AND THE GLORY

New Zealand Listener, Volume 31, Issue 785, 6 August 1954, Page 12

AND THE GLORY

POWER AND INFLUENCE, by Lord Beveridge; Hodder and Stoughton, English price 30/-. At last there is a saint on earth An angel he would be, If only he could have his will And make the Commons pass his Bill HIS verse was sent to Beveridge by an old age pensioner after the publication of his famous report on Social Insurance at the end of 1942. It was a prophetic verse-and it also provides the theme of this book. Lord Beveridge is a great man, but he can’t help feeling bitter about the actions of men with power-the power of government. He says that power "appeals to that which men share with brutes, to fear and to greed," and that influence "appeals to that which distinguishes men from. brutes," and influence must be enthroned over power. Beveridge’s bewilderment at Churchill’s boycott of his report and at the order to Government departments ban-

ning conversations with him (Beveridge) on the maintenance of employment seems to show that Beveridge, despite his years of being the influential Director of the London School of Economics, really lacks an understanding of politics. This is a surprising statement to make about a man whose work and writings have profoundly influenced both the opinions about and the administration of social security in several countries in and outside the British Commonwealth. But it also seems to be the view of the British economist Roy Harrod, who said: "The book is written with a beautiful simplicity, which makes it fully revealing." Though we are aware of Beveridge’s world eminence in social security and full employment, we are also uncomfortably aware of his own self-appraisal. Beveridge is apparently one of those who feel that the detail of his life and thoughts is also interesting to other people, or perhaps he is merely being his usual scrupulously honest self. At least some of the detail shows significant aspects of his personality; for example, on his first visit to the Tyrol he records that he climbed 72,000 feet and spent his nights at an average height of 5540 feet; and "in the Lake District alone there were some sixty-five points marked on the ordnance map as above 2500 feet, and I set out to climb them all. I have now climbed all except five, and these I have given up."

W. B.

Sutch