===== PAGE 1 =====

THE

[eClldll

MAY 1957

Two Ways To Develop a Country
Rent Controlled Slums

Your Tax Burden:
2. Limits of Tolerance .

The High Cost of Unionism
Agriculture with a Future
The Thing We Call Time .

The Achilles’ Heel of Socialism
and Communism

Blind Spots in the New Socialism

Impertinent To Be Observed .

Book Reviews

IDEAS ON LIBERTY

Dean Russell 1
Colm Brogan 12
F. A. Harper 17
Ludwig W. Freier 25

Charles B. Shuman 32

Ralph Bradford 38
G. Sumner Small 44
Reginald Jebb 51

John Chamberlain 56

59

THE FOUNDATION
FOR ECONOMIC EDUCATION, INC.

Irvington-on-Hudson, New York


===== PAGE 2 =====

The case
of the
Missing

Millions of tax dollars are lost every bills that you pay in yours. They pay
year through a strange kind of tax taxes of only about 4¢ per dollar on
favoritism. And you are taxed extra power from the government’s TVA,
to help balance the loss. for example. So to make up for the
tax revenues which federal power
projects don’t pay, you have to be
taxed more.

As a customer of an independent
electric light and power company,
about 23¢ out of every dollar you

pay for electricity goes for taxes. Don’t you think that every Amer-
But because of present tax laws, ican should carry his fair share of
people served by federal govern- taxes? America’s Independent Elec-

ment power systems escape paying tric Light and Power Companies*
most of ' the taxes in their electric *¥Company names on request through this magazine


===== PAGE 3 =====

DEAN RUSSELL

dovelly a co

HORTLY BEFORE the Civil War in natural resources to be found

the United States, H. R. there.
Helper produced a book dedicated This Southern author was tell-
to the proposition: Slavery is eco- ing his slave-owning fellow coun-
nomically unsound.’ trymen that they would make

Mr. Helper proved statistically more money — not less — by free-
that the free market economy of ing their slaves and paying the
the North was superior to the high wages established by a com-
Southern economy of compulsions petitive market economy. He
and restrictions. Both the owners warned his neighbors that the
and the employees in the industrial South would remain underdevel-
North were rapidly becoming the oped and backward as long as it
world’s richest people because continued to reject the market
they operated under the competi- economy.
tive conditions of a free market. In effect, he explained that prog-
The absence of a free market for ress, prosperity, and profits are
labor and services in the South based on a governmental and
was keeping its people poor, dis- social system that permits each
couraging the accumulation of person to use his individual skills
capital, driving away the capital and resources as seems to him
that already existed, and delaying most profitable and pleasing. He
the development of the abundant claimed that when peaceful per-
_— sons are forced to do what they
Helper, Hinton Rowan. The Impending would not do voluntarily — or are

Crisis in the South: How To Meet It. .
New York: A. B. Burdick, 1860. prevented from doing what they

Mr. Russell, formerly a member of the Foundation staff, is currently studying at the Graduate

Institute of International Studies in Geneva. This article is from a paper delivered in a
seminar there.

1


===== PAGE 4 =====

2 THE FREEMAN May

want to do—the results are controlled currencies, tariffs, do-
always second best, if not disas- mestic or foreign trade, or de-
trous. . velopment of resources within or
Mr. Helper’s resedrch showed without a country. In any country
that there was far more produc- in the world, the people over a
tion per acre of land in the market reasonable period of time will have
economy of the North than on more of the goods and services
comparable land in the unfree they’ ‘want if “the ‘government
market of the South. The produc- limits itself to protecting the free
tion per. man-hour in Northern in- market where independent and
dustries was far higher than in peaceful persons may trade their
Southern industries. Because of skills and services as seems best to
the general absence of competition them.
in a slave economy, even the free
workers of the South were far less Ways and Means
efficient than .the industrial Undoubtedly, all of us want the
workers of the North. In fact, the people of underdeveloped countries
North was ahead of the South in to have more of the material com-
every meaningful economic area forts of life. All of us are persons
that the author of this study could of good will, and our goal is the
measure. And in all of these areas, same. But I suspect that the means
the North was steadily forging advanced by us to reach this de-

further ahead. sirable goal would vary from com-
plete government control to an ab-
Restraint of Trade solutely free market. So let us

My thesis today is the same as examine a few ideas and examples
that advanced 100 years ago by behind these two general ways —
Mr. Helper: Any restriction of the government versus the free mar-
free market — legal or illegal — will ket — to develop an underdeveloped
ultimately result in less production country.
of wanted goods and services than The free market way means that
there would be in an unrestricted persons voluntarily use their own
market economy. It makes no dif- money and skills to back their own
ference whether the restrictions economic decisions. They reap the
concern minimum or maximum rewards of good judgment and
wages, minimum or maximum suffer the consequences of poor
profits, import or export embar- judgment. In this way, no person
goes, subsidies, allocations of raw buys or sells or participates unless
‘materials or markets, monopolies, his best judgment says to do so.


===== PAGE 5 =====

1957 TWO WAYS TO DEVELOP A COUNTRY 3

The Compulsory Way ects would not meet the test of
the free market (otherwise there
would have been no reason to re-
sort to compulsion), these govern-
ment planners seldom make effec-
tive use of this comparative meas-
urement.

The government or socialistic
way to develop a country means
that government officials compel
you against your will and better
judgment to contribute a portion
of your money or time to imple-
ment their ideas and schemes. The Middle Way
There is no sure way to determine Now someone is sure to claim
if the decisions of these officials that there is a third way to de-
are economically sound because velop an underdeveloped country
the - only economic measurement or region —the “middle-of-the-
available — the test of the market road” way that avoids the free
— is forbidden. It is true that as market on the one side and gov-
long as a free market in similar ernment ownership or control on
goods and services exists either the other. I am convinced that this
within or without a socialistic alleged third way is mostly a de-
country, the government officials lusion.
can still make rough comparisons Mr. Nehru of India aptly de-
to determine the economic status scribed the nature of this third
of their projects. But since they way in one of his speeches when
know in advance that their proj- he promised that his government

THE . :
/ \ MAY 1957 eo Vol. 7, No. 5
TCC 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 wiil be supplied in reprint
A MONTHLY JOURNAL Permission is hereby granted to form if there are enough inquiries

- OF IDEAS ON LIBERTY anyone to reprint any article in to justify the cost of printing.

! The Freeman is published ‘monthly by the Foundation for Economic Education, inc., lrvington-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 frvington; N. Y. with additional entry at New

. York, N.Y, Copyright 1957, The Foundation for Economic Education, Inc. Printed in U. S. A.


===== PAGE 6 =====

4 THE FREEMAN May

would give “encouragement in tion or nationalization that will
every way” to privately owned in- soon follow. Lenin’s return to lim-
dustries in his country. He prom- ited free enterprise was designed
ised that the government “would only to fool the people who enjoy
not touch them for at least ten being fooled. The World Bank was
years, maybe more.” He added: deliberately and purposefully de-
“We do not know when we shall signed to promote government
nationalize them.’’? ownership and control, not a mar-
This third way is also inherent ket economy. A 1942 opinion by
in the promises of officials of var-. the Supreme Court of the United
ious underdeveloped countries to States succinctly summed up the
permit new private companies to fundamental reality behind this
operate tax free for a period of alleged third way when it ruled
years — usually ten. that “it is hardly lack of due proc-
+ This third way inspired Nikolai ess for the government to regu-
Lenin to establish his New Eco- late that which it subsidizes.”
nomic Policy in Russia in an effort
to persuade the farmers to in- This Time Is Different”
crease their agricultural produc- I suspect that most union
tion. leaders, farmers, businessmen,
The government agency popu- and other recipients of these sub-
larly known as the World Bank is sidies that accrue to them for en-
following this third way when it dorsing this third way, are well
speaks favorably of private de- aware of the reality behind the
velopment and offers its bonds for favoritism and special privileges
sale to private investors. they now enjoy. But they fondly
The hard reality behind this imagine that this time it is differ-
third way to development is writ- ent; that all history and logic to
ten large in both history and cur- the contrary, this time it will
rent events. Mr. Nehru will con- work.
tinue to nationalize whatever he Well, it won’t. And here’s why.
pleases and whenever he pleases. By definition, the third way is not
When a businessman is granted a the voluntary free market way; it
tax concession in any country, he is the way of government and com-
would be well advised to prepare pulsions. The fact that a govern-
himself for the confiscatory taxa- ment may permit a great deal of
er private ownership and initiative
1950. p. 192. that the government is in charge


===== PAGE 7 =====

1957 TWO WAYS TO DEVELOP A COUNTRY 5

of the situation. When you think I agree that if we are forbidden
about it, why should the govern- a free market, then a half-free
ment bother to compel persons to market is far superior to no mar-
conform or to refrain or to co- ket economy at all. This is merely
operate when it can persuade them another way of saying that the
to conform or refrain or cooperate degree of freeness and competition
voluntarily? Joseph Stalin would in the market is directly related
never have murdered anyone if he to the degree of production of the
had been sure that everyone would goods and services that the people
have done exactly as he wanted want.
them to do. The only realistic test
of whether a project or method is, Mar ket vs. Compulsion
or is not, government is this: In reality then, there are two
Would the people do this volun- ways — and only two ways — to de-
tarily if the government stayed velop an underdeveloped country.
out of it completely? In every First, there is the way of the mar-
third way project I know, the ket, with each person voluntarily
answer would be a resounding backing his economic ideas with
“no.” his own money and skills. Second,
True enough, the advocate of there is the way of government,
the third way may sincerely and wherein the capital is collected by
indignantly deny that he favors the tax officials; wherein the par-
government ownership —or, at ticipants are compelled to partici-
any rate, claim that he is in favor pate by the police force; wherein
of only 10 per cent control by the market is by-passed. And un-
government. But he thereby der this second way — government
opens the way for complete gov- — there is a subheading that might
ernment control because he no be titled “governmental direction
longer has any principle or logical of resources that remain in private
reason to protest 11 per cent con- hands.” Now let’s see how these
trol by government, or 49 per cent, two ways operate in practice.
or 51 per cent, or 100 per cent. I contend that there is no real
Thus the defenders of the so-called economic difference between do-
third way are in reality endorsing mestic and foreign trade — al-
the government way and repudiat- though there are certainly political
ing the market way — even though differences. And so it is in devel-
they themselves may not be aware oping an underdeveloped country;
of the ultimate implications of although there are political differ-
their acts. ences, the same economic factors


===== PAGE 8 =====

6 THE FREEMAN May

apply to internal and external de- TVA had poured several hundreds
velopment of underdeveloped of millions of taxpayers’ dollars
areas. Thus the following exam- into the improvement of naviga-
ples of government development tion on the river. Subsequent in-
versus private development will creases in traffic on the Tennessee

cover both situations.- have been comparable to increases
: } on other American waterways, im-
The TVA Idea proved or not. The four cents per

Everyone knows of the Tennes- ton-mile cost to taxpayers for
see Valley Authority and the at- traffic on the Tennessee waterway
tempt of the United States govern- -in 1939 compares with the price
ment to develop the admittedly of one cent per ton-mile charged
underdeveloped resources of the by privately owned railroads in
State of Tennessee. People from the same area. .
all over the world have come to 3. When all expenses are con-
America to admire this project, to sidered and properly allocated, the
study it, and to reproduce some- cost of TVA-produced electricity
thing like it in their own coun- is almost one-third higher than
tries. : the cost of electricity produced by

Among other things, the Ten- neighboring power companies that
nessee Valley Authority is de- are privately owned and operated.
signed to control floods, improve
navigation, and produce electric- Russia Builds a Dam
ity. Without going into detail, Now let's go to Russia and
here are some conclusions based briefly examine a similar project
upon my own studies of the situa- there — the great Dneprostroi
tion.3 hydroelectric dam. Not surpris-

1. More land has been perma- ingly, it has many resemblances to
nently flooded, and thus perma- the Tennessee Valley Authority.
nently taken out of production, by In 1935, an. exiled Russian econ-
the TVA project than the records omist who had worked on this
show was ever temporarily flooded and similar projects in Russia
by nature. : wrote a book on the subject. When

2. There was more traffic on the you hear what he had to say, you
Tennessee River in 1930 before will readily understand why he
TVA than there was in 1939 after was exiled. Here is a part of it:
N.Y: Foundation for Economie Educa. The rapid construction of the great
tion, 1949, : power station on the Dnieper rapids


===== PAGE 9 =====

1957 TWO WAYS TO DEVELOP A COUNTRY 7

A government project that literally blew up— the Dneprogez dam.

(Dneprogez) is accounted one of the Nasser Follows Suit
most brilliant feats of the Soviet
government, and it has already won
for the government the support of
many foreign travelers. But from an

Moving down to Egypt, let’s
speculate for a moment about an-
other similar government plan to
economic point of view the rapid con- develop an underdeveloped nation
struction of Dneprogez cannot be ©F region—Colonel Nasser’s Aswan
justified at all, because many years high dam. Is it economically fea-
must elapse before the factories sible? Well, by the only realistic
which it is supposed to serve will be test of economic feasibility that
completed; there seems, indeed, to exists — what people are willing to
be no urgent need for them. Mean- do with their own money — it is
while no funds are available for pot. Even the greatest planners of
house-building in Magnitogorsk, and all, the Russian experts, say that
it is very probable ‘that the Un- this particular project is imprac-
satisfactory results yielded by this tical. I cannot imagine that any

smelting works are the direct out- . - .

. . os . independent economist would pro-
come of the disgusting conditions in ) call d
which the workers are compelled NOURNCE it an economically soun
to live.! project for Egypt. The truth of

the matter seems to be this: In

‘Brutzkus, Boris. Economic Planning in e fi the trim-
Soviet Russia. London: George Routledge Egypt today, Ww ind all .
& Sons, 1935. pp. 228-9. .mings of capitalism — engineers,


===== PAGE 10 =====

8 THE FREEMAN May

machinery, financial experts, and continue to do so — unless some
so on — but there is a serious cur- softheaded Venezuelan patriot per-
_ tailment of the philosophy of suades the people that they should
capitalism, such as government nationalize the foreign companies
protection of private property, and keep all those exorbitant prof-
sanctity of contract, personal sav- its for themselves. If that hap-
ings for domestic investment, pens, Venezuela will begin to sink

profits, and so on. back into one of the world’s most
backward nations.
Venezuela Tries Freedom Many persons in underdeveloped

Compare this Egyptian dilemma lands complain that foreign capi-
with the development now under talists are primarily concerned
way in Venezuela. Venezuela wants with profits and would take out
the world’s capitalists to invest of the country more than they
their money and skills in exploit- bring in. Certainly they would!
ing the natural resources of that The investors in General Motors
country. The government has guar- and the United States Steel Cor-
anteed noninterference in the poration also take from those com-
strictly business and economic af- panies in profits a great deal more
fairs of the foreign companies than they put in them in the form
established in Venezuela. In tradi- of capital. I know it is dangerous
tional free market fashion, the to make blanket statements, but
government sells mineral and here is one that I will stand on:
other concessions to the highest This chance to make high profits
bidder and on the best possible in a competitive economy is the
economic terms for Venezuela. But only reason that the United States
once the contract is signed, the has become the greatest industrial
government keeps its promise. The producer the world has ever
foreign capitalists are free to known, with a level of living for
make as much profit as they pos- even the poorer citizens that is
sibly can. In fact, the more they higher than that enjoyed by the
make, the more the Venezuelans richer citizens of socialist coun-
make. tries. My choice of the phrase

As a result of this practical and above, “the only reason,” is not an
effective method of exploiting nat- accident because if competition
ural resources, the level of living and this chance for profits were
in Venezuela is rising steadily. So abolished, the other corollary rea-
is the educational level. The econ- sons for progress would be of little
omy is booming and, I predict, will or no value. And, conversely, the


===== PAGE 11 =====

1957 TWO WAYS TO DEVELOP A COUNTRY 9

only reason that any country now stall this dreaded possibility of a
remains underdeveloped is be- market economy for India.

cause its laws and customs are I could now move on to Great
hostile to competition and the Britain and point out the inevita-
profit motive. ble results of a few of their gov-

ernment plans like the nationaliza-
Cultural Underdevelopment tion of the coal mines, or the East

For example, take India. Both African Groundnuts scheme
law and custom .in that under- (sometimes known as the Great
developed country are antagonistic Peanut Fiasco), and other similar
to efficient economic development. grandiose projects that required
The iron grip of the inflexible the use of the police force to re-
caste system of the Hindu civiliza- cruit investors and capital. But
tion has stunted individual initi- instead, I'll dwell for a moment on
ative, and repressed every attempt a remarkable speech once made by
to deviate from traditional stand- the late Foreign Minister, Ernest
ards, for hundreds of years. As Bevin. He pointed out that it used
long as it continues, capitalism to be possible for an Englishman
can’t possibly make much head- to go to Victoria Station, buy a
way there. Admittedly, Mr. Nehru ticket to any place in the world,
is doing his best to abolish the and go there — without the per-
caste system, and is apparently mission of his own or any other
having considerable success. But government. Mr. Bevin complained
he is doing it not for economic that this was now no longer pos-
but for social reasons. In fact, sible and that something ought to
while he is attempting to free the be done about it.

Indian people from this repressive The whole world applauded his
caste tradition, he is at the same sentiment. But apparently neither
time using the law to bind them Mr. Bevin nor his applauders
down with an equally repressive stopped to think that Mr. Bevin’s
economic system. And the United own philosophy of government
States government, with the help and economics was solely respon-
of the World Bank, is doing all it sible for the condition he claimed
possibly can do to aid Mr. Nehru to deplore. It was the economic
in his attempt to make sure that policies of Mr. Bevin and his fel-
the market economy shall never be low government planners all over
permitted to flourish in India. It the world that required passports
seems that Mr. Khrushchev of and visas, trade barriers, pegged
Russia is also anxious. to help fore- currencies, a limit on the amount


===== PAGE 12 =====

10 THE FREEMAN May

Can foreign government aid prepare thesehuman truck horses of India for capitalism?

of money a citizen could take from only in the world markets but even
his own country or into another within the United States itself.
country, and various other cur- That protection — if they get.it —
tailments of the traditional right will deprive the American people
of a person .to travel and to trade of various products they want, and
as seemed to him best. it will increase the cost of similar
In contrast to the above exam- goods produced at home.

ples of government mismanage- :

ment, consider West Germany The Buying of Friendship

since the German people finally Now I could recite a great many
abolished the worst features of other examples of the disastrous
the planned. economy that the results that occur when a nation
United States government saddled invites the investment of foreign
them with from 1945 to 1950. The capital and guarantees that the
West German people are now well investments and any resulting
on their way to the highest level profits will be protected. And con-
of living in Europe. They are do- versely, I could go on. with many
ing so well that American manu- other examples -of the disastrous
facturers are beginning to demand results of government planning in
that our government. protect them various underdeveloped countries.
against German competition not Instead, however, I want to men-


===== PAGE 13 =====

1957 TWO WAYS TO DEVELOP A COUNTRY N 11

tion another aspect of foreign tionable. Whatever else Mr. Nehru
investment that is frequently dis- may be, certainly he is an honor-
cussed. It is claimed that govern- able man, and he can’t be bought.
ment loans or gifts by the United The Indian people under his lead-
States to foreign governments will ership are following many of the
gain allies against Russia and will blueprints and objectives of the
prevent the spread of communism. old Russian ‘five-year plans” be-
If I were an Italian citizen, for cause they want to. The money
example, I would resent this idea being supplied to India by the
that I could be bribed not to be- World Bank will, of course, help
come a communist. And the evi- them do it. It will do exactly that,
dence seems to indicate that the and little else.
Italians have resented it. At any
rate, the membership in the Com- Let Freedom Reign
munist party in Italy seemed to If the government of any under-
increase with each additional mil- developed country truly wants its
lion dollars that the United States resources and people developed to
poured into that country. Then the fullest possible extent in the
suddenly the Communist party in shortest possible time, here is all
Italy suffered a blow from which it needs to do: First, abolish all
it probably will never recover. trade and currency restrictions —
This disaster is due not to Amer- all of them, internal and external.
ican money in any way but exclu- Second, enact laws guaranteeing
sively to the fact that the Russians the protection of the private prop-
began shooting Hungarians. Did erty of its own citizens. Third,
the promise of American money enact laws that guarantee the
have anything to do with this re- same treatment to foreigners and
volt in Hungary? No. How about foreign capital as is then guaran-
Poland? Again the answer is no. teed to its own citizens and their
Thus we now have good reasons capital. Fourth, convince both its
to suspect that our best allies own citizens and the world in gen-
against Russia may well be the eral that this is a permanent
people to whom we haven’t given policy. Fifth, be prepared for an
a penny! immediate and dramatic start to-
It seems to me that this idea of ward the development of both the
buying allies — either with out- resources of the country and the
right gifts or with funds disguised skills of the people to their maxi-
as capital to develop the under- mum capacity in the shortest pos-
developed areas — is highly ques- sible time. ® ooo


===== PAGE 14 =====

CoLM BROGAN

e The housing situation in the United States does not afford a perfect example of
the blessings of freedom. Federal, state, and local governments are involved in housing
projects, guaranteed mortgages, easy credit, and other subsidies and subventions.
Despite these government attempts at obstruction, there is comparative freedom in
the housing market in the United States. And the advantages of that freedom
deserve the careful consideration of anyone who may have to choose between more
or less government control of housing. Several years ago, the sad consequences of
more than a generation of rigid rent control in France were dramatically presented
under the title, “No Vacancies” by Bertrand de Jouvenel. (Single copies available
upon request.) Now, a well-known British journalist documents the situation in Great
Britain and explains why both Conservative and Labor party leaders have finally
seen the need for the relaxation of rent control — a turn, at least, toward freedom.

ENT CONTROL has long made an Of course, there has been a
absurdity of the housing situ great deal of tinkering, with one
ation in Britain, and in recent piecemeal act following another.
years the absurd has become the But forty years after the first
intolerable. act, there are six million houses in
There could be no clearer exam- Britain in which the tenants enjoy
ple of the disastrous results of complete security of tenure and
government interference with the also often enjoy their accommoda-
normal operations of the free mar- tion at a rent which is ruinous to
ket. When rent restriction was the owner. In a recent Court case
first imposed during the 1914 a tenant successfully sued his
War, nobody welcomed it for its landlord to compel him to spend
own sake, but it was defended as fifty pounds ($140) on extra re-
a strictly temporary measure to pairs. The landlord had already
meet an awkward and unexpected spent 150 pounds ($420). The
emergency. It is with us yet. gross rent was five shillings (70

12


===== PAGE 15 =====

1957 RENT-CONTROLLED SLUMS 13

cents) a week. Allowing for taxes, sible to give solid proof of this
the landlord’s return must be in- claim because many of the houses
visible. Adding the cost of repairs, that might fairly be called unin-
the landlord would obviously be habitable are still inhabited. But
the gainer if he could give the there can be no doubt that the
house away. unnecessary wastage of the coun-
If this might be considered an try’s largest capital asset is griev-
extreme example, there are one ous. It is quite certainly true that
million houses in Britain rented rent control has been an immense
at five shillings (70 cents) a week manufacturer of slums.
or less. The first result is obvious.
A huge number of houses fall into A Paradox
a slum condition through the Furthermore, rent control re-
sheer impossibility of keeping sults in gross underuse of dwelling
them in repair, and they become space and also gross overcrowding,
uninhabitable. In Bidder Street, side by side. There are elderly
Liverpool, a row of large houses couples living alone in large
suddenly collapsed and fell into houses which they first rented
the street, just as if they had been when they had fair-sized families
hit by a bomb. The same thing to bring up. Now their children
has happened in other towns. are all away, but they still hang on
I once went through a block of to the house which they get for a
houses occupied by workmen in nominal or trifling rent. The house
Glasgow. Inside, they were dere- is too large for them, there is too
lict, but the stone fabric of those much work for the wife, and the
buildings was thick enough for a heating of unnecessary room space
fortress. It is no exaggeration to is expensive. Nevertheless, they
say that if money had been avail- stay where they are because a
able to repair and modernize these smaller and more comfortable
houses, their expectance of life house would cost them perhaps
might have been counted in cen- five times as much in rent.
turies. But the demolition men (Houses built by the local Coun-
were waiting to move in and pull cils — public housing projects —
them to the ground. are not subject to rent restriction,
Property owners have some- and many are rented steeply.)
times claimed that the rate of While the elderly couple occupy
obsolescence through inability to two or three times the space they
repair is equal to the rate of need, a younger couple with a
new house-building. It is impos- family are cramped in a couple of


===== PAGE 16 =====

14 THE FREEMAN May

rooms, often paying dearly, for control, the tenant will be an “old
furnished accommodation is also man of the sea.” If he tries to sell
outside the scope of rent control. with a protected tenant inside, he
It would be to the advantage of will be lucky to get half of what
both families to trade dwelling he himself has paid.
places, but this natural and nor- If there is a protected tenant in
mal transfer to suitable accommo- one house and no such privileged
dation is effectively inhibited by person in the similar house next
rent control and security of tenure. door, the houses will sell for con-
siderably different prices. A house
with a protected tenant can only
The tenant who enjoys rent con- be sold at an artificially low price,
trol also enjoys security of tenure. whereas a house with what is
His rent cannot be raised, and he called “vacant possession” will sell
cannot be put out in favor of a for more than it would on a: free
would-be tenant who would gladly market. Thus, both for house pur-
and voluntarily pay an economic chase and for house rental, a large
rent. part of the population is paying
The mischief created by security far less than it should and another
of tenure is enormous. The bor- large portion far more.
ough of Croydon on the outskirts The result is the creation of a
of London has come to the end of housing problem which need not
its housing tether. Every single have been. Indeed, there is not
acre’ within the borough bound- really a housing problem — only a
aries has already been used up to problem of rent and tenancy.
build government houses, and There are fifty million men, wom-
there are still thousands on the en, and children in Britain; and
housing list who now have no hope there are sixty-five million dwell-
left at all. At the same time, there ing rooms. In spite of this, the
are one thousand houses in the public authorities are building
borough standing empty and ready nearly one thousand houses a day
for sale. They stand ‘empty be- in a frantic effort to deal with
cause few people with the money overcrowding and homelessness.
want to own a house of that type The cost of the amortization of
in the districts where these houses these government-built houses will
are situated. The obvious solution be felt in the burden of taxes for
would be to offer these houses for the next sixty years.
rent; but the owner knows that if The economic case for abolish-
he once rents the house under rent ing rent control and security of

Protected Tenants


===== PAGE 17 =====

1957 RENT-CONTROLLED SLUMS 15

tenure is irresistible. That fact is dence that some tenants are pre-
recognized, however reluctantly, pared to admit that their rent
even by the Socialist party. In ad- must go up as a matter of justice
dition, there’s a case for abolition and necessity, but many more are
on moral grounds. indignant that they will no longer

be able to have their house room

at somebody else’s expense. Social-
For all the time that rent re- jst legislation and practice are

striction has been in force, house always demoralizing.
owners have been compelled by
law to accept an artificially low re- Justice Corrupted
turn on their capital investment — Even those who accept the need
sometimes a negative return. for a rent increase insist that they
Many landlords are crippled by should be left with security of ten-
the burdens of their ownership ure. Thirty years ago this demand
even though their tenants have in- would have seemed quite irra-
comes higher than their own. tional. The owner who let a house
A large number of house owners and the tenant who took it struck
are people of modest means. In an equal bargain. Given the due
Victorian days the thrifty and legal period of notice, either side
ambitious artisan was tempted to could end the bargain when it
put his savings into bricks and seemed desirable. The present
mortar. He believed that this was position is that the owner cannot
one investment that would be rea- end the contract in any circum-
sonably safe from the fluctuations stance, but the tenant can end it
of the economy. He might die for- whenever he chooses. The idea of
tified by the thought that his un- even justice has been badly cor-
married daughter who had looked rupted in the most unexpected
after him would own a few houses quarters.
that would yield her a modest in- I know of a man who had deter-
come. But that daughter today mined to leave his rent-controlled
may be pinched to the last far- house. Concealing this fact, he ap-
thing to pay for the repairs that proached the owner and offered to
the law demands while the pro- buy the house at the price it would
tected tenants drive cars and take bring. The harassed owner, who
holidays on the Continent. could earn nothing from the rent-
This is not a melodramatic pic- al, agreed to sell for much less
ture. It is the kind of thing that than the real market value. Before
is happening today. There is evi- the papers were signed the tenant

The Moral Aspect


===== PAGE 18 =====

16 THE FREEMAN May

had already sold the house to a It may be natural enough that
third party at its value with tenants worried about their own
vacant possession, pocketing more position should not be concerned
than a thousand pounds on the about injustice to others, but
transaction. In a wholesome soci- there is now in Britain a vague
ety, this maneuver would be de- belief that private property has no
scribed as chicanery if not positive intrinsic rights which the will of
theft. a majority may not invade or

This is no isolated case but com- abolish whenever it should seem
mon practice among men who are convenient to do so. Socialism has
otherwise of high personal integ- bitten deep into the British mind.
rity. They wait until the owner is Abolition of rent control would
desperate and then buy at a de- greatly help to shake British
pressed price for immediate or thought and habits out of an in-
eventual resale at a large profit. creasingly socialist mold. e e eo

Nature’s Spoiled Child

WHAT HAS COME OVER OUR AGE is an alienation from Nature un-
exampled in human history. It has cost us our sense of reality
and all but cost us our humanity. With the passing of a re-
lation to Nature worthy both of Nature and the human spirit,
with the slow burning down of the poetic sense together with the
noble sense of religious reverence to which it is allied, man has
almost ceased to be man. Torn from earth and unaware, having
neither the inheritance and awareness of man nor the other
sureness and integrity of the animal, we have become vagrants
in space, desperate for the meaninglessness which has closed
about us. True humanity is no inherent and abstract right but
an achievement, and only through the fullness of human experi-
ence may we be as one with all who have been and all who are
yet to be, sharers and brethren and partakers of the mystery of
living, reaching to the full of human peace and the full of

human joy.
HENRY BESTON, Northern Farm


===== PAGE 19 =====

F. A. HARPER

® YOUR TAX BURDEN

2. LIMITS OF TOLERANCE

® In the first article of this series, taxes should not of human conduct, to give a
were shown to be the economic burden basis on which to judge the extent to
we place upon ourselves in the form of a which one person should presume to con-
governmental monopoly of force, in an trol another. Such is the purpose of this
attempt to control the objects of our article,
intolerance. The cost of this process in In university teaching | always tried
the United States has grown and grown first to lay down the principles involved,
over the years until it now requires, on in order that they might serve as a foun-
the average, the income from twenty dation for questions to be tackled later.
minutes out of each hour of work. This approach has the disadvantage, |
In defining taxes in this way, no moral realize, of initially dealing with ab-
judgment was rendered about the con-  stractions which are not especially ex-
duct of cur fellow men — which of their citing. But despite the fact that the
acts we should or should not tolerate. reader of this series is under no contract
That consideration lies beyond the fact to finish the run, as were those students,
of the present magnitude of our tax it seems to me wise even here to deal at
burden, discussed in the earlier article. the outset with those principles which
So it seems wise to discuss briefly, in underlie any valid analysis of tax matters.
relation to taxes, this important ques- | hope this will neither discourage nor
tion of morals before proceeding with an divert readers from following the series
analysis of your tax burden in other re- along to where more exciting aspects of
spects; to consider the should and the our tax problems are to be considered.

RINCIPLES are always less excit- Yet it is with principles that truth

ing than matters of their ap- can be tested in the details of
plication. Riding a motorcycle or mundane affairs. Only by means
tinkering with a car is more en- of principles can we project our
ticing to a boy than doing his thinking so as to solve new prob-
homework on the principles of lems or overcome superstitions
physics, from his high school text. and mistaken habits of thought.

Dr. Harper is a member of the staff of the Foundation for Economic Education.

17


===== PAGE 20 =====

18 THE FREEMAN May

And that is why, in discussing is the same for the hundredth per-
taxes, it seems to me wise at the. son to walk off a cliff as it is for
outset to consider the principles the first one to do so.
of morals as they relate to taxes. The first concept of moral law
The moral aspect of controlling is similar. A person holding this
others underlies any appraisal of view of morals believes that there
taxes because that is the purpose .are fixed consequences of acts in
to which taxes are devoted. the moral realm, whether or not
The value of a principle is the we know at the moment just what
number of things it will explain. the truth about it may be.
) EMERSON, 1867 Believing this, there is no es-
caping a responsibility for con-
. duct according to our understand-
Two conflicting concepts of ing of moral truth at the moment,
morals now prevail, as always. in the same way we abide by our
They are in mortal combat philo- jeg understanding of physical and
sophically. No one person can hold .hemical laws of nature at any
both views any more than two ob- moment. The important point
jects can occupy the same space apout this concept is the belief
at the same time. that there are absolute, unchang-
One concept of morals is that ing moral truths to be sought and
there are moral principles which accepted as guides for conduct.
are stable and unchanging despite The other concept of morals is
passing time and human ignorance that there are no absolutes, no
of them. Though moral principles timeless and self-ruling moral
apply to human conduct and our principles of human conduct. This
relations with one another, they concept is not merely the proclaim-
can in a sense be compared with ing of our ignorance of what these
rigid physical laws of the universe, moral laws are, or the assertion
such as gravity. The rule of such that we may be uncertain about
a law has nothing to do with popu- them to some degree: it denies
lar understanding or sentiment. their very existence. It denies as
Whether only one per cent or 99 a guide to action any possible wis-
per cent of the people know and dom that is based on the assump-
act in accord with such a law, all tion of universal moral truths, un-
who violate it must suffer the con- changing with passing time and
sequences. Increasing violations do impervious to human ignorance.
not diminish the power of its rule. Where, then, do the followers of
The force of gravity, for instance, this concept find their guidance

Two Concepts. of Morals


===== PAGE 21 =====

1957 YOUR TAX BURDEN 19

for conduct? They find it in the room can reflect anything except
mode of the times, as does the the reflections of mirrors. Some-
slave of fashion in selecting his thing of content must first be in-
clothes for the season’s wear. Ac- troduced from outside before any
cording to this view, one style is mode of conduct, any social fash-
as good as another, so long as ion of the times, can arise to be
others are also wearing it this followed. Where did the start come
season. It is a concept that might from?
be called the tumbleweed concept Lacking anything else in a
of morals, being always driven totally mirrored room, even a tiny
about by the current social wind; object becomes so magnified in im-
or some call it the middle way con- portance as to dominate the scene.
cept, or the conformist concept, Likewise with the tumbleweed con-
or the pragmatic concept, or the cept of morals, any little ethical
popular vote concept, or the ma- microbe can dictate the fashion of
jority rule concept, or the demo- morals for the whole of any so-
cratic concept of morals. ciety which has succumbed to
No objective truths are toler- pragmatism.
ated as a moral guide by those who
hold this view because absolutes Seeking the Truth
are vigorously denied. Whether So my position for purposes of
murder is good or bad, whether this discussion will be that of the
theft is good or bad, are con- first concept, namely, that moral
sidered to be dependent solely on law must be thought of in terms
the prevailing fashion of the so- of absolutes of eternal truth, how-
ciety in which one happens to be ever dimly and incorrectly we may
living at the moment. According perceive them at the moment. As
to this view, causes have no fixed a part of this concept, it seems to
consequences in the moral realm me, one should be somewhat hum-
— a denial of the first rule of any ble in the degree of his certainty
science. about truth. Yet despite such hu-
It has always seemed to me that mility, he must always abide by
the latter, or tumbleweed, concept his best judgment, denying any
of morals is a logical impossibility. truth per se in the mode of popu-
It reminds me of a totally mirrored lar belief among his contempo-
room and nothing within it. By raries. Merely because something
itself alone this concept can no is believed by many persons does
more give an answer to any moral notproveits rightness. He demands
question than a totally mirrored better evidence than popular


===== PAGE 22 =====

20 THE FREEMAN May

ignorance for the moral truths he The only possible meaning of mor-
holds. This view, I believe, is als is that there shall exist for the
founded on a logical, philosophic individual person the option of

position. choice between doing right and
Proof of principles lies outside doing wrong.
human experience, which merely A person is unlike a stone which

confirms the proof. Or according is subservient to the forces of
to the legal maxim, Principia pro- nature which bombard it, having
bani,” non probantur (principles no evident capacity fOr choice. The =!
are not proved; ‘they prove). stone exists outside the realm of

Such a position upholds certain moral concern. It can’t do right
moral precepts which are not fol- and it can’t do wrong. Nature has
lowed perfectly in any society, of laid out a course for it that is
course. Violations may be flagrant. neither moral nor immoral. It is
But moral principles are in a sense the complete slave of its environ-
like stars, guiding the seafaring ment.

er EA

man on toward his destination, A person, unlike a stone, has
though he may never touch the choices to whatever extent he is
stars with his hands. free. Insofar as he has liberty, he

has choice. In having choice, he
unavoidably has the option of
The belief underlying a moral choosing either good or evil in
code is that each person is an in- the sense of objective truth — the
dependent, self-responsible unit concept of morals accepted for this
with certain rights and corres- discussion.
ponding responsibilities. It can be seen, then, that the
This was once stated clearly in scope of morals coincides precisely
our Declaration. of Independence: with the scope of liberty. It can be
“We hold these truths to be self- no more and no less because choice
evident, that all men are created is requisite in both.
equal, that they are endowed by Removing liberty from a person
their Creator with certain unalien- or persons in a society, then,
able Rights, that among these are solves no moral questions what-
..”” That is to say, each person ever. It only makes amoral those
has certain rights equal to those of acts which are controlled — per-
any other person. It is these rights haps even inducing immorality
which we shall review shortly. elsewhere. :
But before doing so, it is well Or to put the matter another
to review one aspect of morals. way, the first step to making a

The Base for Morals


===== PAGE 23 =====

1957 YOUR TAX BURDEN 21

society of persons moral is to make fend his continuing right to be a
them free. This is not to say that free and morally self-responsible
when people in any society are individual. But he may not in jus-
made free, they will resolve all tice encroach on these same rights
their moral questions wisely in of any other person, either.

the sense of eternal truth. It is
only to say that they cannot choose
wisely without first being free to The human rights to be derived
choose; that liberty is, therefore, from such a base for morals under
a prerequisite to moral wisdom. liberty are as follows:

Many persons have asserted in (1) The Right to Life. Except
error, it seems to me, that per- for this right all other human
sons in a society should be given rights would be unfounded. In the
liberty only after they have proved absence of this basic right the
that they will act wisely. This is others would become merely sham
something like a mother saying and nonsense. Without this right
that she is not going to let her the admonition against killing, in
boy go near the water till he has all the world’s great religions,
learned to swim; or that she is would be negated. Without this
not going to let him start arithme- right vested in each person, there
tic until he has proved that he will would be nothing to stop a ruler
solve all its problems correctly. from assuming the right to sacri-
~The risks of error go with the fice any number of human lives for
process of learning, just as liberty his own purposes. In the words of
entails risks as related to moral a communist Russian leader, it
questions. would be an unquestioned privi-

Liberty, then, is the base for lege of the ruling potentate to
morals. And liberty is predicated break the eggs at will in order to
on the concept that each person is make a social omelet of his own
answerable to the rule of eternal personal design.
truth; that no man has the right If there is the right to life, it
to answer these questions for an- follows that you have:
other against the other's will; that (2) The Right To Sustain Your
all one person may properly do to Life. You have the right to use
another is to resist attack on one’s your life as you will, so long as
own liberty, on his own rights. In you do not violate the same right
short, man is free, as proclaimed of others. The right to life as-
in the Declaration of Independ- sumes, in other words, your right
ence, and may with propriety de- to devote your efforts to sustain-

Outline of Basic Rights


===== PAGE 24 =====

22 THE FREEMAN May

ing and developing both your own Some Classic Codes of Conduct

life and whatever else you deem Against this background of the
worth-while. nature of morals and the five se-
. In working to sustain your life, quential human rights, some
you have: classic codes of conduct may have

(8) The Right to What You more meaning in relation to the
Produce. This right derives its problem of tolerance.
validity from the fact that life is Almost every great religion of
sustained by the production of the past, I am told, has had a code
scarce things — economic things, closely approximating the Deca-
desired beyond the available sup- logue and the Golden Rule of our
ply. Food is basic among these leading present-day religions.
needs, but there are numberless Throughout all the varied socie-
other things that are also essential ties of history — in widely differ-
to a full life. ing times and conditions, under
Flowing from the right to what different leaders with differing
you have produced is the right to claims to religious authority, with
keep it: : differing details and wording — all
(4) The Right To Own Prop- leading religions have had this
erty. Whether you keep what you much in common with one another.
have produced for an instant or This is not, of course, definite
for a day or for a lifetime, under proof of the validity of this moral
this right it is your property until code. It merely evidences a great
you choose to do something else accumulation of human experi-
with it. ence for survival, like the actions
So the final right among this of infants which reflect the human
series’ of human - rights, flowing instinct to protect themselves from
logically from the right to life, is: mortal hazards to life. We may
(5) The Right To Dispose of also assume a tendency for truth
Your Property. When you do not to persist and become evidenced
wish to use your property your- in matters of moral conduct and
self, you may sell it or trade it lasting moral codes — the distilla-
or give it away. You are beholden tion of experience about moral
to nobody under this right. You truths. There can be errors in this
may choose both the time and the sort of evidence, of course. Misin-
terms yourself, so long as the terpretations and adulterations
other party agrees, accepting or creep into religious codes, which
rejecting the advice of others as sometimes are no more than fanat-
you see fit. ical dogma. But available evi-


===== PAGE 25 =====

1957 YOUR TAX BURDEN 23

dence, so far as the Decalogue and is sound, so that we can identify
the Golden Rule are concerned, is human rights and human wrongs,
that these have endured with the we thereby have a basis for identi-
persistence of truth throughout fying proper social intolerance:

the ages in all great religions. Social intolerance is justified against
What do these codes tell us? all violations of basic human rights;
Among other things, we find: against violations of the Decalogue
Thou shalt not kill. and the Golden Rule, as embodied

Thou shalt not steal. in human rights.

The greatest intolerance of all
should be directed to one’s own
conduct in violation of this moral
must first have had a right to life. code. For in starting as we did by
If it is wrong to steal, a person Saying that man is free, that he
must first have had a right to the has a moral nature involving
product of his labor and to other choices, that he is responsible for
property he has acquired without Nis own conduct, then one’s own
theft from others who previously conduct is surely his first order of
owned it. business.

So these classic religious codes Even at the risk of preaching
of conduct reinforce the validity beyond my ability to practice, I
of the five basic human rights would ask: Is not one’s own con-

The five rights listed above are
in complete harmony with them.
For if it is wrong to kill, a person

listed above. duct his sole task? Perhaps one
should not waste his time trying
Proper Intolerance to do anything about the miscon-

Why all this concern about duct of others until his own attain-
moral codes and human rights? ment in this respect has become
It is because any consideration of lily white. And isn’t that a full-
intolerance must begin there. Any time task for us all? Such a rule
consideration of controls, from would change our way of life con-
which taxes arise, must begin siderably; and if we were to abide
there. Of what conduct should we by it, the whole problem of taxes
be intolerant? The question is en- would be resolved at once.
tirely one of good and evil, or By going through the moral
rights and violations of rights. code and listing of rights step by
Not all intolerance is evil, per se. step, anyone can see that taking
How could intolerance of evil it- care of one’s own conduct is a
self be evil? challenge to the best of us. Who

If this analysis of good or evil among us has any license to con-


===== PAGE 26 =====

24 THE FREEMAN May

cern himself at all with the task does not justify an evil means.
of controlling or changing the con- Human rights cannot be defended
duct of others, if he must perfect by violating them; morals cannot
himself first in order to obtain be upheld by their violation.
that license? Let me illustrate: You and I
may fully agree that a person has
a right to life; that it is wrong
But perhaps this is too strict to kill; that it is proper to re-
a test. Perhaps we have a perfect strain acts of murder. Now sup-
right to be intolerant of the mis- pose that I say I am going to
conduct of others under certain Africa to kill a person who is
circumstances. Take, for instance, going to kill somebody. I ask your
the murderer or thief who may be support, but you refuse me. Would
. attacking you and your property. I be justified in stealing from you
Surely you have the right to de- to finance my trip? I think not. It
fend yourself, the right to protect seems to me that you have a per-
and retain that which is yours. fect right to resist my theft of
That right, I assume, is really a your property; that in resisting
part of the right to life and prop- theft you do not become a mur-
erty in the first place. You have derer, in failing to finance my
as much right to keep life and project.
property, or to recover property Such are the limits of justifiable
as to have had them at the outset. intolerance, as I see it. One may
I see no reason for questioning properly be intolerant of all viola-
your right, then, to defend your- tions of the basic moral code em-
self and that which is your own; bodied in the Decalogue and the
to recover your property, if you Golden Rule. He must first take
can; to cooperate with any other care of his own conduct in these
person or persons in such en- respects as a part of protecting
deavors, insofar as all participants himself, his dependents, and his
individually accept the cooperation property. He may also cooperate
and the terms of the arrangement, with others to this end, employing
as separate and free persons. his own time and means to do so.
But at the same time, I would In the next article these princi-
strongly emphasize that no one ples as to justifiable intolerance
person has the right to force par- will be applied to government as
ticipation in these endeavors upon the means of implementing them.
another person if it is not freely The cost of that process is your
acceptable to him. A good end tax burden. ® oo

Defensive Intolerance


===== PAGE 27 =====

HIGH COST OF

Lupwic W. FREIER
As told to Charles H. Wolfe

A card-carrying union member sounds off against authoritarian
practices in the labor movement

[a . - -

T WAS in 1915, over forty years managements of so many unions

ago, that I first joined a labor act as if they “own” us — mind,
union: the infamous and now de- body, and soul.
funct International Workers of
the World. Afterwards I became Authoritarian Practices
a member of the Commercial Radio Labor bosses reveal this as-
Telegraphers Union of North sumption of virtual ownership of
America aboard ships, then of the the rank and file through a host of
Iron Workers union, of the Boiler- authoritarian practices: their in-
makers guild, and still others — sistence on a closed or union shop,
until eleven years ago I joined the their presumption in speaking for
Brotherhood of Carpenters and members on political issues, their
Joiners, Local #226 of Portland, pretense of operating under truly
Oregon. democratic procedures, their set-

Throughout all these years 1 ting of arbitrarily high initiation
have been a laboring man, sympa- fees and dues, and of questionably
thetic with his problems, and con- large salaries for themselves.
vinced that unionism could be of This is not the first time I have
substantial benefit to him. But sounded such a protest. I have
like thousands of other card- done it face to face within my
carrying unionists in the past few union and among my friends, and
years, I have become increasingly with letters to the editors of our
concerned over the high cost of local papers, the Portland Ore-
unionism — not merely the spiral- gonian and the Oregon Journal.
ing expense of initiation and mem- As a result, I have been threatened
bership dues, but the cost in the —though not directly by the union—
loss of human dignity and free- and last September I received an
dom, seen in the fact that the anonymous phone call saying,

26


===== PAGE 28 =====

26 THE FREEMAN May

“Unless you keep your ——— mouth you, and is — in all cases I have
~ shut we’ll give you the acid treat- known during my eleven years as
ment!” a carpenter — unpaid. He volun-
But I shall continue to say what teers for the job, often hoping to
I consider to be true, especially gain favors from the union.
whenever 1 feel that labor union- Among other duties the steward
ism is seriously jeopardizing pre- performs — on the boss’s time — he
cious human rights and freedoms. takes the names and union local
. numbers of all members on the job
The Right To Work and sends them to union head-
I believe, for example, that every quarters each week to make sure
man should have the right to work that members are not too far in
— providing another man wants t0  3ypears in their dues.
hire him. But I am convinced that ;
no self-appointed or government- The Urion Steward
saiictioned middleman (i.e. labor If you have ne union card, the
union official) has the right to steward will immediately report
stand between a worker and his you to the union, whereupon a
would-be employer (despite their business agent will pay you a hur-
objections) and insist: “No, you ried and not too friendly visit. The
two cannot do business together agent will give you several days
unless this man first joins my or- in which to join the union. Your
ganization and pays the fees I refusal will result in the with-
demand!” drawal of all union men from that
~ Whoever thinks this country is particular job. In the case of the
"protecting an inalienable right to Portland carpenters union, these
work in this day.and age is having withdrawn workers are left to
a pipe dream. Just try: going to shift for themselves elsewhere.
work on any of a great variety Moreover, pickets will parade in
of jobs — carpenter, bricklayer, front of the job with “Unfair”
plumber, electrician, truck driver, banners. In the case of Local #226,
or common laborer — and see what where I am a member, you will be
happens. declared “unfair” for not shelling
First, a union shop steward will out $105 for initiation dues, plus
ask to see ‘your union card or $4.50 in monthly dues, plus a $2.00
working permit. Every job has a assessment.
steward. As I see it, he is a sort Lumber trucks, .plumbers, elec-
of undercover agent for the union. tricians, etc., will refuse to cross
He may be working right beside the picket line — not because they


===== PAGE 29 =====

1957 HIGH COST OF UNIONISM 27

resent the nonunion man but for nonunion setup. In short, it gives
fear of being heavily fined by both the employer and the worker
their own unions. Consequently, freedom.
the job will come to a complete
halt. Unless, of ‘course, the boss
fires you in the meantime, or you Unions are authoritarian not
buy your franchise from the union only in their insistence that a man
in order to earn an honest living. join them before he can work, but
also in their arbitrary demands as
to how much he must pay for the
Inalienable right to a job, when- “privilege” of union membership,
ever an employer wants you? Why, in their dictation as to what union
you haven't any more right to “services” the members must buy,
work than a jackrabbit! At least and in their determination of the
not under present federal laws salaries of union officials.
which insist that employers must Of course, if there were no
deal with the union chosen by the government-sanctioned monopoly
majority of workers in a trade, in the union setup — if there were
and that the union can demand free access to the field of union
that a man either join, or be fired. activity, and any number of
Under the circumstances, state unions were permitted to repre-
“right to work” laws look like a sent workers (as long as the work-
move in the right direction since ers wanted such representation),
they say that no employer may then the individual laboring man
discriminate against a man be- would have relatively little
cause he does not belong to a grounds for complaint concern-
union. But ideally, I believe, we ing the costs of union membership
should not have such state laws or the salaries of union officers.
trying to undo the bad effects of If the worker didn’t like the tariff
the federal laws. Rather, we should charged by one union, he could
repeal the national legislation and always change his allegiance to
allow the employer to decide another, just as a shopper can
whether he is to have only union switch from one merchant to the
employees, only nonunion em- fellow down the block who gives
ployees, or both union and non- him better bargains.
union; and if union, which union But under the present arrange-
(or unions) he wants. This, in ment where federal law permits
turn, allows the worker to decide union monopoly, the worker has
whether he will go into a union or no such choice. If I, for example,

Cost of Union Membership

Labor Legislation


===== PAGE 30 =====

28 THE FREEMAN May

want to be a carpenter in Port- come and go — quit, transfer to
land, which I do, I have to join the other crafts, enter the armed serv-
Brotherhood of Carpenters and ices, or move away — the turnover
Joiners, Local #226, and I have to is tremendous. The “dues” col-
pay whatever its bosses demand. lected in these compulsory insur-
I must shell out over $160 the first ance premiums amount to stagger-
year I am a member ($105 initia- ing sums which, once defaulted,
tion fee plus $4.50 monthly dues become pure gravy to the unions.
plus additional assessments) — In case of death, the beneficiary
even if I think union membership of a carpenter receives $500 from °
is worth only half that much to the parent union in Indianapolis—
me, or even if I believe it isn’t but only if the member was paid
worth anything at all. up to date.

And keeping paid up the year
round is no easy task for many

I'm not only obliged fo join and carpenters, since (at least in my
to pay these fees but also, like all part of the country) inclement
other members, I must participate eather leaves us with only a
in the union’s package deals, seven or eight month working sea-
whether or not I want them. For gon. This means that actual dues,
example, covered by my dues is a which have enlarged from $2.00
$500 insurance policy combined monthly in 1946 to $4.50 a month
with a subscription to the union’s today, are even higher than they
monthly magazine, The Carpenter. geem — between $7.00 and $7.50 a
Now, like most union men, I have month for the average eight-
my own insurance policies. I don’t month working period.
join a union to get accident or life One reason these dues look ex-
insurance. And I don’t join it to oybitant to me is that such a large
get a magazine which to me is part goes into arbitrarily-set sal-
about as palatable as warmed-over aries of union officers. The Gen-
cabbage, and which I need about era] President of the carpenters
as much as a band leader needs ynjon is paid $675 per week or
the tin whistle from a box of over $85,000 a year, while numer-
crackerjack. ous other general officers are al-

In my opinion, such a package Jotted from $200 to $475 a week.
deal is a greedy and authoritarian
device for collecting revenue, not Access to Information
for serving union members. Since = “But,” someone says, “if you
carpenters and other craftsmen and your fellow-unionists believe

Package Deals


===== PAGE 31 =====

1957 HIGH COST OF UNIONISM 29

the dues and salaries are too high paign funds? And why, as news-
and the package deals undesirable, paper dispatches point out, are con-
why don’t you use the democratic tributions always made only to the
processes of the union to bring Democratic campaign fund?...
about the needed changes?” + Other questions followed, but
not one was answered. As my co-
of a democratic and representative Workers had predicted, my request
government, it seems to me, is Was a8 completely ignored as if I
that the participating members had sent it to Santa Claus at the
must have free access to informa- North Pole.
tion about its operations. But the
bosses of the carpenters union,
like the men who run so many “Still,” someone says again,
other unions, seem to feel it quite “even if the union does not answer
unnecessary to reveal pertinent such requests for information,
statistics to the rank and file. The certainly it allows you to express
truth about union finances is kept Your views in elections!” And the
somewhat obscure. union officials reply: “Of course —
On January 15, 1956, I sent the membership votes determine all
following letter to the financial Issues.”
secretary, Carpenter local #226 in Often it appears that they do.
Portland: But what union bosses don’t tell
Dear Sir and Brother: you is that their rehearsed stooges,
Will you be kind enough to furnish Strategically placed near micro-
me the following information? phones in the huge meeting hall,
How many business agents and other give lip service favoring the un-
full-time officials have we on Union ion’s proposals. The weak-kneed,
payrolls? the intimidated and the habitually
What portion of membership dues is reticent, awed by the flags, the
sent to the parent union? What ppate trappings, and the huge
portion is kept by the local union?  ..owds — although frequently op-
What is done with the interest on posed to the proposal at hand —

the $350,000 in U.S. Bonds held by «a. .
) . remain discreetly silent. The more
local #226? What will this money be .
brazen and articulate members

used for ultimately? What money is

now in the local treasury? What 2&I¢ ruled out of order by the
property is owned, partly owned, or Chairman, with little or no provo-
controlled by the Carpenter’s union? cation other than their obvious
Who is vested with authority to disapproval of the issue presently
make contributions to political cam- at hand.

One of the first characteristics

Pseudo-Democratic Processes


===== PAGE 32 =====

30 THE FREEMAN May

Most carpenters, like most work- The Union and Politics
ingmen, are honest, hard-working, Many times measures of little
conscientious fellows who, though importance may be voted on quite
far from being intellectual giants, legitimately. This, no doubt, gives
can read not only blueprints but seeming credence to the integrity
also between the lines, especially of the union’s voting system. But
on issues concerning their own on extremely important issues,
welfare. But to speak before a such as the union’s involvement
crowd of several thousand men — with politics and its presumption
that is something else again. Fur- of representing the views of mem-
thermore, to speak into a radio bers, there isn’t even the pretense
microphone — well, that’s a job for of democratic process.
announcers or -actors or -politi- You may read articles saying,
cians! So time and again they sit “Labor endorses Whosit as its
back in silence while stooges pro- candidate.” But what does this
mote the proposition favored by mean? The rank and file have not
the bosses. voted on the candidate. The mat-.

Often a voice vote is used. When ter has been decided by the union
a ballot is employed in our meet- bosses who in turn try to sway the
ings, it consists of a white piece.of votes of their own members as
paper about 3 x 3 inches, printed well as of the populace at large.
with the two words YES and NO, Union leaders have all too fre-
and.a box after each for the voter quently, and in the name of organ-
to place his X. The ballot cus- -.zed labor, issued statements on
todians are union-picked men who political, economic, academic, and
count the ballots after the meeting social questions, purporting to re-
adjourns. As far as I can tell, flect the views of their members.
these oversimplified forms have However, since the membership is
been variously interpreted, and not consulted and is made up of
sometimes to suit the prejudices both Republicans and Democrats,
of the union bosses. For example, as well as some outright socialists
it appears that the ballots have and communists on one hand, and
been read as meaning: “Yes,” the at least a few libertarians and
voter is in favor, or “No,” he is strict Constitutionalists on the
not opposed. Or vice versa! Every other — union officials can never be
vote, be it Yes or No, can be con- either truly accurate or actually
strued as concurring with the justified in making such state-.
union’s proposal — thus producing ments.
a truly farcical decision. Further, some unions are at-


===== PAGE 33 =====

1957 HIGH COST OF UNIONISM 31

tempting, by devious methods, to from a properly conducted labor
register and catalog their mem- union. However, as long as the co-
bers’ political affiliations. This ercive force of government gives
move ultimately may be the de- monopolistic powers to unions,
ciding factor in who goes to work and as long as these unions are
and who does not. The threat car- operated as authoritarian bodies
ries implications. with only a slender pretense to
genuinely democratic procedure, 1
myself must question whether the

Let me conclude by saying what cost of unionism today — in terms
I hope has been obvious through- of economic and personal freedom
out: that I am for the laboring — can be justified. Can any good-
man 100 per cent, and have never ness emerge from the compulsory
questioned the right to organize practices now being conducted in
nor the values that could come the name of organized labor? e e

Right To Organize

they always dwell within their borders. And from these internal
enemies civilization is always in need of being saved. The nation’
blessed above all nations is she in whom the civic genius of the
people does the saving day by day, by acts without external
picturesqueness; by speaking, writing, voting reasonably; by
smiting corruption swiftly; by good temper between parties;
by the people knowing true men when they see them, and pre-
ferring them as leaders to rabid partisans or empty quacks.

WILLIAM JAMES, As William James Said


===== PAGE 34 =====

An A [t .
An Agriculture ER

WITH A FUTURE]: Shr

Ri I TT I J ppc — JEL A |

Pex ANY PERIOD in the history
of this country as a base, and
then look forward. You will be
forced to conclude that American
agriculture has always had a good
future. We have progressed.

We have moved forward toward
a better standard of living for
farm folks, increased efficiency on
the farms, and lower costs and
cheaper food for the consumer.

I think the record will prove
that the increases in efficiency on
American farms have been re-
flected in reductions in costs to
consumers. It has been reflected in
savings as is illustrated by the
fact that today the average fac-
tory employee works only 41 hours
to secure the food supply for his
family for one month, while as re-
cently as 1952 it required 51 hours.
Food, in terms of purchasing pow-
er of consumers, is today as cheap
or cheaper than it has ever been in
the history of this country.

We on the farms of this country
have had twenty-five years of ex-
perience with government activi-

This article is from a recent address before

CHARLES B. SHUMAN

ties in the realm of solving farm i
problems: twenty-five years of sad
experience. In the last five years
through both Democratic and Re-
publican administrations alike we
have had a 23 per cent decline in

_ net farm income.

But out of this twenty-five years
of experience we have learned
some lessons. So all has not been
lost. 1 list a few of these lessons,
not to explain them but simply to
illustrate where we have been.

Some Lessons Learned

The first lesson we have learned
is that prices of farm products are
not made in Washington. Farm
prices are made where the con-
sumer accepts or rejects our prod-
uct. Not all politicians have learned
this lesson, as judged by speeches
that are in the press every day;
nevertheless, it is true that farm
prices are not made in Washing-
ton. If they were, Congress would
not have permitted a 23 per cent

the American Meat Institute. Mr. Shuman is

President of the American Farm Bureau Federation.

32


===== PAGE 35 =====

1957 AN AGRICULTURE WITH A FUTURE 33

decline in the price of farm prod- A fourth lesson we have learned
ucts in a five-year period. is that price has a function. I am
A second lesson we have learned sure that most farmers are more
is that you cannot control the pro- and more learning that price has
duction of agricultural commodi- a function. That function is one
ties by law. It would be possible, of change. The most important
of course, to control production if characteristic of price is change.
the cuts dictated by law were suf- If it were not for the fact that
ficiently severe and enforced, but prices change, and that we need
the Congress will not impose re- this price change constantly going
_strictions to bring about material on, we wouldn’t need price at all.
reductions in production. These are a few of the lessons
Quotas, allotments, and other that we have learned.
devices have generally failed to
reduce agricultural production. Popular Fallacies
A third lesson we have learned Now there are some popular fal-
is that we can price our products lacies that ought to be exploded.
out of the market. Most farmers One of these is that a surplus of
assume that people will always eat farm products in government stor-
food; and yet while they will al- age is a good thing.
ways eat food, they do not need to This is absolutely not true. The
eat food produced by farmers. only really good place for us to
Fifteen or twenty years ago the accumulate our surpluses, our re-
only reliable source for vitamins serves for the future, is in the soil
and minerals in the human diet and in livestock. Surpluses in gov-
was food. Today you don’t need ernment hands serve no useful
food to secure vitamins and min- purpose. In fact, they are a mill-
erals. You can go to the corner stone around the neck of agricul-
drug store, buy your vitamins in ture.
pills and your minerals in a bottle, Another popular fallacy is that
take a pill and swallow some tonic, you don’t need to worry about the
eat a bale of hay, and you are on future in agriculture because all
your way. you need to do is wait a few years
This is almost literally true. and population will catch up. We
Scientific laboratories can and will, are currently producing about 15
if we insist on pricing our prod- per cent more than this country
ucts out of the market, produce will consume at current prices.
the food that goes into the great There is no basis for any com-
majority of human stomachs. fort in this theory because our


===== PAGE 36 =====

34 THE FREEMAN May

history indicates that we can in- but it would be a very small pro-
crease our productivity in agri- portion of the population.
culture more rapidly than we can For all practical purposes in-
population. come limitations are not the rea-

We. are just now commencing sons why many people in this
- to ‘open new doors to technical country continue to eat an inade-
knowledge that can mean great quate diet. It is a matter of choice
increases in productivity in Amer- or a lack of knowledge in most
ican agriculture. If we applied the cases. As far as the world is con-
“knowledge we now have to all of cerned, of course, there is wide-
the agricultural production in this spread malnutrition, but again the
country, we could increase our out- surpluses that we have accumu-
put by 30 to 50 per cent. lated in this country are not the

There is no hope that population kind of commodities that will cor-
will catch up with our produc- rect this malnutrition.

tivity in agriculture as long as we There is .a world-wide surplus
continue to stimulate production of wheat. Nobody is starving to
by artificial means. death because of a shortage of

Despite any probable population whéat. There is a world-wide sur-
increases in coming years, we will plus of rice. There is a world-wide
still be plagued with “surpluses” surplus of cotton, of feed grains:
in agriculture if prices are sup- Practically all the commodities we
ported above the free market for have in surplus are in surplus

any extended period of time. position everywhere in the world.
True, we can dispose of them
Surplus and Subsidy . gradually if we could shut down

Another popular fallacy is that the intake into the surplus stock-
you can give the surplus away. All pile: The great need, of course, is
you need to do is to issue food to upgrade the level of human
stamps or subsidize low income diet, both at home and abroad. If
persons or feed the starving in we could do that, we would not
other countries. The level of in- have surpluses because an ade-.
come of the average person today quate diet would use up most of
is the highest in real purchasing the things which we have in sur-
power that it has ever been. There plus supply. .
may be a few people in the United This is not something we secure
States who would increase their by legislation or by subsidy. I
consumption if given free food or want to tell you this little story: I
subsidies to increase their income, have a neighbor. He inherited .a’


===== PAGE 37 =====

1957 AN AGRICULTURE WITH A FUTURE 35

120-acre farm forty years ago would not plow a furrow on his
debt free, with good buildings, farm. The level of his desires, the
good livestock, good fences, and amount of money it takes to buy
high-level fertility. Today, forty his bread and bacon and beans
years later, after living off this and whiskey is $1,000. You would
farm and putting very little back, provide $200 more than he desires
this neighbor of. mine has one of to earn.”
the poorest farms in our com- ‘This is the political approach to
munity. - the solution of farm problems, the
His net income last year was idea that you can get something
probably not over one thousand for nothing, the idea that you can
dollars. One of our good senators buy prosperity for American agri-
remarked to me that, of course, culture, the idea that you can
this was not adequate for a good replace economic laws with politi-
standard of living for his family. cal laws.
He suggested that the federal gov- All these things we have found
ernment should pay this farmer a by experience to be unsound.
subsidy. In fact, he drafted a ten-
tative bill to pay $2,200 minimum Emotional Errors
to keep these folks on the farms, Now we come to the emotional
and I suppose, to keep them from approach which is so prevalent,
competing with industrial labor in and we hear the heart-tearing,
the city. tear-jerking appeal to take care of
I said to the senator, “My neigh- the small underprivileged farmer,
bor had $1,000 net income in 1955. the fellow who is getting forced
Under your proposal, Senator, I off the land by the great corpora-
J suppose you would pay him $1,200 tion farmers. This is a fallacy
i to bring him up to $2,200.” He which has absolutely no founda-
said, “That is right.” tion in fact. Corporation farming
“Now,” I said, “if you paid him is not increasing; 97 per cent of
$1,200, how much money would the farms in the United States
he have for 19567" He replied, are family farms. This is exactly
“$2,200,0of course; $1,000 he made, the same percentage it has been

"plus $1,200 we give him.” year after year for the last forty
I said, “Senator, the trouble is or fifty years.
that you don’t know my neighbor. It is true, of course, that the

If you give him $1,200 from the family farm is becoming more
Federal Treasury, the total of his efficient and larger. One family can
net income would be $1,200. He operate more and produce more



===== PAGE 38 =====

36 THE FREEMAN May

per worker than ever before in tools they had nine hundred years
American agriculture. ago. There was no opportunity to
We have increased our efficiency accumulate capital to expand the
80 per cent in the last fifteen years business, no opportunity to de-
— more, I believe, than almost any velop new methods to increase the
other industry. We have been re- productivity per worker. Why
leasing about 300,000 workers per were they fixed in this rut?
year to go into industry or other This happened, in part, because
occupations. a government that professed to
This is good. This is the kind of want to be kind to farmers passed
basis we have had for progress in laws to keep more and more peo-
American agriculture for the last ple on the land and set a pattern
several generations, constant em- which either forced or unduly en-
phasis on efficiency and the release couraged excess workers to stay in
of more and more workers to go agriculture. This is not a very
into other occupations to produce pleasant prospect for the future if
the things which we cannot pro- that is the road we are going to

duce on the farm. travel in American agriculture.
I don’t think that we are going
If Change Is Forbidden to travel that road. We have been

This, then, is the difference be- learning lessons and making deci-
tween an agriculture with a future sions. As yet, the decisions have
and one with a past. If you look at not been too clear-cut. However, it
the agriculture of many other is well to note that in the last
countries of the world — Sweden, Congress the decision was made
Britain, Italy, France, Germany — not to return to the pattern of fix-
you will find that agricultural ing prices that has done so much
progress and national progress in to carry us down the false road in
most cases stopped when efforts recent years.

were made to fix or freeze on the In the first year of the applica-
farms all the folks that were then tion on a very modest scale of the
on the farms. flexible price supports, we halted

I visited in Southern Italy last the five-year decline in farm prices
fall on a small three-and-a-half- and farm income. Another straw
acre farm that had been in the in the wind is that farmers have
same family for over nine hun- successfully resisted efforts to
dred years. Their farm was the bring the livestock industry under
same size, raising the same kind the government control pattern.
of crops with the same kind of Government price fixing, crop



===== PAGE 39 =====

1957 AN AGRICULTURE WITH A FUTURE 37

acreage control, and storage pro- ing, and distribution. This means
grams have interfered with the that we must continue to place
natural operation of livestock pro- emphasis upon the importance of
duction as a balance wheel in the free market and of prices that
American agriculture. Prior to change to reflect variations in con-
these programs, livestock provided sumer demand and the supply
the function of a natural ever- offered by producers. This means
normal granary. It furnished a that rather than attempting to
means of adjusting total agricul- control production we must work
tural production to the volume the to expand consumer demand at
market would absorb. Today that home and abroad through educa-
function has been disrupted with tion, promotion, and increased in-
livestock continuing in a free mar- ternational trade. This means that
ket, and grain moving in a con- we must move away from con-
trolled market. tinued dependence upon an all-
powerful federal government for
the determination of price and

Yes, the future of American production patterns in agriculture.
agriculture is good if we have the I am convinced that farmers are
good judgment to build on the pat- making the right decision, the de-
tern of past success. This means cision that freedom of opportunity
that we must place emphasis upon for the individual is more to be
continued research for new knowl- desired than political promises of
edge to bring about increased equal shares in a socialistic econ-
efficiency of production, market- omy based on security. LI

A Positive Program

| pene @w Lesa | The One That Will Work

WE HAVE HAD PROGRAMS for everybody who called himself a farmer and for
many who didn’t — programs which plowed under pigs, which paid indi-
viduals vast amounts of money for not farming, which encouraged people to
produce for government instead of for market.

I think many of these plans were ill-conceived, poorly administered, and
self-defeating. They carried us down the wrong road. Any plan which doesn’t
lead in the direction of a free, de-controlled, de-subsidized, supply-and-
demand agriculture is not a good plan and is not good for the American
people.

The only farm plan that will work — that has ever worked satisfactorily
— is a free market. Let's get back to it.

TOM ANDERSON, “Straight Talk”
From Farm and Ranch, February 1957



===== PAGE 40 =====

RALPH BRADFORD

ECAUSE we like to express the second world war we all set up
B unfathomable in familiar rather hopefully in our minds and
symbols, we conceive of time, speech patterns a new time com- ‘
which is a purely ideal construc- partment which we labeled “The
tion, as a sort of highway upon Post War Period.” Who does not
which we ourselves pass from van- now remember with some nostal-
ishing peint to vanishing point. gia our attitude in those days

Actually there is no future and toward the apres-guerre times? It
no past, and no separation of era was almost as though people ex-
from era, all things being endless, pected everything to change on
unified, integrated, inseparable, V-Day, when we should have
and continuous — except as the leaped over the wall or passed
continuity is lost through our through the gate of military vic-
limited understanding of cause tory and entered a longed-for new
and effect. We glimpse the truth time compartment.
of this now and then; but for the And then one day rather ab-
most part we are unaware of it, ruptly the war was ended. We had
and express the experiences of our leaped the wall, passed through
lives in terms of past, present, and the gate; we had entered the long-
future. Thus we divide time off heralded new time period—and be-
into segments or compartments, hold, it was no different essentially
bringing certain periods to abrupt - from any other that we had
ends on convenient dates and known, except that for a short
starting new periods or compart- while young Americans were not
ments as though we had suddenly dying on distant fields. It was, in-
passed some kind of barrier, deed, not a new time at all. It was
opened a door, or jumped over a simply a continuation, a part of all
wall. that had gone before. It was a

During the dreary years of the part, too, of all that was to come

Mr. Bradford is a well-known writer and business organization consultant.

38



===== PAGE 41 =====

1957 THE THING WE CALL TIME 39

— an idea that is a little more diffi- into three segments — one of
cult to grasp. War tensions gave which, representing the present
place to peacetime tensions; forces fleeting instant, is infinitesimal
that were set in motion during the while the other two extend in-
war and long before continued to finitely?

exert their influence; causes long We know about the present, the
since forgotten resulted in their mow. It is the precise point in time
inevitable effects, which in turn of which we are all conscious. It
became causes themselves for yet- is this moment. But before you
to-be-seen effects. In short, past, can think it, this moment has gone,
present, and future merged as and another has taken its place.
always in the one moment of life Where does ‘this moment” go
that men consider their own with- when it stops being now or is and
out question, because it is the only becomes then or was? We expect
one (except for rare interludes of and hope, of course, that each
near-clairvoyance) that they really vanishing moment will be replaced
comprehend and savor —the by another and another endlessly.
present. Where will those “new” moments
The Idea of Time come from? Do they descend upon

. us out of nowhere? Do they, once

It might help to clearer under- ge pave lived through them, dis-

standing of cause and effect if we appear into nothing? To me, one
could find terms to express the

X , A thing in all this mystery seems in-
idea that there is no such thing as evitable: that time (whatever it
a division of time. You may say

is) must be continuous, unitary,
that I have just expressed that indivisible.
idea in flat and unequivocal terms.
But I have not expressed the idea Yesterday Begets Tomorrow
at all; T have merely made a state- In the practical and tangible
ment about it. The idea itself, like affairs of life, our yesterdays and
that of time, is elusive and diffi- our todays determine and are part
cult. For instance, have you ever of our tomorrows. Years ago we
seen the thing we call time, and prepared today’s events, or our
can you tell me what it looks like? fathers did, not by any plans that
Is it a substance, or merely an were consciously made for today,
abstract idea? Or could it be a but by what was decided and done
dimension? And if a dimension (or about yesterday's problems. The
whatever), can you conceive of its present is explicitly the result of
being whacked up, or fenced off, the past; and the events of the


===== PAGE 42 =====

40 " THE FREEMAN May

next decade, the next generation, present “place in the sun,” you are
the next century and beyond, are continuing to support a program
now being determined, not so that was really started back at
much by what we plan for the the end of the old century.

future as by what we do about For that matter, what of 1776
today. “Man is where he is,” said when it was decided that thirteen
Emerson, “by repeated choice.” sprawling American colonies ought
There is a perpetual interplay of to be free and independent states?
cause and effect; and upon the You and I live today as American
high-lighted stage of the eternal citizens rather than as British
now condition your life and will subjects because of some words
the present, and the future. This which a few men, at the imminent
we can at moments comprehend, risk of their lives, wrote on a piece
though for the most part it evades of paper in the hot summer of that
us in our habituated thought memorable year. By the same

patterns. token, some day it may be recorded
that your remote grandson is a
Look at the Record citizen of Northatlantico or of the

“But all this is nonsense,” you: World Unistate because of deci-
may say. “Clearly I am living in sions that were made and policies
the year 1957, on the present day that were instituted in the middle
of the current month.” But what of this century. Both figuratively
about the years that happened to and actually, therefore, your con-
be numbered 1933-34-35, when na- sciousness embraces past and
tional programs were started and future, as well as present.
national policies were adopted that If I had told you twenty-five
now condition your life and will years ago that the United States,
condition the life of your son, and within .a quarter century, would
his sons, too—and theirs? Are you be operating under the kind of
not in a very real sense living in economic and political pattern that
those years as well? Do they not we follow today, what would you
reach into every moment, every ac- have said? Most probably you
tion, of your present? And what of would have indignantly denied
1898 when your country made its that this country would ever “go
first bid to become a world power? socialistic.” Or, if anyone had
When this year you dig deep into asked you then whether the
your earnings to pay that part of American dollar, within twenty-
your federal tax which is being five years, would shrink to less
spent to maintain your country’s than half its value at that time,


===== PAGE 43 =====

1957 THE THING WE CALL TIME 41

what would you have said? If you one. Of course, ours was not and
are an average person, you would had never been a completely free
likely have denounced such an economic system, because our
idea as the doleful sentiment of people would not let it be.

a prophet of gloom and doom. Yet Most people will agree readily
now both these “impossible” con- enough with the Jeffersonian ideal
ditions have come about. Why? of government — namely, that the
. least governed are the best gov-
Seeds of Socialism in the U.S. erned. They will agree that men

It is because yesterday and to- should be as free as possible; that
day are one. It is because twenty- government should protect them in
five years or so ago a good many their life and property, restrain-
million Americans, upset by what ing them only when they attempt
was termed an emergency and to interfere with or injure others.
baffled by troublesome economic But whatever their protestations
conditions that were themselves on the side of untrammeled free-
the results of collective bad judg- dom, men and women have seldom
ment, accepted as a “temporary” been willing to live under that sort
measure the idea that the govern- of government. They constantly
ment must make itself responsible demand that it step aside from
for the economic welfare of its its original and natural role of
citizens. In adopting this course impartial protector and become the
we ran counter to our own na- paternalistic supporter of various
tional experience as far as it had elements of the national com-
gone, and to the experience of the munity, often to the detriment of
ancients as it is abundantly re- other elements. Government soon
corded. becomes a kind of battleground

What we did, without most of among its. own citizens, where in-
us being very conscious of it, was dividuals, and especially groups
to begin experimenting exten- of individuals, fight other indi-
sively with the always-fascinating viduals and other groups in order
(to some) but ever-dangerous (to to obtain special laws or conces-
all) notion of a “managed” econ- sions or privileges or benefits.
omy. On a scale never before con- A man who is very active in the
templated in this country, we be- labor movement once told me that
gan the process of converting our he looked upon government
system from the status of a rela- “merely as an agency for getting
tively free economy to that of a things done.” What he wanted
tightly regulated and controlled done, naturally, was something


===== PAGE 44 =====

42 THE FREEMAN May

that he thought would be of bene- spiral, and the end is not in sight.
fit to labor. In this he was follow- It is past and present descending
ing the same pattern that is often with terrific impact upon the
followed by other leaders — farm future.

groups, business groups, profes- Despite all this (such is the
sional organizations — in short, by amazing virility of our system)
nearly everybody. within the limits imposed by our

Each group seeking legislative demands we have an economy in
or other favors does not seem to which there is still considerable
realize or care that a hundred or freedom of action and choice. If
a thousand other groups are doing a citizen can surmount or circum-
the same thing; and that under the vent the barriers and hurdles that
relentless pressure of these de- he himself and his fellow citizens
mands government is forced more have placed upon the free market
and more to inject itself into the of this economy, he can work,
lives, businesses, professions, and practice a profession, go into busi-
livelihood of all its citizens — with ness, or make investments as his
little real benefit to any, and with preference lies or his judgment

long range injury to all. dictates.
i i Under such a system many will
The Spiral Widens succeed; some will fail. Of those

This is a continuing process. who fail, some will be unsuccess-
Even .in the simpler days of our ful because of hard luck; others
post-Revolutionary period there will succeed mainly because they
were already many restrictive laws “get the breaks.” In the main,
born of the demands made by however, those who work and save
groups and individuals for advan- and plan, who display industry
tages that could be secured to them and ability and ingenuity, will be
only at the expense of others. Each rewarded. Those who for one rea-
decade and almost each year has son or another do not succeed, and
seen the expansion of our costly especially those who are truly in
bureaucracy because each year and need, will always invoke the ready
decade. has witnessed the growth sympathies of men of good will
of pressure-group demand, the in- who wish to help such people and
crease of legislative and adminis- who do help them generously.
trative acquiescence, the enormous But there are always some who
increase of the money required, prefer to administer such help by
the multiplication of taxes levied. force of law. The State, they say,
It is a mounting and widening owes everybody a good living;


===== PAGE 45 =====

1957 THE THING WE CALL TIME 43

therefore, they would make every- strength and substance.

body, in effect, wards of the State, Yet endlessly the consequences
to some of whom much shall be of the past pound upon the pres-
given, from many of whom much ent, and both thrust against the
shall be taken. They would set up future. Each decade produces its
laws that provide for a division quota of those who strive to en-
of the wealth which all have ac- rich themselves through subven-
cumulated, taking away from the tions taken from the common
industrious, the shrewd, the able, treasury at the cost of all. Each
the successful, and the merely generation brings its army of zeal-
lucky, and handing it over to the ots who believe they can, by the

others in various forms. compulsion of law, erase all in-
equalities, redress all evils, and
Sequences and Consequences usher in a kind of economic and

But that is not the end of the social milennium. They would like
matter. Those who desire thus by to “grasp this sorry scheme of
law to redistribute earnings and things entire. ...and then remold
wealth are rarely content with it nearer to the heart’s desire.”
just that. Usually they also wish The part that such people habit-
to control, direct, regulate, and ually omit from the statement of
“manage” the whole economy; and their purpose, and often, I am
they are quite willing to destroy Sure from their understanding of
the prosperity of the many in it, is precisely what I have omitted
order (as they believe) to improve from the quotation — namely, that
the condition of the few. When you they would first, in Omar’s phrase,
add their program to that of the “shatter it to bits!” And once a
various segments of our society thing is shattered to bits, it is
that are the beneficiaries of gigan- exceedingly difficult to put it to-
tic government subsidies, you have gether again.
created more debt, more bureauc- And the important thing about
racy, less wealth, more but cheaper 2ll this, in its relation to the time
money, and less freedom for initia- concepts that we have been con-
tive. Even the economic system, sidering, is that what we shatter
which to the greatest extent ever today we destroy for tomorrow.
knowr: in history has supplied the Moreover, such shattering may
needs, gratified the wants, and ele- reach also into the past and de-
vated the standards of a whole peo- stroy very fine things that were
ple, cannot forever withstand such patiently and laboriously builded
debilitating drainage of its in faith and honor by our fathers.


===== PAGE 46 =====

~—

) The Achilles Heo!
or SOCIALISM AND COMMUNISM

A a Te ai i

G. SUMNER SMALL

HE Achilles’ heel of socialism any other system. They were

and communism is that these forced into lives of deprivation,
systems of human relationship are poverty, and unhappiness which
the least productive of any that they were not long willing to en-
have ever been devised in the dure.
course of human history. Not only
do the psychological effects of Intellectual Theory .
these systems on the individual re- The amazing resurgence of so-
duce his productivity, but their cialism and communism in modern
technological effects on the intrica- times was sparked by Marx and
cies of modern industry throw it Engels and later became a badge
into confusion and destroy its ef- of intellectualism. The emotional
ficiency. drive for this resurgence arose out

It is a tragic example of the of the resentment against what ap-

great gulf existing between theory peared to be the suppression and
and fact, that the devoted and ded- ill treatment of workingmen in the
icated designers and promoters of early days of the development of
these systems believed that under mechanized industry. These intel-
them the people could produce lectuals were certainly not un-
more per person, consume more aware of the failure of past social-
per person, and therefore live uto- ist and communist colonies. Never-
pian lives of prosperity and con- theless, they theorized that an in-
tentment. Actually, in the hun- dustrial civilization with a strong
dreds of instances in which social- central government and a central-
ist or communist colonies have ized system of national planning
been established, it was found that and control would be able to avoid
the people produced less and were business cycles and depressions
forced to consume less than under and produce such a vast quantity

Mr. Small is a Mechanical Engineer, advisor on industrial management, and manager of the
Pioneer Warehouses of Brooklyn.

. 44


===== PAGE 47 =====

1957 THE ACHILLES' HEEL OF COMMUNISM 45

of goods that a utopian condition Germany, and as others risk their
of prosperity could be produced lives to escape from Hungary and

and maintained. from conditions of life that are in-
So strong has been this modern tolerable to them.
impulse that few, if any, countries Complete communism or social-

have wholly escaped its influence, ism can only continue to exist, as
while under communism Russia in Russia, when the government
and her satellites have been almost stations border guards to keep the
completely socialized. Again we people from escaping and estab-
are faced with the vast difference lishes a cruel system of terrorism
between what theory expected to to prevent their rebelling and
happen and what has happened in overthrowing the government.
practice. If we examine conditions There is and can be no such thing
in various countries today, we find as a benign socialism. Wherever
that the poverty and discontent in socialism is established, its low
any country is almost directly in productivity creates intolerable
proportion to the extent to which conditions for the people; and they

that country has been socialized. can only be induced to submit to
them by a brutal and terroristic
Terrorism Inevitable system of repression. These facts

‘help to explain what is going on in

People will not long remain of the world today.

their own free will in a communist
or socialist colony or country. In
the early days of America, leaders
and followers, all enthusiastic with The ideas of communism and so-
the ideas of communism, estab- cialism are not liberal nor modern
lished many communist colonies in nor progressive. They are not the
various parts of this country. In a wave of the future but are the er-
short time, their low production of rors of the past which have been
food and necessities created such resurrected and tried on a modern
a condition of poverty that they industrial civilization. These ideas
were disillusioned, and they either probably were tried and discarded
changed over to a system of pri- in the dim and ancient past — long
vate property or else the people de- before the advent of written his-
serted the colony. The same results tory. They were well covered in
can be seen today as young Eng- 427 B.C. in Plato’s Republic. They
lishmen desert semisocialized were resurrected in England by
England to go to Canada or Aus- Sir Thomas Moore in his book,
tralia, as refugees pour out of East Utopia, which was published in

Tried — and Disproved


===== PAGE 48 =====

46 THE FREEMAN : May

1551. In 1848, in the Communist their wives must do for other peo-
Manifesto, Marx and Engels ap- ple. The system was found to breed
plied utopian concepts to industri- confusion and discontent. It re-
alism, and outlined procedures for sulted in antagonism, indifference,
creating class warfare and for un- and low production. In’ modern
dermining and disrupting civiliza- times, the same conditions, caus-
tion so that communism could be ing the same results, are holding

established on its ruins. down the production on Russia’s
sovietized farms, despite their ex-
Early Experiments in the U. S. tensive mechanization.

Plymouth was but a modest be-
communism has been tried many &inning for communism in Amer-
times in America only to fail and ca. About 1825, Robert Owen had
be discarded. One of the earliest managed to establish six commu-
communist: colonies in America Dist colonies in America: two in
was established at Plymouth, Mas- - Ohio, one in Indiana, one in Ten-
sachusetts, by the Pilgrim Fathers Dnessee, and two in New York at

who sailed from England in the Haverstraw and at Coxsackie.
“Mayflower” in the year 1620. Lhey were no more successful than

Plymouth, and communism was
soon discarded.

Few people seem aware that

Their problem was the simple one
of building rough homes and rais-
ing food, but they were unable to
meet it under communism and :
came close to the point of starva- Probably the most extensive and
tion. In 1623, Governor Bradford amazing establishment of commu-
was forced to abandon communism nist colonies in America resulted
and to assign individually owned from the enthusiasm .created by
farms to the settlers. After this the Phalanx Plan which was de-
wise move, the colony prospered. vised by a Frenchman named

Governor Bradford had much Francois Charles Marie Fourier.
to say about the faults of commu- In those days as in modern times,
nism and equal sharing, much of communism received strong sup-
which is pertinent today. He found port from many of the leading in-
that the industrious resented equal tellectuals. So it is not surprising
sharing with the drones, the to find that the Phalanx Plan was
skilled resented the unskilled, the approved, supported, and promoted -
intelligent resented the stupid, and by such distinguished persons as
the strong the weak. The married Nathaniel Hawthorne, William El-
resented the washing and chores lery Channing, James Russell Low-

The Phalanx Plan


===== PAGE 49 =====

1957 THE ACHILLES’ HEEL OF COMMUNISM 47

ell, John Greenleaf Whittier, and and manufacturing. Model homes
Charles A. Dana. By the year 1840, were built for the people, and they
over forty of these communist were supplied with a model, up-to-
colonies, containing in all more date manufacturing plant. Like all
than 200,000 people, had been es- communist colonies, these failed to
tablished in territory stretching produce enough goods to support
from New England to Wisconsin. the people. When they finally de-
Within a few years they had dis- generated into nothing more than
appeared. The enthusiastic people extremely expensive charities, they
who had established them found had to be discontinued.
that communism produced only Communism has been so thor-
poverty and conditions under oughly tried out in this country
which they were unwilling to live. and has so definitely proved incap-
Many other colonies based on able of creating a decent life for
various particular conceptions of the people involved that even its
communism were established and : most devoted and enthusiastic sup-
failed. Many colonies were estab- porters should have been con-
lished on a communal basis by re- vinced. It is amazing that so many
ligious sects. One of these, The people still wish to establish so-
Shakers, is still in existence. Some cialism or communism for the
communal colonies have endured whole country and confidently ex-
by conversion to capitalism. The pect that utopian conditions will
most notable among these is result.
Amana which produces refrigera- When Governor Bradford re-
tors and air conditioners, and The ferred to the confusion created by
Oneida Community which pro- the communist experiment in Ply-
duces silverware and animal traps. mouth, little could he have visual-
ized the devastating chaos result-
New Deal Experiments ing from attempts at national plan-
The latest attempt to establish ning and control in modern indus-
communist colonies in the United trial societies.
States was made during the time Even today, few persons appre-
of the New Deal. These colonies ciate either the importance or the
were to be beacon lights showing complication of ‘managerial plan-
the new path into the future, and ning and control in a highly mech-
no expense was spared to equip anized modern industrial plant.
them with every facility to assure Management must sell what the
their success. They were designed plant can produce, or else change
to be a combination of farming and equip the plant to produce


===== PAGE 50 =====

48 THE FREEMAN May

what can be sold. If the plant is invariably attempt to correct the
equipped with 50 lathes and 50 situation by adding more bureaus,
milling machines, a group of prod- more planners, more controls, and
ucts must be sold corresponding to more complications in an endlessly
the output of that combination of expanding and unproductive proc-
machines if the maximum produc- ess of controlling and policing
tivity of the plant is to be realized. every human activity and relation-
ship. The only effective remedy
Problems of National Planning would be to decentralize and place
Under national planning and planning and control back in the
control, some clerk in a distant hands of individual plant man-
bureau tries to determine what agers, where it was originally and
each of hundreds of different Where it belongs.
plants is to produce. Yet he cannot

possibly have the detailed knowl- The Threat to World Peace

edge of equipment and capacity Let us now consider how these
that would be needed to assure ef- problems of inadequate production
ficient operation of each plant. have forced communized and so-

A continuous output of finished cialized countries to take such ac- .
products and the continuous flow tions as now threaten the peace of
of materials to keep productive the entire world.
machines constantly operating de- Since its inception, the USSR
pends on the regularity with has been engaged in a desperate
which incoming raw materials, drive for the production of the
supplies, and parts are received. goods necessary to give.a better
Where dozens of national planning life to its people, against a system
bureaus take over and control the that persistently strangled produc-
supplying of hundreds of thou- tion. Five-year plans for an ever-
sands of items of material and sup- increasing production were estab-
plies for all manufacturers, effec- lished one after another and with
tive planning to maintain a contin- little success. Quotas of production
uous flow of materials and parts to were set for the plants and for the
each individual plant becomes an workers and quite unsocialistic re-
impossible task and the efficiency wards were given to individual
and output of the individual plant workers for high production, with
is severely reduced. severe penalties for production be-

Faced with failure because of low the norm. Plant managers who
the myriads of details involved in did not produce their quotas were
their work, the national planners demoted or even liquidated. Slave


===== PAGE 51 =====

1957 THE ACHILLES’ HEEL OF COMMUNISM 49

labor camps were established for countries had broken free from
both political and war prisoners. Russia, the United States might
If they could be forced to produce contribute enough money and
more than they were permitted to goods to them to raise their stand-
consume, that would supply extra ard of living above the rebellion
goods for the remainder of the point. Poland went as planned; but
people. the Hungarians rebelled and it
After the second world war, was necessary for Russia to in-
when Russia took over many voke a stepped-up terrorism to
highly productive countries in hold them in line.
Central Europe, including the ter-
ritory known as the bread basket The Plague Spreads
of Europe, prospects looked bright- In the Middle East, where lies
er. The accumulated surpluses of the Suez life line between East and
these countries helped Russia tem- West, and the supplies of oil nec-
porarily but were soon gone. The essary to keep the factories of Eu-
countries themselves deteriorated rope running, we encourage a dic-
rapidly under socialism and their tator variously described as an ar-
production soon fell to the point dent socialist and as a dedicated
where many of them were consum- communist.
ing more than they produced. Since the advent of Tito and
Poland, previously a large export- communism, Yugoslavia has failed
er of food, now had to import to produce enough goods to be self-
wheat to stay alive. A good picture supporting. And Tito frankly ad-
of the contrast between the coun- mits that Yugoslavia’s economy
tries taken over as compared to would collapse except for contribu-
the countries remaining free is the tions from the United States.
productivity and prosperity of Bolivia’s once highly profitable
West Germany as compared to and tax-paying tin mines have now
East Germany. been socialized and are no longer
By 1956, conditions within Rus- profitable. Consequently, Bolivia is
sia and its satellites were so ripe in dire financial straits, asking for
for rebellion that it became neces- financial assistance from us.
sary for Russia to relieve itself of In England, where the Conserv-
the burden of supporting those ative party is now in power, they
satellites who were consuming still cling to national planning and
more than they produced, particu- control with strangling effect on
larly Poland and Hungary. If it industrial and farming production.
could be made to appear that these Their socialized medicine is a con-


===== PAGE 52 =====

50 THE FREEMAN May

stantly increasing burden on their Asia. Wherever their dead hands
finances. Despite the billions of have reached they havé blighted
dollars contributed to England by the productivity, the ‘prosperity,
the United States, her condition the welfare, and the freedom of
has little improved. - the people ‘and have brought ter-
France and Italy are in much rorism and cruelty. Socialism and
the same. condition. They have communism are no longer experi-
been socialized and bureaucratized ments from which something can
to a point of insolvency. Their con- be learned or out of which some-
dition is not improving, and they thing good may develop.
appear to have become permanent : ~ :
wards of the United States. Under The American Taxpayer's Role
these conditions, it is apparent The problem for the American
that even a mild depression in the taxpayer to decide is whether to
United States would bring chaos give up ever-increasing portions
to Europe. of ‘his earnings to keep Russia and
America has become so prosper- her satellites from disintegrating
ous under her system of private internally, or to let the disintegra-
ownership that she could well af- tion occur as ‘a necessary step
ford to experiment by underwrit- toward a decent form of produc-
ing some small country that tive civilization. He must also de-
wished to try out some new form cide whether or not he wishes to
of economic or governmental set- continue the policy .of forced con-
up. However, socialism and com- tributions, year ‘after year, to
munism are not confined to one countries that are and will remain
country but have spread like a weak and insolvent as long as-they
deadly plague through Europe and refuse to discard socialism. 'e ® e

| ovens om D0DERIY | . Resist Not Evil

THOSE WHO CRUSADE not for God in themselves, but against the .
devil in. others, never succeed in making the world better, but
leave it either as it was, or sometimes even perceptibly worse
‘than it was, before the crusade began. By thinking primarily of
evil we tend, however excellent our intentions, to create occasions

for ‘evil to manifest itself.
ALDOUS HUXLEY, The Devils of Loudun


===== PAGE 53 =====

BLIND ) Spots in the New Socialism

The same basic fallacies remain despite the subtle

efforts of modern planners to improve the camouflage.

OCIALIST INTELLECTUALS in Eng- REGINALD JEBB

land are busy, not so much in
putting their house in order as in “redistribution” of income, even
pulling it down and rebuilding it. what socialists call equality, must
This might be a hopeful sign if it have their limits — and in some
were not that the general plan re- respects have already reached
mains much the same and the pro- them. But all his criticism of out-
posed innovations are designed worn or ill-conceived methods of
only to strengthen the building inaugurating a socialist state only
and make it look more attractive. increases his ingenuity in think-
The principal architect in this ren- ing out new and more up-to-date
ovation of socialism is Mr. C. A. R. ways of reaching the same goal.
Crosland who has recently pro-
duced an exhaustive treatise on
the subject entitled The Future of The basic trouble about all these
Socialism. clever and industrious planners

Mr. Crosland has an acute mind (of whom Mr. Crosland is an out-
which realizes the shortcomings of standing example) is that, while
many of the clumsy attempts to thrashing out every argument for
build socialism in England, and and against each socialistic pro-
does not hesitate to point them posal with a great appearance of
out. For instance, he recognizes impartiality and claiming the
that capitalism has not collapsed, highest ethical motives for their
as Marx so confidently prophesied aims, they leave out the most im-
it would and as the Labor intellec- portant thing of all: human na-
tuals between the wars agreed it ture, as it may be seen influencing
must if they were to make head-. the actions of those in authority,
way in their plans for a socialist those working on their own ac-
state. He is also aware that na- count, or those employed by others.
tionalization of key industries, the This disastrous failure to grasp

Human Nature Overlooked

Mr. Jebb is a British educator, editor, and journalist.

51


===== PAGE 54 =====

52 THE FREEMAN May

what underlies all human effort is power belongs to the centralized
concealed by the simple device of government it becomes ubiquitous
-omission. This is easier than it and unrestrained. Men prefer to
might seem. The reader of a book plan their own course in life —
like The Future of Socialism be- however indifferently they may
comes so engrossed in the meticu- succeed — to submission to a plan
lous balance of arguments for and made for them — however cun-
against selected proposals for al- ningly devised with an eye to what
tering social conditions that he is supposed to be good for them.
may fail to notice the basic human In the socialist state this preroga-
needs that are left out. Let us call tive is granted only to the planners

them the blind spots of the new — at the top. Everyone else is a
as of the old — socialism, though it “plannee.”
is sometimes difficult to believe The result of this — besides

that they are due as much to blind-

| to emasculating the nation as a whole
ness as to calculated omissions.

— vitiates the character of those
who rule. In order to plan compre-
hensively, an enormous amount of

First and foremost, then, comes money must be made available to
a total inability to see that condi- the central government. Thus we
tions of life, ordered and con- find that Mr. Crosland and his as-
trolled by governmental action, sociates, in building the new so-
must be intolerable to anyone with cialism, are continually searching
a sense of freedom, however care- for more and more ways of ex-
fully adapted they may be to the tracting money from private en-
supposed needs of human beings. terprise to hand it over to the State
Power is always to some extent a for “redistribution” as it thinks
cause of conflict, but concentrated fit. But control of vast sums of
power is bound to produce in the public money invariably invites
long run either an explosion — per- corruption, and this is especially
haps a civil war — with disastrous true when the purposes of its “re-
consequences, or else a spirit of ab- distribution” are vague, when the
ject subservience, sullen and with- general public has no means of
out personal initiative, as in knowing just how it is spent, and
Soviet-dominated countries today. when it is being handled by an
Excessive power in the hands of army of bureaucrats of all grades.
an individual over his neighbors Yet all those conditions are ful-
can be corrected or, at worst, has filled when the State demands
only limited results, but once that large surpluses for its use. It is

Power Causes Conflict


===== PAGE 55 =====

1957 BLIND SPOTS IN THE NEW SOCIALISM 53

therefore a prodigious blind spot in private hands should pass di-
to overlook the probability of cor- rectly into the possession of the
ruption on a large scale. State; but they would hedge it

This brings us to a third blind round with so many restrictions,
spot in the socialist vision. All pare it down with such heavy
through Mr. Crosland’s book it is taxation, and prevent its being
tacitly assumed that private citi- handed down intact to heirs that
zens are entirely materialistic in it would soon cease to have any
their approach to life. For in- meaning —even to exist at all.
stance, it is taken for granted that And here comes the blind spot.
people are consumed with envy for They fail to see that privately
anyone richer than themselves and held productive property adds im-
will show their envy by obstruc- measurably to the freedom and
tion and discontent. It is further initiative of its possessor by en-
presumed to be an injustice to al- couraging him to look after it
low differences of wealth. The fact well, both as his livelihood and as
that contentment does not consist a bulwark against tyranny.
of a bank balance augmented by Through ownership a man gradu-
theft from others seems to have ates in responsibility and so be-
escaped the socialist planners. comes a full democrat. To strike
They appear to think that the at private property is therefore to
richer members of society are nec- strike at democracy. The neoso-
essarily less generous with their cialists try to cover up this anti-
own money than bureaucrats are democratic plan of theirs, first, by
with other people’s. Yet these same claiming that private property is
bureaucrats have done their best losing its importance owing to the
to devitalize the hospitals, hither- “managerial revolution” in indus-
to maintained by voluntary sub- try, and secondly, by only con-
scriptions and humanized by per- sidering property held in company
sonal interest, so that they may shares. They leave out the inde-
become soulless state institutions pendent farmer and the craftsman

under bureaucratic control. owning his own means of produc-
tion and the pioneer in business
Property Loses Meaning who trusts in his own effort, yet

Another blind spot becomes evi- on these every nation relies for
dent in the attitude of the new the continuing health of the com-
socialists to property. Unlike their munity. The explanation of this
Fabian antecedents, they no longer attitude of socialists is simple:
insist that all productive property. Property owners can withstand


===== PAGE 56 =====

54 THE FREEMAN May

state encroachments on liberty is danger in the present trend
and so break through the net of toward bureaucratization of the
control. They are in an economic professions. The most signal ex-
position to resist. That disturbs ample of this is the medical pro-

state planning. : fession under the Health Act. But
this admission by the modern so-
Profits Are for Taxing cialist intellectuals is not made

Those are some of the blind With the object of giving free rein
spots in the latest blueprint of so- tO professional talent, but because
cialism. Its admissions are equally they fear that the new bureau-
interesting. Private profit from cratic “power hierarchy” may
industry is no longer condemned ‘give rise to marked hostilities,
as it used to be. This has come Rot only in private industry, but
about for two reasons: First, the €qually in other large scale or-
condemnation is so clearly sense- ganizations, notably the national-
less, since profit accruing to the ized industries and the large trade
owners of private businesses is unions, where an alarming gap,
just as much the reward of work marked by heavy suspicion on
as are wages paid to an employee; both sides, sometimes opens out
and secondly, because it is realized between leadership and rank-and-
that unless there exists private file.”
profit to tax, the State will be-de-
nuded of funds. The nationalized The Need for Private Enterprise
industries are a liability not an This is an admission of the first
asset. The new procedure is to en- importance because it shows that
courage private enterprise firms the socialist substitute for capital-
to prosper, and to tax this pros- ism only intensifies the strains
perity in every sort of way, so that capitalism is accused of cre-
that most of the surplus finds its ating. But perhaps the most sig-
way into the coffers of the State. nificant admission of all is one
At the same time through still that the modern socialist does not
more onerous death duties, capital appear to realize he is making.
gains taxes, an annual property His plans to include state nomi-
tax, and possibly ‘an expenditure nees on private boards of direc-
tax levied on private individuals, tors, to introduce a big element
it is intended that no one should of state control into the manage-
be in a position to resist the cen- ment of the English schools run
tralized power of the State. by private enterprise, and to adopt

Another admission is that there ‘other similar means of giving the


===== PAGE 57 =====

1957 BLIND SPOTS IN THE NEW SOCIALISM 55

State a foothold in what private paper, and especially those who
enterprise has built —all these prefer to be carried as slaves
plans are a direct admission that than to walk as free men. They
what men in a free economy have are also skilled in working on
created is. superior to anything men’s minds by means of sugges-
the State can make for itself. They tion — a sort of softening up proc-
are also an example of the blind- ess —as, for example, when Mr.
ness of these so-called intellec- Crosland hammers in what he
tuals. For it is as if one were to calls the myth of American indi-
say that, after turning a success- vidualism, the implication being
ful chef out of his kitchen and that American economic successes
putting in his place a man who have been due not to private ini-
knew nothing of cooking, the food tiative in a free society, but to
cooked would remain as good as the New Deal and socialistic in-
ever —as though it were the fluence.
kitchen and not the cook that pro-
duced good dinners. The new exponents of socialism
But however illogical and self- may have to wait some time before
contradictory the new brand of so- their methods are accepted by
cialists may be, their propaganda more old-fashioned socialists; but
is cleverly adapted to give a pic- when they are adopted — as they
ture of fair dealing, and subtly almost certainly will be — they
attracts those who think they have will present a greater menace to
a grievance, those who are easily freedom than the old, cruder pro-

deceived by elaborate plans on gram. ooo
TT 1 .
oars em ROBEEIY | Take Your Choice

WHATEVER THE QUESTION under discussion — whether religious,
philosophical, political, or economic; whether it concerns pros-
perity, morality, equality, right, justice, progress, responsibility,
cooperation, property, labor, trade, capital, wages, taxes, popu--
lation, finance, or government — at whatever point on the
scientific horizon I begin my researches, I invariably reach this
one conclusion: The solution to the problem of human relation-

ships is to be found in liberty.
FREDERIC BASTIAT, The Law. 1850


===== PAGE 58 =====

REVIEWER'S [NOTEBOOK
Qn en

ERTINENT TO BE OBSERVED
John Chamberlain

HEN ROSCOE POUND, former bitrary power, and always the peo-
Dean of the Harvard Law ple had rallied in time to support
School, delivered a series of lec- the courts. “Our constitutional
tures at Wabash College in 1945 democracy,” said Dean Pound,
on the historical development of ‘may survive this era of centrali-
constitutional guarantees of lib- zation and economic unification
erty, the tides were still running for like reasons. Whether rule is
strongly toward authoritarianism. borne by Rex or by Demos, a ruler
It was assumed at the time that ruling reasonably under God and
Europe, after the war, would have the law founds his kingdom on a
to settle for “democratic socialism” rock.” .
and that the United States would The note of hope in Dean Pound’s
be compelled to accept more and lectures must have sounded wholly
more centralized control to counter forlorn in 1945. Indeed, it must
the “inevitable” postwar depres- still seem a little plaintive today.
sion. But if the tides running toward
Taking the long view in his lec- government control of the ener-
tures, which are now published as gies and ingenuities of the citizen
The Development of Constitu- are still visibly present, the in-
tional Guarantees of Liberty (Yale tellectual certainty that “planners
University Press, $3.50), Dean know best” has at last begun to
Pound reminded his listeners flag. Dean Pound no longer sounds
that periods of centralizing au- like an anachronism who, unac-
thority had come and gone in the countably, managed to hang on at
past without hopelessly disrupt- Harvard during the period when
ing the fabric of “natural rights” all the bright young law students
or of the “immemorial rights of were plumping hard for the glo-
Englishmen.” Always some judges, ries of “due process of administra-
somewhere, had had the honesty tion” and that contradiction in
and fortitude to stand against the terms known as “administrative
presumptions of the State to ar- law.”

06


===== PAGE 59 =====

1957 A REVIEWER’S NOTEBOOK 57

Antitraditionalists who scoffed at Montesquieu and
During the forty-year period Magna Charta, the old traditional
when believers in “natural rights” “bulwarks of freedom” were
and “the immemorial rights of something that stood in the way
Englishmen” were fighting their of efficient governmental adminis-
rearguard action, two arguments tration of economic plenty for all.
were extensively used to beat down
those who still had the temerity From Coke to the Constitution
to oppose the new centralizing ft js the signal merit of Dean
trends. One argument was that pound’s book that he leaves the
the Frenchman Montesquieu had gantitraditionalists without a shred
made a thunderous mistake in of evidence to support their case.
glimpsing a tripartite “separation First, as to the separation of
of the powers” in the British con- {pe powers. Far from being a fash-
stitutional system. The other ar- jonable shibboleth of the eight-
gument was that Magna Charta, eenth century, the doctrine of the
far from being an affirmation of separation of the powers was thor-
common folks’ liberties, was oughly grounded in the idea, ex-
merely a flagrant example of tolled by Coke, that parliament had
“barons’ justice” — the foisting of no power to pass laws which were
an oligarchical tyranny by a gang “contrary to common right and
of intolerant dukes and earls on reason.” It was the proper busi-
both king and common people ness of the courts, said Coke, to
alike, refuse to give effect to legislation
Neither argument constituted a which was “impertinent to be ob-
proper intellectual plea for putting served.”
individuals in the leading strings The commentaries of Coke bear-
of a centralized authority. But if ing on the necessity of an inde-
it could be established that Eng- pendent judiciary were well-known
land had rocked along for cen- to the colonial lawyers who helped
turies without a separation of the draft the American Constitution
powers, or that Magna Charta was and the Bill of Rights. Moreover,
merely an early example of “class the idea that the legislature and
legislation,” it might plausibly be the administrative arm of govern-
maintained that modern liberty ment should be one and the same
was a simple matter of trusting thing was denied in the very slo-
one’s friends in government. Tra- gan that “taxation without rep-
dition, under such a view, was un- resentation is tyranny.” The long
important. According to those battle against the Stuarts was set


===== PAGE 60 =====

58 i THE FREEMAN May

in motion precisely because the to the offense and the .offender,
Stuart kings presumed to be their and for justice as something of
own legislators as well as tax col- | right, “not to be. sold, denied or
lectors in the matter of such delayed.” It also called for security
things as the ship money which of the person and for security of
Hampden refused to pay. And property.
when the American revolutionists According to Pound’s way of
refused to pay taxes to the gov- thinking, all of these provisions
ernment of George the Third, they got into: American law by way of
had the seventeenth century agi- Coke's commentary on Magna
tation about the “separation of Charta.-Thus our own state and
the powers” very much in mind. federal Bills of Rights have a line-
To Roscoe Pound, Magna age that is as old as “Anglo-Saxon
Charta, far from being ‘barons’ writ” and ‘Anglo-Norman writ-
justice,” was a comprehensive for- charter.” They derive from “the
mulation of ideas and principles whole legal and political thought
which were at the very foundation of the twelfth century.”
of medieval “common-law polity.” oo
It was significant, says Pound, 4A Matter of Terminology
that the grievances of the Church When the American colonists
were put ahead of the grievances were still thinking in terms of de-
of the landowners in the Great fending themselves within the
Charter which the barons exacted framework of Englishsovereignty,
from King John. they spoke of their “immemorial
True, the Charter did devote an rights of Englishmen” and quoted
impressive amount of space to im- Coke. But when they eventually
‘posing “limits of order and reason decided to base their freedom on
upon the king’s exactions as feudal a “right of revolution” against a
overlord.” But the Charter went government which had passed laws
on from the subject of the bar- “impertinent to be observed,” they
ons’ complaints to those of mer- looked about them for ways of
chants and traders. There were framing their thought in universal
demands for uniform weights and terms. It was in this way that the
measures, for freedom of travel, language of “natural rights” came
and for freedom from unjust tax- to be substituted for the language
ation. Moreover, the Great Char- of Coke in the basic American doc-
ter called for a redress of the uments.
common grievances of all. It asked The substitution of eighteenth
for reasonable fines, proportioned century French locutions for the


===== PAGE 61 =====

1957 OTHER BOOKS 59

old common-sense phrases of Coke,
however, did not mean that the
rebellious colonists were asking
for something new under the sun.
They were still claiming the “im-
memorial common-law rights of
Englishmen.” In England “posi-
tive” laws that were contrary to
“common right and reason” had
been considered “impertinent”
long before the term “natural law”
had come into widespread use. But
“common right and reason” and
“natural law” were in substance
one and the same thing.

The Continuity of Libertarianism

To back up his points about
the continuity of individual lib-
erty in countries which belong to
the “Anglo-Norman” tradition,
Dean Pound has included some
ninety pages of source documents,
including Magna Charta and
Coke’s long commentary on it.
They sustain all of the points
about the relationship between
twelfth and thirteenth century
freedoms and those which are im-
portant to any good libertarian’s
view of the present.

To cite merely one example,
Magna Charta contains a section
guaranteeing the right of mer-
chants to buy and sell “by the
ancient and right customs, quit
from all evil tolls....” Many of
the colonial charters contained
provisions, quoted here, which pro-

hibited the passage of laws “re-
pugnant to the laws of England”
—which puts King George III's at-
tempt to apply different economic
rules to America in an extremely
lawless light.

Altogether, this is an important
book. Ten years ago, when Dean
Pound consigned it unpublished to
a drawer of his desk, its ideas
probably would not have been
heeded. But times have changed
since 1945, and maybe Dean
Pound’s assertion that “positive”
law is an evil unless it conforms
to “common right and reason” will
fall in 1957 on receptive and will-
ing ears. oo 0

+> The Men Who Made the
Nation.

By Johm Dos Passos. Garden City,
N. Y.: Doubleday and Company.
469 pp. $5.95.

“The history of the world,” wrote

Carlyle, “is but the biography of

great men.” That theory of his-

tory, quite popular during the
nineteenth century and still not
without adherents, is porous in
two respects; it lacks a definition
of greatness, which is likely to be
subjective and therefore variable,
and it fails to account for the con-
tinuity of man’s story during
times when men of that caliber
are not around.

One cannot say that America
has stopped making history just


===== PAGE 62 =====

60 THE FREEMAN May

because men measuring up to the
standards of a Washington or a
Jefferson are not at the helm. On
the other hand, the currently or-
thodox theory of history is equally
wanting; if events, and the men
who seem to manage them, are but
reflections of an environment (as
the theory holds), the question is,
who made the environment? The
latter-day historians are: inclined
to answer that environment is
the product of economic and social
“forces” over which men have no
control, and that puts us in the

Be that as it may, there is no
question but that the period of
American history which appeals
most to our imagination and which
overshadows our estimation of all
subsequent periods is its begin-
ning. And that beginning, say
from the Revolution to the ratifi-
cation of the Constitution, with
the first three Administrations
thrown in as the years of nursing
the infant country through its
most delicate years, is associated
with a group of men who never
cease to arouse our imagination.
The accomplishment of Washing-
ton, Jefferson, Hamilton, Franklin,
Adams, Madison, and a few lesser
lights is generally accepted by
Americans, with the concurrence
of many European historians, as
something of a marvel. On the
basis of this accomplishment, of

the acumen and moral integrity
they put into it, these men must
be accorded the accolade of
“great.” :

And yet, they were only men.
Continuous admiration of the work
they wrought tends to rid them,
in our minds, of the inadequacies
common to all men and to endow
them with supernatural composi-
tion. The mere repetition of the
phrase, Founding Fathers, builds
up the myth that perhaps these
men were indeed demigods, and
worship takes the place of admira-
tion. It seems impossible for us to
realize that Washington was vain
and petulant and resorted at times
to ‘oaths that men of lesser size
make use of, that Hamilton be-
came a politician when expediency
so ordered, that there was a bit of
the adulterer in Franklin, that a
number of the Founding Fathers
were not above feathering their
own nests at the expense of the
nation they founded.

Knowing such things tends to
destroy the myth, and rather
heightens our admiration for the
qualities they displayed in per-
forming their major work; men,
not demigods, made America, men
who were great despite their
shortcomings. That being so, it is
possible that men of like caliber
will come along to guide its
destiny to higher things.

Whether or not John Dos Passos

o


===== PAGE 63 =====

1957 OTHER BOOKS 61

had that point in mind when he furniture, and raw food before
wrote The Men Who Made the Na- wine.

tion is unimportant; it is the im- Years later 1 read Walden by
pression you get as you read this Henry Thoreau. “It would be some
interesting book. He has brought advantage,” he said, “to live a
back to reality the characters frontier and primitive life if only
whom we have disembodied by our to learn what are the gross neces-
extravagant encomiums, has saries of life and what methods
shown us that mere men, if they have been taken to obtain them

have the talent and the will, can ....for the improvements of the
make history. It is for that reason ages have had but little influence
an important book. on the essential laws of men’s

‘Only a novelist, with a penchant existence.”
for the dramatic and a talent for The fascination of Robinson

discerning in little things the in- Crusoe and Walden will not grow
dicia of human character, could dim even though they are no
have done this book. But Dos longer widely read. For the ulti-
Passos does not take liberties with mate problem they pose confronted
fact; he has meticulously adhered Cro-Magnon men as it confronts
to the record, particularly to the us, and as it has confronted all
letters written by his dramatis people in all ages. For a few gener-
personae, in his delineation of ations, after conquering bubonic
their characters. The book is, plague, typhus, and similar
therefore, good history as well as threats of obliteration, we thought
good story, and a fine contribution that while indivduals must die, so-
to Americana. FRANK CHODOROV ciety will live. But now the awful

heat of Hiroshima’s monstrous
<> Gumption Island mushroom has brought civiliza-

tion’s ultimate question back to

By Felix Morley. Caldwell, Idaho: page one.

The Caxton Printers, Ltd. 306 pp. Life was a puzzle in 1719 to

$5.00. Daniel Defoe’s contemporaries and
One of the most vivid memories to Thoreau’s in 1847. But it is now
of my boyhood is a child’s illus- infinitely tangled. It needs much
trated Robinson Crusoe. Here was more unraveling than then. For
man alone against the world until the question is no longer a single
Friday left his footprint on the man against the world; it is men
sand. Here was naked necessity. and women of all vocations, colors,
Here rude shelter came before creeds, attitudes, and prejudices


===== PAGE 64 =====

62 THE FREEMAN ‘ May

against the world, and against The answers are in the book,
each other. plus a good love story and the

In Gumption Island, Felix conversion from communism to
Morley works out his own solutions capitalism of the Russian aviator
of the problems confronting 170 who dropped the bomb but sur-
men, women, and children blown vived with the survivors. :
out of all contact with their pre- Here is an exciting, yet thought-
existing world by a Soviet thermo- ful, book. Without preaching or
nuclear explosion. It was as if a exhortation, it holds a mirror to
new Atlantis had split off from give us a better view of ourselves
the American continent. in A.D. 1957. The number who start
~ But much more than physical to read it but quit before the end
separation confronts the survi- will be few.

vors. The time continuum was SAMUEL B. PETTENGILL
broken by the blast, also. They find
their island back in the Mesozoic =» National Review Reader

Age and antediluvian reptiles Edited by John Chamberlain. New
crawling out from primordial York: Bookmailer. 335 pp. $5.00.

slime. This is a gripping feature Only yesterday the National Re-
of the tale, for it is so presented 0 was a lusty infant; today it
as not to seem grotesque. On the p45 an offspring of its own in the
contrary, it is given with such a form of a fat N. R. Reader. John
wealth of scientific background as Chamberlain, one of the ablest lit-
to seem as reasonable as the erary critics around, has made a
island’s physical breakoff itself. sparkling selection of the best arti-
In such a situation, how do these cles, editorials, cartoons, and re-
eight score people survive? Is it views to appear during 1956. This
tooth against fang, or the rebuild- best is very good. I have followed
ing of a cooperative society? Is it this weekly journal from the first
to be a dictatorship or government number; always with anticipation,
by and for the people? How do ysually with some care. Hardly an
they recreate the division of labor, issue has appeared which failed to
the exchange of goods and serv- contain something of interest to
ices? What do they do for money, me; many have contained pieces of
and how do they keep it from be- genuine importance, deserving of
coming worthless? What about the permanence this book will give
taxation? Do they see the need for them.
a written constitution to keep There is the Hughes-Rauh case
power in leash? for instance. Outside the circle of


===== PAGE 65 =====

1957 OTHER BOOKS ¢ 63

National Review readers — due to The things which are cherished
the double standard adopted by our in our tradition — personal liberty,
information media (one for “lib- the rights of minorities including
erals” another for “reactionaries”) a minority of one, limited govern-
— the Hughes-Rauh case connotes ment, the market economy, and the
little or nothing. This case was one like — were not.arbitrarily evoked
of the most significant events of out of nothing by some eighteenth
the year for its revealing and century alchemy. To the contrary,
dreadful glimpse into the condition political liberty and economic prog-
of The “Liberal” Mind, so alien to ress are the fruits of a long herit-
the genuine liberalism of our tra- age, and they waited in the wings
dition. The full case is included in until certain antecedent spiritual
The Reader, together with many and cultural conditions had set the
other memorable pieces dissecting stage for them. Then they ap-
the current antics in Washington, peared, but not before, and not in
on Broadway, on the campus, as all parts of the globe — only in
well as on Main Street. those areas where the ground had
Every libertarian or conserva- been prepared by the developing
tive knows that he has a real fight religious and cultural heritage of
on his hands, but one gains the im- the West. Once on the boards, how-
pression that the literate and ur- ever, they proceeded to ignore
bane crew who put out National their ancestry, with the result that
Review week after week get a lot liberty is everywhere in decline
of fun out of their enterprise: and the economies everywhere are
Such is the tone reflected in this pinned intostrait jackets. Recovery
Reader. . will not be by exhortation, but only
EDMUND A. OPITZ by the rehabilitation of the spir-
itual and cultural conditions which
wo God, Gold and Government encourage political liberty and eco-
By Howard Kershner. Englewood nomic progress.
Cliffs, N. J.: Prentice-Hall, Inc. EDMUND A. OPITZ
1957. 146 pp. $2.95.

There is a growing body of litera-
ture which appreciates the indis- .
BRT . . Any book reviewed in this Book Section (or
pensable religious dimension of a any other current book) supplied by return
hilosophy of the mail. You pay only the bookstore price. We
fully developed p osophy pay the postage anywhere in the world.
free society. Howard Kershner has Catalogue on request.
contributed an important volume .| THE BOOKMAILER, Box 101, New York 16

to that literature.



===== PAGE 66 =====

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===== PAGE 68 =====

FROM A LIBERTARIAN’S LIBRARY"

Some TIME in the early part of the century, some bureaucratic
genius invented the system of having the larger echelons of gov-
ernment bribe the smaller ones to incur heavy expenses by offering
to share part of the expense..

School districts are not the only small units of government that
are so bribed by larger ones on the theory that they are getting
something for nothing. The racket is especially virulent in the
building and maintenance of roads. Villages, towns, counties, and
states are so bribed by town aid, county aid, state aid, and even
federal aid roads. In a more subtle manner, local relief work is
being taken over by higher and higher echelons of government.

Before it is too late it may be well for us, the American people,
to check this novel and growing system of ours. Five million
people, all in the government and all under the control of one
man, is quite a severe threat to our liberty. It is virtually giving
absolute dictatorial power to one man.

A selection from Where We Are At by Thomas H. Barber. First published by Charles
Scribner's Sons, now available through the Foundation for Economic Education,
Irvington-on-Hudson, N. Y. 255 pp. $1.50 paper, $2.50 cloth