GRAHAM, FRANK D. Social Goals and Eco nomic Institutions. Pp. xxii, 273. Prince ton : Princeton University Press, 1942. $3.00

• Date: 01 November 1942
• DOI: 10.1177/000271624222400161
• Published date: 01 November 1942
• Subject Matter: Articles

221

some

who

have

been

afraid

that

they

were

unlike

Englishmen.

Mr.

Dale

makes

it

clear

that

the

higher

civil

service

has

the

strength

and

the

weakness

of

England

as

a

nation

and

as

an

empire.

This

is

as

it

should

be.

OLIVER

P.

FIELD

Indiana

University

GRAHAM,

FRANK

D.

Social

Goals

and

Eco-

nomic

Institutions.

Pp. xxii, 273.

Prince-

ton :

Princeton

University

Press,

1942.

$3.00.

The

author

says

this

book

is

in

the

na-

ture

of

a

confession

of

faith

and

an

argu-

ment

for

the

conviction

that

is

in

him.

In

it

a

well-known

and

responsible

economist

gets

off

the

range.

The

book

may

be

symp-

tomatic

of

things

to

come-not

that

the

specific

goals

and

implementations

of

Pro-

fessor

Graham’s

particular

type

of

prag-

matic

liberalism

will

necessarily

emerge

from

the

present

disorganization

of

thought

and

institutions,

but

that

more

and

more

economists

will

come

down

out

of

their

ivory

towers

and

be

forced

in

a

realistic

world

to

take

stock

of

what

it

is

all

about.

Professor

Graham

is

doubtless

fully

aware

that

getting

off

the

prescribed

range

is

dangerous

business.

It

opens

him

to

attack

from

all

directions-from

the

&dquo;scientific&dquo;

economists

on

the

charge

of

entertaining

thoughts

and

interests

unbecoming

to

an

economist,

especially

in

daring

to

discuss

ends

(goals)

and

permitting

himself

in-

dulgence

in

value-judgments,

which

are

in

last

analysis

sheer

sentiment

in

any

case;

from

psychologists

on

ground

that

he

grossly

oversimplifies

fundamental

drives

and

motives;

and

from

the

professional

ethicists

and

philosophers

on

ground

that

as

a

layman

he

really

does

not

understand

Truth,

Goodness,

and

Beauty.

If

he

seeks

to

side-step

this

latter

attack

by

freely

con-

fessing

that

he

is

not

interested

in

abstrac-

tions,

but

only

in

maximizing

social

produc-

tion

and

human

income,

the

equilibrium

economic

theorists

can

properly

retort

that

that

is

precisely

what

they

are

driving

at.

Yet

Professor

Graham

rejects

all

their

works

as

unrealistic

and

pragmatically

use-

less-although

at

more

points

than

one

he

is

unconsciously

proceeding

from

equilib-

rium

concepts

and

analysis.

Part

I

of

the

book,

on

Social

Goals,

is

general

and

broadly

speaking

&dquo;philosophi-

cal,&dquo;

but

is

tied

in

with

the

rest

of

the

book

only

as

a

preliminary

statement

of

the

author’s

calculus

of

values,

and

spe-

cifically

through

the

positing

of

&dquo;power&dquo;

and

&dquo;liberty&dquo;

as

the

fundamental

and

ex-

clusively

comprehensive

human

values

or

drives.

This

extreme

schematic

simplifica-

tion

plagues

the

reader

(at

least

the

present

reviewer)

throughout,

as

a

much

too

heroic,

not

to

say

misleading,

abstraction.

Never-

theless,

it is

the

clue,

in

the

shape

of

the

&dquo;power-cum-liberty&dquo;

formula,

to

the

whole

framework

and

structure

of

Professor

Gra-

ham’s

social

philosophy

and

its

implementa-

tion

through

economic

institutions.

The

author

is

neither

a

socialist

nor

an

advocate

of

&dquo;rugged

individualism.&dquo;

He

sees

the

difficulties,

on

both

the

political

and

the

economic

side,

in

the

way

of

individual

ini-

tiative

socially

controlled

for

the

effective

release

of

productive

power

and

the

re-

straint

of

acquisitive

(monopolistic)

power;

but

he

is

neither

defeatist

nor

traditionalist.

He

is

positive

and

definite

in

his

program

of

social

control,

as

when,

for

example,

he

unhesitatingly

advocates

a

commodity-

reserve

monetary

system,

and

lays

down

specific

principles

for

the

drastic

limita-

tion

of

inheritance

of

property.

Notwithstanding

that

the

wide

sweep

of

the

book

frequently

leads

him

to

speak

in

what

appear

to

be

dogmatic

terms,

Pro-

fessor

Graham

has

given

us

a

stimulating

book.

It

is

not

a

textbook,

but

one

wishes

that

students

in

economics,

even

ele-

mentary

economics,

could

be

given

an

adequate

exposure

to

some

of

its

ideas.

A.

B.

WOLFE

Ohio

State

University

WRIGHT,

CHESTER

W.

(Ed.).

Economic

Problems

of

War

and

Its

Aftermath.

Pp.

xi,

197.

Chicago:

The

University

of

Chicago

Press,

1942.

$2.00.

This

book

contains

a

series

of

seven

lec-

tures

given

under

the

Charles

R.

Walgreen

Foundation

for

the

Study

of

American

Institutions

at

the

University

of

Chicago.

Six

of

the

contributors

are

members

of

the

University

of

Chicago

faculty;

the

sev-

enth,

a

distinguished

guest.

All

are

emi-

nent

men

of

great

reputation,

and

their

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