The Ideal State.

Dominion, Volume 16, Issue 154, 17 March 1923, Page 11

The Ideal State.

A Famous American’s Way of Achieving It.

MR. HERBERT HOOVER, the famous American organiser, who fed a large part of Europe during the war, has written a most interesting essay on American ideal's in “American Individualism” (writes a reviewer in John o’ London’s Weekly”). Mr. Hoover discusses the means by which America can make her way to an ideal human society. His experiences in the war and after the war have convinced him that America has and is developing all that makes for progressive individualism. Writing of this American individualism, he says:— “No doubt individualism run riot, with no tempering principle, would provide a long category of inequalities, 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 government or in the processes of industry and commerce, are under an insistent curb.” This individualism, as practised in the United States, does not, according to Mr. Hoover, depend on the theory that “all men are equal.” “We in America have had too much experience of life to fool ourselves into pretending that all men are equal in ability, in character, in intelligence, in ambition. That was part of the claptrap of the French Revolution. We have, grown to understand that all we can hope to assure to the individual through government is liberty, justice, intellectual welfare, equality of opportunity, and stimulation to service.” The successes that give us the greatest joy, writes Mr. Hoover, are those successes that have been gained in service. The American, who looks back on the deeds of his father, only remembers those acts which were given in “t)he soil of service.” “There is developing in our people a new valuation of individuals 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 during these past years of suffering, it is that of service—service to those with whom we come in contact, service to the nation, and service to the world itself.”

THE MORAL OF RUSSIA. Writing of the state of Russia, Mr. Hoover says:— “Although socialism in a nation-wide application has now proved itself with rivers of blood and inconceivable 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.” American individualism does not, however, have as its end the acquisition and preservation of private property. “Our American individualism indeed is only in part an economic creed. It aims to provide opportunity for self-expression, not merely economically but spiritually as well. Private property is not a fetish in America. The crushing of the liquor trade without a cent, of compensation, with scarcely a discussion of it, does not bear out the notion that we give property rights any headway over human rights.” In one chapter Mr. Hoover deals with the political phases of this individualism. “Democracy is merely the mechanism which individualism invented as a device that would carry on the necessary political work of its social organisation. Democracy arises out of individualism and prospers through it alone.” AMERICA’S NEED. What is America’s,need to-day? What shall she do to gain that salvation for which she and all countries are looking? Mr. Hoover gives this advice to his country:— “What we need to-day is steady devotion 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.” This is a most interesting book, written by one who not only understands his own country but the state of most of the countries of Europe. It is of particular interest, as Mr. Hoover is possibly coming again to Europe to help to save the stricken countries of Central Europe.