'ECONOMIC HUMANISM"

To Nikita Khrushchev U.S. capitalism is still, in his words, the capitalism "described by Karl Marx" in the igth century. In an attempt to set him straight, Ambassador to the U.N. Henry Cabot Lodge, before the Economic Club of New York last week, updated Khrushchev's tired old Marxist theory in more modern terms. Excerpts:

IF robber baron is the definition of capitalist, then we are not capitalists at all. In fact, on July 2, 1890, we declared war on monopoly capitalism when the Sherman Antitrust Act became law. That law is still being actively enforced.

There are, for example, 14 million Americans who own shares in American industry. In our country two-thirds of the gross national product goes into consumption--food, entertainment, refrigerators, automobiles, etc. Three out of four families own their own automobile. Three-fifths of all homes in America which are not on farms are owned by the families that occupy them, and three out of four of our farms are operated by the people who own them. One out of every ten families makes $10,000 a year or more--triple the proportion of ten years ago. Family income, adjusted for change in the value of the dollar, has gone up 50% in ten years.

Economic humanism rather than monopoly capitalism perhaps best describes such a system.

American business prospers at the same time that the Federal Govern ment, in ways large and small, pervades our lives -- that one adult in five gets regular checks from the Govern ment and that federal warehouses give out food to 5.000,000 persons and that 2,000,000 persons live in Government-subsidized housing. We live in a welfare state which seeks to put a floor below which no one sinks, but builds no ceiling to prevent man from rising.

The plans of tens of thousands of independent producers lead to greater production, a more dynamic economy and a richer life for all.

It would be a mistake to think that business leaders are America's ruling class. There is only one ruling class in this country, and that is the American voter. And whenever the citizens have wanted to change the system, they have done so through the ballot. They can do so again whenever they want to. We have this system today because the rank and file approves it and be cause it has given them the highest standard of living in the world.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.