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About The Sunday Oregonian. (Portland, Ore.) 1881-current | View Entire Issue (Dec. 10, 1922)
9 HOOVER DEFENDS INDIVIDUALISM OF AMERICAN SYSTEM Autocracy, Communism, Syndicalism, Capitalism and Socialism Declared Mere Catchwords Some True, Others False, and All Interesting Only Through Their Challenge of Society and Its Forces in U. S. . . . THE SUNDAY OK EGOXIAX, PORTLAND, DECEMBER 10, 1923 Prom Herbert Hoover's book "Ameri can Individualism." Copyright by Double day, Page & Co. Released by North American Newspaper Alliance, X922. BY HERBERT HOOVER. FIVE or six great social philos ophies are at struggle In the world for ascendency. There Is the individualism of America. There is the individualism of the more democratic states of Europe with its careful reservations of castes and classes. There are communism, socialism, syndicalism, capitalism and finally there is autocracy -whether by birth, by possession, mil itarism or divine right of kings. Even the divine right still lingers on althougn our lifetime has seen fully two-imrdg of the earth's pop ulation, including Germany, Aus tria, Russia and China, arrive at a state of angry disgust with this type of social motive power and throw it on the scrap heap. Some of these ideas are perhaps more adapted to one race than an other. Some are false, some are true. What we are Interested is in their challenge to the physical fit ness frad spiritual forces of Amer ica. The partisans of some of these ether brands of eoclal schemes chal lenge us to comparison, and eome of their partisans even among our own people are increasing in their agitation that we adopt one or an other or parts of their devices in place of our tried individualism. , Catchwords Cause Doubt. . There are those who have been left In sober doubt of our institu tions or are confounded by bewil dering catchWords of vivid phrases. Nor Indeed should we disregard the potency of some of these phrases In their stir to action "The dictator ship of the proletariat," "Capital istic nations," "Germany over all," and a score of others. We need only to review those that have jumped to horseback during the last ten years In order that we may be properly awed by the great social and politl ca.l havoc that can be worked where the bestial Instinct of hate, murder and destruction are clothed by the demagogue In the fine terms of po litical idealism. For myself, let me say at the very outset that my faith in the essen tial truth, strength, and vitality of the developing creed by which we have hitherto lived in this country of ours has been confirmed and deepened by the searching experi ences of seven years of service in the backwash and misery of war. Seven years of contending with ec onomic degeneration, with social disintegration,- with incessant po litical dislocation, with all of its seething and ferment of individual and class conflict, could but Impress me with the primary motivation of social forces, and the necessity for broader thought upon their great Issues to humanity. And from it all I emerge an individualist an- un ashamed individualist. But 'let me say also that I am an American in dividualist. For America has been steadily developing the ideals that constitute progressive individualism. - American System Tempered. No doubt Individualism run riot, with no tempering principle, would provide a long category of Inequali ties, of tyrannies, dominations and Injustices. America, however, has tempered the Whole conception of individualism by the Injection of a definite principle, and from this principle it follows that attempts at domination, whether in govern ment or in the processes of industry and commerce, are under an insist ent curb. If we would have the values of Individualism, their stim ulation to initiative, to the develop ment of hand and Intellect, to the high development of thought and spirituality, they must be tempered with that firm and fixed ideal of American individualism an equal ity of opportunity. If we would have these values we must soften Its hardness and stimulate progress through that sense of service that lies In our people. Therefore, it is not the lndlvidual . Ism of other countries for which I would speak, but the individualism of America. Our individualism dif fers from all others because it em braces these great ideals; that while we build our society upon the at tainment of the individual, we shall safeguard to every Individual an equality of opportunity to take that position in the community to which his intelligence, character, ability and ambition entitle him; that we keep the social solution free from frozen strata of classes; that we shall stimulate effort of each indi vidual to achievement; that through an enlarging sense of responsibility and understanding we shall assist him to this attainment; while he in turn must stand up to the emery wheel of competition. Safeguard Not Enough. Individualism cannot be main tained as the foundation of society If It looks to only legalistic Justice based upon contracts, property and political equality. Such legalistic safeguards are themselves not enough. In- our individualism we have long since abandoned the laissez faire of the 18th century the notion that It is "every man for himself and the devil take the hind most." We abandoned that when we adopted the ideal of equality of opportunity the fair- chance of Abraham Lincoln. We have con firmed its abandonment in terms of legislation, of social and economic Justice In part because we have learned that It Is the hindmost who throws the bricks at our social edi fice, in part because we have learned that the foremost are not always the best nor the hindmost the worst and In part because we have learned that social Injustice is the destruction of justice itself. We have learned that the impulse of production can only be maintained at a high pitch if there is a fair di vision of the product. We have also learned that fair division can only be obtained by certain restrictions on the strong and thedominant. Whatever may be the case with regard to old world individualism land we have given more back' to Kurope than we received from her) the truth that is Important for us to s:rasp today is that there Is a world of - difference between the principles and spirit of old world individualism and that which we have developed in our own country. Classification Is Declined. Like most Americans, I refuse to be damned by anybody's word-class- lfication of It, such as "capitalism, "plutocracy," "proletariat" or "mid dle class," or any other, or to any kind of compartment that Is based on the assumption of some group dominating somebody else. The rightfulness of our Individ ualism can rest either on philo sophic, political, economic or spir itual grounds. It can rest on the ground of being the only safe ave nue to further human progress. Eat no civilisation could be built or can endure solely upon the groundwork of unrestrained and unintelligent self-interest. The problem of the world Is to restrain the destructive instincts while strengthening and enlarging those ef altruistic character and con strnotive Impulse for thus we build lor the future. Tet true as this la. the day has not arrive 4 when, any economic or 1 . y, is,t-2r-- - -g- l J tf ' F J t " - i lfl Hit' '&ptZtl lit A s n ti HERBERT HOOVER, WHO WRITES social system will function and last if founded upon altruism alone. The will-o'-the-wisp of all breeds of socialism is that they contem plate a motivation of human ani 'mals by altruism alone. It necessi tates a bureaucracy of the entire population, in which, having oblit erated the economic stimulation of each member, the fine graduation of character and ability are to b arranged in relative authority by ballot or more likely by a Tammany Hair or a bolshevist party, or some other form of tyranny. The proof of the futility of these ideas as a stimulation to the development and activity of the individual does not lie alone in the ghastly failure of Russia, but it also lies in our own failure in attempts at nationalized industry. Autocracy Is Will-o'-the-wisp. The will-o'-the-wisp of autocracy in any form is that it supposes that the good Lord endowed a special few with all tne divine attributes. It contemplates one human animal dealing to the other human ani mals his just share of earth, of glory, and of Immortality. The proof of the futility of these ideas in the development of the world does not lie alone in the grim fail ure of Germany, but it lies' in the damage to our moral and social fabric from those who have sought economic domination in America, whether employer or employe. we in America have had tot. much experience of life to fool our selves into pretending that all men are equal In ability, in character, in intelligence, in ambition. Thai was part of the clap-trap of the French revolution. We have grown to understand that all we can hope to assure to the individual through government is liberty, justice, in tellectual welfare, equality of op portunity, and stimulation to serv ice. It is maintenance of a society fulid to these human qualities that our individualism departs from the individualism of Europe. There can be no rise for the individual through the frozen strata of classes, or of casts, and no stratification can take place in a mass livened by the free stir of Its particles. The pioneers of our American in dividualism had the good sense not to reward Washington and Jeffer son and Hamilton with hereditary dukedoms and fixtures in landed es tates, as Great Britain rewarded Marlborough and Nelson. Othiwise our American fields of opportunity would have been clogged with long generations inheriting their father's privileges without their father's ca pacity for service. Examples Are Cited. That our system has avoided the establishment and domination of class has a significant proof in the present administration- in Washing ton. Of the 12 men comprising the president, vice-president and cabi net, nine, have earned their own way in life without economic in heritmce, and eight of them started with manual labor. Furthermore, the maintenance of productivity and the advancement of the things of the spirit depend irpon the ever-renewed supply from the mass of those who can rise to leadership. Our social, economic and Intellectual progress is almost solely dependent upon the creative minds of those individuals with im aginative and administrative intel ligence who create or who carry dis coveries to widespread application. No race possesses mope than a small percentage of these minds in a single generation. But little thought has ever been given to our racial de pendency upon them, and that our progress is in so large a measure due to the fact that with our In-; creased means cf communication these rare individuals sjre today able to spread their influence over so en larged a number of lesser capable minds as to have increased their potency a million-fold. In truth. vastly greater productivity of the world with actually less physical labor is due to the wider spread of their influence through the discov ery of these facilities. Leadership is the quality of the Individual. It is the individual alone who can function in the world of Intellect and in the field of leader ship. If democracy is to secure its authorities in morals, religion, and statesmanship. It must stimulate leadership from its own mass. Hu man leadership cannot be replen ished by selection like queen bees, by divins right or bureaucracies, but by the free rise of ability, charac ter and intelligencer Individual I Keystone. Progress of the nation is the sum of progress In its individuals. Acts and deas that lead to progress are born out of the womb of the Indi vidual mind, not. out of the mind of the crowd. The crowd only feels: OST "AMERICAN IIV DIVIDUALISSI." It ha3 no mind of its own which can plan. The crowd is credulous, it de stroys, it consumes, it hates, and it dreams but it never builds. It is one of the most profound and im portant of exact pyschological truths that man in the mass does not thing but only feels. The mob fun ctions only in a world of emotion. The demagogue feeds on the mobs emot'ons and his leadership is the leadership of emotion, not the lead ership of intellect and progress. Pop ular desires are not criteria to the real need; they can be determined onlyl by deliberative consideration, by education, by constructive lead ership. Our social and economic system cannot march toward better days unless it is inspired by things of the spirit. It Is here that the higher purposes of individualism must find their sustenance. Men do not live y bread alone. Nor Is individual ism merely a stimulus to production and the road to liberty; it alone ad mits the universal divine inspira tion of every human soul. I may repeat that the divine spark does not lie in agreements, in organiza tions, in institutions, in masses or In groups. Spirituality with its faith, hope, its charity, can be increased by each individuals own effort. And in proportion as each individual in creases his own store of spirituality, in that proportion increases the idealism of democracy. Divine Right Thought Gone. For centuries thq human race be lieved that divine inspiration rested in a few. The result was blind faith in religious hierarchies, the divine right of kings. The world has freen disillusioned of this belief that di vinity rests in any special group or class whether It be through a creed, a tyranny of kings or of proletariat. Our individualism insists upon the divine in each human being. It rests upon the firm faith that the divine spark can be awakened in every heart. It was the refusal to com promise these things that led to the migration of those religious groups who so largely composed our fore fathers. Our diversified religious faiths are the apotheosis of spirit ual individualism:- The vast multiplication of volun tary organizations for altruistic purposes are themselves proof of the ferment of spirituality, service and mutual responsibility. These as sociations for advancement of pub lic welfare, improvement, morals, charity, public opinion, health, the clubs and societies for recreation and intellectual advancement, rep resent something moving at a far greater depth than "joining." They represent the widespread aspiration for mutual advancement, self-expression and neighborly . helffulness Moreover, today when we rehearse our own individual memories or suc cess, we find that none gives us such comfort as memory of service given. Do we not Tefer to our vet erans as service men? Do not our merchants and business men pride themselves in something of service given beyond the price of their goods? When we traverse the glor ious deeds of our fathers we today can enumerate those acts that were not rooted in the soil of service. Those whom we revere are those who triumphed in service, for from them comes an uplift of the human heart and the uplift of the human mind. ' ' Vigilance Is Required. There are forces In the growth of our individualism which must be curbed with vigilance, yet there are no less glorious spiritual forces growing within that promise for the future. There is developing in our people a new valuation of individu als and of groups and of nations, it is a rising vision of service. Indeed, if I were to select the social force that above all others has advanced sharply durmg these past years of Buffering, it is that of service service to those with whom we come in contact, service to the nation and service to the world itself. If we examine the great mystical forces of the past seven years we find this great spiritual force poured out by our people as never before in the history of the world the ideal of service. Just now we are weakened by the reeling oi ranure or immediate rea lization of the great ideas and hones that arose through the exaltation of war. War by its very nature sets loose chaotic forces of which the resultants cannot be foretold or an ticipated. The insensitiveness to the brutalities of physical violence and all the spiritual dislocations of war have left us, at the moment, poorer. The amount of serenity and content In the world is smaller. - The spiritual reaction after the war has been in part the fruit of i some illusions during those five years. In the presence of unity of purpose and the mystic emotions of war many men came to believe that salvation lay is mass and group ac tion. They have seen the spiritual and material mobilization of nations, of classes and groups, for sacrifice and service! they nave conceived that real human progress .can be achieved by working on "the psyc ology of the people" by the "mass mind"; they' yielded to leadership without reservation; they conceived that this leadership could continue without tyranny; they have forgot ten that permanent spiritual prog ress lies with the individual. Living Standard Problem. The high and increasing standards of living and comfort should be the first of considerations in public mind and In government needs no apology. We have long since rea lized that the Dasls of an advanc ing civilization must be a high and growing standard of living for all the people, not for a single class; that education, food, olothing, hous ing and the spreading use or wnat we so often term non-essentials are the real fertilizers of the soil from which spring the finer flowers of life. The economic development of the past 50 years has lifted the gen eral standard of comfort far beyond the dreams of our forefathers. The only road to further advance in the standard of living la by greater invention, greater elimination of waste, greater production and better distribution of commodities and services, for by increasing their ratio to our numbers and dividing them justly we each will have more of them. i The superlative value of Individu alism through Its Impulse to pro duction, Its stimulation to Invention, has, so far as I know, never been denied. Criticism of it has lain Tn its wastes but more importantly in its failures of equitable sharing-of the product. In our country these contentions are mainly over the di vision to each of his share of the comforts and luxuries, for none of us is either hungry or cold or with out a place to" lay his head and we haVe much besides. In less than four decades we have added electric lights, nlumbing, telephones, gram ophones, automoDties ana wnat not in wide diffusion to our standards of living. Each in turn began as a luxury, each In turn has become so commonplace that 70 or SO per cent of our people participate in them. Surplus Js Small. To all practical souls there Is little ue in' quarreling over the share of each of us until we have something to divide. So long as we maintain our individualism we will have increasing quantities to share and we shall have time and leisure and taxes with which to right out proper sharing of the surplus. The income tax returns ehow that this surplus is a minor part of our total production after taxes are paid. Some of this "surplus" must be set aside for rewards to saving for stimulation of proper effort to ekill, to leadership and invention SAY "BAYER" when you buy Asp inn. Insist ! Accept only mmmmm mm mtmm Handy "Bayer therefore the dispute Is In reality over much less than the total of such ".surplus." While there should be no minimizing of a certain fringe of injustices in sharing the results of production or in the wasteful use made by eome of their share, yet there is a vastly wider field for gains to all of us through cheapen ing the costs of production and dis tribution through the eliminating of their wastes, from increasing the volume of product by each and every one doing his utmost, than will ever come to us even if. we can think out a method of abstract justice in shar ing which did not stifle production of the total product It is a certainty we are confronted with a population in such numbers as can only exist by production at tuned to a pitch in which the slight est reduction of the Impulse to pro duce will at once create misery and want. If we throttle the fundamen tal Impulses of man our production will decay.- The world In this hour ia witnessing the most overshadow ing tragedy of ten centuries In the heart-breaking life-and-death strug gle with starvation by a nation with 150 millions of people. In Russia under the new tyranny a group, in pursuit of social theories, has de stroyed the primary self-interest im pulse of the Individual to produc tion. Socialism Held Fallacy. Although socialism in a nation wide application has now proved it self with rivers of blood and incon ceivable misery to be an economic and spiritual fallacy and has wrecked itself finally upon the rocks of destroyed production and moral degeneracy, I believe It to have been necessary for the world to have had this demonstration. Great theoretic and emotional ideas have arisen before in the world's history and have in more than mere taaterial bankruptcy deluged the world with fearful losses of life. A purely phil osophical view might be that in the long run humanity has to try every way, even precipices, in iinamg tne road to betterment. Private property is not a fetich In America. The crushing of the liquor trade without a cent of compensa tion, with scarcely even a discussion of it, does not bear out the notion that we give property rights any headway over human rights. It is where dominant private prop erty is assembled in the hands of the groups who control the state that the individual begins to feel capital as an oppressor. Our American de mand for equality vof opportunity is a constant militant oheck upon cap Ital becoming a thing to be feared. Out of fear we sometimes even go too far and stifle the reproductive use of capital by crushing the Ini tiative that makes for its creation. The domination by arbitrary in dividual ownership is disappearing because the works of today are steadily growing more and more be yond the resources of any one indi f Bayer" package which mmmmmmmmmmm. jmmmwmmmm mmmmmmnmmmmmmmmmimmm boxes of J 2 tablets Also bottles of 24 and Aspirin is the trade mark of Bayer Manufacture of Moaoaceticacidester of Salicylicacid vidual, and steadily taxation will re duce relatively excessive individual accumulations. The number of per sons in partnership through division of ownership among many stock holders is steadily Increasing thus 100,000 to 200,000 partners in a sin gle concern are not uncommon. The overwhelmingly large portion of our mobile capital is that of our banks, insurance companies, building and loan, associations, and the vast ma jority of all this is the aggregated small savings of our people. Thus large capital is. steadily becoming more and more a mobilization of the savings of the small holder the ac tual people themselves and Its ad ministration becomes at once more sensitive to the moral opinions of the people In order to attract their support. The directors and mana gers of large concerns, themselves employes of these great groups of individual stockholders, or policy holders, reflect a spirit of commu nity responsibility. Organisms Prove Useful. With the enormous shift in growth to Industry and commerce we have erected organisms that each gener ation has denounced as Franken- stelns, yet the succeeding genera tion proves them to be controllable and useful. The growth of corpo rate organizations, of our banking systems, of our railways, of our electrical power, of our farm CO operatives, of our trade unions, of our trade associations, and of a nun dred others Indeed develops both beneficent and malign forces. The timid become frightened. But our basic social ideas march through the' new things in the "end. Our demagogues, of both-s. radical and standpat breed. Thrive on demands for the destruction of one or another of these organizations as the only solution for their defects, yet prog ress requires only a guardianship of the vital principles of our indi vidualism with its safeguard of true equality of opportunity in them. Democracy is merely the mechan ism which Individualism invented as a device that would carry on the necessary political work of Its so clal organization. Democracy arises out of Individualism and prospers through it alone. Much of our discontent takes the form of resentment against the in equalities m the distribution of the sacrifices of war. Both silently and vocally there Is complaint that while some died, others ran no risk, and yet others profited. For these com plaints there is adequate justuica tion. The facts are patent- How ever, no conceivable human intelli gence would be able to manage the conduct of war so as to see that all sacrifices and burdens should be distributed eauitably. War Is de struction, and we should blame war for its injustices, not a social sys tem whose object is construction. The submergence of the individual. Unless you not getting see the "Bayer. Cross" on tablets, you are the genuine Baver oroduct Drescnbed hv - physicians over 23 years and proved safe by millions 4 for Colds Toothache Neuralgia however, in thestruggle-of the race could be but temporary its con tinuance through the crushing of individual action and its inequities would, if for no other reason, de stroy the foundations of our civili zation. Government's Scope Grows. Forty years ago the contact of the individual with the government had its largest expression in the sheriff or policeman, and in debates over political equality. In those happy days the government offered but small Interference with the economic life of the citizen. But with the vast development of in dustry and the train of regulating functions of the national and mun icipal government that followed from it; with the recent vast in crease in taxation due to the war; the government has become through its relations to economic life the most potent force for maintenance or destruction of our American in dividualism. To curb the forces In business which would destroy equality of opportunity and yet to maintain the initiative and creative faculties of our people are the twin objects we must attain. To preserve the for mer we must regulate that type of activity that would dominate. To preserve the latter, the govern ment must keep out of production and distribution of commodities and services. This is the deadline be tween our system and socialism. Regulation to. prevent domination and unfair practices, yet preserving rightful initiative, are in keeping with our social foundations. Na tionalization of Industry or busi ness Is their negation. Regulation la Beneficial. Excluding the temporary meas ures of the war, the period of regu lation has now been long enough with us to begin to take stock of its effect upon- our social system. It has been highly beneficial, but It has also developed weaknesses In the throttling of proper initiative that require some revision. We have already granted relief to labor organizations and to agriculture from some forms of regulation. There is, however, a large field of co-operative possibilities far out side agriculture that are needlessly hampered. Public opinion has become of steadily increasing potency and re liability In its reaction. The great strides in development of processes and equipment for production and 'ilstributlon are being followed by increasing devotion to the human factors in their execution. Moral standards of business and commerce are improving; vicious city govern ments are less in number; invisible government has greatly diminished; public conscience is penetrating deeper and deeper; the rooting up of wrong grows more vigorous; the agencies for their exposure end . i Headache Neuritis Lumbago contains proper remedy grow mors numerous, and above all is the growing sense of service. Many people confuse the exposure of wrongs which were be low the surface with degeneration; their very exposure is progress. Some accredit the exposures of fail ure In our government and busi ness as evidence of standards of a lower ' order than in some other nations. A considerable experience leads me to the conviction that wnile we do wash our dirty linen in public most others never wash it. Criticism la Justified. It is easy to arraign any existing institution. Men can rightly be critical because things nave hap pened that never ought to happen.. That our social system contains faults on one disputes. One can re cite the faulty results of ourt system . . , V. i. tnlrit nf law.. lessness; the uncertainty of employ ment in some callings; the deaden ing effect of certain repetitive pro cesses of manufacture; the 12-hour day In a few Industries; unequal voice in bargaining for wage In some employment; arrogant dom ination by some employers and some labor leaders; child labor in soma states; Inadequate Instruction In onmA arnu a - unfnli rnmnAtlHtn In some Industries; some fortunes ex cessive far beyond the needs of stimulation to initiative; survivals of religious Intolerance; political debauchery of some cities; weak nesses In our ' governmental struc ture. Most of these occur locally in. certain regions and certain Indus tries and must cause every think ing person to regret and to en deavor. But they are becoming steadily more local. That they ars recognized and condemned is a long way on the road" to progress. Our Individualism is no middle ground between autocracy whether of birth, economlo or class origin and socialism. Socialism of differ ent varieties may have somethingr to recommend It as an intellectual stop-look-listen sign, more especial ly for old world societies. But It contains only destruction to the forces that make progress in our social sytsem. Nor does salvation come by any device for concentra tion of power, whether political or economic, for both are equally re versions to old world autocracy In new garments. Salvation will not come to us out of the wreckage of Individualism. What we need today is steady de votion to a better, brighter, broader Individualism an individualism that carries increasing responsibility and service to our fellows. Our need is not for a way out but for a way forward. We found our way out three centuries ago when our forefathers left Europe for these shores, to set up here a common wealth conceived in liberty and dedicated to the development of in dividuality. z j Rheumatism Sciatica Pain, Pain directionsc Druggists. 100