

===== PAGE 1 =====

THE

reema

~ NOVEMBER 1957

IDEAS ON LIBERTY

To Shoot a Myth . . . . . . . . F. A. Harper 2

How's Your Thinking? . . . . . . . Douglas J. Murphey 8 :
The Importance of Awe . . . . . . Leonard E. Read 11 |
Social Discipline . . . . . . . . . Herrell DeGraff 16
Why Humans Must Be Free . . . . . V. Orval Walls 23
More Frenchmen to Algeria? . . . . . Frederic Bastiat 28 |
The Competitive System Is Humane . . . Vollie Tripp 32
Education Is a Private Responsibility . . T. Robert Ingram 37
Voluntary Associations and the State . . Sylvester Petro 43 |
Small States Are Best . . . . . . . John Chamberlain 55

Other Books . . . . . . . . . . 58

sn THE FOUNDATION
FALE FOR ECONOMIC EDUCATION, INC.

Irvington-on-Hudson, New York



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===== PAGE 4 =====

F. A. HARPER

T IS difficult enough of positive truth which each con-
to shoot a moth on tributes. The true statement, is of
the wing, but it is itself, able to displace the erroneous
even more difficult to shoot a myth. idea, and becomes, without our hav-
In fact, it is all but impossible. ~~ 8 taken the trouble of refuting
One reason is a matter of sim- anyone, the best of refutations.
ple logic. As Professor H. J. Dav- The real reason why myths are
enport once expressed it, in com- impossible to shoot is that the
menting on a myth which had been forms they can take are infinite in
voiced by a student: “How can number, and also that they evade
you, for instance, prove that water one’s aim at an infinite speed.
babies don’t exist? The only sure As to the number of forms
way would seem to be to find some myths can take, consider the pos-
water babies not existing.” And to sible answers to 2 plus 2. The only
prove it to those not there at the nonmythical answer is 4. But
time one would also need a snap- there are infinite mythical an-
shot of their nonexistent profiles, swers.
I suppose. It is similar with any other
The same thought was once problem or question, however sim-
stated more profoundly by the ple or complex it may be, since
French philosopher, Henri Berg- each problem has only one correct
son : answer. So if one’s aim were per-
fect and he could shoot a myth
utation in philosophy is usually time with every shot, he could spend his
lost. Of the many attacks directed by entire lifetime shooting myths re-
many thinkers against each other, leased by only one myth factory,
what now remains? Nothing, or as- Without ever demolishing all this
suredly very -little. That which factory could produce. For auto-
counts and endures is the modicum mation is well established in myth

I believe that the time given to ref-

Dr. Harper is a member of the staff of the Foundation for Economic Education.

2


===== PAGE 5 =====

1957 TO SHOOT A MYTH 3

factories; their production can op- soil of matters beyond the reach
erate at a fantastic speed, with of our senses to detect directly.
practically no cost. Religion, in coping with faiths
As I write this, my wife and I about the far beyond, has abound-
are on the North Atlantic on a ed in myths throughout the exist-
Norwegian freighter. Last eve- ence of man, as evidenced in the
ning a heavy fog fell on us and wide differences of religious be-
our path. Captain Aaby had to lief that have always existed. And
leave in the middle of his dinner every field of scientific contempla-
to oversee operations and was up tion has been full of myths before
all night watching things. The bits more certain scientific truths
of moisture in the fog cloud may emerged as each science developed.
be compared to myths in their Social science, being a young sci-
number. They impeded our view ence, is still in the mythological
as myths becloud the truth. It is realm so far as widespread under-
possible, of course, to “shoot” a standing is concerned. Economic
fog particle. But how foolish it myths are too numerous to shoot
would have been for Captain Aaby — economic fog, we might call it.
to do that. Instead, he proceeded
on his course the same as ever, The Major Myth
guarding only against collision Perhaps the greatest economic
with another ship or an iceberg. myth of all is the one that the
Such is the futility of the entic- government should — and can — do
ing sport of shooting at all exist- for us what we cannot otherwise
ing myths. And in addition, they do for ourselves. In social science
are hard to shoot because they flit this is the counterpart of a prin-
here and there at the speed of ciple that the whole is greater
force without resistance since they than the sum of its parts; for if
are not burdened by the weight you remove the “we” out of any
and rigid confines of fact. And if social agglomerate, nothing is left
you should happen to be so lucky but the shell of a dream. And so if
as to hit one squarely, it is likely we translate this myth into its real
only to-spatter into any number of © equivalent, it becomes: “We can
sub-myths, as if you had hit a gob do for ourselves what we cannot
of mercury with a hammer; and do for ourselves.” For in doing
then you will have only spread things for ourselves, we can do
mythology rather than having de- anything for each other, coopera-
molished it. tively and by means of exchange,
Myths grow most freely in the to any extent we desire and are


===== PAGE 6 =====

4 THE FREEMAN November

capable of doing under any man- the economic support of illegiti-
made scheme that we can design. macy without inducing more of
The myth about government is the same thing — without stimu-
comparable to what might be called lating the production of the subsi-
a mythical law of social dynamics: dized product. The fruits of this
“For mo governmental action is action have become more and more
there an equal and opposite reac- conspicuous with passing time, as
tion.” Or in accounting terms, this in the instance in Illinois where
myth is comparable to saying that for the third generation one house-
when the government does things, hold is living on the alms of il-
you need not use double entry to legitimacy and has abstained from
balance accounts; that you can en- any other form of gainful employ-
joy the debit side and forget the ment. The process is not quite the
credit side; that people can gen- same as profitable barnyard repro-
erally get something from noth- duction of calves and pigs since
ing; that the government is capa- the cow and the sow do not resolve
ble of spontaneous generation of their economic welfare by choice
the goodly things of life. in quite this same manner. But
otherwise, there is some striking
similarity. If the market pays for
In a sense the government seems raising pigs, farmers will raise
capable of spontaneous generation them. If the government pays for
—the generation of endless minor having illegitimate children, that
myths begotten from this major product will be forthcoming, too.
myth. The list of offspring is seem- So if pity for one illegitimate child
ingly endless. A few items will leads to one additional case of il-
illustrate. legitimacy that would not other-
When the government gives in- wise have occurred, the merit of
discriminate aid to mothers of the process is certainly debatable;
children born out of wedlock, it if two or three or more are the
seems like a fine, humane thing to result, it is clear that the myth has
do when viewed only on the debit generated the object of its pity.
side. Why should the innocent chil- The myth is found by looking at
dren of irresponsible parents be the credit side. Why can’t someone
made to suffer privation? Why not invent a means of myth control?
legalize aid to them? The myth of Even then, having generated
the matter comes into focus only that which was the object of our
when one looks at the credit side sympathy, other troubles arise as
. of the matter. You cannot legalize not only unmarried mothers but

Derivative Myths


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1957 TO SHOOT A MYTH 5

also myths reproduce offspring. the District of Columbia. Now
Cook County officials found that whether the neurotic residents of
Elsie M. had illegally obtained $5,- that city of government officials
864 relief for ten children sired overdid their alcohol consumption
illegally by five men. So they sent with the product from that par-
her to jail for six months. The ten ticular factory, or on vodka, there
children then had to be kept in seems to be a myth or two buried
foster homes—all at an additional somewhere in this contrast. The

expense of $19,948. two together seem like a make-
As another illustration, take the work tax project of the first order.
case of alcohol production and Then there is the case of untold

consumption. Year after year has millions of dollars of taxpayers’
been found in the federal budget, money being spent to increase
on pages so far apart that their agricultural production, while bil-
disharmony was not easily de- lions of what taxpayers have left
tected, two items of interest in re- thereafter are being spent to study
lation to one another. On one page the problem of how to dispose of
is an assessment for all taxpayers “surplus” farm products, to buy
to help make up the deficit of the and store those products, and to
government-operated rum factory dump them at far below purchase
on the Virgin Islands; on another price. The similarity between this
page is an assessment on all tax- and the alms to illegitimate chil-
payers to help cure alcoholism in dren, both produced in surplus be-

THE
NOVEMBER 1957 ++ Vol. 7, No. 11
[CCMA
/U ( Additional copies, postpaid to tomary credit is given), except
one address: Single copy, 50c; 3 “Voluntary Associations and the
for $1.00; 25 or more, 20c each, State.” Any other article will
Permission is hereby granted to be supplied in reprint form if

: A MONTHLY JOURNAL anyone fo reprint any article in there are enough inquiries to
i OF IDEAS ON LIBERTY whole or in part (providing cus- justify the cost of printing.

: The Freeman is published monthly by the Foundation for Economic Education, inc., Irvington-on-
© Hudson, N.Y. Anyone may receive the journal regularly upon written request; an annual subscription.
donation of $5.00 or more is a suggestion—not a requirement.

Accepted as controlled circulation publication at 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 8 =====

6 THE FREEMAN November

cause of reliance on the forthcom- trade two horses, even for even,
ing alms, is too close to escape but each adds a tariff of 10 per
notice. The myth is evidenced on cent to protect himself against the
the credit side of the account. other’s dumping his horse on the

It is traditional with consumers market; they still trade even, in
that they would like to pay less for the end — or perhaps don’t trade
what they buy. By one device or at all, to the disadvantage of both
another — price ceilings or what- as separately judged by them-.
not — the government enacts the selves.
“protective” legislation. Prices are There are myths of this sort
forced down. Some producers quit without end, for the myth factory
producing. Then the myth emerges is endless in output. The reader
from its cocoon: Instead of con- can add as many others as he likes
sumers being able to buy the “nec- from his own experience, illustrat-
essary” product at a “reasonable ing their extent and form. But the
price,” they can’t buy it at all be- point of this whole discussion is
cause it hasn't been produced. not to try to list them all. It is, in-
And for a desired product not to stead, to suggest that shooting
be available at any price is a more myths, like shooting fog particles
distressing situation for consum- on the high sea, may be a sport of
ers than to have a price higher sorts but it is no way to get to the
than they like to pay. port of truth.

Tariffs and all sorts of interna-
tional trade “protections” also of- Truth to the Rescue
fer innumerable illustrations of Fog on the high seas is not man
myths. Some producer wants the made, of course, whereas economic
domestic market protected from myths enacted into law are man
foreign infiltration, and an appro- made. And therein lies one differ-
priate mechanism is enacted into ence perhaps worthy of note.
law. Perhaps it is for purposes of Whereas man has no control over
“national defense,” or sympathy the creation of fog, in any detect-
for the workers of the local fac- able form or degree, he has con-
tory in Podunk, or whatnot. Look- trol over the creation of man-
ing at the debit side only, it ap- made myths. And so birth control
pears reasonable and a good thing of myths is a worthy objective,
to do. The myth is found on the while shooting them after their
credit side. If we could see it all uncontrolled production is a rath-
worked out, it is as though Farm- er futile sport. How to control
er A and Farmer B are ready to their birth, then, is the question. -


===== PAGE 9 =====

1957 TO SHOOT A MYTH 7

Birth control of myths is better erable substitute myths standing
and easier than their displacement by.
with truth. As Dean Myers of Cor- Success in dealing with myths,
nell used to say: “There is only then, would seem to be to work for
one thing worse than ignorance, the positive concept of truth rath-
and that is to know something that er than to work against the nega-
isn’t true. Unlearning is a difficult tive concept of innumerable
and painful process.” myths. Then all the myths will

In any event, it is truth that fade away and die of neglect and
serves the processes of both birth disfavor. And your energies will
control and the displacement of have been most fruitfully em-
myths; for in the displacement ployed that way.
process, myths are like the human To use a mathematical analogy,
mind in abhoring a vacuum. So if you can never attain a positive
you try to displace a myth by re- number merely by cancelling out
moval alone, instead of replace- endless negative humbers. It is the
ment by a superior belief that will same with myths. It’s fun to shoot
successfully push it aside, a situa- myths but it’s just a sport like
tion is required akin to a vacuum, shooting clay pigeons — which is
and this is difficult if not impossi- fun but not the way to get any-
ble to accomplish. thing for dinner.

So to shoot a myth or push it
aside, without displacement by Probably the best way to com-
first instituting a superior con- bat myths is to live strictly by the
cept, merely means that the suc- guide of truth as one sees it, inso-
tion of the vacuum will promptly far as choice can make the truth
replace it with one of the innum- accessible. LI

The Right of Choice

[oonae ow soni

MAN MUST HAVE THE RIGHT OF CHOICE, even to choose wrong, if
he shall ever learn to choose right. The child walks as we unwind
the swaddling clothes; the building stands in its full beauty as
we remove the scaffolding. Let us beware lest we make gods of
the scaffolding; lest by making more intricate the wrappings of
law, more strong the rods of coercion, man himself remain

feeble and imperfect.
JOSIAH C, WEDGWO0OD


===== PAGE 10 =====

This article was written about 1948 to describe the ideal of the American
Economic System from which there had been, and still is, such grave departure.

HOW'S YOUR

DOUGLAS J. MURPHEY

| TRUE TODAY, as it always has limited government, a government
been, that ‘as men think, so are that is restricted by a constitution
they.” Saying that we Americans —a constitution that says, “Gov-
believe in the American Economic ernment may do certain things,
System is utterly meaningless un- and government may not do cer-
less we know why we believe in it tain other things.” Our American
and are able to explain why in un- form of government was founded
derstandable language. and has been preserved and devel-
You have to start from the real- oped by citizens who believed that
ization that it isn’t a “system’” at men, simply by reason of being
all! The word “system” implies a human beings, possess certain hu-
predetermined plan —as if a set man rights that no government,
of rules had been written out in regardless of power or pure inten-
advance. Of course, that isn’t true. tions, can justly deny for any rea-
The American Economic Sys- son whatever.
tem isn’t a thing separate and Or, to phrase it another way:
apart from America. It’s part and We hold, as our Declaration of In-
parcel of our way of life, devel- dependence puts it, that “men are
oped from the same roots as our endowed with certain unalienable
other American institutions. It’s rights.” That word, “unalienable,”
a branch on the American tree; to means that certain rights are ours
understand the branch, we have to irrespective of government. Be-
understand the tree and its roots. cause we didn’t get them from
Traditionally, the “American government, no government can
way of life” means living under a justly take them away from us.

Mr. Murphey is now associated with one of the large national advertising agencies.

8


===== PAGE 11 =====

1957 HOW’S YOUR THINKING? 9

When a government tries, it be- velop and use them. Part and par-
comes tyranny. That's what tyr- cel of this right, and inseparable
anny means — the denial by gov- from it, is the right of private
ernment of man’s unalienable property, because a man has no
rights. real freedom to fulfill his economic
But what is an unalienable duty if he does not have power to
right? What are the rights that own and use the material things
belong to us as human beings? necessary to the development of
his talents and abilities. What's
To Fulfill One's Duty more, he didn’t get those special
A man has a duty, whether or talents and abilities, or his right
not he always fulfills it, to live and to own property, from the State.
act like a human being. But the He got them from his Creator, a
“duty” is meaningless unless man Power above and superior to the
has freedom to perform that duty. State. Therefore, the State can’t
For instance, man is born with an properly interfere with his right
insatiable desire to know truth. to develop and use them — or with
But he can’t even start to fulfill any of his “unalienable rights” ex-
that desire —that duty — if he cept to prevent him from interfer-
isn’t free to speak what he be- ing with other men’s similar
lieves the truth to be, and to listen rights. In fact, that is what the
to others speak what they believe Declaration of Independence says
to be the truth. Therefore, the a government is for: “. .. to se-
right to speak truth, or, as we say, cure these rights, governments are
free speech, is unalienable. An- instituted among men.”
other example: man has a duty, as Thus far, we haven’t said a
a created being, to worship the word that any informed American
God who created him; but it would will disagree with — because the
be unintelligent for a Creator to opposite of what we’ve been say-
give a man a duty and not freedom ing justifies the totalitarian state.
to fulfill it. Therefore, freedom of Down through the centuries, polit-
religion is one of the unalienable ical scientists and philosophers
rights. have never found any other basis
. A third example — and one of upon which human freedom can
special importance for our purpose be logically based. If a man isn’t
right now: Every man has special free to use and develop his own
talents and abilities. He wouldn’t talents and abilities, then he’s a
have them if he didn’t have a duty slave. That’s what slavery means
and a corresponding right to de- — the denial, by force, of man’s


===== PAGE 12 =====

10 , THE FREEMAN November

freedom to use his own talents and right if it doesn’t have a founda-
abilities the way his conscience tion in truth. That’s why our
and opportunities tell him to use American Economic System, how-

them. ever imperfect it may be and how-
ever much it may sometimes be
A Power Beyond the State abused, has in it the ability to de-

See what we're leading up to? velop — to become more and more
We've been explaining the funda- right. It has a sound foundation.
mental logic which we as Ameri- It is based on the moral and spir-
cans have inherited from the Ju- itual dignity of man.
daeo-Christian civilization upon So, keep this in mind: The
which all Western culture is American Economic System is
founded. If the things we've been what it is because it is founded,
explaining are not true, then let us hope solidly, on truth and
American freedom is an hallucina- justice —on the conviction of
tion — a pleasant dream. But be- American citizens that every man
cause we, as a people, do recognize has certain unalienable rights
that the only alternative to Al- which he gets from a Power be-
mighty God is the Almighty State yond the State, that are his be-
(even though we don’t think about cause he is a human being; and no
it as much as we should) we have man, no government, no society,
a firm, rational basis for our no majority can justly deny him
American way of life. We have a the freedom to exercise those
firm, rational basis for believing rights.
in the American Economic Sys-
tem. We have a logical foundation Inroads by government on man’s
upon which to defend our convic- economic freedom are always “jus-
tion that every citizen has an un- tified” by labels like “Security.”
alienable right to choose his own But there must be limits even to
occupation and to develop his own security if man wants to avoid
talents and abilities subject to no slavery. After all, absolute secur-
unjust hindrance and enjoying no ity is only another name for a

special privilege. penitentiary.

All economic systems have lots ‘Down through the ages, men
of things in common. No economic have learned the value of the max-
system could work if it were all im: “Put not your trust in

wrong. But neither can any eco- princes.” In this modern world,
nomic system ever be entirely the “prince” is the State. eo o o


===== PAGE 13 =====

The Importance of

Ar Em

LEONARD E. READ

N INDIVIDUAL does not adopt bor are better than your ways.
authoritarian ways because he The list must also include the in-
knows so little. More likely than tellectual authoritarians, those be-
not, he behaves in this manner lieving that all who do not see
because he is unaware of how eye-to-eye with them are to that
little he knows — unaware of the extent “off beam” — or fools. The
significance that his personal stock authoritarians are a numerous
of knowledge has in the context lot!
of the whole. Now, it is perfectly obvious that
But, first, what is meant by an many authoritarians are richer in
authoritarian? Julius Caesar, Na- an encyclopedic type of knowledge
poleon, Mussolini, Hitler, Stalin, than are many libertarians. But,
Peron qualify all right. The list, does this necessarily mean that
however, goes far beyond the few they are wiser? Socrates, reputed-
who have gained renown as politi- ly wise, said, “This man thinks he
cal tyrants. And it includes others knows something when he does
in addition to Robin Hood, Jesse not, whereas I, as I do not know
James, Al Capone, racketeering anything, do not think I do either.”
labor and business leaders, and It would seem that a person
the like who become governments who has gained an awareness of
on their own terms. Further, the how little he knows could hardly
list includes more than the sup- behave as an authoritarian. Such
porters of political plunder —those an awareness, however, must be
who use the police force to take exceedingly elusive; few seem to
from some and give to others; achieve it. Most of us assume that
those who employ violence to sup- reality does not go beyond those
port the claim that their ways of things and events which fall with-
disposing of the fruits of your la- in the purview of our five senses.

Mr. Read is President of the Foundation for Economic Education.

11



===== PAGE 14 =====

12 THE FREEMAN November

We assume that other people are if we aren’t daily standing more
only what they seem to us; that and more in awe of everything
the light we see is the light that within and without our beings,
is; that the sounds we hear and we can count on it, we simply
the odors we smell are the only aren’t growing in wisdom. To il-
sounds and odors; that we are lustrate how .exposure to the
the captains of our own.souls and wholly new can create an aware-

the lords of all we survey. ness of how little we know, visual-
} } ize a sheet of black, infinite in its
Recognizing One's Limitations dimensions. Now, assume that in

Persons unaware of a creation, childhood one had carved out an
a force, an intelligence, a con- amount of light — understanding
sciousness, far over and beyond — as symbolized by the small circle
selves are susceptible to a belief atop this article. But, in the years
in their own omniscience. And, since, he has enlarged his under-
those who believe in their own standing as symbolized by the
omniscience, logically, cannot en- larger circle. In the latter case,
vision a perfect society except as note the much greater amount of
others are cast in their little darkness to which he has exposed
images. It is difficult to imagine himself. The more one knows, the
anything more responsible for au- more awareness he should have of
thoritarianism than this type of the unknown.

unawareness.
One young man, a naval chap- One Billion Corpuscles
lain, who is aware of how little he There are all sorts of helpful

knows explained how this aware- exercises —such as an occasional
ness took root in him. As a stu- rehearsal of the startling facts of
dent at the University of Michi- life — that can induce an aware-
gan, visiting the great library for ness of how little one knows. For
the first time, he became over- example, while reading the above
whelmed with the fact that there three paragraphs, there will have
were over two million volumes on been created within the reader
its shelves! At that moment he nearly one billion new red blood
knew that he didn’t know much. corpuscles. Astounding as this is,

One way to gain an appreciation each of these billion corpuscles is
of how little we know is by con- a mystery in itself. For, “every
scious effort to expose ourselves substance is a system of molecules
to ideas, things, experiences lying in motion and every molecule is a
outside our own small orbits. For, system of oscillating atoms and



===== PAGE 15 =====

1957 THE IMPORTANCE OF AWE 13

every atom is... .” Well, what is If, continues the scientist, you
an atom? try to find what the “sun” is,
One noted chemist in trying to about which these planetary elec-
make simple an answer to this trons are circling, you have to look
question began by asserting that at the center of this calcium atom;
there were more atoms in his hand and there you see a tiny whirling
than there were grains of sand on point of light, smaller than the
all the beaches of the earth. To head of a pin (after being multi-
dramatize the nature of an atom plied 1,000,000,000,000 times).
he asked his listeners to take an This is the atomic nucleus which
Alice-in-Wonderland growing pill, contains practically all the mass
one that would shoot them through of the atom, as well as its atomic
the roof, past the clouds, through energy.
the stratosphere, past the moon; If you ask the scientist what
past the sun and some of the else is in the atom, his reply is
planets, until each person was en- “Nothing.” Since we are made of
larged by a factor of a trillion. atoms, we, too, are nothing much
Thus magnified, an atom of cal- but empty space. Apply an imagi-
cium from the bone of one’s thumb nary press to a human being and
would be in manageable propor- squeeze out all of the space, and
tions for inspection. there would remain a speck,
Enlarged by this factor of a smaller than a particle of dust
trillion, the atom of calcium be- that could be seen on a sheet of
comes a ball about one hundred white paper!
yards in diameter. Inside there
will be twenty luminous spheres Extending the Horizon ,
about the size of basketballs mov- What is the lesson to be learned
ing in great circles like planets from such phenomena? Increase
around the sun. These, says the knowledge and understanding as
scientist, are the electrons, the much as one will, and the un-
particles of negative electricity known, instead of being domesti-
which make up the outer part of cated by man’s mind, looms ever
the atom. Some of them occasion- vaster and more improbable. We
ally swing out and circle around are not justified in believing that
neighboring atoms like folks doing what we see with our eyes and
a square dance, and this motion what we hear with our ears con-
provides the forces which tie the stitute the whole of reality. Great-
atoms together in a chemical er understanding is but a means
structure. to an awareness of the Infinite. No


===== PAGE 16 =====

14 THE FREEMAN November

one of us gets more than a casual manifest itself, evolving, emerg-
glance of all creation, and each of ing. What human being, with any
us experiences a different view. such awareness, could possibly

Go a step further with our sci- suggest that his relatively igno-
entist. Consider the hydrogen nu- rant little will should be imposed
clei in your own person. Now, as- on others, substituted for this Cre-
sume that you know the secret of ative Force? What person, thus
converting the energy of these humble, would attempt forcibly to
nuclei into controlled electrical direct or control what another
energy. You alone could supply shall invent, discover, create,
power enough to operate all the where and at what he shall work,
factories and all the lights for the what the hours of his labor shall
entire United States for many be, what wage he shall receive,
weeks. Or, suppose that you know what and with whom he shall ex-
how to fuse the hydrogen in your change, or what thoughts he shall
body. You could explode with a entertain?

force one hundred times greater Assuming this awareness of
than the atom bomb dropped on how little one knows, how could
Hiroshima! one behave as an authoritarian,

play the role of God? On the con-
“Marvelous Are Thy Works" trary, isn’t it such an awareness

Just these smatterings of in- that can aid one in overcoming

formation leave me with a feeling man’s original sin, in thwarting
of utter awe, humility. I can now his continuous temptation, namely,
repeat with meaning, “for I am the substitution of his will for
fearfully and wonderfully made. that of his Creator?
Marvelous are Thy works.” It is . Authoritarian attitudes and be-
the next sentence, however, that haviors, however, are not to be
carries .the greatest knowledge of done away with merely to relieve
all: “And that my soul knoweth the pain of their affliction on
right well.” Here is the soul others. Their destructive influence
cleansed of know-it-allness, the on the self which exercises them
precondition to fulfillment. must be weighed.

When the soul knows this about Plato suggested that the real
the self, it must, to be logical, authoritarian is the real slave;
know this about others. It must that he is obliged to practice adu-
know that in each person there is lation, servility, and flattery. His
an enormous potentiality, an un- desires are impossible of satis-
imaginable creativity, working to faction and thus he is truly poor.


===== PAGE 17 =====

1957 THE IMPORTANCE OF AWE 15

He grows worse from having pow- holding me down is as perma-
er; for power necessarily promotes nently fastened on top of me as
jealousy, faithlessness, injustice, I am under him. To me, at least,
unfriendliness, and impiety. Not this explains why Lord Acton was
only is he miserable himself, but right when he said, “Power tends
he also makes others equally as to corrupt and absolute power cor-
miserable. The authoritarian at- rupts absolutely.”
tempts to be the master of others
when, obviously, he is not even For any person to become aware
master of himself. Plato likens the of how little he knows —not a
‘authoritarian to the man who very difficult attainment —is a
passes his life, not in the building sure way to reduce the number of
of his inner self, but in fighting authoritarians by one. Who
and combating other men. Need knows? The awareness might even
we do more than look about us to catch on. And, if it did? Millions
confirm the rightness of Plato’s of us would foresake society’s
observations? most corrosive pastime — meddling
in the affairs of others — meddling
Stop Meddling: Be Free not only through the political ap-
Change is a law of all living paratus, but personally. Millions
things. That which is not growing of us could then concentrate on
is atrophying; that which is not the wholly rewarding venture of
progressing is retrogressing; that freeing ourselves from our own
which is not emerging is regress- fears, our own superstitions, our
ing. The authoritarian act, or even own imperfections, our own ig-
thought, is time off from growth, norance. The individual human
progress, emergence. One cannot spirit, neglected while we play the
be attentive to the inner self while futile and authoritarian game of
exerting coercion on others. The imposing our wills on others, cries
person who has me on my back out for its freedom. oo 0

omaAs OF) 800807 | The Way To Begin

NO COMMITTEE RESOLUTIONS or elections or laws are needed for a
person to begin the practice of freedom. One need merely resolve
not to impose his will — legally or illegally — upon his peaceful
fellow men in their religions, their economic theories, their atti-
tudes, their morals, their mores, or whatever. And then start to

practice it.
DEAN RUSSELL, My Freedom Depends on Yours


===== PAGE 18 =====

_Dociat

DISCIPLINE

Alchemists (Woodcut, 1531)

HERRELL DEGRAFF

For ages man’s understanding learned much less. In philosophic,
of nature was based on supersti- moral, social, and economic rela-
tion and fantasy. Through all this tionships, cause and consequence
time he was, in consequence, a are neither understood nor ac-
slave to his environment —and al- cepted as they are in connection
most starved to death. Famine was with natural physical law. In
a definite factor even in the death these areas of human affairs we
- rate of Europe up to.150 years still are more or less alchemists.
ago. Yet natural law, whatever is

More recently, the relative un- natural law, is Eternal Truth.
derstanding we call science has This is as true of natural moral
been finding natural truths which law as it is of the more commonly
have existed through all time and recognized and accepted natural
which enable man to make fuller physical law.
use of the wealth of opportunity Natural moral law is, quite cer-
all around him. tainly, difficult to discover, and

We have learned that we live in more difficult to accept, to honor,
an orderly universe of natural and to live by. But any blindness
physical law in which nothing is to the fact that it is Eternal
haphazard. Truth is especially serious — be-

Concerning ‘another kind of cause of our dependence upon
natural law — let's distinguish it natural moral law for the proper
as natural moral law — we have ordering of society.

Dr. DeGraff is Babcock Professor of Food Economics, Graduate School of Nutrition, Cornell

University. This article is from lecture notes used at the Claremont Institute, California,
summer 1957

-

16


===== PAGE 19 =====

1957 SOCIAL DISCIPLINE 17

I submit that the purest distil- terest that does not contain the
lation of what is natural moral modifiers set forth in this philoso-
law is expressed in the moral phy.
codes of behavior that have come I submit that this philosophy is
down the ages to us in the form natural law; that each part of it
of the Golden Rule and the Deca- is essential to the total concept;
logue. These are not exclusive and that, as natural law, it can-
Christian property. The concepts not be abrogated with impunity.
are included in the other great re- Henry Grady Weaver, in The
ligions as well. And, in fact, they Mainspring of Human Progress,
are accepted as a code of behavior explains that in the earlier ex-
by many who embrace no organ- perience of man there were held
ized religion. Thus they may now to be many pagan gods who con-
be regarded either in a secular trolled, by whim and fancy, every-
sense as purely a distillation of thing that related both to man’s
human experience or in the Divine environment and to his aspira-
sense of revealed law. tions.

In either case they are an in- Then Abraham arrived upon the
dividual code pointed directly at scene and denied the existence of
the individual, establishing the such gods. He insisted that there
basis on which each individual can is only one God — the God of all
be an effective, generative unit of things, who creates and judges,

society. but who does not control. He
taught that God is Rightness,
Morally Guided Self-Interest Reality, and Truth; that man is

The concept of man distilled free and self-controlling, and re-
out of Judaic-Christian philosophy sponsible for his own acts; that
— and many have found the same each person may do good or evil
through strictly secular analysis — as he chooses, but that any wrong
is that each person is a self-acting, act will result in punishment to
morally responsible individual, co- the evildoer.

operating in society through his Abraham’s concept laid the
morally guided self-interest. foundation for scientific progress
The capacity of the human indi- — and for social and economic

vidual to accept on this basis his progress as well. So long as the
place among his fellow men dis- concept prevailed that the uni-
tinguishes him from the lesser verse and all human affairs were
creatures of the earth —lesser controlled by the whims and fan-
creatures controlled by a self-in- cies of prankish gods —and one


===== PAGE 20 =====

18 THE FREEMAN November

could lump with this the concept fect of the hammer (physical law)
of predestination — there was no or of stealing (moral law) will not
point in trying to improve any- change the result in either case.
thing through individual effort. One may be ignorant or contemp-
“Progress did not come,” says tuous of the moral law, but he will
Weaver, “until men began to real- attain little of his God-given po-
ize that everything works accord- tential as a moral, self-directing,
ing to plan — the essence of which self-responsible individual as long
is truth and rightness. Every en- as either the condition of ignor-
gineer, every scientist, every ance or the attitude of contemptu-
farmer, every mechanic knows ousness prevails.

that nothing will work, that no act And this applies to more than
will succeed, unless it is in har- individuals.

mony with rightness — the true Suppose it is part of the culture
nature of things as they are.” pattern of a whole society that
Goethe expressed the same idea they look with favor upon steal-
in these words: ing. This may stem from either
Nature understands no jesting; ignorance or contempt of moral
She is always true, always seri- law. What part of the aggregate
ous, always severe; potential of all the members of

She is always right, and the er- gych a society — and thus of the

rors and faults are always those gqcjety as such — will be realized?

of man. What ventures they might other-

The man incapable of appreciating . .

her she despises wise undertake, what achieve-

And only to the apt, the pure, and ments they might otherwise reach,
will be discouraged and prevented

the true

Does she resign herself and reveal as long as stealing is institution-

her secrets. alized.

These concepts, I submit, apply Just as neither the individual
alike to science and to morals. nor society can repeal the natural

physical law of gravity, so neither

. i the individual nor society can re-
When one pounds his thumb in- peal natural moral laws.

stead of a tack, natural law de- | Thus to paraphrase Dr. Har-

crees that he will suffer physical per,! we must conclude that natu-

pain. When one steals from an-

other, his violated sense of moral ‘Harper, F. A. Liberty: A Path to Its

. . . Recovery. Irvington-on-Hudson, N, Y.:
right decrees likewise that he Foundation for Economic Education,

shall suffer. Ignorance of the ef- 1949,

Natural Laws Prevail


===== PAGE 21 =====

- 1957 SOCIAL DISCIPLINE : 19

ral physical laws and natural society — the government — get
moral laws are parts of one in- any rights that it in turn may dis-
separable body of Truth. Moral pense? If the answer is that so-
considerations are the guide to ciety took them from individuals
human betterment, through self- (and from where else could they
application — and thus self-devel- be taken?) then they were in-
opment — by individuals. It fol- herent in the individual until so-
lows that social and economic ciety expropriated them. This is
policies which violate moral law the case for the concept of indi-
retard human betterment — and vidual rights as held by the indi-
even cause degeneration from pre- vidualist.
vious achievement.

The Christian concept of man, Life and Property
ascendent from the early sixteenth If the individual has an inalien-
through most of the eighteenth able right to life, it follows that
centuries, produced the idea of he has the right to sustain that
natural rights. An inalienable life. And then it follows that he
right, founded in Christianity, is has the right to use his capacities
the individual's right to life. If to produce the wherewithal to sus-
this is a natural right, it has al- tain life —and the right to use
ways existed in Truth. It has not what he produces. Any denial in
always existed in fact —as when this chain is a denial of the in-
“the power of life and death” was alienable right to life.
held by an absolutist under such Thus a man has a right to the
a concept as “the divine right of fruits of his labor, to his prop-
kings.” In the discard of such a erty — private property, which
concept we have drawn closer to certainly no one else has a moral

moral Truth. | right to take from him without
There are “lesser” rights under his consent.
moral law that many persons still Most people concede this and

are prone to deny. The socialist, would not steal because their
for example, says there is no moral precepts hold them above
“proof” of inherent rights claimed stealing.

for the individual by the believer Peter may have and Paul may
in individualism. The socialist want. But Paul is a moral fellow.
claims the rights for society — for He is guided by the Decalogue,
the “social unity” — for govern- including the two “economic” com-
ment. mandments: Thou shalt not covet;

But where, one must ask, did and, Thou shalt not steal.


===== PAGE 22 =====

20 ’ THE FREEMAN November

Personal conduct in this area ment has nothing to give without
stands at a generally high state of first taking from someone. Legis-
morality. But Robin Hood ‘“eco- lation is drawn that directs Peter
nomics” is nevertheless rampant. to pay.

Take from “the rich” and give to Is Paul any more moral — is it
“the poor.” Take from him who any less stealing — to go through
has more and give to him who has government to get Peter’s prop-
less. All around us we see an erty than to take it from him per-
amazing degree to which this is sonally?

not only condoned but aggres- Socialism says that predatory
sively promoted, so long as the Robin Hood economics is moral.
taking is done by “the govern- This is gratifying indeed to Paul.
ment” — which is to say by the But by what right or authority,
majority. “From each according other than the authority of col-
to his ability, to each according to lective power? By what twist does
his need.” This is a key concept the social group, the entity that
from the Communist Manifesto — under socialism is elevated above
the very essence of Robin Hood the individual, morally become
economics —that has become predatory upon the individual and
widely accepted and promoted by expropriate from him against his
vast numbers of people who would will?

be shocked and indignant if any- The Decalogue, whether re-
one were to call them socialists. garded as of Divine origin or
And yet it is the very heart of so- taken merely as a distillation from
cialist philosophy. Here is where man’s accumulated experience,
personal morality and group mo- says: Thou shalt not covet, Thou
rality have become widely diver- shalt not steal. All the thousands
gent in our own country, in our of years since Abraham and Moses

own time. have neither modified nor im-
Is Robin Hood economics, by proved the code.
the majority instead of by one, To be sure, the Decalogue sets

any less predatory —any less a code of individual behavior. But
stealing? Is it any more moral? are not majorities composed of

Paul, who wants, asks his gov- individuals? Does a mob change
ernment to provide for him col- either the code or its application?
lectively with his fellow-Pauls. Or do they merely break it? And
“Government” counts the votes in- can the mob break it with im-
volved, and acquiesces. Then gov- punity, any more than can an in-
ernment appropriates. But govern- dividual?


===== PAGE 23 =====

1957 SOCIAL DISCIPLINE 21

Does the commandment say it private property should not be
is all right for a stronger Peter violated through arbitrary social
to take away from a weaker Paul, covetousness. Predatory raids on
just so long as the Pauls operate private property are a violation of
in a numerically larger gang? If natural moral law, which cannot
so, then it is might that makes be broken without penalty to the
right — and morals are determined social group any more than it can

by might. be broken by the individual with-
Dr. Herman Finer of the Uni- out penalty to the individual.
versity of Chicago wrote a book This is the moral case for social

called Road to Reaction, designed discipline, according to the Chris-
to refute Hayek’s book, Road to tian precepts upon which this na-
Serfdom. Finer wrote, “In a de- tion was founded. No other case
mocracy right is what the ma- or defense should be necessary.
jority makes it to be.”

If this is true, then the ma- Punitive Taxation
jority can say there is no gravity. Of course, from a ‘practical’
The majority can say black is viewpoint, government can take
white. Absurd? Not according to’ and redistribute. Government can
Finer. If what he says is wisdom divide. But government cannot
instead of foolishness, then by one multiply. And it is only through
sentence on paper, Caesar has multiplication of production that
. superseded God. If he has found there is anything to divide.
Truth, then the mob can at all Discriminatory expropriation —
times be guided only by expedi- progressive taxation —is a spe-
ency — and there are no control- cially disastrous form of robbing
ling moral values in man’s accu- Peter, for discriminatory taxation
mulated experience. If what he is punitive. And who will carry
says is true, then there is no forward the desired, but pun-
Eternal Moral Truth but only the ished, function of production with
thrill of the moment. This is the fullest zest and maximum con-
teaching of socialism, but is it a tribution?
proper reading of natural moral Sacialism is accepted by many
law? as the ultimate of social justice

The essence of social discipline, and moral fairness. Yet it is in-
as I understand it, is not different evitably, openly, and frankly pre-
from the standard of behavior in- datory. Is this just, fair, and
cumbent on the individual. Part moral? Is this social discipline?
of such a concept is, certainly, that Individualism is considered by


===== PAGE 24 =====

22 THE FREEMAN November

many as immoral, selfish, the li- Two points here are noteworthy.
censing of greed, and the imple- First, to be moral, there must be
menting of all the evil in man. the alternative of not being moral.
Yet, in. human history, it has led Morality is active, not passive. Its
to more fully developed and more practice requires a choice. And
self-responsible individuals; to second, no one can be an involun-
higher material attainments more tary good Samaritan, for that is a
widely shared; to greater compas- contradiction of terms.

sion for and generosity to fellow Can society deliver a utopia —
men — with one’s own goods not a ‘“no-place,” in the original Greek
with means confiscated from some- — through confiscation of the

one else — than has any other or- fruits of its more productive
dering of human society. Can in- members? Or, does such confisca-
dividualism be condemned as evil tion and redistribution merely
when it is practiced by self-acting, sow the seed for the discourage-
morally responsible persons? And ment of the able and for the moral
if personal morality in human af- degeneration of those who receive
fairs is not all that might be de- the plunder? In what way may so-
sired, can the level be raised if ‘cial discipline properly be con-
even the choice of being moral or ceived to differ from the self-dis-
not moral is taken away through cipline that is incumbent upon us
socialism? as moral individuals? LC

| iocas @60 LUBCATY | Juvenile Delinquency

NOR SHOULD WE BE SURPRISED that there is some juvenile delin-
quency where adult delinquency is so rampant, and where the
absence of any basic moral code among adults precludes even the
possibility of their effectively teaching a moral code that will
prevent delinquency in the young. If, as adults, we practice col-
lective thievery through the Welfare State, and advocate it as
right and good, how can we question the logic of the youths who
likewise form gangs and rob the candy store? If demonstration is
the best teacher, we adults must start with the practice of
morality ourselves, rather than hiring some presumed specialist
to study the causes of similar conduct among the youngsters;
their conduct is the symptom, not the disease.

F. A. HARPER, Morals and the Welfare State


===== PAGE 25 =====

Why Humans Mudt Be Free

V. ORVAL WATTS

Mx MAKES PROGRESS — he de- food, builds its nest, preens its
velops his human qualities — feathers, flie¢ north in the spring
as he exercises his powers of and south in the fall. By instinct
choice and recognizes responsi- a hen scratches for food, and by
bility for his own acts. This is instinct a lion stalks its prey.
why government cannot promote But man acts according to ideas
human progress except as it es- which he himself fashions and se-
tablishes freedom, which is the lects in much the same way that
political condition for voluntary he makes his clothing and selects
action. his food.

For humans are not only pur- True, he has certain reflexes
posive beings, as all living crea- and a few vague instincts. These
tures are. They are also self-con- take care of some of his more
trolling or self-directing. That is, basic needs, such as his need for
they choose their purposes and air — if he permits them to do so.
their methods for pursuing their But he may, if he chooses, recon-:
purposes. This means that they dition his own reflexes and act
gain human quality only as they completely contrary to his in-
exercise this power of choice and stincts. Thus expert swimmers
learn to use it skillfully — that is, and divers learn new breathing

wisely. habits, and Hindu yogis learn to
Other creatures pursue purposes control even their heart beats.
largely dictated by built-in re- Man gets his controlling ideas

flexes and instincts. By instinct a by using the evidence brought
bird seeks out certain kinds of him by his senses. But he himself

Dr. Watts is an author, lecturer, and economic consultant from Altadena, California.


===== PAGE 26 =====

24 THE FREEMAN } November

determines what senses he will he remains self-controlling. When
use, how, when, and where he uses a bank teller obeys the command
them, and what ideas he forms of an armed bandit and surren-
concerning the sensations they ders the bank’s funds, we may ex-
bring him. He may close his eyes cuse him on the ground that his
and refuse to see what is before employers and the bank’s deposi-
him, or he may reject what he tors do not expect him to risk his
sees as useless or unreal. life by refusing. But he is never-

And as he sifts and reworks the theless responsible for his act in
data supplied him by his senses, that he chooses to make the sur-
he forms patterns of ideas, values, render. We recognize this fact
and purposes which govern his when we condemn a similar sur-

actions. render by a guard who has pledged
. himself to resist such coercion.
Man Is Responsible Would we hold blameless the

Because of this power of self- father who killed his own child at
control, man is not only account- the command of an armed thug?
able for his acts, but he is respon- Then neither can we hold irre-
sible for them. Like every other sponsible any person who yields to
creature, he is accountable in that coercion, even though we agree
he must suffer the penalties for that discretion is sometimes bet-
"error as he enjoys the rewards ter than valor.
for being wise and efficient. But
he is also responsible for his acts, Not the Same Purpose
in a way that other creatures are We should realize, however, that
not, in the sense of being “an- when a person yields to a threat
swerable as the primary cause, of violence, his self-determined
motive, or agent.” (Webster's Un- purpose is to avoid the violence
abridged Dictionary) For each in- rather than to accomplish the pur-
dividual human being can act or pose of his assailant. If he wanted
refuse to act as he wills, and to do what his would-be masters
whether he acts wisely or foolishly propose, no violence or threat of
depends on ideas which only he injury would be necessary. When
individually can control. violence, or force, is necessary to

It is true that a man may try to make men act, it is because the
evade his responsibility by claim- victims of it have purposes con-
ing that others compel him to act trary to the purposes of the ag-
as he does. But as long as a per- gressors.
son retains his human faculties, No external force can change


===== PAGE 27 =====

1957 WHY HUMANS MUST BE FREE 25

these purposes or the ideas from vate purposes are the ones which
which they spring. They can be enlist the victims’ will and in-
changed only by the free will of genuity. They are the only ones
the person who is to act. If the which the victims can pursue with
victim of violence chooses to act energy or skill.

as his assailant directs, he does The final result depends on the
so, not because he has adopted his victims’ ideas about how they may
assailant’s purpose, but in order best escape the threatened vio-
to accomplish the quite different lence. They may decide on open
purpose of avoiding the threatened flight or resistance, or they may
injury. choose secret sabotage and slow-
downs. If they decide that all
flight or resistance is hopeless,

It is this inescapable conflict they are likely to feel increasing
of purposes that makes slavery, fatigue and depression (‘‘lazi-
the “planned society,” and the ness”) when at work, with the
“welfare state” destructive of all gradual atrophy of will and ini-
human values and character. The tiative, along with increasing de-
purpose of the masters or govern- sires for wasteful dissipation, or
ment officials may be to get cer- vice, that characterize people long
tain work done or to improve the subject to enslavement and tyr-
understanding and character of anny.
their subjects. But increasingly as To an account of the recent
time passes, the subjects of the strike of trolley-car workers in
coercion seek to escape from the Lodz, Poland, the Warsaw corres-
threat of violence. pondent of Newsweek adds:

Fear of a master’s lash or of a “The complaints of Lodz are
communist firing squad, for ex- echoed everywhere, except among
ample, may cause men for a time the peasants who have benefited
to go through certain dictated mo- from Gomulka’s de-collectivization
tions, but these motions do not policy. In the cities, low living
make efficient farmers. Instead, standards, desperate consumer-
the private purposes of those who goods shortages, and hopelessness
suffer from the coercion cause in- over the future all combine to
creasing inefficiency in pursuing throttle initiative. Walkouts and
the masters’ purposes because work stoppages are on the in-
these private purposes of the vic- crease. Thievery and drunkenness
tims have to do with escape, re- are rampant. Absenteeism runs as
sistance, or retaliation. These pri- high as 30 per cent. Apathy char-

Force Can’t Control Purpose


===== PAGE 28 =====

26 THE FREEMAN November

acterizes the. Polish worker. As a
leading intellectual put it: ‘Gray-
ness has entered our spirit.”
(August 26, 1957, pp. 49-50)

If a man .is to become an effi-
cient farmer, he must want to
farm, and he must recognize his
responsibility for doing the things
necessary to produce the crops.
The slave can never become an ef-
ficient farmer if his real purpose
is to avoid the lash rather than to
raise fine crops, for it is to his pri-
vate purpose that his thoughts
and ingenuity turn even when he
is unaware of the fact.

Similarly, when any person or
group tries to compel others to be
charitable, industrious, thrifty, or
kind, the victims of the coercion
lose their sense of personal re-

" sponsibility for acquiring these

a

virtues. Deprived .of opportunity

‘to use and develop their human

qualities of self-direction, they re-
vert toward the animal level. At
this lower level, they become more
like. domesticated cattle, lacking
ingenuity, -enterprise, and reason-
ing ability. Or, they may become
as intractable as the tiger, the
zebra; or the polar bear. °

The Limits of Government’s Power
Now government is an agency
for compulsion. Men organize it
and use it only to apply force
and threat of force against their
fellows.  As..a means for applying

force, it can imprison or execute
wrongdoers, recover stolen prop-
erty, punish fraud, and repel in-
vaders. In short, it can do to, or
for, humans whatever force and
violence can do: hurt them, re-
strain - them, destroy them, or
frighten them. :

As it uses its force and vio-
lence to combat thieving, banditry,
gangsterism, rioting, and warlike
invasion, government can free
farmers, mechanics, traders, and
other producers from interfer-
ence. The more effectively it thus
prevents such interference, the
greater is the output of goods and
the greater are the revenues gov-
ernment can get for its own uses.

It is this service to producers
that explains whatever “efficiency”
and “success” in production we
observe. in the relatively more so-
cialistic countries like Soviet Rus-
sia and Yugoslavia. The price (in
terms of meddling and spoliation)
which the rulers charge producers
for their services in these “en-
slaved” nations is exorbitant but
not quite prohibitive.

Beyond this protective service
to producers, government coercion
not only has no usefulness, but it
actually works to limit and reduce
government's power. For as it
bullies producers in its effort to
direct their labor and to get more
production out of them, it re-
stricts their output and so reduces


===== PAGE 29 =====

1957 WHY HUMANS MUST BE FREE 29

the flow of goods from which the government officials, teachers, em-
government gets its own coercive ployers, or neighbors. Nor is he a
machinery and power. machine for going through cer-
Such government bullying of tain prescribed motions at the
producers has this effect because command of any master or gov-
no external force can form a ernment.
man’s ideas or determine his pur- Instead, man fulfills his Crea-
poses. No force or threat of vio- tor’s purpose only as he develops
lence, legal or illegal, can inspire the power to know and choose
the desire to do good or the will good, and reject evil. The com-
fo do evil. It cannot make men pulsions of the Welfare State can
compassionate, thrifty, fore- no more develop this power in its
sighted, or industrious. It cannot subjects than riding men about in
awaken their sense of responsi- police wagons can make them into
bility. It cannot instill good pur- long-distance runners or star foot-
pose or create good character; ball players.

men have endured torture, even Every human being’s progress

unto death, rather than do what depends on the amount of effort

they believed to be evil. - that he himself exerts in pursuit
In short, force, violence, and of good purposes.

intimidation cannot make bad men Among the essential conditions

good or good men better. For no for this effort are the opportuni-
man is merely clay to be molded ties, the risks, and even the ob-
by his fellows, whether they be stacles, of freedom. LIC

| wens BM AMERY Paved With Intentions
CHILE is another example of the slow transformation of the
welfare state into tyranny and dictatorship. When the govern-
ment has the power of dipping into public funds for distribution
to various groups under the welfare state theory of government,
the pressure put upon it by the people cannot be resisted. In-
evitably, it spends more than its income and not only taxes the
people to the point of strangling business but creates enormous
deficits in addition. Inflation then produces the ehaos which
makes necessary the suspension of free: government and the
institution of dictatorship.

HOWARD E.- KERSHNER, It's Up To You
A release from Christian:Freedom Foundation, Inc.


===== PAGE 30 =====

IVE |
ore ¥ Fenchmeq,

ALGERIA SETTLERS SOUGHT BY FRANCE

news dispatch of August 8, 1957, from Algeria,
Anos that “the French government is preparing
a series of Joan programs to encourage the people of
France to invest or settle in Algeria.

“The goal is not only to bring more Frenchmen to
Algeria but also to create new jobs for unemployed
Moslems and raise the living standards of the Moslem
population.

“Loans ranging from $8,700 to $10,500 are being
offered to young soldiers .willing to remain in Algeria
after their tour of duty...the ex-soldier is not required
to provide any capital himself, but can borrow as much
as 100 per cent of the funds needed to start a modest
venture [at an] interest rate of 11, per cent on loans
for farm lands and equipment, 2 per cent on industrial
loans, and 31, per cent for commercial enterprises.”
A second dispatch of that
same date reports that
“twelve farm workers were
killed and four wounded to-
day in West Algeria when a
rebel mine destroyed their
truck. The attack brought to
twenty-seven the number of
persons killed in the Oran
orea in the last twenty-four



===== PAGE 31 =====

to Algeria?

The French government's recent action recorded on opposite
page brings to mind Frederic Bastiat's observations concerning
an earlier French effort to colonize Africa. In 1850 he set
down the following arguments, which are worth reconsidering.

0 TO THE ASSEMBLY and listen by the taxpayers because their
to the debates on Algeria. money was taken from them.

You will hear the orators declaim- True enough, one can see the
ing many fine things about the new house that is built in Algeria
power and glory of France, about with tax money. One can also see
the brilliant future of our gigan- the new harbor in Barbary and
tic colony in Africa, and about the the increased commercial activity
advantages of sending our surplus in Marseilles. And the number of
population abroad. These magnifi- French workers going to jobs in
cent orations always conclude Algeria can actually be counted.
somewhat as follows: “We must But there is another side to the

vote the necessary 50 millions to picture that is not seen.
construct ports and roads in Al- The 50 millions gathered by the
geria, to build houses and to en- State cannot be spent by the tax-
courage agriculture, and to send payers. Thus an accurate account-
emigrants from France to Algeria. ing demands that the benefits
These measures will aid the claimed by the State should be
French workingman, encourage balanced by the harm done to the
native African labor, and stimu- citizens. The taxpayers would
late the commerce of Marseilles. have used their money to repair
It would be profitable in every their fences, fertilize their fields,
way.” buy needed tools, improve their
And, of course, that is true — if homes, improve their diets, pur-
you look only at where the money chase more clothing, educate their
goes and not where it comes from; children better, contribute more to
if you look only at the improve- charity, and so on. Those are the
ments caused by the spending of things that cannot be seen because
tax money, and ignore the im- the tax money sent to Algeria pre-
provements that could not be made vented their coming into existence.



===== PAGE 32 =====

30 THE FREEMAN November

True enough, there are more good idea to use tax funds to es-
jobs in Africa because of thespend- tablish enterprises. Here is why:
ing of the 50 millions. But what is Justice always suffers in some de-
not seen is that the absence of the gree. The taxpayer who has la-
50 millions from France caused at bored to earn his hundred sous is
least an equal loss of work for the at least disappointed that the tax
local gardeners, carpenters, black- collector takes them from him to
smiths, tailors, and others. In ad- give to another. The State must
dition to this decrease in domestic offer good reasons for this. But,
labor, the taxpayers were also de- actually, the State gives a poor ex-
prived of the pleasure that would cuse when it says, “With these
have accrued to them from spend- hundred sous, we shall employ
ing their own money as they workmen.” The taxpayer can
wished. When we look at Algeria truthfully reply, “With the hun-
and the things that can easily be dred sous, I would employ them
seen, we should also remember myself.” This claimed encourage-
these things that cannot be seen. ment of labor is a delusion. What-

ever the State does in this direc-
Consider This! tion by public spending, the pri-

Much is expected from the fu- vate spending of the money would
ture prosperity of Algeria. Let us also have done. Therefore, the in-
hope for the best. But when it is terest of “labor” is not a valid
pointed out to me that each colon- issue in the case.
ist sent to Algeria means an im- Now it is an entirely different
provement in the conditions of the matter when the State says to the
workers left in France, I must ask taxpayer, ““We take your hundred
how that can possibly be true. The sous to pay the policeman who
Minister of War informs us that saves you the trouble of providing
it costs the State 8,000 francs for for your own personal safety; to
each person transported to Al- pave the streets that you use every
geria. Now it is certain that these day; to pay the judge who helps
poor individuals could live very to protect your property and your
well in France on a capital of liberty; to maintain the soldier
4,000 francs. How is it an im- who protects our frontiers.” My
provement to the French people to guess is that the taxpayer will pay
deprive them of the services of for all that without hesitation.
one man and the means of subsist- But it is another thing entirely
ence for two men? when the State says to him, “We

Generally speaking, it is not a take these hundred sous so that


===== PAGE 33 =====

1957 MORE FRENCHMEN TO ALGERIA ? 31

we may give you a bonus if you hamlets and towns of France.
cultivate your fields well; or to Since the taxpayers are every-
teach your son something that you where, they spend their money
have no wish that he should learn; among all kinds of workers and in-
or to build a cottage in Algeria — dustries. But when the State col-
in which case, we must tax you lects the 50 millions and spends it
another hundred sous every year in one place, it attracts to that
to support the worker who lives in place much labor. This increases
it, and another hundred to main- the number of homeless workers.
tain the soldier to protect the It creates a floating population
worker, and another hundred to that is out of place. I also suspect
pay the general to watch the sol- that this displaced population may
dier,” and so on. In this case, I become dangerous when the fund
think I hear the poor taxpayer ex- is used up.
claiming, “This government seems This feverish activity in Al-
to be a system of legalized rob- geria attracts the attention of all.
bery!” The resulting construction and
. Co new jobs can be seen by anyone
A Dislocated Population who looks. The people applaud the
Since these governmental ex- beauty and simplicity of the gov-
penditures merely change labor ernment’s plan, and expect more
without increasing it, another se- and more. But they fail to realize
rious objection can be raised that there is a reverse side to the
against them: “When workers are picture, a side that is not good, a
arbitrarily shifted about, the nat- side that they do not see. © o eo
ural distribution of population in
the nation is disturbed. If the 50 ——
of the taxpayers, labor would be pgugtiat, Volume 2, pp. 379-383. Paris:
encouraged throughout all the Guillaumin, 1863.

IDGAS, © MIGENVT| Individual Effort

THE NATURAL EFFORT of every individual to better his own condi-
tion is so powerful that it is alone, and without any assistance,
not only capable of carrying on the society to wealth and pros-
perity, but of surmounting a hundred impertinent obstructions
with which the folly of human laws too often incumbers its

operations. }
ADAM SMITH


===== PAGE 34 =====

THE COMPETITIVE
I) SYSTEM

VOLLIE TRIPP

OMPETITION is said to be the the finches, with each other, not
“life of trade.” It is more. It to mention the hawks and owls.
is life itself. Even the fireflys are competing
The collectivist fears competi- for attention at night, the fly with
tion, seeks to hinder, control, or do the brightest light attracting,
away with it altogether because he ergo, the largest number of eligi-
is afraid of life. He is timid, meek, ble males from which to choose a
shy, lacking faith in himself to mate.

meet the problems every single Competition among the lesser
creature has had to face from the creatures in the air, earth, and sea
very beginning. is apt to be a pretty grim affair,

Competition is as basic as gravi- with death the penalty of failure.
tation, or procreation. We can no And yet, were it not for the con-
more escape it than we can escape stant struggle to adapt to condi-
death, or the consequence of folly. tions, outwit myriad enemies, and
Let’s see how it operates in the reach up into the light, it is doubt-
world of living things all about us. ful if any living organism would

The trees above me as I write ever have broken out of its soft
this are competing with each comfortable cocoon. Certain it is
other for root space in the ground, we should have no magnificent
and for sunlight above their heads. redwoods, no gorgeous butterflies,
The sparrows are competing with not one of the proud, sleek ani-

Mr. Tripp, retired from the building business, now devotes full time to travel, writing, and

promotion of free enterprise.

32

Af


===== PAGE 35 =====

1957 THE COMPETITIVE SYSTEM IS HUMANE 33

mals, or graceful birds, that make enough wealth to make this possi-
our world so beautiful and inter- ble, even had it so desired. In
esting. other times and ages the weak, the
Those who find fault with com- sick, the old, infirm, insane, were
petition find fault with the plans left to die, or even put to death.
of the Creator himself. It would The economy simply could not af-
be just as foolish, and as futile, to ford to carry along the burden of
complain about the organization its nonproducing members.

of the heavenly bodies, and pro- Let’s pursue the idea a bit
pose a more efficient orbit for further. Competition, the cease-
their travels through the sky. less effort to make things better,

The socialist, the communist, in the hope of attracting more
the statist, the “liberal,” often at- customers, making more money,
tack competition on the grounds has sparked technical progress
that it is cruel and blind, shoving and the infinitely complex system
aside or destroying the weak and of exchanging goods and services
inept, exalting the strong and we enjoy today. This design has
clever. On the biological level, this made possible, not only survival,
may be true. Perhaps a thousand but success for millions of indi-
daisy seeds fall to the ground for viduals ill-prepared to meet life in
every one that is able to blossom. the simple rugged days, say, in
Perhaps a million oyster eggs King Arthur's time.
must be laid for every full-grown The competition I speak of is
oyster. But in the realm of human competition which observes the
affairs, competition — in the shape rules of the game, using only
of the market economy — has re- moral means. Its other name is in-
sulted in social conditions where dividual liberty. Every person is
the weak and incompetent, far free to make his voluntary choices
from perishing, are tenderly cared in the market place, deciding be-
for, permitted to multiply their tween competing producers which
kind, and achieve their own meas- shall have his trade and between
ure of happiness and success. For competing employers who shall
the free market economy, in addi- have his services. Ill-advised po-
tion to making it possible for more litical interventions have continu-
people to live by a higher standard, ously threatened these freedoms
also produces a surplus which and in so doing have impaired
flows into philanthropy. competition. Upon analysis this

No other society, no other eco- strange fact emerges: the evils so
nomic plan has ever created carelessly attributed to competi-


===== PAGE 36 =====

34 THE FREEMAN November

tion by collectivists are actually humane, the most merciful, as well
due to politically sanctioned de- as the most efficient one ever con-
nials of competition which estab- ceived by man. Nor need it be de-
lish monopoly conditions. fended on mere theoretical lines.
It is said there are 50,000 ways It has demonstrated what it can
of making a living. If we attempt do. It has been proved. It works.
to count the possible combinations, This system holds out the op-
the number of ways of living, and portunity for vast achievement
possibly succeeding, becomes as- and service for those with talent
tronomical. and determination, of moderate
It was not always thus. In medi- success and reasonable happiness
eval times a man had little choice for those with normal brains who
in selecting his life work. To be are willing to work. And yet the
sure there were a few avenues socialist, the “leveler downer,” the
open then that are closed now. But “divider upper” would trade away
at most a few hundred occupations this priceless opportunity for as-
and trades would complete the list. surance of a bare existence, his
For women the choice was limited, soul and body in a strait jacket,
indeed. And if a person happened with the freedom and prerogatives
to be born with talents and abili- of a sheep.
ties which did not fit into the
limited pattern, his lot was sad Personal Experience
enough. I know about competition. Let
Things are different, now. Free- me tell you about my own experi-
dom to compete has changed all ence, not that it is particularly in-
that. Today our needs are so teresting or important, but be-
varied, so diversified, we can use cause it serves to emphasize the
a tremendous variety of skills, points I have tried to make — that
temperaments, and abilities — tal- our system is humane and merci-
ents which would have availed ful, offering the weak, the unpre-
their owners nothing, even a hun- pared, even the misfit, opportunity
dred years ago. There still remains for a measure of success and a
the problem of finding what each fairly satisfactory life, if he will
can do, and wants to do best. But do his part.

that problem is now receiving the 1 was born on a farm, the first
best attention and thought we can of seven children. There was pov-
give it. erty, and hard work for all. I was

I say the free enterprise, com- small and scrawny, in a school of
petitive reward system is the most big tough boys. I could not “com-


===== PAGE 37 =====

1957 THE COMPETITIVE SYSTEM IS HUMANE 35

pete” in sports, or in other physi- and those of others. If anyone
cal activities. doesn’t believe that spells compe-
Leaving school at 14, I had a lit- tition, I suggest he try it! And
tle competition in the matter of yet, so varied are the needs in this
finding a job in the city, where line of work, there is now room
there were thousands of big tall for thousands of scribes, when in
handsome college graduates avail- Dickens’ day no more than a few
able. Arbitrary height and weight hundred could make livings with
requirements ruled out many their pens.
other jobs I might have filled. Too, I do not say that all may suec-
I discovered that in town a knowl- ceed, following the Alger formulas,
edge of farm animals and farm hard work, thrift, honesty, in a
work was not particularly useful. competitive system. There is the
And yet, so great and diversified factor of luck, fate, misfortune.
were our needs, even 30 years ago, But it is certainly true that more
I was able to find a work for which can succeed, better, than under
experience and temperament fitted any other plan yet devised. And
me. for those who are denied conspicu-
Came a time when I decided to ous success, either through fate or
marry. In a city where there were their own limitations, this plan
approximately 1% men for every holds out a real hope that every
woman, this meant more competi- individual may make something
tion. With plenty of personality dignified, decent, and worth-while
defects, one serious affliction, and of his or her life.
a heavy burden of debt, it was nec- It was Hendrick Van Loon who
essary to dig deep to find compen- defined success as “doing passably
sating factors. It was not easy. well the thing you consider impor-
But this is important: it was pos- tant above all else.” To some this
sible. It was possible because I had means growing the most beautiful
the good fortune to be living under rose, catching the biggest fish,
a competitive system where, if one lifting the heaviest weight, reach-
door closed, another opened. It was ing the highest note in the vocal
possible, too, because at that time scale, or perhaps having the most
the social planners had not yet got extensive collection of dried pig
in their deadly work of undermin- ears. It is a fortunate arrange-
ing the pride and moral integrity ment of nature that we lose, even-
of the youth of the nation. tually, the desire to do things
Today I am in the business of wholly beyond our ability, and to
writing and selling ideas, my own, take pleasure in the things we can


===== PAGE 38 =====

36 THE FREEMAN November

do well. It would seem that nature osophy, neither socialism nor com-
wants everyone to succeed, and is munism poses any threat to Amer-
trying her best to make it possible. ica. Its position is too absurd, its
Viewed in its true light, success, failures too dismal to attract any
and all it implies, comes within but the moronic fringe. The real
the reach of most of us, in one danger lies in those millions of
form or another. It is not free. If “stanch” Republicans, “stanch”
it were, it would have no value. Democrats, Independents, ideal-
Then too, there must be desire. ists, liberals, who decry socialism
Many do not have it. with one hand and abet it with the
Neither socialism nor any of its other.
diluted philosophies has anything These folks believe a “little so-
to offer the strong, the competent, cialism” won’t hurt us, forgetting
and resourceful, the brave, effi- that every hop head began with a
cient, and able, except confiscation little morphine -or heroin. The
of their rightful wage. Socialism little calls for more and more, for
is rooted In weakness, error, socialism, the true parasite that it
and tyranny. Its only appeal is to is, has nothing with which to feed
the weak, and those who believe itself. It must spread until it con-

themselves weak. sumes the whole plant, and both
But the “little fellow,” the sub- die.
merged, underprivileged, the ‘“un- There is yet time enough to root

derdog” has found no relief for out this pernicious loathesome
his predicament under socialism. weed from the garden of our lives.
On the contrary, the little he had But we must attack it with every
has been taken away. This wicked means at hand, in all its guises
and insane delusion has never and masquerades. We must be
been content merely to distribute alert to see that our thinking isn’t
poverty and misery equally among fogged by such terms as “civil
all. It demands that men forfeit rights,” “underprivileged masses,”
their spiritual rights. as human “cheap public power,” “more abun-
beings and become as docile beasts dant life” — words honorable
of the field. That is what socialism enough upon a time, but now call-
has done to every people who ever ing for quotes to identify their
adopted it as a way of life. That true source. For this leopard does
is what it is trying to do to Amer- change his spots, his name, his
ica, and will, if it can. tactics, but never his devilish pur-

As an entity, as an honest pose, which is to enslave and de-
(though mistaken), political phil- grade all mankind. ® o.0

~


===== PAGE 39 =====

Devaney, Inc.

T. ROBERT INGRAM

A PRIVATE
RESPONSIBILITY

HAVE HAD a continuing interest tian Church. Second, there was a
in the schools of our country general agreement that schools
ever since, as a boy, I was plunged now controlled by tax-supported
into the socialist experiment agencies are unsatisfactory. Not
started in the Denver public only are they unable to offer the
schools in 1925 and 1926. In one desired kind of doctrinal instrue-
way or another I have kept an eye tion, but also they are falling be-
on school matters throughout my hind the traditional high stand-
own school and college life, during ards of Christian scholarship.
thirteen years of newspaper work, Third, there was, and is, a need to
and ten years as seminarian and use our money to the full advan-
priest in the Episcopal Church. So, tage since we are a community
in the two parishes I have served, of strictly limited resources.
the weekday education of children Convinced of the correctness of
has been one of my major con- the thesis that all education is
cerns, and I have helped to found basically religious, it follows that
two schools, Southwest Episcopal we, as a church are forced to ac-
School in Houston and St. John’s cept responsibility in society for
School in Abilene. this duty. Just as the church is a
There were three main reasons place to worship, so is the church
for founding these schools. First, also a place to acquire, interpret,
there was the conviction that all and evaluate knowledge. We can-
instruction, or teaching, or edu- not expect non-Christians to do
cation (whatever we call it) is Christian teaching, and we do not
basically religious and therefore look for Christians who are not
of primary concern to the Chris- active in the church to do so. More-

The Reverend Mr. Ingram is Rector of St. Thomas Episcopal Church, Bellaire, Texas.

37


===== PAGE 40 =====

38 - THE FREEMAN November

over, since we believe all educa- tion is well within the capacity of
tion is a religious function, and any active church. All that is
since as Christians we believe the needed is that strange ingredient
Church and the State are separate of conviction that flowers into
and autonomous organisms of so- deeds. This may be accomplished
ciety, we believe it is a primary without hostile action of any kind
duty of the Church to supervise against any other schools.
and conduct its own schools. It Church people do not need to
should not pass the buck to the overthrow the “public” school sys-
State, whose social function is tem; they do not need to organize
quite different. a political machine; they do not
The Old Testament authority to even have to formulate a philoso-
teach may be found in the famous phy of education. Nobody who re-
Sixth Chapter of Deuteronomy: jects the idea of a school system
“And these words, which I com- run as part of the Christian
mand thee this day, shall be in Church need be forced to support
thine heart: and thou shalt teach the church school with his earn-
them diligently unto thy children.” ings, or to send his children there.
These mighty words echo and col- But if freedom includes the right
or the Great Commission of the of churchmen to send their chil-
Risen Christ: “Go ye therefore dren to a school where education

and teach all nations.” is consistent with their faith, then
churchmen have a similar right
Consult the Record to establish their own schools.

The obligation of the Christian Certainly nobody else can be ex-
Church to provide schooling is pected to undertake this necessary
thus inherent in her very exist- job on their behalf.
ence. Her ability to do so in the The principle that schooling is
United States today has been a function of the Church is one
demonstrated dramatically in the that was never questioned by the
last five years. The extent of the Founding Fathers of our country,
Roman Catholic school system is and has been lost sight of for only
well-known. The Lutherans of the a few decades — a relatively short
Missouri Synod are equally well- time in the life of Christendom
established. And a virile school and of our people. Until 1837
movement has developed in Bap- when Horace Mann introduced in
tist, Evangelical, Episcopalian, and Massachusetts the first state board
other groups in this decade. of education, even tax moneys for
- A program of weekday educa- schools were expended largely


===== PAGE 41 =====

1957 EDUCATION IS A PRIVATE RESPONSIBILITY 39

through church institutions; and their children, but must accept a
even Mann did not live to see his majority political decision as to
Prussian-inspired plan run its curriculum. In tax-supported
course to the removal of religion schools, this is the case, and must
itself. That this end result was be the case. It would certainly
clearly foreseen and greatly feared breach a principle if sectarian doc-
in Mann’s own time, however, is trines were taught in schools op-
shown by the repeated assurances erated by any unit of government,
he had to give that he had no such federal or local. Yet when reli-
intention and that he agreed that gious bodies havetheir own schools,
religion was the foundation of the possibility of choice thus made
education. In 1848 he wrote: available for churchmen in no way
militates against the “freedom” of
statists to continue to tax every-
one for state-run schools to which
they can send their children. Since

I avail myself of this, the last op-
portunity which I may ever have, to
say in regard to all affirmations or

intimations that I have ever at- bl th
tempted to exclude religious instruc- we may reasonably suppose ©

tions from the schools, or to exclude statists will continue to thrive in
the Bible from the schools, or to im- ur midst for a long time, the fear
pair the force of that volume, that that there will be no state-sup-
they are now, and always have been, ported schools if there are also
without substance or semblance of church schools is groundless. The
truth. devotees of the tax-supported
school system often complain that
School and Church Confined . to allow such sectarian schools
The church-controlled structure would be a divisive force, making
of schools is still to be seen in our for disunity. This argument, how-
nonstate universities and colleges, ever, begs the real question. The
all but a few of which were found- real question is simply what is the
ed under the auspices of some real source of our unity — Caesar
branch of the Church. The return or Christ?
of primary and secondary schools Those who believe that the only
to the sphere of church control is binding force for a people is in
no departure from either tradition the police power — civil govern-
or reason, but rather a restora- ment — would, as a corollary of
tion of both. : that belief, see this cohesive pow-
It is a lie to speak of “freedom er threatened by the mere exist-
in education” if parents have no ence of denominational school sys-
choice of what is to be taught to tems. More mature people, how-


===== PAGE 42 =====

40 THE FREEMAN November

ever, know that uniformity under whole. This was particularly help-
the sword is not the unity we want ful in laying out buildings and
anyway. The real unity for even a buying property. By the winter of
religiously variegated people lies 1954, the Vestry had found a site
in a universal principle that reads: for its proposed church and school
“Whatever you are, be a good and set a timetable for moving to
one.” There is no necessary dis- the site and opening school in the
unity for Americans in our diver- fall of 1955.
sified religious picture. The vari- There was no cash on hand ex-
ety of privately supported reli- cept for a small building fund, and
gious bodies is rather the ground no financial guarantee. If we
for our astonishing national har- wanted a church, it was going to
mony. In any event, people who cost us less than $150,000 for mini-
put their trust in God, as Ameri- mum requirements of land, Sun-
cans profess with their very mon- day school rooms, and a place to
ey to do, must rely on the unity worship. At least a third of this
derived from allegiance to God cost would go for Sunday school
rather than from a monolithic sys- rooms. We did not have enough
tem of education answerable only money to spend $50,000 for rooms
to civil government. to use for one hour each week, es-
That this truth has come home pecially when we would also be re-
with real force to many in our na- quired to pay taxes for the public
tion today is evidenced by the school building that our children
number of church schools .that would attend during the week.
have sprung up from coast to While one building was in use, the
coast since World War II. I am in other would be empty. We think
touch with developments among one building in one community is
various denominations, but I will enough. Now it is true we have
limit my remarks to my personal to pay school taxes anyway. We

experiences. have to pay more, therefore, than
} we would if church schools were
A Plan Carried Through the rule rather than the exception

In my present parish, school and more church buildings were so
and church were planned and de- used. Nonetheless, we felt we
veloped together. St. Thomas was would be getting value received
a new parish, and so it was pos- for what we would pay extra in
sible to conceive church and school the quality of schooling for our
as a unit from the start, and to children.
plan every phase of growth as a A headmaster was engaged in


===== PAGE 43 =====

1957 EDUCATION IS A PRIVATE RESPONSIBILITY 41

April, a school board appointed by The actual cost per pupil at
the Vestry, teachers hired for kin- Southwest Episcopal School in
dergarten and six grades of school, 1956-57 was $260 per year. This
and registrations opened. I re- was an inefficient year, with two
member talking to one parent in classes of only 11 or 12 students
my temporary office in a rented each. Estimated cost per pupil
house adjoining the new site. She next year, with low enrollment of
said, “Where is the school?” I 180 now in sight, will be $225.
pointed to the vacant five acres. With a school of 210 students, or
“There,” 1 said. She signed up. only six less than the capacity, the
Southwest Episcopal School is now average annual cost would be
completing its second year of op- $191.60. This is for a school whose

eration with enrollment of 112. teachers are paid salaries com-
. parable to those in the public
Cost per Pupil schools; a school where classes are

The average tuition is $250 a limited to 24; a school where there
year. That compares with the cost are available the resources of the
in the two fine Houston private entire church community which
schools of like operation of $700 includes a score of Doctors of Sci-
a year. We are making available ence, Doctors of Philosophy, uni-
to people of modest means an edu- versity professors, and other pro-
cation that will equip their chil- fessional people to say nothing of
dren to compete on the highest business executives. By compari-
levels in the finest colleges and son the cost to the general public
most exacting professions in the of educating each child — apart
nation. Moreover, we think our from the expense of construction
economics are of vital concern to and maintenance of school build-
the general public — the tax-pay- ings — was $230.40 a year per pu-
ing public. We think it is good pil in 1953-54. Salary increases
sense dollar-wise for the general last year raised this nearly 10 per
public — which is already under cent to at least $245.00. If the gen-
extreme pressure for school build- eral public can have top quality
ings —to make use of church edu- education at a cost of at least $50
cational buildings or parish houses per pupil less than it costs in tax-
already in existence in every city. supported schools; and if it can
Many of the same people pay for at the same time eliminate the du-
them anyway. Why build more? plication of classroom buildings by
Why build double and parallel fa- restoring the schools to church
cilities ? control and supervision, the sav-


===== PAGE 44 =====

42 THE FREEMAN : November

ings will be enormous. The bene- position. In addition, since the
fits of school construction now be- schools must accommodate all chil-
ing asked for through federal fi- dren, they can neither point to-
nancial grants, can be made im- ward the slow scholars, nor the
mediately available from coast to fast ones. They cannot establish
coast simply by using existing a discipline of learning expected,
church buildings. No time is lost not of the majority, but of the
in construction, no more money skilled and expert few. As a result,
spent. unless there are special schools to
The best index of the South- provide the highest possible scho-
west’s strength and achievement lastic equipment to those who want
is in the enthusiasm of the parents it, our nation can in one genera-
and the reputation in the com- tion be stripped of an irreplace-
munity. This has been so favor- able resource.
able that a second section of kin-
dergarten and ‘of first grade will My experience has shown that
be added during 1957-58 and the any ordinary American commu-
present combined fifth and sixth nity which can support a church
grades will be separated. There is can operate a school in connection
a good possibility of a capacity therewith. If we could do it, any-
enrollment of 216. Four new body can. No extra capital funds
teachers are to be added to the are necessary, no fancy window
staff, and three classrooms. This dressing. All that is required for
has been accomplished with no a school are teachers, pupils, and a
advertising except the enthusi- place to meet. I believe it was
asm of parents of children now in Mark Hopkins who taught on the
school. end of a log. The school can pay
Tax-supported schools are re- its own operating expenses with
quired to take all comers and work modest tuition, or the cost can be
with them for at least ten to absorbed by the congregation.
twelve years in most states. Ob- It is not a matter of merely
viously, they cannot conform to arguing for the soundness of a
any particular church’s sectarian theory. This can be done. eo o eo

| 10688 ®09 poQGRYY.| Attention, Parents

UNTIL THE FAMILY again accepts the teaching tasks it has abdi-
cated so freely to the schools, education must be overburdened.
CANON BERNARD IDDINGS BELL, 1955


===== PAGE 45 =====

OLUNTARY ASSOCIATIONS
ano ve STATE

SYLVESTER PETRO

A STRIKING FEATURE of the free functions of an association may be
society is the diversity of the as various as its members wish
voluntary associations it tends to them to be and can agree upon.
‘breed. A voluntary association is The mutual interests of the mem-
potential whenever two or more bership define the objectives of
members of the free society de- the voluntary association.
cide that it would be mutually ad- The only limitation upon the
vantageous to pool their efforts, voluntary association in the free
or a part of their efforts, in the society is the standard limitation
achievement of a mutually desira- placed upon the activities of all
ble objective. Even a relatively un- men in such a society: the volun-
gregarious member of the free tary association as a separate en-
society may find himself belonging tity may not invade the property
to more voluntary associations rights of persons; it may not en-
than he can enumerate offhand. gage in violent, coercive, or fraud-
His associations may include eco- ulent conduct.
nomic, professional, educational, While the function of the volun-
health, good-fellowship, sporting, tary association in the free society
and religious societies or associa- is to advance the interests of its
tions, to mention only the possibil- members, whatever those interests
ities which come to mind instantly. may be, the function of the state
Nor is there anything in the in such a society is to preserve
theory of the free society which the peace: to prevent and remedy
confines a voluntary organization expropriations, to establish and
to any particular function. The maintain conditions which insure
Dr. Petro is Professor of Law, New York University School of Law. This article is a con-

densation of Chapter 6 from his book, The Labor Policy of the Free Society. New York:
The Ronald Press Company, Copyright 1957, 339 pp. Indexed. $5.00.

43


===== PAGE 46 =====

44 THE FREEMAN November

the freedom of persons to go tran- Composition
quilly about their business. The In the theory of the free society,
state establishes the conditions of a voluntary association is com-
peace and freedom; within that posed of those who have freely
environment men cooperating chosen to form or join it, whereas
singly or in groups are free to ex- every citizen is a member of the
ercise all their ability, ingenuity, state and every person within the
power, and imagination to im- physical boundaries of the state
prove the lot of man on earth. is subject to its jurisdiction.
Preservation of the peace in- Membership in a voluntary as-
volves insuring domestic tran- sociation must be volitional for
quility, providing for the common more than merely ‘grammatical
defense, and establishing an effec- reasons. An association entitled to
tive system of justice. These, in compel membership by violent,
the free society, are the primary coercive, or fraudulent means
and essential functions of the would not only no longer be a
state. They are the primary and voluntary association; it would
essential functions because they have the privilege of destroying
are the things, desired by and property rights. A voluntary as-
necessary to free men, which an sociation is a contractual arrange-
institution organized like a state ment among persons. To say that
can best do and which no other a person may be compelled to par-
form of organization can do as ticipate in such an arrangement
well. is to deny him the right to refuse
Of all the insights afforded by to make a contract which, in the
the theory of the free society none exercise of his own choice, he
perhaps is more significant than would rather not make; and that,
the teaching that by its very in turn, amounts to a deprivation
nature and inner structure the of a basic property right.
state is an organization well-de- The strictly voluntary associa-
signed to secure the peace of tion prospers only if it performs ~
society, but rather poorly designed a needed function relatively well.
as regards the creative and pro- And whether or not its perform-
ductive functions. Appreciation of ance is good can best be judged
this teaching is enhanced by a by whether or not it survives the
comparison of the constitution test of the free market. It does
and the authority of voluntary not matter what kind of private
associations with those of the association we examine; whether
state. it be a business enterprise, an as-


===== PAGE 47 =====

1957 VOLUNTARY ASSOCIATIONS AND THE STATE 45

sociation of such enterprises, a bar associations of men will make the
or medical association, a religious point clear to all. Associations will
group, a charitable foundation — be formed, for men well under-
in every instance the best test of stand their own interests. But it
the effectiveness of the organiza- serves no socially useful purpose,
tion is whether or not it stands up even in such circumstances, to
in competition with other organi- give a private association the priv-
zations engaged in like or compet- ilege to compel membership.
ing functions, or with other But while compulsory member-
methods of attaining the ends ship in a private association con-
which it seeks. The test is not flicts with the theory of the free
necessarily absent merely because society, that theory holds it neces-
there does not happen to be an- sary for every person to be a mem-
other such organization in exist- ber and subject to the rules of
ence at any given time. The oppor- the state which has sovereign
tunity to compete is what really power in the territory in which he
counts. There would be no test happens to be.
only if persons were not free to
form competing organizations at Protection of Property Rights
will—- only, that is, if “voluntary” -A society determined to estab-
organizations were permitted to lish the conditions of freedom
practice compulsion, or if they must have the means of suppres-
were given a protected monopoly sing or discouraging attempts by
by the state. any individual, group, or group
Permitting compulsion by pri- of groups to invade the property
vate associations would seem to rights of others. Nothing less than
presuppose that association is the full power of the society will
always superior to individual ac- adequately serve this end. In con-
tion. As a general proposition, sequence, the society’s defender of
however, such a presumption property rights must be able to
would certainly be inaccurate. As- count upon the life and treasure
sociations sometimes provide more of every member of the society;
effective methods of getting and the organization so consti-
things done; but not always. tuted, the organization which is
In those instances in which as- authorized to represent the great-
sociated efforts are more produc- est combination of power of the
tive than individual effort, the society, is called the state.
ordinary effects of free competi- It is unrealistic to assume that
tion between individual men and the state can perform its basic


===== PAGE 48 =====

46 THE FREEMAN November

functions without the power to to the disputes brought before
compel the acquiescence of all in them, are obeyed.
the measures designed to serve The compulsory, “coercive char-
those functions. One may regret acteristics of the state must be
that violators of the peace and contrasted to the voluntary char-
other invaders of property rights acter of private associations in
exist, or that superior force con- the free society. Compulsion and
centrated in that agency of society coercion are necessary to keeping
called the state is necessary in the peace; but freedom is indis-
order to provide reasonable se- pensable to the achievement of the
curity against criminals. Yet polit- great spiritual-material goals of
ical science must operate within men. To utilize an agency con-
the deficiencies of the other ceived in terms of compulsion and
sciences; until biologists and other coercion in order directly to
natural scientists demonstrate a achieve those goals, rather than
better method of dealing with an- merely indirectly by establishing
tisocial persons who would expro- the conditions of freedom for in-
priate their fellow members of dividuals, is to choose the less in-
society, the compulsory powers as- telligent way of doing things and
sociated with the state will con- to invite confusion and ineffective-
tinue to be necessary if the free ness, if not disaster. These obser-
society is to carry on. vations gain in cogency when one
Compulsory and coercive powers considers also the nature of the
are needed also if the state is to authority and power of the state,
perform its function of settling as contrasted with the authority
definitively the civil disputes over and power of voluntary associa-
property and contract rights tions.
which continually arise among
members of a free society. The Authority and Power
state does not fulfill this function The authority and power of a
merely by formulating and pro- voluntary association differ essen-
mulgating clear-cut rules of law tially from the authority and
concerning property and contract power of the state. Strictly speak-
rights. A large job is left even if ing, a voluntary association is a
the rules are supplemented by the contractual arrangement; but the
best judicial system that can be state may be called a contractual
conceived. That job is the one of arrangement only in loose terms.
seeing to it that the decisions of The membership of a voluntary
the judges, in applying the rules association may not contract to


===== PAGE 49 =====

1957 VOLUNTARY ASSOCIATIONS AND THE STATE 47

do together that which the law essential character of an act
would not allow to any member as changes when done by many
an individual; but the state both people concertedly. One person
may and can do anything which rushing down a sidewalk probably
representatives of a large enough does not hamper the passage of
majority of the people will coun- others, not very much, anyway;
tenance (and this is true, as we but if five or six persons rush
shall see, even under the Constitu- abreast, they will very probably
tion of the United States). materially affect the passage of

The voluntary association has others. One picket at the scene of
only such authority as its mem- a labor dispute will probably
bers agree to give it and only such frighten no one, but multiply the
power to act as is consistent with pickets and the intimidatory
the ruling principles of the free potentialities increase. Where a
society. The members may join single person refuses to work for
together, and from their associa- an employer unless the employer
tion they may reap benefits which agrees to hire only union mem-
none could secure from individual bers, the access of a nonunion
action; but they may not, in the worker to employment opportuni-
free society, create in their asso- ties is probably not materially
ciation the authority to act in a hampered; his chances of secur-
way forbidden to individuals. ing employment for which he is
Scientists may find their re- qualified are about as good as ever.
searches benefited by the pooling But if a large enough group of
of their efforts, just as investors men unites against an outsider,
may find their purposes best the effect may be to replace the
served by putting their savings competition which it is in the in-
together; but neither group, any terest of the free society to foster
more than an individual, may in- with a genuinely monopolistic
vade property rights in promoting condition which involves essen-

its interest. tially the vitiation of property
rights. A man may find himself
Confounded by Numbers denied access to employment pos-

‘While it is plain that an associa- sibilities despite the fact that he
tion may not engage in conduct is fully qualified to do the work
prohibited to individuals, it is not involved, and indeed despite the
nearly so plain that an associa- fact that he is the best qualified
tion may take every kind of action man available in the judgment of
open to individuals. At times the persons offering employment.


===== PAGE 50 =====

48 THE FREEMAN November

The “Contract Theory’ that it can never be accurate to

A precise formulation would identify the kind of authority pos-
have it, then, that in the free sessed by a state with that of vol-
society the voluntary association untary, private associations.
has only such authority as its In its origins, the government
members may properly give it; of the United States came about
and its members may not author- as close as any government in his-
ize their association to engage in tory to being the product of a de-
conduct which invades the prop- liberate contract among the men
erty rights of others, even within its sovereign boundaries.
though such conduct resembles Standard theory holds this gov-
that which, when done by an in- ernment limited by the terms of
dividual, does not invade property the grant of power from the
rights. Again, the rules lying people expressed in the Constitu-
within the authority of a volun- tion, and the Constitution did not
tary association are rules applica- take effect until approved by the
ble to and only binding upon mem- people of the United States in the
bers of the association; they can- ratifying conventions.
not bind outsiders.

As a matter of history, the for- Majority Rule
mation of some states has resem- Speaking loosely, one may call
bled in certain respects the the United States a government
methods of forming voluntary as- by consent of the governed. One
sociations; and the fragmentary would speak entirely too loosely,
resemblance tends to lend color to however, if he should go on to say
the “contract theory” of the state. that the government of the United
This theory holds that states gen- States is a contractual arrange-
erally are the product of a “social ment. The votes of a majority in
compact” among their members. the ratifying conventions deter-
Few careful students now accept mined the adoption of the Consti-
the compact theory as a valid ex- tution in the first place; and a
planation of the actual genesis of large enough majority can do just
states; there is, therefore, no need about what it wishes as regards
here to recount the historical re- amending the. Constitution. Ma-
searches and the analyses which jority rule is the principle which
have induced the virtually uni- governs in the United States in
versal rejection of the compact matters involving the action of
theory. It does seem necessary, the state. And it serves no useful
however, to establish the point purpose to confuse the principle


===== PAGE 51 =====

1957 VOLUNTARY ASSOCIATIONS AND THE STATE 49

of majority rule with the principle historically and contemporane-
of contract. The two principles are ously, some societies have defined
distinct in all material points, and the authority of the state on the
confusing distinet principles is basis of some principle other than
never conducive to fruitful analy- majority rule (i.e. “divine right
sis and accurate conclusions. of kings,” or “dictatorship of the
Contract means that the parties proletariat” as divined by such an
mutually assent to the rule which agency as a politbureau) should
is to govern their conduct for the not be allowed to obscure the cen-
duration of their agreement. Ma- tral feature of the analysis:
jority rule means that the conduct namely, that the contract principle
of some persons is governed en- does not define the authority of
tirely without regard to their de- the state.
sires. In recognition of the fact Nor should we allow ourselves
that majority rule does not neces- to be confused by the fact that,
sarily insure the most desirable even in the “western democracies,”
results in all cases, some societies it is true only in principle that
have more or less explicitly majority rule governs. In the real
adopted the so-called limiting world of action, it must be recog-
principle of “minority rights.” In nized, an actual majority is rarely
the nature of things, however, responsible for the enactment of
such a principle cannot mean very any law, even in countries which
much, and no society today is have relatively enlightened and in-
really governed by that principle (o.oqted electorates. What actually

in any ultimate Sense. It is open happens is that a majority of those
to a large enough majority in the voting in an election select repre-

United States to pass any kind of sentatives; and then, influenced in

law it wishes, and it can do so one way or another b ressure

entirely in accord with due proc- y yp

ess by amending the Constitution groups or leaders, the representa-
tives legislate. The people in rare

first if it wishes to pass a law Lativel } )
which the Constitution presently and relatively unimportant in-

forbids. stances may be given the oppor-

Doubtlessly, therefore, the prin- tunity to vote directly by way of
ciple of majority rule, rather than referendum on some proposals.
the principle of contract, defines Usually, however, the majority’s
the authority of the state, even in Will regarding any specific item
a society such as that of the of legislation is unknown, un-
United States. The fact that both knowable, and, in fact, unsought.


===== PAGE 52 =====

50 THE FREEMAN November

Representative Government ment. Civil war and revolution are

Representative government — the means by which the discontented
government by consent of the gov- majorities overthrow rulers and
erned — is itself a principle of the methods of government which do not
free society; for no society can suit them. For the sake of domestic
be really free, if indeed it can sur- Pe3ce liberalism aims at democratic
vive at all, which does not in one government. Democracy 1S therefore
way or another, directly or in- not a revolutionary institution. On

direct] fect the 1 the contrary, it is the very means of
rectly, retiec € large consen- preventing revolutions and civil wars.

sus of its members. Representa- pi, vides a method for the peaceful
tive governments may and often ;qjustment of government to the will
do enact and enforce measures of the majority. When the men in
which conflict with the theory of office and their policies no longer
the free society. And yet repre- please the majority of the nation, they
sentative government is essential will — in the next election — be elim-
to the free society because it is the inated and replaced by other men
best available method of changing espousing different policies.

governments without the disturb- There are those who may regret
ances and potential lawlessness some of the consequences of rep-
that are inconsistent with the free resentative government, but there
society. Mises has put this matter is really not very much that can

definitively: be done about it. Mises’ remarks
Liberalism realizes that the rulers, are relevant here, too:
who are always a minority, cannot There is, of course, no guarantee

lastingly remain in office if not sup- that the voters will entrust office to
ported by the consent of the majority the most competent candidate. But no
of those ruled. Whatever the system other system could offer sucha guaran-
of government may be, the foundation tee. If the majority of the nation is
upon which it is built and rests is committed to unsound principles and
always the opinion of those ruled that prefers unworthy office-seekers, there
to obey and to be loyal to this gov- js no remedy other than to try to
ernment better serves their own in- change their mind by expounding
terests than insurrection and the more reasonable principles and rec-
establishment of another regime. The ommending better men. A minority
majority has the power to do away will never win lasting success by
with an unpopular government and other means.2

uses this power whenever it becomes —«— Lo
convinced that its own welfare re- ses, Eo bbion. re
quires it. In the long run there is no 149-50. ’ '
such thing as an unpopular govern-  2/pid., p. 150.


===== PAGE 53 =====

1957 VOLUNTARY ASSOCIATIONS AND THE STATE 51

The power of majorities to do principle of majority rule and has
“bad things” is thus as ineluctable the exclusive legal right to use
as the power of the sun to destroy compulsion, force, and violence.
as well as to create. The theory of These special characteristics
the free society is built around equip the state particularly well
the awesome paradox that a free to preserve the peace of society;
society must be free, also, to de- indeed, as already noted, they are
stroy itself. The hope held by those specifically designed to that end.
who understand the theory is that But the trouble is that they also
good sense will ultimately prevail leave in the hands of the men in
among the people; that they will charge of the machinery of the
use the power of the state essen- state the power to try to do any-
tially to protect property rights, thing else they may wish to do

not to destroy them. — and the only limiting factor of

any real significance lies in a
Consequences of the Confusion proper popular understanding of
of Roles the principle of division of labor,

Everyone now has some under- specialization, and exchange.

standing of specialization and ex-

change, and of how application of Specialization and Exchange

that principle has transformed the This principle declares that it
condition of men. Yet, perhaps the is best to leave to a person or in-
most portentous and most preva- stitution only the function or
lent error in the world today functions which that person or in-
grows out of the common failure stitution performs better than any
to realize that the insights to be other person or institution. It
derived from it apply also to gov- teaches, moreover, that if one per-
ernments. There is nothing super- son does several things supremely
natural about the state. The state well, everyone is still better off if
is only a human agency, created he concentrates on one and lets
by human beings and manned by the next best men do the others.
human beings. Whatever the So, if Mr. X is an excellent plumb-
totalitarian mystics may try to er and machinist, but an unex-
make it, the state is really, as celled physician, he and everyone
Somerset Maugham might say, else will be much better off if he
only a human institution like an- concentrates on being a physician
other. In the free society it differs and leaves the plumbing and ma-
from other associations only in chinist work to others specializing
that it is based essentially on the therein. If Mr. X insists upon


===== PAGE 54 =====

52 THE FREEMAN . November

doing them all, he may well end from taxing the citizenry; that is,
up doing nothing very effectively; the governments’ activities pro-
in any case he and the plumber ceed by way of compulsion. This
and the machinist will not profit is as true with respect to the funec-
as much as they would if they all tions associated with keeping the
took advantage of the principle of peace as it is with the interven-
specialization and exchange.? tionist measures of the kind just
States characteristically take a sketched. But there is one great
hand today in a great number of difference. In preserving domestic
activities unrelated to keeping the tranquility, the state serves the
peace. Here in the United States, whole society as such; every mem-
federal, state, and local govern- ber of society owes everything he
ments engage in just about all the has or hopes to have to civiliza-
kinds of activities known to man. tion, and therefore has no ground
They run schools and hospitals; for objecting to equal taxes levied
they operate golf courses, amuse- in order to preserve civilized so-
ment parks, and other forms of ciety. But interventionist meas-
recreation; they build and main- ures do not characteristically
tain roads and sewage systems; serve the whole society as such;
run production establishments of instead, as a general rule, they
various kinds; generate and sell serve one or another minority
electric and other kinds of power; group at the expense of the society
help farmers, small businessmen, as a whole.
and some tenants; subsidize such
industries as aviation and ship- [Invitation to Chaos
ping directly and others indirectly When one properly understands
by way of tariffs. They do a vir- the operation of the political proc-
tual infinity of other little things ess, even in a tolerably advanced
related to the foregoing functions, representative government such
but unrelated to the function of as that of the United States, he is
keeping the peace. forced to concede that a tradition
Of almost everything that gov- of government action for the bene-
ernments in the United States do, fit of anything less than the whole
one thing may be said: the means body of taxpayers invites chaos.
of accomplishment are derived It tends to lead to the pitting of
—_— group against group, or at least
®Cf. Ricardo, David. The Principles of to the process of “group accom-
Political Economy and Taxation. Every- modation,” to use a current idiom.

man’s Library. London: J. M. Dent & Bn
Sons, Ltd. pp. 77-94, 253 ff. We may find ourselves once again


===== PAGE 55 =====

1957 VOLUNTARY ASSOCIATIONS AND THE STATE 53

fitting Maine’s definition of the blunt and relatively savage instru-
primitive society: “It has for its ment as group political pressure
units, not individuals, but groups produce any kind of equal distri-
of men.” bution of benefits. Someone is al-

Interventionist legislation is ways going to be hurt more than
always proposed by some group he is helped. Moreover, the fact
asking for a special privilege at that two wrongs have never made
the expense of the general tax- a right does not mean that multi-
paying population. But if golfers ple wrongs can make a right. For
get their golf course, how can one every special subsidy amounts to
deny a similar benefit to bowlers, a wrong against the undifferen-
or chess players, or aviation en- tiated persons who make up the
thusiasts? If dairy farmers are general taxpaying public (that is,
subsidized, how can one resist a against those who pay the taxes
request for similar aid by peanut but do not receive the benefits for
farmers or cotton planters? There which their taxes pay); and the
1s no rational basis for rejecting wrong is aggravated, not reme-
a subsidy request by people who died, by each additional subsidy.
would like to grow bananas under Generally reduced productivity is
glass in New England, or orchids, the unavoidable mediate result;
or coffee; that is to say, no ra- and the completely regimented so-
tional basis other than that dic- ciety, engulfed in the totalitarian
tated to legislators by the vagaries state, the ultimate product.
of politics and political align-
ments. Forgetting the Purpose }

This is interventionist govern- ~ Again, the never-ending poten-
ment by pressure groups. There tialities of special governmental
are those who defend this kind of subsidies tend to divert govern-
thing by saying that, in the long ment from its primary and essen-
run, such government tends to tial social function. Two somewhat
dispense more or less equal bene- independent factors are at work
fits to all groups. Thus, while the here. First, the task of contending
general public is exploited by spe- with all the pressure groups who
cial subsidies, devices such as rent come begging for special priv-
and price controls and “social” se- jleges becomes a labyrinthine and
curity measures “tend. to even gj]l-absorbing one. The newspapers
things out.” But the fact is, of ‘Cf. Hayek, Friedrich A. The Road to
course, that in neither the long Serfdom. Chicago: University of Chicago
run nor the short run can such a Press, 1944. pp. 61 ff.


===== PAGE 56 =====

54 THE FREEMAN November

daily carry stories of this or that desired ends. Few men are in a
pressure group asking the govern- position to have a golf course of
ment to ‘step in.” Congress, the their own; but the free society
Chief Executive, and his subordin- recognizes a right in golfers to
ates have about all they can do to combine their resources in order
placate persons and groups who to maintain a golf course. Not
want to make sure that they will every person is able to make a
not be passed up. There is little suitable living through farming;
time left for careful consideration but in the free society those who
and enforcement of the laws cannot make a living by farming
necessary to protect the property alone are always free to join to-
rights which alone can secure the gether into more efficient agricul-
general welfare of the society. tural production units, or to try
In the second place, contrary to some other occupation, the prod-
some opinion, not even govern- uct of which is in more demand
ments are omniscient and omnip- than farm commodities.
otent; not even they can do the :
impossible; and there is a limit Ultimately, if government by
‘even to taxes. Interventionist gov- pressure group follows its inher-
ernment by pressure groups may ent logic, there is no doubt that
be able reasonably to satisfy the the ability of individuals to pro-
demands of the most insistent vide for themselves through their
seekers after special privilege; own action or through voluntary
but when that has been done, associations must be drastically
there is little talent and less impaired. If the agency of force
money left to perform the basic and compulsion assumes the func-
functions of the state. tions allocated in the free society
The state seems to get into its to persons and their voluntary as-
worst troubles when it takes over sociations, it must take from indi-
the job of providing for the eco- vidual persons the wherewithal to
nomic welfare of individuals and do so. No great insight is neces-
groups. In the free society, that sary in order to realize that the
is the job of individuals them- individuals will then no longer
selves, . who are free to form vol- have the wherewithal to provide
untary associations when inde- for themselves and to forge ahead
pendent action seems inferior to with creative plans for.realizing
association as a means of reaching their own potentialities. eo o eo


===== PAGE 57 =====

A REVIEWER'S NOTEBOOK

John Chamberlain

J Forore KOHR, a writer of Anything big, he says, is bound +i.
knockabout charm despite his to break down through instability.
professorial background, throws Bigness can, indeed, be handled
his The Breakdown of Nations through the principle of decen-
(Rinehart, $6.00) smack in the ftralization, as many U.S. business
face of virtually every modern concerns (General Motors, John-
shibboleth. He tells us why there son and Johnson) have discovered.
can be no peace through empire or But: only when the decentraliza-
pursuit of the universal state. He tion permits true local responsi-
isolates the “political cancer” (his bility in the various parts. The
word for it) which consumed the parts, in turn, must be small parts,
League of Nations and will surely no one of which has the latent
be the death of the United Na- power to impose an imperialistic
tions. He explains why so much of design on any of the other units.
the energy of the contemporary Inasmuch as political Bigness is
world must be devoted to over- the worst sort of Bigness (it has a
coming the inconveniences created monopoly of force to back it. up),
by the progress which has heaped Dr. Kohr is primarily concerned
us all together in great urban war- with explaining why Great States
rens. Incidentally, Dr. Kohr does are their own Nemesis. But Dr.
not expect to convert anybody. We Kohr’s mind is only interested in
learn, he seems to say, only politics for purposes of outwitting
through failure; and the only cure and circumventing the politicos.
for the sterility of the universal Though he is by trade a political
state is to try it on for size and economist (he teaches economies
watch it burst into smithereens and public administration at the
after the forthcoming inevitable University of Puerto Rico), Dr.
war between the U.S. and Russia. Kohr is actually far more inter-
Dr. Kohr’s theory is that life is ested in his hobbies and his avoca-
only manageable through cultiva- tions. He delights in things which,
tion of the “small-cell principle.” though “socially useless,” minister

55


===== PAGE 58 =====

56 THE FREEMAN November

to the creative individual's pleas- definition, is one which allows a
ure. He applauds artists who re- creative individual to participate
tire to ivory towers to create “true in a great variety of personal ex-
moments of civilization” in defi- perience. But variety, he insists,
ance of the “clamor of the masses.” is only possible in a small state.
He glories in such rulers as the Large states require —and compel
princes of Salzburg, who, lacking — large-scale specialization. But in
the military power to enlarge their small states there is no need for
territorial possessions, were forced such specialists as social analysts,
to “divert” their aggressiveness efficiency experts, or singers whose
into hewing theatres out of moun- talent is for producing mass
tainsides and building churches swooning. In small states mechan-
(“all wholly unnecessary but each ics gather with greengrocers, and
more beautiful than the other”). professors of history hobnob with
The great ages, says Dr. Kohr, artists in the café. In large states,
were those of the Greek city states the exigencies of organization —
and the small medieval principali- trade associations, conventions,
ties and free cities. In such “small- and the like — compel mechanics
cell” communities men could pro- to spend most of their time with
vide for their needs and still have mechanics, garment workers with
time for “musing and slowness of garment workers, and journalists
pace.” The worst age, so Dr. Kohr with journalists. “If a business-
continues, is any age in which the man knows a sculptor” in a large
individual can find no relief from state, so Dr. Kohr says, “he is sus-
the necessity to engage in “stulti- pected of being a sex pervert. If
fying social service.” Or, he might an engineer knows a philosopher,
have added, no relief from a sur- he is suspected of being a spy...
plusage of stultifying individual It is considered snobbish, indecent,
self-service. In a notable passage or treasonable to mix with any-
on the disappearance of house- body not of one’s kind.”
maids, Dr. Kohr observes that All of this is exaggeration, of
every housemaid has now become course. But Dr. Kohr is a master
either a wife or a stenographer. of the parody which conveys truth.
This has had a paradoxical issue: When he remarks that modern au-
it has turned every secretary and thors lack the “opportunity to ex-
housewife into a housemaid — but perience the multitude of social
without a day off. The housewife and human problems that consti-
is now, truly, the house’s wife. tute life,” he hits close to the
The good society, in Dr. Kohr’s mark. To know anything today, an


===== PAGE 59 =====

1957 A REVIEWER'S NOTEBOOK 57

author must keep a staff of re- tion. The successful federations,
searchers who ‘“do the learning he notes, are those of the United
and experiencing for him.” Dr. States, Canada, Mexico, and the
- Kohr thinks it significant that Swiss Republic. The failures in
England’s period of literary great- the field of federation include
ness, the Elizabethan, came when Bismarck’s Germany, the Union of
she was a “quarrelsomely insigni- Socialist Soviet Republics, and
ficant” minor power. And it is no (though it is not an example of
coincidence, he says, “that many true federation) the League of
of the most . . . fertile contribu- Nations. Dr. Kohr observes that
tors to modern English literature, the United States, Canada, and
Shaw, Joyce, Yeats, or Wilde, were Switzerland have one thing in
Irish, members of one of the common: their component units
world’s smallest nations.” are small units, none of which
Dr. Kohr is not against war. could really hope to impose its will
But he thinks wars make sense on the federation as a whole. In
only when they are small, personal the German federation, on the
combats — say as between two other hand, Prussia (the cancer-
armored knights. He objects to ous cell) had the power first fo
such “universal” political mech- expel Austria and then to impose
anisms as the League of Na- its designs on Bavaria, Baden, and
tions or United Nations precisely the Free City of Hamburg.
because they tend to turn small,
personal conflicts — such as be-
tween Israelis and Egyptians for The lesson to be derived from
control of the Sinai Peninsula — all this is obvious: to federalize
into universal combats between the world, we must first break all
great power blocs. He objects to the great powers up into their
Big Unions and to corporations medieval regional units. Great
which believe in industry-wide bar- Britain must devolve into Eng-
gaining because they cannot fight land, Scotland, Wales, Cornwall,
an economic war without disrupt- and the Isle of Man before she is
ing an entire economy. fit to send delegates (on the re-
Having proved to his own satis- gional representation plan) to a
faction that smallness, not ripe- European parliament at Stras-
ness, is all, Dr. Kohr tells us how burg. France must become Bur-
we could work back to a world of gundy, the Midi, Aquitaine, and
small states and still retain the Normandy. Germany must become
advantages of large-scale federa- Saxony, Brandenburg, and the

Divide or Explode


===== PAGE 60 =====

58 THE FREEMAN November

Rhineland (no Prussia!). Only if oO American Faith
the monsters cease to be mon- By John Sutherland Bates. New
strous could such small nations as York City: W. W. Norton, 1957.
Switzerland, Denmark, and Aus- 479 pp. $6.95.
tria trust themselves to the de- THIS is the second printing of a
cisions of a Strasburg government. book which received favorable
Naturally, Dr. Kohr is under notice when it first appeared in
no illusions that France will be- 1940. The book has not changed,
come Burgundy, the Midi, and so but scholarly outlook and under-
on. He thinks the world is fated standing has, and the book leaves
to “unify” into two great-power a less favorable impression today.
confrontations, with Washington The American faith, as the late
and Moscow as the opposing capi- Professor Bates viewed it, “is
tals. And he says, categorically, summarized today in the term
that the “critical mass” of the Iron ‘democracy.”” This faith did not
Curtain and anti-Iron Curtain arise out of eighteenth century
worlds will result in fission and social conflicts, as some have sup-
wild explosion. posed, but rather took its origin
This fission, says Dr. Kohr, in the Reformation. “Democracy,”
won't be nice to experience, but he writes, “was envisaged in re-
it will have the virtue of creating ligious terms long before it as-
a totally unmanageable situation sumed a political terminology.”
for the victor power. Unable to This large volume begins, there-
handle all things from one center fore, with our European heritage,
of power, the emergent tyrant with the Reformation considered
won’t last very long. And out of as a Social Revolution, and urges
the chaos of “One World” there that this Reformation was com-
will come a new world of small, pleted in America.
regional units, which, like the The story, which stops with the
Greek city states, will produce an- Civil War, is told in pleasant nar-
other cultural eflorescence. If our rative style with a minimum of
descendants wish to participate in footnotes and no bibliography. It
the efflorescence, however, they is a useful book for one who
must be careful to choose their wishes a compact account of the
family trees. The ones who have major religious denominations
ancestors in any city which is which helped to shape American
fated to be a Hiroshima just won’t life and institutions, who likes to
be on hand for the small-state explore some of the fantastic re-
millennium. - eo e eo ligious byways traveled by cults



===== PAGE 61 =====

1957 OTHER BOOKS 59

such as the Shakers or look in on variously that all actions of man
such perfectionist communities as were predestined according to
that established at Oneida. some superior over-all design; that
The merits of this book, how- they were merely the consequences
ever, are balanced by its short- of physiological phenomena; or
comings. There is much more to that they arose solely from en-
the American * faith than the vironmental conditions or charac-
reader can gain from this volume. teristics of society or race. Such
Looking backward to the origins explanations, however, as Ludwig
of that faith, it must surely be von Mises shows in his new book,
admitted that it is more than the are inconsistent with real life on
mere flowering of a growth rooted this earth as we know it.
in “the radical lower-class sects Dr. Mises is the leading ex-
of the Protestant Reformation.” ponent today of the Austrian
American ideas and idealism are School of economics. He has
deeply imbedded in Christendom, taught and lectured in a dozen dif-
which itself is a blending of the ferent countries and now holds a
heritage of faith, reason, and law position as Visiting Professor at
deriving from Israel, Greece, New York University. His writ-
Rome, and beyond — as deBurgh ings have spelled out in detail
demonstrates in his Legacy of the many aspects of economics, ex-
Ancient World. In other direc- plaining in every instance how the
tions, the book needs to be supple- free market is the basis of indi-
mented by such works as Garrett’s vidual freedom. In this new book,
The American Story, Beston’s he applies his knowledge of the
American Memory, and Morley’s theory of human action and of

The Power in the People. market operations to the interpre-
EDMUND A. OPITZ tation of history and historical
philosophies.

t= Theory and History: An In- The major part of the book is
terpretation of Social and devoted to analyzing various inter-
Economic Evolution pretations of history and to com-
By Ludwig von Mises. New Haven, paring each in turn with the phi-
Conn.: Yale University Press. losophy of utilitarianism which
384 pp. $6.00. Mises calls “a philosophy of indi-
SINCE MEN first started to record vidualism,” because it “rejects
events, they have sought to under- universalism, collectivism, and
stand why things happened as totalitarianism.” One by one, he
they did. It has been suggested refutes the philosophies of history


===== PAGE 62 =====

60 THE FREEMAN November

that deny freedom of the indivi- judgments and ideas, using means
dual to act as he sees fit. Dr. Mises they believe, or hope, will be effec-
calls attention to “the emotional tive. They do not always use
appeal which cognizance of this proper means, and they may
freedom has, and the idea of moral change their minds after making
responsibility which it engenders. a decision to act, but this does not
. . . One of the fundamental con- deny that men act rationally and
ditions of man’s existence and purposively in the hope of gaining
action is the fact that he does not desired ends.
know what will happen in the Men frequently act in coopera-
future.” He points out, on the tion. Their reason tells them that
other hand, that positivism, be- there are advantages in social co-
haviorism, and scientism, for in- operation, due to the fact that spe-
stance, reduce the role of the indi- cialization and the division of
vidual to that of a robot. He labor are more productive than
shows that the Marxist idea of self-sufficiency. This , recognition
“class conflict” denies the obvious leads most men to prefer peaceful
fact that individuals act according relations to strife and conflict
to what they consider to be their with their fellow men. Indeed, the
own interest, not that of their history of civilization consists of
“class.” the development of specialization
Dr. Mises explains why the and division of labor. Thus, the de-
claim that environmental factors sire for social cooperation is an
alone determine a person’s ideas important motive for individual
and actions — and thus, history — action.
is a contradiction of reality. In It is the task of the historian to
fact, the situation is the other way record and to explain, insofar
round. It is ideas that are respon- as his knowledge, understanding,
sible for social institutions, tech- and opportunities permit, the man-
nological and political changes, ner in which events arise from the
and economic conditions. This individual actions of individual
thesis, the importance of ideas, men. To explain why men act, he
runs like a refrain throughout the must make use of “specific under-
book. standing” as well as knowledge in
Men are rational creatures, all other pertinent fields, includ-
Mises reminds us. Their actions ing economics. The more complete
are the results of thought and rea- his knowledge and understanding,
son. Acting men seek various ends, the more accurate can be his inter-
according to their individual value pretation of historical data.


===== PAGE 63 =====

1957 OTHER BOOKS : 61

Modern historians tend to be im- are “haves.” This is true, of
pressed by mass phenomena and the course, in societies where wealth
actions of large groups. In this, is the result of special privilege.
their writings reflect the current But in a free market, i.e., under
fallacies of “pseudo-economics.” capitalism, no conflicts need exist
They are inclined to forget that among the rightly understood in-
history always deals with individ- terests of all members. Because
uals. Even the actions of societies many historians have failed to un-
and long-term historical trends derstand this, they have helped to
are traceable ultimately to many popularize the idea of conflicting
small and interrelated individual interests as well as other neo-mer-
actions. When men cooperate or cantilist ideas which lead to in-
act together as members of ternational conflict and aggressive
groups, they are, nevertheless, nationalism.

still acting as individuals under Perhaps the most startling idea
the influence of certain specific brought to light by Dr. Mises in
ideas. this book concerns the role histo-

History is made by man. The con- rians have played in promoting
scious intentional actions of indi- various types of collectivism. By
viduals, great and small, determine adopting philosophies of history
the course of events insofar as it is based on economic fallacies and
the result of the interaction of all the thesis that individuals do not
men. But the historical process is have the power of free choice,
not designed by individuals. It is the they have actually helped the
composite outcome of the intentional cause of socialism. Their accept-
actions of all individuals. No man  ,,.0 of the idea that material and
can plan history. technological advances are some-

Although the advantages to be how “automatic” and “inevitable”
gained from interpersonal cooper- has led them to endorse, and thus
ation under a system of division to popularize, policies of govern-
of labor and interpersonal ex-
change on an unhampered market
have long been recognized, many
persons, historians included, be-
lieve that an inevitable conflict of

Any book reviewed in this Book Section (or
any other current book) supplied by return

interests exists among individuals mail. You pay only the bookstore price. We
. pay the postage anywhere in the world.
and among groups. The belief per- Catalogue on request.
: [1] 3
sists that there are “have-nots” In | rye BooKMAILER, Box 101, New York 16

the world, precisely because there



===== PAGE 64 =====

62 THE FREEMAN November

ment interference with individual policies in the West have not suc-
initiative, efforts, and savings ceeded in wiping out ‘the indivi-
which make such advances pos- dual’s disposition to think and to
sible. : apply to all problems the yardstick
The closing note of Mises’ book, of reasoning.”
however, is hopeful. “The key- This book is a deep, philosophi-
stone of Western civilization is cal analysis. It is not intended for
the sphere of spontaneous action beginners. It contains much which
it secures to the individual.” Al- should be of vital interest, how-
though the trend of recent years ever, to serious students of his-
has been toward trying to “stabi- tory and philosophy. If it is read
lize” economies and inhibit indi- and understood by the world’s
vidual initiative through govern- “thought leaders,” it could have
ment intervention, so far, Mises a profound influence for the cause
concludes, the advocates of these of freedom. BETTINA BIEN

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«+. NOW SOMETHING IS BEING DONE
ABOUT PARCEL POST SUBSIDIES

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
JUNE 18, 1957

A BILL

To provide for control by the Interstate Commerce
Commission of the reformation of rates on fourth-
class (parcel post) mail, and for other purposes.

1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Repre-
2 sentatives of the United States of America in
3 Congress assembled, That section 247 of title

Most businessmen know what its own way —a recommendation
parcel post deficits mean as an of the Hoover Commission.
unfair burden on the taxpayer The bill, of course, will be fought
. . . the extent to which govern- by those who are still thriving
ment subsidies ignore the princi- on the special privileges granted
ples of private enterprise. by present rates.

A bill—H. R. 8108 — has been There you have, in a few words,
introduced in the House of Rep- the story of the new bill that

resentatives . . . a bill calling for can mean far-reaching reform
a study of parcel post service . . . by requiring the user of the
and its cost based on sound com- ~~ parcel post system to pay his
mercial accounting practices; rightful share.

and then, on the basis of the For a free copy of an informa-
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aimed at making parcel post pay ~~ Parcel Post,” write to:

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219 East 42nd Street,.New York 17, N. Y.

A PRIVATE ENTERPRISE IN THE PUBLIC SERVICE


===== PAGE 68 =====

AN

FROM A LIBERTARIAN’S LIBRARY

U noir the American Constitution, the cause of human freedom
has generally been served. Human rights — the right to life, free-
dom of thought, religion, residence, press, assembly, petition and
action, civil liberty, and property — are promulgated and perpetu-
ated by this Constitution which is dedicated to the proposition
of promoting the welfare of the individual as one of many individ-
uals making up the nation. Government logically exists for only
one purpose — the protection of these rights. Its exercise of power
should always be limited by a written constitution in order that it
may never exceed or curtail these rights.

Our most formidable fortress of defense in time of stress still
remains the Constitution of the United States. But it is only as
good as our understanding and defense of the purpose for which
it was drafted. Eternal vigilance and personal responsibility are
still the price of human liberty.

A selection from The Constitution of the United States: Its Origins, Principles,
and Problems by James Mussatti, with Study Guide by Thomas J. Shelly,
D. Van Nostrand Company, Princeton. 173 pp. $2.00 paper, $3.50 cloth.