===== PAGE 1 ===== THE [eelld IDEAS ON LIBERTY JULY 1957 Let Anyone Deliver Mail . . . . . . LleonardE. Read 2 Governed by God . . . . . . . . J. HowardPew 9 Freedom Manifesto . . . . . . . . Walter H Kemp 12 Socialism at Its Best . . . . . . . Paull. Poirot 18 The Price System . . . . . . . . W.Allen Wallis 24 Shall the Needy Inherit Our Colleges? . . F. A. Harper 29 Pyrrhic Victory . . . . . . . . . RobertT. Oliver 35 UN — Competent Only for Mischief . . . W.H. Chamberlin 37 Freedom and Security in Ur of the Chaldees . . . . . . . R. J. Rushdoony 44 The Right ToWork . . . . . . . . Charles! Faddis 47 The Duty Tointerpose . . . . . . . JohnChamberlain 55 Other Books . . . . . . . . . . 59 fn THE FOUNDATION FYE FOR ECONOMIC EDUCATION, INC. Irvington-on-Hudson, New York ===== PAGE 2 ===== The sphere above is a “core” for one kind of research atomic reactor. The metal tubes are test containers for the small uranium fuel pellets for other reactors. Strange new “tools” of atomic-electric power These are some of the strange new Atomic Energy Commission to de- “tools” used to produce, test, or ex- velop the plants. periment with atomic-electric power. America’s independent electric They are among the things that will Jjght and power companies produce help bring electricity from the atom. more electricity than any other “Tools” like these are being used nation, and they have helped de- in developing several atomic-electric ~~ velop ways to produce it more effi- plants now under way. A number of ciently year after year. That’s why electric light and power companies you can expect electric companies to from many parts of the country are continue to do their part to advance working with each other and with the new science of producing elec- equipment manufacturers and the tricity from the atom. America’s Independent Electric Light and Power Companies™ “Company names on request through this magazine ===== PAGE 3 ===== Railway Express Agency Reports to the Public We regret exceedingly the inconven- road and the other express employes be ience to our customers and to the general applied to the employes in this dispute. public occasioned by the strike of the Teamster Unionsat Chicago, Cincinnati, Cleveland, Newark, Philadelphia, St. Louis, San Francisco and several smaller points near some of those cities which has made it impossible to render normal express service to and from those points since April 22, 1957. We are grateful for your considerate understanding of the situation. The settlement proposed for the Team- sters consists of a three-year contract, effective November 1, 1956, which in- cludes a wage, health and welfare “package” of 29¢ per hour, plus a cost of living escalator clause providing for semi-annual adjustment that has al- ready produced an additional 3¢ per hour effective May 1, 1957. The Railway Express Agency accepts in full the recommendations of the President’s Emergency Fact-Finding Board but the Teamsters (International Brotherhood of Teamsters, Chauffeurs, Warehousemen and Helpers of America —Dave Beck, General President) insist on more favorable treatment than that accorded all other express employes. They still persist in striking our opera- tions and closing them down at the points mentioned. We would like you to know that his- torically wages and working conditions of Railway Express employes have followed those in the railroad industry of which they are a part. The railroads and the labor unions representing about 1,000,000 employes negotiated a three- year contract effective November 1, 1956 under the auspices of the National Mediation Board. Similar contracts were negotiated by the Railway Express Agency and three labor unions repre- senting express employes (about 90% It is to be hoped that the Teamster of the total) other than those repre- Unions will soon reconsider their posi- sented by the Teamsters. tion and accept the recommendations of the President’s Emergency Board so f . The Teamsters refused to accept our that our service can be fully restored. offer based on those settlements and threatened to strike. President Eisen- It is also hoped by the time this hower appointed an Emergency Fact- advertisement is read the strike Finding Board which considered every will be over; in any event, we wanted phase of the dispute in hearings that you, the reader, to know about the lasted three weeks. That Board in its circumstances involved. report to the President of the United N States on March 21, 1957 recommended that the settlement negotiated for rail- Railway Express Agency, Inc. ===== PAGE 4 ===== A. Devaney, Inc. LEONARD E. READ A recent widely read article nicely summarizes the growing criticism of the United States Post Office.’ Among its interesting observations: 1) It uses the same methods of gathering, sorting, and delivering the mail that it did 100 years ago. 2) The mail is slower than it was before World War II. 3) A letter often takes 48 hours to travel 100 miles. 4) The Post Office is floundering in a sea of mail that gets deeper every year. 5) The .Post Office is spending two million dollars a day more than it receives in revenue. LMOST ALL PROPOSALS for solv- difficult to find. At our nation’s ing this generally acknowl- outset, the most respected of edged bureaucratic failure are American political instruments, predicated on government's re- The Constitution of the U.S.A., maining in the mail business, this proclaimed: ‘“The Congress shall premise being no more questioned have power...to establish Post than government’s running the Offices....”? The Congress exer- constabulary. Proposed solutions cised this power. There are now range all the way from getting a 38,316 Post Offices.? new Postmaster General to appro- But Congress went further than priating millions of dollars for re- the permissibility granted by the search, all aimed at making a gov- Constitution. Congress outlawed ernment business efficient. competition. Congress declared ‘The reason that most people mail delivery a government mo- assume mail delivery to be a prop- nopoly. No one, today, may carry er function of government is not mail for pay except on a subcon- Qur Horse and Buggy Mails” by Wolf- “Article I, Section 8. . gang Langewiesche, Reader's Digest, Statistical Abstract of the United States, May 1957, 1956. Page 518. Mr. Read is President of the Foundation for Economic Education. 2 ===== PAGE 5 ===== 1957 LET ANYONE DELIVER MAIL 3 tract arrangement with Uncle Men freely and voluntarily organ- Sam. Mail is the government’s ized in the market place have business — period! found ways to send the human When any activity has been voice around the world in less than monopolized for years, persons a second. They have built winged with entrepreneurial aptitudes things that will transport more rarely think of it as an opportun- than a hundred human beings ity for private enterprise. A field from Seattle to Baltimore in less monopolized by government soon than four hours. And, they deliver becomes both an “untouchable” each four pounds of oil from the and an “unthinkable.” Thus, every- Persian Gulf to our Atlantic Sea- one — almost — assumes the mail board — halfway around the world - business to be proper government — for less than the fee to get a business. one-ounce, first-class letter deliv- ered from Irvington to adjacent Disconcerting Questions Tarrytown. While this last com- Almost! Now and then, however, parison has elements of unfair- there are individuals who question ness in it, this example of free the generally accepted premise. market oil delivery, on a weight- Their reasoning goes something distance-time basis, wins against like this: Don’t we deliver more this example of mail delivery by pounds of milk every morning more than 10,000 to 1! than we do mail? Isn't milk more perishable than a love letter or a Government's Best catalogue or an appeal for funds Now let’s load a comparison or a picture magazine or an enter- heavily in favor of government tainment journal? Isn’t milk de- mail delivery. The fastest mail livery more prompt, more efficient, service is an airmail letter. With lower priced than mail delivery? the best of luck a letter posted in Why shouldn’t men in the market Irvington at 5:00 p.m. could be in place — acting privately, competi- the hands of an addressee in Los tively, voluntarily, cooperatively — Angeles 40 hours later, and for six deliver mail? They deliver freight, cents. Now, consider the incom- which is heavier. parably more complex problem of What causes people to conclude a personal conversation with the that the type of enterprisers who same Angelino. He can be reached get gas out of the earth in Texas and a three-minute talk-fest com- and pipe it to millions of homes in pleted in four minutes, and for far off states can’t deliver mail? $3.50 (less the government excise ===== PAGE 6 ===== 4 THE FREEMAN July tax). On a time-cost basis the fee your key personnel had to be se- for the government letter is 870 lected on the basis of political pre- per cent more than the fee for the ferment. And, finally, imagine that private enterprise conversation! the income of the business de- Why do any of us, in the light pended not on willing exchanges of overwhelming evidence on every in a free market but on appropri- hand, cling to the notion that a ations made to your business by letter can be delivered only by a two directorates, of 96 and 435 governmental agency? Instead, we members respectively, all being should marvel that people in gov- unlike-minded individuals with ernment are able to deliver the their own political fortunes more mail at all; not because they are in mind than the business you untalented, but simply because of have been given the responsibility the manner in which they are or- of running. With responsibility ganized to do the ‘job. and authority. so completely unre- lated, and with the other afore- What Would You Do? mentioned conditions as obstacles, Suppose you were-asked to head - what kind of -a performance do a business — one of the largest in you think you could turn in? the world — one in which you were. ~~ And, consider this supposition. wholly inexperienced and to which Suppose, a century ago, that the you had given no thought. Next, Post Office — headed, manned, and assume that a substantial part of organized as above —had been one address: Single copy 50¢c; 3 reprint form is *“‘Let Anyone De- for $1.00; 25 or more, 20c each. liver Mail” (10 for $1.00; 100 Permission is hereby granted to for $6. 00) Fo other article will anyone to reprint any. article in e supplied in reprint form i Br ore LY JouRNAL whole or in part (providing .cus- there are enough inquiries to tomary credit Is given), except justify the cost of printing. THE | JULY 1957.9 Vol. 7, No. 7 ‘reed Additional copies, postpaid, to “Pyrrhic Victory”! Available in The-Freeman is published monthly by the Foundation for Economic Education, Inc., Irvington-on- Hudson, N. Y. Anyone may receive the journa! 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 Irvington, N. Y. with additional entry at New York, N.Y. Copyright 1957, The Foundation for Economic Education, inc. Printed in U. S. A. ===== PAGE 7 ===== 1957 LET ANYONE DELIVER MAIL 5 given a monopoly of all transpor- differ from themselves when not tation and all communication. in government. Government is What, today, would be the shape society’s agency of force and the of trains, trucks, planes, tele- persons in its employ are a part phones, wireless? Is there any rea- of the compulsive apparatus. Omit son to believe that there would force and each government em- have been any progress in these ployee is restored to private sta- technologies? “It [the Post Office] tus. Without force, there is no dis- uses the same methods of gather- tinction. ing, sorting, and delivering the If force is the only distinguish- mail that it did 100 years ago.” ing characteristic of those in gov- What reason is there to suspect ernment, then we should examine that all transportation and all into the nature of force to de- communication wouldn’t be at the = termine for ourselves what gov- same stage as 100 years ago? ernment should and should not do. The fact that the Constitution Thus, we should ask, what is the empowered Congress to put the nature of coercive force? What government in the postal business accomplishment is peculiar to it? does not make it right. The same Coercive force can be symbol- Constitution condoned slavery. ized by the fist, the policeman’s Nor is government postal service club, the gun. What can a gun do? justified by the dangerous and It can penalize. It can inhibit. It popular notion that government can destroy. The next relevant should do for the people that question is, what ought to be which they cannot or will not do penalized, inhibited, destroyed? for themselves. If this were a In terms of man’s relationship to sound rule, then anything the gov- man, violence certainly qualifies. ernment ever attempted would be- So does fraud, misrepresentation, come a proper government func- and predatory practice. Coercive tion simply because most people force, then, may properly be em- give up — realizing the futility of ployed to penalize, inhibit, and trying to compete with the tax destroy violence, fraud, misrepre- collector. sentation, and predation. } Or, examine “where to draw the " The Difference Is Force line” between government and To decide for one’s self what free market operations by the government should and should not moral approach: Man’s energies do, it is only necessary to appre- are manifested destructively and ciate how persons in government creatively. Any person-has a moral ===== PAGE 8 ===== 6 THE FREEMAN July right to inhibit the destructive ac- Force Maintains Inefficiency tion of another aimed at himself. Government establishments are But no person has a moral right ill-suited to perform a creative to forcibly direct or control what function. They are improperly or- another shall create, invent, or dis- ganized for that. They can, how- cover, where he shall work, how ever, use coercive force, which long he shall labor, what his wage they are now doing with respect shall be, or what and with whom to the postal business in these two he shall exchange. No one person ways: has such a right. Nor do 170,000, 1. Force is used to keep private 000 persons, or any of their enterprise from carrying the agents, have such a right. mails, to maintain government’s monopoly. Try delivering mail for The Duty of Government pay and see what happens. Government, in good theory, 2. Force is used to collect the and on moral grounds, has a right deficits which the government to inhibit the destructive actions monopoly incurs. Try not paying of anyone menacing our society. your taxes if you wish to experi- Government has no grounds for ence the force. forcibly directing or controlling Deficits are incurred for numer- the creative actions of anyone. ous reasons. One, of course, is be- Delivering mail qualifies as a cause mail delivery, a creative en- creative activity just as does de- terprise, requires, for efficiency, livering milk or any other form of the organization of men along communication and transporta- voluntary, competitive lines; and tion. The proper part for govern- the very nature of government or- ment, in relation to this activity, ganization forbids this. Ineffi- is to protect honest enterprise ciency is inevitable. against violence, fraud, misrepre- Government ownership and con- sentation, predation. In earlier trol of the means of production is history the sheriff and other parts socialism. The socialistic principle of the constabulary tried to pro- requires the communalization or tect the Wells Fargo Express communizing of the product. We against highwaymen. Private en- observe this when those who are terprise carried the mails; gov- expensive to serve are charged the ernment protected the enterprise. same rate as those who are inex- That was at once the theoretically pensive to serve. There isn’t any sound and practical relationship of more reason for subsidizing mail the two. delivery to a person far away from ===== PAGE 9 ===== 1957 LET ANYONE DELIVER MAIL 7 the Post Office than for subsidiz- millions, hold Second Class Per- ing clothing delivery to such a mits, with delivery at least as person. punctual as for first-class mail. Think of an idea more preposter- In good American political theory ous than this: The textile manufac- the government has no right to turers, for example, are to or- use taxpayers’ money to prolong ganize themselves into a pressure the life of a failing enterprise. group with the sole purpose of Nor is there any justification for forcing cotton farmers to sell pouring millions of taxpayers’ their cotton to them at one-tenth dollars into the coffers of success- the price they can obtain in the ful publishing corporations. There market! Crazy? Yes, as unjust as is no reason why taxpayers should trying to force you to labor for be compelled to subsidize the de- them for free. Yet, this type of livery of The Freeman or The plunder, impossible in a free mar- Daily Worker or anything that ket, is precisely what happens lies between these ideological op- when government is in the mail posites. There is no more reason business. The personnel of the for tax subsidized delivery of any postal establishment are powerless book or magazine or newspaper or against such special privilege, for catalogue than there is for subsi- they receive their running orders dized delivery of corn flakes. Why — rate structure and other de- is it done? Simply because mail tailed specifications — from a polit- delivery is handled by a political ical directorate that bends to establishment which is incapable pressure groups. The Post Office of resisting political pressure. is a branch of a political, not an : economic, organization. There are, Simple Solution indeed, reasons for deficits. The solution is simple enough, Illustrations? Well, if The Free- and consists of two moves: man were sold on a straight sub- 1. Let the Congress repeal the scription basis, we could send it to monopoly now granted to the gov- you under a Second Class Mail ernment, thus permitting anyone Permit for as little as one-fourth to deliver mail for pay who wishes of a cent per copy. But as a “con- to do so, as unrestricted as milk or trolled circulation” publication grocery delivery. (not all paid subscribers), the 2. Let the Congress appropriate postage runs as much as 600 per no more money to the Treasury cent more per copy. Prosperous for Post Office Department use magazines, with circulation in the and insist that the accounting be ===== PAGE 10 ===== 8 THE FREEMAN July on a basis comparable to private from Louisiana and the kirsch- enterprise accounting, to include wasser from Switzerland are on a rentals, taxes, and so on, thus re- grapefruit from Florida, broiled quiring the Post Office Depart- in an oven made in Los Angeles, ment to charge rates that will in- and heated with electricity gener- cur no deficits.* ated in New York City from Penn- If the above conditions are sylvania coal. I cannot trace the adopted, government operation of magic of it all — how every item "the mails will soon be a thing of seems to be where I am when I the past. Beyond this I can no want it. This phenomenon is so more make predictions than I commonplace to the millions around could have made in 1900 about this largest city of the world that the shape of 1957 automobiles. hardly anyone ever thinks about it. What men will do when free to try They take this perfection for is as mysterious and as unfathom- granted and raise their voices to able and as miraculous as all the high heaven only when a coercive ideas all Americans will have to- force interferes, like a strike or a morrow and all the days after. government control. Talk about I sit at my dinner table in delivery! New York. The meat comes from There isn’t any argument for Kansas; the salt from Michigan; government in the mail business; the pepper from Singapore; the there is only the clamor for the tea from Japan. The brown sugar continuance of special privilege. This will cease when the free mar- “The Congress, in 1956, in granting wage ket Is restored. The condition that emoluments to postal employees, decreed prevails in the absence of special that the increases could not be used for privilege is known as justice. the purpose of establishing postal rates. Then, why not let anyone deliver This sort of “bookkeeping” would have to \ cease. mail? oe [oes on awonoy | The Mission of the Law THE MISSION OF THE LAW is not to oppress persons and plunder them of their property, even though the law may be acting in a philanthropic spirit. Its mission is to protect persons and property. The law cannot avoid having an effect upon persons and property; and if the law acts in any manner except to protect them, its actions then necessarily violate the liberty of persons and their right to own property. FREDERIC BASTIAT, The Law, 1850. ===== PAGE 11 ===== } J. HOWARD PEW HE FOUNDING FATHERS of the said to them: “We, the people, will United States were students of handle our own human relations history. They knew that every gov- and control our own institutions.” ernment throughout recorded his- Today our courts and our politi- tory had eventually fallen into the cians spurn Natural Law. They re- absolute control of unprincipled fuse to accept it as the basic law men who enslaved the people, con- of our land. Those of us who have fiscated their property, and threw given years of study to this prob- the objectors into jail. lem believe that our country has They knew, too, that many of already gone far beyond the limit the great minds throughout the of safety, and that only faith in world had for thousands of years God can turn back our plunge been pointing out that Divine Law, toward a totalitarian state. Moral Law, commonly called Nat- The issue is freedom, just as it ural Law, must be basic to all man- was 180 years ago. And freedom made laws, if dictators were to be can exist only in a state where the prevented from destroying the people generally accept honesty, freedom of people. And so our truth, fairness, generosity, justice, Founding Fathers gaye to us a and charity as a rule for their con- Declaration of Independence, a duct. If the people accept bribery, Constitution, and a Bill of Rights guile, cupidity, deception, and self- which virtually said to those who ishness as a rule for their conduct, might eventually come into the then the strong exploit the weak, control of our government: “We, might becomes right, and anarchy the people, are endowed by God stalks the land. Freedom for the with certain inalienable rights,” individual under such conditions is and that this government was set no longer possible. up primarily for the purpose of But honesty, truth, fairness, protecting the people in the exer- generosity, justice, and charity are cise of those rights. In effect it the attributes of Christian moral- Mr. Pew is a well-known industrialist, much interested in church and other educational efforts. 9 ===== PAGE 12 ===== 10 THE FREEMAN July ity. So if we would have individual only get more laws to take more freedom, we must first have faith goods from more people and give in God. William Penn truly said: to those in need. But attempts to “Man will either be governed by equalize wealth are the surest way God or ruled by tyrants.” to destroy it. Most of us are prone Every Christian has long real- to harbor just a little resentment ized that religious freedom is of against those who possess more paramount importance if America than we do. The point is illustrated is to remain great. But far too few by those steadfast friends, Pat and Christians have realized that re- Mike, as they waxed confidential ligious freedom cannot exist in a one evening: collectivist state. Freedom is indi- “Mike, if you owned a house and visible. Thus, if we should lose our I didn’t, you would let me sleep in economic freedom, then religious, one of your rooms, wouldn’t you?” political, and other freedoms will “Sure and I would.” certainly fall. “And if you owned a horse and Christ depended on the power of I didn’t, you would let me drive persuasion. He saw clearly that at- him, wouldn’t you?” titudes of the heart cannot be “Sure and I would.” changed by coercion, law, or pen- “And if ‘you owned a cow and 1 alty. didn’t, you would share the milk When Christians lose faith in with me, wouldn’t you?” the message of Jesus and seek to “Sure and I would.” reform society by the power of the “And if you owned a pig and I State, they are in effect appealing didn’t and you butchered it, you from God to Caesar; they are re- would share the meat with me, sorting to force because they have wouldn’t you?” lost faith in the power of their “No, begorra, I got a pig!” religion. What a travesty it is to see so freedom Sparks Progress many of our ministers, and lay- During the last hundred years, men, too, running to Washington America has made far greater ma- to obtain more laws to make more terial progress than was previ- people subject to more government ously achieved by the whole world controls! during all recorded history. How Of course, many of these people did America accomplish so much tell us that poverty could be con- . in so little time? quered and economic and spiritual There seems to be only one an- well-being achieved, if we could swer to this question — our prog- ===== PAGE 13 ===== 1957 GOVERNED BY GOD 11 ress was sparked by freedom. But the great Irish patriot, in a speech many people today are losing their to his constituency, said: “The interest in freedom because they condition upon which God hath are prejudiced in favor of certain given liberty to man is eternal objectives which deny the true con- vigilance; which condition if he cept of freedom. break, servitude is at once the con- This is not a new subject. Lin- sequence of his crime and the pun- coln was deeply concerned over it, ishment of his guilt.” Now, Curran for in 1864 he said: did not invent that idea. He un- The world has never had a good doubtedly acquired it from the let- definition of the word liberty, and ters of Saint Paul and from the the American people, just now, are teachings of Christ himself. much in want of one. We all declare Saint Paul wrote: “Where the for liberty, but in using the same guiit of the Lord is, there is lib- word, we do not all mean the same erty.” And again he wrote: “Stand thing. With some the word liberty fast therefore in the liberty where- may mean for each man to do as he as . Y where pleases with himself, and the product with Christ hath made us free, and of his labor; while with others the be not entangled again with the same word may mean for some men Yoke of bondage.” to do as they please with other men, But it was Christ who taught and the product of other men’s labor. us, saying: “If ye continue in my Here are two, not only different, but word .... ye shall know the truth, incompatible things, called by the and the truth shall make you free.” same name—Iliberty. Faith in God is therefore the Lincoln believed that each man condition without which individual should control his own life and the freedom and liberty are impossible. product of his own labor, provided Faith in God is the great heritage that he did not infringe upon the of our generation. What will be rights of others. the heritage of the generations to Real liberty is the freedom of come? the individual to exercise his tal- May we witness the rebirth of ents, his initiative, his ingenuity, an ancient truth that we must first and his resourcefulness —it is free- have faith in God before we can dom to be an individual. Bogus enjoy the blessings of liberty, for liberty is the freedom of the indi- God is the author of liberty! Our vidual to have the security of a failure to fight for the preserva- government bird cage. tion of liberty is a crime, the pun- In 1790 John Philpot Curran, ishment for which is servitude. ===== PAGE 14 ===== 12 WALTER H. KEMP "What kind of a country are you leaving me?” asks an unidentified lad on the back cover of a recent issue of Pulling Together, bulletin of the National Small Business Men’s Association. “When I grow up, will I be allowed to be myself, or will I be’ a social security number on a government file? “When I get sick, whose doctor can I go to, my doctor or the government doctor? “When I go to school, who is going to decide what I learn, my mother and father or a government bureau? “When I am able to afford a house, will I be able to build one just as good as I can make it, or will it be a government- built house, worth only part of what the government taxed me for housing? . “When I go to work, will I be able to pick my own job or will I have to get a work permit from the government and take whatever job they give me? “And if I have criticized the government, will I get a work permit?” Well, maybe a lad didn’t pose those questions in just that way, for we seldom ponder such weighty matters in our youth. Neither may we presume that consideration of such problems is confined to just a few of the stout survivors of a past generation. But, we’ll let Walter Kemp, a young executive in the offices of the American Academy of General Practice, speak for himself. His article also appears in the July issue of GP, the Academy’s official monthly publication. ===== PAGE 15 ===== Freedorm Moanifesfo I’m 30 years old. I live in Kansas old Uncle Sam is helping me set City, Missouri. I decided recently the price. For years, I’ve been buy- that it was time to take stock, to ing government-sponsored retire- look back, to look ahead, and to de- ment income insurance under com- cide where I'm going from here. I pulsory social security. Did anyone almost wish I hadn’t. ask me if I wanted this particular Everyone. comes to crossroads policy? No! Buy it and like it. It and wonders which way to turn. does no good to object. Sam says I'm standing in the middle of one. buy, and I buy. But here and now, Let me draw a picture. for what it’s worth, let me add In 1949, I graduated from that I don’t like it. Northwestern University — after Why do I have to buy govern- two years in the Army. I've done ment insurance? In an effort to be fairly well. I don’t make a king- fair, I did a little reading. I re- sized salary, but I'm not about to viewed the social security program starve. At times, I think about and found that it was enacted in launching my own business. It’s a 1935. It was supposed to provide big decision. retirement income benefits and a Stay where you are, I first told cash payment to widows. Sounds myself ; the security’s important. harmless enough. Sure, it would That's when the trouble started. I cost money — but not much. Almost looked around and realized that everyone could afford $30.00 a many of my friends, terming secu- year. rity all-important, are actually Since 1935, the rate has gone up. trading opportunity for security. I now pay $126 a year. Every time This doesn’t seem quite right. Se- Congress gets together, the rate curity is fine, but like anything goes up some more. By 1975, I'll be worth having, it’s expensive. How paying $283.50 a year. much do I want to pay? I honestly Social security suddenly seems don’t know. to be something less than a bar- Then it dawned on me that good gain. Now, as I understand it, I'm 13 ===== PAGE 16 ===== 14 THE FREEMAN July 3 ~. about to start paying for disability the “social welfare plan.” Under . +." income: insurance. It’s also compul- the welfare system, I'm not insur-. -sory,” That’s fine — but I already ing just myself — I’'m- insuring ‘have: disability income insurance! everyone else who gets caught in RR ¢ just plain don’t want any more! the net. I'm paying a “superpre- . Too bad, Sam says, it’s all part of mium” on a socialistic policy. I'm “.. the social welfare program. helping the man who drags his feet as well as the one who works. This + A Shabby Plan . is pure and simple socialism — and Social welfare, it seems, is all I don’t like it. wrapped up with security. More I've suddenly started to wonder - important, the term ‘social wel- what happened, to “rugged indi- 1. fare” is apparently a polite and in- vidualism” and “American inge- offensive sounding synonym for nuity.” As proud as I am of the - “socialism.” I don’t like it. I don’t stars and stripes, I'm not currently . "like to work for the federal gov- waving the flag. Instead, I'm think- _. ernment and that’s what socialism ing about the history books I read means to me. It means that every and the lessons I learned: years year. Washington takes a big ago. This, I was given to under- "chunk of my income and that some- stand, was the land of opportunity. "day, if I'm lucky, I'll get part of it It was a new homeland for people . back. It sounds like a pretty sick of oppression and excessive shabby plan. government control. What hap- Just between Uncle Sam and me, pened? I don’t need any more life insur- 1 don’t like rampaging, parasitic ance. If 1 die tomorrow, my two policies.Idon’t like the “something- :. .. heirs will collect $40,000. I'd like for-nothing” philosophy or the ] them to collect $100,000 and when ‘‘cradle-to-the-grave’” social wel- I can afford another decent policy, fare program. I know what it does I'll buy it. But it won't be a gov- to ambition and incentive. It is not ernment policy. It'll earn interest a pretty picture. and have a cash surrender value. Big ‘government apparently If IT change my mind after I buy wants to take over. Each session of it, I'll cancel it. It’s that simple. Congress brings new social wel- Why won’t the government let fare programs. Each new program me worry about life insurance, dis- means new taxes. By the time 1 ability insurance, and retirement finish paying federal income tax, a income insurance? That’s simple, state income tax, a social security too. Because that’s not the way of tax, a sales tax, a gasoline tax, a ===== PAGE 17 ===== 1957 FREEDOM MANIFESTO 15 cigarette tax, a luxury tax, and a you have to belong to a special in- host of hidden taxes, I begin to terest group that controls a large wonder whether I'm working for bloc of votes. myself or for an assortment of There’s no green-eyed monster government agencies. As it is, I involved. I don’t want a subsidy. work from January until the mid- The fewer subsidies, the better. dle of March to pay my federal in- I'd vote to eliminate them all. This come tax. This is a lot of nonsense. doesn’t mean I want to cut the farmer’s throat. He doesn’t have an easy life, and he plays a very I'm also getting a little tired of important role in our economy. If molly-coddling subsidies. Any spe- he needs money, he should have cial interest group that controls credit. But if he borrows money, enough votes and has a sufficiently he ought to pay it back. I wonder active lobby is in line for a big fat what happens to the pride of a man subsidy. Don’t misunderstand —I who is constantly on the dole, a don’t want anyone to starve. Atthe man who lives from handout to same time, subsidies seem like an handout. I don’t think I'd like it. artificial answer to socio-economic Someone taught me to pay my own problems. They also reflect ex-- way in this world. Doing just that treme favoritism. gives me a lot of satisfaction. I appreciate the farmer’s prob- I don’t want to appear heartless, lem — I was born and raised on a but it seems to me that if a man farm. Anyone who has raised ap- can’t stay in business without ask- ples in New England knows that ing the rest of the nation for an the farmer has good and bad years. annual handout, he might do well Some years we made money, some to pull up stakes and look for years we didn’t. If we needed cash, greener pastures. Tired of Subsidies we borrowed from the local bank. Five years ago, a friend of mine When we borrowed money, we paid bought a truck. He worked hard. it back. Oddly enough, it didn’t hurt him. Today this isn’t necessary. The Even though he managed to pay farmer gets paid for the crops he for the truck, he ran into too much doesn’t raise. The program itself competition and started losing has a variety of names. The Eisen- money. In a very real sense, there hower administration likes to call was a local trucking surplus. He'd it a “soil bank” program. I don’t made a substantial investment in care what it’s called — it’s another the truck, but he didn't start to federal handout. To be eligible, think in terms of a federal sub- ===== PAGE 18 ===== 16 THE FREEMAN July sidy. In the first place, he wasn’t with private industry? Should it eligible. In the second place, he had take unfair advantage of tax-bur- too much pride. So he sold the dened industry? Somehow, it truck, borrowed more money, and. doesn’t seem fair. For years, the bought a gas station. It’s still nation screamed about the inherent mortgaged, but he’s making regu- evils of industrial monopolies. To- lar payments and a comfortable day, as relentlessly as the mills of living. I admire him. God, we're letting the federal gov- Suppose there had been a sub- ernment usurp the right of private sidy for truck owners who can’t enterprise. make a legitimate profit. Maybe Last April, when the federal he’d still be in the business. Each income tax deadline approached, I year, he’d get an umpteen dollar talked to at least ten friends and donation. I'd help pay it. associates who outlined a dozen In a way, I don't blame the ways to defraud the federal gov- farmers. The charity payment and ernment. It’s more than a game. the unearned bonus make life a lot These same people, in their per- easier. But I still question the eco- sonal and business associations, nomic efficacy of bigger and better don’t lie, steal, and cheat. But they ‘subsidy programs. Again I ask, resent being required to work two when and where is it going to stop? or three months each year for the income tax collector. They're being _ Government in Business pushed too hard and someday they’ll I feel much the same way about rebel. Maybe I already have. May- - state and federal government de- be I’m tired of seeing an apprecia- cisions to compete with private in- ble part of my income impounded dustry. I don’t doubt that the fed- by federal agencies and wasted on eral government can charge less a plethora of give-away programs. for electricity. But is it actually I've read summaries of the cheaper? It seems to, me that the Hoover Commission report. I was government has a unique advan- amazed —and more than a little tage. It can sell $10.00 worth of perturbed. It’s replete with exam- electricity for $7.50 — and then tax ples of waste, duplication, and in- everyone else for the other $2.50. efficiency. This bothers me — it’s Also, a government installation my money they're wasting. doesn’t pay taxes. This is a real Perhaps I’ve complained enough. - and substantial competitive ad- But I keep asking myself why I vantage. should work harder and- possibly Should the government compete fill a more important niche in this ===== PAGE 19 ===== 1957 FREEDOM MANIFESTO 17 country and the community of na- What’s the answer? I honestly tions. Prestige and position don’t don’t know. It’s perhaps a matter help pay the bills. I don’t wish for of opinion and of what a person a raise half as much as I wish that wants. Personally, I have no use various government agencies would for anything that smells like so- stop dipping into my pocket. Every cialism. I have no use for federal time I turn around, I pay a new welfare programs. When a man tax or a bigger tax. I pay for in- needs help, I want to help him. In surance that I don’t want, for return, I expect an honest effort to roads I may never drive on, for a repay. I’m against the handout, the fancy railroad station in Rome, subsidy, the various “compensa- and for numerous other items. tion” plans, and something-for- Taxes—and more taxes. I should nothing policies. I resent legisla- go into business for myself? I tion designed to buy votes. Maybe should leave myself wide open for all I want is a little more attention even more taxes? Maybe I'd make to the vanishing freedom that’s more money and, simultaneously, supposed to go with pride, ambi- a contribution to the community. tion, and a willingness to pay my But in the long run, only Uncle own way. This, then, is my free- Sam would win. dom manifesto. LIC Black Is Not White THERE ARE CERTAIN TRUTHS which are true no matter how much the world may question or deny them. In the economic realm for instance, you cannot legislate the poor into freedom by legislating the wealthy out of it. You cannot multiply wealth by dividing it. Governments cannot give to people what they do not first take away from people. And that which one man receives without working for, another man must work for without receiving it. And nothing ean kill the initiative of a people quicker than for half of them to get the idea that they need not work because the other half will feed them, and for the other half to get the idea that it does no good to work since someone else receives the rewards of their labors. Closing one’s eyes to these facts will not change them one iota. KENNETH W. SOLLITT, from ‘Christian Economics,” August 1, 1955 ===== PAGE 20 ===== ialism at its best... ® PAuL L. PoIroT TAKE A GOOD LOOK around the world today. Turn back through the records of history. Peer ahead as far as the imagination allows. For what? For a time, and a place, and circum- stances as ideal as man could hope to find or arrange for carrying on an experiment in socialism! Why do that? Simply to give the believers in socialism the best chance in the world to prove to others the soundness of their theories — or to see for themselves the falsity of their claims. What .conditions, then, would trols — perhaps having experienced one prescribe for such a test? a series of world wars, much inter- First of all, he’d probably look for national bickering and unrest, a a well-developed industrial society, prolonged period of heavy taxa- a wealthy people who have known tion, a huge government debt — the productivity and abundance of yes, and a debauched currency. private capitalism and who could Other conditions may come to afford such costs as a socialistic mind as you enter the spirit of this experiment might involve. He'd search. Or perhaps you will agree probably look for a complex ex- that we have already provided an change economy with many highly ideal testing ground for socialism, skilled and highly productive spe- right here in the United States, cialists — many persons of great during the 25-year period since the ability from whom goods and serv- depth of “The Great Depression.” ices might be drawn. Also required The tests have been underway for would be the needy — persons who a full generation, and many exam- would submit willingly to identifi- ples could be cited. But to be spe- cation and classification as deserv- cific, let’s look at the cotton busi- ing dependents of the society. Such ness, an experiment in socialism an experiment surely would be fa- under conditions as ideal as any- cilitated if all the people had been one —or any committee — could more or less conditioned for con- have planned. Dr. Poirot is a member of the staff of the Foundation for Economic Education. 18 ===== PAGE 21 ===== 1957 SOCIALISM AT ITS BEST 19 A Perfect Set-up and denied it? This test of social- When and where else in the ism — involving the cotton busi- world has there been more skilled ness of the United States — should planning, more effective control, have had success if such a project more able and willing participa- ever has or ever will! tion, and less resistance or inter- Some persons may protest, of ference? We've been taught social- course, that the cotton business ism in the schools, read it in the has not been socialized. And it is papers, heard it on the radio, seen true enough that the name of so- it on television, and even lived it cialism is not popularly associated in our daily affairs. Surely, cotton with the program which has sub- growers — with a few outstanding stituted compulsory government exceptions — have been well-orga- direction and control for competi- nized and persistent in acknowl- tive private enterprise as the reg- edging and proclaiming their need. ulator of cotton production and And who on earth really has stood distribution in the United States. A “market” scene — when government interferes. ===== PAGE 22 ===== 20 THE FREEMAN July Indeed, many of the formalities of Agriculture Ezra Taft Benson (as private ownership and control have told to Carlisle Bargeron) *: been retained. The farm land is nominally under . private owner- Becoming frightened at the problem ship. The cotton is planted, culti- of abundance, cotton farmers elected vated, and harvested by so-called to live by rigid high price supports. private operators. But in order to What has been the result? grow cotton on “his own land” or Twenty-five years ago, cotton sell “his cotton,” the farmer is grew on 43 million acres of United obliged to obtain a license, or per- States farm land. In 1956 the acre- mit, or quota, or certificate; he age isnot 43 but 17.4 million. must ask permission. In other Twenty-five years ago, before words, the freedom of choice that American cotton growers began to . : . hold the price umbrella for foreign is the essence of private ownership roducers, cotton production abroad does not exist for the cotton © i totaled 12 million bales. This past farmer. i year foreign production was not 12 Instead of a free market in put 25 million bales. which willing buyers and sellers = Twenty-five years ago the United bargain to arrive at a price that States exported 7 million bales of tends to balance effective demand cotton. During the past year our ex- against available supplies, the ports were not 7 but 2 million bales. price of cotton is fixed by the gov- ~~ Twenty-five years ago, before cot- ernment — and variations in sup- ton tied its own hands, synthetic ply and demand for cotton show up fiber consumption in the United . . States totaled the equivalent of either as shortages or, more likely, ketabl h about a quarter of a million bales of as unmarketable surpluses. The cotton. Today synthetic fiber con- name socialism quite properly de- sumption has reached the equivalent The story of cotton is a tragic one. scribes such an arrangement. of about 4 and a half million bales. Cotton producers, frightened by As the Secretary Sees It abundance, had a carryover of nearly So what do we have to show for 15 million bales before the 1956 crop this experiment? How well has so- Was harvested. This carryover was cialism functioned under these the largest in history and posed a nearly ideal conditions? Let's con- MaJor threat to world cotton mar- sult the person who has had charge Kets twenty-five years of the ut- of the experiment since early 1953. most government -solicitude, cotton The following quotation is from a p,5 10st markets everywhere. Its pro- book published in 1956, Farmers at the Crossroads, by Secretary of ¢New York, Devin-Adair. $2.75 ===== PAGE 23 ===== 1957 SOCIALISM AT ITS BEST 21 ducers have lost freedom. Cottonseed With all of the experience we have crushers are limited in the availabil- had with government attempts to ity of their raw material. Cottonseed boost farmers’ income, which is oil supply is limited and soybean oil down while the income of “free” in- is increasingly taking its place. dustries is up, it seems wise to take The pity is that the road back is a a hard look at what subsidies really long, long one, even if cotton should do. set its feet firmly in that direction. The total cost of these programs Markets once lost are not easily is almost impossible to calculate. regained. However, the realized cost of efforts to stabilize prices from 1933-1956 has been in excess of $14 billion. In If one chooses not to rely en- addition, payments in excess of $3% tirely on the report of the adminis- billion have been made to “conserve trator of the cotton experiment, the soil.” Examples of program costs he may check with one of the in stabilizing prices during this major farm organizations. Early period are: in 1957, the American Farm Bu- corn — $1-3/4 billion reau Federation published a “dis- cotton — $2.1/5 billion cussion sheet” on “Subsidies,” wheat — $2-1/3 billion . . . peanuts — $183 million with these observations: rice — $100 million Through price support, the govern- tobacco — $241 million ment has guaranteed agriculture a Estimated soil bank payments for market. This guaranteed market 1957 are 31.2 billion. The export sub- causes farm production to increase sidy programs, while moving sur- in spite of production controls. In pluses, have been expensive. For ex- other subsidized industries overpro- ample, the International Wheat duction is checked either by limits Agreement for the export of wheat on the amount of the subsidies or by has cost $759.6 million since 1949. the fact that production must be Cotton exports are costing an esti- sold on the open market. mated $45 per bale on 6.5 million The restrictions and waste in bales in 1956-57. In addition, public agricultural programs are an inevit- funds totaling $476.2 million have able result of price supports. For it been made available to finance about is well to remember —we have wheat half of these exports through loans, and cotton export subsidies because gifts, and foreign currency sales. of price supports; we have quotas Farmers must live under laws, and allotments because of price sup- rules, regulations, and orders that ports; we have surpluses, surplus re- divide up the right to produce. Un- moval programs, and diverted acre der government controls the tend- problems because of price supports. ency to “level down” all farmers to The Farm Bureau Comments ===== PAGE 24 ===== 22 THE FREEMAN July a low “common denominator” gath- If you have a friend engaged in a ers momentum every year. hopeless undertaking, do you give him money to help him continue in Views of a Cotton Dealer it? Or do you help him to get into In Houston, Texas, recently, be- an occupation that offers hope of fore the Agriculture Committee of success? The answer is obvious. the United States Chamber of I believe a time has come when Commerce, Mr. Lamar Fleming efficient cotton growers who are . truly thoughtful will come in increas- Jr., board chairman of Anderson, ing numbers to the conclusion that Clayton & Company, the world’s a business which depends on Govern- largest private cotton dealer, of- nt support, obtained through log- fered his appraisal of the cotton rolling, with the inevitable accompa- experiment: niment of Government restrictions, We have tried to perpetuate prices is a dangerous business; because, that would support cotton produc- what Government gives today, it too tion on marginal farms. Experience easily can take away tomorrow. shows that we cannot do it without creating prices that make cotton pro- ] duction a bonanza on more efficient As if to compound its failure, lands without acreage restriction—or the same government that squan- even with it, under intensive fertili- ders tax funds to restrict produc- zation and care. Experience shows jon and boost the price of cotton that we cannot do it without also simultaneously attempts to in- creating huge Government cotton crease yields per acre and to im- stocks, eventually to be liquidated at . prove the techniques of cotton pro- tremendous losses, and without hav- . ing to choose between the loss of our duction and harvest. Tax supported foreign cotton markets to foreign colleges and experiment stations, cotton and rayon, or perpetuation of along with USDA’s own vast, field "a dumping policy which challenges force, spread the findings of their Aggravating Influences the World to economic warfare— research on matters such as dis- anyhow not without losing more of ease resistance, more and larger our domestic market to rayon. bolls per plant, longer and finer What would we accomplish that is worth all this? For a while, we would keep some people in a precarious living, grow- and stronger fiber, adaptability to mechanical harvesting, seed bed preparation, insecticides, fertiliza- ing cotton where it cannot be grown tion practices, and weed control, to economically or efficiently. This mention a few. As a consequence would help them continue a struggle Of this, as well as much privately in which ultimate defeat is certain. financed research and development, ===== PAGE 25 ===== 1957 SOCIALISM AT ITS BEST 23 the average yield of cotton lint per foreign suppliers will enter the acre in the United States has market. Restrict a man’s produc- climbed from about 200 pounds in tion of cotton, and he will produce the early 1930’s to more than 400 a substitute. Overcharge a cus- pounds in recent years. tomer, and he will take his busi- ness elsewhere. Overtax a citizen The Failure of Monopoly and, sooner or later, he will insti- So, the record is clear for any- tute a new government. Such are one who cares to observe the re- the reasons why socialism must sults of a socialistic experiment fail, even under the most favorable under conditions as ideal as could circumstances in the world. be contrived by the mind of man The cotton fiasco in the United and his powers of compulsion. The States can be concluded if the gov- intended relief program for Amer- ernment will sell its holdings and ican cotton growers has turned the get out of the cotton business com- cotton business into a government pletely — no more support pro- monopoly, with laws to exclude grams, acreage and production competition. This is the usual pat- controls, research, or any other in- tern for attempts at socialism; the tervention in what is none of the good intentions succumb to the business of government. Nor is corrupting influence of power. there any reason why this much- Monopoly power is difficult to as- needed corrective should be applied semble and wield, for the competi- gradually. The only way to be rid tive spirit has great vitality. Sup- of socialism and excessive taxation press competition among growers is to allow freedom for the creative of cotton in the United States, and activities of men. ® oo Laissez-Faire PRIVATE OWNERSHIP, private initiative, the hope of reward, and the expectation of achievement have always been primarily responsible for the advancement of mankind. Continued progress — be it spiritual, mental, or material — rests squarely upon a better understanding of the idea of individual freedom of choice and action, with personal responsibility for one’s own decisions. JOHN SPARKS, If Men Were Free To Try ===== PAGE 26 ===== W. ALLEN WALLIS LMOST EVERYONE says he’s in eral objectives of social welfare — favor of free enterprise but elimination of poverty, reduction hardly anyone really is. Slogans of inequality, and provision for like “Make free enterprise work” hardship. The differences between or “Preserve capitalism” are the the individualists and the collectiv- usual rallying cries of all kinds of ists are differences not in values programs to impair freedom.of en- ~but in technical analysis of the terprise. A lot of this is disingenu- means of attaining these values. ous. : For this reason, I shall make an These disingenuous slogans of attempt to picture in very broad . the false friends of free enterprise strokes the basic mechanism of a don’t bother me nearly as much as free enterprise economy — to de- the fact that many real friends of scribe the way it should — and free enterprise have hazy notions mostly does — work. about how such a system is sup- posed to work. Even they fail to 170 Million Individuals understand that most so-called Here in the United States is an “welfare” objectives can be area of about three million square achieved better by free enterprise miles containing 170 million peo- than by collectivism. In debate ple. Suppose you were asked how they are too often easy pushovers to organize these people to utilize for the collectivists. } the resources available to them for I am continually impressed by their material satisfactions. You the fact that most individualists can imagine you have a fairly de- and most collectivists are surpris- tailed inventory of the natural re- ingly close together in their gen- sources of the country, of the peo- Mr. Wallis is Professor of Statistics and Economics and Dean of the Graduate School of Business ." at the University of Chicago. 24 ===== PAGE 27 ===== 1957 THE PRICE SYSTEM 25 ple and their knowledge, energies, fectly but will sometimes have and abilities, and of their wants. overproduced some things and un- Imagine that all these resources derproduced others. You will need are as unorganized as a set of some system of adjustment to chessmen just poured out of their these temporary shortages and box and awaiting organization on abundances, until your method of the chessboard. Your problem is to measuring achievement and your organize the resources so that method of allocating resources can wants will be filled as well as pos- get the basic situation corrected. sible. A fifth kind of problem you may worry about is that of providing for the expansion and improve- If you can get your head work- ment of your capital equipment ing at all in the face of so stagger- and technological knowledge. ing a prospect, it will occur to you These five functions have to be that one of the first things you are provided for when you establish going to need is some way of es- any organization, even a small and tablishing goals and measuring relatively simple one. When we achievement. Which of the many consider the large and complex or- things wanted are going to be pro- ganization of an entire economy, duced, in what quantities, and what are some of the alternative with what priorities? ways of arranging for them? And after you establish these goals and priorities, you will need Alternative Systems a method of assigning the various The most obvious way to ar- pieces of capital, the various natu- range things is the way an army ral resources, and the various peo- does. You set up a commander or ple to particular activities. Each a general staff. They decide on will have several alternative uses; goals, they decide who shall do "you will need a method of coordi- what to attain them, they decide nating the resources assigned to how to apportion the product, and cooperate in each task. they issue orders accordingly. Then, third, you will have to Another method is that used in have some system for dividing the beehives and ant colonies in which product among the people; who caste and custom determine who gets how much of what, and when? does what. Things go on in the Fourth, you will probably realize same way, generation after gen- that for one reason or another eration. your system will not work per- A third way is to introduce Organization Problems ===== PAGE 28 ===== 26 THE FREEMAN July money and let each person decide language —or even in patriotism which he will perform of the ac- and good will except in the very tivities that others will pay for, broadest sense. and what he will buy of the things Although one of the big features that others offer for money. of the price system that commends Under this system, goals are set it is the voluntary nature of indi- by the money offers of individuals vidual actions, the system never- for goods and services. Resources theless exerts powerful induce- are allocated to one activity or ments and even compulsions. another by the desires of their owners for money income. Goods Guides fo Action are distributed to individuals ac- A consumer who has it in mind cording to their willingness and to use up a lot of a scarce com- ability to pay the prices. Thus modity highly prized by others is prices become the crucial organiz- forced to forego consuming other ing element in such an economy. commodities to an extent judged Indeed, this system is often called by others to be equivalent. A pro- the “price system.” ducer who tries to get more income than his services are’ judged by Efficient and Voluntary others to be worth is prevented The price system has two out- from doing so by the freedom of standing features. First, it is by buyers to buy elsewhere and of all odds the most efficient system other sellers to underprice him. A of social organization ever con- business manager who tries to ceived. It makes it possible for waste labor, capital, and raw ma- huge multitudes to cooperate ef- terials is prevented from doing so fectively, multitudes who may because he will find himself taking hardly know of each other’s exist- in less money than he pays out. As ence, or whose personal attitudes long as he can make good the defi- toward one another may be indif- cit, by giving up his own right to ference or hostility. Second, it af- consume, this can continue; but fords a maximum of individual when he can no longer make good freedom and a minimum of coer- — that is when he can no longer cion. And since people can cooper- pay for the labor, capital, and raw ate effectively in production even materials — he is forced to stop when their attitudes on other is- wasting them just as firmly as if a sues are hostile, there is no need cease and desist order were issued for unity and conformity in re- by a Federal Bureau of Efficiency. ligion, politics, recreation, and Maybe more firmly, for his con- ===== PAGE 29 ===== 1957 THE PRICE SYSTEM 27 gressman may be more influential ample, knowledge of peculiar abili- with the federal bureau than with ties, of unused resources, of possi- his creditors. ble changes in ways of doing The freedom of the system pro- things. duces inducements or compulsions for individuals to act efficiently in Centralize or Disperse? the general interest. It is not by Now the problem is whether to any means true that each enter- transmit the detailed knowledge of prise is free to do what it pleases. special circumstances to a central It is restricted by the freedom of agency, or to transmit the general consumers to buy elsewhere; of the information to the individuals who owners of labor, capital, and raw have the detailed knowledge. The materials to sell elsewhere; and of detailed knowledge is too volumi- business managers to enter the nous and nebulous for transmittal same business in competition with or for assimilation, and no one it. could know what parts should be selected. The general information, Price. Communications however, is summarized in prices. This freedom of others to com- Just that part of the general pete for advantages is effective in data that is relevant to an indi- checking individual self-aggran- viduals decision is summarized in dizement because economic infor- prices. If a price goes up, that mation is effectively disseminated tells him everything he needs to by prices. Prices represent one of know to guide his action; he does the most efficient communication not need to know why the price devices ever invented. went up; the fact that it did go up Indeed, we might look on the tells him to try to use a little less problem of organization as hing- or it tells him to produce more of ing on communication. The prob- the commodity, and how far to go lem is to bring to bear on each de- in his efforts. cision two very different kinds of Not only do prices convey infor- information. On one hand, any de- mation on how an individual cision depends on general, over-all should act, but they provide at the economic data; for example, how same time a powerful inducement much a certain product is wanted, for him to do so. and how abundant the resources An understanding of the theory are from which it could be made. of a price system is essential to On the other hand, it depends on any efforts to improve our eco- minute special knowledge; for ex- nomic organization or to any com- ===== PAGE 30 ===== 28 THE FREEMAN July parison of alternative modes of Organization, New York a jugustus : tabi . Kelley, Inc. . is sma economic organization. To me, the book was written in the late 1920s, most depressing thing about the but until the early 1950’s was avail- prospects for a free society is not able only in limited Sdigions, which . were used extensively in teaching the hydrogen bomb, or _Interna- economics at the University of Chi- tional politics, or communist agita- cago, and occasionally at a few other tion; it is the fact that so very few colleges and universities. The frame- ’ . work which Knight introduced here have any understanding of eco- has influenced writers of several nomics. ® ® o widely-used textbooks in economics. 2. F. A. Hayek. “The Use of For a superb explanation of the Knowledge in Society.” American fundamental role of prices in a free Economic Review 35:519-530. Sep- economy, uncluttered by technical tember 1945. Though written for a details, I recommend highly the fol- more technical audience than was the lowing two references which are, in author’s famous book of about the fact, the source of my own remarks same date (The Road to Serfdom), above: this short article is equally lucid and 1. Frank H. Knight. The Economic important. [ 100as. ong 0OBGATY | Capital and Initiative WHAT, THEN, IS RESPONSIBLE for our economic supremacy? Two things, more than anything else. The first is capital. Both sides of American industry — management and labor — have more machinery and other equipment to work with than is available in any other nation in the world. The second is the ability and willingness to make the kind of effort required for economic growth. American history has been characterized by a value sys- tem which encourages a spirit of adventure, a desire for higher living standards, and a will to economize resources. Economic institutions like property, profits, and other individual “rights” have tended to assure that the rewards for productive effort will be received by those who earn them. Some other nations have had one or the other of these factors to a high degree, but in the United States they have been uniquely combined and together they go far toward explaining our unprecedented industrial achievement. : WALTER S. BUCKINGHAM, JR. From the Atlantic Economic Review, January 1957 ===== PAGE 31 ===== Shall the Needy | INHERIT FRIEND who is unusually tal- | COLLEGES | F. A. HARPER ented and devoted to the cause of liberty has asked for advice on specifications for some college scholarships he wants to finance. He has tentatively included “finan- produced, or what has been ob- cial need” as a requirement for a tained in exchange for what he grant, along with character schol- has produced. Ascribing to his arship, and the like. I have sug- own endeavors the genesis of his gested that he delete “need” as a own creation is stretching the bio- requisite for a grant. logical point a bit too far. Most scholarship awards in the So parents, ordinarily, assume United States now specify need as the responsibility of caring for the a condition of any grant. The prac- newborn, according to his need. If tice has become so prevalent that any aspect of merit is to be any suggestion to omit it calls for ascribed to it at all, it is the hope some explanation; otherwise the and expectation that he will grow suggestion is likely to be discarded and later develop the latent talents without even a thought. These are of self-reliance which he is pre- my reasons. sumed to possess at birth. In order for this hope to become From Childhood to Self-Reliance a reality, it is important that the In order to bring the question child develop as rapidly as possible into focus, let us start with the from an object of need to one whose birth of the child. existence rests on reward for his A child at birth is wholly de- own attainment. This attainment pendent on grants of aid as a mat- should more and more take the ter of survival. His food and the form of economic production to like are not what he himself has supplement his other satisfactions. Dr. Harper is a member of the staff of the Foundation for Economic Education. 29 ===== PAGE 32 ===== 30 THE FREEMAN July Market Test for Merit can wean them of the needy condi- For economic attainment, merit tion of their birth. That is the is best tested in the market place. heart of our parental responsi- The worth of the goods and serv- bility. ices produced and traded there is As the days and years pass, the judged by consumers who are al- child should be allowed to grow in lowed to vote according to their the sense of self-reliance. Latent own contributions to the market. abilities — those hopes that mer- Each consumer may bid as high as ited care of the newborn — should he wishes. be allowed to bloom. If we fail in The producer’s need is not a fac- that, we shall render him a dis- tor of any importance in the mar- service rather than a service. If ket place. Ordinarily when we buy we fail, we teach him that some- something, we do not even know body owes him a continuing exist- who the producer was, so could not ence in spite of his own efforts, consider his need even if we merely because he has been born. wanted to. No consumer, for in- If we fail, we create in his mind a stance, buys a can of beans in a fertile soil for socialist indoctrina- supermarket under the assumption tion. that it tastes better or is more That, I believe, is a reasonable nutritious if produced by a desti- guide and objective in the educa- tute farmer, rather than if pro- tional process. And the granting duced by one who is not so desti- of scholarships should be aimed tute. He judges the can of beans, that way. not the bean producer’s needs, when he buys it. The Market for Scholarships In rearing children to live in a Learning, to be sure, seems free society, then, we should help quite unlike things produced for them to develop as rapidly as pos- sale in the market. It may enhance sible from dependence to inde- the learner’s ability to produce, pendence; from reliance to self- but its salable fruits are of a reliance; from reward for mere separate form and occur subse- existence to reward for meritori- quently to the learning process it- ous attainment; from claims of self. Consumers in the market do need to recognition of merit; from not buy the person’s learning it- being objects of charity to being self, as they buy a bushel of pota- productively capable of rendering toes he has produced; they buy, acts of charity themselves. Such instead, any useful derivatives of should be our aim, as rapidly as we his learning. So a youngster’s ===== PAGE 33 ===== 1957 SHALL THE NEEDY INHERIT OUR COLLEGES? 31 merit for a scholarship must be ing of our children, and even — as judged in some way other than like is our present concern — into the appraising the direct worth of granting of collegiate scholarships. potatoes. In all these ways we are training A scholarship is presumably re- our children to live by the Marxian lated to the youngster’s promise doctrine: of further notable attainment in From each according to his abilities, learning. And merit should be so to each according to his needs. judged, in my opinion. It should There is nothing wrong with be judged strictly on the basis of having needs; we all have them, what the student has already dem- and always will. But as a philoso- onstrated and attained, in terms phy of life with which our chil- of his scholastic attainment, char- dren are being widely inculcated, acter, and other such qualities. this Marxian concept of need is That is the evidence of his ability like a “hot rod” without brakes. to live a life of worthy attainment “Need” grows without bounds and good character. whenever it is severed from a re- What the scholarship applicant sponsibility for acquiring satis- is trying to sell and what the faction through one’s own en- grantor is offering to buy, in the deavors. scholarship market, is evidence of Thus the Marxian doctrine of the presence of these qualities of irresponsibility creates an ever- scholastic purpose in highest de- increasing and insatiable appetite. gree. If judgments of worth are to Teaching this to our children by be fairly rendered, the buyer either word or deed does them a should be impersonal about all serious educational disservice; one other considerations than these expression of this is to make need which comprise the object of his a condition of granting scholar- purchase — as he does when he ships. buys bread or medicine or a car. Need, per se, has nothing what- ever to do with scholastic merit — This Matter of Need and in that sense, it has nothing The matter of need has become to do with merit for a scholarship. an increasing concern in our lives, Why, then, should need be made a even as we have increasingly re- consideration of a grant? Why moved it from our living in the should not youngsters of college United States. It has come more age be taught that meritorious at- and more into the content of edu- tainment is a prime eonsideration cational materials, into the teach- in the scholarship market? Aspir- ===== PAGE 34 ===== 32 THE FREEMAN July ants would then have this worthy He is being taught that his par- star to guide them during the ents’ wealth is a sin for which he years prior to eligibility. shall be made to suffer — at least . to the extent of being denied an Is Saving Sinful? award, in Spite of his personal Were such a plan to be followed, worthiness of character and at- a scholarship might be awarded tainment. The socialists might to the offspring of parents who are even try to justify this outcome by - not needy; who are neither pau- recalling that the sins of the fa- pers nor false claimants of pauper- thers shall be visited upon the off- ism. Is that a bad thing? spring, even unto the third and Denying a scholarship to a fourth generations. youngster whose parents are not If “need” is to be adjudged poverty stricken is in effect teach- meritorious in making such ing him the lesson of socialism. awards, it follows that the posses- sion of economic means becomes a demerit. In other words, if par- ents, by using ability and industry and thrift, have saved enough to be without need, their attainment becomes a matter of demerit — some sort of sin — so far as the child’s position is concerned in the market for scholarships. No Work for the Wealthy Any correct concept should be taught to children as early as pos- sible, I assume. So if the idea is right that wealth is sinful — that hard work and thrift comprise a demerit because they eliminate need — why not teach it to them from the start? Why wait until college age to teach it? If the child goes to the neigh- bors, hoping for a job mowing their lawns or something, why not have the neighbors inform him ===== PAGE 35 ===== 1957 SHALL THE NEEDY INHERIT OUR COLLEGES ? 33 that unless his parents are pau- ess. The educational means of pers, he cannot have a job —have many great men are ample proof need established as a condition of this. requisite to a job? Second, employment is available If such reasoning is valid for at high rates of pay during vaca- the granting of scholarships, why tion periods and while going to is it not equally valid for all forms college, for those whose need is of work and remuneration? By really pressing. I have known this concept, ability to do a good many industrious and thrifty job shall have no merit except youngsters who have accumulated where the person is also needy. enough from their own earnings Were this idea to be carried out to pay a large part — even all — of consistently, there would be no their collegiate costs. If their in- work for the wealthy or for the dustry makes them no longer eligi- children of the wealthy. They ble for scholarship awards be- would then all be denied employ- cause they are no longer needy, ment. Probably there is no better how can this mean anything to way than this by which to ruin them except an object lesson in character and cause juvenile de- socialism? linquency. And as applied here, Third, many credit sources are the ruination would be imposed available to any able student whose upon some of the best of human real need exceeds the funds other- stock, biologically. wise available from his own ef- forts, from his family, or from Charity Still Possible | other sources. Though we have been consider- Fourth, in discussing scholar- ing scholarships for merit, some- ship grants we are presumably thing should be said about in- dealing with the relatively few stances of dire educational need. exceptional youngsters and not How are needy youngsters to ob- with cases of only marginal edu- tain a college education if their cational ability. We are dealing need is not to be included as a with the cream of the crop, in requisite for scholarships? order that they may attend some In the first place, real education outstanding college or university. may be obtained in ways far less An important purpose is to induce expensive than those currently them to strive for scholastic and fashionable in this country. Lux- character attainment, the same ury living is not an essential in- whether of poor or rich parents. gredient of the educational proc- Let children of all economic levels ===== PAGE 36 ===== 34 THE FREEMAN July compete freely in this regard. words, that assistance to college Whereas children from poor fam- students should be exclusively of ilies should not be arbitrarily the type I have advocated here. I handicapped, neither should they mean only to say that in my opin- be rewarded for reasons. other. ion we have rather gone overboard than scholarship and character. about this matter of need as ap- Let it be a fair race for all. plied to collegiate aid, until we Finally, charitable aid may well widely honor it with the term be offered and made available for scholarship. If we are to avoid all needy youngsters who lose out educating our youngsters in the in the race for merit scholarships. ways of socialistic thought, we Such assistance is perfectly prop- should base merit scholarship on er. But charitable aid should not merit and not on need. Unless we be confused with grants presumed drastically change our way of to be based on intellectual merit thinking, I fear that we shall con- and proven abilities. Charity tinue moving toward a time when should carry its true label. the needy shall inherit our col- I do not mean to say, in other leges from the worthy. oo 0 |-000a8 on LOGE, | Security at the Expense of Freedom IN ANY LARGE SCALE ACTIVITY involving the interplay of many people, standards tend to become debased to the level of the lowest. This is obviously what is happening in our society. The exceptional man prefers freedom to security: the mediocre man prefers security to freedom — security at the expense of freedom is what we are getting. The exceptional man finds his highest values in the satisfaction of the creative impulse, while the highest good of the mediocre is creature comfort—we are getting a society in which the supreme good, to which the government should bend all its efforts, is raising the standard of living. From this point of view, the advantages of a minimum government are obvious; the less the government controls, the fewer the things subject to this debasing action, whereas in a country in which the government controls everything, everything is debased. P. W. BRIDGMAN, Reflections of a Physicist New York: Philosophical Library ===== PAGE 37 ===== one of the most interesting chal- lenges I have encountered. I P Y R R H | C learned that he was one of the best . salesmen on his company’s roster. Observing him in action, I found V | C T Oo RY that he was a positive master of a strange and little-practiced tech- A Tip for the pldue — low-pressured salesman- . . ship! Libertarian Teacher Instead of dominating his cus- ROBERT T. OLIVER tomers, he was letting them domi- nate him. And my greatest chal- - lenge as a teacher was to get him The arguments you lose are often to realize that he ought not to costly. But frequently they are a change. He was making sales not real bargain in comparison with by convincing his customers but the price you have to pay for the by encouraging them to convince arguments you win. themselves. There is no better way. Several years ago I was teach- ing an evening class in public What Do You Want? speaking to a selected group of Whenever you find yourself in a highly successful businessmen. situation where you feel it is abso- The first evening one of them lutely necessary that you argue stayed till the others had left, then with somebody — stop first and ask told me about his own personal yourself honestly what it is you problem. are trying to accomplish. “I haven’t got the brass a sales- The chances are that what you man ought to have,” he confessed. chiefly want is to bolster your own “I can’t speak up and impress my ego. You want to feel superior. personality on the prospects, the You yearn to win the approval of way the sales manuals say we the listeners as they applaud your ought to. What can you do to help cleverness. You want to pin your me develop a more positive and opponent down and watch him dominant type of speech?” squirm. Working with him during the Well, if you can afford it, go next several weeks proved to be ahead! One function of argument Dr. Oliver is Head of the Department of Speech, Pennsylvania State University. This article on creating understanding is from a series he is presenting in Better Farming Methods, and appeared in the issue of April 1957. 35 ===== PAGE 38 ===== 36 THE FREEMAN - July is make-believe combat, like the sonal satisfaction out of leaping pretense of fierce fighting engaged upon the mistakes of his friends in by playful kittens. There is no and gleefully tearing them to tat- doubt that one of the genuine pleas- ters. Then he found he was win- ures in life is to pile up argu- ning arguments but losing friends ments and cement them with wit and influence. He began to adopt and ridicule, to form a pedestal on another tactic. which our own superior brilliance In his Autobiography he wrote: may be put on display. “When another asserted some- So you win the argument. But thing that I thought an error, I de- never imagine for a moment that nied myself the pleasure of contra- you have received the pleasant dicting him abruptly. I even for- glow of ego-satisfaction scot free! bid myself the use of every expres- The more bedraggled you have left sion that imported a fixed opinion, your opponent, the higher the such as certainly, undoubtedly, etc. price you have to pay. and I adopted instead I conceive, Of all the ways in which human or I imagine a thing to be so.” beings deal with one another, their A soft answer more than turns ego-relationships are the most im- away wrath. It wins agreement portant. No man can abide being and makes friends. It is the hard- made to look like a fool. est kind of speech to learn and be- When Benjamin Franklin was a yond question the most effective to youth, he used to get a lot of per- use. oo { 056AH GC LIHGRTY. | Patience Does It IT MAY BE ADMITTED that man is a reasonable being. But, as Historian James T. Shotwell reminds us, in all of us, reason is only a covering for a mile-deep reservoir of instinctive senti- ments and emotions. We must hold this in mind when dealing with our fellow humans. Naturally, we must continue to use the tools of the intellect, we must use logic, in our attempt to get results. But, when logic fails for a time, and unreasoning emotion takes control, let us neither be surprised nor disappointed. Patience may often be one of the most effective tools of the intellectual. THOMAS DREIER, The High Road. August 1952 ===== PAGE 39 ===== * Man seems destined forever to seek ame _new institution as a panacea for his troubles! When governments —failifig in limited pose they might have served Aof Aonflicti g presduge the inevitable outcome is: ve io Mischief —attempt a superorganizatioy AN \%% BY Won THE UNITED ne /#ll-being. It is ironical , j there is a tendency to advo- well-meaning religious organiza—— gfe unconditional reliance on the tion urged its members to write United Nations, just after that or- their congressmen favoring Amer- ganization has revealed itself as a ican participation. Slogan of the broken reed, even from the stand- organization was: “You can win point of passing effective moral the peace with a three-cent stamp.” judgments, to say nothing of tak- Few people today would be quite ing effective action. so naive. And yet, despite sobering By the terms of the Charter the lessons of experience, the idea of United Nations is a league of referring every international everyone against no one, with the problem to the UN in the hope primary objective of preserving that this will lead to a solution world peace. Power to act is vested still possesses a popular appeal, in a Security Council of eleven compounded of sentimentality, ig- members, of whom five—the United norance, and mental laziness. States, the Soviet Union, Great What is not generally realized Britain, France, and China — are is that the UN has shown itself permanent. Any of these perma- competent only for mischief, that nent members can stop the func- there is a wide and dangerous dis- tioning of the Council by casting parity between its pretensions and a veto. its real power, that the subordina- It is as if a community should tion of vital United States inter- place the maintenance of law and ests to the shifting and uncertain order in the hands of a commission majorities of the UN Assembly of five, one of them a notorious could create serious threats to our gangster and troublemaker. It Mr. Chamberlin, noted author, lecturer, and contributor to the Wall Street Journal and many nationally known magazines, has carefully observed UN activities both at headquarters and in the field. 37 ===== PAGE 40 ===== 38 THE FREEMAN July could easily be foreseen that under jugation by the Red Army. The such an arrangement the state of other consisted of the United public security would leave much States, most of the noncommunist to be desired. countries of Europe, and those Asi- And this has been the result of atic powers — Nationalist China, the UN fantasy of assuming that Korea, the Philippines, Thailand, close cooperation between the vie- and Pakistan — which felt threat- torious powers of World War II ened by communist aggression and would maintain peace. Wartime subversion. coalitions are notoriously short- The United Nations offered no lived and unstable. Even when solution for this situation. It be- there was the cementing force of came as superfluous, so far as the a common enemy, there were clear realities of the cold war are con- divergences of aim between the cerned, as the appendix in the Soviet Union and the two princi- human body. For the Soviet veto pal Western powers — the United in the Security Council, which has States and Great Britain. been cast more than eighty times, could always block action. And Postwar Coalitions resolutions of censure of this or that Soviet act in the General As- sembly, of which there have been an abundance, have never exerted the slightest visible influence on Soviet conduct. During the war these diver- gences were hushed up by direct and indirect censorship and pre- vented from coming to the surface because Stalin was pretty much given what he wanted, notably at the Yalta Conference in February 1945. But after the war ended, An exceptional situation arose Stalin continued his aggressive in June 1950, when a communist policies in Europe and in Asia, North Korean army, outfitted to with the ultimate avowed com- the last hand grenade with weap- munist goal of world conquest ons made in Russia, surged across through world revolution and So- the frontier into South Korea. At viet military power clearly in that time the Soviet delegate in mind. Two new coalitions grew up. the Security Council was carrying One was composed of the Soviet on a boycott because Red China Union and the countries which, was not admitted to the UN. This during and after the war, adopted unusual circumstance made it pos- communist forms of government, sible for the Security Council to all except China as a result of sub- sanction action in defense of The Korean War ===== PAGE 41 ===== 1957 UN, COMPETENT ONLY FOR MISCHIEF 39 South Korea without being sty- America was not allowed to make mied by the Soviet veto. full use of the air and naval Here, cried the UN supporters, strength in which its superiority is something new. Unlike its pred- was enormous. What was achieved ecessor, the League of Nations, in the end was an armistice vir- the UN has demonstrated capacity tually on the basis of the status to act, to fight against aggression. quo — an armistice which the Chi- But, as one looks back on this epi- nese and North Korean commu- sode, there is strong reason to nists have been persistently evad- believe that the United States ing and violating. would have come out of it better Had there been no United Na- if the UN had not been in exist- tions, the United States could have ence. handled the Korean crisis with In the first place, only a few of much freer hands. We might even the UN members rendered mili- have stayed out of it entirely. tary aid, and this was of negligible, token proportions. What developed Abdication of Responsibility . # was a UN war, but a US and South Those who favor “leaving to the Korean fight. UN” this or that difficult interna- In the second place, the UN, tional problem forget that the UN with the many rifts among its has no power to implement a policy members, proved a most unsuit- even when its members agree on able agency for the conduct of a what that policy should be. The war. Many of its Asian members, UN record, in dealing with weak notably India, did not put a man nations as with strong, has been or a gun on the Korean front. one long failure — in Kashmir, in They were, however, most liberal Palestine, in Hungary, and Suez. with back seat driving advice. A ‘Leaving it to the UN” is a mere result was to slow down military euphemism for abdication of re- action to the pace of the most sponsibility. timid and the most reluctant. Realizing that the Soviet ab- sence from the Security Council at U. S. Hands Tied the time of the outbreak of hos- It was not only that the United tilities in Korea was not likely to States had to bear much the larg- happen again, former Secretary of est share of the war burden. It State Dean Acheson conceived the was also compelled by considera- idea of shifting the power of initi- tion for its associates to fight with | ating action in the UN from the one hand tied behind its back. Security Council to the General ===== PAGE 42 ===== 40 THE FREEMAN July Assembly where the veto does not ment of unrealism to Assembly apply. The so-called Uniting for votes. It is mere make-believe to Peace resolution, passed in 1950, pretend that Liberia, Libya, and provides that the Assembly, by a the Sudan are the military, politi- two-thirds majority, shall make cal, and economic equivalents of recommendations, including the the United States, Great Britain, use of force, if the exercise of the and Canada. Yet their votes count veto should prevent the Security just as much. Council from taking action to Third, and perhaps most impor- maintain international peace. tant, the two-thirds majority for The legality of this resolution is the Western viewpoint, which at open to question. The authoriza- one time was almost automatic, no tion for the Assembly to recom- longer exists. This is because new 3 mend action is an important members of the UN are almost en- change in the Charter which vests tirely Asian and African states. this right in the Security Council. This trend is likely to be still more And Article 108 stipulates that the pronounced in the future, because Charter may be amended only with eligible nations in Europe and the * the agreement of all permanent American continent, Germany ex- members of the Security Council. cepted, are already members. As former colonial territories in } ) ] Africa become independent (Su- Leaving aside this legal point, dan, Libya, Morocco, Tunisia, there are three cogent reasons for Ghana, for instance), they join the doubting whether the Assembly ypited Nations. can be an effective instrument for maintaining peace. Blocs in the UN Assembly A situation has now been cre- ated where a two-thirds majority - First, the Korean experience jy the Assembly cannot be obtained showed that very few UN mem- £4 any proposition to which the + bers are willing to make even a ggviet bloc and the Arab-Asian- token contribution to a war which African bloc are opposed. The does not touch them directly, which grench Ambassador to the United is being waged for such an ab- States, M. Herve ‘Alphand, called stract cause as “collective security” ,itention to this situation with or “resistance to aggression.” Gallic lucidity at the time of the Second, the one nation, one vote Quez crisis: . procedure in the Assembly is not No country can safely imagine the ’ an accurate reflection of world UN in its present state as the only © power realities and lends an ele- way of determining and implement- . ===== PAGE 43 ===== 1957 UN, COMPETENT ONLY FOR MISCHIEF 41 ing international law. Because, if occurred was much worse. The you go to the Security Council, you recognized government of Hun- are faced with the Soviet veto. And gary, headed by a veteran com- if you go to the Assembly, you could munist, Imre Nagy, had been be defeated by a majority formed by swept along by a tide of popular the Soviet bloc and the Bandung resentment, directed both against group. No country could accept in all . TL . cases that its foreign policy should Soviet domination and against be defeated by the Soviet veto or the communism, to a point where it Bandung group.’ was asserting Hungary's national independence and appealing to the Hungarian Episode United Nations for recognition of Any shred of moral authority its neutral status. dissipated by its inept handling tanks and artillery, batter the city of the two crises which burst out of Budapest, crush the Hungarian simultaneously in October-Novem- fight for freedom with the utmost ber, 1956. The first was produced brutality, and set up a stooge gov- by the brutal Soviet onslaught ernment. To this outrageous chal- against the Hungarian people who lenge the UN response was — noth: desired to be neutral and free ing. There were a few motions of from Soviet domination. The other protest and censure, contemptu- was the outgrowth of Egyptian ously ignored by Moscow and its dictator Nasser’s seizure of the Hungarian puppets. But there was Suez Canal and hostile policy to- not even the mildest follow-up of ward Israel, with the consequent these resolutions. resort of Israel, Great Britain, and France to military measures. Suez Crisis The first of these crises was-a clear, black-and-white confronta- tion of right and wrong. Contrary to a general impression, what hap- pened in Hungary was not the suppression of a revolt against an unrepresentative government with the aid of Soviet tanks. This would have been bad enough, but what The Near Eastern crisis was much more complicated, and the issue of right and wrong was far from clear. Military invasion is always a grave step that can lead to unforeseen consequences. But in this case it was taken after seri- ous provocation to Great Britain and France and almost intolerable The “Bandung group” is a group of Asian provocation to Israel. and African states, including Red China, Americans could appreciate the which held a conference in Bandung, in oo . Indonesia, two years ago. British-French view on Suez if we ===== PAGE 44 ===== 42 THE FREEMAN July would imagine a violently anti- with the Near Eastern crisis, American left-wing government in would have considered not only Panama announcing the national- the resort to violence, but the ization of the Panama Canal after causes which preceded this resort concluding a large arms deal with to violence. It would have sought the Soviet Union. A procommunist to link the removal of British, regime in Guatemala, which had French, and Israeli troops with a done much less than this against fair Suez settlement, which would American interests was smoothly have respected the rights of pri- upended in 1954, with visible satis- vate property and the interest of faction in Washington. the principal user nations, whose Nasser’s provocation to Israel capital and enterprise had made was still more serious. Not only the Canal possible in the first had his government radio in Cairo place. Justice also would have re- repeatedly threatened to- wipe quired a stoppage of blockade and Israel off the map; Nasser was ex- guerrilla operations against cluding Israeli shipping from the Israel. It would have denied to Suez Canal, in defiance of a UN Nasser the right to be at peace ‘ruling; he was blockading the with Israel one moment and at Gulf of Aqaba, another Israeli war the next, depending on which maritime outlet; and armed Arab best suited his political conven- guerilla bands under Egyptian ience. leadership were launching raids into Israeli territory from the UN Double Standard Gaza Strip. But the UN, which displayed a The large Egyptian build-up of craven, unimaginative unwilling- Soviet arms in the Sinai Desert ness or inability to take any action pointed to preparation for an ulti- in Hungary where the moral and mate all-out attack on Israel. If legal case was clear, pursued a the term “preventive war” could completely one-sided pro-Egyptian ever be used accurately, it would course in the Near East, where characterize the swift Israeli cam- the moral and legal issues were paign in the Sinai Desert, aimed much more complex. As a result, at opening free passage through while the fighting has stopped, the the Gulf of Aqaba and eliminating causes which led to the fighting’ guerrilla bases in the Sinai penin- remain. sula and the Gaza Strip. And the UN, supposedly the ex- Had justice been the overriding pression of the moral conscience consideration, the UN, in dealing of mankind, has given a dismal ex- ===== PAGE 45 ===== 1957 UN, COMPETENT ONLY FOR MISCHIEF 43 hibition of a double standard of the invidious position of being morals: a soft standard for big part of a “have” minority in the powers committing flagrant midst of a “have not” majority. aggression, like the Soviet Union On one occasion the United States in Hungary or India in Kashmir; found itself alone in asserting the a hard standard for a small coun- right of private property against try, Israel, that struck out against an assumed right of governments a clear threat to its national exist- to nationalize without adequate ence. By its inaction in the Hun- compensation. ECOSOC (the Eco- garian crisis and its misguided ac- nomic and Social Council of the tion in the Near Eastern crisis the UN) is always prepared to hatch United Nations justified a fear ingenious schemes for siphoning which Winston Churchill ex- off the wealth of the United States pressed in the first year of its ex- for the benefit of ‘‘underde- istence: that it might become a veloped” countries. shield for the strong and mockery A few years ago investigation for the weak. revealed among United States em- There are several practical dis- ployees of the UN an abnormally advantages about United States high percentage who took to the membership in the UN. It creates Fifth Amendment when ques- an illusory sense of security. tioned about communist affilia- Whatever security we possess we tions and espionage. It was like owe first to our own strength, pulling teeth to get these people second to alliances with countries out of their positions, and the UN which are going our way, which tribunal sitting on such cases share our political aims and our awarded extravagant sums in sense of danger from imperialist compensation and severance pay. communism. But the illusion per- Surely it is time to recognize sists in some quarters that the that the high hopes placed in the UN, without a man or a gun at its UN when it was formed have not disposal, can somehow spread an been realized, that this organiza- umbrella of safety over the whole tion has been useless in most re- world. spects, dangerous in some, and In the UN Assembly we are in competent only for mischief. ® o o DISCARD the operation of freedom, and the prin- ciple of order will be productive of disorder. HELMUT KUHN, Freedom Forgotten and Remembered ===== PAGE 46 ===== in Ur of the Chaldees R. J. RUSHDOONY HE PROBLEM of relating respon- act of violence against them en- sibility to freedom and security tailed a greater penalty than one has plagued human society for committed against the middle class countless centuries; it remains one or against slaves. They were, in of the most pressing burdens on one sense, good examples of the contemporary civilization. Perhaps overprivileged aristocrats carica- the most difficult aspect of its solu- tured by Marxists. But this gives tion is man’s persistent unwilling- only one side of the picture. The ness to face the obvious dilemmas aristocrats were privileged be- involved. cause they bore the burden of As far back as in Abraham’s maintaining = Sumerian society. day, in Ur of the Chaldees, Sumer- Life in Church and State was their ian society had achieved a balance responsibility; their social funec- to the problem which met both the tion gave them a utility which demand for freedom on the part of made them indispensable to the some as well as the social hunger whole State. by others for security of guard- Because they shouldered the re- ianship. The implications of this sponsibility, they therefore had a ancient solution might be unpleas- corresponding freedom. It was the ant to modern man, but they are aristocrat who fought and died for nonetheless inescapable. Sumerian liberty in the army, and Sumerian society by law was di- was hence entitled to a greater vided into three classes, each with freedom under law. He won his clearly defined legal status, privi- freedom by responsibility and ac- leges, and rights. The upper-class countability. When he violated the freemen, the “aristocrats,” consti- law, his punishment was severe. tuted the ruling elite of society. When he went to doctors, lawyers, They were the priests, the govern- and others, he paid double the fee ment officials, and the rank and file of the middle class. Because he of the army. They constituted the bore the main burden of society privileged group, and were more and assumed a greater responsi- or less sacrosanct in person. Any bility, and legal and social account- The Reverend Mr. Rushdoony is pastor of the Trinity Presbyterian Church, Santa Cruz, Calif. 44 ===== PAGE 47 ===== 1957 FREEDOM AND SECURITY IN UR OF THE CHALDEES 45 ability, freedom became his pre- — in the sense that a ward or a rogative. prisoner is secure. They could pro- The middle class, while free, had test their sale and submit the ques- less social accountability and re- tion to court; they could carry on sponsibility. No military service business enterprises on the side was required of them except in and save money. They could marry, emergencies, such as the invasion and if the wife were free, be as- of the land. The penalties of the sured of their children’s freedom law were less severe against the under law. They could purchase middle class and were essentially their freedom and enter the mid- financial rather than personal. dle class if they had the means. They were the traders, the doctors, The Sumerian slave had maximum lawyers, and other professional security under the law, but he had men, the farmers, the great body little social responsibility and little of freemen, able to function freely freedom. To gain a greater meas- under law, advance their fortunes, ure of freedom and social respon- and further their enterprises, but sibility, he had to forsake his sta- always beneath the law and gov- tus as a ward and live the more ex- ernment of the upper class. As a posed life of the middle class. class, they were personally respon- sible and personally accountable; but because their social responsi- The significance of Sumerian so- bility and accountability were lim- ciety is obvious: Lust for security ited, as compared to the upper is incompatible with the require- class, their status was therefore ments of responsibility and free- subordinate and their participa- dom. Modern man tries to gain all tion in government limited. three by means of government ac- Slaves were the third class, into tion; he abolishes class lines and which many were born and others personal slavery, only to create came as prisoners of war and be- slavery on a vastly greater scale. cause of debt and poverty. They The world has not otherwise seen had absolutely no part in the life slavery on so vast a scope as that of the State, having no personal under Nazi German and Soviet responsibility. They could be Russian governments, and, in in- bought and sold, could be punished creasing degree, in the welfare severely if they became fugitives, economies of contemporary States. and were legal property. On the The omnipotent State becomes the other hand, slaves had some very new slaveholder, and the citizenry real privileges. They were secure the slaves; and it becomes impos- The New Slavery ===== PAGE 48 ===== 46 THE FREEMAN July sible for any man to escape into The Sumerians exacted a price freedom because of the vast exten- from those who yearned for secu- sion of political power. The price rity. So does the modern State. As of the guaranteed life, sometimes it assumes the burden of welfare called security, is always the sur- and social provisions for its citi- render of freedom and responsi- zenry, the State declares in effect bility, the surrender of true.ac- that the price for subsidy is the countability, to the fiat will of the surrender of freedom and respon- State. What the Sumerians recog- sibility. The State becomes increas- nized in antiquity, modern man ingly free to act omnipotently, and perversely refuses to accept, hop- the citizen increasingly a slave. ing against hope to have his cake The freedom of Sumerian aristo- and eat it, too. crats and the middle class was the But the lust for security de- guarantee of the society’s basic stroys itself ; no man is more inse- health, and the ground for the se- cure than the slave of the modern curity of all. But the freedom of State; for he will tolerate no free the modern State from an inde- classes, as did the Sumerian slave, pendent citizenry spells slavery to furnish protection for him. and ruin for all. The issue remains Freedom and responsibility still in- unchanged. Ultimately, the issue volve, as in Ur, an exposure to between freedom and security is problems, insecurities, and social clearly seen as responsibility ver- burdens which are often pressing sus slavery. Modern man finds re- and heavy. But, in final analysis, sponsibility burdensome; he will no greater security ever appears shortly discover that slavery is than the security born of freedom even more burdensome and less and responsibility. rewarding. 00 A Change Has Occurred IMPLICIT IN AMERICAN THOUGHT from the beginning until a few years ago was this: “Government is the responsibility of a self- governing people.” That doctrine has been swept away; only the elders remember it. Now, in the name of democracy, it is accepted as a political fact that people are the responsibility of government. The forms of republican government survive; the character of the state has changed. GARET GARRETT, The People's Pottage ===== PAGE 49 ===== THE RIGHT TO WORK CHARLES I. FADDIS HE ACTION of the Senate Rack- pire has hung like a pall over ets Committee in exposing the Washington, D. C., and many of financial irregularities of Dave our state capitals for more than Beck and his henchmen of the two decades. As a member of Con- Teamsters’ union may serve a use- gress from 1933 through 1942) I ful purpose in protecting the mem- saw its campaign of threats, in- bers of unions from furtherabuses timidation,and browbeating result of autocratic power; but it offers in the passing of much unjust and little hope that the constitutional financially unsound legislation. I right of a man to work without witnessed its corrupting influence paying tribute to such racketeers upon legislators who were fright- will be protected. Even less hope ened into intellectual dishonesty is offered that, in case of strikes, in order to retain their seats. the personal and property rights As a member of Congress I of employers and the rights of the voted for the Wagner Labor Rela- general public will be protected. tions Act, hoping it would pro- There is no question but that mote industrial peace. It proved to many cities, as well as other politi- be an industrial Munich. Power- cal units, are ruled by an invisible mad labor barons strove with each empire composed of a combination other to construct petty empires of organized labor and organized with ruthlessness and utter dis- crime. Such rulership is sustained regard for the public welfare. by the power of labor bosses to They instituted reigns of terror compel men to join unions in order in many industrial districts. Pri- to earn a livelihood. An attempt vate property was seized and de- to extend the jurisdiction of this stroyed; intimidation, assault, and empire brought about the investi- even murder were employed to ac- gation of Beck and others. complish the desired end. Even The political power of this em- while the nation was at war on two Mr. Faddis, now a businessman in Waynesburg, Pennsylvania, served as a Representative in the United States Congress from 1933 until 1942, when he resigned to enter active service as a Colonel in the United States Army. 47 ===== PAGE 50 ===== 48 THE FREEMAN July fronts, these predatory tactics did The Right To Work not cease. While American soldiers The most basic and fundamental were fighting and dying, the bosses right of a man is the right to of labor were just as busily, if work. It may well be his only hon- much less valiantly, striving to est means of earning a living. The extend and consolidate their power. exercise of this right, of course, The bosses of labor have usurped depends upon his finding work he and are exercising powers which can perform in a manner satisfac- no one in a free nation — not even tory to his employer. If a man is elected officials — should be allowed deprived of the right to seek em- to possess and exercise. This na- ployment, all other rights and tion is a representative Republic privileges presumed to be his are operating under a written consti- of no value and do not really exist. - tution which is the basic and fun- This right cannot lawfully be cur- damental law of the land —the tailed or abridged by any govern- guardian of all of our rights. These mental authority in this nation, rights were not conferred upon us except as a man may be drafted by the Constitution. Neither were for military service, or punished they given to us by any adminis- for crime after due conviction, or tration or political party, nor any as his employment may adversely sect, nor any organization — labor affect the national security. or otherwise. They are those in- When our constituted govern- alienable rights mentioned in the ment may not limit a man’s right Declaration of Independence. Their to work on account of his member- possession is not limited to the ship or lack of membership in any members of any party, or sect, or social, fraternal, political, reli- race, or creed. They belong to gious, racial, or labor union, why everyone — nonunion as well as should any other organization have union. the power to do so? Nevertheless, These rights, so highly regarded the right to work is now being by the Founding Fathers of this denied men who do not belong to nation, were set forth in a sepa- organized labor. Labor organiza- rate section of the Constitution in tions are thereby exercising pow- the form of ten amendments. Most ers which would involve risk of certainly it is the intent of the revolution if exercised by govern- Constitution, both in spirit and ment agencies. letter, that no power shall exist to A man may criticize the Presi- rob the people of their individual dent of the United States and hold rights. his job, for all the President can ===== PAGE 51 ===== 1957 THE RIGHT TO WORK 49 do about it; but quite often men autocracy this hemisphere has are expelled from labor unions for known in two centuries. In their criticizing a union official or union arrogance and greed they do not affairs. Without a union card, they hesitate to thrust their rackets are deprived of employment in any into every phase and activity of industry where a closed shop human life, from the hospital as- exists. From the legal reasoning sistants in the birth of the child to of organizations which pretend the pallbearers who carry the man much concern for civil liberties, it to the grave, and the sexton wh would seem that the labor bosses fills it in. : derive their autocratic power to punish critics from the same Bill The Right To Strike of Rights which denies a like pow- Not since the adoption of the er to the federal government. Thirteenth Amendment to the The organized claimants of civil Constitution has there been any liberties seem curiously uncon- question of a man’s right to refuse cerned over the violation of per- to work under conditions displeas- sonal and property rights of all ing to him. He has the undeniable classes of citizens during strikes. right to refuse to work, either’ Such matters as assault, arson, alone or collectively with his fel- seizure of property, blocking of low workers. It is his right to public highways, overturning of strike — but this does not consti- automobiles, burning of trucks and tute a license for the commission: their cargoes, often involving per- of violence, assault, arson, assas- sons and property in no way con- sination, riot, anarchy, robbery, or nected with the strike, seem to. extortion. In striking he must still concern them not at all. be accountable to society for ob- Actually, most violations of civil servance of the law and due regard liberties involve men who are de- for the rights of others. prived of their right to work or The interest of the general pub- of the proper management of their lic in any industrial dispute is property by these same self-styled greater than the combined inter- liberals, the bosses of organized ests of the two contending parties. labor, who are in reality the most It is high time this. fact be consid- pronounced of reactionaries. With ered. The consumer pays the bill. all of the “liberality” of the closed Let there be no mistake about that. shop and all of the “tolerance” of Wage hikes come from his pocket the picket line, they are endeavor- and not from the treasury of the ing to solidify the most ironbound industrial concern. Strikes have ===== PAGE 52 ===== 50 THE FREEMAN July detrimental effects upon other in- for slander, abuse, or untrue state- dustries. Public treasuries are ments. Assembly is qualified at the called upon to furnish assistance source by the word peaceable. for those either directly or indi- When assembly is not peaceful, it rectly thrown out of employment. is a riot. The right to picket is a Often citizens are deprived of the basic constitutional right. Never- services of public utilities. Lawless theless, by no logical nor legal in- disorder denies taxpayers the terpretation can this or-any other proper use of public thoroughfares provision of the Bill of Rights be and property. So, it is clear that held to constitute a license to exer- there is a vast area of public in- cise violence, assault, arson, or terest in industrial disputes —an anarchy. Much less can any pro- interest that has long been ignored vision of the Bill of Rights be in- by the majority of public officials. terpreted to mean that the seizure or destruction of private property The “Tolerance’’ of the Picket Line by picketing is a lawful act. It is Certainly, a man must be al- quite idle to pretend, in the ma- lowed to exercise his right to jority of cases today, that picket- belong to a union without jeopard- ing is peaceable. izing his opportunity for employ- Some will say that the injunc- ment. Along with this must go his tion is a restraint against unlawful right to cease work when he so acts during strikes. This is not desires. To force a man to work true. The injunction usually does against his will would be unthink- not come until after the commis- able as well as unconstitutional; it sion of unlawful acts. To the busi- would indeed be slavery. Just as ness that has suffered heavy finan- certainly, a man must be protected cial loss by blasting or burning of in his right to continue to work, property, or to the individual who if he so desires, without joining a has suffered assault or has had his union or submitting to the de- home bombed, an injunction is no mands of union bosses. Otherwise, protection and poor consolation. this would be slavery. Prompt and positive action by The right to picket comes from those charged with law -enforce- the provisions of Article IT of the ment is necessary to protect the Bill of Rights, which provides for rights of everyone. Unfortunately. freedom of speech and of peaceable this is seldom forthcoming until assemblage. The courts have held after much damage has ,been time and again that freedom of wrought, and even then is gener- speech cannot be used as a license ally used to prevent more damage ===== PAGE 53 ===== 1957 THE RIGHT TO WORK 51 rather than to apprehend and pun- A man in Pennsylvania is just as ish offenders. much entitled to protection The political power of organized against the thug or goon on the labor seems to have convinced picket line as is a man in South many governors, mayors, judges, Carolina against a hooded Klans- and prosecuting attorneys that a man. For every man assaulted in man who assaults another in a the South in racial disorders, hun- labor dispute, or a striker who dreds have been assaulted in the dynamites a coal tipple, should not North in industrial disorders. be held accountable for his unlaw- In awarding government con- ful acts: Generally, little or no tracts, provisions are inserted effort is made to punish. such of- against racial or religious dis- fenders. Even those arrested are crimination in employment. If that usually released on nominal bail is right and just and in accord and no further action taken. A with the principles of democracy, little delay to give the goon squads then it would seem equally appro- time for their “brainwashing” of priate to guard against discrimi- both victims and witnesses, and nation on grounds of union affilia- identification of the guilty parties tion or lack thereof. However, the is almost impossible. closed or union shop prevails in Let a motorist park his car in a most of the establishments where restricted area and the police will the money of taxpayers is being promptly hale him into court; but spent. For every man barred from a dozen men can overturn his car employment in these shops because and burn it while he is trying to of race, color, or religion, there go to work, and the police will be will be many barred for not be- too blind to recognize any of them. Ionging to a union. A man who desires to work during a strike is entitled to all of the = The “Liberality” of the Closed Shop protection of the law, for himself, The closed shop is a violation of family, and property while so do- the Thirteenth Amendment to the ing — even to the protection of Constitution. There can be no the Army, if necessary. An indus- doubt that certain workers in any trial concern which wishes to op- industry belong to the union only erate during a strike is entitled to under compulsion. The closed shop protection against the depreda- places these individuals in invol- tions of strikers, just as it is en- untary servitude to the bosses of titled to protection against the the union that they must join in depredations of foreign enemies. order to earn a living. They must ===== PAGE 54 ===== 52 THE FREEMAN July pay whatever dues, fines, or assess- attained their power to impose the ments are imposed upon them. closed or union shop upon the Their actions while working and workers of this nation, grimly re- their prospects for promotion are minding us that “eternal vigilance largely under the same control. is the price of liberty.” They must strike and do picket The Taft-Hartley Bill was en- duty when so ordered, however acted as the inevitable reaction to much their desire to do otherwise. abuses of union power. This legis- In many unions they have neither lation took from the labor barons the right of free speech nor secret only a fraction of the power which ballot. they had usurped, but it warned The Fourteenth Amendment to them that they no longer had abso- the Constitution denies to .the lute control over Congress. The states the power to make or to trend of public opinion was fur- enforce any law abridging the ther reflected in the “right to privileges or immunities of United work” laws enacted in various States citizens or denying to any states. person within its jurisdiction the : equal protection of the laws. Can Right To Work Laws there be any question but that the Many of the arguments of the privileges and immunities of citi- union bosses against “right to zens are abridged when they are work laws” are strange indeed forced to join a labor union in when compared to the principles order to secure employment? The of democracy and the spirit and states are forbidden these abusive letter of the Constitution. They powers which labor bosses have contend that such laws would de- assumed and are exercising. It is stroy labor unions. Such argument the duty of a state to protect each assumes that labor unions are and every one of its citizens vested interests with vested rights against the exercise of a usurped — which of course they are not. power denied to the state. To argue that “right to work laws” Dictatorships begin by the re- would destroy unions is simply an striction of the personal and prop- admission that labor unions can erty rights of the few for the exist only by compulsion and not pretended benefit of the many. In by virtue of their true value. a short time the rights of the Union bosses further argue that many are restricted for the benefit this nation is a democracy (which of the few, and these few are the it is not), operating under ma- leaders. Thus have labor bosses jority rule; hence, if a majority of ===== PAGE 55 ===== 1957 THE RIGHT TO WORK 53 the workers wish to belong to full liberty to do anything except unions, such membership should injure the persons or property of be compulsory for all. But such others. If they ask for more than regimentation reflects totalitarian that, they seek license, not liberty. procedure. Should it once be estab- : lished that a man must belong to Protection of Property a labor union before he could se- Article IV of the Bill of Rights cure employment, then compulsory protects the people, their houses, membership in one church and in papers, and effects against unrea- one political party would soon fol- sonable search and seizure. Article low. The end of economic freedom V of the Bill of Rights, besides would mean regimentation of all protecting communists and thieves, of man’s activities and the end of also is meant to protect honest all personal liberty. men, lest they be deprived of life, The suggestion of majority rule liberty, or property without due regarding membership in labor process of law. But these Articles organizations does violence to the have woefully failed to protect concept of representative govern- people and property from seizure ment for the protection of both by the labor bosses. minority and majority rights. The A man’s right to work is at exercise of the will of the majority once an individual right and a in our form of government is lim- form of property — the only valu- ited by the express terms of the able property which many have Constitution, placed there for the during the starting period of pro- protection of the rights, liberties, ductive life. As a citizen and a property, privileges, and immuni- taxpayer, a man is just as much ties of all. entitled to the protection of his There are no grounds for the right to work as he is to the pro- contention that “right to work tection of his home or his children. laws” restrict the rights of labor organizations and their members. The State Is To Protect Such laws must be constitutional, Under our system of govern- or they cannot stand. They cannot ment the protection of the rights, encroach upon any individual or liberties, and property of the peo- property rights or curtail any in- ple is primarily a function of the dividual liberties. The unions as state in which the protection is such, and each of their members needed. The state exists simply to as individuals, are still possessed promote the welfare and to protect of all of their rights. They have the rights of its citizens. It has no ===== PAGE 56 ===== 54 THE FREEMAN July other legitimate purpose. It pos- judicial interpretation and unwise sesses the necessary police power, legislation, and when powers for- and its duty is to so exercise this bidden to government have: been power as to protect everyone with- usurped by labor bosses, it is evi- in its jurisdiction from any dent that few persons understand abridgement by any power what- the dangerous implications of the soever of the rights and liberties situation. Correction can be ex- guaranteed under the Constitu- pected only as fast as individuals tion. will take the trouble to discover The usurpation of power on the why it is to their advantage to part of the labor bosses in many treat with respect the persons and cases has had the effect of creating property of others, why govern- a super state within a state, with ment should not be used to grant the power to assess, tax, arrest, favors to some at the expense of fine, or otherwise punish its sub- others, and why it is economically jects, with no appeal possible. and morally unsound to join an Such a movement ought to be rec- organization for the purpose of ognized and dealt with for what denying freedom to peaceful per- it is: an organized attempt to over- sons. throw the duly constituted govern- Liberties are nibbled from the ment of the United States by force people one at a time, as rats nibble and violence. an ear of corn, grain by grain. When governmental powers and When only the cob of oppression duties of defending lives and prop- remains, then, indeed, will the peo- erty have been perverted through ple deplore their loss. eo ooo The Tyrannous Majority EVER SINCE DEMOCRATIC GOVERNMENT APPEARED, it has been recognized that majority rule can be as tyrannous as any other. The founders of democratic nations coupled the principle of majority rule with that of limited powers, because they knew that there would be no freedom in a state where 51 per cent of the people could wield absolute authority over the other 49 per cent. B If this is true of the state, it is surely true of the labor union, the only type of private organization that shares with the state the power to exercise authority over all within its range, whether or not they have performed a voluntary act of membership and allegiance. The Guaranty Survey, April 1956 ! ===== PAGE 57 ===== A REVIEWER'S NOTEBOOK JOHN CHAMBERLAIN The Duty nd = 4 Y HE IMMEDIATE CAUSE of EI 3 “Tenth Amendment conserva- ok Inlerpose 7 Jackson Kilpatrick's The Lmeéaning that he takes seri- EVE ereign States: Notes of a ee constitutional provision of Virginia (Regnery, $5.00. 307 which says that all “powers not pp.) is the attempt to integrate delegated to the United States by white and Negro schools below the the Constitution, nor prohibited by Mason-Dixon line. But, while Mr. it to the States, are reserved to the Kilpatrick (who happens to be the States respectively, or to the peo- editor of the Richmond News ple.” He has searched the Consti- Leader) is very much at home in tution from its preamble to its dealing with local issues, this is latest amendment, and he can find not the work of a purely local nowhere in it a phrase, a clause, or mind. Like John Calhoun before even a justified implication, which him, Mr. Kilpatrick can only wage gives the federal government the a local fight when his immediate right to prescribe educational desires are in tune with universal modes in local communities. True, postulates. Thus a book which had the Fourteenth Amendment says its origins in the Southern reac- that “no State shall make or en- tion to Chief Justice Warren’s force any law which shall abridge desegregation decision becomes a the privileges or immunities of grand essay on the whole underly- citizens of the United States. . . . ing theory of the American Con- nor deny to any person within its stitution. The message of The Sov- jurisdiction the equal protection of ereign States is fully as important the laws.” But the congressional to a citizen of Connecticut who is debates of 1866 make it plain that being taxed to subsidize the elec- the words about “equal protection” tric power consumed in Tennessee and “privileges and immunities” as it is to a housewife with a child refer to the Negro’s right to hold in the fifth grade of a Richmond, property, to be a party and witness Virginia, grammar school. in court, and to other immemorial Mr. Kilpatrick describes himself civil rights. 55 ===== PAGE 58 ===== 56 THE FREEMAN July Like the voting qualification, the rendered to the federal govern- matter of educational rights re- ment had mainly to do with broad mains a “power reserved to the common citizenship, with state re- States respectively, or to the peo- lations to each other as states and ple.” In Mr. Kilpatrick’s opinion with the “power of the border” in the Fourteenth Amendment can be dealing with foreign nations. Thus ‘taken to imply a guarantee to the states agreed on the mechanics “substantially equal schools, not to of representation and on joining a the same or identical schools.” And general free trade area under a to buttress his contention Mr. Kil- single federal currency. They re- patrick notes that Congress, at the linquished the control of foreign very time when it was debating affairs to the President and Con- the Fourteenth Amendment, .en- gress. They also wrote many pro- acted a law establishing segregated hibitions of power into the com- schools in Washington and George- pact, and they certainly did not town “for the sole use of colored agree to hand over to a general children.” Furthermore, two of the government the power to put states which ratifred the Four- things not enumerated in the Con- teenth Amendment established stitution on the list of crimes. racially separate schools “within two years after the amendment Efforts To Interpose had been proclaimed, while it was Recapitulating the history of still fresh in everyone's mind...” States’ Rights, Mr. Kilpatrick dis- covers that every important sec- The States Agreed tion of the country has insisted on If this were all there were to upholding its own conception of Mr. Kilpatrick’s book, it would them at different times. Virginia stand as an interesting argument and Kentucky fought for free on the legislative intents of the im- speech and a free press when they - mediate post-Civil War period. But adopted resolutions against the Mr. Kilpatrick has considerably Alien and Sedition Acts of John more on his mind than contested Adams’ presidency. New England interpretations. To get a running refused its militia to the federal start, Mr. Kilpatrick notes that the government in the early stages of Constitution was the result of a the War of 1812, and did its level compact — not of “we, the people,” best to make the embargo on sea but of the people as organized into trade a dead letter from its very thirteen sovereign states. What inception in 1807. When the Su- the delegates from the states sur- preme Court ruled against the ===== PAGE 59 ===== 1957 A REVIEWER’S NOTEBOOK 57 right of Maryland to tax the Bank ceive to be the plain terms of the of the United States, Ohio went Constitution. Since it was the gaily ahead with an enactment states which created the federal which levied a tax of $50,000 a power, should they acquiesce light- ‘year on each of the bank’s two ly in such tyranny? Mr. Kilpat- branches in Ohio. When the Bank rick’s answer is to stress the duty refused to pay the money, a deputy of a state to “interpose” by objec- state auditor leaped over a counter tion and noncompliance with a in Chillicothe and helped himself palpably unconstitutional law or to $100,000 in paper and specie. judicial interpretation of the law. The States’ Rights scene shifted Objection and noncompliance, he back to the South in the nullifica- says, need not go to the extreme of tion crisis over the so-called Tariff armed rebellion; and if there is of Abominations. But it quickly ever need of force to break an im- jumped again to the North when passe, a contested law could be sub- States from Maine to Wisconsin mitted to the states for acceptance refused to obey the fugitive slave provided three-fourths of them laws. From then on it was back agree. and forth until the issue of slavery was joined in the Civil War. A Nation of Milquetoasts Throughout his long recital of Mr. Kilpatrick thinks that most the states’ efforts to ‘“‘interpose” of the people of the states have be- against palpable federal infringe- come Milquetoasts since 1933 — or, ments of the reserved powers of indeed, since 1888. Despite the states and individuals, Mr. Kilpat- Tenth Amendment and the powers rick again and again takes note of that are reserved to the states and an anomaly: the Supreme Court, the individual citizens thereof, the being an agent of the federal gov- federal government has stretched ernment, is in a position to be the commerce and the general wel- judge in its own interests in any- fare clauses of the Constitution thing involving a quarrel between out of all recognition, thus accom- Washington, D. C., and a state cap- plishing the negation of much of ital. There is no impartial tribunal the original compact. Washington to which the states can appeal the can tell a Chicago milk dealer how verdict. This is an unheard of pro- much he is to charge for milk from cedure in traditional Anglo-Saxon Illinois cows. It can tell a citizen law. In the case of a 5-4 decision it of New York that he must pay for often gives a single judge the adam in Utah or an electric power power to override what many con- line in California. It can punish a ===== PAGE 60 ===== 58 THE FREEMAN July Pennsylvania farmer for raising or to raise the issue of tu quoque. wheat in excess of a stated acreage For the same South which is now allowance, even if the wheat never up in arms about Yankee arro- appears in interstate commerce. In gance in presuming to prescribe all of this, the states have re- modes of schooling for Southern mained docile and placid; they citizens quite willingly takes have not even supported a few re- money by force from New York calcitrant individuals in their ob- and Massachusetts to build steam jections to federal usurpation of plants in the Tennessee Valley. state powers in the economic realm. This same South cries to heaven It took the Supreme Court’s de- for federal support if the price of cision in the matter of school in- cotton is threatened, Mr. Kilpat- tegration to revive the old. doctrine rick obviously does not approve of of interposition in a half-dozen the willingness of Southerners to Southern states. With a good deal twist such things as the commerce of pertinence Southerners have ob- and the general welfare clauses in jected that the Supreme Court has order to gain subsidies at the ex- no power to impose the sociology pense of New York and Massachu- of Gunnar Myrdal, a Swedish econ- setts people. But he might have ex- omist who has written a book on tended his book to show that there race relations in America, on the are times when the individual citi- people of Virginia and Carolina. zen himself must feel he has his True, one could argue forever own right of interposition “to ar- about the validity of the Supreme rest the progress of the evil.” Court’s decision in the light of States’ Rights are important. words about “equal protection of But there are things which no gov- the laws.” But it is certainly true, erning body should be permitted to as Kilpatrick says, that the states do, no matter what its size. If a should not be allowed to “sink into Northerner is to be asked to help the insignificance of mere admin- the South maintain the Calhoun istrative suburbs.” doctrine of the “concurrent major- ity” in defense of States’ Rights, Quid Pro Quo he might reasonably demand a quid Mr. Kilpatrick has written an pro quo: let the South oppose fed- absorbing and searching book. But, eral encroachment on the indi- as a citizen of the South, he is viduals right to the produce of his somewhat vulnerable to any North- own energy in this matter of gen- erner who wants to quote Scrip- eral taxes to subsidize such re- ture about the beam and the mote gional favoritisms as the TVA. ===== PAGE 61 ===== 1957 OTHER BOOKS 59 «> The Intelligent Woman’s average and when it comes to Guide to Conservatism ideas. Being public relations By Russell Kirk. New York: minded, they want to stand in well Devin-Adair. 122 pp. $2.75 with their neighbors and business associates. The neighbors and One of the most interesting cul- pysiness associates favor free en- tural trends of this decade is the terprise — with qualifications; they conservative revival. Its first sub- are for limited, constitutional gov- stantial literary product appeared ernment — with qualifications; and in 1953 when Russell Kirk wrote go on. Anyone who comes out flat- The Conservative Mind, a book footedly for personal rights and which made the ideas of such men limited government, for free en- as Burke, Adams, Calhoun, Maine, terprise and the market economy, and Lecky come alive. Now, sev- ig looked upon as a nonconformist eral books later, Professor Kirk who undermines confidence in Our- brings out a small handbook which, Way-of-Life. So the average man ideally, should have been handed {ends to play it close to the vest. to Woman along with the Nine- But his womenfolk are under no teenth Amendment when she got such inhibition. Our mores allow the power of the ballot into her woman to hold any ideas she possession. pleases and, if the spirit moves But such a book was not avail- her, to go on the warpath for able in 1920. Women voters were them. Well, the women are giving showered instead with a spate of forth with war cries, all right. A lower case liberal literature and lot of them do not want any part George Bernard Shaw got into the of the Welfare State: they are act with his Intelligent Woman’s alarmed by the socialization which Guide to Socialism and Capitalism. advances no matter which party is The results have been somewhat in power; they are demanding lit- less than utopian. Women have erature which supplies them with voted alongside of their men and the facts and theories they need politics has gone from bad to to make them skillful expositors worse. One result is that many of the case for freedom. They will women are up in arms about the welcome this book. Guide to Con- low estate to which the Republic servatism spells out the case sim- has fallen — as witness the several ply and persuasively, and although active women’s organizations it is not the whole story of free- along the lines of Pro-America. dom, it is an important part of Men are the cautious sex, on the that story. ===== PAGE 62 ===== 60 THE FREEMAN : July Modern conservatism, as Russell conservative, although he is not a Kirk expounds it, is the political materialist — and precisely because philosophy which arose late in the he is not — believes in private eighteenth century to confront property and a free economy. the fanatic visionaries typified by ‘What we mean by the phrase the French revolutionaries. Its de- ‘property rights,” ” says Kirk, “is velopment in the American tradi- really the right of human beings tion is characterized by several to possess and acquire property. convictions. Foremost among these Property rights are human rights. is the belief that political problems They are, indeed, among the most cannot be rightly understood or re- important of human rights.” And solved apart from moral and reli- further, “a free economy is essen- gious truths. These fundamental tial to the preservation of freedom principles are not to be confused in general: to intellectual freedom, with ‘‘abstractions,” however, to civil liberties, to representative which are “absolute political government, to freedom of private dogmas divorced from practical character.” experience and particular circum- In the interests of personal stances.” The conservative under- liberty and private character the stands that the fundamental conservative tries to keep political principles which undergird a par- power checked and balanced, lim- ticular culture are not improvised ited by constitutions and customs. for the occasion; that “our civil He encourages voluntary associa- social order—the complex of moral tions and local attachments and habits, political establishments, the importance of the family. Al- customary laws, and economic though he resists innovation for ways — has been erected over many its own sake, he allows for the centuries by a painful and labor- orderly growth and development lous process of trial and error.” of persons and their institutions: Thus the conservative sternly “All human institutions alter to sets his face against the planner some extent from age to age, for - armed with political power, who slow change is the means of con- would blithely turn this sensitive serving society, just as it is the structure inside out. He resists the means for renewing the human planner because he dislikes uni- body.” formity; instead he would encour- This is a pertinent tract for the age variety and diversity in so- times, and for the intelligent man ciety, believing in different re- as well as his mate. wards for different abilities. The EDMUND A. OPITZ ===== PAGE 63 ===== 1957 OTHER BOOKS 61 " HOW INCA SOCIALISM body’s production was taken over CAME TO NORTH AMERICA for that purpose. It was gathered = Nowhere Was Somewhere into central warehouses and dis- By Arthur E. Morgan. Chapel Hill: tributed “as needed without University of North Carolina MONEY or price. Press, 1946. 234 pp. $3.00 Employment and work — even marriage — were strictly con- Some interesting facts in this trolled by the government, includ- book connect the socialism of con- ing the place of work and the work temporary North America with gang to which each was assigned. that of the Inca Indians during A system of universal military their era of political enslavement. training prevailed and supported It seems that one Raphael Hy- their vast military conquests. thloday went on three of Amerigo A social security system in ex- Vespucei’s four voyages. On Ves- treme degree was in operation. puceci’s last voyage in 1503, Hy- The Incas did not even have a thloday stayed to make a trip written language. The numerical overland to visit the Peruvian records of the government were Inca Indians, whose society oper- kept by means of knotted cords. ated from, roughly, 1100 to 1550. They knew nothing of the wheel, There Hythloday found what the axle, or the arch for building. was a highly developed communist Only a simple scale of living society. The Emperor — “Inca” — prevailed, since ambition had all had absolute power over all per- but disappeared in a system where sons and property. All land was achievement was not possible. The collectively owned, with the gov- long success of the Incas’ dicta- ernment granting rights to its use torial communism seems to have for which the tenants were forced been due to their genius in pre- to pay a rental tax in the form of venting their subjects from want- labor. So long as they were able ing much or aspiring to attain- to hold these controls, the dicta- ment and progress. tors were able to maintain them- Finally, this despotic and far- selves in power, flung empire suddenly collapsed. The Inca society had no money. Except for the fact that the Almost no private trading oc- people's spirit was gone, it would curred, other than slight amounts have collapsed sooner — perhaps of local barter, All general distri- centuries sooner. bution was in the hands of the This is the society which fasci- central government, and every- nated Hythloday and which he ===== PAGE 64 ===== 62 THE FREEMAN July went overland to study. It had an important source for Looking considerable appeal to this foreign Backward. observer from a part of the world The close parallel between the that had known little except feu- pattern of Utopia and the com- dal tyranny. munal society of the Incas in an- Now let us trace matters back- cient Peru is also unmistakable.’ ward from the present, over a bit In fact, Morgan says on page 34: of history. “There are several phases of the In our time we find that Adolf evidence which support the theory Berle, one of the most intimate that More’s book in the main is and long-lasting advisors of the not a fictitious story, but a record federal government during its of a trip to Peru and what was heaviest surge into socialism a observed there.” quarter century ago, grew up in More’s Utopia had been, how- a home where Edward Bellamy ever, accepted as purely fictional was well-known. Berle’s father by Europeans. Apparently this was a personal friend and disciple was because the historical record of Bellamy, who had become a of the Incas, which the book prophet of light in their home. clearly reflected, was almost Bellamy’s book, Looking Back- totally unknown to Europeans of ward, was “somewhat like a that time. And yet, instead of family Bible” in the Berle home. being a nowhere (of which the The close parallel between the Greek is utopia), it has later be- New Deal economic policies and come evident that More’s design in the philosophy of Looking Back- Utopia was patterned closely after ward, says Morgan, “seems to pre- the Inca society. clude mere chance.” We can see It appears certain from their why. association that More obtained in / Looking Backward bears unmis- Person from Hythloday the basic takable similarity to a description information which became the de- of the Inca society of ancient Peru. sign for his Utopia. Apparently, There can be little doubt that Bel- More had made the acquaintance lamy was strongly influenced by of Hythloday while on a mission More's Utopia.® The close parallel to Flanders for Henry VIII, between these two books is unmis- 2round 1514. takable. Circumstances give If More was reporting the pat- strong evidence that Utopia. was —— —_ 3For an excellent study of the Inca civiliza- Boston, 1888. tion, see L’Empire Socialiste des Inka by “Original Latin version, 1516. . Louis Baudin, 1928. ===== PAGE 65 ===== 1957 OTHER BOOKS 63 tern of the Inca society, why did America, in a chain of events that he portray it as a fantasy rather were all but lost from our knowl- than as a fact? He was apparently edge. How altered would have not the kind of a man to write been the course of events if More's solely to entertain. He was a account had been portrayed as lawyer with a high respect for fact rather than as fancy — after correct reporting of facts, and one adequate checking on it, of course theory is that he may not have — together with a prophetic and dared report as fact, under his thorough explanation of the rea- name, the story of Hythloday’s sons why it would doubtless col- which he had not verified and lapse, as More seemed to believe? which was new in his day; that in F. A. HARPER order to report it at all, he felt he : must make no personal claims for jpeerarararaerarara its validity. This he apparently did, even though, as William FREEMAN REPRINTS Henry Campbell asserts, More re- (from recent ssues) pudiated the major doctrine he described in Utopia; that he as- 8-page reprints 10 for $1.00; 100 for $6.00 Mathematical Manpower Shortage Belden Why Wages Rise (review) Chamberlain serted to Hythloday that men can- Compulsory Insurance Baker not live well where all things are Law of the Land in England Bissantz held in common, because ‘every Penalty of Surrender Read man will withdraw his hand from High Cost of Unionism Freier labour.” Single page — 1 side 1¢ each From all this information which ~~ Most Dressedit ony of Lierty chaadison : cdi pat] Why the President Said No ela has come to light, indicating that The le Nears 2a More’s Utopia appears to be a re- “porting of fact, the circle seems Single page — both sides 2¢ each complete — from the Incas to Hy- A Clergyman’s Security Mahaffy thloday to More to Bellamy to 1-Man Pressure Group Burgess Berle to the New Deal and finally Order from THE FREEMAN, lrvington-on-Hudson, N.Y. to our continuing, growing S0- DEWELRVEL QUELLE QELS cialism. So Vespucci’s voyages seem to . . Any book reviewed in this Book Section (or have led to discovering com- any other current book) supplied by return munism as well as to discovering mail. You pay only the bookstore price. We poy the postage anywhere in the world. Catalogue on request. THE BOOKMAILER, Box 101, New. York 16 ‘See Campbell's More's Utopia and His Social Teaching. London: Eyre and Spot- tiswoode, Ltd., 1930. ===== PAGE 66 ===== MAXIMUM RETURN A | ) oo on your investment with SAFETY, through 7 progressive, yet conservative manage- ment — plus insurance on each account. FEDERAL | | pypiiasiuiy : Offers LEGAL INVESTMENT Savings for trust funds. Investors PROMPTNESS in all transactions assured by use of Air Mail. (We pay postage both ways). “| RESOURCES OVER ONE QUARTER BILLION DOLLARS R ES E RV E S over $24 million. Write today for this booklet and financial statement, to: ‘ ~ COAST FEDERAL SAVINGS ra VAR | ETY DEPARTMENT H ” of accounts, Individual, Joint, Trust and 9th and HILL LOS ANGELES 14, CALIF. 4/ oO PER ANNUM Current Rate Corporation. Lo — Member —Federal Home Loan Bank—Federal Savings .and Loan Insurance Corp. Cons FEDERAL SAVINGS JOE CRAIL, PRESIDENT ===== PAGE 67 ===== Thompson power units heep guided missiles “on target’! This is one of the Thompson''Muscles™ built to help keep guided misstles “on target” with uncanny accuracy. The self-contained auniliary power plant shown here is only 12 inches high yet it produces approximately 10 horsepower in electrical and hydraulic energy. This power is used for operacing che zuidance concrols. radar mechanism and intri- cate computing gear of the missile. 100,000 Revolu- tions per Minute! Yes, the tiny turbine wheel which you see here on the warch-size alternator, spins at the rate of 100.000 RPM ’ : 3 .. . almost 1700 per sec TACAY. ~ 3 ; - i ond! It dexelops elec- 4 : Sf trical curren thar would ~5 ma pee 55S ». be sufficient 10 hight a : — * 100-watr bulh, and is part of a very small Thompson auxiliary power unit for guided ‘missiles. This particular power unit is designed for a useful life of less than a minute! Army's Production Missiles include the "Honest John” {left}. the “Nike” (center) and the “Corporal” (right). It 1s esumared that Congressional appro- priacions for missile construction in 1956 will be close to a billion dollars. ODAY'S HEADLINES tell of rocket- a fractfan of a minute to several has the engincering skills and the propelled guided missiles that hours in predetermined operating laboratory, testing and manufac. soon may be able to travel -{00 miles life. Each Thompson unit is highly turing facilities to solve complex high at 10,000 t0 15,000 m.p.h. These accurate, even ac extremely high scientific problems. Many different fantastic weapons can well be the key ~ jiitudes and supersonic speeds. It industries have learned chey can to permanent peace among nations. withstands extreme temperatures. count on Thompson to come up with : : . : . - A t i components that do the Now being built for guided mis- rapid acceleration and friction. ob tight Thompson Products, Inc sles are Pasd marking Thompson Thompson “custom-engineers” General Offices, Cleveland 17, Ohio. cont hey ving haf , ee every unit. Each is a highly intricate 'P SUPPY system involving many specialized power for steering controls, radar . . . mechanisms and intricate comput- electrical and mechanical devices, y/ ing gear that guide the missile un- fuel systems and generators. Yet, ompson erringly to its target, near or far. all are blended into one compact, Some of these Thompson efficient package to meet the LY) “A.P.U.'s” can be slipped into your requirements of our defense, 2 rooducts pocket; some are as big as office Behind Thompson are 55 years of desks. They range from 100 watts to automotive, aircraft, mechanical and MANU? ACTURERE UF AUTUMUTIVE. AIRCRAVT . iN . INDUSTRIAL AND ELECTRONIC PRODUCTS. 60 horsepower in output, and from electronic experience. Thompson FACTURIES IN EIGHTEEN CITIES. You can count on ===== PAGE 68 ===== FROM A LIBERTARIAN’S LIBRARY How DOES THE FREE ECONOMY WORK and what dues it accom- plish? What controls production and distribution? What factors decide how much beef shall be produced, how much corn grown? What amounts and what qualities of suits and dresses and shoes and hats shall be manufactured? What decides where these goods shall be sent to market and what prices shall be charged for them? When goods are scarce, who gets them? What are the reasons for the development of labor- saving ma- chinery, and what are the consequences to the laborers and to the whole people? We ask: What are the facts about “big” business, can business become too big, and is small business dying out? What about the conflict between “capital and labor’? What are the facts concerning industrial progress under the free economy, and who has obtained the principal benefits? Next we want to ask these same questions about other social systems. What is socialism, communism, fascism? How do they work, and what do they accomplish? Can we learn anything by comparing free America with socialist Great Britain and com- munist Russia? A selection from the high school textbook, Understanding Our Free Economy, by Fred Rogers Fairchild in collaboration with Thomas J. Shelly, D. Van Nostrand Company, Princeton. 589 pp. $4.20.