SUNDAY, JANUARY 3. 1943
UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN, LAWRENCE, KANSAS
PAGE FIVE
Eldridge Publishes Book
Editor's Note: Following is a review of a new book "Development of Collective Enterprise" by Seba Eldridge and associates, made by Prof. W. E. Sandelius at the request of the University Daily Kansan. The book is published by the University of Kansas Press, 1943, V+577 pp. $4.50.
The publication by the University of Kansas Press, entitled "Development of Collective Enterprise," by Seba Eldridge and Associates, is to be welcomed as an undertaking of considerable importance. The work, begun some five years ago, represents the contribution of thirty collaborators from ten universities and half a dozen other research agencies, including government establishments. For the most part, each is represented by one chapter, though Professor Eldridge himself has contributed eight chapters, including the final interpretation and summation of conclusions.
A Plan of Research
The completed project stands, not as a mere symposium, but as a well integrated plan and achievement of research. It may be possible to find shortcomings in it, for it tackles an inquiry as difficult as it is valuable, and one which, to be in every sense adequate, might well have called for large endowments to support a sizeable, full-time research staff.
As it stands, not only has a basis been laid for further inquiry. For the first time a serious attempt is made to tell the story of collectivization with special reference to the United States. The reviewer knows of no effort more nearly akin to this than the classical study made by Professor A. V. Dicey a half century ago, analyzing the relation of nineteenth century legislation in England to the underlying forces of opinion, wherein that eminent and conservative English lawyer maintained that from the eighteen hundred sixties on, collectivism had become the dominant note of English legislation. In the present study, moreover, a thesis worth proving appears.
Marx on Wrong Track
This thesis is that Karl Marx, in large part, was on the wrong track. The Marxian doctrine that collectivism develops inevitably as result of action of the wage-earning class—so it is suggested at the outset of this study—is one hypothesis among four that may be weighed against each other as accounting for
the contemporary socialization now going on throughout the world.
The rival hypothesis that seems best worth testing is, that in a so-called capitalist democracy the primary factors in the socialization "are to be found in the pressure of consumer and general public interests, not in pressures applied by labor groups." A third alternative suggested is the theory that no "primary" factors can be discovered such as prevail in general throughout the collectivization, but that a "total complex of economic and related interests and pressures . . determine collectivistic developments."
Theory Does Not Suffice
This situational hypothesis is regarded as not too sharply differentiated from the working hypothesis selected, and there is some evidence that a few of the collaborators in the end would have preferred the former. This does not change the fact that the well-known Marxian theory is found, by and large, not to suffice.
This conclusion, then, would seem to have been established—just how? Most of the contributors seem to have had in mind the scientific caution which Professor Gagliardo especially indicates in his own careful analysis of minimum income insurance—the fact of how fragmentary is the evidence in nearly all of our states as to just how or why specific statutes have come about, how brief are the official records, and how little they could reveal, if they did exist, concerning the complex interplay of the responsible forces.
Not New Material
The value of the extensive publication before us lies not in any vast amount of new material that has been unearthed. The value is in the fact of a really extensive, and on the whole convincing, synthesis that has been made possible only because—in nearly every case—a competent scholar has been asked to report, each upon a field with which he is well conversant. The result is a true and a comprehensive research.
For although it is true that the social science of today is in need of new facts, it is even more in need of sound synthesis, such as is part of the research itself. The difficulty in all this, of course, on one side, is in the fact of the limited knowledge of any one mind, and, on the other, the fact that joint research in a field such as this so often results in lack of coordination and in less than the best from each participant. These faults appear here only exceptionally.
Studied In Ten Fields
The growth of collectivistic enterprise is studied first in ten fields which already have been largely collectivized, such as the protection of persons and property, roads and streets, postal services, land reclamation, education, and so forth. Then follow ten fields now undergoing collectivization: e.g. forestry, electric power, housing, credit and banking, various kinds of insurance, medical service and health care.
Chapters Are Significant
The third part of the factual body on which the analysis is based covers special topics such as that of consumers' and producers' cooperatives, financial aspects of collectivist developments, and the significance of economic planning.
No Special Pleading
Some of the factual chapters include, indeed, an interpretation and analysis as significant for the study as a whole as anything in the entire content. The theory of economic planning suggested by Professor C. F. Ayres of the University of Texas, formerly one of the editors of the New Republic, offers a brilliant exposition of the real values involved—even if it would seem to the reviewer that the complete rejection of tested philosophies of the past, at one point or two, smacks of the superficial.
There is, too, the painstaking analysis of public opinion by Dr. Carroll Clark, set out in a way as to embrace and greatly enrich the significance of the project as a whole. There is a relating of the American and British labor movement to the central inquiry by Professor R. E. Montgomery of Cornell. Dr. Ise shows in the informed and highly readable account of forestry control, among other things, how personalities may deeply influence the course of social change.
There is nowhere evidence of special pleading. The study does not profess to have shown whether more or less of socialization is desirable in future—though brief attempts are made to evaluate the relative efficiency of socialized and unsocialized enterprise in the same or similar fields.
The concluding emphasis upon the crucial influence of consumers' and citizens' interests, these as not including the interests of producers as such, may possibly bear modifications as some of the collaborators apparently would agree. The main point is, however, that the thesis
EXAMINATION SCHEDULI
All five and four hour courses, and three, two and one hour courses scheduled on the MONDAY, WEDNESDAY, FRIDAY sequence will be examined as follows:
January 12 to January 15, 1943, inclusive
TUESDAY, January 12—1:30 classes at 8:30 to 10:29
                2:30 classes at 1:30 to 3:20
WEDNESDAY, January 13-8:30 classes at 8:30 to 10:20 11:30 classes at 3:30 to 5:20
THURSDAY, January 14—10:30 classes at 8:30 to 16:20
4:30 classes at 10:30 to 12:20
FRIDAY, January 15-9:30 classes at 8:30 to 10:20
3:30 classes at 1:30 to 3:20
Three, two, and one hour courses scheduled on the TURSDAY,
THURSDAY, SATURDAY sequence will be examined as follows:
TUESDAY, January 12—4:30 classes at 10:30 to 12:50
11:30 classes at 3:30 to 5:20
WEDNESDAY, January 13—3:30 classes at 10:30 to 12:30
1:30 classes at 1:30 to 3:00
THURSDAY, January 14—8:30 classes at 1:30 to 3:50
9:30 classes at 3:50 to 5:20
FRIDAY, January 15—10:30 classes at 10:30 to 12:30
    2:30 classes at 3:30 to 5:20
of a proletarian interest in the class conflict as being largely responsible does not suffice.
Valuable Contributions
Professor Eldridge, who is to be congratulated upon seeing this work through under difficulties, records his special debt to Chancellor Deane W. Malott for his "assistance at a critical point" in making possible its publication.
There is space perhaps to mention that, in addition to those already referred to, valuable contributions have been made by Dr. E. E. Bayles, Professor E. B. Dade, Dr. Hilden Gibson, Professor W. R. Maddox, Dr. Marston McCluggage, Dr. E. O. Stene, Dr. J. H. Taggart, Professor Esther Twente, all of the University of Kansas, and by Mr. Ross Robertson and Dr. Theodore Paullin, both formerly of the University of Kansas.
Fortland, Ore., Jan. 2 (INS) — Floodwaters that caused at least 6 deaths and an estimated 5 million dollars damage in western Oregon surged down the Willamette valley toward new crests today as rescue workers evacuated families from the lowland regions in their path.
New Crests Reached In Williamette Valley Flood
Lawrence Sanitary
PRE-INVENTORY
Clearance
OF SUITS AND OBERCOATS
STUDENT SUITS
Formerly Now
$42.50 $31.85
$39.50 $29.65
$37.50 $28.15
$35.00 $26.25
$30.00 $22.50
$25.00 $18.75
$27.50 ___ $21.65
$25.00 ___ $18.75
$22.50 ___ $16.85
$21.50 ___ $16.15