THE OPPORTUNITY FOR LIBERALISM
Turner, T. Arthur
The Opportunity for Liberalism [By T. ARTHUR TURNER] A liberal is a referee in the battle of ctrinaires. The ideal liberal is one who views the disinterestedly, Impersonally, and scientific;!...
...it is the peculiar conservative method of playing with .dynamite which will one day destroy the very order for the safety of which they hold such neurotic fears...
...the conservative's first and last thought is of his stomach...
...The true liberals' first thought is the life of the nation...
...out of the masses always grows a class whose material rewards for its service to society are far out of proportion to its actual worth...
...What to the rioting Jacobins were the words of Voltaire, Beumaicliais, Rou.-seau...
...July .10.;—You bet I have not forgotten the efforts of the Robert M. La Follette...
...It recognizes the fact that abscesses can only be healed by aspiration...
...This is a radical disease of c system, calling for radical remedies...
...and the rest...
...When there is a prospect of his income falling to 500.000...
...Posterity may be robbed ruthlessly and needlessly of its forest lands...
...the conservative may recognize the same thing, but he fears the temporary pain of the operation, and relies on a stupid faith that maybe everything will be all right anyway...
...OBVIOUSLY, the only dam that can brave the current is that of liberalism...
...To thus train men against any attitude of liberal tolerance, is to endanger the social structure...
...It would appear that to attempt to dam this onrushing stream of history would be to attempt defiance of universal law...
...Tolerance Ls a prime factor...
...The problem is to turn human need into purchasi power, to create an increased "effective demand" t keeps pace with increased production...
...who has seen his wife and children grow sallow and thin and tuberculous for want of food, sunshine, and even decent, air to breathe...
...He points with pride...
...And goods accumulate and men decay, production must artificially restricted...
...If he is a man...
...Liberalism has...
...socialism," "communism," or "BolshevLsm" by conservative fat-heads «-himagine they stand a show of protecting the abeui privilages of their class by screaming the terror...
...What did the Russian proletarian know of Karl Marx beyond a vague notion that he was .some .sort of a demigod whose words bore a magic potency to put food in the mouths of their children...
...REMEMBERS LA FOLLETTE'S EFFORTS Menomonie, Wis...
...It is only by doing thLs now, while the country s has wealth to save and while the masses are still suf ciently well fed to be contented, that our nation can steered clear of the shoals...
...going to hate with every fibre of his being: what good In the society that is abusing him, he cann to him it Is all bad...
...Purchasi power declines again...
...To them the red flag of Revolution was the symbol of their blind, unreasoning hatred of a system that had starved them...
...that Russia Ls relegated to the limbo of useless things that were...
...It Was a blind hatred born of hunger, abuse, and oppression...
...Sr., and (his evening I heard his son...
...whose lot has been poverty, squalor, and hunger...
...A, F. Heising...
...Kerensky could have testified to th . DISEASE CALLS FOR RADICAL REMEDIES (Editorial in London "Herald," Organ of British Labor Party) Stomachs remain empty while wheat piles up in the elevators, and farmers dread a too good harvest...
...poverty breeds poverty, together they ferment disaster...
...no place in country once the wealth Ls gone and the masses an with blood in their eye and hatred in their hearts...
...Unemployment grows...
...Its prime mover has been the acquisitiveness of mankind...
...It is a prob which must be solved quickly...
...Phil, speak;- "ril...
...Hatred in man's makeup precludes definitely any possibility of liberalism...
...And 1 liberalism it Ls evident that we mean only intelligent o rection, a free interplay of ideas, a toleration of viev points, and a steadfast, determination to make an ii telligent evaluation of the merits of a proposition r gardless of its label...
...That such a dam can be constructed seems to be indicated by recent political developments in England, where a liberal Labor goverment Ls in control, and where liberal legislation h- . long since prevented bloodshed...
...to attempt to stay the current, or guide it by the will of man into channels that do not sweep civilizations before it, would be to attempt to make a brick fall upwards, or like Cnute, command the tide not to rise...
...First of all it does not take refug behind smug phrases and either stupidly or deliberate;, disregard festering sores in the body politic...
...AllliotiBh it is true lhat we cannot accurately peer into the mysterious gloom of the future by the dim light of hLvtory...
...he must, to make the ideal liberal e the proper environment and training...
...If the commonwealth at large loses ten million dollars while he makes a million, the conservative is satisfied...
...We may profit by the precedent of history...
...It particular crime of the illiberalLsm of those in power...
...millions of cubic feet of natural gas may be wasted, every variety of public wealth may be laid as a sacrifice on the altar of private greed, and the conservative stands by solemnly, occasionally emerging from hLs shell long enough to say, "The country is basically sound...
...Unscrupulously, with no regard either to the good of their country or the welfare of generations yet to come, this class satisfies its greed until the masses, driven to desperation, rLse up and destroy the system...
...S. Cox...
...Wh that time comes, the liberals must take refuge with t conservatives, or their blood will serve also to color t stream of history...
...Their motivating force was not Karl Marx...
...The stream of history appears to have flown on inexorably, resistlessly: occasionally slightly deflected by a human rock, it has continued its general course imperturbably toward the xea of eternity...
...If the nearly 5,000,000 that voted for La Follette in 1924 had then have organized a public ownership party and had each one paid $1.00 a year dues with which to educate the others on that issue they could elect, a president in 193...
...If the workers do that the change could be brought about in from 10 to 20 years...
...The liberal sees the forest...
...dollars while the commonwealth stands a show of gaining five million thereby, only then does he view with alarm—only then does the country seem to be approaching "basic unsoundness.'' The United States of America is ripe for liberalism, even If it be labelled " radicalism...
...P. O. BEST WAY OCT The public ownership of public utilities and natu resources is the best way for the laboring class to ;. the wealth they create, and all who believe in that out to get- together in a party of their own and vote for ca;.dldates for all offices from president to constable who believe in that...
...Any man who has toiled and sweated and risked his life in mines or stone quarries...
...the conservative sees the trees...
...Russia did not have it under the blundering bureaucracy of the Tsars...
...even though he himself on...
...No fiddling with tariffs, upward or downward, or deal with this evil...
...i idea, he must have a sufficiently scientific attitude ind to abandon it once it is proved wrong or impracl It ls not enough that a man be born with i proclivities...
...intolerance breeds intolerance...
...Liberalism does not exLst in the Russia of today —where it Ls going remains to be seen...
...that m not be a liberal If he Ls human...
...The EnglLsh Lf - borites are in reality not radicals but exceedingly so sible liberals who are fighting desperately to keep tr British ship of State from being pounded to pieces on th rocks of "the-country-is-basically-soundism...
...The term liberalism - not to be confused with a party label...
...Nor can any similar pill cure t economic earthquake...
...and its final phase, unlr the cure Ls found, would be a desperate struggle for rreasingly adequate markets, ending in suicidal wars a the crash of civilization...
...and we cannot, blame him...
...Hatred breeds hatred...
...Now is the time- lei's RO.—B...
...there is but one way to eliminate the evil, and a wholesale destruction of the entire system...
...The hidebound conservative who continually prates of evil minded agitators "spreading the .seeds of dLscoment" neither seems to know nor possess the ability to learn that people who are properly fed, clothed, and housed will turn deaf ears to any propaganda of discontent...
...now we ought to he able to win in 1940...
...who has felt on his neck the gold-hobnailed boot of an indifferent, society crushing hi more deeply into the gutter of ignorance...
...and although there sre no laws to be resolved by mathematical accuracy, there do seem to me to be some definite trends in social and political evolution...
...If we would star...
...he is indeed §. "chin oil the old block...
...For the evil grows apace...
...that social order exL.'ts no more...
...NO social organLsm can endure without liberalism, France did not have it in the days of the Bourbons...
...Liberalism, except lor a much ridiculed minority docs not exist in the United- States of America today...
...The vicious circle widens...
...cist be free of prejudice or fanatical adherence vstem or doctrine...
...What is liberalism...
Vol. 1 • August 1930 • No. 36
