Dear Editor
DEAR EDITOR MENCKEN Mr. Bohn makes few statements in his column on H. L. Mencken [NL, February 20] on which I would like to comment. To say that there is nothing anti-religious about being an...
...He was concerned about his fellow men...
...This business of using the words "religious" or "Christian'' as synonyms for good, ethical or moral irks me no end...
...Then he refers to this as a "regressive pattern" that substantiates his statement as to the growing gulf between the rich and the poor...
...None of us are immune from backsliding-the important thing is to recognize it...
...I am inclined to doubt that this has happened, even with Russian economic aid...
...In my opinion, Sidney Hook is part of the great tradition of liberalism...
...After reading Plato's Republic, some might consider Socrates a Communist and others may feel he was a reactionary...
...as Aristophanes said, "making the worse cause seem the better...
...Robert Mucker, who is under discussion in Professor Hook's article and who has been in the liberal tradition (as I define it) in the past, will return to the fold...
...Now, if there are very many Indians in the first group and very few in the second-and I am assuming, for the sake of simplicity, that there is no middle group-then it will certainly be true that most of the population is not only very poor, but utterly destitute, while a very few are rolling in wealth...
...The answer is that we are all willy-nilly compelled to deal with boring and unpleasant topics which happen to be relevant to what is going on in certain areas of Europe, Asia and Latin America...
...Bohn says that Mencken was not against religion, he seems to me to directly contradict dozens of quotations from Mencken himself...
...It seems to me that this argument, if not original, is at any rate sufficiently provocative to call forth some defense of the laissez-faire position from those who believe in its continued validity...
...But as long as men are immature and ruled by their own petty needs, we are going to have men who claim to be liberal although they are not following the liberal approach...
...For let us assume (after first suppressing an exclamation of surprise that everyone with an income of less than $5,500 is classified as poor in India) that the process outlined by Mr...
...And in this respect he is truly the father of our whole liberal tradition...
...Down through the ages, liberals have been deeply concerned about their fellow men...
...I doubt that Mencken was guilty of this at any time after early childhood, if then...
...Socrates' ability to rise above his own defensive needs and accept the needs of his fellow men seems to provide the key to his greatness...
...But he will continue in that tradition only by keeping a constant vigil on his whole perspective...
...And I am sure that Dr...
...When a man has spent his whole life openly declaring his aversion to religion, and has even arranged for the disposal of his earthly remains without religious services, it seems absurd to try to make him appear religious...
...Fort Worth Joe Hopkins INDIA It may be, as G. S. Bhargava says in his article, "Nehru Faces Trojan Horse" [NL, February 61, that in India, in the last two decades, the rich have become richer and the poor poorer...
...My dictionary gives as the first definition of religion: "the worship of God or gods...
...But it is difficult to imagine more irrelevant statistics than those with which he attempts to demonstrate the point...
...I cannot suppress a certain disappointment that Professor Strausz-Hupe, instead of tackling this issue, has contented himself with denouncing plans and planners in general...
...Los Angeles Wenster E. Gotton...
...Bhargava is continued to its ultimate conclusion...
...Professor Strausz-Hupe understandably is not interested in this aspect of my argument, but I summarize it here for the benefit of readers who may be wondering why on earth British Socialist, writing in 1955, should bother about a hackneyed subject like planning...
...The latter's main concern seemed to be destructive...
...Is not a liberal one who is at all times seeking the truth to benefit his fellow man...
...A man does not have to be religious to have friends who are, or friends who are members of the clergy...
...This insistence that the issue lies between Communism and laissez-faire is just the kind of thing which makes trans-Atlantic intercourse so difficult and at times so unrewarding...
...In that case, poverty will have been abolished in India (and then some...
...Contrast Socrates with the Sophists...
...In other words, that the combined income of those receiving less than 25,000 rupees declines not to 65 per cent of the total income, but to zero per cent, and that the combined income of those receiving over a lakh of rupees increases not to 12.9 per cent, but to 100 per cent...
...The fact is that the pattern is neither regressive nor progressive and, in the absence of certain other figures, proves nothing at all...
...I would like to observe, however, that the relevant argument in my book is concerned with a comparison between rates of economic growth in various parts of Eastern and Southern (not Western) Europe...
...the Sophists were primarily absorbed in themselves...
...From this the disagreeable conclusion emerges that (if we are to believe United Nations statistics) certain South European countries are in danger of being overtaken economically by their Soviet-controlled neighbors, and that experience has already demonstrated the futility of relying on market forces to overcome obstacles to more rapid growth in such countries as Spain or Greece...
...To say that there is nothing anti-religious about being an atheist seems to me to be an absolute contradiction in terms...
...Socrates, to be sure, was also destructive where the prevailing beliefs of his lime were concerned, but his ultimate desire was to be constructive...
...Incidentally, I nowhere suggested that we should "snatch their [the Soviets'] patent medicine" and dispense it under our own label...
...On a more ideological note, I would observe that, although critical of Keynesian liberalism, I did suggest that modern liberals and Socialists might perhaps discover common ground, provided they are able to rid themselves of the "welfare" shibboleth on the one hand and attachment to laissez-faire on the other...
...To take the extreme example, what if there are no Indians in the first group and all of them are in the second group...
...But who can consider him anything but a liberal...
...London G. L. Arnold LIBERALISM I would like to express my sincere appreciation to Sidney Hook for his excellent article, "The Ethics of Controvery Again" [NL, January 16...
...It seems to me that there has been some serious confusion about what constitutes the "liberal" approach, with tendency to equate liberalism with content rather than a continuum of method and content...
...This, it seems to me, is what separates the liberal from the pseudo-liberal...
...But what if the proportions are reversed...
...Larchmont, N. Y. Herbert Abel SOVIET CHALLENGE Reviewers are entitled to their idiosyncrasies, and I certainly have no intention of disputing Professor Robert Strausz-Hupe's familiar defense (in his review of my book, The Pattern of World Conflict, NL, February 6) of the familiar proposition that Switzerland has a higher living standard than Yugoslavia...
...And when Mr...
...for everybody will have an income of at least $23,000 a year...
...Bhargava writes that "between 1932 and 1951, incomes below 25,000 rupees ($5,500) fell from 81.9 to 65 per cent of the total taxable income, while incomes over a lakh of rupees (about $23,000) rose from 3 to 12.9 per cent of the total...
Vol. 39 • March 1956 • No. 11
