===== PAGE 1 ===== THE [eClNd APRIL 1957 IDEAS ON LIBERTY AY Adventure Eternal — An Easter Sermon . Edmund A. Opitz 3 Criminality of Rulers . . . . . . . Pitirim A. Sorokin 9 The Inner Sovereignty . . . . . . . Ralph Bradford 11 What Brandeis Said about Contempt forLaw E. F. Hutton 20 Penalty of Surrender . . . . . . . LleonardE. Read 21 One-Man Pressure Group . . . . . . Duke Burgess 27 Going into Business . . . . . . . . 30 An Educational Challenge. . . . . . C.J. Steiner 34 The Basis of Economic Growth . . . . Ralph Husted 40 Breaths of Freedom . . . . . . . . 46 Your Tax Burden: 1. Fruits of Intolerance . F. A. Harper 48 Christmas Presents . . . . . . . . Augustin Navarro V. 58 When Thistles Bear Figs . . . . . . John Chamberlain 60 Book Reviews. . . . . . . . . . : 63 THE FOUNDATION FOR ECONOMIC EDUCATION, INC. Irvington-on-Hudson, New York ===== PAGE 2 ===== OVERCOATS Not till July, Nikolai HE Communist Party paper, Pravda, recently reported a short- age of winter clothing in the U.S.S.R. Seems the government- run factories were still turning out summer garb when they should have been producing for winter. Now Nikolai’s out in the cold. Which only goes to prove that there's more ways than one for Communism to give you goose pimples. This is what happens when any government takes over a country’s business. Yet there are many in this country who think government can run business better than individuals. We like overcoats and we don’t agree. The Timken Roller Bearing Company Canton 6, Ohio ===== PAGE 3 ===== THOMPSON FREEZES MOTORS AT 65° BELOW ZERD TO HELP YOUR CAR START EASIER AND QUICKER Rugged tests safeguard Thompson-made products against wear, shock, heat and cold Ay BT Fh 29} li avfise) isa HH I: this special "deep freeze” labora- Torture Chamber”—and for good of rigid tests. 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(We pay postage both ways). ® RESOURCES over $225 million, RESERVES over $21 million. ® VARIETY of accounts, Individual, Joint, Trust and Corporation. “LET'S GET ACQUAINTED” — Write today for this booklet and financial statement, to: COAST FEDERAL SAVINGS, DEPARTMENT H, 9th AND HILL LOS ANGELES 14, CALIF. Member Federal Home Loan Bank—Federal Savings and Loan Insurance Corp. CoRST FEDERAL SAVINGS JOE CRAIL, PRESIDENT ===== PAGE 5 ===== An Easter thought: For man to achieve his - proper: goal he must be free to start now. to EDMUND A. OPITZ THE LARGEST VOLUME in my library is Young’s Bible Concordance. This book lists every word in the Bible and the passages where they occur, and it makes up into a tome about the size of Webster's Unabridged. It is instructive to look up various concepts in this book and note how certain matters were regarded by the ancient writers. Take the concept of “immortality,” for instance; in the entire New Testament there are only two references to it, and these are from the writings of Paul. Jesus never used the word. Jesus spoke of “eternal life,” and under that heading, Young has many refer- ences to the recurrence of the phrase in the four gospels. The two concepts, “immortality” and “eternal life,” are often thoughtlessly used as if they meant the same thing and were interchangeable. They are related, but do not have the same meaning. The idea of “immortality” implies an extension in time, a going on and on; the idea of “eternal life,” on the other hand, suggests a quality of life, a richness and significance in living that makes going on and on desirable. Perhaps the distinction might be most clearly grasped if we say that “immortality” con- cerns what may happen to a person after death, while “eternal life” is a way of living which can be practiced here and now. A young man came to Jesus and said, “What must I do to gain life eternal ?”’ Jesus’ reply was, in Moffatt’s translation, “If you want to get into life, keep the commands.” Note the words Jesus The Reverend Mr. Opitz is a member of the staff of the Foundation for Economic Education. 3 ===== PAGE 6 ===== 4 THE FREEMAN April uses to paraphrase “life eternal”; slogan of the people who paint “If you want to get into life,” he these signs seems to be, “Where explains. “Getting into life” sug- will you spend eternity ?”’ The im- gests the kind of living that is full plication is that if you don’t spend to the brim of the real goods that it where they plan to spend it, you the universe has to offer; the kind won’t like where you are at all! of life that is replete with joy and But if Jesus was right in his con- intensity, the kind of life men find ception of “eternal life,” the ques- within their reach, and possibly tion is not “Where will you spend within their grasp. All this and eternity?” but “How are you more is implied in the phrase spending it?” “eternal life” as it occurred in the If we are the kind of creatures thought of Jesus; it means much who participate in eternal life any more than mere unending exist- time, we participate in it now; nor ence, the idea conveyed by the is our participation limited to the word “immortality.” so-called spiritual level. We par- . ticipate also at the natural and Eternity Includes Today social levels. It is certainly true Those of you who have motored thatwe don’t have to participate in through the Southern states will eternal life now — nobody forces us undoubtedly recall the religious to “keep the commands”; but if we mottoes that one sees painted on don’t “get into life” now, it does rocks beside the road. The favorite not seem likely that any later suc-- ae, tnt So A A et A PR et Yeh " NE carp! PIPE « ~ FA v M THE .. APRIL 1957 ¢ Vol. 7, No. 4 [ (el | 1d] | "Additional copies, postpaid, to whole ‘or in part (providing cus- one- address: Single copy 50c;-3 tomary credit is given). Any other . for. $1.00; 25 or more, 20c each. article will -be supplied in reprint Permission Is hereby granted to form:if there are enough inquiries A MONTHLY JOURNAL OF IDEAS ON LIBERTY « anyone hi reprint any article in to justify the cont of printing. The Freeman is’ published monthly by’ the Foundation for Economic. Education, Inc, trvington- -on- Hudson, N. Y. Anyone may receive the journal regularly upon written request; an annual subscription donation of $5.00 or more is a suggestion--not a requirement. Accepted as controlled circulation publication at trvingten, N. Y. with additional entry at New York, N. Y. Copyright 1957, The Foundation for Economic: Education, inc. Printed in U.S. A. ===== PAGE 7 ===== 1957 ADVENTURE ETERNAL 5 cess in this direction will be prob- eral points. One of the important able if we postpone the present considerations in any discussion of step. Albert Jay Nock remarked immortality is the relationship be- dryly that “the vast majority are tween the brain and consciousness. so dead while they live that one The brain is a piece of matter — may suppose they stay dead when the consciousness is nonmaterial. they die.” Matthew Arnold said The relationship between the two the same thing in poetry. no one can explain, although it is ... the energy of life may be undeniable that a relationship Kept on after the grave, but not €Xists. As a noted scientist re- begun; marked, “The transition from the And he who flagged not in the physics of the brain to the facts of earthly strife, consciousness is unthinkable.” Con- From strength to strength advanc- sciousness exists, and we know it ing — only he, only as existing in association with His soul well-knit, and all his matter and force, but it is clearly battles won, ‘not matter or force or any con- Mounts, and that hardly, to eternal ;ejyaple modification of either. & As an illustration of this point, This is the point of view that, observe the blossom of the lily. You as Evelyn Underhill has put it, look at it and see that it is white. “each human spirit is an unfin- Trace the whole process of percep- ished product, on which the Crea- tion: bringing in light waves, tive Spirit is always at work.” If stimulation of the optic nerves, evolution be a fact, if we have de- molecular motion in the brain, and veloped from simpler beings by the possible electric discharges. The full use of such powers as we resulting fact of consciousness is possessed at any given time, then an awareness of whiteness—a it is reasonable to suppose that thing of an entirely different order immortality, if it is to be anything than the molecular changes, wave at all, is likewise an achievement, lengths, and the other phenomena an achievement related to the use which precede the act of conscious- we make of our present powers. ness. This act of consciousness is the nearest thing to us; it is the one The question of human immor- thing we know directly — all else tality has teased the human mind we know by inference, and this is for thousands of years, and the true even of things we see and discussion has revolved around sev- touch. Anyone who has had an Consider the Lily ===== PAGE 8 ===== 6 ©. THE FREEMAN . April elementary course in philosophy as the same person we were five, knows that we cannot trust our ten, fifteen, or fifty years ago. How senses overmuch, that our obser- does our consciousness or our per- vations of the outside world can be sonality ‘survive the bodies we use accepted only with reservations. up? We do not know, but we know Someone has remarked that the that it does. The question is bound whole world outside, including the to: arise: If our. consciousness existence of other people, is only a changes bodies as a pony express remote inference from events tak- rider changed horses, can it con- ing place in the individual con- ceivably get along without a physi- sciousness. - cal partner? oo Or put the matter this way: Within our experience we know The individual consciousness is consciousness only in association invisible and impalpable; but nev- with matter and force, but must ertheless, it is a durable thing, we regard this association as es- able to survive even frightful sential and intrinsic? Can con- treatment of its physical partner, sciousness persist dissociated from the brain. The book, Death Be Not either of them, either alone or in Proud, tells of an exceedingly bril- association with some unknown liant young lad in his middle teens quantity which has not their prop- who was the victim of a brain can- erties? If someone says flatly that cer. This wild thing began to grow it cannot, we must ask him how he inside the boy’s skull, and for al- knows that. If he says it can, we most two years he fought off death. must ask the same question. Despite the damage to brain And with this we have come tissues and the crowding suffered about as far as intellectual inquiry by the brain, the young man’s re- can take us: Unless other factors markable intellect and sweet char- are introduced, the inquiry does acter remained unimpaired to the not carry much conviction one way end. : or the other. The reason for this is Then too, individual conscious- plain. Before we can entertain con- ness persists in spite of bodily victions, we must have some ex- changes. In the course of growing periences which back them up. older each one of us has used and Certain conclusions may be air- discarded several physical bodies, tight logically, and yet carry little a little bit at a time. Nevertheless, conviction with the majority of a sense of our own continuing iden- people because the majority has tity persists; we know ourselves had no experience in the field in What Is Consciousness? ===== PAGE 9 ===== 1957 ADVENTURE ETERNAL 7 which those conclusions were with the production, distribution, reached. The next step in the dis- and consumption of material goods, cussion of immortality, then, is to of our absorption in life at the discover the kind of experience newspaper level, of our infatuation out of which convictions may de- with amusements and distractions, velop on one side of this inquiry of our international playing at or the other. cops and robbers. Did it take ten oo thousand years of human history How Many Lifetimes? to produce us and our like? And The idea of the persistence of can we conceive of spinning out personality, or immortality, if it is such existences as ours through all to have substance, must be associ- eternity? The notion is ludicrous! ated with the idea of something worth persisting in, with the idea Things of Enduring Worth of eternal life as defined earlier. On the other hand, there is no If one lifetime is not worth living, incongruity in the idea of men like certainly there would be no merit Dante, Shakespeare, and Goethe in carrying life on for an indefinite carrying on their life work period of time. In one of Eugene throughout infinite time. There is O’Neill’s plays, a character says, a sense in which the philosophers, “Immortality! An old superstition poets, saints, artists, scientists, born of fear. Beyond death there and musicians whose lives are al- is nothing. That, at least, is a cer- ready associated with the good, the tainty, a certainty we should be true,’and the beautiful have some- thankful for. One life is boring how entered upon eternal life al- enough; do not condemn us to an- ready. The things with which they other.” This is the crux of the are preoccupied could persist for- matter; if our life is not lived ever without arousing our sense of among the things which endure the ridiculous. Indeed, our sense of and ought to endure, and if some fitness is injured if they do not so of the character and quality of endure. The quest for beauty, the these things does not rub off onto search for truth, and the efforts us, then the idea of its persistence after justice are by their very na- is an unpleasant prospect. ture endless pursuits, and those Pick out the things on thehuman who engage in these pursuits are scene today with which you can in the realm of eternal things associate the idea of eternity with- already; they have “got into life.” out arousing a sense of incongru- These are the kinds of experiences ity. Think of our preoccupation that lend themselves to the idea of ===== PAGE 10 ===== 8 THE FREEMAN April immortality; if anything persists Our life is shot through with eter- through time, these things do. The nity, and we live in the midst of idea of immortality can carry con- things of permanent value which viction only when it is associated serve to remind us what we really with the kind and quality of living are and to what we are called. that we have called eternal life. “One never knows,” writes W. The question comes down to the McNeile Dixon in an essay on the practical matter of how we shall arts, “when the heavens may open, live now. If there really is adven- and in the shock of this bewilder- ture eternal, it begins right where ment, face to face with the im- we are now, with our attitude to- measurable universe, a man looks ward the things in life of enduring spout him with a new awareness, worth. a new apprehension. It is then that suddenly the whole scene of exist- ence is perceived in its overwhelm- There is little in our culture — jpg immensity, its true dimensions. even in our religion — which serves | | It is then that the values of the to bring our minds to bear upon fleeting world are weighed in the the great human themes. It is not pglance. Even the plain man is ex- easy to raise ourselves to the point posed to this strange peril.” of getting into life. Our minds are There is a right kind of life for preoccupied more with the means hyman beings, a life lived in the of getting a living than with the ight of such eternal values as jus- ends for which life should be lived. tice beauty, truth, and goodness. Our life is so fragmentary and full That's an old idea, but a sound one. of distractions that we seldom get A life so lived pays off in the genu- around to those things for which, jnely human satisfactions, being in our more thoughtful moments, Moments of Greatness we feel a need. Yet even the least A light that darkness cannot of us occasionally entertains an- smirch, a peace gels unawares by acts of kindness, That torment cannot break, a life by doing more than our duty, by that death striving for justice, by spreading Is powerless to kill, being life beauty, and by speaking the truth. "eternal. eo 00 | ios ON LoDoaTY | Liberty and Life THE PASSION for liberty is only another name for life itself. - REV. CHARLES FERGUSON ===== PAGE 11 ===== | DR SHOWS that the use criminals could then intimidate of almost all newly discovered others and dictate their orders to weapons passes, within one or two communities, both large and small, decades after their invention, into spreading death and destruction to the hands of criminals. There is hundreds and thousands. hardly any doubt that small ther- Still more catastrophic would be monuclear weapons which can be the results of a misuse of these easily handled by one or a few in- weapons by the rulers of the states, . dividuals will be made available of military forces, of business- empires, of political parties, of fanatical groups — even of inter- national bodies like the United Na- tions, and others who may become legally empowered to control these weapons so that they would have at their disposal a vast accumula- tion of these instruments of death and destruction. We cannot fool ourselves with the belief that such leaders would never misuse or abuse their power and responsi- bility. The ugly facts of human history decisively confirm the va- within a short period. The same lidity of Lord Acton’s dictum: can be said of the means of bac- “Power tends to corrupt and abso- teriological warfare. It would be lute power corrupts absolutely. quite foolish to expect that the Great [political] men are almost ) criminals would willingly abstain always bad men.” And in corre- from the use of such “handy” spondence with him Creighton means or, under the existing cir- quoted John Bright's utterance: cumstances, would be unable to ob- “If the people knew what sort of tain them at all for their ‘“profes- men statesmen were, they would sional” operations. Some of the rise and hang the whole lot of disastrous results of such a situa- them.” tion are obvious. One or a few Our own investigation of the Dr. Sorokin is Professor of Sociology, Harvard University. This article is {from his address be- {fore the American Association for the Advancement of Science, December 1956. ===== PAGE 12 ===== 10 THE FREEMAN April criminality of the rulers — English, clearinternational or civil warfare. Russian, French, Austrian, Turk- In the light of these data, the ish kings, as well as the presidents most dangerous group .for the and political bosses of republics — whole of mankind is the group of shows that one out of four of these rulers, assisted by the morally ir- rulers, these autocratic monarchs responsible scientists and inven- and dictatorial bosses of republics tors of destructive means. It is ° and democracies, has been a quali- exactly this group who might.any fied murderer (patricide, matricide, day unleash the greatest. catas- uxoricide, fratricide, etc.).In other trophe for the whole of humanity words, the rulers of the states are that we have ever known. the most criminal group in their Unless we can discover how to respective populations. Their crim- diffuse rather than to concentrate inality tends .to decrease with a political and other power of man limitation of their power, but it over man, we can expect only new still remains exceptionally high in catastrophies capable of ending all nations. the creative mission of humanity We have no grounds for believ- on this planet. This discovery will "ing that contemporary and near- require fresh and fundamental re- future rulers will miraculously search into problems of crimi- turn into wise and blameless saints nality, war, government, morality, who would not misuse these fear- individual and tribal egotism, and ful nuclear arms by starting a nu- the like. eo 0 0 IDEAS © LIBERTY 7 Politically Powered Ambition WHEN AMBITION, wild and lawless, seizes on the citizen entrusted with the government; when licentiousness diffuses itself through the community and corrupts the sources of power, that Republic is doomed to destruction. Mounds of paper and parchment cannot arrest its progress; the voice of reason will be drowned and Liberty expire. Over men void of principle laws have no force, when they can be transgressed with impunity. If you can stay the current of the ocean by a bullrush, then ‘may you impede the course of an aspiring, triumphing demagogue by throwing in his way the laws of his Country. A power of restraining the tumultuous passions of the human heart, is found only in the dictates of solid morality; this therefore is as necessary to Republican Governments as blood to the Constitution of man. DANIEL WEBSTER, 1802 ===== PAGE 13 ===== TNO ——— A SSSSSSSSS>>> £SSIIISKLLEL RALPH BRADFORD Y GRANDMOTHER used to make human contriving there is a humorous, malaprop render- greater end that dawns upon ings of well-known adages. One minds and spirits ripe for its that I recall as pertinent to this meaning. And beyond the greatest discussion had to do obliquely with end that man can dream of looms cause and effect. Using the word the ‘ultimate end and purpose of “mean” in its colloquial sense of life itself. being unkind, fractious, and dis- As human life has pushed its obliging, she would say, “The end way through time, men have ban- doesn’t justify } died about light you in being “Cause and effect, means and ends, phrases con- mean.” seed and fruit cannot be severed; cerning the Perhaps in for the effect already blooms in moral machin- that she struck the cause, the end pre-exists in ery of the closer to the the means.” worlds. This mark of truth : they have done than she realized. She was at least sometimes in bumptious ignorance, toying with the reverse of what now and then, I suspect, in humor- has been a loosely-held but nearly ous despair, and again perhaps in universal opinion — namely, that sheer lilliputian bravado when ends do justify means; and to the faced with problems and mysteries extent that she denied that hoary that baffled and awed them. And dictum she was fighting with the this end-and-means flippancy, this stars in their courses. For this particular bit of morality-for-con- end-and-means adage goes far venience, carries the fictitious deeper into the patterns of human weight of much usage, plus the behavior and apperceptivity than counterfeit authority of its an- its commonplace terms would indi- tiquity. cate. Beyond every petty end of As far back as the first century Mr. Bradford is a well-known writer and business organization consultant. 11 ===== PAGE 14 ===== 12 THE FREEMAN April B.C. we find Publius Syrus writing: using a bad method to obtain a Honesta turpido est pro causa bona good result? If we can answer that — literally, “Crime is honest for a question with respect to our more good cause.” Many another, before obvious and material aims and and after Syrus, has sounded the methods, perhaps we will have echo of that idea — in drama, in opened the way for an understand- poetry, in everyday speech. It is as ing of the broader moral and spir- much a part of our moral folklore itual applications of the careless . as the familiar “All’s well that old saying. ends well,” and as fundamentally - false. An End Involves Principle What, after all, is an end? Every Philosophical Obscurity person sets himself certain objec- This is not to say that the adage tives — things to be accomplished has never been disputed. The ques- today, next week, next year. Some tion of the relationship between of these are actually trivial tasks; means and end is one upon which a few might be considered impor- men have philosophized from earli- tant ends. If we are not careful, est times. Indeed, one is a little we can right now get aboard a staggered now and then by the mental merry-go-round that will weight of esoteric argument that give us a circular ride as futile as has been expended upon the sub- Swift’s burlesque tussle between ject. Philosophers .seem unable-to the Big and Little-endians! Let us consider the matter without floun- agree that an end, for our purpose, dering about happily in a swamp is an objective of sufficient magni- of obscure polysyllabic nomencla- tude or importance to involve a ture that has meaning only for principle. Even there, we can easily another philosopher. They start slide off into tortured abstractions, out to explore what seems to be a and wind up in a helpless contem- simple ethical equation, only to get plation of the eternal flux and in- snarled in a maze of abstruse on- terchange of means and ends that tology, epistemologic bypaths, occur (one supposes) in time’s un- ‘chiliastic excursions, and eschato- ceasing continuum. logical speculations. Suppose we try to set up a few Maybe we can do no better with criteria, starting with ordinary, this present inquiry; but let us at comprehensible patterns, in the any rate strive at the beginning hope that we can work our way for a simple answer to a plain through, finally, to some ultimate question: Are men ever justified in concepts. In a temporal and physi- ===== PAGE 15 ===== i 1957 THE INNER SOVEREIGNTY 13 cal sense, a good end for a person would seem to be one that will in- crease his happiness, prosperity, and usefulness without diminish- ing the happiness, prosperity, and usefulness of others. A good end for a manufacturing company, it seems reasonable to say, is to make a good product, sell it in competi- tion with others at a price its pur- chasers are willing to pay, and make an adequate return to those who have invested their money in the enterprise. But you may say this omits any reference to em- ployment and wages. True — and deliberately so; for contrary to much loose talk, the end of indus- try is not to furnish employment but to turn out a product that people need or want, and to pay a rewarding return on the capital invested and the management skills involved. If this is done, employ- ment and wages follow inevitably; if it is not done, no amount of “social” good intention will avail it anything. The industry will die, and there will be neither employ- ment nor wages. What is a good end for a school? Shall we not say that it is to equip students to begin the life-process of education by teaching the value of mental, moral, and physical dis- cipline? And what of government? Its good end would seem to be to protect its citizens in their life, their liberty, and their pursuit of happiness; and beyond that, to the greatest extent possible, to let them alone. Let them alone to be rapacious, to steal, to commit crimes and depredations? Cer- tainly not; for to protect all, means inevitably to restrain and punish some. Unworthy Means If these be considered good and reasonable ends in the areas men- tioned, what happens when the wrong means are employed for their attainment? If a person seeks to increase his happiness, prosperity,and usefulness by work, application, study, the use of in- genuity, the cultivation of his mental and spiritual capacities, his end remains good because he is using good means for its realiza- tion. If the person lies, cheats, shirks, substitutes deception for ingenuity, then he may attain the temporary end of personal pros- perity for what it is worth; but he will assuredly not be happy, and he will certainly not in any social sense be useful. His end will have been destroyed by the means. If the manufacturing company turns out a poor product by scamp- ing on materials and workman- ship, if its management rigs prices, juggles the stock, or holds out on the investors — then the end will have been destroyed by the means; and though the com- ===== PAGE 16 ===== 14 .. THE FREEMAN April pany may for a time seem to pros- How Objectives Are Lost per, sooner or -later it will. be In projecting and defining the bankrupt. i. objectives which we are pleased to If the school substitutes educa- call ends, does anybody other than tional gimcracks for fundamental criminals (and even they some- training, if it forgets that its first times offer interesting rationaliza- mission is to develop character tions) ever admit that the end he rather than to mass-fabricate a seeks is bad? Hitler didn’t. He series of mental replicas, then the said, and probably believed at the means will have swallowed up the start, that he was working toward end, and the human product willbe a good end: the political rehabili- largely worthless to society and to tation and economic upgrading of itself. } Co the German people. Mussolini - Finally, if the government for- didn’t. He proposed a better econ- gets that it is government -and be- omy for the Italians. Napoleon comes simply another commercial didn’t. His expressed aim was for enterprise; if it competes in the peace:through the establishment market place with its own people, of a kind of United States of Eu- using their money. for its capital; rope. Perén didn’t. His avowal was if those who successively control to elevate the living level of the that government through the impoverished Argentine masses. mechanism of pelitical parties win Who will deny that all these stated elections by promising and giving aims were worthy ones? Then to various segments of the popula- what happened to them; that they tion special privileges and advan- were never realized? Simply this: tages that can come only through that the ends were destroyed by the process of taking something the means. The means used were away from other citizens; if -it cruel, tyrannical, unjust, bad; and pursues policies that revolt the the ends — I.started to say they be- economic commonsense of every- came bad also, but actually they body, including the supposed bene- simply disappeared altogether, ficiaries of those policies; and if swallowed up, so to speak, in the in the process of doing all such means. ] Co things it ignores a long-continued Indeed, when the means used for. inflation that reduces to fractions their attainment began to be evil, the .value of the people’s money; the ends could not fail to be either then by all these bad means the end changed or annihilated. “Cause and originally contemplated has been effect, means and-ends, seed and diminished and threatened. fruit,” said Emerson, “cannot. be - ===== PAGE 17 ===== 1957 THE INNER SOVEREIGNTY 15 severed; for the effect already million would enable you to get blooms -in the cause, the end pre- your wife a new car, give your exists in the means.” And Nicholas daughters ‘“advantages,” and set Berdyaev, in The Realm of Spirit your son up in business. Further- and the Realm of Caesar, put it more, you are charitably disposed even more searchingly. “The main and would give liberally to worthy consideration,” he says, is ‘not causes. Aside from such things, that the means are amoral, cruel you would use part of your million . . .. but rather that, when evil to expand the small business you means are employed . .. the evil now own, thus increasing the pro- means form men’s souls, while the duction of wealth. The end is good, good ends lose their living force.” both for you and for society; so The italics are supplied to empha- you set about realizing it. size that what we are talking about is, after all, subjective. The good T9X Hurdles end, whatever else it may envisage, The first thing you discover is can only be good to the extent that that, partly as a result of our hav- it does not destroy, deform, or be- ing as a nation used some wrong little men’s souls. That, of course, means to attain what were believed is to state it negatively. The truly to be good ends, your government great and positive end is to free has fixed things so that it is almost men’s souls from all trammeling, impossible foryou to getthe million. artificial, and objective values, so It can be done; but what with tax that they may appraise accurately brackets running up to 91 per cent, and pursue happily the real pur- and what with the normal hazards pose of human life. of business enterprise, you find : that it is very slow going. You be- Wanted: A Million come impatient. If having a mil- And what is that purpose? We lion is a proper end, you want to will try to find the answer in due attain it now and not thirty years time; but just now, let us see if we hence.- You get discouraged and can peg down another point by you begin to be embittered. You assuming arbitrarily that a certain see numerous other men with a end is a good one. Let us make it million or more each; and you ask objective, material, and “practical.” yourself petulantly what they have We will say that it would be a that you do not — beyond a rich desirable end for you to have a father or a lot of luck. Maybe there million dollars. You are a good Just isn’t any justice, after all! citizen and a decent person. The At this juncture you meet an ===== PAGE 18 ===== 16 THE FREEMAN April attractive chap who turns out to thing for the kind of person you be an underworld character. He is have become. In your hands it may a smuggler of narcotics. In your now become the implement for mood of frustration approaching great evil to society. The good end desperation you decide to join him. has been changed to a bad one. In a short time you make large What is even more important and sums of money. Next, through disastrous, you have deformed your evil associate you are let in your own soul. You have demon- on a gambling racket and take a strated in your own moral deterio- big cut. You then devise a slick ration Lord Acton’s dictum about scheme to sell worthless stock, and the corruptive influence of power. you come out of the operation with The good end has been swallowed “a bundle.” In the process, in order up in the bad means, and you have to save your own skin, you help been swallowed up with it. railroad an innocent man to prison. An extreme and farfetched ex- But the money rolls in. You are ample? Admittedly. But similar loaded. You are a big shot. You changes and perversions can be have it made. In five years you brought about by less dramatic have your million and are in a and obvious, but no less insidious, position to do all the good things methods. When a man substitutes with it that you once dreamed of. a public relations program for the simple process of running his busi- A Soul Is Lost ness fairly and honorably, he may That, after all, was your end — get what he wants in the way of a good end, which you have never misinforming and misleading the lost sight of. Therefore, we have public, but something will have here a clear case of where a good happened to him. Please notice end has been brought about by bad that the significant word here is means? Oh, but we have no such “substitutes.” Public relations, so- thing! For in the process of attain- called — the practice of letting the ing that end something happened public know what you are doing in that you had not taken into ac- order to win friends for your busi- count. You became a crook. You ness or your product—is a per- corrupted the innocent, abetted fectly good means to an equally criminals, and wronged the help- - good end. But when it becomes a less. Even though you might still substitute for conscience, decency, devote large portions of your swag and integrity, then it is converted ~ to worthy causes, possessing a mil- into a bad means which will in . lion dollars is no longer a good time destroy both the projected ===== PAGE 19 ===== 1957 THE INNER SOVEREIGNTY 17 good end and the man or men on means, well and good; but if I be- whose behalf it is practiced. come sly and wily and devious and scheming, and especially if I come to place my personal fortunes Many of the things we ordi- ahove the welfare of the company narily look upon as ends are really that pays me —then I will have only means to other and greater changed the coveted good end by ends not yet envisaged. Neverthe- destroying my fitness for it. More, less, in terms of material human | will have ruined or indefinitely experience they are good ends — postponed my chance to pursue and what we might call way-station or realize the great end which looms stepping-stone ends, quite good when all the once-important lesser and proper in themselves, though ends have settled at last into their destined to become subordinate in place as means. That end is to the perspective of an expanding comprehend and attempt to ful- vision. If, for instance, Joe Brown fi] life’s purpose. aspires to be president of the Con- solidated Gadget Company (or of To Fulfill Life's Purpose the Mid-state Agricultural Col- Can we express that purpose? lege), and if he finally attains it Surely it is not merely the attain- honorably, he has achieved a good ment of happiness, else the end. But if he has grown in soul- greatest songs and mightiest dra- stature through the good means mas would not have been built that he has employed along the upon tragedy and sorrow. The way, then he will realize, once he making and exchanging and own- has attained this goal, that it is ing of things — this cannot be the but a means after all, in the larger purpose of life, for these are often pattern of his developing life. a burden and vexation of body and Let us say that I work for a spirit. Success, fame, distinction, growing business concern, and leadership, learning, even wisdom hope for advancement. I want to itself — all these are laudable at- achieve things, to be recognized, tainments and conditions; but they and to be rewarded. My ambition are means, and to mistake them for to be at the head of the company ultimate ends is to miss the mark some day is a proper one within of our high calling, which is to a the limits of my present under- purpose beyond all method. standing of means and ends. If I What is it that man truly as- achieve it by the employment of pires to? Superficially, this one as- positive and growth-stimulating pires to power, that one to riches, Goals Become Stepping-Stones ===== PAGE 20 ===== 18 THE FREEMAN . April another to fame, still another to to the dimmest generations. It has social distinction, or to leadership been foreshadowed in the legends in literature or in a profession. But and sacred writings of men since these things, worthy and proper their hopes and aspirations were enough, are still not the ends that first recorded. The thunderings of will lead to a man’s fulfillment. Hebrew prophets, storming down When all success, fame, wealth, from the hills; the elaborate distinction have heen attained, are maxims of Shantung’s yellowed men usually happy and satisfied? sage; the dream of Gautama, fash- Why do they so often find that the ioned from. his Bo-tree medita- thing they looked upon as the mark tions; the fire-born Persian drama of success turns to ashes when it of the good Ahura Mazda locked has been realized? Why are they in endless conflict with the evil driven on: to. something only Angra Mainyu; the flaming One- vaguely apprehended but compel- God message from the hot Arabian ling? In their gropings men have sands; the gently-stern, -truth- assigned to life a variety of pur- sanctified doctrine of love ‘that poses: to labor; to build things of came to the world from Nazareth substance; to weave the dreams of by way of Gethsemane and art and poesy; to develop the wiz- Golgotha — what were these all but ardry of science— and in the very the variously expressed, univer- process of enumerating such sally apprehended concept of the things, one stops upon.a suddenly purpose of life? realized conviction: These: things "That purpose is to ‘labor God- also are but means; the great end, ward, to approach and know God, the final purpose, lies beyond! to be Godlike.” And shall mortals, : -~ who dre of the clay, aspire to be The Instinct To. Emerge Godlike? Yes, for both man and - Do we really. need to summon the clay are of -God. To be God's the philosophers for ‘help in dis- image, to éxpress him, to be like cerning life’s purpose? Do we not him — this is the only end, the only know, each deep within himself, purpose, that makes" life intelligi- what that purpose is? There is ble. It" is the one ‘great end to surely in every man and woman an which all other ends are means. In instinct for it, an infallible inner this there is no immodesty or pre- faculty for its discovery and. ap- sumption. If man is a part, a child, prehension. But apart from such an idea ‘of God's, shall he cringe inner promptings it is writ large and be fearful of his Creator, his in the annals of our fathers, back Father — or ‘shall he not rather ===== PAGE 21 ===== 1957 THE INNER SOVEREIGNTY 19 stand erect and unafraid, seeking and he resists all efforts at such only to know, to understand, to enforcement as he does any inva- reflect God? The deepest instinct sion of his inner sovereignty, any and most persistent yearning: attempted denial of his essential of the baffled human spirit is freedom. But in a universe of ma- to transcend the material and the terial mystery, with physical rational, to grow, to learn, to pene- science leading only to the thresh- trate mysteries, to overcome evil old of truth but never within the with good, to be respected through sanctuary, to the free spiritual earning self-respect, to strive for man the heavens declare the glory perfection — to be Godlike. of God and the firmament showeth his handiwork. Man no longer, “with impious ‘impudence, creates About these deep promptings God in his own image but believes, man has woven the fantasy, the in humble pride, that he himself legendry, the mystery, and the is cast in the image of the Creator. beauty of his religions. Sometimes In this concept no place is left for those religions have been primi- the anthropomorphic God of prim- tive, superficial, and infantile. itive imagery. God is not con- Sometimes they have been ceived of or expressible in any smothered under the deadening terms that are relevant to the ma- fogs of sacerdotal formalism and terial things of ordinary experi- compulsion. Now here, now yonder, ence. Man simply knows God; he they have been colored by those does not and cannot describe him. messianic doctrines, chiliastic con- He knows that God is spirit; and cepts, doleful eschatologic theoso- he believes, with a hope that grows phies, enforced dogmas and free- living within him, that he himself dom-denying fixed . credos which is spirit, partaking of a universal have caused the philosophers so spirit, and that he himself as God’s much perturbation, but which are witness may be Godlike. Belief Is Voluntary truly of little importance beside To this end, all else in life and the central fact of man’s undying, experience are only means — and to voluntary belief. the attainment of this end, even To the free soul of a free man, to the touching in our understand- his secret meeting with God is ing of the hem of its garment, no his deepest spiritual experience. bad or unworthy means is think- No one can force God upon him, able. LI I ===== PAGE 22 ===== W hat Brandeis Said About CONTEMPT FOR LAW 2 E. F. HUTTON perm CH pepovy Pw eT sy SRISHTIE ETE) provers £1 wo RARE RIME continues to grow. The FBI reports the number of major crimes in 1956 was the highest on record. Why? We claim to be peace loving, don’t we? Yet crime : is war. Our crime rate is one of the highest in the world. ‘ Who and what is responsible ? Many reasons can be given. ’ All contribute, but there’s an accessory that is seldom, if ever, mentioned. | It is government itself — our government — local, state, and federal. In the Supreme Court, the eminent Justice Brandeis once ; said: “Our government, for good or ill, teaches the whole & people by its example. Crime is contagious. If a government hs becomes a lawbreaker (the moral law), it breeds contempt for law and invites every man to become a law to himself.” Government has ripped the market on its Bonds. It has i cut its debt by devaluing the dollar. It continues to refuse to pay its debt during prosperous times. : Government says it is a crime for a single pickpocket f to steal. But it says that A, B, and C, by combining their i votes, can pick D’s pocket and go free. Government buys votes. It weeps over the civil rights of certain minorities, but punishes no one when labor union monopolies deprive cities and states of transporta- tion, light, or power, or when goons terrorize law-abiding citizens and dynamite the homes of working men. As Brandeis said: “Government breeds contempt for law.” °c oo 3 Mr. Hutton is the well-known industrialist, investment banker, and author of the 4 column, “Think It Through.” 20 ===== PAGE 23 ===== cal ly of Surrender LEONARD E. READ A CERTAIN business leader, per- :-= —-- - haps among the most publicized © ‘shall a person live by what he during the last two decades, once : . believes to be right or by what severely lectured me on my un- :: he believes to be wrong? swerving and uncompromising be- .- - o havior. He charged that I saw ~~ ~~ ~~~ things only in blacks and whites. sions are tempered with concepts He argued that practical life was of compromise and expediency. lived in shades of grays, actually Compromise, like many other in the shadows of these two ex- words, has different meanings for tremes. He suggested that I had different persons. I want to use the a nice chance of “going far” in the term in the sense of one of the world, if only I would become definitions given by Webster: “The more pliable to the thoughts and result or embodiment of concession actions of my fellows. He really or adjustment.” I wish to show wanted me to be more agreeable thatcompromise is potentially good to his middle-of-the-road political when applied in a physical sense theories. and that it has no application The compromising attitude is whatever in a moral sense. exalted by many and deplored by For example, you and your wife only a few. Most current discus- are spending what is hoped will be Mr. Read is President of the Foundation for Economic Education. J 21 ===== PAGE 24 ===== 22 THE FREEMAN April a happy evening at home. She tion of buyer and seller is at its chooses to watch TV and you elect highest level. to explore Toynbee’s Study of His- It is in the physical realm" that tory. The scene appears peaceful most of our daily life is lived. In as you sit side by side near this this realm compromise is good and piece of furniture. But to you the it is practical. It begets harmony furniture is making a lot of dis- and peace. tracting noise. How easy it would seem then, Here are all the possibilities for finding compromise so useful in turning. a cheerful evening into such a vast segment of life, to con- one of disharmony. But compro- clude thoughtlessly that it has an mise can come to your aid. Your equal place, a comparable value, in wife can decrease the noise of the that phase of life which .con- TV to the point where she can still sciously occupies little of our hear it, and you can move to some thoughts: moral life. remote corner where you can com- : . prehend Toynbee just as well as P rinciples Defy Compromise anywhere else. Harmony can thus But this is precisely the point be preserved by compromise. where I believe many of us are the Compromise in this sense is an victims of. a: confusion of terms. adjustment of physical situations. What is compromise in. physical It is the process by which conflicts affairs — that is, in an adjustment are reduced to the point most satis- of physical positions — is something factory to all parties concerned. entirely different when applied to When thought of in this way, com- principles and morality. promise is the great harmonizer, For example, let us make the the attitude that makes living to- reckless assumption that most of gether — social life — a pleasure. us are committed to the Biblical Indeed, the market place of will- injunction, “Thou shalt not steal.” ing exchange where tens of mil- This is based on the moral princi- lions of transactions go on daily ple that each person has the right is one vast ared of compromise. to the fruits of his own labor. The Buyers aim at low prices. Sellers point I wish to make — my major aim at high prices. In a free mar- point — is- that. this-as a principle ket, unhampered by private thieves. defies compromise. You either take and political restrictions, there is ‘someone else's property without an adjustment of these diverse de- his consent, or you do not. If you sires. Compromise establishés the steal just. a bit —.a penny — you do price at which the mutual satisfac-- not compromise the principle; you ===== PAGE 25 ===== 1957 PENALTY OF SURRENDER 23 abandon it. You surrender your the Commandments are cast in the principle. form of intercepts of the will of By taking only a little of some- God; in terms of their application, one’s property without his consent, they are imperatives admitting of as distinguished from taking a lot, no dilution. They were expressions you do compromise in the physical of principles at least to the ones sense the amount you steal. But who received them, and have been the moral principle, whatever the adopted as such by countless mil- amount of the theft, is surren- lions. Their acceptance springs dered and utterly abandoned. from the studied deductions of the If all the rest of mankind is in wiser among us, confirmed through favor of passing a law that would .centuries of observation and ex- take the property, honestly ac- perience. quired, of only one person against The correctness of a principle his will, even though the purpose has little to do with the intensity be allegedly for the so-called social of conviction with which a man good, I cannot adjust myself both holds it. Someone else may hold to the moral injunction, “Thou a contrary principle with like in- shalt not steal,” and to the demand tensity. No man can get nearer to of the millions. Principle does not the truth than his own highest lend itself to bending or to com- apprehension of it. Ultimate in- promising. It stands impregnable. sights may differ, and such differ- I must either abide by it, or in all ences will always be part of the fairness, I must on this point re- human scene. But there is another gard myself as an inconsistent, type of difference which is more unprincipled person rather than a pertinent to the point of this rational, reasonable, logical one. essay : the difference between those . : who -accept unyieldingly a moral What Are Moral Principles? principle as their standard, and The question immediately arises those who accept a principle wa- as to what constitutes principle. tered down by “practical” consid- Here again is a term with varying erations. Lord Morley warned of meanings to different persons. I this danger when he deplored the must, therefore, define what I tendency to forget the principle mean. itself in our preoccupation with The Ten Commandments are ad- the practical difficulties of apply- monitions derived from the reli- ing it. gious experience of an ancient To me, “Thou shalt not steal,” is people. In terms of their origin, a principled injunction not alone ===== PAGE 26 ===== 24 THE FREEMAN April because some sage of antiquity to be right. How easy for fallible said so, but largely because my beings to decide on a wrong way! own experience has compelled me Sound judgment leads toward to adopt this as a principle of right principles. No person can right conduct which must be ad- rise above his best judgment, and hered to if I am not to destroy my he can rise only as fast as his own integrity, and if I am to live judgment improves. On what, then, peacefully with my fellow men. is an improving judgment depend- To those of opposite judgments, ent? My answer is: on revelation who believe that they should _ “The disclosing or discovering gratify their personal charitable of what was before unknown...” instincts not with their own goods, Other terms for revelation are in- but with goods extorted from sight, cognition, inspiration, extra- others by the police force, who sensory perception. On what does fail to see how thieving damages revelation or insight rest? Surely, integrity, and who accept the prac- on conscious effort, education, the tice of political plunder as right kind of persons with whom one and honorable — to them, “Thou associates, the topics selected for shalt not steal” must appear wrong discussion, what one chooses to in principle. read — all of these relate to one’s . perception. More fundamental, Sound Judgment Required however, than anything else is in- Whether a principle is right or tellectual integrity, without which, wrong cannot in any ultimate or T am certain, the cognitive stream absolute sense be determined by cannot flow at its best. Goethe ex- any single one of us human beings. pressed the idea thus: Principles on the level of human Nature understands no jesting; she perception are what are judged to js always true, always serious, always be the rules of life or nature; what severe; she is always right, and the are judged to be universal, eternal errors and faults are always those verities; what are judged to be of man. The man incapable of appre- fundamental points of reference. ciating her, she despises; and only to But, human judgment is fallible. the apt, the pure, and the true, does Therefore, whether a stated prin- she resign herself, and reveal her ciple is held to be right or wrong Secrets. will depend on the quality of the Intellectual integrity simply individual’s judgment. Aristotle means to reflect in word and in claimed that there were a million deed, always and accurately, that ways to be wrong; only one way which one believes to be right. In- ===== PAGE 27 ===== 1957 PENALTY OF SURRENDER 25 tegrity cannot be compromised. It Principles Surrendered is either practiced or not practiced. Certainly, there is nothing new about the efficacy of accurately re- flecting what one believes to be ; right. This principle of conduct about themselves trying to play has been known throughout re- God, attempting to control and corded history. Now and then it Iorcibly direct the creative actions of others; the glamour of popular- ity and shallow earthly fame rather than the concepts of rightness di- All the world is filled with exam- ples of surrendered principles: men who know practically nothing has been expressed beautifully and simply. Shakespeare enunciated the principle when he had Polonius say: recting the policies of nations; This above all: To thine own self expediency substituting for the be true, dictates of conscience; business- And it must follow, as the night men employing “experts” to help the day, them seem right, often at the ex- Thou canst not then be false to pense of rightness itself; labor any man. leaders justifying any action that Edmond Rostand had the same gratifies their lust for power; po- principle in mind when he wrote litical leaders operating on the for Cyrano: premise that the end justifies the Never to make a line I have not [6anS; clergymen preaching ex- heard in my own heart. propriation of property without consent in the name of the “com- mon good”; teachers not explain- ing but advocating coercive collec- tivism; aspirants to public office The wages of sin is death. building platforms from public Whether the wages of sin be ©OPinion polls; farmers, miners, mere physical death, as when men and other plunderbundists uniting shoot each other over ideological With the police force to siphon differences, or profound spiritual unto themselves the fruits of death, as in the extinction of in- others’ labor; arrogance replacing tegrity, character, and self-respect, humility; in short, surrender of one needs to make but casual in- Principle appears to be the distin- quiry to verify the rightness of guishing mark of our time. this Biblical pronouncement. Abun- If we were suddenly to find for- dant testimony is being provided eign vandals invading our shores, in dur time. Nor is the end in sight. vandals that would kill our chil- The Bible announces the penalty of surrender — what it means to abandon the truth as one sees it: ===== PAGE 28 ===== 26 THE FREEMAN April dren, rape our women, and pilfer Indeed, it is not dangerous to be our industry, every last man of us honest, but rather a mark of in- would rise in arms. telligence. Being honest and adher- Yet, these ideas born of surren- ing to principle requires intelli- dered principles are the most dan- gence more than courage. Courage gerous vandals known to man. Is without intelligence makes men the Bible right that the wages of blusterous and cantankerous with sin is death? Observe the growth their views; they offend with their of domestic violence. Note the ex- honesty. But, the villainy in that tent to which the organized police case is their cantankerousness, not force — government — promotes and their integrity. enacts plunder rather than in- Finally, some may contend that hibits it. Scan the last forty years even if everyone were a model of of war, hot and cold; wars to end intellectual integrity, by reason of wars, each serving only as a pre- the great variety of judgments, lude to larger wars. And, today, differences would still remain. This we worldlings, in angry and hate- is true. But differences lead in the ful moods, stand tense and poised direction of truth in an atmos- to strike out at each other, not phere of honesty. Honest differ- with shillelaghs, pistols, hand gre- ences are livable differences. nades and cannons, but with mass Life in a physical sense is a exterminators of the germ and compromise, a fact that need not atom types, types that only a peo- concern us. But, when vast num- ple of surrendered principles could bers of people surrender living by concoct. what they believe to be right, it follows that they must then live by what they believe to be wrong. No Perhaps it is timidity that pre- more destructive tendency can be vents many a man from standing imagined. squarely on his own philosophy and Honesty — each person true to uttering nothing less than the his highest conscience — is the con- highest truth he perceives. He dition from which revelation fears the loss of friends or posi- springs; from which knowledge tion. Actually, the danger lies in expands; from which intelligence the other direction, in settling for grows; from which judgments im- less than one’s best judgment. prove. It is a never-ending, eter- Does it take courage to be hon- nally challenging —a thoroughly est? Does one have to be brave to joyous — process. Indeed, it is liv- express the truth as he sees it? ing in its higher sense. - eo o eo Is Honesty Dangerous? ===== PAGE 29 ===== What kind of a subsidy, or special privilege, or law to regulate somebody else, are you working for? -NUOMm presAwte group DUKE BURGESS HO AM I? Just an ordinary dom for themselves but not for the American who deeply resents fellow across the street. the way our major political parties A number of years ago when I seem to be working night and day first became concerned about in- to plunge us into the depths of dividual freedom, I heard of a slavery. man who said he would probably If I have any political leanings, die of shock if he ever met a busi- they are to the right — the right nessman who didn’t believe in free of the individual against the enterprise. Another fellow said might of the group. he’d drop dead if he ever en- Rabble rousers for the left have countered one who actually did be- convinced many that freedom isn’t lieve in it. That amazed me at the very important. They've sold a time, but now I am convinced he sugar-coated dose of poison by ad- was tragically right. vertising a utopia, the purchase Too often in recent years I have price of which is hate, strife, and heard one businessman or another revolution — only they don’t men- say there ought to be a law to con- tion the price; they let us believe trol his competitors, while his it’s all for free. And the customers competitors were probably busy are persons who want to believe dreaming up laws to control him. that they can have something for So, what happens? They all end nothing. up promoting socialism and dic- There aren’t very many who tatorship by running to govern- genuinely believe in individual ment to solve something that could rights and freedom. Of course, have been solved more quickly and most people will swear by all that’s cheaply by a friendly chat across holy that they are pure believers the back fence. in freedom. Yet when they are I know a man who owns more pinned down, they believe in free- than 100 stores, yet he hates Safe- Mr. Burgess is Vice-president of Glenn Advertising, Inc. of Dallas. 27 ===== PAGE 30 ===== 28 THE FREEMAN April way and thinks there should be I spoke of it to a man I know who some drastic law to prevent any is legal counsel for a manufactur- company from having as many ing concern. His company does stores as Safeway has. It doesn’t more than half of the business in seem to occur to him that to the its field, and it does more than man with one store — or even five half for one reason only — that or ten — his 100 stores are unrea- more than half of the people buy- sonable competition. I know an- ing that item prefer that brand. other man whose main livelihood It has lots of competition. To limit is derived from one of the General the company to 50 per cent of the Motors cars, yet he frequently ex- market would not only deprive its presses verbal hatred toward the owners and employees of a place “big fat greasy capitalists” who honestly gained in a free market, ride around in Cadillacs. Obvi- but, just as important, it would ously, it doesn’t occur to him that keep some persons from buying he and the other folks who ride the product they like. around in his brand of car would Now you would think that the also be classed as fat capitalists by company’s legal counsel would be millions of people. To go a step especially alert to the dangers in farther, anybody who owns a 1925 such a law. But what do you think Maxwell might ‘also be considered he said? He said, “I think that a “big fat greasy capitalist” by might be a good law. You know countless other millions through- it’s criminal for a company such out the world. as United States Steel to get as i } big and powerful as it is.” When Is Size a Sin? I suggested that to his competi- The idea that size of a business tors his own company looked big in itself can be sinful is so widely enough to be outlawed, he failed accepted that hearings go on al- to see the connection. He thinks of most continuously in Washington his own company as “small” busi- to determine at what point a com- ness, yet its sales run into several pany becomes a “monopoly.” Leg- million dollars a year—big enough islation is always pending which so that many of his smaller com- would limit the percentage of busi- petitors think it is a monster and ness any company could do in its there ought to be a law! industry. } I know a man who used to be in "I think it is one of the most the margarine business ‘and dangerous pieces of legislation thought it was a crime that butter ever to be considered by Congress. makers could color their product ===== PAGE 31 ===== 1957 ONE-MAN PRESSURE GROUP 29 when he couldn’t. Now he owns a a government like that, however, dairy and he thinks it’s a crime maybe we ought to ask ourselves that the margarine makers are why we are like that. now allowed to color it! Not long Let's place the blame for our ago on a train, I was talking with unholy position today right where a farmer who was loud in his con- it belongs — right in the laps of demnation of government spend- the people and their myriad pres- ing. When I suggested that a good sure groups. Just to name a few stopping place might be to with- of them, there are the business draw subsidies on wheat, he groups, the veterans groups all the couldn’t see it. Another man I way back to the Revolutionary know is a strong advocate of gov- War, the school groups, the labor ernment price control. He thinks groups, the social welfare groups, it’s wrong for the merchant to the political spoils groups, the make a profit, or for landlords to church groups, and on and on ad get enough rent to keep up their infinitum. One can’t put too much properties. But he buys and sells blame on the politician — after all, oil leases, and thinks it’s just good he’s just human — and with every business to buy a lease for a dollar kind of a pressure group imagin- and sell it for a thousand. Any able under the sun pushing and suggestion to control his margin pulling at him, what can you ex- sends him into a frenzy! pect? The answer? Well, let's start The Fault Is Ours right close to home. What kind of "Is it any wonder that the gov- a pressure group do you belong ernment reflects such thinking, to? What kind of a subsidy, or and tries to break up the A & P special privilege, or law to regu- mainly for the “crime” of having late somebody else, are you work- sold too many groceries to too ing for? Be honest with yourself many people too cheaply? Before first, and then you can go full we start wondering why we have steam ahead. ® 00 —-—t [omc ® ANBERTT Monkey Business REMEMBER THE FABLE about the monkey dividing the cheese be- tween the cats? To balance the scales, he nibbled first from one cheese and then from the other until all the cheese had been eaten — and the cats had none. ===== PAGE 32 ===== AREAL \L/\ Despite needless and numerous ht ) fy i \ obstacles, thousands of mew busi- = a ' AL nesses make a go of it each year. CCORDING to some views which number of small businesses in the we have recently heard, the United States is growing steadily Little Man contemplating a new and, although much is heard about business is wasting. his time. The big business proliferation, over 75 large, well-entrenched. behemoths, per cent of United States business having staked out the claim, sit establishments employ three or tight behind their barbed-wire en- fewer persons. At no time in his- closures and deal - harshly with tory has opportunity knocked at so anyone daring enough to challenge. many doors. Nor has new enter- If this is true, as some people prise ever been tendered so many still profess to. believe, then the helping hands. Large companies big tycoons are certainly doing a extend technical facilities and serv- sloppy job of slapping down. Last ices, for example, to thousands:of year, not less than 374,000 invad- small business concerns through ers crept through-the lines and, whom their own products reach when dawn broke, had firmly estab- the consumer. Although “tight lished themselves on Main Street; credit” is often cited as a small the monthly average of newcomers business difficulty, the banking to the business scene has increased system is more attentive than ever to more than 31,000 as against to the needs of the small business 28,000 in"1953. In the last 10 years, community. ‘a total of more than 3,923,000 new . Strangely enough, critics of the ventures have been launched and, American business system often while many found rewards elusive, hark back to earlier days for com- the successes outweighed the fail- parisons favorable to their view, ures last year by over 63,000. In 10 but the facts dispute their nostal- years, in fact, wé have a net gain gic contentions. People like E. I. of one million new businesses. du Pont had the devil’s own time So, despite the nonsense being raising capital a century and a circulated to the contrary, the half ago, and a harder time re- 30 ===== PAGE 33 ===== I» ge 1957 GOING INTO BUSINESS . 31 maining solvent. Collections were slow, credit from suppliers was difficult to obtain, and the proprie- tor often was obliged to pledge his personal effects to keep going. Looking back to an even more pastoral era, before the advent of the Industrial Revolution, one would expect to find 2a minimum of restrictions on the Young Man Seeking His Fortune. But the fact contradicts the fable. Setting up a small business in the halcyon days of the Middle Ages wasn’t difficult for the average man. It was im- possible. A book advising an ambitious young man on how to succeed in those days would have required some real insight. First of all, if his father were in the drapery line, he’d better not look fondly at the cordwainer trade — once a draper, always a draper. An apprentice who quit and ran away could be forcibly returned and subjected to dire punishment, without recourse to any Grievance Committee either. The number of masters or pro- prietors in any given craft was strictly limited. A journeyman who wished to be in business for him- self had to wait until one of the existing practitioners died (with- out a male heir) even to apply. Then he had to offer an example of his work in evidence (the master- piece) which might or might not win the approval of his peers. If it . were obviously so good that a re- jection might be scandalous, he would be told that he must give a banquet for his fellow craftsmen: price, 6,000 kronen. Because few journeymen were up to entertain- ment on that scale, his application would be filed away for later con- sideration. Meanwhile, he could work for wages. At some periods of history, the right to go into business was re- stricted to those who could obtain letters patent from a reigning monarch; in others, to members of certain organizations, or even cer- tain religious orders. Farm labor- ers once “went with the property” like so much shrubbery; they could be bought, rented, or sold like slaves. In the early years of the United States, while many of the arti- ficial restrictions were removed, few people could be spared for commercial careers — nine out of ten workers were busy supplying food on the farm. As some were released by improved agricultural methods, the chances improved, but each had to win his way pain- fully — long before Big Business came into being. It is regrettable that so often we idealize the past without under- standing either past or pres- ent. LC From Du Pont Stockholder, Winter 1956- 1957. ===== PAGE 34 ===== The best is safe... with steel on duty Safe shipment of a product depends Packaging engineers, designers, and on the shipping container. production management in those indus- For certain products, only Steel tries know that J&L Steel Drums and “Drums ‘or Pails can provide adequate Pails are safe and sound packages. protection, ease of handling and con- And colorful decorations on J&L venience of storing. Drums and Pails dress up their prod- Jones & Laughlin Steel Drums and ucts, make sales easier. Pails guard against damage and loss in Quality Jones & Laughlin Steel—fab- handling and storing of products like ricated in J&L Container Division those made by the oil, chemical, paint, = Plants—assures consistent performance food and drug industries. from J&L Steel Drums and Pails. Jones & Laughlin STEEL CORPORATION -PITTSBURGH STEEL ===== PAGE 35 ===== This trick’s on you! A bucket of water over the door is don’t pay all the taxes in their electric one of the risks of April Fool's Day. bills that you pay in yours. People But being tricked on other days is who get electricity from the TVA, for something else again. example, pay less than one-fifth of the Yet that’s what happens as far as taxes on electric service that you pay. your taxes are concerned. Part of Next time you hear someone talk your taxes are used to help pay the in favor of federal government elec- cost of electric service for customers tricity, ask him about the trick it plays of federal government power systems. with your taxes (and his). Chances First, your taxes help build the fed- are, he'll stop talking and start think- eral power plants that produce elec- ing. America’s Independent Electric tricity for these people. Then, you Light and Power Companies*. have to be taxed more because they *Company names on request through this magazine ===== PAGE 36 ===== Persons yalified for higher education will findzmany: lope ru unities to help themselves. DNAL- CHALLENGE NE es Sel === (C.J. STEINER, S.J. Hs MERICAN higher education is heartily as being part of our Amer- faced with the greatest and ican heritage —that every Amer- most demanding challenge in its ican, qualified to pursue education history. In this challenge there is beyond high school with benefit to opportunity toenrich and strength- himself and society, should be en the very fiber of American soci- given such an opportunity. ety. . Our understanding of “quali- How America—its educators and fied” implies and includes the fol- its citizens — reacts to this chal- lowing prerequisites: lenge will determine in ‘great part 1. Native ability the artistic, the scientific, the pro- 2. Achieved academic ability fessional, the economic, and the 3. Will and desire to profit from moral advancement of our people opportunity through the closing decades of the 4. Personal responsibility twentieth century. Without the will and desire to The challenge we face is not improve one’s own condition and merely one of numbers, that is, to to develop one’s native talents, a provide educational opportunity young person cannot be helped by beyond the high school for a vastly a college education. Unfortunately increased population that may dou- for some, the values of a college ble college enrollments within ten to education are not transmitted by a fifteen years. More importantly, process akin to osmosis; nor can a the challenge demands that we college education be forced upon educate young men and women one as food is forced upon an un- equal to the needs of our times. willing child. A parent can see to It is the mood of our times — it that his son attends college, but and one to which we subscribe he cannot force him to benefit The Very Reverend C. J. Steiner, S.]., is President of the University of Detroit. 34 ===== PAGE 37 ===== 1957 AN EDUCATIONAL CHALLENGE 35 from what goes on within its ivied walls. To achieve the richest values from the total collegiate educa- tional experience, an individual should be expected to exhibit a sense of personal responsibility for what is happening to him. The suc- cessful carrying forward of his academic program and even its financing should not devolve wholly upon parents, school, and society. Every student should be expected to make a reasonable contribution toward the educational process. Opportunity for Youth There is a vast difference be- tween offering our young people an opportunity for a college education and forcing them to make use of such opportunity. When our young people face up to the problem and accept wholeheartedly their respon- sibility to achieve what is good for them and society, the educational process is bearing fruit. How one goes about achieving a college edu- cation can be more productive of enduring values than the mere ac- quiring of an academic degree. We recognize that there are to- day — and probably will always be — a large number of qualified youth who are not able to finance the costs of their education. It does not follow, however, that, because of this situation, every American youth, irrespective of financial sta- tus, should receive a college edu- cation on an almost cost-free basis. There is an ever-increasing trend in our country to look to gov- ernment for almost everything that is important to the individual and society. We need badly a na- tional system of interlocking high- ways, modern, fast, and efficient. We are facing the first swells of a tidal wave of elementary school children for which at present our plant facilities and teaching per- sonnel are inadequate both in terms of quantity and quality. New homes are needed all over our na- tion. Natural resources must be husbanded, and new sources must be provided as soon as possible. And so it goes. The Great lllusion One could easily multiply or di- versify the instances of national needs. This is not our point. What is discouraging is not the fact of our needs. America has always faced up to these problems since the days of its birth. What is dis- couraging, rather, is the lack of diversity in the provisions offered for the solution of almost every problem and the nearly universal tendency of turning to government as if we had a kind of Mecca in Washington. Government has no money of its own. When government does dis- burse money, it disburses our ===== PAGE 38 ===== 36 THE FREEMAN Yo April money. There really is nothing cussed previously, should contrib- particularly beneficent about gov- ute from his own resources to help ernment in its fiscal operation. pay for the cost of higher educa- © Government money is our money tion. We do not feel that we are gathered together by a process of asking too much of any student to taxation, hidden or open. Under no expect him to contribute a fair circumstances can we get back share of earnings from part-time more than we have given govern- or summer work to help defray the ment. As a matter of fact, we must cost of his education. Apart from pay for overhead — for the cost of the culturally rich benefits of a handling and distributing our college education, it has been money. shown that a college education will Ordinarily it will be considered mean an additional $100,000 in safe to say that the overhead of earnings to a person over a life- management and distribution will time period. be more costly on the state level Then, the parents of the student than on the community level and should be expected to contribute a even more costly on the national fair share to the cost of education. level than on the state level. The benefits they receive from a college education for their son or daughter are too obvious to dwell One of the great illusions of our upon. day, though, is that somehow, in Society, too, has its obligation, some way, government can create inasmuch as it is a prime bene- or produce wealth with which to ficiary of the whole educational endow all the communities of our process. Society, through the in- vast nation with monies to solve vestment of gifts from friends of all or any of their problems. education, alumni of various col- Essentially, we believe that leges, business, industry, charitable those who benefit from higher edu- trusts, and foundations, must bear cation should pay for it. Accord- its share of the cost. ingly, too, we believe that a rule of thumb, when applicable, should de- Tuition mand that those who benefit most The key to financing higher edu- from higher education should pay cation, though, is tuition. Let col- the most. leges and universities charge We feel that an individual who tuition that represents a realistic is qualified for higher education, share of the actual cost of higher in that sense of the word as dis- education, and the burden of fi- Let Beneficiaries Pay ===== PAGE 39 ===== 1957 AN EDUCATIONAL CHALLENGE 37 nancing higher education will be people, which, when analyzed, borne by those who should bear seems equally amazing. To expect it: namely, the student and his the state or federal government to parents. provide a tuition-free. education Today, privately-supported col- for our youth — the hope of our leges and universities follow this nation — seems to us to be as un- pattern of financing. As a rule, realistic as expecting the state or tuition represents a major portion federal government to provide our of the actual cost of educating a youth with sparkling new homes, student. The difference between completely outfitted and equipped the income from tuition and the for living. actual cost of higher education is American youth is ambitious; made up by gifts from friends, American youth is courageous. It alumni, income from invested awaits a challenge from us. It does funds, and from various auxiliary not hesitate to work, earn, and enterprises. save money to purchase a home for its family; nor, if called upon, Youth Needs Challenge would it hesitate to work, earn, Some might object that to put and save to pay for a college edu- into operation this principle of cation. Thousands upon thousands payment by those who benefit most do it every year. would be to force education beyond the financial ability of thousands Student Loans of young men and women. We do We concede that there are diffi- not, of course, want to precipitate culties to be faced in working out such a development. Actually, we a plan of this kind. But we offer believe that such a principle, when as a possible solution to the major applied to this problem, will lead problem the setting up of loan young people to reach out, to strive fund machinery. Students could for something beyond themselves, borrow money with which to pay and in so doing, to learn values tuition with a long-term program and habits of immeasurable worth of repayment beginning after in meeting the demands of every- graduation. No American youth day living. hesitates to invest in a long-term Society does not offer the young program of the same kind for person a home fully paid for and home or automobile. Why not such furnished with which to begin a program for a college education married life. Yet society is asked which is of almost inestimable to do something for our young value over a lifetime? As ===== PAGE 40 ===== 38 - . THE FREEMAN. . April We believe also that certain pre- tation. Our rapidly developing in- sumptions concerning the provi- dustrial society makes no such sion of educational facilities for calendar demands. our growing enrollments should be If the college calendar ceases to examined in light of the most care- serve the needs of a dynamic ful scrutiny of our whole higher American society, .it must be educational system. : changed. It is conceivable that a For example, one common pre- truly functional calendar would sumption is that if the school-age consist of four periods of three population doubles in a certain months instead of the. traditional period, college enrollment will two semesters with the shorter double; consequently, facilities summer session tacked on, as it and educational budgets must be were. By means of this calendar, doubled. : twice as many undergraduate stu- American ingenuity and re- dents could be processed through sourcefulness, we are convinced, existing facilities as previously. can provide educational opportu- Such programs are currently in nity for a greatly increased enroll- effect in many engineering colleges. ment without doubling existing Furthermore, we could re-exam- facilities and without doubling in- ine with some benefit the present structional and administrative schedule that calls for classes to personnel. A reorganization of the meet only three days each week. school calendar and a more efficient Why not five consecutive. class utilization of present facilities days? Less time for dreams, per- would do much to solve our prob- haps; but, if we are looking for a lems. } more efficient utilization of facili- - ties and faculty, .we should re- Overlooked Opportunities examine our present educational The traditional American college practice in its totality. calendar, of course, is a functional We. could experiment even fur- development resulting from the ther with the relatively new me- demands of a predominantly agri- dium — television —to solve the cultural society of another day. problem of too few teachers and The long summer vacation was a too few buildings. We are. con- concession .to the need for addi- vinced that this medium — when tional help in the fields, and the properly utilized — will enable one lengthy holiday recesses were more professor to meet .as many stu- than likely a concession to the rela- dents as are traditionally met by tively primitive forms .of transpor- ten. Such a development can surely ===== PAGE 41 ===== 1957 AN EDUCATIONAL CHALLENGE 39 be looked for in those subjects in 4. Lead our youth to assume which lecture-work predominates. greater responsibility for per- Nor can we afford to overlook the sonal development. possibilities implicit in visual aids 5. Integrate our whole educa- such as movies. tional process with commu- Any re-examination of our total nity endeavors to make fac- educational practice must involve ulty and student body a part a searching scrutiny of our curric- of community life. ula. Are we offering programs that We face the future awed by the are designed to fit our young peo- enormity of the task ahead when ple to meet the needs of our day actually we should be thrilled by —or are we preparing our youth the challenge it offers to our re- for a day long since past? sourcefulness and ingenuity. The To solve the complex problem of problem will be solved if we ap- higher education and to develop a proach it in the dynamic American workable blueprint for American tradition — a tradition based on a higher education, we must: willingness to depart from the an- 1. Revise our goals to prepare tiquated to embrace that which youth for life in our times. is new and good. A slavish adher- 2. Re-examine our methodology ence to revered educational idols to take full advantage of the will only defeat us. What is called latest developments in the art for here is a revolutionary spirit of communications. in seeking out what is good — but 3. Scrutinize courses of study — new — to blend with that which is to eliminate the antiquated. good — but old. oo 0 To Acquire Truth TRUTH IS THE LAW OF GoD. Acquired truth is the law of man. He who intuitively apprehends truth is one who, without effort, hits what is right, and without thinking understands what he wants to know; whose life is easily and naturally in harmony with the moral law. Such a one is what we call a saint or a man of divine nature. He who acquires truth is one who finds out what is good and holds fast to it. In order to acquire truth, it is necessary to obtain a wide and extensive knowledge of what has been said and done in the world; critically to inquire into it; carefully to ponder over it; clearly to sift it; and earnestly to carry it out. CONFUCIUS (551 B.C.) ===== PAGE 42 ===== siof Economic Growth RALPH HUSTED IN ALL OF HISTORY no economic system has ever conferred more lasting benefits on mankind than has a free economy. We in America have done the most spectacular job of all time in supply- ing the wants of people. We have done it through the operation of an ‘economic system which adheres more nearly to the principles of a free economy than any system before it. Our material welfare has improved phenomenally because growth is inherent in the very nature of a free economy. Even the relatively brief but inevitable periods of adjustment which are characteristic of a free economy are but steps in its steady long range growth. What is a free economy? Why is growth inherent in its very nature? It has been variously described as a market economy, a price economy, the free enterprise system, the private enterprise system, and very loosely as the American way. None of these phrases is a complete defini- tion, and perhaps it would be better not to attempt a definition in a few words. Three very important institutions form the basis of a free economy. The first and most important, because without it the others could not exist, is personal liberty. The history of great civilizations has shown many times that little, if any, economic progress can be made unless people enjoy personal freedom — the more personal freedom, the greater and more rapid their material progress. Underlying this is one of the basic truths of human existence. We are individual creations. No two of us think Mr. Husted, a businessman and a member of the Indianap- .-olis School Board, believes that greater emphasis must be placed on economic education in our high schools. He says that in Indianapolis a concerted effort is now being made in that direction. This article is Mr. Husted’s reply to a teacher who asked him to set down some of the basic’ ‘pupil understand- .ings” which he thinks should be striven for in any teaching about economic growth. 40 ===== PAGE 43 ===== ) 1957 THE BASIS OF ECONOMIC GROWTH 41 alike. No two of us act alike and couldn’t if we wanted to. No two of us have exactly the same wants. There is no such thing as a mass mind, mass thinking, mass action, or mass demand for anything. The most that ever can be pointed to as supporting a belief in a mass mind is the millions of ideas held by individuals, among which there may be considerable similarity. The nearest thing to mass action is that on occasion men act simi- larly because of similarity of ideas. Mass demand is nothing but the total of the diverse wants of count- less individuals. Regardless of how men may combine to satisfy their wants, their efforts are directed toward the innumerable needs of individ- uals. Men have created business or- ganizations, societies, states, and nations; but these things have no life, no philosophy, no ability to create or produce, and no need for anything separate and apart from the individuals comprising them or for whose benefit they are created. Any way you look at it, life inheres only in individuals. Only individuals grow and pro- gress, and economic growth can be generated only by individuals. Herein lies the significance of per- sonal liberty and freedom of choice. Before we consider the second requisite of a free economy and how it is connected with the first, we need to clarify one point. Eco- | nomics deals with the satisfaction of our material wants. Economic growth is nothing more than the satisfaction of an increasing num- ber of such wants. However, most of us believe that we are naturally endowed with a sense of what is right and proper, a sense of moral- ity; and our wants grow out of a need not only for material well- being, but out of intellectual well- being as well. It is logical, there- fore, that we should think of eco- nomics as a moral science and not as a purely mechanistic set of rules regulating our material existence. Property Comes from Saving When men learned to accumu- late, to save a little of what they wrestled from the earth to pro- vide for tomorrow’s needs, the foundation was laid for the second requisite of a free economy, pri- vate property. The basic motiva- tion for saving is our own indi- vidual wants. What we save has a special significance for us which it could not have for anyone else, simply because our reason for sav- ing it is our own. Others may save the same thing for a similar but never for exactly the same reason as ours. We naturally identify the things we have saved with our- selves — with our own personal wants. The idea of private owner- ===== PAGE 44 ===== 42 © THE FREEMAN April ship probably came into being sity. The big difference in us lies therefore -as a matter of course. in our intellectual needs and satis- If personal liberty were to dis- factions. Only an individual him- appear suddenly from the face of self can know what his needs are. the earth, the institution of pri- He must be free, therefore, to de- vate property would go with it. cide what he wants. He must be Private ownership is private only. free to accumulate and own prop- so long as the owner is free to ex- erty for purposes which he alone ercise control. When he loses con- deems important. trol, he loses ownership. He must have property which he can iden- Doing One's Best tify ‘with himself, and he must be The third requisite. of a free able to control it to satisfy his economy, free enterprise, has to wants: So it is that private prop- do not so much with the kind :of erty is necessary to economic wants we have as with the way we progress. = - go about satisfying them. We do not need anyone to tell CL us that we are happier when doing How much we save and why we the things we can do well. Neither save are influenced as- much by the do we need anyone to tell us that fact that we are intellectual moral we usually do well the things that beings-as by our material needs..In give us the most pleasure. The fact, the two influences are in- need for personal liberty in mak- separable. Qur wants. are not lim- ing these choices is so evident that ited to the satisfaction of animal it is hard to believe anyone would appetites. On the contrary, we like ever ‘question it. In effect, how- to think that. we have learned to ever, itis widely questioned today. control such: appetites. We do not Happiness is something so. per- lead a double existence. We are sonal that no one else can. know beings whose material and intel- our feelings except by observing lectual well-being are completely the outward manifestations of interrelated. Our search for intel- what is going on within us. Even lectual security determines to a then another person only roughly great extent our material wants comprehends our .thoughts. His and our ability to satisfy our ma- notions about us never can be com- terial needs has much to do with pletely accurate because his ex- our intellectual well-being. All of periences never have been exactly us have the same animal appetites, the same as ours. Moreover, being differing only, if at all, in .inten- a different person to begin with, Why a Man Saves ===== PAGE 45 ===== 1957 THE BASIS OF ECONOMIC GROWTH 43 nothing could affect him as it would us. Do we need to be re- minded, therefore, that only when we are free to choose the kind of work we enjoy most, the kind of work in which we think we can be most productive, can we hope to attain a degree of economic and in- tellectual well-being which will satisfy us? These are the premises upon which we insist on the right to go into any business we choose, the right to seek any job we think we can handle, the right to quit a job, the right to buy and sell -where and to whom we choose, and the right to contract — all of which are summed up in the term free market. Conservation of Energy The most remarkable feature of free enterprise is the ingenious system we have devised to con- serve our energy. It is, at the same time, the most complex and the most efficient way conceivable to supply a constantly increasing number of our material wants. Economists call it the division of labor. In every day practice we speak of it as specialization - of work. Rather than dissipate his energy in the satisfaction of a single immediate want, an indi- vidual, by means of this vast co- operative system, can devote his efforts to the supply of goods or services called for in the free market and satisfy many of his wants. Throughout recorded history, men have had an insatiable urge to understand their relationship with the rest of the universe. The physical sciences have never solved this question. Religion, therefore, has always been, and probably al- ways will be, essential in the lives of most of us. Even in Russia where established forms of re- ligion are prohibited, a different kind of religion has been substi- tuted in order to satisfy the need for intellectual security. The fal- lacy in the Russian system is the fact that people are told they must accept the one religion approved by the State which in their case, is worship of the State itself. Gov- ernments have tried before to im- pose religious beliefs on people but without much success. With- out freedom to find intellectual se- curity for themselves, without freedom to choose their own re- ligious beliefs which are essential to such security, people cannot be happy. Without intellectual se- curity, they cannot improve their material existence. Religion, there- fore, also has an important con- nection with economic growth. The basic human urge for indi- vidual liberty is undoubtedly re- lated to the equally basic charac- teristic, self-interest, which means, literally, private interest or the ===== PAGE 46 ===== 44 THE FREEMAN April interest or advantage of one’s self. otherwise have done, but also the In the minds of some people the freedom to choose any alternative term self-interest has evil connota- at all. Therein is the evil of com- tions because they fail to distin- pulsory government organization guish it from selfishness. To look or interference with our economic out for one’s own advantage in system. When we turn over to utter disregard for that of others government the job of planning, is selfishness. Admittedly, self- managing, and controlling any un- interest sometimes leads to selfish- dertaking, regardless of how ness and even savagery. But we are “humanitarian” it may appear to civilized people. We are moral be, wé must weigh the cost in loss beings. We are responsible beings. of liberty because inevitably the Every right which we so jealously loss occurs. guard carries with it a correlative duty not to interfere with the en- Defended to Death joyment of the same right by any- In considering this matter, we one else. must not be misled by momentary expedients. Under pressure of one Laws To Restrain Evil kind or another — it may be fear Unfortunately, we have not yet of being overrun by an alien reached perfection in understand- enemy, of a dictator at home, or ing and self-control; at times we the demands of an organized group Jhurt each other. We look to the for special favors such as higher law to restrain those tendencies in tariffs, higher wages, or higher us which would defeat the ends prices for farm products — our of our moral nature. We should economy may be made to take on never forget, however, that the the appearance of growth. For a basic purpose of law is to restrain time an increasing number of the our destructive tendencies and not material wants of some people may to direct our peacefully creative be satisfied. That is economic actions. Every restraint placed growth in a sense; but growth that upon us means the loss of some results from production of instru- liberty — the loss of the freedom to ments intended ultimately for the do what we might have done in the destruction of wealth, growth that absence of any restraint. When the comes from compulsory manipula- law goes further to direct our ac- tion of economic factors to satisfy tions, a double loss of liberty is the demands of some pressure suffered. We then lose not only the group, does not endure. We have freedom to do what we might but to look at Russia today to see ===== PAGE 47 ===== 1957 THE BASIS OF ECONOMIC GROWTH 45 what may be expected of an econ- to redistribute income, and many omy coercively organized and ma- others. nipulated principally for one pur- Man must be free to progress — pose, war production. We have but free but, nevertheless, responsible. to look at England to see what may The more numerous men become be expected from wide-scale com- the greater must be their sense pulsory intervention for still other of responsibility. This is not some- purposes, albeit they are peaceful thing that can be imposed upon purposes. Right here in our own them. It comes from education, re- country we can see the effects of ligious beliefs, and progress it- attempts at coercive organization self. Freedom and responsibility of the economy for temporary ex- promote growth, and growth pro- pedients, such as subsidies to in- motes freedom and responsibility. crease farm income, subsidies One sustains the other, and the re- granted in the guise of govern- sult is satisfaction of more and ment services, taxation intended ever nobler wants of men. e eo e The Free Market OUR WANTS, as consumers, are virtually unlimited. But our power, as pro- ducers, is limited; human energy is limited, so are raw materials and pro- ductive equipment. How, then, will we choose between all the different, unlimited wants so that we will apply our limited energies and resources of production to the satisfaction of the most urgent? Broadly there are two alternatives. (1) We can let governments decide, in the main, the wants to be met and therefore what shall be produced. (2) We can let the people decide for themselves. In the first method the people’s freedom of choice is set aside by com- pulsions made effective through government licenses, directives, allocations, higher taxes, and so on. The second method is that of the “free market” in which people express their preferences through prices and choice of quality. The prices which consumers will pay, gives an indication to producers, of what they should produce. From Facts, Institute of Public Affairs, Victoria, Australia. October-November, 1956. ===== PAGE 48 ===== - Breaths of Frcedom IN A WORLD CHOKED BY COERCIVE INFLUENCES % A Salute to the Citizens of Winnetka, Illinois “Winnetkans can now work with a clear conscience for selling the TVA to private operators, and making it a taxpayer instead of a tax eater,” editorializes The Chicago Tribune. Voters of that Chicagoland com- munity, by a margin of 2,608 to 2,387, have endorsed the sale of their municipal electric plant which the village has operated for more than half a century to the Commonwealth Edison Company. Yt Advertising Pays From Norway comes word that advertising is again recognized as a legitimate business expense, deductible. for..tax purposes. The issue was thrown in doubt ten years ago when tax authorities declared advertisements of Messrs. A. B. Nilsen to be political in char- acter, and the expenses incurred for such advertising to be ineligible for tax exemption. After a decade of litigation, the Supreme Court ruled that the firm's politico-commercial advertisements were outlays incurred for the pur- pose of earning income, and were thus exempt from taxation. The firm was even allowed costs incurred in carrying the case through the courts. Who's to say it is not good business to question the doings of a government that tries to do everything? ¥¢ Was This Destruction Necessary? oo The largest penalty ever paid by a union for lawbreaking, $315,000, was collected. recently by the Southern Bell Telephone Company for damages suffered during the 68-day strike of the Communications Workers of. America in 1955. The settlement is said to cover about.60 per cent of the company’s direct loss from the widespread sabotage, which included the use of dynamite. 46 ===== PAGE 49 ===== 1957 BREATHS OF FREEDOM 47 One might speculate as to how such union activities will be affected by the more general availability of atomic weapons, or how the con- tinuing inflationary policies of the government may affect the size of future fines. But there must be a better way to discover what one’s services are worth in a free market; and perhaps union lawlessness will chase us to it. % Textile Union Tactics Backfire The Bates Manufacturing Company, with 6,000 employees in five mills in Maine, recently proposed a pay cut of 14 cents an hour to the textile workers union on grounds that its wage costs average more than those of Southern competitors. Not that this is commended as a reasonable method of determining wages, but at least it’s a switch from a system whereby textile manufacturers with plants both in the Northeast and the South “pay off” in sizeable sums to northern unions for the “privi- lege” of operating nonunionized plants in- the South. w We Believe— When an organization sets forth the principles for which it stands, this doesn’t necessarily mean that every member so believes. Nevertheless, some of the basic principles adopted by the American Farm Bureau Federation seem worth considering. — WE BELIEVE: e In the American competitive system, in which property is privately owned, privately managed, and operated for profit, and in which supply and demand are the primary determinants of market price. e That efficiency of production and maximum per capita production are primary elements in determining standards of living. .» That property rights are essential to the preservation of personal freedoms guaranteed by the Constitution. e In the right of every man to choose his own occupation; to be re- warded in accordance with his productive contribution to society ; and "to save, invest, and ‘spend ‘his earnings as he chooses. e That the trend toward increased centralization of power in the federal government, if left unchecked, will lead to socialism and thus to communism. e That, in his quest for “security,” the individual must oppose policies leading to the curtailment of individual freedom and opportunity. o. That establishment by the government of organizations of citizens which may in any way remain under its political influence or control threatens the continuation of self-government. ===== PAGE 50 ===== - F. A. HARPER “YOUR TAX BURDEN I. FRUITS OF INTOLERANCE AXES are now taking your earn- surely slide into another dark age. ings for almost twenty min- The undermining, they believe, is utes out of each hour of work, if as hidden from common view and you are a typical United States realization as are the depredations citizen. The proportion is higher . of termites which eat away the than that which was taken by the foundation of a building before governments of any of the leading anything serious happens to what European nations a quarter of a can be seen on the surface — hap- century ago, including Germany pens while the roof and outside and the dictatorship of Russia. walls remain intact, and appear Not only are these taxes a ter- as sound as ever when viewed rific economic burden on every- superficially. body at all levels of income, but Such a prophecy of doom is they represent a serious loss of gloomy indeed. We all tend to dis- liberty as well. . like having shadows cast on the Some careful students of the horizon of the rosy future for subject, who have watched our which we yearn. All pessimism is taxes increase rapidly over the detested, even when it is soundly last half century and have com- based on correct analysis. If the pared our experience with that of going is currently pleasant, we are other nations, believe we have al- prone to project our momentary ready gone beyond “the point of ' pleasures into future hopes. And no return.” They believe, in other that seems to be the reason why words, that despite our surface most persons prefer to walk into evidences of prosperity and welfare their troubles blindfolded to and a carefree life, we have al- reality. ready gone as far as to undermine I do not know whether such a the economic, intellectual, and gloomy prophecy is correct or in- moral foundations of our civiliza- correct. It is a question too large tion to a point where we shall for me to presume to be able to Dr. Harper is a member of the staff of The Foundation for Economic Education. 48 ===== PAGE 51 ===== 1957 YOUR TAX BURDEN 49 answer. But I at least reject it as taxes, I have not included any an inevitable future in store for qualifier as to whether or not us. Every collapse of a civilization these differences between persons must have been a man-made de- should be tolerated. The definition struction. And in theory, at least, merely states that taxes are a cost all man-made destruction is avoid- of attempting to repress or elimi- able by man. The only question is: nate these differences by the gov- Are we wise enough to avoid it? ernmental agency, without either Can we learn in time to avoid an- approving or condemning these other dark age? differences per se. The definition Time alone will reveal the an- of taxes does not attempt to swer. But an initial step in pre- ascribe to any particular aspect of vention is for us to understand the conduct the quality of either good problem. One must know what it or evil. is that can lead to a collapse of our Those moral aspects of human civilization. Knowing the problem conduct are important, to be sure, and the cause, we then know the and will be considered later. At means of its avoidance. another point we shall consider So, in this article I shall begin conduct from the standpoint of - to diagnose the tax problem. good and evil, together with a con- Taxes, in one way or another, have sideration of various methods of provided the path over which dealing with evil conduct from the civilizations have collapsed eco- standpoint of the wisdom and nomically throughout history. effectiveness of the method em- What, really, are taxes? ployed. The condition which gives rise to taxes can be seen most clearly, Taxes are the economic burden 1 believe, if we will consider first we impose upon one another by and in some detail this problem means of force through govern- of human differences from which ment, in attempting to deal with taxes are spawned as an economic those human differences which we cost in society. refuse to tolerate. They are the expenses incurred when some per- Good and Evil sons try to control or change the Superficial observation blinds conduct of other persons by means us to the extent of human varia- . of the government as a monopoly tion among us. We hear remarks ‘agent of force. - like this, for instance, from our . In explaining the meaning of first day on earth: “He looks ex- Taxes Defined ===== PAGE 52 ===== 50 THE FREEMAN April actly like . ...,” or, “He is a spit among us in size, shape, color of and image of ....” hair and skin, muscular develop- I recall how all Chinese persons ment, sensory astuteness, mental looked almost exactly alike to me equipment, and in many other when first I met a few of them. features. They appeared as alike as grains Take, for instance, the one mat- of rice. Only after becoming bet- ter of man’s “mind.” One author- ter acquainted with them did their ity, who has made extensive study innumerable differences come into of the human mind, claims to have focus for me, which at first I had identified over forty totally sepa- been unable to discern. Only after rate dimensions of the mind. He closer observation did I come to speculates further that there are realize that Chinese persons are as probably as many as sixty dimen- different from one another as are sions in all.! Ponder the scope of Englishmen, Irishmen, and Ger- just this one aspect of variation. mans. With sixty separate dimensions of You, too, at an earlier age, have the mind, each of which can be probably sensed this seeming anywhere along a wide range from alikeness among. some race of high to low for any one person, an humans then unfamiliar to you, or endless variety of patterns of the perhaps among trees or elephants human mind becomes possible. The or something. But as your percep- mental processes of any one per- tion became sharper, the differ- son may, therefore, be quite be- ences — differences which had al- yond the comprehension of most ways been there — came into focus. other persons. : It is only the most learned ob- servers who can see these innu- Perhaps one of the most distine- merable human differences of all tive things about humans is their sorts. They know best how infinite extreme variation. Humans -are is the extent of human variation. said to be the most advanced and So I shall not attempt to explain complex form of life, thus exhibit- human variation in full here. I ing differences that are presum- shall leave that to the masters of ably greater, one individual from another, than for any other form “The Structure of ‘Human Intellect” by - of life. Professor J. P. Guilford, University of “No two ‘persons are exactly Southern California. A paper presented alike, not even so-called identical before the meeting of the National Acad- ) fi oo. RE emy of Sciences, Pasadena, California, twins. Terrific differences ‘exist November 2-4, 1955. " Human Variation ===== PAGE 53 ===== 1957 YOUR TAX BURDEN 51 biological and philosophical knowl- a powerful tool for attainment, edge, such as Professors Roger which is also a powerful tool for Williams and Hans Thirring.? I self-destruction. If we can learn shall pass that over and go on to how to deal with these human the point of our concern here. We (differences so that they fructify need only, for our purposes here, rather than sterilize attainment, to realize the extent of human variation can be a blessing instead variation and to appreciate the of a suicidal plague. The conse- nature of its terrific impact on all quences of failing to use it as a affairs of man’s relationship to good instead of an evil could man in society. mean the extermination of our Human variation becomes, on civilization. The consequences the one hand, a price we must pay could even eliminate human life for the exceedingly high develop- itself, though I believe this to be ment embodied in the human form unlikely. If we should persist in of life. For if we were a simple pursuing suicidal endeavors on form of life like the algae, varia- which we have embarked, how- tion would be far less extensive ever, we could dive into another and life would be far less com- dark age. plex. The algae do not have the It is precisely this quality of hu- problems we have, such as that of man variation which develops into taxes with which we are here con-. all sorts of problems, at all levels cerned. But, on the other hand, of social contact — within the fam- neither do the algae have the po- ily, within organizations, within tential of attainment that humans and between nations, and the like. have. Our immediate concern, however, So in our variation we live with is to focus the way in which hu- man variation becomes involved in *For instance, see Professor Williams’ the matter of taxes —the eco- recent book, Biochemical Individuality, nomic burden of government New York: John Wiley & Sons, 1956, which we impose upon one an- oat, University of Texas Press. 1953, Other by means of force, in an Professor Thirring’s Homo Sapiens, attempt to cope with certain hu- Vienna: Ullstein Verlag, 1947, and his man differences which we refuse recent article, “The Step from Knowl- edge to Wisdom” in American Scientist, to tolerate. October 1956, pp. 445-56; Liberty, a Path to Its Recovery by F. A. Harper, Government: To Govern Chapter 8 and Appendix II, Irvington- : : _ on~-Hudson, N. Y.: The Foundation for Government 15 engaged mn gov Economic Education, 1949. erning — govern-ment. To govern ===== PAGE 54 ===== 52 THE FREEMAN April means to rule, control, hold back, condition of involuntary servitude. restrain, shackle, bridle. Govern- I should point out again that I ment refers to the means or the am not attempting here to differ- agency in the name of which one entiate between acts which should or more persons govern others. be restrained and those which Governing, of course, means the should not be restrained, from the forcing by some persons upon standpoint of morals or propriety. other persons of some form or de- Governing is composed entirely of gree of unfreedom. For it would restraint, which may be the re- obviously be ridiculous to say that straint of the good as well as of a person who is being governed is the bad. It is unrealistic to assume being left alone to do as he deems that all governing will be of one proper and wise — who is, in other moral hue. And so to govern is to words, being allowed to operate as restrain, whether of good or of a truly self-governed and self- evil. controlled person. On the contrary, he is being governed to the extent [Intolerable Differences he is not allowed to be self-gov- We govern one another as a con- erned, self-controlled. sequence of our differences rather In common usage and as related than our similarities. If we were to taxes, then, the word govern- all completely alike in all respects, ment refers to the sole legal agent including our beliefs as well as of compulsion among persons. It our conduct, I fail to see how there refers to the business that is en- should be any governing de- gaged in performing the “service” manded at all. For then everyone of governing. would be conducting himself ex- actly as others must deem proper. Compulsory or Forbidden Any constabulary under such a In a completely governed soci- circumstance would be a foolish ety, as the saying goes, everything wastage, and surely we would not that is not compulsory is forbid- burden ourselves with taxes for den. A completely authoritarian such as that. So there would pre- government holds unlimited pow- sumably be no government among ers to rule, to control, and to re- a completely homogeneous popu- strain all the citizens except the lation. governor himself, who sets the All governing, then, arises from rules of restraint for all others. differences rather than from simi- The governor is the victim of his larities among people. Yet, not all task, but he is not otherwise in a differences grow into government, ===== PAGE 55 ===== 1957 YOUR TAX BURDEN 53 either. Some differences are toler- reform. And so it is that the ated or even welcomed. In those human race has never yet laid instances no control of one an- itself entirely on the altar of any other is attempted. To illustrate, sacrificial efforts to attain con- differences that are accepted and formity among humans. The rob- even enjoyed are reflected in the ber Procrustes, whose bed of admissions paid to see major violent conformity became legend- league ball games or the opera, or ary, never became much of a suc- to view some human freak ex- cess as a leader of societal better- hibited in the side show at the ment. county fair. We are willing to pay in order that these may endure; Costs Become Taxes we do not want them destroyed or The task of governing requires restrained. both material means and human Some differences, however, are effort. These both have value in ones we refuse to tolerate. And the market. They are among our these are the ones which become economic goods and services, in embodied in the processes of gov- competition with the production ernment. That is why the human of bread and shoes and shelter. form of life, with its highly de- And that is why there is a money veloped differentiation between in- cost in governing. That is why dividuals, is so susceptible to the taxes are assessed to pay the costs threat of a cancerous growth of of this collectivized service of government, For with infinite governing, collectively hired and variation between persons, intol- performed by government. erance of differences can easily True, some governing may be lead to inordinate growth and eco- gratuitous, as when the citizens nomic suicide. join voluntarily in a posse to track When such intolerance grows down a murderer, and the like.. unchecked, we more and more en- When that is the case, there is no gage ourselves in a futile attempt direct money cost involved and to remake mankind from his bio- no taxes are collected for it. The logical pattern of variation; to only cost involved is what the par- saddle ourselves with more and ticipants might otherwise have more of the costs and wasted ef- done with the time and tools they fort involved, toward an end where devoted to the hunt. we would eventually starve. For- It is probably fair to say that tunately, however, the urge to sur- as governing moves further and vive always exceeds the urge to further away from controlling ===== PAGE 56 ===== 54 THE FREEMAN April those forms of conduct which es- us say that a lady — as does the sentially all the people deem to be government— goes shopping to buy reprehensible, the process becomes a hat or a dress or a mink. coat, more and more expensive. This is which she “needs.” After she has because fewer and fewer people decided what she wants, she buys are willing to contribute their time it. She then decides to whom the and means voluntarily under these purchase will be charged: “Put circumstances. Governing then be- this on the bills of ‘all persons in comes merely a job for those em- the nation, in the following ployed in governing. They demand amounts...” pay for their work — as much pay Government must pay its costs as the market would offer them; this way because it has.no net perhaps, to dig ditches, to practice worth. It is constantly insolvent, medicine, or to do something else obligating itself to spend some- in workaday life. thing it does not yet have. It has As things stand today, an in- no earned revenues from prior significant part of the processes services rendered and sold in the of government is in the form of market at a net gain, as you do contributed time and means by when you go shopping with money those who do the tasks of govern- you earned at yesterday's work. ing. Essentially all of it, other The government, instead, must ob- than conscripted military person- tain by force of taxation the rev- nel, is now hired and bought in enue with which to- pay its bills. the wage and product market An exception to this description places. And the price may be high. might seem to be certain fees ) ‘ charged those who use certain Collected by Force . government services. But the The service of governing in- revenue from such sources is volves, then, costs which are fi- minor and insignificant as com- nanced by these taxes. Taxes are pared with the total cost of gov- collected by force from the citizens ernment. And furthermore, even on some predesigned pattern of in these instances, with hardly an assessment. Customarily, govern- exception, the service which the ment employees themselves decide government offers is one which it to whom the bills shall be sent. has assigned to itself under a Using an analogy, and remem- strict monopoly. So even these ex- bering that governing is merely a ceptions are charges that you must service performed at a price, the pay at a monopoly price, or go process is something like this: Let without the service altogether. ===== PAGE 57 ===== 1957 YOUR TAX BURDEN 55 Tax assessments to pay almost some better and more efficient way all the costs of government are im- to do it. posed by force. Payment is obliga- tory on everyone, whether he The Long-time Pattern of Taxes wants the ‘‘service”. or not — With this background of the na- whether he uses it or not. He must ture of government and taxes, the accept it from the government long-time changes in the tax bur- source at a dictated price, even den in the United States may be- though he may know a better and come especially meaningful in new cheaper way of obtaining a service perspective. he wants. So all tax collection rests The accompanying chart shows, on intolerance — intolerance for all for almost the entire period of persons who may believe that our nation’s history, the changing those human differences being level of taxes. governed should be tolerated The tax burden is shown on the rather than controlled; all who chart in terms of the part of each believe that even if there is to be hour of work taken to pay the an attempt to control, there is costs of government. It represents TAXES IN THE UNITED STATES MINUTES MINUTES 60 60 PEE ) so Id ~ MINUTES PER HOUR OF WORK DEVOTED TO 4 i RESTRAINING ONE ANOTHER: “GOVERNMENT [°° i p I . 40 — Ne A —140 ry 30 — 20 ~— 10 — Federal only, prior to 1849 ~~ ’ I ——tste— | 1 1 i 1800 1825 1850 1875 1900 1925 1950 SOURCE: Derived from Department of Commerce figures on national income. ===== PAGE 58 ===== 56 THE FREEMAN April the part of our labor product time can now be spent gathering taken to govern one another, taken coconuts and catching fish. As to restrain and control human dif- more and more freedom is allowed, ferences. By expressing the tax the proportion of the time ab- burden in this manner, the prob- sorbed in controlling one another lems of changing population, of would decline to 50 minutes, 40 changing hours of work,. of minutes, etc., out of each hour of changes in rates of pay, and the work. like, are all eliminated from view Perhaps the two would never be so that we can more clearly see able to figure out how to reduce the point of our concern — taxes. government to zero. Perhaps in- The concept may be seen by first tolerable differences would persist. considering only two persons on a These become “government,” due desert island. If one of them should to efforts to control what is not become so concerned with re- tolerated. This part would persist straining the peculiarities of his as a cost of governing. Let us say, neighbor that he catches the for instance, that one of the two neighbor and sits on him all the persons persists in trying to filch time, a full 60 minutes out of each the coconuts which the other has hour of his work would then be gathered, causing the other to de- devoted to governing the island’s vote some time standing guard or population. And the victim, being building some sort of protective totally restrained, could produce storage. This would become a cost nothing either. So all the island’s of government, in one form or an- “production” would be absorbed other. In this instance, the process by government. Both would then would be considered as “good busi- starve, unless they were to dis- ness,” and a wise expenditure of cover how to tolerate some of their time and means. And in that sense, human differences and do some- governing would be a valid cost of thing besides govern. doing business, a wise way to Now suppose that some ungov- spend part of one’s time. erned action is to be allowed. Some But it is likewise true that the I process described above might be 3The method by which this is done is to exactly reversed and be worse relate the total costs of government in the United States to the total of all per- than wasteful. Perhaps the one sonal incomes. All incomes finally be- bent on filching what someone else come the incomes of one person or an- has produced is the bigger and other. This ratio was then expressed in . terms of minutes out of each hour of _brawnier man of the two. By one work, taken as taxes. means or another, then, he will be- ===== PAGE 59 ===== 1957 YOUR TAX BURDEN 57 come the governor, living on loot until now taxes take about twenty taken by force of sheer strength minutes out of each hour of work. from the hard-working producer This growth is in spite of all of coconuts and fish. the business efficiencies which So the costs of government are should have made it possible to cut not necessarily the costs of con- costs in the devices of governing trolling evil acts of other persons, — automobiles for the policemen, in the interests of what you and business machines to help in all I deem to be moral, or ethical, or sorts of tasks, and all the rest. proper. It may be precisely the reverse. Witness, for instance, the The question with which I shall predominant pattern of govern- end this discussion is: Has the ments throughout all history, as average person in the United they have become more and more States become so much more cor- corrupt. rupt and evil over the years that All we can say — all we shall say we must spend one-third of our at this point — is that the costs of time in controlling each other? government are the costs of con- Does the present generation re- trols which the dominant faction quire six times as much governing in any nation is able to impose on as their grandparents and great- the others. These controls may grandparents did? I think not. But take any form. The one sure thing even if they do, is this the means is that it will be the rule of coer- by which to regain honor and self- cive might. control? If we are not so much more evil One-Third of Our Effort than our ancestors, then we must Referring to the chart again, look upon this growing burden of we see how the proportion of our government as a suicidal expres- productive effort in the United sion of growing intolerance for States which has been taken in human differences — differences the attempt to control the actions which are the mark of a higher of one another has grown fabu- order of creation in the form of lously and dangerously over the mankind which could, instead of years. It was relatively insignifi- inducing a cancerous growth of cant in earlier years. But for a government, become the means of century it has grown and grown, unbelievable human attainment. EDITOR'S NOTE: Other articles on “Your Tax Burden” will appear in subsequent issues. ===== PAGE 60 ===== AUGUSTIN NAVARRO V. Christmas Presents IT HAS BECOME customary in Mex- collects it spends for the cumber- ico to give Christmas presents. In some bureaucratic machinery many cases, members of a family which every day increases and em- give to one another as a sign of braces more and more. In addition their joy on such an important oc- to the federal budget, there are casion and also to show their affec- twenty-nine state budgets and in- tion. In most homes, the head of numerable municipal budgets, each the family pays for all the pres- of which supports its own legisla- ents, those which he buys directly ture with great numbers of dep- as well as those bought by mem- uties and senators. There is the bers of his family. Either way,the federal executive plus thirty state money comes from his own pocket. executives. There is the federal Many persons think of the gov- judicial power and thirty local ju- ernment as a bona fide source of diciaries. And, there are thousands Christmas presents. But, like the and thousands of municipal presi- head of the family, we ourselves dents, councils, and city govern- pay for each such gift we receive. ments. All these hundreds of The money comes from our own thousands’ of civil servants are pockets. supported by the people whom they Many journalists write with en- govern. thusiasm of the enormous sums Another sizeable part of the scheduled by the national budget money collected by the government for various projects. Optimism goes to pay for public works which spreads and countless persons are, or should be, of general utility. imagine that they will benefit by Unfortunately, another large gifts from the government. But portion of the tax money is used the fact is that the government has to establish, develop, or encourage no money except what it takes official or semiofficial enterprises. from the people through taxes. These projects, justifiably or not, A part of the money the State are considered to be in the public Mr. Navarro is Director of the Institute of Social and Economic Studies of Mexico. 58 ===== PAGE 61 ===== 1957 CHRISTMAS PRESENTS 59 interest; and because they do not ing the construction industry—and seek profit primarily, they yield so forth. Finally, others would save very low returns or, in some in- and accumulate capital so neces- stances, they produce.large losses. .sary and indispensable in our It is argued that the State has undercapitalized country, thus the right and the obligation to stimulating production generally promote enterprises, even though in accordance with the population they will result in losses, which increase which Mexico is experi- private initiative does not or can- encing year by year. not promote by itself. One forgets If it can be shown that the pros- that private initiative is made up perity of the more advanced coun- of each and every inhabitant of the tries is due in some measure to the Republic of Mexico. It is assumed, economic freedom which they have falsely, that government officials enjoyed, why not extend that eco- have better judgment and greater nomic freedom in underdeveloped capacity than do the people them- countries, as Mexico, which have selves for knowing their needs and such urgent need of capital invest- wants, and knowing which indus- ment in order to produce more tries should be promoted or en- goods at lower prices and to raise couraged. Thus, millions of pesos the level of living of the masses? are used by the State to promote Actually, the Christmas gift or to encourage unprofitable enter- which one imagines to be from the prises. If these pesos had been left government affords no reason for in the pockets of individuals, each cheer since it is only a return of would have determined according part of the money previously taken to his own judgment what use from our own pockets. Let us should be made of the money. strive to improve our productivity Some, buying cigars, would stimu- for the benefit of ourselves and the late the. cigar industry. Others community in general, with no would buy more foods, encourag- illusions about Christmas presents ing the food industry. Still others that we ourselves have paid for at would build more houses, stimulat- very high prices. ooo moo ) TT . | DRAG © LIQAETY | Property Precedes Charity i. —— - ; Burt if nothing is mine, then is there not only no justice, but no possibility of benevolence. P. E. DOVE, The Theory of Human Progression ===== PAGE 62 ===== John Chamberlain NLIKE his poetic ancestor, morality play — makes perfectly the John Keats who has just good ‘sense emotionally, hygieni- written The Crack in the Picture cally, and esthetically. The houses Window (Houghton Mifflin, $3.00) in Rolling Knolls lack just about has not traveled much in the everything that makes a house a realms of gold. His province is the home. They aren’t big enough to counterfeit metals, and his mode provide anything but dormitory of writing is a screaming, screech- space. The yards are two-by- ing satire. fours; and when the yards are The Crack in the Picture Win- filled with sandboxes, jungle gyms, dow is a scorching, completely un- and outdoor fireplaces (as most of qualified attack on the mass hous- them come to be within very short ing developments that have been order), they resemble nothing so turning much of America into a much as mazes designed to test spotty suburban vista. Although the ratiocinative powers of a Mr. Keats, a reporter turned soci- bunch of cornered rats. ologist, lacks even a nodding ac- Humanly speaking, Mr. Keats ‘quaintance with such virtues as stacks the cards against the in- understatement and modulation of habitants of Rolling Knolls by giv- tone, much of what he has to say ing them such names as John and is unfortunately true. Everyone Mary Drone, Gladys Fecund, Mrs. who has seen the acres of “boxes- Ardis Voter, Henry Amiable, the on-a-slab” which constitute some Spleens, the Faints, and the Wilds. of our newest housing schemes The contractor who conceived must know that in ten or fifteen Rolling Knolls in the first place is years they will be prime candi- Samuel O. Burmal, and one of his dates for slum removal. subsidiary companies is, appropri- What Mr. Keats has to say ately enough, baptized the “SOB about Rolling Knolls, Virginia — Suburban Bank and Trust Com- the fictionized setting of his little pany.” 60 ===== PAGE 63 ===== 1957 A REVIEWER'S NOTEBOOK 61 Bored and Broke points about the difference be- Since the Spleens, the Faints, ~ tween a community and a develop- and the Drones are piled on top of ment. In a community young peo- each other, they naturally get in ple live next door to older people, each other’s hair. The men go off and grandma is sometimes avail- to work during the day to not-so- able as a babysitter. A community distant Washington, D. C., ap- has moving picture theatres, con- parently taking all of the cars and cert halls, parks with tennis leaving no means of private loco- courts, a YMCA, and a few motion to the wives. The wives, of churches. There are streets with course, still have legs to walk on, shops — and even the poorest in- and it is just conceivable that they habitants can afford window-shop- could use buses. But, lacking the ping. energy to use legs and buses, they In a development the people are stay at home in the development usually in the same age brackets. except for trips to the nearby su- Grandma is not there to baby-sit permarket. Bored to death by their — or to hand out the wisdom of own laziness, they try to alleviate her years. There are no forty- the tedium by holding morning year-olds to provide ballast for the kaffeeklatsches on the lawn. The twenty-five-year-olds. And such conversation is inevitably about cultural items as libraries, picture such things as the toilet training galleries, and book stores are too of infants or the sins and defects far away to be visited save by of husbands. Everyone is gadget- determined travelers. mad, and when one Rolling Knoller gets a television set or a clothes The Plea to Government dryer, the rest must follow suit. Having made his cultural and There is not a family in Rolling spiritual points, however, Mr. Knolls that is not in debt to its Keats is unable to come up with a ears; and when payday comes respectable answer to his problem. around, the bank accounts in Mr. He asks “we, the people” to do Burmal’s bank are denuded within something about the situation by twenty-four hours as the checks enforcing “better zoning regula- go out for the time payments. tions” and by putting “ceilings” on Mr. Keats does a fine sardonic land values which would discour- job of lampooning the surface age the practice of subdividing to troubles of the Rolling Knolls effect a quick monetary clean-up. householders. Quoting the sociolo- Mr. Keats is “not ordinarily in gists, he makes some excellent favor of government controls,” ===== PAGE 64 ===== 62 " THE FREEMAN April and he sometimes thinks that “cre- young fellow just out of the army ation of the federal post office was ought to rent a place until he had a step dn the wrong diréction.” established himself in a career But to him housing is a “public disappeared into limbo, and Roll- utility,” and “representative gov- ingXKnolls developments blossomed ernment’ must step in to save the everywhere. : . : situation. Mr. Keats doesn’t notice that he More of the Same is merely advocating a “hair of And now that the political state, the dog that bit you” treatment with its easy credit, has: called for the Rolling Knolls type of de- thousands of Rolling Knolls devel- lirium tremens. He doesn’t notice opments into. being,” Mr. Keats that it was government — good old calls on this same political state to government — that brought Roll- do something to erase what it has ing Knolls into existence in the done. Well, some day thistles may first place. It was government bear figs, the sun may rise in the which drafted young men into the west, and rabbits and hounds may army and navy and, in course of fraternize,r but the same govern- time, released them as veterans ment that conjured Rolling Knolls with GI rights. Included in the GI into being will hardly conjure it rights was quick and easy access out. Rolling Knolls is there to stay to government money for housing. until it disintegrates, and if there A veteran could get a mortgage is more easy credit, with thirty insured without proving a thing years to pay and nothing down, about his financial condition be- the Samuel O. Burmals of the yond presence on a payroll. Ac- building world will continue to cording to the law, the young vet- take the largesse which the politi- eran was entitled to a house (and cal state hands out. a thirty-year mortgage) without No doubt Mr. Keats will set me putting anything down. down as an “enemy of housing for With the government providing ‘ the people” because I doubt that the insurance money, naturally government can do any better the S. O. Burmals of the home- than it has done in the housing building world leaped at the field. All I can say to Mr. Keats is chance to do a quick deal for the that it is a matter of record that young veteran and his family. the British, in’ the nineteen Who wouldn’t have jumped at the thirties, financed ‘a rather good idea of making money without building boom by relying on the taking risks? The old idea that a purely private cooperation of the ===== PAGE 65 ===== 1957 OTHER BOOKS 63 Building Societies. These Build- question. The vacuum was prompt- ing Societies were examples of ly filled by a host of sentimental “unassisted private enterprise,” to reformers who waxed indignant quote Gustav Stolper’s description over capitalism’s alleged “ravag- of them in This Age of Fable. If ing” of the forests, “squandering” Mr. Keats's young veterans had of oil, destruction of grazing land, had to think through their hous- and the like. In their selfish greed, ing problem fo the point of or- ran the charge, free enterprisers ganizing a Building Society to had apparently destroyed the provide themselves with homes, birthright of their descendants. - they would have seen to it that “Society” in the shape of govern- they were getting something ment, the conservationists de- worthwhile for their money. It clared, must step in and plan for was the “something-for-nothing” the long-range interests of present lure that led John and Mary Drone and future generations. to their destruction in Mr. S. O. Professor Scott is a brilliant Burmal’s Rolling Knolls Estates. young Canadian economist who As for the subdivider’s profits pioneers in this book in bringing collected by Mr. Burmal, what was economics to bear on conservation there to prevent a number of problems. It is a comprehensive young veterans from pooling their analysis, both theoretical and fac- resources to buy up farm acreage tual, of conservation. For example, dirt cheap? They could have Scott shows that the market pro- started their own development vides best for the future through then, making their own rules for adjustments in the capital value of land use even to the creation of a resources. When the market oper- community swimming pool. But ates, natural resources, like other this presupposes better human capital, are allocated to serve most material than Mr. Keats's Drone efficiently the desires of consum- family. oe o ¢ ers. Expected future returns from a resource are ‘‘capitalized” in its i - present going price. The govern- += Natural Resources: The Eco. ment’s forced restriction of pro- nomics of Conservation duction not only distorts the free } market’s allocation of production, By Anthony Scott. Toronto: Univer- but also implies that the “present” sity of Toronto Press. 184 pp. $3.50. must never consume for fear of Until very recently, economists injuring the “future.” But, since sorely neglected the conservation the “future” must therefore ab- ===== PAGE 66 ===== 64 THE FREEMAN April stain for the sake of a still later ure to grant sole ownership of “future,” when will the resource technological units —i.e., of whole be used at all? In the United States resources —to private persons. and other countries in this cen- Thus, we fail to grant private tury, governments have interfered ownership of fishing rights in the to deprive society permanently of ocean, of whole oil pools, or often valuable resources. of the forests themselves. We only As for the “ravaging” of re- grant rights to use the resources: sources, Professor Scott sees that to cut down the trees, to catch fish, it was partly quite proper since it to drill oil. If the resource itself cleared land for more valuable must remain wholly unowned, it uses. We would still be living like will be to no one’s benefit to con- the primitive Indians, for instance, serve its capital value. Naturally, if we had stubbornly insisted on then, production will become exces- preserving all the timber the Pil- sive. The cure is to permit private grims found upon arriving on this ownership of all natural resources continent. Further, Scott demon- on the basis of ownership to first strates that whatever waste we user. have suffered stems from our fail- Professor Scott is a welcome ad- i dition to the London School of } oo economists — stanchly devoted to moil. You pay only the bookstore price. We the late Edwin Cannan. His Nat- pay the postage anywhere in the world. Catalogue on request. ural Resources is indispensable to THE BOOKMAILER, Box 101, New York 16 | any study of the conservation bug- aboo. MURRAY N. ROTHBARD a ap Amara ti Armin rinses abot af mands mnt #4 rnd + Sofi rr J ora) SMA 8 Sri | Sint | es © 1 ttt emma inti magmas Som ton brian, Amir A SHARING OF KNOWLEDGE is the prelude to wisdom. "The Freedom School encourages individual wisdom by providing a Socratic forum on liberty for Americans who are 16 years of age or older and who wish to expand their horizons by reaching an understanding in the basic truths of the libertarian’ philosophy. Six courses available beginning June 3, 1957. Each course takes just i two weeks. CT . Guest discussion leaders who will be e assisting on n occasion during the courses include: FRANK CHODOROV, FRED G. CLARK, JAMES L. DOENGES, PERCY L. GREAVES, JR., F. A. HARPER, and LEONARD E. READ. If you would like to participate, write . FREEDOM SCHOOL, Box 163, Colorado Springs, Colorado " for enrollment application and free descriptive folder. ===== PAGE 67 ===== SUBJECT: GOVERNMENT SUBSIDY | Q. A question which concerns every thoughtful taxpayer is— | “What can be done about unnecessary government expenses ?"’ l A. Spiraling costs of national defense and foreign aid need careful analysis, but one immediate way of reducing the | cost of government is to eliminate subsidies known to be | unnecessary. A case in point is the government subsidization of commercial users of Parcel Post. | Q. Just what is this “subsidy’’ ? | A. Government expenses for Parcel Post exceed the revenues from Parcel Post users. The difference represents a govern- | ment subsidy. Since commercial shipments make up most | of the Parcel Post volume, the larger commercial users are profiting at the expense of the taxpayer. | Q. Who loses by this? | A. The taxpayer, of course. But, in addition, private shipping companies lose. They | must do business in competition with Parcel Post—a system | that is operating at a loss. Unfair competition? There’s no | doubt of it. | Q. What can be done about this? | A. Parcel Post should first be put on a self-sustaining basis. | To achieve this, it’s important that we know the facts con- I cerned with the problem. Why not write today for your free copy of “The Truth About Parcel Post’? Address the | Public Relations Division, RAILWAY EXPRESS AGENCY, INC. 219 EAST 42nd STREET, NEW YORK 17, NEW YORK A PRIVATE ENTERPRISE IN THE PUBLIC SERVICE ===== PAGE 68 ===== FROM A LIBERTARIAN’S LIBRARY The ONLY SECURITY ANY PERSON CAN HAVE LIES WITHIN HIMSELF. Unless he is free to act as an individual, free to be productive in his own behalf, free to determine what part of that production he will consume now and what part he will save, and free to protect his savings, there is no chance that he can find security anywhere. Such security can be realized only if markets are free of mo- nopoly controls. The property of individuals must be protected from confiscation by other individuals, including those in govern- ment office. The false charity of governmental subsidy cannot withstand exposure to truth. Governmental gifts to the aged cul- tivate a robber instinct among men who are in search of security. No person can ever really depend for his security upon a gift from another. But his only hope for a gift, in case of real need, lies in his having helped preserve the right of every individual to the product of his own labor. Only in that right, and full exer- cise of it, is to be found any security by any person. A selection from The Pension Idea by Paul L. Poirot. The Foundation for Economic Education, Irvington-on-Hudson, N. Y. 52 pp. 50 cents.