MPR 28 (Ethyl Alcohol) 8 F.R. 2339, 4256, 4852, 8016 MPR 295 (West Coast Ethyl Alcohol) 7 F.R. 11115, 8 F.R. 129, 2599, 4930 V REGULATIONS IN Which the PRICE ADMINISTRATOR DETERMINED THAT IN SO far as the USE, IN GENERAL USE IN THE TRADE OR INDUSTRY AFFECTED, or in so far as MPR 275 (Extracted Honey) 7 F.R. 9955, 8 F.R. 542, 1228, 2337, 3947, 8502, 9218 MPR 298 (Rotenone and Pyrethrum) 8 F.R. 365, 5589, 6440 RMPR 322 (Alfalfa Hay) 8 F.R. 8500 RMPR 269 (Poultry) 7 F.R. 10708, 10864, 11118, 8 F.R. 567, 856, 878, 2289, 3316, 3419, 3792 MPR 333 (Eggs and Egg Products) 8 F.R. 2488, 3002, 3070, 3735 MPR 372 (Used Domestic Washing Machines) 8 F.R. 5333 MPR 429 (Certain Used Consumer Durable Goods) 8 F.R. 9877 RMPR 162 (Used Typewriters) 8 F.R. 9779 MPR 416 (Basic Refractory Products) 8 F.R. 8940 MPR 313 (Prime Grade Hardwood Logs) 8 F.R. 1453, 2209, 2992, 5564, 6359, 10825 RMPR 230 (Reusable Iron and Steel Pipe and Used Structural Pipe) 7 F.R. 7731, 7914, 8935, 8 F.R. 1621, 3520 MPR 411 (Reusable Steel Storage Tanks) 8 F.R. 8851 RPS 4 (Iron and Steel Scrap) 8 F.R. 1952, 2431, 7264 RMPR 148 (Dressed Hogs and Wholesale Pork Cuts) 7 F.R. 8609, 9005, 8948, 8 F.R. 544, 2922, 3367, 4785, 7322, 7671, 7826, 8376, 8677, 10571, 10732 RMPR 169 (Beef and Veal Carcasses and Wholesale Cuts) 8 F.R. 4097, 4787, 4844, 5170, 5478, 5634, 6058, 6427, 7109, 6945, 7199, 7200, 8011, 8677, 8756, 9066, 9300, 9995 RMPR 239 (Lamb and Mutton Carcasses and Wholesale Cuts) 7 F.R. 10688, 8 F.R. 3589, 4786, 7679, 8677, 9066 MPR 247 (Domestic Canned Crabmeat) 7 F.R. 8653, 8948, 11811 MPR 252 (Vinegar Cured Herring) 7 F.R. 8875, 10476, 8 F.R. 3706 MPR 299 (Sales by Canners of Tuna, Bonito and Yellowtail) 8 F.R. 364, 6440, 7489. MPR 303 (Frozen Canadian Smelts) 8 F.R. 619, 2107 MPR 311 (Sales by Canners of Shrimp) 8 F.R. 1269 MPR 336 (Retail Ceiling Prices for Pork Cuts and Certain Sausage Products) 8 F.R. 2855, 4253, 5317, 5634, 6212, 7682, 8944, 9366 MPR 389 (Ceiling Prices for Certain Sausage Items at Wholesale) 8 F.R. 5903, 6958, 6945, 8185, 8677 MPR 355 (Retail Ceiling Prices for Beef, Veal, Lamb and Mutton Cuts and all Variety Meats and Edible By-products) 8 F.R. 4423, 4922, 6214, 6428, 7199, 7827, 8185, 8945, 9366 MPR 364 (Frozen Fish and Seafood) 8 F.R. 4640, 5566, 7592, 11175, 12023 MPR 384 (Sales by Processors of Salt Codfish, Hake, Haddock, Cusk and Pollock) 8 F.R. 6110, 7489 MPR 394 (Retail Ceiling Prices for Kosher Beef, Veal, Lamb and Mutton Cuts and all Variety Meats and Edible By-products) 8 F.R. 6364 MPR 398 (Variety Meats and Edible By-products at Wholesale) 8 F.R. 6945, 7351 MPR 47 (Waste Rags, Waste Ropes and Waste Strings) 8 F.R. 270 RMPR 130 (Standard Newsprint Paper) 7 F.R. 9251, 10255, 8 F.R. 1586, 2670, 7766 MPR 266 (Certain Tissue Paper Products) 7 F.R. 9229, 10379, 11009, 8 F.R. 164, 606, 9380 MPR 344 (New Cotton, Linen and Underwear Cuttings) 8 F.R. 3198, 6109 MPR 182 (Kraft Wrapping Papers and Certain Bag Paper and Certain Bags) 7 F.R. 5712, 6048, 7974, 8997, 8948, 9724 MPR 208 (Staple Work Clothing) 7 F.R. 6649, 8940, 8948, 10015, 8 F.R. 4887 MPR 20 (Copper Scrap and Copper Alloy Scrap) 7 F.R. 713, 815, 905, 1131, 1245, 1643, 2106, 2132, 2897, 3242, 3404, 3489, 5516, 6482, 6895, 8948, 8 F.R. 120, 3189, 7556, 9388 MPR 70 (Lead Scrap Materials) 7 F.R. 4000, 1346, 2132, 4586, 8708, 9848 MPR 302 (Magnesium Scrap and Remelt Magnesium Ingot) 8 F.R. 609, 8842, 10433 MPR 379 (Tool Steel Scrap) 8 F.R. 5844 MPR 37 (Butyl Alcohol and Esters Thereof) 7 F.R. 6657, 7001, 7910, 8941, 8948, 8 F.R. 6046, 8874, 9884, 10672 MPR 170 (Anti-Freeze) 7 F.R. 4763, 5717, 8948, 8 F.R. 1232, 1813, 6951, 8070 RMPR 180 (Color Pigments) 8 F.R. 6053, 8842, 10432 MPR 390 (Household Soaps and Cleansers Sold by Retail Food Stores) 8 F.R. 6428, 8947, 9380 MPR 391 (Household Soaps and Cleansers Sold by Manufacturers and Certain Wholesalers) 8 F.R. 6435 RPS 63 (Retail Prices for New Rubber Tires and Tubes) 8 F.R. 2110, 2663, 4332, 5746, 7597 RPS 66 (Retreaded and Recapped Rubber Tires) 7 F.R. 8803, 8948, 8 F.R. 3174, 7381 MPR 107 (Used Tires and Tubes) 7 F.R. 1838, 1981, 2394, 3891, 5177, 7365, 8586, 8799, 8802, 8949, 8 F.R. 1584, 2206 MPR 143 (Wholesale Prices for New Rubber Tires and Tubes) 8 F.R. 4326, 5746 MPR 133 (Retail Prices for Farm Equipment) 7 F.R. 3185, 6936, 7599, 8948, 8 F.R. 134, 2286, 10503 MPR 136 (Machines and Parts and Machinery Services) 7 F.R. 5047 RPS 7 (Combed Cotton Yarns and the Processing Thereof) 7 F.R. 1221, 2000, 2132, 2277, 2393, 2509, 2737, 3160, 3551, 3664, 5481, 8948, 9732, 10469, 8 F.R. 972, 5755, 9285 MPR 33 (Carded Cotton Yarns and the Processing Thereof) 7 F.R. 7557, 8948, 10070, 8 F.R. 2345, 3526, 9750 RPS 89 (Bed Linens) 7 F.R. 2107, 2000, 2132, 2299, 2739, 3163, 3327, 3447, 3962, 4176, 4732, 7599, 8937, 8948, 8 F.R. 8070, 11245. BOOK REVIEWS LASKI ON AMERICAN DEMOCRACY ALPHEUS THOMAS MASON* American culture, especially in its political aspects, has always attracted foreign observers. This was true long before we had won our unquestioned supremacy in the modern world of finance, and, under the impact of American capitalist-political dominance, that interest has been greatly intensified. Harold Laski, a British scholar, and surely no stranger in America, now joins the ever-lengthening list of foreign commentators with his flooding literary torrent, The American Democracy.1 The author's uncanny genius is famous among his American friends. It is said that he can, on a single reading, quote verbatim long afterward an entire page or more from books and articles, that he confidently relies on memory for volume and page references to his source material, making the packs of index cards, so essential for the average scholar, for him a useless encumbrance. A friend tells of the terrific speed with which Laski dashes off articles and books. He had dined with Laski one evening and at nine o'clock his host excused himself, saying that he must prepare an article for The New Republic. An hour later he appeared and handed his guest a sealed envelope containing the finished manuscript with the request that he post it on his way home. This book comes pretty close to being the result of Laski's life work. In wordage it has the epic proportions of a magnum opus. Certain reviewers rate it as Laski's "big book";2 others are less certain. Only time can determine its true stature and usefulness, its significance for our future. 3 The book has been in specific contemplation only since 1937, but materials have been accumulating since 1916 when the author joined the Harvard faculty. "“I realized,” Laski says of this initial American engagement, "that, as a European, I had entered upon an experience wholly different in character from anything I had known."4 During more or less prolonged periods throughout the intervening years, he has been in America as visitor, lecturer, and teacher at various institutions, including (besides Harvard) Yale, the University of Chicago, and the University of Washington. Laski settled down among us, made innumerable friends, and got the "feel" of American life in different sections of the country, When he was not on American soil, close friends, such as Felix Frankfurter, kept him abreast of our affairs. Certainly no other foreign commentator has had such opportunities to study the vast subject of which he writes, not even de Tocqueville or Bryce the immortals with whom Mr. Laski's publishers firmly place their author. Their confidence in rating Laski's volume with the French aristocrat's classic, Democracy in America (1838) and Bryce's "great work," The American Commonwealth (1888) * Professor of Politics, Princeton University. 1 THE AMERICAN DEMOCRACY: A COMMENTARY AND AN INTERPRETATION. By Harold J. Laski. New York: Viking Press, Inc., 1948. Pp. x, 785. $6.50. 3 * Miller, Book Review, 166 THE NATION 689 (1948). Commager, Books, N. Y. Herald Tribune, June 6, 1948, p. 1, and Schlesinger, Book Review Section, N. Y. Times, June 6, 1948, §7, p. 1. 'P. ix. challenges our inquiry. There are in fact points of similarity as well as of difference. All three books are works of great mass and sweep, touching nearly every aspect of our culture. All three are by writers of acknowledged learning and established repute. Here, however, similarity seems to end. De Tocqueville brought to his work a philosophic cast of mind coupled with rare discernment and a polished literary style. As an aristocrat he naturally entertained certain social predilections, haunting doubts about democracy, though he seldom let them show through. The Frenchman came to America wanting to know profoundly about democracy, to probe its character, appraise its standing, and evaluate its future, not only in America but in the world. "I confess that in America," he wrote, "I saw more than America; I sought there the image of democracy itself, with its inclinations, its character, its prejudices and its passions, in order to learn what we have to fear or to hope from its progress."5 De Tocqueville, like Laski, had the advantage of writing during a period of swift transition: the former in the heyday of Jacksonian democracy, the latter as Roosevelt's New Deal was at its peak. To study a society during such surging times is an advantage because then a people's character and institutions reflect their most vivid hues, and reveal their most striking qualities. De Tocqueville's work gained in full measure from this, while a similar fortuitous circumstance in the case of Laski seems to have been less rewarding. In the 1830's de Tocqueville saw America, like France, truly in the throes of revolution. This may explain why he successfully portrayed our political tradition in all its manifold complexity. Laski prefers to minimize the changes that took place in our 1930's, considering as he does that what happened under Franklin D. Roosevelt was "in no sense a revolution." Yet here, as elsewhere, he unites richly detailed knowledge and acute observation with dogged adherence to the deterministic theory of history. De Tocqueville saw America embarked on political experimentation attended by risk of failure but with a reasonably good chance of success. Danger had to be faced from all sides. He cited the mob passion for mere change, on the one hand, and, on the other, the stubborn refusal of privilege "to move altogether for fear of being moved too far." For him both attitudes were destructive of any orderly progress. De Tocqueville was certain that America would have to reckon with blind change as well as with blind opposition to change. But what impressed him most was our equalitarian drive for "the progressive elimination of privilege and inequality”—“the great gravitational principle of the future," he called it. On the basis of his findings over here, de Tocqueville concluded that democracy was neither "a brilliant and easily realized dream," nor was it to be identified with "destruction, anarchy, spoliation and murder." "I have attempted to show," he writes, "that the government of a democracy may be reconciled with respect for property, with deference for rights, with safety for freedom, with reverence for religion. . . .' Mr. Laski's pages are decidedly less reassuring. America, he holds, is now faced with hard and narrow alternatives. We must either voluntarily democratize industry, destroy capitalist dominance, or be faced with a mass protest that can be neither appeased nor suppressed. Laski views our “historic American tradition, for all its great achievements" with "uncertainty and even suspicion." "Americans have refused to ask themselves,” he suggests, "whether the historic principles of their tradition can be adapted to the environment of a new time. . . . And, to the outsider, that refusal to inquire was something it was "I ALEXIS DE TOCQUEVILLE, DEMOCRACY IN AMERICA 14 (3d ed. 1946). P. 177. GEORGE WILSON PIERSON, TOCQUEVILLE AND BEAUMONT IN AMERICA 746 (1939). hard not to connect with the character of the answers they were suspicious they might receive. For they were deeply aware not only of the increasing tensions of our society; even more, they were aware that when, in a period of crisis, increasing tensions demand new formulas, we must move from one set of social ideals to another set, and adapt to the claims of these the form of economic and political organization which is proving obsolete, and even dangerous."8 And later on Laski says: “... it is hardly possible, on the evidence, not to feel that the impersonal forces of the world are shaping American destiny in a democratic direction which no party can deny and yet survive. Here is the real promise of American life”. i.e., in vital response to world forces. The Scottish Bryce lacked the philosophic bent as well as the literary facility of both de Tocqueville and Laski. A profound student of comparative political institutions, Bryce necessarily employed a descriptive and analytical method. He thought of his task as that of exposition rather than interpretation or judgment. Bryce wanted to know what kind of government the English had developed in America. A man of affairs and statecraft as well as an accomplished observer, he gave significance to American institutions by placing them in their comparative setting. The result is a book which Woodrow Wilson lauded, in his famous review of March, 1889, as "exact," "passionless," "discriminating and scientific."10 Bryce, even more than de Tocqueville, shies away from prophecy. In words that contrast strikingly with Laski's almost categorical certainty of what the future holds, Bryce cautiously observes: "No one doubts that fifty years hence [America] will differ at least as much from what it is now as it differs now from the America which Tocqueville described."11 One sees in Laski's book something of the comparative approach that so plainly marks The American Commonwealth. But whereas Bryce was wont to set specific American habits and institutions off against those of his own countrymen, Laski has before him the "massive" figure of Karl Marx. "The simple fact is," Laski observes in an aside, "that the American educational system reflects the character of the economic system within which it functions. . . . One could no more expect a capitalist society to permit its teachers generally to undermine the foundations of private property than one could expect the schools and universities of the Soviet Union to admit teachers whose energies are devoted to expounding the fallacies of Marxism. . . ."12 P. 82. 10 4 POL. SCI. Q. 153, 159 (1889). P. 38. 12 Pp. 22-23. As I write word comes that Mrs. Oksana S. Kasenkina, a Russian teacher, faced with the prospect of being returned to her native land, risked her life by jumping from a third-story window of the Russian Consulate in New York. For her, apparently, this was a preferable alternative. About the same time one of the best known Russian geneticists, Professor Anton R. Zhebrak, publicly renounced through a letter to Pravda the “heresies" he formerly held in common with the bulk of the world's scientists. Professor Zhebrak concedes that his opponent, Professor T. D. Lysenko, is right in contending that environment rather than the gene determines the characteristics of plants. In Russia the theories of Mendel, Morgan, and others must be discarded as but part of a "bourgeois fraud" by which a dying capitalist society seeks vainly to keep itself alive. See N. Y. Times, Aug. 25, 1948, §1, p. 1, col 6. Laski's comparison, though obviously extreme, is not entirely groundless. Witness the banning of the liberal magazine, The Nation, July, 1948, from the New York public school system, the notorious case of Dr. Edward U. Condon, and so on. Nor does authoritarianism always take a political form. John H. Vincent, in a letter to The New York Times commenting on Professor Zhebrak's announcement, points out that though American scientists may be relatively free from political dogma, they are subjected to illiberal scientific dogma. He writes, in part: "Let it be rumored that an instructor has Lamarckian leanings, and his prospects of professorship approach those of his becoming President of the United States. He will not be sent to Alaska, but he may soon find himself running a filling station." N. Y. Times, Aug. 27, 1948, §1, p. 18, col. 7. |