From Wilson to Stevenson
AYRES, C. E.
From Wilson to Stevenson Triumph of the Eggheads. By Horace Coon. Random House. 309 pp. $4.00. Reviewed by C. E. Ayrei Professor of economics, University of Texas TRIUMPH OF THE EGGHEADS is an...
...It is not a book for scholars...
...And what about that dread harbinger of future disaster, farm income...
...Coon identifies Adlai Stevenson as "Great Elucidator...
...Nor does it mean that leadership is an illusion, or that intelligence plays no part in public affairs...
...A safe enough prediction, perhaps...
...At the conclusion of his story of the New Freedom and the New Deal, the author evokes the eternal enigma: "When can we expect another Democratic resurgence...
...In the first place, the word "egghead" is an epithet of contempt...
...But partisanship aside, Mr...
...The present level of employment is fine, but what about inflation...
...This may be true, and Mr...
...Coon may also be right in saying that "FDR like Wilson, waited with infinite patience for the right moment...
...Coon's heroes, Woodrow Wilson and Franklin Roosevelt, are among the greatest teachers in history...
...Coon has managed to do something that few scholars have achieved: He has made ideas exciting...
...It may be true that we have had four great democratic revolutions of which Jefferson, Jackson, Wilson and Franklin Roosevelt were the leaders...
...In closing his story of the intellectual in modern American politics with an account of "The Egghead Campaign of 1952," Mr...
...Then, and only then, intelligent leadership, if it exists, can interpret those events, not only informing the people of what is happening but also pointing out- ideally in simple language but with irrefutable logic-what those events mean...
...Or must we pass through another 1929 before another great teacher can be heard...
...Who was it that said, "Never overestimate the information, or underestimate the intelligence, of the public...
...Triumph of the Eggheads is a splendid account-vivid, comprehensive and understanding-of the pattern of events which set up the Wilsonian and Rooseveltian revolutions, of the mind and character, background and tempering process, by which each of these, great leaders was matured, and climactically of the educational procedures by which each was able to lead the American people along hitherto untried paths...
...It contains nothing new, and any scholar would find it easy to point out omissions and distortions which would seem to him more or less serious according to his political predilections...
...We can also say, as Mr...
...The obvious answer is, of course, the cliche, "Events make the man...
...Consequently, the use of such a word in the title of a book which hails "the rise of the intellectual" with enthusiasm is false and misleading...
...But whoever the successor to Jefferson, Wilson and FDR may be, and whenever he may come, "That he will triumph, or that another like him will triumph, the united eggheads of the world, who, as Adlai said, have nothing to lose but their yokes, cannot doubt for a minute...
...Coon himself provides the answer in his next sentence: "Like Wilson, he waited until he knew the people would be with him...
...If they were, there would never be a right moment...
...But what is our assurance of stability...
...But what defines "the right moment...
...Coon quotes Woodrow Wilson as having said early in his first term to Robert Bingham: "It is only once in a generation that a people can be lifted above material things...
...Will he, or anybody, be able to make the American people see the risks that surround giddy heights...
...More important: The attribution of the social gains of the people of the United States to a small group of intellectuals is itself false and misleading...
...Coon doesn't pretend to know the answer to that one...
...The record earnings of corporations are fine, but what about installment debt...
...That is why conservative government is in the saddle two-thirds of the time...
...This doesn't mean that the people are an inert mass...
...It is so understood by the public generally, and it retains that connotation notwithstanding the good humor with which various intellectuals-Adlai Stevenson in particular-have parried the slings and arrows of outrageous critics...
...In short, the Presidency of the United States is the most exalted educational position in the world, and Mr...
...Reviewed by C. E. Ayrei Professor of economics, University of Texas TRIUMPH OF THE EGGHEADS is an excellent book with an execrable title...
...The right moment arrives only when events themselves reveal a pattern...
...Coon does, with slightly less banality: "As long as economic stability and prosperity continues, no Democrat will have much of a chance...
Vol. 38 • December 1955 • No. 48
