BOOKS
353
THREE STYLES OF EXHORTATION
AMERICA UNLIMITED.
By Eric Johnston. Doubleday Daran
&
Co.
$2.50.
THE PRACTICE OF IDEALISM.
By Alfred M. Bingham. Duell, Sloan
&
Pearce.
$2.00.
. WHAT IS OUR DESTINY.
By Norman Thomas. Doubleday Doran
&
Co.
$2.00.
E
ACH OF
these tracts is a sample of what is being said by liberals, so–
cialists and one type of capitalist. Embracing neither the "extreme"
left nor the "extreme" right, they represent the middle ranges of cur–
rent opinion in political economy. They contain no surprises.
Mr. Johnston writes what Mr. Johnston says in speeches; but with–
out the living disguise of manic enthusiasm, it seems embarrassingly
naked. Mr. Thomas hears the wicked talking the old nonsense; he
knows what is going on and he is not at all tired of these formulations
of it. Mr. Bingham patiently explains to us what is taking place; he dis–
plays good will ·and he is gentle with sympathy · for those who are
misled by ignorance. Each writes as we would expect him to write.
None of them informs us of notable
facts
which have not been available.
None sets forth a
theory
which tells us to look somewhere we had not
already been told to look. All are primarily concerned with the hopes
and arguments which surround
policies.
Thomas' plans are honest, sincere and immediately unrealizable.
That is no reason for not stating them, but one cannot live forever
in that dimension. Johnston's policies, if taken seriously, are probably
less realizable than Thomas.' I do not know his motives, nor how aware
he is of consequences, but objectively, Johnston's creed is a mask
behind which the business of this time gets done. Bingham's level of
generality is rather high; one may agree with what he writes and yet
feel no movement of the mind or purpose.
Mr. Johnston is a utopian capitalist. It does not matter much to
him that utopian capitalism has been succeeded by the orthodoxy of the
NAM. Johnston's eagerness .contrasts oddly with the retrospective charac–
ter of his utopia. He is anchored-if anywhere--in the early nineteenth
century. And the only things he doesn't explain very well are world
wars and depressions, which some metaphysicians would place at the
center of present-day reality. He never really comes to grips wtih
specific means of getting '"American Business"-and hence "Americans"
into an enthusiasm for chaos and insecurity. That
is
what I mean by
utopian. And that is why his commercialized elation seems so mislocated.
Some have said that Johnston speaks for the rank-and-file chamber of
commerce man. He does handle, as if he really believed them, the sym–
bols to which the Main Streeter is attached, but I doubt that he reflects
the Main Streeter's mood. Certainly, he does not state his actual eco–
nomic condition.
