Atlanta Daily World

THEORY IN REVERSE
A theory of the rise and fall of
theories would make interesting
reading. For indeed it is a strange
day when some new theory does
not come to the fore and it is an
equally strange day when some old
theory is not thrown into discard.
It is in the field of the practice of
medicine where we find many of
our most imposing theories inflated
one day and deflated the next.
The writer well remembers when
typhoid sufferers could have little
or no water. Today they may have
all the water they want. Not many
years ago strict dieting was recom-
mended for arteriosclerotics. Today re-
stricted dieting is not recommend-
ed. More recently a salt free diet
was advised for this class of ail-
ments and already this theory is
widely questioned. A few years ex-
ercise was widely prescribed as the
sine qua non of good health, today
emphasis is placed on rest.
From the earliest times periods
of relative quiet have been recom-
mended for those recovering from
operations. Today patients having
even serious operations are urged to
be up and about the very next day
and soon as possible they are ush-
ered out of our ever-crowded and
overcrowding hospitals, and it is
difficult to dissociate this newest
theory from pressure by the hos-
pitalization companies who would
have most to lose by a protracted
hospitalization, and more to
gain by a short one.
Some months ago news came out
of Charleston, S. C. saying that
the crime rate among Negroes was
lower than among whites. This
about runs counter to all sociologi-
cal theories, which say that there
is close correlation between sub-
standard living and crime. With
Negroes ordinarily in the substand-
ard bracket, it is against all socio-
logical theory for the Negro to have
a lower incidence of crime than
the whites of the same community.
Yet such is reported from Charles-
ton.
Now comes the explosion of one
of the Marxian theories to the ef-
fect that socialism thrives among
the working classes with their
misery and squalor and destitu-
tion. A correlative theory would be
that communism, an accentuated
form of socialism, would attract the
proletariat who pose threats to our
democratic way of life but the
bourgeoisie. Then these revela-
tions throw into reverse one of the maj-
or Marxian theories. When the na-
tion's finger of suspicion is leveled
at such as Dr. Oppenheimer, not
only one of the nation's and world's
top-flight scientists but doubtless
drawing one of the world's top-
flight salaries, we have food for
serious thought.
Then we have the specter of what
is called
'campus communism'
thriving among the bourgeoisie and
the sons of the bourgeoisie, which is
contrary to the theory that com-
munism feeds on squalor and mise-
ry of the ghetto. Instead we have
it lifting its head on the campuses
of our powerfully
endowed and
supported institutions of learning.
This paradox must somehow be re-
solved.
If higher standards of economic
well-being cannot stay the fateful
hand of communism, what will?
Will our billions poured out and
still pouring out into the coffers of
foreign nations for their coopera-
tion in the fight against commu-
nism achieve the desired results?
When the higher-ups of the nation
in so many instances give week-
kneed allegiance to our great na-
tion while the proletariat are dy-
ing in its defense, we have before
us a question that is somehow tied
up with our national survival; and
the sooner we resolve this question
the sooner we get on with the mat-
ter of national security.