The New York Times Magazine The dome of the Capitol at Washington, seen from the portico of the Supreme Court Building. Creed for Liberals: A Ten-Point Program 'W HAT is a liberal, anyway?' Mr. Wyatt offers planks for a platform on which, man beings, we have not wavered in Judging from the wide vari- our faith in the ultimate validity of free ety of organizations and peo- he believes, 'liberals in our time must stand." debate and unfettered inquiry. The Four pie who lay claim to the label, one might Freedoms are the moral pillar of a good think it is the verbal "Anyface." society and they offer to the people of the By WILSON W. WYATT The National Association of Manufac- world a credo more dramatic than any turers a few months ago proclaimed it totalitarian ritual. was about to become "liberalized," that it eral" is so frequently misused. It is not ises of liberal belief and the nature of (2) Liberals emphatically reject the nc- that the word is so misunderstood, but the organization through which they pro- was writing a "liberal" platform, and tion that there is a fatal contradiction be- rather that many people would like to pose to make their voices heard. replacing old conservative faces with a tween planning and freedom. In fact they have you mistake them for liberals. The gallery of "liberal" leaders, In recent compliment to liberalism is real; but so W are inseparable. In a society as complex years the Communists, too, have shown HAT is a liberal? He is not any as ours neither the benevolence of Big is the resulting confusion. a new reverence for the term "liberal" peculiar species of man, wearing a Business, Big Labor and Big Agriculture and have tried valiantly to hold hands The frequent question, "What is a lib- strange and easily identifiable shirt. He nor the gospel of Adam Smith can enable with liberals under an umbrella named eral, anyway? does not ask merely for does not practice a distinctive salute or us to live happily ever after. To pass from "unity." But I have yet to learn that the the statement of the credo of a liberal; it march in any unique formation. It seems the sublime to the immediate, let me cite NAM and the Communist party have also asks why any group of citizens to me that he can be identified by the the current price runaway and the threat- been fused into one, despite their polite should feel it necessary to set up a new articles of his faith. And, while men may ened economic bust as proof that things bows to the liberal tradition. liberal organization in a country which reasonably differ on many details of any do not turn out best in this brightest of already has two major and several minor credo, I think the basic articles are clear. all economic worlds when we blindly en- As a practicing lawyer with some re- political parties and several thousand None of us knows all the answers and no trust our faith to the individual selfish- gard for the significance of words, I share clubs ranging from Kiwanis to the man can offer a blueprint for Utopia Un- ness of each individual group. the general dismay that the word "lib- W. C. T. U. limited. But these underlying principles (3) Accepting the premise that govern- Yet thousands of Americans, resisting offer, in my judgment, the platform on ment must assume responsibility for reg- WILSON W. WYATT is national chairman of overtures from both the extreme right which liberals in our time must stand: ulating wide areas of our economic life, and extreme left, are recognizing the need (1) The wisdom of the ordinary man is we must resolutely seek a substantial rise Americans for Democratic Action, a group organ- ized last January to "provide American liberals for an independent liberal movement. still superior to any doctrine of govern- in our standards of living rather than sim- with an effective medium for concerted action." They have found surprisingly wide agree- ment by goose step. Recognizing both the ply construct a floor under misery. At this He was formerly National Housing Administrator. ment among themselves about the prem- potential strength and frailty of hu- point we sharply (Continued on Page 35) 7 MAGAZINE. JULY 27, 1947.