It seems to me that Mr. Hartley Withers has performed a task among the most useful that any man could set his hand to in writing his latest book, "The Case for Capitalism." To readers of this Journal who have found his monthly article an educational delight ever since its inception, and to a very much wider public than that, any volume by Mr. Withers comes with unique credentials. No economist of to-day quite equals his skill in resolving the technicalities of the most difficult subject into their simplest elements, and in ...
Read More
It seems to me that Mr. Hartley Withers has performed a task among the most useful that any man could set his hand to in writing his latest book, "The Case for Capitalism." To readers of this Journal who have found his monthly article an educational delight ever since its inception, and to a very much wider public than that, any volume by Mr. Withers comes with unique credentials. No economist of to-day quite equals his skill in resolving the technicalities of the most difficult subject into their simplest elements, and in carrying his readers along from one essential point to another with such pleasurable clarity. It is an invaluable thing to possess - this disentangling quality of mind, this power to master a subject so completely and to turn it over and over so freely and thoroughly, that even the task of elucidating it for the non-specialist becomes an agreeable exercise. I know of no writer on economics who equals Mr. Withers' enviable gifts of exposition. But what adds an element that one does not exaggerate by calling an element of fascination to his work, is the happy humour that illuminates it, his faculty of illustrating his points by examples from the homely everyday life around him, the impression one receives of a fine intelligence and a humane and feeling personality working in unison to convert political economy into a science of cheerfulness and an instrument of national betterment. "This book," says Mr. Withers in his preface, "is written to show that the greater output of goods and services on which material progress depends cannot be expected with certainty under any form of Socialism that has yet been proposed; that Capitalism, though a certain amount of robbery goes on in its backyard, does not itself rob anybody, but has wrought great benefits for all classes; and that, if improved and expanded, as it may be, without any sudden change in human nature such as other systems demand, it may earn for us the great material advance that is needed to provide us with a better, nobler, and more beautiful world...".. - Sperling's Journal , Vol. 5 [1920]
Read Less