Book Reviews

A REVIEWER'S NOTEBOOK JOHN CHAMBERLAIN The Liberal Up NOT so long ago R. Emmett Tyrrell, Jr., the editor of The American Spec tator, wrote a very funny book called Public Nuisances. Its humor was Menckenian, which is to say that it relied on hilarious burlesque. Whereupon his editor, Midge Deeter, began chivvying him to deal in more systematic terms with the ideas be hind the proliferation of the nui sances. Tyrrell, an accommodating soul, capitulated at once. Surprisingly, in his review of origins, Tyrrell found little fault with such liberal pragmatists as Franklin D. Roosevelt, Harry Tru man and John F. Kennedy. It was a good thing in his estimation that Roosevelt had stood up to Hitler and that Truman had moved to "con tain" the Soviets. As for welfare, there was reason behind FDR's de sire to get apple sellers off the streets. No ideologue, Tyrrell is actually a believer in the idea of the "vital cen ter," which once allowed for reason able compromises with doctrines coming from the extremes. The Americans for Democratic Action could have been his brothers-in arms. He could have broken bread with the Arthur Schlesinger, Jr. of 1950. But, alas, the New Day liber alism that developed in the Sixties couldn't stay on the common sense level. It went off the track by in dulging all manner of enthusiasms that actually perverted the aims of the Roosevelt-Truman-JFK past.

Tyrrell's concessionary offering to Midge Deeter, The Liberal Crack-Up (New York: Simon and Schuster, 256 pp., $16.95), is the story of how the enthusiasms of "post-JFK times" combined to make up a crazy set of blotches of ideas that Tyrrell thinks were noble in their first manifesta123 124 THE FREEMAN February tions. Number One is the blotch the New Age liberals made of civil rights. Number Two is their perver sion of welfare. Number Three is the mess they made out of Southeast Asia, where we had a just cause in our desire to save the South Viet namese and the Cambodians from a Red-inflicted genocide that has out done anything decreed by Adolf Hit ler himself. Civil Rights to Special Rights The civil rights movement went off the rails because the New Age lib erals turned it into a movement for the promotion of special rights. "Re verse discrimination" fostered a new racialism by its insistence on ethnic quotas. Where the New Dealers had tried to save capitalism by Keyne sian means that, unfortunately, had devastating monetary conse quences, the New Day liberals were secretly enamored of a more funda mental socialism. They hid their basic animosity for the "system" by devious stratagems. Their undis criminating environmentalism went the Barry Commoner route of blam ing pollution on the big corpora tions. Their anti-nuke enthusiasm was a derivative of their larger preoccupation with the notion that wicked profit takers wer.e bent on killing off their own purchasing clientele. The feminists- "women of the fevered brow," as Tyrrell calls them-were as chauvinistic as any gang of macho males. The peace mongers agitating for a nuclear weapons "freeze" without consider ing the record of the Soviets for sys tematic violation of previous agree ments put the whole West in jeopardy by leaving it vulnerable to blackmail.

Legacy of Fabianism The Liberal Crack-Up is such hi larious fun to read that it leaves one with no desire to criticize its basic acceptance of the idea that special laws were necessary to save us way back in the Nineteen Thirties. Nevertheless, as a I more doctrinaire libertarian than Tyrrell, I feel duty bound to point out that the liberal crack-up was an inevitable legacy of the older Rooseveltian and Kenne dyesque Fabianism. There was a whole group of libertarians in the Britain of the Eighteen Eighties who accurately predicted what would happen if the voters were to accept the State welfarist philosophy that was being promulgated by Bernard Shaw, H. G. Wells and Sidney and Beatrice Webb. The idea that social ism would founder because it would fail to solve the problem of calcula tion without a free market system (including private property) was known in the Eighties. This was some thirty years before Ludwig von Mises had worked it out in detail.

So let not readers of The Liberal Crack-Up be deluded into thinking 1985 THE LIBERAL CRACK-UP 125 that there is any safety in returning to aNew Dealism that predates John Fitzgerald Kennedy. Privatization Must we be ready then to say farewell to compassion? Actually there is nothing the State can do for us in terms of offering welfare that couldn't be done much better by pri vatization. Unlike public welfare, private welfare does not involve what William Rickenbacker has called the death of the dollar. It be came ridiculous for Geraldine Fer raro to complain of the lack of "com passion" among the Republican rich when she, as a Democrat, had three houses to Iive in and a few million dollars at her disposal. She and like minded friends could have set up pri vate foundations to help the poor without seizing other people's money to do it. Teddy Kennedy might have helped her. As for Social Security, it ought to be floated off in some sort ofprivate insurance that would leave large blocks of capital available to the economic system that supports us all. It was a liberalism that pre dated Tyrrell's "crack-up" by many years that gave us a social security scheme that is headed for bank ruptcy as the elderly live longer and the young are subjected to taxation and inflation that drastically limit the jobs that are available to them.

The liberalism that is so wonder fully spoofed by Bob Tyrrell was a botch from the very start. To begin with, it stole its name of liberalism from the much sounder anti-State liberalism of the Adam Smith fol lowers in England and the Aus trian economists of the European continent. The liberal crack-up as it has man ifested itself in the colleges is the substance of another delicious book, Poisoned Ivy, by Benjamin Hart, foreword by William R Buckley Jr., (New York: Stein and Day, 254 pp., $16.95). Hart, the son of National Review editor Jeffrey Hart, loves Dartmouth as F. Scott Fitzgerald loved Princeton. But, as a founding editor of the dissenting Dartmouth Review (a paper that the college administration sought to kill), Hart was scandalized by the way the "ethos" of the American university would allow for only one opinion when it came to discussing "race, feminism, pacifism, homosexuality, the Third World, U.S. oppression, re verse discrimination-the whole McGovern menu."

What Ben Hart does not tell us is that the "ethos" is already crum bling on the American campus in sofar as faculties are concerned. Bur ton Pines, in his Back to Basics, has discovered that Keynesianism is no longer the rage in the economics de partments. If the news hasn't reached Dartmouth already, it won't be long before it does. r.tJ 126 THE FREEMAN February MANAGING by Harold Geneen with Alvin Moscow (Doubleday & Company, Inc., 501 Franklin Avenue, Garden City, NY 11530) 1984 297 pages _ $17.95 cloth Reviewed by Melvin D. Barger FEW business leaders can ever hope to match the dazzling record estab lished by Harold S. Geneen in his 17 years as chief executive officer of ITT. Although some of his corporate decisions were reversed by succes sors after he stepped down in 1977, none will dispute that ITT's spectac ular growth and quickened vitality of the 1960s and early 1970s were entirely the results of Geneen's bril liant leadership. He was so highly regarded as a managerial wizard that some feared ITT would self destruct without him.

In the 197Os, however, Geneen be came tagged as "controversial" by an often hostile press. Critics glee fully pounced on the company's po litical contributions and alleged in vol vement in the overthrow of Chile's Allende government to dis credit both Geneen and ITT. In this tumultuous period, Geneen was usu ally too busy running his company to explain himself to the public. But in retirement, Harold Geneen with his collaborator Alvin Moscow has produced an excellent book that goes far in revealing Geneen's view of himself and his world of business. Unlike the picture of cunning ma nipulator and power broker pre sented by his enemies, the Geneen who emerges in Managing is a man of simple beliefs whose driving force is an almost religious devotion to the principles and practice of good man agement. Geneen found his greatest self-expression and enjoyment in his work, which completely absorbed his life and most of his waking hours.

The book carries little mention of family and friends, and even his rec reational interests had a business tie-in. Some would consider his life austere and narrow, despite his great business success, but it's obvious that Geneen found his business ca reer immensely satisfying and re veled in its problems and challenges. Although Geneen is a modern manager, he has little patience with management fads such as the cur rently popular "Theory Z" on the art of Japanese management. "The se cret of how to succeed in business or life is that there is no secret," he as serts. "No secret at all. No formula. No theory." But then his own secret starts to come through in a number of highly interesting chapters, and it becomes clear that hard work, efficient plan ning, close attention to certain de tails and unwavering pursuit of spe cific business goals were the elements of his great success. There 1985 OTHER BOOKS 127 was no way that Geneen himself could have fully grasped the prod ucts and operations of the 250 profit centers in the ITT tent, but he man aged to control this empire by de manding careful planning from his managers and holding them ac countable for hitting growth and profit targets. The cardinal sin for an ITT manager was to be surprised by events such as strikes and short ages which he had not anticipated in his previous planning.

Geneen, a financial executive in his earlier years, devotes a complete chapter to the importance of "The Numbers" in managing a business. Geneen believes that "the numbers" have a language of their own and can reveal the facts about a business if a person studies them enough. In fact, however, such "numbers" are best understood by executives like Geneen himself, who was really a born manager and drove himself to understand and use the tools of management. Managing also carries a brief ac count of Geneen's own early life and business career. There is a bit of the Horatio Alger, Jr., success story in Geneen's dogged trek to the heights. Although he appeared in his ITT years as the completely self-confi dent leader who could not possibly fail, Geneen actually had a lonely childhood and years of painful strug gle before he was able to seize the brass ring at ITT. Geneen even had to earn his college degree by attend ing night classes over an eight-year period. But his experience at a pub lic accounting firm and several ma jor companies finally brought him, as if led by an invisible hand, to the opportunity at ITT. Under Geneen's leadership, ITT became a major world corporation, and it's not hard to believe that Geneen's early strug gles to perfect his talents were needed to prepare him for this re markable task.

Beyond explaining how ITT suc ceeded in the tortuous and confusing world of conglomeration, Managing also reveals Harold Geneen as a man of high character and decency who wanted only to be left alone to run his company in the most efficient way. Geneen is the sort of person whom the public often misunder stands, and yet needs if we are to maintain and strengthen our busi ness heritage. Geneen takes it for granted that running successful, profitable business operations is a form of high service to the commu nity, and he sees little need to argue this point. Like Thomas Edison or General George S. Patton, Jr., Geneen is something of an eccentric who has, nonetheless, amazing gifts in his own special field of interest. We don't have to understand these gifted ec centrics completely in order to ben efit from their services. The late Benjamin Rogge used to argue that 128 THE FREEMAN we would all be better off if we would simply let the superior business manager do his own thing. Maybe Geneen's Managing will help get that message across, along with of fering splendid advice on how to run a business. ::;fd YOUR WEALTH IN GOD'S WORLD by John Jefferson Davis (Presbyterian and Reformed Publishing Co., Box 817, Phillipsburg, N.J. 08865) 1984 134 pages _ $4.95 paperback Reviewed by Buddy Matthews THEOLOGIAN John Jefferson Davis' new book is a call to look at the free market from a Christian and bibli cal perspective. Though he does not see the Bible as a text book on eco nomics, he does see some economic principles involved. "The Bible makes it clear that spirituality and economic life are related. God con trols both and uses economic events to teach His people spiritual truths."

His major premise is that the free enterprise system is itself patterned after the Christian life. "[The] bib lical pattern of humble service and subsequent reward lies at the heart of the free enterprise system at its best." As a rebuke to Christians, Davis feels that much of what we know as the welfare state today has come about because Christians have failed to follow Jesus in His concern for the lowly. "The early church cared for its poor. Widows who had no other means of support were to be cared for by the church. Families were to take care of their own, and children were to help their elderly parents. If the Christian church were to consis tently apply the provisions today, much of the taxation for social welfare programs would be un necessary. " Davis views the major cause of poverty as ultimately ethical, noting that the family has lost its role in teaching moral values in Western societies. It is instructive here to see how several Asian countries, be cause of their close family ties and character building efforts, have be gun to prosper. "One of the ironies of the modern world is that the 'Prot estant work ethic' seems best ex emplified by non-Christian states such as Japan, Singapore, South Ko rea, Taiwan, and Hong-Kong. Inso far as these new industrial giants of Asia have applied virtues com mended by the Bible, they have enjoyed remarkable economic pros perity."

Economic prosperity reflects the efficiency of the free market, as nearly everyone agrees. But beyond efficiency, Dr. Davis argues, the free market embodies high ethical val ues, and thus should recommend it self to churchmen. GtJ the Freeman VOL. 35, NO. 3 • MARCH 1985 The Individual in SocietyA Page on Freedom, No. 17 Ludwig von Mises 131 Buyer and seller depend upon one another. Free Markets and Human Freedom Dean Russell 132 Where the market is the freest, human liberty is highest. A Credit Expansion Economy Clarence B. Carson 141 A search behind the inflation that disrupts the market. The Forgotten Man Robert Awenius 153 A century-old warning by William Graham Sumner. Protectionism and Unemployment Hans F. Sennholz 159 Foreigners are not the cause of domestic unemployment. Highways: Public Problems, Private Solutions John Semmens 172 The prospects for privately owned and managed highways.