We have had a little over forty years of experience of countries we conventionally dub "satellites." In looking at this slice of recent history two questions come to mind. Can one fit the type of relationships he finds within the Sino-Soviet bloc into the perspectives which economic history has developed in the debate on colonialism and imperialism? Has Nature made a leap and produced a new historical type, or do we have merely a new subtle change in form?
Professor Bolino makes a number of comments on our article, "Sequential Growth, the Labor Safety-Valve Doctrine and the Development of American Unionism," in this journal, September 1959, which certainly call for some rejoinder on our part.
"Let those who will consult the spirit rappers to bring forth its ghost."Such was Professor Shannon's firm caveat as he laid Frederick Jackson Turner's safety-valve doctrine to rest after a post mortem performed with some gusto. The warning seems to have had the effect intended. Although Turner's frontier concept continues to influence the work of American historians and not a few economists the labor-safety-valve doctrine seems generally to have been accepted as dead and buried. We have little taste for ghosts or spirit rapping, but we would like to argue that die safety-valve doctrine, even if suffering from neglect, retains more than a spark of vitality.