Stuart Chase

Stuart Chase (March 8, 1888, Somersworth, New Hampshire – November 16, 1985) was an American economist and engineer trained at MIT. His writings covered topics as diverse as general semantics and physical economy. His hybrid background of engineering and economics places him in the same philosophical camp as R. Buckminster Fuller. Chase's thought was shaped by Henry George, Thorstein Veblen and Fabian socialism. Chase spent his early political career supporting "a wide range of reform causes: the single tax, women's suffrage, birth control and socialism." Chase's early books The Tragedy of Waste (1925) and Your Money's Worth (1928) were notable for their criticism of corporate advertising and their advocacy of consumer protection. Although not a Marxist, Chase admired the planned economy of the Soviet Union, being impressed with it after a 1927 visit. Chase stated that "The Russians, in a time of peace, have answered the question of what an economic system is for". It has been suggested that he was the originator of the expression a New Deal, which became identified with the economic programs of American president Franklin Delano Roosevelt. He wrote a cover story in The New Republic entitled "A New Deal for America", during the week that Roosevelt gave his 1932 presidential acceptance speech promising a new deal, but whether Roosevelt's speechwriter Samuel Rosenman saw the magazine is not clear.

His 1938 book The Tyranny of Words was an early (perhaps the earliest, predating Hayakawa) and influential popularization of Alfred Korzybski's general semantics.

Chase supported the isolationist movement and was against US entry in World War II, advocating this position in his 1939 book The New Western Front.

In the 1960s, Chase lent his support to the Johnson administration's Great Society policies.

Quotes

Chase is famous for the quote at the end of his book A New Deal, "Why should Russians have all the fun remaking a world?" — a reference to the "socialist experiment" in the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR).

He is quoted in S. I. Hayakawa's Language in Thought and Action as having said, "Common sense is that which tells us the world is flat."

Free Enterprise into 'X'

On pages 95 and 96 of The Road We Are Traveling, under the heading of "Free Enterprise into 'X'", Chase listed 18 characteristics of political economy that he had observed among Russia, Germany, Italy, Japan, and Spain between 1913 and 1942. Chase labeled this phenomenon "... something called 'X'". Characteristics include:

1. A strong, centralized government.

2. An executive arm growing at the expense of the legislative and judicial arms.

3. The control of banking, credit and security exchanges by the government.

4. The underwriting of employment by the government, either through armaments or public works.

5. The underwriting of social security by the government – old-age pensions, mothers’ pensions, unemployment insurance, and the like.

6. The underwriting of food, housing, and medical care, by the government.

7. The use of deficit spending to finance these underwritings.

8. The abandonment of gold in favor of managed currencies.

9. The control of foreign trade by the government.

10. The control of natural resources.

11. The control of energy sources.

12. The control of transportation.

13. The control of agricultural production.

14. The control of labor organizations.

15. The enlistment of young men and women in youth corps devoted to health, discipline,community service and ideologies consistent with those of the authorities.

16. Heavy taxation, with special emphasis on the estates and incomes of the rich.

17. Control of industry without ownership.

18. State control of communications and propaganda.

Selected bibliography

• When the war ends 1942-46 [electronic resource available online via the HathiTrust].

Contents v.1. The road we are traveling: 1914-1942. v.2. Goals for America: a budget of our needs and resources. v.3. Where's the money coming from? Problems of postwar finance. v.4. Democracy under pressure: special interests vs the public welfare. v.5. Tomorrow's trade: problems of our foreign commerce. v.6. For this we fought.

• The Road We Are Traveling, 1914-1942: guide lines to America's future as reported to the Twentieth Century Fund. Twentieth Century Fund; 1942
• Your Money's Worth: A study in the waste of the consumer's dollar (with Frederick J. Schlink ). 1928
• The Tragedy of Waste New York, Macmillan, 1929 and 1937
• Men and Machines 1929
• The Nemesis of American Business 1931
• A New Deal. New York, The Macmillan company, 1932. OCLC 172909
• The New Western Front (with Marian Tyler). Harcourt, Brace and Company, 1939.
• A Generation of Industrial Peace;: Thirty years of labor relations at Standard Oil Company 1941
• The Proper Study of Mankind Harper & Brothers 1948. OCLC 615390630
• Roads to Agreement: Successful methods in the science of human relations 1951
• For This We Fought;: Guide lines to America's future as reported to the Twentieth Century Fund
• Danger—Men Talking! a Background Book on Semantics and Communication
• Rich Land, Poor Land
• The Proper Study of Mankind Harper Colophon Books, 1956
• American Credos 1962
• Guides to Straight Thinking, With 13 Common Fallacies. New York: Harper, 1956. OCLC 307334
• The Economy of Abundance New York, The Macmillan company, 1934. Available via the Hathi Trust
• The Tyranny of Words New York: Harcourt, Brace and Co, 1938. OCLC 822896

Books about Chase

Vangermeersch, Richard G. J. The Life and Writings of Stuart Chase (1888–1985): From an Accountant's Perspective. Amsterdam: Elsevier JAI, 2005. ISBN 978-0-7623-1213-9

Sources

• Richard Wightman Fox, James T. Kloppenberg - A Companion to American Thought

External links

• Mexico: A Study of Two Americas hypertext from American Studies at the University of Virginia.
• Stuart Chase Brief life of a public thinker: 1888-1985