Book Reviews

The book begins with Dos Pas sos' effort to make his father's "figure stand up out of the shades." 60 Old John Dos Passos Senior comes ali ve because his son has letters to quote from in building up the portrait. Under the intensity of the prose one senses the love-hate attitude that governed young Jack's relations with his father. It must have been a most difficult childhood, for John Dos Pass os was born late in both his mother's and father's lives, and his parents, as Dos Passos delicately puts it, were not able to "regularize" their son's "civil status" (Le., legitima tize him by getting married) until he was in his teens. The sad thing about the parents' marriage, which followed a long love affair, was that Dos Passos' mother, who had looked forward to a few years of peaceful family life, succumbed to a mortal illness in which she had to be cared for like a child. When he was sixteen and living through the stale heat of a Washington, D.C., summer, Dos Passos was left alone for a period with his mother.

He had to do the marketing and 1966 SHEDDING FRIENDSHIPS 61 pay the household bills, and clean up after a drunken cook. In the earlier years of his youth Dos Pass os was tucked away in Eng lish schools before prevailing upon his father to let him come home to America, where he went to Choate and Harvard. A Stern Father The conditions of Dos Passos' childhood made him a curious but somewhat aloof spectator of life. He admired his father's individual istic character, but the old man was obviously a bit overpowering. The father was a Gold Democrat, a corporation lawyer, and a hater of Theodore Roosevelt. His fee for legal advice to the Havemeyer in terests on forming the "sugar trust" was reputedly the largest on record. Dos Pass os pictures himself as coming home from school and of fering "some ill-founded opinion." His father would forthwith irri tate the boy's "budding ego" by taking off his glasses and asking: "Is that remark the result of ex perience or observation?"

So the son fought a hidden duel with his father until the old man died. Years later Dos Passos came to appreciate his father for hav ing dared to be himself. Dos Pas sos Senior was actually a man of great foresight. "Suppose the Al lies do destroy German militarism?" he asked. His answer to his own question was that "another power or syndicate of nations stronger than the Germans will be born from the ashes of Prus sia." Probably John Dos Passos was luckier than he knew in having lived through a very special child hood. He read prodigiously in the long, lonely stretches. His sense of being "different" made him reflec tive. The periods he spent abroad gave him a taste for travel. And the recollections of his father's "eighteenth century" mind eventu ally drew Dos Passos back to the Jeffersonian years of the Ameri can Republic, with the result that he could reject the socialism of his twenties without too much spiritual travail.

Searching for a Cause It was a long time, however, be fore John Dos Passos was willing to admit· to himself that "politics in our day is more destructive than fifteenth century religion." He could only sense this on the occasions when the orthodox Left ists, following the "party line," tried to provoke him into making an unqualified declaration in favor of communism. As an ambulance driver in France Dos Passos was against "imperialist" war. But he couldn't follow the Frenchman Louis Aragon and become an out62 THE FREEMAN November and-out Marxist. Working with collectivist theater groups in New York City, Dos Passos couldn't quite bring himself to toe the line in his own plays. His novels, though sociological in their scope, were most vivid when individual istic heroes were on stage. Dos Passos couldn't even give himself to Bohemia. He stood a little apart from the roisterers of the Left Bank cafes. He went to the Near East, to Iran, to the Bedouin deserts, and to Soviet Russia, but, though he reveled in the colors, the sounds, and the scents of exotic places, he never quite "identified" with any of the movements he wrote about in his "painter's eye" prose. In Russia he was impressed by the ironists, such as the man who considered "Peter the Great, who brought order out of chaos, the first Bol shevik." Dos Passos admired and liked the Russian people, but when an actress friend asked "Are you with us or against us," he jumped on the Warsaw train in the steamy Moscow station without answer ing. And he says that when he crossed the Polish border-Poland was not communist then - "it was like being let out of jail."

Signs of Maturity Dos Passos' friendships with E. E. Cummings and Ernest Hemingway took different courses. He never broke with Cummings, whom he considered to be the "last of the great New Englanders." But Ernest Hemingway and Dos Passos began to have their differ ences at the time of the Spanish Civil War. True to his tempera .. ment, Dos Pass os sided with the anarchists against the Stalinist regulars who wanted to win in Spain only to turn the republic over to communism. Hemingway, less probing in his politics, did not fight the Stalinists. Speaking of the rift with Hem ingway, Dos Passos says that "when the meaning of political slogans turns topsy-turvy every few years, anyone who tries to keep a questioning mind, match ing each slogan with its real-life application, each label with the thing itself, has to put up with having old friends turn into un friends and even into enemies."

Maturity, to Dos Passos, meant the inevitable "shedding of friend ships." "In an age like ours," so he expands the point, "when politi cal creeds drive men to massacre and immolation, political opinions become a matter of life and death. Differences which, when men and women are still in their twenties, were the subject of cheerful and affectionate argument brew re crimination and bitterness when they reach their thirties." What Dos Pass os doesn't say is 1966 SHEDDING FRIENDSHIPS 63 that he kept on growing intellec tually where Hemingway did not. But we can say it for him. ~ ~ THE GENEROSITY OF AMER ICANS by Arnaud C. Marts (En glewood Cliffs, New Jersey: Pren tice-Hall, Inc., 1966. 240 pp., $5.00) Reviewed by Richard Christenson DEFENDERS of the welfare state often base their case on the as sumption that few Americans would be inclined to support the necessary educational and welfare needs of our nation, or would lack the means if they had the inclina tion; government, therefore, has had to step in. Mr. Marts, a pro fessional fund raiser, explodes this assumption. He shows that the helping hand has always been ex tended in America, that the gen erosity of individuals worked out solutions to all sorts of problems long before government inter vened. His historical research traces our tradition of volunta rism, for carrying out good works by personal giving and pri vate philanthropy.

Although many of his examples are lengthy and of only passing interest to the average reader, the author gives an intriguing ac count of how effective private phi lanthropy has been and is even now. The American people gave more than $11 billion last year to finance everything from local uni versities to national arts and sci ence projects; the generosity of Americans is beyond question. Mr. Marts shows that in contrast to Europe and Asia, where philan thropy is practiced by only a few, American generosi ty is wide spread. Last year over 40 million Americans, individuals and fam ilies representing all economic lev els, made contributions to various causes. This national character istic is not something new but was in such obvious contrast to Con tinental practice that Alexis de Tocqueville praised it in his writ ings over a century ago. How much would people give if the progressi ve income tax were abolished? This is an interesting question. An answer is suggested in the data provided by the author concerning the acceleration of pri vate giving in England during the reigns of King Henry VIII and Queen Elizabeth when the Tudor Charitable Laws were first en acted. It was from this beginning tha t the generous men and women of England started so many proj ects to help the underprivileged and poor of the nation that it makes our present war on poverty pale by comparison.

Private philanthropy satisfies something deep in the nature of the giver, Mr. Marts points out. "For some reasons, unseen and 64 THE FREEMAN November even not fully comprehended (like most spiritual motivations), many generous givers develop giving as a habit; a pleasing and satisfying refinement; a meaningful expres sion of their personality ... nu merous examples provide eloquent arguments for the critics and seem to show that if anything, giving tends to increase the capacity of individuals to share." Private philanthropy has also proved to be the most creative and imaginative way of introducing new solutions to social needs: "Private generosity for the public good does [the] pioneering." The late A. M. Schlesinger, Sr., writes: "In contrast to Europe, America has practically no misers and the consequence of the win ning of Independence was the abo lition of primogeniture and entail.

Harriet Martineau was among those who concluded that 'the eager pursuit of wealth does not necessarily indicate a love of wealth for its own sake.' The fact is, that for a people who recalled how hungry and ill-clad their an cestors had been through the cen turies in the Old World, the chance to make money was like the sun light at the end of a tunnel. It was the means of living a life of hu man dignity. In other words, for the majority of Americans it was a symbolism of idealism rather than materialism. Hence, this 'new man' had, an instinctive sympathy for the underdog, and even per sons of moderate wealth grate fully shared it with the less for tunate, helping to endow charities, schools, hospitals, and art galleries and providing the wherewithal to nourish movements for humani tarian reform which might other wise have died a-borning." But now government is deep into fields once the domain of pri vate philanthropy. It seems some what contradictory that we would go to so much effort to breathe life into something and get it started privately and then allow govern ment with its historic inefficiency to adopt and support the newborn creature. What would happen to day if the government's role were reduced, permitting people to keep the dollars now taxed away? In such an unhampered atmosphere of freedom the private sector could once again assume its responsi bility for generous giving on even a more massive scale than now.. ~ BOUND VOLUMES OF flJeFreemaD-J9GS Attractively sewn in a single volume with hard cover, the 12 issues from January through December, fully in dexed-768 pages, for handy reference to the latest literature on freedom.

Oolf /5.00 These bound volumes of THE FREEMAN match in appearance and otherwise continue the 12-volume series of Essays on Liberty containing selections from THE FREEMAN and other Foundation releases back to 1946. (A separate cumulative subject matter, author, and title index is available for the 12 volumes of Essays on Liberty. $1.00.) Bound volumes of THE FREEMAN for 1966 will be available shortly after the end of the year. ORDER YOUR BOUND VOLUMES NOW! THE FOUNDATION FOR ECONOMIC EDUCATION IRVINGTON-ON-HUDSON, N. Y. 10533 Please send me: THE FREEMAN for 1965 $ 5.00 0 THE FREEMAN for 1965 and 1966 (The 1966 volume to be shipped when ready) $ 9.00 0 ESSAYS ON LIBERTY (Set of 12, with cumulative index) Cloth $30.00 0 Paper $20.00 0 o CHECK ENCLOSED 0 SEND INVOICE NAME _ STREET _ CITY _ STATE ZIP CODE. _ CIVIL DISOBEDIENCE • Whereas certain violent and unwarrantableproceedings have lately taken place tending to obstructthe operationof laws of the United States... which proceedings are sub versive of good order, contraryto the duty that every citizen owes to his countryand to the laws, and of a nature danger ous to the very being of a government;... the permanent interests and happiness of the people require that every legal and necessary step should be pursued as well to pre vent such violent and unwarrantableproceedingsas to bring to justice the infractors of the laws and secure obedience thereto.

GEORGE WASHINGTON Presidential Proclamation, September 15, 1792 Interest Rates Are Rising . Hans F. Sennholz 13 American Federalism: Origins George Charles Roche III 3 Fiat Money Inflation in France . Andrew Dickson White 23 57 53John Chamberlain DECEMBER 1966 Foreign Aid: An Instrument for Progress? Peter T. Bauer 25 The Coming Serfdom in India Sudha R. Shenoy 35 Welfare without the Welfare State. Yale Brozen 40 Books: Black and Conservative Index for 1966 . STATE _ tfTIGHT MONEY _II "hut it meUM to you". Send for your free copy of this timely and informative article by President Joe Crail. nd, Conservative Management Savings Accounts 5.39% 5.25% OED DAILY, your savings earn 5.39 % when one year at current rate of 5.25 %, paid semi-annually, effective July 1, 1966. Save-by-Mail pays AIR MAIL postage both ways COAST FEDERAL SAVINGS AND LOAN ASSOCIATION Department F2 , 9th &Hill Sts., Los Angeles, California 90014 D Please send me a FREE copy of "Tight Money"