FUNDAMENTAL ISSUES IN THE UNITED STATES By E. A. Radice
This Chatham House pamphlet (0x7 ford University Press, Ss. 6d.) is worthy of its sponsors. In a remarkably brief and clear narrative, Mr. Radice provides an indispensable background for the understanding of the great issue of modern America, the adjustment of its political and administrative ma- chinery to the stage of economic development that has been reached. He is free from the complacency that make4 so many British observers of the American scene darkeners of counsel. He allows, for instance, for the real political difficulties that have faced the president and that have induced him to show some of the wisdom of the serpent to the annoyance of the stern and un- bending moralists of the Preis. Mr. Postmaster-General Farley is a neces- sity, if a painful necessity, of the situation, and the sense of the state that Mr. Roosevelt has evoked is a better cure for the spoils system than any number of mere sermons. The financial problem is discussed • in an equally clear and sensible manner. It is not merely a question of what could be done if a rational system of taxation were adopted, but of what can be done with a system that Congress is not likely to modify profoundly. Perhaps the election of Mr. Roosevelt will do good in this sphere by persuading the
better elements " that as they will have to pay for relief anyway, they might as well get efficiency. This is an excellent example of what a really com- petent expert can do in a few pages towards providing the necessary back- ground for the average reader.
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