureaucratic inefficiency, in publicly owned sectors of industry...

...th* Reformation, and the French Revolution...

...Planned society or not, there is not enough of every* thing for everybody at the same time...

...Indeed, what guarantee* that free enterprise will remain free...

...Vet despite <U( tremendous growth in overall and piecemeal plangjjg...

...Every loot item and effort were to be coordinated by one total Man emanating from one central office...

...Sometimes the effort succeeds, sometimes it doesn't...

...Memories were still quick and sensitive when World War II irate put 1 There was better organization and, poamtiftyy, a greater militancy by liberal and labor poops against excesses...

...For the first time it becomes true that ownership is held in trust, and that any profit earned is • consequence of genuine contribution to the community...

...Hew account for the fact that despite the existence nf a war economy which has more planned control than anything that existed in the past, and which could have been used as a weapon of cultural totalitarianism, the watchdogs of civil and cultural freedom have had temparatively little to do...

...Marx was a true eon of the Renal—nc...

...To anyone who remembers the atmosphere of the •wot world War and its immediate aftermath, the spectafle nf representatives of two Socialist parties addressing the armed forces, with radio time equal to that fjOan the two major parties, is both astonishing and tneeuraging, especially since both the Socialist and the hshift* Labor Parties are anti-war...

...an independent judiciary to check administrative excesses both of government and trade-union officials against individuals...

...HoWEVER, it is far from having been established thst a completely planned and centralised economy is in fact the most socially efficient system of production...

...Love of freedom, is best nurtured by living and by learning...

...In short, he wa* a democratic, not totalitarian, Socialist...

...At any rate, modern technology, some fields of science, universal literacy, the desire for a higher standard of living, are likewise children of capitalism...

...The notion that a planned society muel * Ses the interesting article by Prof...

...Us toss will not be an economic fatality but a tnoral failure, a failure of-man to use his intelligence to liberate the great poieibilities of plenty and freedom in a planned economy...

...But this waste or relative insufficiency would f* a small price to pay to secure these freedoms...

...Despite the current dispraise of Marx, whose ides* *nd ideals sre uncritically Identified with those of Lenin ¦ nd SUlin (and by Monsignor 8h*e*n even with thos* of Hitler I), it should be clear te any careful reader of his writings that he was a fighter for freedom as well ¦¦ for equelity...

...In the nmnaut war there ia hardly any businesses usual . The jSauina'snt has taken over the control of the productive Owoes of the country to a degree not even remotely aft sarhrt during the First World War...

...It teaches us not only what to avoid but, in what areas we must further experiment...

...But they overlook the .pluralistic character of the historical process and th* distinctive role that human knowledge or ignorance can play within that prqce...

...H. S. Fries in "*e New Leader, August 12 and 2«f inevitably be a totally planned society, down to every nook and cranny, and that therefore there can be no room for variety, seems to be an invincible belief of conservative sociologists who believe that the values of democracy are indissolubly associated with those of free enterprise...

...we do want six different radio •totiona and newspapers competing with each other, •ven'if It involve* a considerable duplication and waste ¦ materials...

...In the same way it seems to me that knowledge of haw a' planned economy has been used to choke off freedom, in Germany and Russia (and other totalitarian countries) can become not only a motivating force, but a positive guide, in developing the democratic possibilities of olsnning...

...We •eu't want six different milk delivery wagons servicing •*• Mock, because here the waste of energy is foolish •••add* to the cost...

...The educational curriculum on every level must be rethought and reorganised to develop intelligent citizens who do not merely "tolerate" cultural and individual differences within the community but who accept these differences as a basis for an enriched Cooperative experience...

...The economy tea* Not a onnw, t>l only a limiting condition...

...It must justify its independence of the sector of public ownership by the contribution it makes to social welfare...

...These are "public properties" but yet not "government" property...

...Both Mussolini and Hitler flourished in * capitalist milieu...

...The whole of human history in unplanned societies may be read in terms of the effort to preserve what is valuable to man out of the complex of unintended effects of the causal process...

...In • society the only feeling that can play *n analogous role is one that develop* in and through democratic traditions and practices...

...The question now fat planning must go is yet to be decided...

...Caa wc justify an in• aafaieaco twrnm the** cue* to sanations in ¦l—r'-r twH* undertaken by democratic t>, milf, however, this argument ii net very strong, Inr after all, we do not have anywhere in the world g politically democratic community which engages in ,niiei planning to a degree commensurate with totalijjjjgji eoantriee...

...The two chief component* of public welfare are social efficiency and the strengthening of these rights of personality which are associated with the ideals of democracy...

...there hoe been far less cultural and political reannMieo than there was in the war years of business as tssal...

...It cannot be easily lost where men are prepared to fight for it when it is threatened...

...Democracy may be lost in a planned society...

...But his very mistake tostMeu to the genuineness of his belief which wss not compromised, ss in Lenin snd Stalin, by the Machiavellian advocacy of s dictatorship of a minority political psrty...

...Even " total economic planning were socially more efficient tkan any other form, it Would not necessarily follow teat it would be acceptable if it seriously interfered With these rights and freedoms of the person which ** wish to see preserved...

...A society, of course, can never be knit together by the s*m* emotional bonds a* th* family...