The Post Turns Backwards

The full page editorial in this week's Saturday Evening Post in an insulting disgrace to the intelligence of the American people. Under the innocent title of "Neo-liberal Illusion: That Collectivism is Liberty," it is an insidious attack on the principles of the government thrice chosen by the American electorate. On the surface, it calls for a return to the chaotic free enterprise of the twenties between the lines it is an incipient fascism threatening to destroy those principles for which the war is being fought.

The economic problems of a capitalistic society are attributed to the limitations placed on business leaders, whom the Post calls "Those talented members of society who can solve those problems." But the 1929 catastrophe came at the end of a period in which these business leaders had the run of the country from the White House to Wall Street and back again. The Post says that by limiting free enterprise in any way we are killing the goose that laid the golden egg. But even before 1929 those eggs were tasted only by an already-wealthy minority; by 1933 business was forced by the American people to relinquish leadership to a government promising immediate aid and subsidy. Too long they had suffered under an uncontrolled system to which the Post now wants to return.

Subtly, the Post offers only two economic alternatives for the period after the war: a return to the self-destructive competition of the twenties, or a state control similar to that in Germany today. Americans do not choose either of these alternatives. Even now private enterprise exists side by side with necessary government regulation. Contrary to what the Post editors may think, the New Deal saved free enterprise in this country and has continued to do so for nine years. Private enterprise will exist after the war only if it willingly submits to centralized economic planning, without which collapse is inevitable.

In falsely identifying the New Deal with communism, the Post jumps the political fence, dividing the American people into two groups: the elite and those who are "relatively useless." This second group "are unable to contribute enough to society to warrant more than a minimum human living standard." Not content to attack progressive, democratic government, these editors flatly deny that millions of Americans have the potential ability to achieve a security and a dignity for themselves.

Coming at a time of general dissatisfaction with the progress of the war, the Post is cleverly attempting to create a new band wagon on which our escapist groups can jump. These foreboding prophets say that "there is one rock or truth to which the common man may cling--economic freedom." But the common man has already given evidence that he is willing for the government to assume as much power as it needs to win the war. He has also shown that he expects the government after the war to prevent a return of the runaway competition which has crushed him in the past.