In the Tradition of Dissent

REVIEWS 129 idealism in world affairs. There is good ground for hoping that in the future a greater measure of co-operation and of generosity will characterize international relations than in the past. After all we have become familiar in war-time with one revolutionary idea-Lend-Lease--which will assuredly echo through the new post-war world. But we shall be more suspicious of living in a fool's paradise. It will remain true that a love of justice and cooperation and of generosity are the foundation stones of a healthy world of nations. But we shall not again imperil our very existence by ignoring the role of power in human societies: a long look over the edge of the abyss has taught us that we inhabit the kind of world in which practical wisdom is compounded of realism and idealism. Mr Lippman's hope for the future both for his own country and for the world is based on a nuclear alliance of Britain, America, and Russia. "The formation of this nuclear alliance must in our thinking and in our action take precedence over all other considerations ." Only around such an alliance of strong powers can a wider association of nations constitute itself. The lack of a definite foreign policy is in itself a national danger. Mr Lippman makes · public confession of his own past shortcomings in the field of clear thinking on the subject, and his vivid, stimulating presentation of his theme contains a moral for all of us. IN THE TRADITION OF DISSENT1 H. A. INNIS The name of Silberling has become associated with the history of prices, but with this book it will take a prominent place in the history of economic thought in the United States. It is a tragedy that the author died in October, 1942, after three-quarters of the proof had been read, but we are fortunate in having the printed volume. I t represents the work of a lifetime and at least ten years of intensive study incidental to active participation in the forecasting of business cycles and trends. Its significance arises from a sustained effort to predict successfully trends in business for business men, for which prediction they were willing to pay. It is 1 The Dynamics of Businos, an A nalysis of Trmds, Cycles, and Time Relationships in American Economic Actioity since 1700 and their Bearing upon i'l Gooernmmt and Busintss Policy, by NoRMAN J. SrLSERLIN,G. New York, McGrawHill , 1943, $5.00. 130 THE UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO QUARTERLY literally a product of business activity. But it is tempered by the relations of the author to universities, first as an undergraduate of Harvard University and lastly as a member of the staff of Stanford 1 University. Moreover it follows the classical traditions laid down by Adam Smith in being concerned with trends over centuries. I } ! There are interesting parallels between the lives and the work of the two men even though the twentieth century cannot produce a Wealth of Nations. We may expect .a return to the fashion in which contributions of e~during value are not expected in the social scie11ces by individuals with ages much 'below fifty.2 Adam L Smith completed the Wealth of Nations at the age of fifty-five in Scotland. Silberling completed this book at the. age of fifty in California. They worked in the regional fringes of their respective periods, a,nd the dynamic character of their apprqaches is probably a,result of that fact. They had roots in native soil. · The tendency of economic thinking in metropolitan regions to become obsessed with the static state and with the consequent impasse involved in the application of speculations concerned with the static state to the dynamic state, is avoided in their books. The closed systems which have been built up in classical economics ,after Adam Smith, in Marxian economics, and in the work of Keynes, Hansen and Schumpeter, will be compelled to face the chal)enge of this' book. It is fresh evidence of the revolt against ecclesiastical economics. This review cannot pretend to do justice to the volume. It will be sufficient to say that no business man, no farmer...