COLECTIVISM IN THE U.S.A.
Howard, Harry Paxton
Collectivism In The U.S.A. DEVELOPMENT OF COLLECTIVE ENTERPRISE. Dynamics of an Emergent Economy, by Seba Eldridge and Associates. University of Kansas Press. $4.50. Reviewed by Harry Paxton...
...Credit and Banking...
...Housing...
...Life Insurance...
...Rural Resettlement...
...I would also like to see a study by them of the collectivization of currency manufacture—a long-established government monopoly of which I have been able to find no real study in this book, despite the tremendous importance of money in our economy...
...The actual nature of democratic government, resting as it does upon the concepts of public control of political life, is collective, as contrasted with the "personal government" of autocrats and dictators of all times...
...Eldridge is wholly correct in his statement that "no study of that nature has been made hitherto...
...We have been content with highly speculative theories on the subject, virtually all of them imported from abroad...
...The fourth section of the book, "Special Problems," consists of studies of Consumers' and Producers' Cooperatives, Organized Labor as a Socializing Agency, Public Opinion in the Development of Collective Enterprise, Financial Aspects of Collectivist Developments, and The Significance of Economic Planning...
...It deals in separate chapters with various collectivized fields of activity in the United States, and studies the factors and forces which led to their collectivization...
...The fifth is a curious divergence from the main stream of the book, and asserts that "the citizens of industrial society must consume more abundantly not because it is their right to do so and not because justice or equality or any similar shibboleth is a valid guide to economic welfare, but because if they do not industrial society will collapse...
...Eldridge himself, and most of his collaborators, indicate quite different concepts of value...
...Clark in his very fine study, leads to certain other considerations...
...Property Insurance...
...It points»out that "the modern economic system is not a unity but a dualism in that it consists of two distinct realms: (1) the private realm in which the dominant factors are private enterprise and (2) the public realm in which the administration of affairs is conducted by departments and institutions of the Government...
...This very limitation, however, which is well emphasized by Dr...
...THE scope of the book is well shown by its divisions and chapters...
...Clark is upon the distinctive nature of a free society, where public decisions determine the conduct of government...
...Minimum Income Insurance...
...The first part deals with the "Growth of Collective Enterprise...
...The third part covers "Fields Undergoing Collectivization,"—Forestry...
...I would like to see the brilliant capacities of Dr...
...It is quite obvious that under a personal dictatorship, or the absolutism of a single party permanently monopolizing all power, there can be no such thing as public ownership...
...If government itself is privately owned and controlled, as is the case in all autocracies and other dictatorships, the extension of its domination over economic life does not constitute public ownership but simply an extension of the power of the dominant person or group...
...It is actually the first study ever made, by the methods of scientific induction, of the basic factors in the growth of collective undertakings in a democratic society—most particularly, in the United States...
...Not all the writers in this, book are as clear as Dr...
...Electric Power...
...The second and third of these chapters, by Royal E. Montgomery and Carroll D. Clark respectively, are particularly fine contributions to our knowledge and understanding...
...Such "logic" would evidently call for permanent war also, as the greatest possible promoter of industrial expansion...
...Eldridge, The final chapters deal with The Dynamics of Socialization and Organization of Collective Enterprise, and they constitute a splendid conclusion of a most significant work of scholarship...
...It should be emphasized that this study has particularly to do with the development of collective enterprise in a free society...
...Many Americans will be impressed by the mere list of collectivized enterprises—most of which are so well known and so completely accepted that they are rarely thought of as the "distinct realm" of democratic socialization that they actually constitute...
...The fifth and concluding section of the book, "A Theory of Collective Enterprise," is by Dr...
...The second part of the book deals with "Fields Already Collectivized," with separate chapters on Protection of Persons and Property, Roads and Streets, Harbors and Waterways, Postal Services, Water and Sewerage Works, Land Reclamation, Education and Research, Social Work and Institutional Care, Social Clubs and Fraternal Societies, and Libraries and Museums...
...Reviewed by Harry Paxton Howard THIS fine and scholarly volume is a most important contribution to social, economic, and political science...
...Eldridge and his associates turned to a further study, starting with the collectivization of government itself as the basis for all really democratic socialization...
...The hook is the product of five years of investigation by 30 collaborators...
...Medical Service and Health Care, Recreation and Leisure-Time Activity...
Vol. 8 • October 1944 • No. 43
