Books in Review
BARMINE, ALEXANDER
Books in Review New Defender for Yenan By ALEXANDER BARMINE SOLUTION IN ASIA. By Own Lattimore. Little, Brown and Co^ New York. tU page*. 12.00. THE Chinese Communists have been particularly...
...Lattimore presents s complicated and hasy plan of "reconciliation" or compromise with Communists in Chins...
...Lattimore is for liquidation of colonial empires in Asia...
...Under its influence America to in danger of adopting in Asia this same so-called "realistic" policy of appeasement snd self-abdication which will not only abandon to totalitarianism several small nations, a* in Europe, but hundreds of millions of Asiatics...
...They do not believe it possible to establish democracy in most of the liberated areas, are not willing to work for it, and instead are trying-to force on the American Government the policy of selling the peoples of Asia to the Soviet form of totalitarianism...
...There is no more ironical note in the whole between wars' tragedy than ths first newspaper interview given by Albert Einstein on reaching safe asylum in England from the persecutions of Hitler...
...The existence of such a man, Einstein said sadly, had forced him to modify his pacifist views...
...THE Chinese Communists have been particularly fortunate in the American Newspaper correspondents who have written about the controversy between Chungking and Yenan...
...It is a fact that governing committees and representative committees are elected, and that the Communists limit themselves (sic...
...By Vera Hnttain...
...He then occupied for several years the high poet of Director of Pacific Operations for the OWL It can he presumed that for Kuonintang leaders the conceptions and policy of Lattimore represented, or were identified with, those of the American Government...
...21» payee...
...THE tremendous interest In postwar economic problems has brought into being a plethora of committees, both private and public, and books attempting to answer this, that or all postwar question...
...the Soviet Union stands for strategic security, economic prosperity, technological progress, miraculous medicine, free education, equality ef opportunity, and democracy: a powerful ombination...
...I doubt if Jesus would have complimented Augustus on establishing justice throughout the world...
...Thus wide government controls are inevitable to direct production and consumption...
...This surrender of faith in democracy in favor of Soviet totalitarianism Is permeating American public opinion...
...His book follows the propaganda line of the Communists and the Soviet Union faithfully, but it dresses this propaganda up to look like a "realistic" American policy, mixing it with many Interesting comments and observations on things in general...
...But in reslity they are complete defeatists who do not believe in the living force of democracy...
...it must accept the idea ef radical compromises with government and labor and other conflicting group...
...The third division, if his advice to followed, can be nothing but camouflaged Communist totalitarianism.' That is his "Solution in Asia...
...tionally operating economy...
...The almost com- . plete civil security now enjoyed in pence time in advanced countries was not achieved by the abatement of neuroses, or ths establishment of Communism...
...that no lsw other then that of marginal utility or of supply and demand should control the economic process, except in those instance* when the process itself breaks down and produces unemployment, business bankruptcies and grand scale disruption of production and consumption When free enterprise fails, it to, of course, the role of government'to interfere artificially In the economic process with such temporary measures aa will keep the broken-down machinery together and going...
...Whan we obtain aa international organisation with re-speaelbfllty aad power to end war, arc •halt hare taken a stop toward world peace...
...It was achieved by use gradual transfer* esse* of Used vengeance from the individual te ths stats...
...First, the question of ownership and management of Japan's industries: the holdings of principal Japanese capitalist families and corporations in banks, insurance, shipping and other large corporations as well ss In Industry, should bs taken ever by the State...
...Lattimore presents a picture of Soviet Russis which corresponds accurately with his picture of Communist China...
...In another the Communist (or strictly speaking, the Socialist) political system is now permanently established and identified with a colleetivist economic system...
...Do you rememberT At long last this earth established contact with the spirit world through Raymond, and Raymond lifted the veil all imaginative men have wanted to lift and reported that she souls ef she departed don't like to smoke, a. ip...
...It would seem«that the opening of the Burma Road, and the prospect of enormous military help by the American armies, and our liberation of'China, are a source of anxiety to Lattimore, since they may hinder the domination of the continent by Soviet,Russia...
...The character of Augustus to absurdly sentimentalised, and what J SOUS ef Na sareth said to Augustus and what Augustus said to Jesus are, m their one vital point, completely out ef character...
...that free enterprise in the old sense to dead and business had best adjust itself te this fact or court disaster...
...Psychiatric Redemption and the Novel R.view by ALICE REAL PARSONS ACCOUNT RENDERED...
...ThERE is in America a large and growing group of sophisticated intellectuals who call themselves left-wing-liberals, and who are most vociferous and fanatical in demanding war to complete and crushing victory...
...It is essential that America should cease to be so conspicuously ths main-link between China and the United Nations...
...s99 page...
...That Is a familiar maneuver...
...A Ugend...
...When it comes to ths question of what social groups will constitute the State, and how the government will be formed, Lattimore says*: "We must, on the other hand, not be soft with the old-school kimono 'liberals' who . . . made such a good impression on Wall Street, art collectors and Garden Clubs...
...Joseph was a wealthy merchant and owned many ships...
...Thus Frsncs Halklns to a sensitive musician, and w» are plunged into the stream of thought aad the occasional remarks thst might conceivably bo attributed to a sensitivi musician who happened to live in Staffordshire snd to have such and sucl parents...
...and that nothing in his proposals guarantees or makes probable that these swords will not fall and cleave the head of this economic order...
...Not that this ambiguity and inexactness are Clark's fault...
...Here in America we are in the habit of taking a narrow view of foreign claimants, to the Status of democracy," Lattimore argues...
...70 page...
...Does he mean a regime of the type used by Stalin in Rumania and Bulgaria, an amalgam of Fascist generals with Communists T Lattimore disposes of Korea and both Mongolias as obviously within the sphere of Soviet influence...
...All the light, evidently, must come from Russia...
...The main thesis of the book and the political philosophy of Ha author are sained rsHrlaasly by the anonymous writer ef the blurb ee the jacket i "Hi (Utslraere) shows that all ths Asiatic peoples are snare interested ia actual dsns scrapie practices, such as the ones they can see in action across ths Russian horde r, than they are in the fine theories ef Aagie Haurm democracies which eeeae caosasd with ruthless imperialism...
...Everything else be says mutt be considered secondary te this signill-cent conclusion...
...that they may be even more serious problems than in the period before the war...
...whereas in Kuomintang-conurolled territory it to increasingly difficult to hold a public position without joining the Kuomintang and accepting its discipline...
...Qarks's primary concern is with just this question—how soon and by what means can goveriunent souti uts be removed without causing the tragic con-sequences of completely free economic enterprise, vis., the breakdown of production and mass unemployment...
...And then Lattimore...
...Otherwise there would be grave danger of conflict between our China policy and that of Russia...
...They were part of the liaison between predatory militarism and predatory big business...
...In spite of the fact that many of the pacifist leaders were men snd women ef great intellectual 'distinction, they were politically naive and historically ignorant...
...the truth is they follow from the fact that the rules cannot be made more exact...
...it must be the first te propose national policies which will not seek profit to itself so much as a na...
...Business must give up the ides of complete autonomy* and negative gov-eminent control...
...He advises...
...This folly may ultimately spsll the doom of democracy throughout ths world...
...It stands for demcracy because it stands for all the other things...
...These hates and these likings, stirred together into an account of the lives of various aspiring, loving snd suffering people, have for twenty years ot so been s popular recipe for novel-msk-ing...
...But when it comes to the climax of the tale, the meeting ef the Prince of Heaven with Augustus Caesar, the ruler ef the earth, an Loewen-steia seems to me quite out ef his depth...
...During war, free enterprise cannot work effectively te supply the needs ef total war...
...This book to one for which the Committee for Economic Development to responsible...
...This of course gives us s cardboard figure, so inexpertly put together that he isn't even provided with the characteristic Speech of his time, pi** and class, but talks In school book idiot...
...The governments, in particular, moat be viewed as a positive agency crucially affecting the economic process in the national and public interest In the end, Clark arrives at a conclusion which is implicitly denied in the beginning: that positive government control to bare to stay...
...By John M. Clark...
...Lattimore's "adjustment" between the first two divisions to obviously thst of defeatist appeasement on the part of the capitalist democracies, which sre to accept as inevitable a Soviet Communist domination of the Asiatic continent...
...They have lost fsith in liberal ideals...
...Here is Lattimore's evaluation of the Communist regime in China: "The political structure under the Communists to more nearly democratic than it is under the Kuooaintang...
...We cannot assume that Americans can draw authoritative blueprints for Asia...
...But why has Mis Brittain won so wide an audience if her proposals are naive I Because she ia a sensitive and likable person who hates tyranny, war and injustice with aH her heart, who loves music, the arts, literature and gentle living...
...But throughout history there have always been men' willing to murder untold numbers of their fellow men Ear power and glory...
...Clark does net feel too happy with his proposals, for they are at best inexact practical rules concerning government control of the productive and consumptive process and wages, the application of which to a* difficult aa the rules are ambiguous...
...During the vogue of this type, of fiction it has been erroneously believed that character, ii portrayed by indication of the category to which a person belongs...
...More important than these rules is his recognition that the hanging swards ef disintegrated production and mass unemployment may still be the major problems of the postwar period...
...Inevitably Clark accepts a point of view common to moat big business men: that economic enterprise must be free...
...Through such writers as Brooks Atkinson, Kdgar Snow, Agnes fliaed ley, Harrison Forman, and Owen Lattimore, the cause of the Yenan regime haa been pleaded to the American public more effectively, persuasivly, and cleverly, than any known Communist could possibly do it...
...Hubert h» tu Ixtewenetein...
...AFTER serving four years in London, Malta and France as a Red Cross nurse, in the first World War, Vera Brittain returned to England and wrote Te*lament ¦ of Youth, one of the deeply indignant idealistic books that became a rallying point for pacifism...
...As usual, he begins cautiously with "what in his opinion ths Soviet Union represents to Asiatic peoples: "In their eyes...
...Lattimore suggests vaguely for Japan that the leadership should be "left of renter snd at least liberal enough to be friendly with Russia...
...Meantime, proposals ef quick and easy cures, if they receive wide acceptance, as anything Vera Brittain write* fs sure to do, obscure the problem...
...Aa s point ef departure for his Solution as Aeis, Lattimore takes from the Communists their mechanical and over simplified division of Chinese social forces into two: The Kuomin tang-landlord right wing in China aad the Communiat-democratic-UniUd Front left wing" If this dichotomy is accepted, ef course there is ae place for democracy in China except on the side of the Communist-dominated United Front The ides that American democracy might have anything to teach the Chinese ht contrast to the official Soviet doctrines is dismissed by Lattimore in the following remark: "We may count on seeing, over wide areas (in Asia), the partial acceptance of Marxist ideas and the adoption of one or another part of the Soviet system...
...to one-third of the representation...
...1140...
...adds his own opinion: The fact that the Soviet Union also stands for democracy is net to be overlooked...
...In the midst of the second World War, Vera Brittain haa Written another angry and indignant account of the human damage wreaked by war...
...Charles R. Hook, American Railing Mill Co., and Marion B. Poisons, Eastman Kodak Co., who think that forethought is better than hindsight and hope by promoting such researches as Professor Clark's that they and the nation will be better prepared to solve all or most future economic problems...
...Our relations with China today are getting uncomfortably close to this limit of safety...
...The demand by the Earn to disband the Greek regular army as "pro-royalist" was based on the same reasoning...
...We should advocate a reorganization of-the National Army and the disbandment of superfluous troops...
...Nevertheless, the assumption still holds that such controls are merely temporary: expedients necessary only for war and to be removed as soon as possible...
...Apparently realising now that unilateral .pacifism is insufficient, she thinks thst if the newest psychological discoveries and psychiatric treatments wet* used to straighten out the neuroses of all people, wars would be prevented...
...MaemUlan...
...He advises Americans to give in to it with a light heart, even though the Asiatic peoples, who may not like to be sold down the river so easily, continue to expect from us s vigorous assertion of democratic policy and of the principles of the Atlantic Charter...
...MaeMillan, Now York...
...THE legend assumes that Jesus of Nasareth, at the age of thirteen, accompanied his distant cousin, Joseph ef Arimathea, on a trading voyage to Route...
...He hag a more definite plan for defeated Japan...
...Jesus Meets Augustus THS CHILD AND THE EMPEROR...
...He istsHwes te support American news-puparmsn who report that the only real democracy in China to found in Comlattimore can hardly have known that a Little, Brown blurb-writer was going te "spill the beaas" In this naive way, fee although this is a correct description of what he attempts to do, be dees it far more subtly than that...
...Thus in his concluding chapter, he pleads with business to remember that a "high level of employment" is the only guarantee of sound, economic functioning...
...If China, or Russia, or some other alien people does not measure up to the standards of the particular American modification of Anglo-Saxon democracy, we say that it is not democratic . . . The fact is that for most of the people in the world today what constitutes democracy in theory is more or less irrelevant...
...We should avoid isolating the problem of the Communist troops, remembering that there are also . . . regular troops which, while nominally part of the National Army, are in fact Kuomintang Party troops...
...In practice...
...And if Francis is synthetic, the eta* characters are little morn than sbsden*r should add quickly that Miss British writes this sort ef navel better tbt* mest...
...3.00...
...By I'rincr...
...Notwithstanding hia high authority, he evidently did not impress the Chines*, for Chiang Kai shek's present policy is contrary to the appeasement ef Chinese Communists — aad consequently of quiet suicide — suggested to aim by his former adviser ia this book...
...There i» no real character portrayal...
...V "Britain and America can successfully support thejr legitimate capitalist interests in China, and at the same time work in cooperation with the Russians for democratic harmony in a country in which the second largest party is Communist...
...Owen Lattimore, after various experiences in Asiatic affairs, including work for the Institute for Pacific Relations, was recommended by President Roosevelt aa political adviser to Chiang Ksi-sbek and remained in that position for two years...
...Homicide used once tu be as great a problem as organised war to today...
...This committee is the creation of a number of enterprising big shot business men, like Paul O. Hoffman, Studebaker Co...
...The Death of Free Enterprise Review by &COR&R AK1UTHMOT DEMOBILIZATION OF WARTIME ECONOMIC CONTROLS...
...China is but a major example of ths new world situation...
...Why this more-than - tolerant approach, which includes Stalin's Russia and Mao Tse-tun's Communist China in the circle of democracies, to not applied by Lattimore to Kuomiritang China is an unexplained mystery...
...In one, the capitalist economic system snd democratic political system are rigorous and unshaken...
...1.75...
...In this particular book the writing ii competent but not brilliant...
...What moves 'people to act, to try to line up with one party or country and not with another, is the difference between what is more democratic and less democratic...
...New York: MtCraw-HUl Book Co...
...Lattimore is the smoothest propagandist among them all, precisely because he gives the appearance of being objective, realistic and factual...
...In the third, there is an adjustment yet to be made between capitalism and collectivism, and mixed political orders have not yet clearly taken shape...
...He enjoyed going, and the voyage gives Prince an Loewenstein an opportunity which be pleasantly utilises to describe the harbors and cities and some of the customs of the day...
...She doesn't seem to realize that interesting and valuable as modern psychological studies are, they nave their limitations as aids to complete reasonableness and wholly disinterested action, since man's character, the result of thousands of years of adaptation to environment, will not readily attain perfection according to soma psychiatric school's notion of perfection...
...What, then, will be America's primary concern with Asiatic problems...
...The world is now grouped in three major divisions...
...For the rest, the conversation between the two is aa anti-climactic and bsside-the-point aa the things Raymond communicated to Sir Oliver Lodge from eerie distances of the spirit world...
...But what about the American policy toward China t "We do not want China to become dependent on us"—i.e., on the democracies...
...And if he had tempered this fulsome praise by adding, as su Loewenstein haa him add, that all that Augustus' administration lacked was grace, the remark would have been far leas explicit and far more ambiguous than those attributed to Christ in the Gospels...
Vol. 28 • April 1945 • No. 14
