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From The New International, Vol. IX No. 6, June 1943, p. 192.
Transcribed & marked up by Einde O’ Callaghan for the Encyclopaedia of Trotskyism On-Line (ETOL).
The Consumer Goes to War
by Caroline F. Ware, Ph.D.
Funk & Wagnalls Co., New York, publishers; 300 pp., $2.00
Inevitably in a book of several hundred pages, some important and interesting facts are given as, for instance, anent rationing in England, where at one time three out of five persons could not get their allowed ration of bacon because they were too poor to pay the high price. However, even such or similar information the fairly careful reader of the daily press already has, and does not need to wade through Dr. Ware’s book.
Dr. Ware describes well enough the war problems facing the consumer. Her solutions, however, are the routine, inadequate variety submitted by all capitalist apologists whose thought does not break through the confines of the status quo. For instance, the threat of inflation is to be met by “saving instead of spending.”
Naturally, Dr. Ware is as concerned about “winning the peace” as about winning the war. According to her, this is not merely a World War but – à la Wallace – a “world revolution.” However, Marx has made no contribution to the bright new world envisaged by Dr. Ware because – alas! – “He identified the public interest with the self-interest of the industrial worker.”
Susan Green Archive | Trotskyist Writers’ Index | ETOL Main Page
Last updated: 22 May 2015