Synopses & Reviews
Text extracted from opening pages of book: CLASSLESS CAPITALISM FREDERICK MARTIN STERN NEW DELHI ADHUNIK SAHITYA PRAKASHAN Copyright, 1950, 1951, by Frederick Martin Stern. Published in India by arrangement RUPEE ONE AND ANNAS EIGHT ONLY Printed by Gopinath Seth, Navin Press, Delhi. Published by Adhunik Sahitya Prakashan Post Box, 664, New Delhi. INTRODUCTION When at last the war in Europe was ended, I began to receive a volume of letters from friends and relatives abroad. Some of them brought tragic news; many people I had known and cherished*' had died in the armed struggle against fascism, many others had disappeared in Hitler's gas chambers and concentration camps. But some of the letters were to me tragic in another sense. Old friends and acquaintances, thoughtful, sober and accomplished people, had developed a strong affinity for the Soviet Union; some had actually joined the Communist Party. There was still another current reflected in these letters, an old familiar one, but now greatly intensi fied. A certain dislike of America had long been a sort of intellectual fashion among Europeans. But now I found that many of my correspondents were thinking of the United States with great suspicion, a mixture of fear and contempt. To those who were moving toward communism the U. S. A. would of course represent the incarnation of capitalism, the source of all evil. But it appears that quite generally Europeans have become increas ingly critical of the United States. There is no doubt that the anti-American propaganda which pours forth from Moscow in a steady stream has gone far to influence even determined anti-Com munists. One day last year a Frenchwoman, the sister of a dear friend ofmine, landed in New York for a month's visit. She not only disclosed her own sympathies with the Communists, but told me that her brother, too, a leading scientist and one of the most intelligent and decent persons I have ever known, was now moving in the same direction. Beginning with wartime contributions to Communist dominated underground organizations, he had since made considerable donations to Communist-front groups, and was now on the verge of joining the party. This visitor, like many others I have encountered here, soon confessed that she found the facts of American life very different from her expectations. In several lengthy conversations I tried to explain to her that American capitalism was superior both to the kind of capitalism she knew in Europe and to Soviet communism. She returned to France with a set of ideas quite different from those she had held before her trip to America. Then, thinking over this experience) I decide to write a series of letters to her brother in Paris, to tell him what I myself had learned in America, to show him how this country appeared to my own, once-European eyes. The correspondence turned out to be a much larger undertaking than I at first had thought, and it occurred to me that the letters might be helpful to other people as well, not only to those who have been influenced by Communist ideology, but to many others who harbour antiquated prejudices against the United States. Before I knew it, my letters had become a little book. In dedicating this collection of letters to the nation which has so kindly adopted me, I am trying to fulfill a great responsibility. It is the responsi bility of a man who has lived two lives one in Europe and onein the United States and who feels that he must do what he can to help bridge the old gap which the Soviet propaganda machine strives to widen into a perilous chasm. Hence, my most obvious task has been to give Europeans a better understanding of the United States. At the same time I have tried to show Americans some of the causes of the misconceptions about their own country. If my analysis should help to reduce the mental barriers that separate the nations, it will, I hope, make a small contribution to the cause of peace. I am grateful to all those who have giv