September 30,1942 Letters to The Times Break With Tradition Urged consideration of the differences by which we are divided. Those who will the end of the Four British Leader Sees No Hope for the Freedoms have the obligation to use Four Freedoms Otherwise the means which give them reality. If you find the name of socialism an ob- To THE EDITOR OF THE NEW YORK TIMES: stacle, another word will do. What you I am very much obliged to you for have to recognize, while there is time, the opportunity to comment on the edi- is that the Four Freedoms did not exist torial of Aug. 9, in which you attack for millions under capitalist democracy. my article "Epitaph of a System" in The defeat of Hitlerism makes their The New Statesman of July 11. achievement possible. But it does no May I begin by saying that all at- more than that. And the possibility tempts to understand the crisis of will not be fulfilled if we do not begin world civilization in terms of an anal- the fulfillment while the opportunity is ogy from the innocent householder here. HAROLD J. LASKI. attacked by a burglar seem to me ut- Little Bardfield, England, Sept. 17, terly beside the point? No one who 1942. shares my outlook has any doubt that the fullest cooperation between the Left and the Right is necessary in the New Gambling Law Proposed democracies if we are to survive the threat of Hitlerism. Jail Sentence Might Follow Failure to The questions we have to face are: Satisfy Judgment for Recovery (1) The terms of the cooperation. This means getting the maximum good out To THE EDITOR OF THE NEW YORK Times! of the maximum use of our resources. As a result of my experience from (2) The purpose of the cooperation. 1921 to 1936 in reporting upon domestic This I take to be more than the over- relations bills as a member of a com- throw of Hitlerism. It is the creation mittee on legislation of one of the bar of a world in which the conditions no associations, I am of the opinion that longer make possible the emergence of Mayor La Guardia should receive the forces like Hitlerism. complete and wholehearted support of THE NEW YORK TIMES, like Mr. the citizens of the State in his war Churchil wants the cooperation to be upon the gamblers. He is right in on the terms approved by the Right. making his campaign against the gam- My argument is that this is a short- blers personally instead of against the sighted view. It may ultimately lead to abstraction gambling. military victory in the field. It will For many years both the State Con- leave unsolved all the problems which stitution and the State laws have been made it necessary to wage a war. And undeviating in principle against gam- sooner or later this will mean a new bling as a crime, and have afforded war. some means for the recovery of money Counter-Revolution On lost through gambling operations. The trouble, however, is that the gambler The United Nations are fighting the counter-revolution. Counter-revolution generally makes himself judgment- occurs when a traditional system of proof, and there is little encouragement for a person who has lost money to a vested interests, having lost its power gambler to bring an action for its re- of economic expansion, cannot safe- covery. guard itself within the historic frame- The law should be amended without work. It then sets out to use revolu- delay so as to enable a party who has tionary techniques in order to destroy recovered a judgment for a gambling those elements in the society which loss to take out an execution against threaten its privileges. It has a super- the body of the gambler for his impris- ficial resemblance, its élan, its use of onment in case the execution against new men, its appeal to the masses. But his property be not satisfied. More- beneath its appearance of novelty, its over, the execution should not be purely purpose is reactionary. a civil action commitment to jail, from To destroy the counter-revolution, its which the gambler can secure release opponents need a revolutionary idea. For the business of war is to break the by giving a bond for the jail liberties, leaving him free as any person to move will of your enemy, and your endur- around in the county of this detention. ance depends on your power to arouse There should be an amalgamation of hope and exhilaration in the masses. the civil and criminal law under which These are not likely to be aroused if, a gambler defaulting on the payment like Mr. Churchill, you offer the masses of a judgment could be imprisoned in the maintenance of the traditional sys- a State prison or a penitentiary at hard tem as the reward for their effort and labor, with a provision that the value sacrifice. Still less are they likely to of the prisoner's labor over and above be aroused if you call the traditional