SS The LOCAL PAGE News of Your Neighbors in City and Suburbs Feh 1965 13 Aim's Same: Welfare Adler Terms Democracy, Socialism 'Compatible' Writer philosopher Mortimer Adler told a Calvin Col- lege audience Friday night that democracy and socialism are compatible concepts, tending to the same welfare state end, and that this nation and the Western world are com- mitted to both byond the point of recall. The near capacity crowd at the college auditorium was attentive and polite and even gave Adler spontaneous applause when, in response to question, he said he didn't believe religion was established for the purpose of main- taining the status quo. Speaking of the terms socialism, democracy and com- munism as "treacherous words, double freighted with meaning," Adler said his purpose was to educated the American people in the use of them. He said the aims of socialism and democracy are to ex- tend participation in the nation's wealth to all persons, to abolish the "haves" and "have nots" as classes, to achieve "equality of conditions. JUST FIVE MINUTES These aims, he said, not only inspired the New Deal, the Fair Deal and the more recent Great Society concepts in American politics, but first were enunciated by Theodore Roosevelt in his Square Deal He said the Progressive Party platform of 1912 an- nounced coming changes in American politics and economy. It was a document so studded with innovation that its pro- visions were not entirely fulfilled until 1948. And the Republicans? Adler asserted that, barring ap. pearance of another military hero like Dwight Eisenhower, "there never again will be a Republican president of the United States.' Adler got a laugh when he proposed the Republican party "move to the left" of the Democrats and whoop for establishment of the welfare state by faster means than the opposition espouses. Close Aims He said the parties are so close together in the ends they hope to achieve that only a contest on methods can preserve the two-party system. "If they (the Republicans) try to turn away and hurry into the past as they did in the last campaign - why, CAN'T JUDGE ERA they'll just lose and lose.' The speaker said that democratic socialist parties in Europe, except the French version, have abandoned Marx's call for violent revolution as a condition of the establish- ment of socialism. "They decided they can achieve everything through due process and legislation." he said. Adler pointed out that eight of the 10 Marxist measures for making "progressive inroads" leading to the overthrow of capitalism control, such as the income tax and public schools, already are the law in every Western country. Cites Marx 'Error' "Marx made an extraordinary error," Adler said. "He recognized the evil of his day in the concentration of eco- nomic and political power in the hands of few. The obvi- ous solution would be a diffusion of power into the hands of the many. "Instead. he proposed the further concentration of pow- er by giving it all to the state. Thus. bureaucracy becomes the managerial class and you have totalitarianism which is inimical to individual freedom.' This, Adler said, is the communism of Russia and Red China PEOPLE READ MORE But, he said, "if you throw the word socialism into the same bin with communism, we won't be able to talk to West- ern Europe at all. We can't insist the rest of the world adopt the 'bad' meaning we've given the word. Adler said that in 100 years (in which time he also expects "worldwide affluence"), the need for labor to pro- duce the world's goods and services "will be infinitesimal." Will Work in Shifts Adler discerned a danger in the "mixed economy" brand of democratic socialism in that it may "dissolve" in overexpansion of the public-controlled sectors of the econ- omy and become a sort of totalitariansim. On the way out of the auditorium, the audience was con- fronted by a hand-lettered sign tacked inside the entrance- way door which quoted Sir Winston Churchill, "Socialism is the philosophy of failure and the gospel of envy." Time Bugs Even Deep Thinkers I HAVE TO GO -Grand Rapids Press Photographer. By TOM LA BELLE Dr. Mortimer J. Adler has a great deal to say on great many subjects But Adler, who writes books gives lectures and, as one not very friendly critic alleges has tried to write "the Code Napoleon" of Western culture cannot even get warmed up in five minutes. Had to Catch Plane That was all the time there was between reporting in the Calvin College Commons Build ing Friday for an interview and the start of his speech in the auditorium. After the lecture he had to catch plane. Hastily, he was asked hasty questions and hastily did he an swer them. Adler, 62. has solemn moon face on which very little seems to be taking place. His discourse is animated but never playful and his chief change of expres- sion is sort of a wince which comes and goes in the presence of inane questions. He winced quite a bit during the interview. Paperbacks Help He said he thought there was a wider appreciation of cultural things than in other ages much of it attributable to the development of paperback books. Watching with eye- brows the galloping minute hand of his watch, Adler he couldn't make a judgment on the depth of the appreciation. He said he thought the present age probably would survive as a great one mostly on the strength of its advances in sci- ence and technology. Then Calvin Student Council members. who had been ner- vously standing by, studying their watches, gathered up Ad-