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

IDEAS ON LIBERTY

JANUARY 1958

On Sharing Profits

The Gods of the Copybook Headings
Who's Forgotten Now? .

Lift Not Thy Hands to It
Robinson Crusoe and Free Trade
A Farm Leader Speaks . |
Progress through Competition
Quo Vadis?

Uncle John and the Termites .
Double Charge on Toll Roads .
Freedom of the Mind

Behind Civilization —~ A Vision

Capital Punishment .

yi
E

F. A. Harper 3
Rudyard Kipling 12
George M. Clark 14
Leonard E. Read 20
Frederic Bastiat 23
Charles B. Shuman 25
Harry M. Love 30
E. F. Hutton 33
Ralph Bradford 34
F. R. Sproule 43
Paul Valery 47
Edmund A. Opitz 56
John Chamberlain 60

THE FOUNDATION
FOR ECONOMIC EDUCATION, INC.

Irvington-on-Hudson, New York


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

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freeman A MONTHLY JOURNAL OF IDEAS ON LIBERTY

JANUARY 1958 Vol. 8 No. 1

LEONARD E. READ President, Foundation for
Economic Education

PAUL L. POIROT Managing Editor

THE FREEMAN is published monthly by the
Foundation for Economic Education, Inc., Irving-
ton-on-Hudson, N, Y. Any interested person may
receive it for the asking. The costs of Foundation
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Accepted as controlled circulation publication at Irvington, N. Y., with
additional entry at New York, N. Y. Copyright, 1958, The Foundation for
Economic Education, Inc, Printed in U.S.A.

Additional copies, postpaid, to one address: Single copy, 50 cents;
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Permission is hereby granted to anyone to reprint any article in whole
or in part, providing customary credit is given, except “The Gods of
the Copybook Headings,” ‘A Farm Leader Speaks,” and ‘Freedom of
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Any current article will be supplied in reprint form if there are enough
inquiries to justify the cost of the printing,



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

ON
SHARING
PROFITS

F. A. HARPER

UCH ADO is adrift about profit being judged on its own as a
sharing, or more specifically matter of principle, but purely as
the extent to which employees a device for appeasement — not the
should share in profits. How can a object of this analysis.
sound decision be arrived at? The claim of employees to a
What is the principle involved? share in the profits may arise as
The first step is to separate the a diluted form of the Marxian
matter of profit sharing from theory of surplus value. This
separate issues with which it theory asserts that all the product
is commonly confused. For in- belongs to the employees who use
stance, a business may be in the capital; that none of it belongs
trouble with employees through to the owner of the capital per se.
some fault of one or the other. A One who really believes in this
strike may be threatened or in surplus value theory should be
progress. Employees’ demands arg opposed to any profit sharing plan,
resisted by the employer until ap- because it compromises his belief
peasement is resorted to in order that the user of the tools has a
to try to continue production. The proper claim to all the profits, not
employees, in fishing for favors, just a share in them. Why should
may include profit sharing as one he allow the owner of the tools to
form of bait, along with things have any of the profits, under this
like a new bowling alley, vacation belief?
trips to Florida, or what not. When And furthermore, how can it be
this happens, profit sharing is not claimed, under the surplus value

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

3


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

4 THE FREEMAN January

concept, that the immediate users period, after providing for all
of those particular tools should get costs other than return for owner
all the profit, as against other capital.
users of other tools contributing Profit sharing from the stand-
to the task? If the theory has va- point of justice, then, leads basi-
lidity, shouldn’t the profit be cally and at the outset to the ques-
shared with all the other em- tion of ownership. This can best
ployees elsewhere who produce be seen in its essence by looking
goods and services purchased by at a simple case. A helpful place
this particular firm — those who to start is with a single person
made the steel it bought, those who, as a private owner, is pro-
who supplied the electricity and ducing something without the
telephones used, etc.? So even ac- help of any employees.
cording to the surplus value Josephus Doakes, let us say,
theory, profit sharing in the form produces potatoes and sells them
usually proposed has no validity. on the local market. His own time
Others who argue for profit spent on his own land is all that
sharing will concede that capital is involved in their production; no
owners deserve some reward for employees; no other production
their services, but they will con- expense. He takes a bushel of his
tend that the profit should some- potatoes to the local market and
how be shared with the employee sells it for $2.00. Who can ques-
“partners in production.” Shared tion the fact that since he owns
how? Half and half? Or some both himself and the land, he
other proportion? The only way thereby has an undisputed claim
such questions can be answered is to the entire $2.00 derived there-
to pin down the basis for the from? Since nothing else went
claim. Who has a valid claim to into its production, nobody else
what — on what grounds, and how has any valid claim to any of the

much? $2.00. Each of the 200 cents is his
} i without distinction between the
Profits and Ownership first cent, the hundredth cent, or

Before a thing can be shared, it ——
is first necessary to know its pre- This differs from a concept of profits in

1 t d t. What theoretical economic analysis which uses
c18¢ nature an amount. at, the alternative opportunity cost for all

precisely, are profits? factors of production, Whatever else may
In business accounting, profit is be said for it, the alternative opportu-

. . f nity concept is not one that a business
the amount remaining for the accountant can use to measure profits as

owner out of his income for the they are considered for this purpose.


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

1958 ON SHARING PROFITS 5

the two-hundredth cent. Valid an average of one bushel of po-
claims cannot be made by others, tatoes per hour of work. The
to either certain cents among them bushel of potatoes will still sell
or to any proportion of the whole. for $2.00 as before, since its worth
For to do so would violate to consumers is not altered by de-
Josephus’ rights of private prop- tails of the production arrange-
erty as a free man — as much, in ment about which consumers know

principle, for one cent as though — and care — little or nothing.
someone were to claim the entire .
$2.00. The Owner Bears the Risk

Now let us assume that From the standpoint of owner-

Josephus retires to the status of ship, the potatoes till sold were,
a landowner-manager, hiring of course, the complete property
Alonzo Brown to perform all the of Josephus, just as if he had done
labor of growing and marketing all the work himself. Who could
the potatoes. At the outset the two argue that the full $2.00 of sale
men bargain for a wage. Josephus Proceeds does not also belong to
offers to pay him either on a Josephus, as before? This is clear
piecework basis —so much for if one realizes the nature of the
each bushel of potatoes he grows agreement between the two men.
and markets —or on an hourly Josephus agreed to pay Alonzo
basis for the time worked. Alonzo $1.70 for the time he worked. He
chooses the hourly wage plan. did not agree to give him a pro-
Then they bargain for the hourly Portion of either the potatoes or
amount. Alonzo looks around at ©f the sales proceeds. The wage
all the other jobs available and claim of $1.70 stands against
finds that the best he can do else- Josephus — all his property and in-
where is $1.50 an hour (a figure come alike, other things as much
Josephus probably does not know, as the potatoes. The $1.70 is owed
however). Josephus looks around Whether the potatoes bring $2.00
to see what other help he can hire, Or some other price — is owed, in
and finds that it would cost him fact, even if the potatoes cannot
$1.90 an hour (which Alonzo be sold at all or if they were to be
probably does not know either). destroyed by a flood on the way
Let us say that when the bargain- to market.

ing: is settled and a wage arrived The point is, so far as property
at, it is $1.70 an hour. It turns rights are concerned, that the en-
out that at the end of the season tire product belongs to Josephus
Alonzo has produced and marketed until sold, irrespective of whether


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

6 THE FREEMAN January

he produced .it himself or hired paid his wage, according to the
someone to assist him in its pro- original agreement. Alonzo owns
duction; that from the standpoint no part of them, any more than
of property rights, ownership is does any outside person. There is
entire and indivisible. Nobody no way to arrange priorities of
working to assist in its production rights to ownership among per-
has any claim to it whatever, so sons, all of whom lack any such
long as the owner fulfills his con- rights; and so the employee has
tract as to the wage payment that no right to any of the profits with
had been previously agreed to. priority over anyone else.

And if the wage has not been paid And if, by some reasoning that
in full, the claim is against all the wholly escapes my imagination,
owner's property equally with all one were to argue that under pri-
other unpaid claimants such as the vate property Josephus should be
telephone bill, the utility bill, the forced to surrender some of the
family physician’s bill, or what $2.00 to someone else, it would
not. There is nothing peculiar or seem reasonable to argue that
preferential .in the employee's Alonzo should at the time of the
claim, as against any other item distribution take his place in line

of expense. with all other living humans. The
mere fact that Alonzo happened
The Profit Sharing Idea to be closer at hand as a workman

We may now test the profit should give him no priority in
sharing idea against this back- rights over the telephone operator,
ground of the nature of profits and or the engineer on the railroad,
of ownership’s rights. Using again or some distant Asiatic infant.
the instance where Josephus hired It is therefore irrelevant to go
Alonzo at a wage to produce pota- into the complex question of how
* toes on his land, let us suppose one might calculate fairly the
that it is now.argued that Alonzo, amount of the profit that Josephus
in justice, has a right to some should divide with Alonzo. But
share in the profits. let’s see what one gets into if he

Since from the standpoint of tries. In the instance cited, 30
ownership the so-called profits are cents was left over after paying
an indistinguishable part of the Alonzo's wage for the time he
entire bushel of potatoes or of the spent in producing the bushel of
$2.00 for which they were sold, potatoes. Was there in this in-
Alonzo has no valid claim to any stance a profit of 30 cents? And
part thereof so long as he has been $2.00 profit, by similar reasoning,


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

1958 ON SHARING PROFITS 7

when Josephus had done all the part of his $1.70. The best job he
work? Are we then to conclude could find elsewhere would have
that Josephus could increase his paid him only $1.50; so Josephus
profit by $1.70 if he did all the was paying him a. benefit of 20
work himself rather than to have cents above what anyone else
hired Alonzo? Or if not, what is would offer. If the profit sharing
the “profit” to be shared? argument were valid, should
The point is that no matter how Alonzo share his 20 cents with
the accounting is resolved for Josephus, and Josephus share his
purposes such as a corporate finan- 30 cents with Alonzo?
cial report, or income tax account- Whenever one departs from
ing, it does not alter the rights strict adherence to: the concept
of ownership—Josephus owns the of ownership in the form of per-
bushel of potatoes until it is sold, sonal property rights and con-
and Alonzo owns the $1.70 of tractual obligations, he will have
agreed wage. And Josephus hap- constructed a seemingly unsolv- -
pened to have 30 cents left as a able problem. The tests to be ap-
residual for the use of his land plied are those of property and of
and for his management — call it contract. However calculated, to
what you will. Alonzo's right was whom does the profit belong? Is
limited to the $1.70 wage, because his title valid and complete? What
he had chosen its certainty rather contractual obligations were
than the uncertainty of a residual. made? Have they been met in
Suppose there had been a loss full? These are the questions to
of 10 cents instead of a profit of be asked. And when they have
30 cents; would Alonzo then claim been answered, justice already
a share in the loss? Loss sharing will have been identified.
is the other half of profit sharing.
There 1s as much or as little of
justice and rights in one as in the So far we have- been speaking -
other. I would say that for the of a contracted rate of pay, which *
situation described here neither is almost universal in our econ-
is justice; that the wage was sep- omy. Another approach to profit
arately and validly agreed to as sharing is to have “profits” made
$1.70, leaving the loss as well as a part of the wage, when arriving
the profit for Josephus alone to at a wage agreement. In other
own. words, if we were to adapt the
Then there is the point that potato project to such an arrange-
Alonzo had a profit, in a sense, as ment, Josephus and’ Alonzo would

Profit Sharing as a Wage


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

8 THE FREEMAN January

not agree on a wage of $1.70 but will have to decide on a plan and
would agree on some amount to be a rate at the outset and whenever
derived from the records of ac- wages are reconsidered. Perhaps
count after the potatoes have been they will agree on an hourly wage
sold and other costs determined to be paid at the end or at the
—on some proportionate basis beginning of each day, or weekly,
thereto. Payment by such a plan or monthly; it may be on a piece-
might become Alonzo's entire re- work basis; it may be some pro-
ward, or it could be made a part portion of the outcome of the
of his wage to supplement a base market venture in general; it may
pay per hour lower than $1.70. be some combination of these,

Though such an arrangement is together with wages in the form
perfectly proper, it is erroneous of more bowling alleys and picnics
to call it profit sharing. For if for employees, or De Luxe soap
profits are the amount remaining in the washrooms. Whatever the
to owners after payment of wages design of the wage plan, it will be
and other costs, it obviously can’t valid if it is proper and agreed to
at the same time be a figure which by both parties to the employment.
includes some of the wage to be But however arrived at as to form,
paid. A name — even “profit shar- it is still all a wage and not profits.
ing” — does not change the animal. I do not see how any form of
A wage is a wage, not a profit. wage payment — including this —
Profits can’t include nonprofits. can be said to be wrong in prin-
And profits are something over ciple, provided it is understood
and above all wages, accruing to in advance by both parties and
the owner for his ownership. voluntarily. agreed to without

Basing a wage in part on the coercive force. That goes for what
financial results of the over-all is erroneously called a ‘sharing
operation should be referred to by in profits” by nonowning em-
some name other than profit shar- ployees. One may question this or
ing. It is as correct to call it cost that plan on the basis of its wis-
sharing as to call it profit sharing. dom, or its effectiveness for pur-
Why not speak of it as merely poses of efficiency, but he cannot
one form of wage payment, with- question it on the basis of rights.
out any fancy name? That is what
it really is. True Profit Sharing

As to whether the employer and There is only one way by which
the employee want the wage de- an employee may share in the
termined this way or that, they profits of the business where he


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

1958 ON SHARING PROFITS 9

works, and that is by becoming a between the forces that must co-
part owner. To do this he must operate if they are to live eco-
invest capital in the venture, as nomically.
would any nonemployee owner, A point against employee
thereby becoming a sharer in any ownership in the business, on the
profits and losses along with the other hand, is that when his sav-
other owners. But when he does ings are thus invested, the em-
this, he becomes a dual person- ployee’s total risk is enhanced.
ality economically; he profits as For instance, if all a person’s
an owner, as well as benefiting savings are to be invested in
through the wage he receives by ownership of the business where
working for his owner self. When he is employed, lack of orders
he does this, he enjoys profit shar- leading to his being laid off or los-
ing as a result of his owner func- ing his job will come at the same
tion, not as a result of his em- time when dividends are likely to
ployee function. It is not a method be reduced or suspended. He would
for profit sharing with employees lose both ways at the same time.
as such, but is instead merely So instead of his savings being a
profit sharing with some new backlog of income available in
owners who happen also to be em- time of adversity, they become an
ployees. : even more vulnerable object of
the same adversity. Perhaps he
will even have to sell his shares of
It is not the main purpose here ownership at especially depressed,
to appraise the wisdom of an em- sacrificial prices in order to tide
ployee owning shares in the busi- him over the adversity.
ness in which he is employed. Perhaps an employee's savings
But in favor of his doing so might should be invested elsewhere in
be mentioned its effect in reveal- some form more safe and stable
ing a harmony of interest that than his job — at least in some
should be evident between owner form not acutely vulnerable to
and employee. This becomes more the same adversities which affect
vivid to the employee if he owns a his job. It would seem far better
share in the business. He is then to place his savings where they
less likely to engage in the com- are not so likely to suffer adver-
mon processes of economic suicide, sity at precisely the time when he
typical of labor unions whose ac- will need reserve income. This sev-
tivities seem to rely on maintain- erence of the two is hardly pos-
ing a chronic state of civil war sible, of course, in a small self-

Ownership by Employees


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

10 THE FREEMAN January

owned, self-managed business States, it has been estimated that
wherein the advantages may jus- as much as a nineteenfold increase
tify the risk involved. in output has resulted, in contrast
The more savings the employee to what the same person would be
has, of course, the more risk ‘he able to produce if he were to work
can afford -to take —the more equally hard or even harder with-
safely he can put a part of his sav- out the aid of these tools.? Looked
ings in the business where he at in this light alone, it can be
works, as well as elsewhere. To said that as much as 95 cents of
the extent this can be done with .every dollar of production in the
safety, the more there will be United States now is a conse-
true profit sharing at its best. quence of savings that have been
invested in tools — savings and in-
vestment primarily by others than
A discussion of profit sharing the employees hired to operate
seems hardly complete without at them. One might say that this
least mentioning a form of em- amount deserves a description us-
ployee benefit already existent ually affixed to profits, in that it
throughout our entire economy to arises out of the production made
an amazing extent. It is a by- possible by the savings and tools;
product of the capitalist system.of that otherwise the enhanced pro-
private ownership and free ex- duction would not be there even
change. Though it is not partici- if the same laborers worked equal-
pation in profits in the usual sense ly hard without any such tools.
of that term, it is participation in The other 5 cents of the average
the benefits that flow from sav- person’s income dollar, then, can
ings and invested capital, and it in this sense be said to be a just
goes widely to the users of the wage for effort exerted, if we were
tools. It is, in other words, pre- to measure justice by what it
cisely the same sort of thing aimed could produce in the absence of
at in the Marxian theory of sur- these tools.
plus value, only it is the user But when we look at the econ-
primarily rather than the owner omy from the standpoint of who
of capital who is really getting gets the fruits of production, we
the “unearned” benefit. The idea, —0 7  ——
briefly, is as follows: “The Greatest Economic Charity” by
As a consequence of the sav- F. A. Harper in On Freedom and Free
. . . . Enterprige edited by Mary Sennholz.
ings of capital invested in the Princeton, New Jersey: D. Van Nostrand
tools of production in the United Company, Inc, 1956. pp. 94-107.

Profit Sharing Inherent in Capitalism


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

1958 ON SHARING PROFITS 11

find that the owners of capital get sharing go to the- labor force of
only 15 cents instead of the 95 the entire nation, more or less
cents; that users of the tools get alike and without discrimination,
85 cents instead of the 5 cents. Of rather than just to the employees
the “profit” figure measured in of a selected individual plant or
this way, then, the users of the business. In a degree, it goes to
tools are already getting 80 cents the labor force of the-entire world,
out of the 95-cent amount which too. If we want the benefits of
the tools make possible; the owners production to be widely dispersed,
get the other 15 cents. That is a we get it under a system of pri-
sort of profit sharing, if one vate property, individual enter-
wishes to think of it in the sense prise, and free exchange as a sort
of a profit which tools make pos- of automatic consequence of the
sible — an automatic consequence free decisions of all participants.
of a capitalistic, free exchange It is “profit sharing without spe-
economy. cial privilege,” one might say, with

The fruits of this form of profit opportunity for all.. oo 0

Tan The Dreaded Corporation

I DO NOT DREAD these corporations. as instruments. of power to
destroy this country, because there are a thousand agencies which
can regulate, restrain and control them; but there is a corpora-
tion we may all dread. That corporation is the federal govern-
ment. From the aggression of this corporation there can be no
safety, if it is allowed to go beyond the bounds, the well-defined
limits of its power. I dread nothing so much as the exercise of
ungranted and doubtful powers by this government. It is, in my
opinion, the danger of dangers to the future of this country. Let
us be sure we keep it always within its limits. If this great, am-
bitious, ever-growing corporation becomes oppressive, who shall -
check it? If it becomes wayward, who shall control it? If it be-
comes unjust, who shall trust it? As sentinels on the country’s
watchtower, senators, I beseech you watch and guard with sleep-
less dread that corporation which can make all property and
rights, all states and people, and all liberty and hope, its play-
things in an hour and its victims forever.

BENJAMIN HARVEY HILL, United States Senate, 1878


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

THE GODS OF THE

pyhok Sos |

RUDYARD KIPLING

As I PASS through my incarnations in every age and race,

I make my proper prostrations to the Gods of the Market Place.
Peering through reverent fingers I watch them flourish and fall,
And the Gods of the Copybook Headings, I notice, outlast them all.

We were living in trees when they met us. They showed us each in turn

That Water would certainly wet us, as Fire would certainly burn:

But we found them lacking in Uplift, Vision and Breadth of Mind,

So we left them to teach the Gorillas while we followed the March
of Mankind. ;

We moved as the Spirit listed. They never altered their pace,
Being neither cloud nor wind-borne like the Gods of the Market Place,
But they always caught up with our progress, and presently word
would come
That a tribe had been wiped off its icefield, or the lights had
gone out in Rome.

With the Hopes that our World is built on they were utterly out of
touch,

They denied that the Moon was Stilton; they denied she was even
Dutch;

They denied that Wishes were Horses; they denied that a Pig had
Wings;

So we worshipped the Gods of the Market Who promised these
beautiful things.

12


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

1958 THE GODS OF THE COPYBOOK HEADINGS 13

When the Cambrian measures were forming, They promised perpetual
peace.
They swore, if we gave them our weapons, that the wars of the tribes
would cease.
And when we disarmed They sold us and delivered us bound to our foe,
And the Gods of the Copybook Headings said: “Stick to the Devil
you know.”

On the first Feminian Sandstones we were promised the Fuller Life

(Which started by loving our neighbour and ended by loving his wife)

Till our women had no more children and the men lost reason and faith,

And the Gods of the Copybook Headings said: “The Wages of Sin is
Death.”

In the Carboniferous Epoch we were promised abundance for all,

By robbing selected Peter to pay for collective Paul;

But, though we had plenty of money, there was nothing our money
could buy,

And the Gods of the Copybook Headings said: “If you don’t work you
die.” :

Then the Gods of the Market tumbled, and their smooth-tongued
wizards withdrew,

And the hearts of the meanest were humbled and began to believe it
was true

That All is not Gold that Glitters, and Two and Two make Four —

And the Gods of the Copybook Headings limped up to explain it once

more.
* * * *

As it will be in the future, it was at the birth of Man —

There are only four things certain since Social Progress began: —
That the Dog returns to his Vomit and the Sow returns to her Mire,
And the burnt Fool's bandaged finger goes wabbling back to the Fire;

And that after this is accomplished, and the brave new world begins
When all men are paid for existing and no man must pay for his sins,
As surely as Water will wet us, as surely as Fire will burn,

The Gods of the Copybook Headings with terror and slaughter return!

Reprinted by permission of Mrs. George Bambridge and Doubleday & Company, Inc.


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

NOW)
GEORGE M. CLARK Se LL
“THE FORGOTTEN MAN,” first de- The superficial answer has to

scribed by Professor William be “Yes.” The “national income”
Graham Sumner in the 1880's, is at an all-time high, even after
was the hard-working taxpayer. due allowance for inflated dollars.
A half century later, “the for- Most people today, including the

gotten man” of the New Deal New Deal's “forgotten man,” are
meant a person of low income — somewhat better off in a material
the “underprivileged” and ‘“neg- sense—they have more actual pur-
lected.” chasing power than before. Tan-

The New Deal sprang from the gible evidence includes cars,
premise that a free economic sys- homes, washing machines, re-
tem favors some and forgets frigerators —and better food in-
others, and that it is the duty of side the refrigerators.
the government to right this al- Acknowledging such economic
leged wrong. Reasoning that one progress for the once “forgotten
of the best ways to help the poor man,” one nevertheless may ask:
is to take from the rich, New [Is this because of the change we
Deal theorists concluded that this have made — because of the trend
could be done most effectively toward paternalistic government
through a steeply progressive in- with huge subsidies and steeply
come tax. progressive taxation — or in spite

Now that this idea has been im- of ©£? And the answer seems clear
plemented on a large scale in to me that if we had pursued an
America for nearly a quarter of a opposite course, toward less gov-
century, it is time to ask what ernment intervention and lower
its repercussions have been. Has taxes, all of us — including the so-
it really benefited — remembered — called common man — would be
the so-called forgotten man? more prosperous than we are now.

Mp, Clark is President of The Pioneer Bank, Chattanooga, Tennassco.

14


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

1958 WHO’S FORGOTTEN NOW? 15

The Push Is Gone Meanwhile, the welfare program
I’m convinced that our pros- has grown beyond the capacity of
perity of the past generation is the “rich” to sustain it. Increas-
largely the momentum generated ingly, government has had to levy
by years of economic freedom. progressive income taxes against
Though our heavy taxation and lower income groups. The simple
growing inflation discourage it, fact is that half of the entire fed-
saving is still a deep-rooted Amer- eral income tax is borne by peo-
ican habit; and savings and capi- ple with incomes below $7,000.
tal investment have been enough And unfortunately, under the con-
to keep our economy running rea- cept of a welfare government, such
sonably well so far. The point is a situation is inevitable.
that our progress could have been
far greater had government been A Regressive Income Tax

more limited, taxes lowered, infla- The progressive federal income
tion prevented, and capital invest- tax is only one aspect of our pres-
ment encouraged. ent tax structure. Great numbers

That is why I contend that the of our people — and especially mil-
whole idea of paternalistic gov- lions of those in the lower income
ernment with its steeply progres- brackets — are subject to another
sive income tax has boomeranged. kind of federal tax on incomes,
It has come to hurt the very peo- the Social Security tax.
ple it was designed to help. We “Oh, no,” some will argue. “So-
have become so engrossed with cial Security payments are not a
generalities about the merits of tax; they're premiums on an in-
the Welfare State that we fail to surance policy.”
see its burdensome impact on even According to the law, however,
those who were supposed to be its collections for Social Security are
greatest beneficiaries. In short, listed as a tax. It is known tech-
the typical American is being nically and legally as the “Social
“forgotten” all over again under Security Tax.” This, I understand,
a continuation of the New Deal was done to give the Social Se-
designed to memorialize him. curity program the appearance of

The program initiated to take constitutionality. The Constitu-
from the “rich” for the benefit of tion gives the government no au-
the “poor” has held saving and thority to enter the insurance
investment beneath its potential, business and to force the citizens
thus making our economy less pro- to pay premiums, but it does give
ductive than it might have been. authority to tax.


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

16 THE FREEMAN January

Many persons believe that So- mine with certainty, there can be
cial Security is a kind of compul- no doubt that the present so-called
sory insurance and that it oper- trust fund of $23 billion fails by
ates by means of an adequate pay- $277 billion or more to cover the
ment into an ample trust fund, accrued liability under the pro-
productively invested. Neither of gram.
these suppositions is correct. A
recent booklet of the Social Se- Some Must Lose
curity Administration, designated It should be apparent that So-
as OASI 36-M, frankly admits cial Security is not insurance in
that the trust fund amounting to the true sense of the word since
$23 billion as of June 30, 1957, insurance contemplates that each
isn’t adequate to cover the fund's age cohort jointly provides the
accrued liabilities: funds for its own benefits. Ac-

The assets of the old-age and sur- tually, the use of the word “insur-
vivors insurance and the disability ance” in connection with the pro-
insurance trust funds are not in- gram is fraudulently misleading.

tended to be equal in amount to the Should private businessmen per-
accrued obligations of the programs petrate such a cruel hoax on the
at any one time. people as politicians have done and

A private insurance company needs
reserves equal to its accrued obliga-

tions because it must face the possi- .
1 . ourn-
bility that it may not be able to promptly find themselves sojou

continue to collect premiums in the ng n Leavenworth or Atlanta.
future. It is easy enough to see why
The Federal programs, on the Payments into the fund are inade-
other hand, since they are compul- quate to cover accrued obligations.
sory under Federal law, can count Some persons have paid maximum
on continuing participations in the Social Security taxes since their
programs and the continuing pay- jpception in 1937. In that case, the
ment of contributions. taxpayer would have paid a total
Mr. W. Rulon Williamson, a of $837.00. His employer would
former actuary of the Social Se- have been compelled to pay the
curity Administration, believes same amount — which could other-
that his successor’'s estimate of wise have been paid as wages to
“from $300 billion to $325 billion the employee — bringing the com-
as plausible accrued liability” may bined total to $1,674.
be too low. Whatever the precise If that person had retired on
figure, which no one can deter- January 1, 1957, having reached

are doing in the present Social Se-
curity program, they would


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

1958 WHO'S FORGOTTEN NOW? 17,

the age of 65, and if his wife had curity benefits? From one source
passed her 65th birthday, they only — from future taxpayers: in
would be eligible for retirement effect, from the workingman’s
benefits of $162.80 a month. Thus, children. What is this Seventh
within a period of slightly more Heaven of dependence for us old-
than ten months, that man and his sters going to do to the younger
wife would receive more in retire- taxpayers upon whom will fall the
ment benefits than they had paid burden of supporting a prior gen-
in Social Security taxes over the eration?
twenty years since the program Personally, I doubt that poster-
was initiated. But the life expec- ity should or will bear the major
tancy at the age of 65 is more than portion of the Social Security costs
ten months — in fact, more than of prior generations — not in dol-
141, years for the husband and lars of today’s purchasing power.
18'% years for the wife. To fund The cruel part is that individuals
an annuity producing the above of the present generation, lulled
payments through the expected by political promises of security,
life of each would require $16,807 will make little if any attempt to
for the husband and $9,667.00 for provide for themselves through .
the wife. It is obvious to anyone their own savings and effort. The
that tax payments accumulating heavy tax burden that is a neces-
to a total of $1,674 cannot have sary part of the Social Security -
earned in the past twenty years, program not only cuts into the
and cannot in the future earn, suf- “forgotten man’s” spendable in-
ficient interest to fund benefits come, but also limits his ability to
amounting to $26,474. If this invest in industry or to start his
couple actually collects some $25,- own business and greatly discour-
000 for which they have not paid, ages self-improvement and self-
the implications are clear enough: advancement.
other taxpayers will have been And the repercussions of this
compelled to pay about $25,000, discouragement, while difficult to
for which they are to get nothing. pin down, are nevertheless real and
far-reaching. We are impeding,
limiting, and thwarting the hopes,
If there is a $300 billion accrued aims, ambitions, and efforts of mil-
and largely unfunded liability in lions of Americans, and in" the
our Social Security system, where process, tremendously restricting
is the money coming from to pay the possible growth in our stand-
the forgotten man’s Social Se- ard of living.

Will Posterity Pay?


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

18 THE FREEMAN January

Inflation Is Also a Tax handicapped or the aging worker,
But, of course, open taxation is who, in the competitive labor mar-
not the only means being used to ket, is incapable of raising his
support our immensely overex- dollar wages. It also includes the
tended government. Direct taxa- constantly enlarging group of
tion might be called ‘the out-in- older people no longer earning
the-open” or “front door” method wages but living off fixed income
of revenue collection. But our gov- from such sources as cash sav-
ernment also has a more or less ings, annuities, or government
“secret” or “back door” method bonds. Their income remains
which takes the form of a highly static, but under our present in-
questionable monetary policy. flationary economy, its actual
Arbitrary increase in the money value in purchasing power tends
supply results in, or in itself might to decline continually.
be termed, inflation. It simply
means that more and more dollars The Cure Lies in Freedom
are in circulation, but that each The Welfare State, set up pri-
dollar is worth less. The result, marily to benefit “the forgotten
apparent in our everyday experi- man,” has — almost inevitably —
ence, is a shrinking dollar bill. If injured that man through the
we say the 1939 dollar was worth combined results of heavy taxa-
100 cents, then the 1945 dollar was tion and mounting inflation. And
worth only 77 cents. By 1953 its it has hurt him not only in terms
buying power was a mere 52 cents, of loss of income but in loss of
and today it is only about 50 cents. initiative and incentive — loss of
Inflation is a complicated sub- the driving desire to push ahead
ject, and it has various causes; and fulfill his potentials.

but in my view, one of the most The condition obviously is bad.
important is overexpanded govern- It needs a remedy. What is it?
ment —a political mechanism with Many will propose various ‘“gad-

such heavy operating expenses gets,” temporary devices or ma-
that direct taxation alone can’t neuvers; but I contend there is
cover them; and so it turns to a only one real cure, only one way
fiscal policy which, in effect, in- to eliminate the oppressive taxa-
volves printing money to pay its tion and frightening inflation
own bills. which now weigh so heavily on

Inflation deals its most lethal the average man’s shoulders —
blow at the person with fixed or and that is to bring the govern-
static income. This includes the ment back into bounds, to restrict


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

1958 WHO'S FORGOTTEN NOW? 19

it to its proper function of pro- Our present overexpanded gov-
tecting life and property, and to ernment with its progressive in-
give up the disastrous attempt to come tax and inflation, is hurting
use government to benefit any every segment of our society, and
particular economic group. especially the so-called “forgotten

This will so reduce govern- man.” The best way we can truly
mental expenditures that faxes ‘remember’ him, as well as every
can be lowered and made more other citizen, is to work toward a
equitable; and at the same time, minimum government guarantee-
it will eliminate a chief cause of ing to everyone a maximum of
inflation. economic freedom. oo 0

IDEAS ON L00GETY | A Question of Means

“WOULD YOU LET THEM STARVE?” “Do you think people ought to
live in slums?” “Would you let them die for want of medical
care?” “Aren’t all children entitled to an education?” “Shouldn’t
old people be comfortable after retirement?”

Those who believe that the State should do more for the people
never tire of hurling the above questions at those who believe
the powers and functions of government should be reduced and
the area expanded in which free initiative and self-reliance may
be exercised.

Let it be understood that it is precisely because the libertarian

"wants less hunger, better housing, better education, improved
medical care, more comfort in retirement and a higher scale of
living all the way round, that he advocates less government,
sound money, self-reliance, observance of the moral law, and
freedom in the market places.

Less suffering, abolition of poverty, better living, and improved
opportunity for cultural and spiritual development is as much
the goal of the libertarian as it is of the advocate of the Welfare
State. How to reach the desired objective is the question that
divides these two groups.

HOWARD E. KERSHNER, L.H.D. From a release of the
Christian Freedom Foundation, October 28, 1957.


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

LIFT NOT THY HANDS TO IT

LEONARD E. READ

ro”
T IS SAID that the inspiration for And that inverted Bowl we call
the famous poem, Kubla Khan, The Sky
came to Coleridge in a dream. In- Whereunder crawling coop’t we live

spiration at this original level and die, for el
doesn’t seem to figure in my own PA thy hands to It for help—

dreams, but for once, during sleep,
a bit of old verse came to mind
with astonishing clarity. The poetry faded only to be’
The Rubaiyat of Omar Khay- replaced by a clear suggestion that
yam has been in my library for a Omar’s words be paraphrased to
long time, but its pages haven't emphasize an important point of
been opened for five or six years. the libertarian philosophy.
Like most people of my generation Upon awakening, a rather dim
I have read its rebellious and view was taken of this fanciful
sometimes outrageously disre- poetic venture. Ordinarily, it
spectful lines with a sense of half- would have been dismissed as an-
shocked enjoyment, but I have other of those dream-ideas that
never troubled to commit the seem so brilliantly wonderful until
verses to memory. This made it daylight exposes their emptiness.
all the more surprising when, in However, with time to spare
a dream the other night, one of that same afternoon on a nonstop
the quatrains came to me with the flight from New York to Los
accuracy of someone reading the Angeles — and with pen and paper
words as writ: in hand —= I toyed with the idea.

20

Rolls impotently on as Thou or I.


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

1958 LIFT NOT THY HANDS TO IT 21

Having no poetic inclinations at “The only way I can manage a
all, and knowing nothing of quat- thing like this is to employ the
rain construction and the de- same method I use in writing verse
mands of meter and scansion, the of my own — namely, write it over

best achieved was this: and over, trying out different
And that agency — Force — we call rhymes until it jells.” In writing
the State something original, I often aban-
Whereunder induced is less Love don not only rhymes, but rhyme
than Hate, schemes; but in this case that
Lift not thy hands to It for help, can’t be done. We are in the liter-
for It ary strait jacket imposed by the
Bestows only from Its Compulsive quatrains themselves.”

Take. He enclosed a number of quat-

My friend, Ralph Bradford, is rains which he called “the result

a poet; so the above was half of some experimenting.” Here
jokingly explained to him in a they are:

letter and the question posed — 1.

what can you invent? His reply: And that Compulsive Force of which
“... You have now given me you prate,

something to worry over. Just The ever-growing, ever-grasping

about the hardest thing in the State,

world of letters is to paraphrase It cannot give a penny it has not

good verse without parodying it. Filched from your private pocket

This we must not do, and to avoid soon or late.
it isn’t easy! | 2.

“The quatrain in question And would you lift your hands for
(Number 72 in some versions, T ey S sake State. for it ¢
Number 52 in the one from which © *"¢ YOmMPuisive State, torit to

. . make
you took it) is rendered two or Your lot more easy? Then you ask
three different ways by Fitzgerald in vain —

in his several editions — but I like 71 only gives that which it first must
the translation you quoted. To take.

make it say what you want and 3.

still keep the form and meter will
be difficult but not, I think, im- abate

possible. Your ‘Compulsive Take’ By asking succor from the Welfare

is a good phrase — but, unfortun- State?

ately, ‘take’ is not a permissible It cannot give a dime it has not first
rhyme with ‘State’ and ‘Hate.’ Taken from you, its appetite to sate.

And would you seek your labors to


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

22 THE FREEMAN January

4, Five ways of expressing the

And that enormous Agency we call same idea, all within what Ralph
The State, whereunder men may Bradford calls the “literary strait
walk or crawl jacket” of an Omar quatrain! To

(In freedom or dependence) — me his Number 5 reads best, but
it must take it’s a matter of choice. Other lib-
Before it gives you anything at all! ertarians undoubtedly have their

own way of expressing this theme.

5. A book, an essay, a lecture, a

And are you then so weak and quatrain, even a dream — anything
You Ee to the vast but that helps one realize the final
futility of the State as a source

shaken } ‘
And barren branches of the State? of prosperity or succor —is all to
Beware! the good. Tis a step toward free-

It cannot give a thing it has not ing the individual from organized
taken! plunder. eo oo

| meas © COBERIY | Private Enterprise

The Power to choose the work I do,
To grow and have the larger view,
To know and feel that I am free,
To stand erect, not bow the knee.
To be no chattel of the State,

To be the master of my fate,

To dare to risk, to lose, to win,

To make my own career begin,

To serve the world in my own way,
To gain in wisdom, day by day,
With hope and zest to climb, to rise,
I call that Private Enterprise.

HENRY B. BASS of Enid, Oklahoma, brought this verse to our atten-
tion, but doesn’t know who wrote it. Perhaps it doesn’t matter.


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

GH U ; Z and Free Trade

FREDERIC BASTIAT (1801-1850)

OBINSON CRUSOE discovered They walked away from the for-

UL that his island was suitable eigner to discuss his offer in.
for both hunting and. agriculture. private.
So he and Friday soon developed It soon developed that Friday
a 12-hour work schedule that en- was in favor of the trade, and
sured them an adequate supply of Crusoe was opposed. Their reason-
food. But it is not generally known ing went somewhat as follows:
that they once had an opportunity Robinson pointed out to Friday
to secure the same amount of food that if they accepted the for-
at a 25 per cent reduction in their eigner’s offer, their. own hunting
labor — and turned it down! industry would thereby be ruined.

As the fable goes, one day a In turn, Friday pointed out to
canoe arrived from a foreign Robinson that they would still
island. Since there was plenty of have as much game to eat as they
game but no agriculture on that now had. True, they would have
island, the foreigner wanted to to work longer at agriculture, but
trade game for vegetables. He they would still save three hours
offered to supply Robinson and of labor on the total transaction.
Friday with all the game they Then Robinson argued that the
needed — and thus to cut six hours three hours of saved labor was not .
from their working day. In re- a gain but a loss, since everybody
turn, they were to give him two knows that labor is wealth. Any-
baskets of vegetables each day. way, what would they do with
This would increase the time they those three hours?
devoted to agriculture from six Friday replied that they could
hours to nine hours. Thus the for- use them to fish, or to improve
eign trade would result in a net their house, or to read, or merely’
saving of three hours of labor each to loaf. But Robinson was too
day for both Robinson and Friday. firmly grounded in the labor

23


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

24 THE FREEMAN January

theory of protectionism to be con- Friday was of the opinion that
vinced. He honestly believed that if the trade ceased altogether, they
labor itself (rather than the net would be no worse off than now.
product of that labor) is the meas- And if the foreigner brought both
ure of wealth. game and vegetables, they would
Robinson then added that there then have to produce something
were also political reasons for re- else to exchange with him.
jecting the offer of the perfidious But Robinson thought that
foreigner. For example, the for- Friday's arguments were imprac-
eigner wouldn’t make the offer un- tical and based on mere theory.
less he expected to gain from it. So, refusing to listen further, he
Friday agreed, but pointed out returned to the foreigner, and
that they also would gain from spoke as follows:
the trade. “Stranger, before we accept
Next, Robinson explained to your offer, we must be sure of two
Friday that this trade would make things. First, you must assure us
them dependent on the foreigner. that your island is not richer in
Again Friday agreed, but argued game than is ours, for we wish to
that the foreigner would likewise fight with equal weapons. Second,
be dependent on them. since in all exchange there is
Then Robinson pointed out that necessarily a winner and a loser,
the foreigner might learn to grow you must lose by the exchange.
his own vegetables on his own Now what do you say to that?”
island. If that happened, he would “Nothing,” said the foreigner.
no longer bring game to them, and And laughing loudly, he regained
they might starve. Or, even worse, his canoe and paddled away. ee
he might bring vegetables as well ————
as game, and thus destroy two Translated and condensed by Dean Rus-

of their industries instead of sell from Selected Works of Frederic
i Bastiat, Volume 1. Paris: Guillaumin,
merely one. 1863. pp. 244-247.

The Open Door

THE REDEEMING FEATURE in opening our markets to free trade
among the so-called “backward” countries of the world is that
it would cost us nothing to do so. On net balance, we would gain
as much as they. Here is an opportunity to demonstrate to the
world that when we glibly talk “free enterprise” we talk it with
conviction — not with restriction.

Ww. M. CURTISS, The Tariff ldea


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

A FARM LEDER Speaks

3 editorials from THE NATION'S AGRICULTURE

September, October, November, 1957

CHARLES B. SHUMAN
President, American Farm Bureau Federation

No. ] ...AND THE TRUTH SHALL MAKE YOU FREE

FROM THE BEGINNING men have has caused much of the present
come to know that God’s laws disparity in farm income. What is
must be obeyed if we are to live economic truth?

in harmony with His Universe. People will work for those things
Human progress may be measured they want but will offer little or
by the improvement in our capac- nothing for items that they mo
ity to recognize the truth, which longer desire. Price is the best
is God’s will, and to use effectively known means by which consumers
and wisely the resources and bless- advise producers of the kind and
ings which He has given. quantity of goods they wish.

We have made wonderful ad- The nearly 8 billion dollar sup-
vances in agricultural produc- ply of unwanted farm products
tivity as we have discovered the in government storage bins is a
laws of nature and applied knowl- costly and deteriorating monument
edge and truth to farm operation. to the failure of a government
The truth of moral laws is not pricing program that ignores the
disputed: but their acceptance desires of consumers. We farmers
comes more slowly, and we pay a may once again share in the cur-
terrible price in human misery rent level of general prosperity if

when they are ignored. . we will produce the things people
Another area of truth that is an want.
essential part of God's plan is the Another truth often overlooked

economic laws that govern our ef- is that economic laws cannot be
forts to earn a living. Disregard successfully replaced by political
of a few simple economic truths laws. Legislation only delays or

25


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

26 THE FREEMAN January

temporarily modifies the effect of making, or emotional appeal could
economic forces. Many members have prevented the replacement of
. of Congress thought that they had horses by tractors.

repealed the law of supply and Human desires are constantly
demand by fixing the prices of shifting, and farmers will be more
cotton, wheat, and corn at a high prosperous when they facilitate
level. However, farmers responded rather than retard needed changes.
to the fictitious prices by produc- Economic forces which cause
ing more from fewer acres and farmers to alter their production
also added to the woes .of other patterns or seek new sources of in-
farmers with competing produc- come may seem cruel. In reality,
tion from their diverted acres. the greatest suffering usually re-

Consumers turned to lower sults from political action that de-
priced substitutes or reduced their lays the necessary adjustments.
purchases. Low prices stimulate The price and income troubles
demand and discourage produc- of agriculture are the direct result
tion—high prices reduce consump- of our experiments with a social-
tion and encourage increased pro- istic, government - directed farm
duction. economy.

Where are those prophets of It is becoming increasingly ap-
doom who ‘predicted that $12.00 parentthat government pricing and
hogs would result in increased control in agriculture not only is a
‘production and lower prices? failure but that it threatens to re-
Would the price of hogs have gone place individual freedom with a
above $16.00 per hundredweight bureaucratic dictatorship. No, it
if a government support price is not too late — the free choice
had been set at that level? economic system that helped make

A third truth that most folks this nation the envy of the world
would rather disregard 1s that can be restored in agriculture.
change is certain. No amount of “...and the truth shall
promotion, advertising, speech- make you free.”

No. 2 I'VE HAD ENOUGH SOCIALISM

SOCIALISM is more than a nasty capital investments. This limita-
word. It is a system based on gov- tion or denial of property rights
ernment ownership or control of ‘is invariably accompanied by in-
property — especially land and creased government restrictions


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

1958 A FARM LEADER SPEAKS 27

on the freedom of individuals. individuals bargaining in a free
The “superior” minds in the bu- market for goods and services. It
reaucracy direct the planned econ- fails because political law cannot
omy through control of production replace fundamental economic
and prices while the extremely principles.

high costs of government are re- Second, socialism will inevitably
flected in tax rates that destroy lead to some type of communistic
incentives. dictatorship. The proven failure

The extent to which we have un- of a socialistic scheme always
wittingly accepted socialism may brings proposals for further ex-
be measured by the level of taxa- periments in government manage-
tion. More than a third of our ment — never a return to free en-
total national income is now taken terprise. Practically everyone rec-
to support government. Despite ognizes that government farm
strong public reaction, the $72 crop price fixing is a costly fail-
billion budget was reduced very ure, yet many members of Con-
little by Congress. Thus, we con- gress now propose to substitute a
tinue to move toward the Welfare new panacea — compensatory pay-

State. ments. When all is said and done,
Why should we resist this creep- the only difference between social-
ing disease? ism and communism is the de-
Why do I say, “I've had enough gree of state control over the in-
socialism” ? dividual. They are blood brothers.
First, socialism is a proven fail- The third reason for my state-

ure wherever and whenever it has ment, “I've had enough socialism,”
been tried. It failed in ancient is that under the Marxist system
Rome; it brought starvation to the productivity declines and the
early American settlements of standard of living is lower than in
Jamestown and Plymouth Rock; a free choice capitalistic system.
it is failing miserably today in State capitalism appropriates the
England and Russia. individual’s earnings for invest-
Socialism fails because it costs ment in government enterprises.
. so much to manage the economy Pride of ownership and the desire
that the high tax rates destroy to-save are destroyed.
the: incentives to work and save. The abundance of the better
It fails because the decisions of a things of life which we enjoy in
few political planners are more this country is a result of the
likely to be in error than the com- stimulation of human energy and
bined judgments of thousands of initiative that comes when folks


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

28 THE FREEMAN January

can keep a substantial part of ages individuals to shift respon-
their income for their own use. sibility from themselves to the
Socialism dries up the wellspring State. In all ways, it tends to de-
of progress — human energy re- stroy self-reliance and promote
leased in response to incentives. moral deterioration. Christianity
Fourth, socialism is an atheistic challenges individuals to give of
philosophy. 1t depends upon force their best. Socialism minimizes
rather than freedom of choice by the dignity and importance of the
individuals —in fact, it is economic individual while it glorifies the
slavery. It offers security but all powerful State.
eliminates opportunity. It encour- Yes, I've had enough socialism.

N o. 3 STRAWS IN THE WIND

WHICH WAY does the wind blow? Sweden, Russia, and other na-
An airport wind sock, a twisting tions.
whirlwind, drifting tumbleweeds First, socialism is based on gov-
— straws in the wind. ernment ownership or control of
There are economic and political the capital and property used in
winds that determine the kind of production. For example, the ad-
government we will have in the vocates of state socialism favor
future. No one can see the wind — all proposals for federal electric
few can see which way our nation power projects, regardless of their
is going. We are so involved in merit. They use the tight money
current issues that it is difficult issue to boost sentiment for in-
to tell whether our free enterprise terest rates set by Congress, at
system will continue or whether it such low levels as to discourage
is in danger of being replaced by private saving and to force the
a socialist dictatorship. Fortu- substitution of government capital
nately, there are some straws in in major industries. Farmers have
the wind by which we can meas- already accepted a considerable
ure the speed and direction we degree of bureaucratic control

are moving. over the use of their property un-
In what ways do we move der the acreage quota programs.

toward socialism? More, rather than fewer, controls
There are five major areas of are being proposed.

conflict between our successful Second, socialism cannot toler-

free choice capitalism and the ate a free market for goods and
government-directed systems of services. In fact, a price system


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

1958 A FARM LEADER SPEAKS 29

which reflects changes in supply that indicate danger ahead of us.
and demand is our greatest as- The fourth control of the so-
surance of freedom. Wage and cialist dictatorship over individ-
price controls, whether in war or uals is regulation and averaging
peacetime, are a real threat to the of income. The theory of the so-'
free market. The Commodity cialist is that since all are born
Credit Corporation which holds $7 equal, all should remain equal re-
billion of crop surplus stocks and gardless of ability or effort. This
also markets a large portion of all is accomplished by extremely high
farm products is rapidly replacing income taxes, constantly increas-
private and cooperative selling ing social security payments, so-
agencies. Compensatory payments cialized medicine, increased mini-
for farmers and government price mum wages, and income payments
fixing in agriculture, business, and to farmers to replace competitive
labor are, in reality, attacks on the prices.
price system. A fifth measure of our drift
A third area of government con- toward socialism is the degree of
trol over individuals that is mec- substitution of federal govern-
essary in a socialist dictatorship ment authority for state and local
is limitation on the choice of an responsibility. Supreme Court de-
occupation. We are, as yet, rela- cisions limiting states’ rights, fed-
tively free to choose and change eral aid to schools and roads, fed-
our work. However, the closed eral housing, the $72 billion fed-
shop, long apprentice periods, un- eral budget are all straws in the
duly restrictive license require- wind. }
ments in several professions, and How much further down this
‘the proposed subsidies to induce road to socialism must we go be-
inefficient farmers to stay in agri- fore we heed the warning signs?
culture are straws in the wind eo 0

Coat

ERT Under Guise.of Taxation

I po NOT BELIEVE that government Should seek social legislation
under the guise of taxation. If we are "to adopt. socialism, it should

be presented to the people of the country as socialism, and not’
under the guise of a law to collect ‘revenue. Ca .
) CALVIN COOLIDGE

fl


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

P NEB3 THROUGH
"Competition.

A. Devaney, Inc.

HARRY M. LOVE

BOUT 45 YEARS AGO, when he sealing the fate of blacksmiths,

had more than a hundred horse breeders, buggy manufac-
competitors, Mr. Ford started in- turers, about one hundred of Mr.
tegrating the processes in manu- Ford’s competitors, and a host of
facturing automobiles. Through others. Those fellows were all
this “better way,” he was able to forced out of business. Or, as some
give the mass consumer an op- looking back now would see it,
portunity to have a car. When this they were forced into business. A
development began, a Chevrolet more grim side is that automobiles
touring car sold for $2,100, and have served as a vehicle of death
the top and windshield were extra. and taken more lives than all of
But in a few years Chevies were the nation’s wars. Again, looking
about one-third that price and back on this record of economic
Fords were less than $500. There- dislocation and human slaughter
after, Mr. Ford's competitors it would seem that, by modern
dwindled to a half dozen or so. standards, an enlightened people
Just think what this great innova- would have made a political issue
tion in the manufacture of autos of this potentially destructive de-
did for the people in the United vice and rationed the right to pro-
States! duce automobiles.

There is another side to this It may be that the people of
story which would, by modern that ‘“horse and buggy” era did
standards, provide the basis for not know any better. Or, it could
government action. be that they chose to accept the

Assembly line manufacturing hazards of progress as being in
brought cars out by the millions, their best interest. Or maybe they

Dr. Love is Chairman of the Department of Agricultural Economics and Rural Sociology at
Virginia Polytechnic Instituto.

30


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

1958 PROGRESS THROUGH COMPETITION 31

had enough foresight to be con- the race was a tragic mistake. He
cerned about the best interest of lost the lead in the race to supply
their posterity. That's us. What consumers with a fat which was
might be our fate had they, by used generously and held in high
acceptable modern standards, esteem by all. Somehow the indus-

made the other choice? try overlooked the fact that con-
tinuing to hold the price of its
Butter vs. Oleo product at higher than the market

Many years ago the dairy indus- level tended to place a premium
try launched a seemingly innocent on the efforts made by those de-
and just campaign to thwart the veloping the competing product.
development of oleo. In the early The would-be competitors tried
stages government was not asked = harder to find ways to enter the
to give any direct support to market and finally hit pay dirt.
dairying. It was just asked to help As would be expected in the free
keep an “inferior” or cheap “imi- enterprise economy, the then bud-
tation” product from being palmed ding oleo industry made great
off on supposedly innocent and un- efforts to discover the secrets
enlightened consumers. For quite necessary for the development of
a few years the dairy industry suc- a product which would win the
ceeded in ‘‘protecting” the con- race. As a result, oleo has been.
sumers. well ahead, as measured in pounds

This protection for the con- consumed per capita, for a num-
sumers was later found to be a ber of years and still seems to be
two-sided proposition. Alas, it de- gaining ground. In fact, the
veloped that on the other side the figures. show butter consumption
dairy industry had been sheltered to be at least one-half a lap behind,
to the extent that its competitive and time is running out. .
vigor was withering. Of course, However, it is always interest-
it felt mighty nice to sit over there ing to speculate in a situation of
in the shade and have less to this kind as to what might have
worry about, but the temperature been the outcome in the butter-
went up when the economic sun oleo skirmish if the dairy industry
crossed the meridian line of “pro- had chosen to apply its resources
tection for consumer.” The prob- - to find ways to outdo oleo through
lems also became more numerous a more liberal application of pro-
and were greatly intensified. gressive action. As of now, “the

This seemingly innocent action fat is in the fire” and the race is
on the part of the then leader in rather one-sided. Meanwhile, the


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

32 THE FREEMAN January

dairy industry has asked for and sheets at a time. The NCR means
gotten more direct government in- No Carbon Required. How would
tervention in its affairs. This was you like to be in the carbon paper
a logical step since anything that business? It’s never safe to under-
tends to deplete the economic estimate the resourcefulness of
vigor of a group or of an individ- other businessmen who are in the
ual—firm, farm, or other—may be game for keeps. They will come up
expected to lessen its ability to with the unexpected at the most
stand without government assist- inconvenient times. There are also
ance. The moral to this story others who will help to market the
might be that it is good business better or cheaper product. When
to keep on your toes in your indus- these conditions develop, how long
try at least to the extent of being will it be before the fellows who
sure that if a substitute product are being pinched request govern-
is to be found, you will find it. ment price supports to save their
industry? Shifts of this kind are
made one step at a time. Socialism
These developments are, of is a gradual process.

The Pinch of Competition

course, not by any means limited The essence of the matter is
to agricultural endeavor. A few that:

months ago there appeared on the 1. Freedom and science will
market a writing paper which is bring rapid growth and
sold under the trademark of NCR. change.

For all practical purposes this ap- 2. Progress — the fruits of rapid
pears to be just plain ordinary growth and change — flour-
paper of the usual kind. However, ishes among the thorns of risk
some enterprising individual has and insecurity.

discovered that by applying a 3. Those who would exchange
chemical, copy may be carried freedom for security deserve
through on as many. as eight neither and will lose both.

Limited Government: Unlimited Opportunity

HisTORY SHOWS that great general prosperity occurs only where
something approaching a free economy has been reached, and
that prosperity always diminishes as government economic regu-
lation increases. A free cconomy alone offers unlimited oppor-
tunity to all.

THOMAS 1. BARBER, Where We Are At


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

Que Vai ?

E. F. HUTTON

IF the Founder of the Christian religion had traveled on a
"space ship to the moon and back, would the Sermon on the
- Mount be any better than it is?

If Abraham Lincoln had built a hydrogen bomb that won
the Civil War in one week, would the Gettysburg Address have
been improved?

If Thomas A. Edison had invented a world satellite instead
of the electric light bulb, would mankind be better off ?

Or would these and all other great men and women have been
so bedazzled by the glitter of scientific and material progress
that they could not sense man’s hunger for enough to eat and
a little time of peace to love and dream during life’s brief span?

Where is this mad race for power and prestige to end?

Now we have the intercontinental ballistic missile costing
billions. Then will come the missile to intercept the missile,
and the missile to intercept the interceptor — costing trillions.

And with them the cold contemplation of using them on
millions of women, children, and the aged in war more stark
and brutal than jungle tigers.

Our attitude toward war and death and brutality is being
changed by the merciless instruments for killing we invent.

Can such an atmosphere produce a better Sermon on the
Mount, improve the Gettysburg Address, create better plays
than Shakespeare’s, better paintings than Titian’s, or better
men ? eo 0 0

Mr. Hutton is the well-known industrialist, investment banker, and author of the
column, “Think It Through.”

33


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

UNCLE JOHN
AND THE
TERMITES

RALPH BRADFORD

M?* UNCLE JOHN was tall, thin, days he saw ‘some pretty rough
and muscular; and he had a times. Trees were to be felled and
notable beard that tapered to a cut into rails, logs, and lumber.
ragged point well below his collar Land had to be cleared and fenced
button. His bushy, iron-gray hair and tilled. He was far from great
was . . . markets; but he had chosen well
However, this is not about how his location, along a clear, rushing
"he looked, but what he did and stream that would furnish water
what happened to him; for until power, and that led up a rich
tragedy overtook him, he achieved valley to a mountain pass with
a remarkable career as a pioneer growing settlements on the other
empire builder and accomplished side.
things worthy to be remembered. As time went on, he bought
He came of an old and well-to- more land and developed it; and
do family and might have lived he helped his neighbors in build-
out his life in comfortable sur- ing roads and opening up new
roundings had it not been for his territory beyond. He was active
adventurous spirit. He was hardly also in the affairs of the commu-
man-grown when he left the old nity that grew up about his origi-
home and made his way out to the nal clearing. By his energy and
far frontier where he used his skill he gradually became the fore-
savings to purchase some land. most farmer in the valley, and by
During those early frontier his cooperative spirit and native

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

34


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

1958 UNCLE JOHN AND THE TERMITES 35

gumption he became a recognized keep community expenses at such
leader in the neighborhood. a level that not more than 5 per
Uncle John and his wife, be- cent of the total earnings of all
lieving as they did in large fam- the people would be required to
ilies, soon had a houseful of chil- finance those expenses. This left
dren. Almost before he realized it everybody considerable surplus
(so fast went the years) his sons above what it cost to live; and
and daughters were grown and presently this surplus began to be
married, and grandchildren be- invested in various enterprises —
gan to appear. His inlaws, as well a grist mill, the expansion of the
as others who were not kinfolk, blacksmith shop into a general
were attracted to the neighbor- metal working establishment, a
hood because of the way it was sawmilland planing mill combined,
run. Under Uncle John’s leader- a knitting mill, and the like. Most
ship the lands were well-fenced of these ventures prospered under
and tended, predatory animals had good management, yielding a good
been disposed of, and there was return to investors and furnish-
little crime or violence. It was ing profitable employment to
looked upon as a “good neighbor- others.
hood.” Thus the protecting shadow Uncle John was a leading spirit
of a man lengthened over a com- as well as a foremost investor in
munity that was grateful for his all such developments; with the
leadership. result that by the time his rather
scraggly beard was gray, he was
BEING FAR from the older and not only rich in worldly posses-
established settlements, the peo- sions but was much respected for
ple of Uncle John’s community his achievements, his probity, and
devised their own money, and by his qualities of leadership.
common consent — or rather, by
general demand — Uncle John be- BUT AFTER a time trouble began.
came the controller of this cur- The people of his settlement got
rency and banker for the entire into a fight with some other set-
settlement. As long as he carried tlers across the mountains. Before,
out these functions on the simple it was ended, the combatants, in
lines of keeping solvent, all went addition to killing and wounding"
well. one another, had destroyed a lot
In these early years, due to his of each other’s property. This, to-
strong convictions on the subject gether with the guns, ammunition,
of economy, Uncle John aimed to and other supplies necessary to


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

36 THE FREEMAN January

the conflict, cost Uncle John and hastily-given mortgages falling
his people a great deal of money. due, and the cost of daily living
Never having experienced the to meet.
need for such an outlay for non- Uncle John and his family and
productive purposes, Uncle John friends helped one another. Peo-
was worried. He could hardly tax ple went out of their way to fur-
the people enough to pay expenses nish some kind of work for those
of the fight as it went along, so who needed it. Committees were
he reluctantly resorted to what he formed, funds were raised and
had always referred to as “going distributed, various plans were
into debt.” One of his nephews adopted. It was a fine example of
had a nicer name for it: “deficit man’s humanity to man. The
financing.” What they did was to trouble began to ease a bit.
sell bonds — promises to pay at a
future date—to all the people, who THEN ONE of the nephews, who
were assured that the bonds were held what he called “advanced”
a good investment because the ideas on many things, told Uncle
honor and credit of the whole com- John that all such industrial and
munity were behind them. economic problems were not fit
matters for private and individual
ON THE STRENGTH of the credit benevolence, but were the respon-
thus created Uncle John printed sibility of the community as a
up a lot of new money and put it whole. He finally convinced Uncle
into circulation. This led presently John that money should be taken
to much reckless spending and out of the community treasury to
foolish investment. Then, after help those in trouble. Some of it
the fight was ended and things was given outright. Some was
settled down to normal, there was spent on projects like making a
a general slowing down, an in- park, piling up trash, or building
evitable tightening of credit — and a dam, in order to furnish jobs. A
pretty soon Uncle John and his great deal was also spent to pay
people were in the middle of what the people who were hired to ad-
they called a “panic.” Some people minister the program.
lost all or part of their money; It wasn’t long before the com-
some of the shops and mills closed munity began to accept respon-
down for want of business; em- sibility for the economic welfare of
ployment became scarce; and the various groups—such as the farm-
community was in a bad way, with ers, and the laborers, and the in-
people out of jobs, interest on dustrialists, and the small busi-


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

1958 UNCLE JOHN AND THE TERMITES 37

nessmen, and the young people, manded financial aid from him —
and the old people. The nephew or threatened anarchy. They said
said this arrangement would pro- enemies within were secretly un-
mote the general welfare! dermining the structure of their
societies — and what was Uncle
IN TIME further complications John going to do about it? His
arose. Some people in distant set- first impulse was to tell them to go
tlements started fighting among jump in the river, but he was as-
themselves. Uncle John had re- sured by some of his most for-
solved long ago to keep out of all ward-looking nephews that this
such quarrels, but at last, one of would never do. So, he began to
the belligerents attacked and sank hand out money to his late enemies.
some of Uncle John’s river boats This increased the debt to such
— and then the fat was in the fire. fantastic proportions that Uncle
A long and bitter fight ensued. John finally called a meeting to
So many people got mixed up in discuss the problem. Most mem-
it that it was hard to know who bers of the community were very
were friends and who were en- much concerned although there
emies. A number of Uncle John's were a few, strangely enough, who
grandsons were killed and contended that the debt was a good
wounded, and this grieved him thing for the community and
greatly. Also, what with buying ought never to be paid! But even
weapons and supplies for the men among those who believed it ought
who were fighting, paying for to be paid off or reduced, hardly
their keep and transportation, anybody was willing to stop ex-
paying pensions to their wives and penditures already agreed to; and
families when they. were killed or before the meeting was over, many
wounded — and. especially what of them advanced proposals to
with making loans and gifts to the spend still more on new projects.
neighbors who were fighting on So instead of paying off the debt,
his side, Uncle John and his peo- they had to borrow more money —
ple emerged from the fight more that is, sell more bonds — to take
deeply in debt than ever before. care of their current operating
On top of all this, some of the expenses.
people who had fought on Uncle
John’s side now turned against AS FOR Uncle John, he seemed to
him and were bitterly critical and grow confused. He was now so
hostile. Moreover, some of the peo- deeply in debt, forced to pay into
ple he had helped defeat now de- the community treasury such a


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

38 THE FREEMAN January

large portion of his personal in- that the sills were supported by
come, and beset by such constant heavy walls of stone laid up in
and clamorous demands for more mortar. Surely those ageless
and more deficit spending and the foundations could not have weak-
accumulation of more and more ened!
debt, that he seemed to lose touch He went outside for a look. The
with reality. weatherboards were intact, but
He did understand that when he the corner of the house seemed
borrowed he created credit, and to be slacked down, as though it
that the credit itself became the were tired. He quickly got a ham-
basis for the creation of still more mer and wrecking bar from his
debt through more borrowing, all tool shed. He pried off a board —
tending to dilute the purchasing or rather, he started to; but when
power of their money. He saw the he forced the bar under the board,
results of this process in the slow the paint suddenly fell off in large
but inexorable rise in the cost of flakes, and the board itself simply
things. But his will seemed para- disintegrated into a collapsed mass
lyzed. He just wasn’t able to do of fibrous dust, much as a mummy
anything about it. His only solu- does, once the wrappings are re-
tion was to borrow more, create moved.
more credit, and issue more As he stood wondering, a little
money. insect appeared amid the dusty
debris. Stooping to pick it up,
AND THEN something very special Uncle John discovered that the
and tragic happened. wreckage was fairly crawling with
One evening as Uncle John sat small, whitish, ant-like creatures.
smoking in the library of his fine He tore away more boards and ex-
old home, he noticed that the posed the sturdy stone foundation.
shelving in one corner seemed to The stones were netted with
be out of line. Incredibly, it sagged slender tubular structures made
— and even as he watched, it of dried mud — and he saw that
sagged still more. He jumped from the insects were apparently using
his chair and hurried to the cor- these tubes as highways from the
ner to see what was wrong; and as ground to the woodwork above.
he did so, to his amazement the
floor itself sagged under his fect. FURTHER investigation convinced
That whole corner of the house him that the miserable insects
just seemed to slump down. He were themselves the cause of the
was puzzled and alarmed. He knew trouble. Tiny and apparently help-


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

1958 UNCLE JOHN AND THE TERMITES 39

less, they were literally eating his prised at that. He had set the boy
house down! up handsomely when he was mar-

In the days that followed he ex- ried, and the young fellow had
perimented with ways to stop been prospering at his occupation.
their depredations. Finally he He should have saved a comfort-
found that if he treated the wood able sum by this time. Of course,
with certain chemicals, and es- living costs were high, and there
pecially if he inserted a thin strip were those heavy taxes. . ..
of durable metal between the stone However, the main thing was to
foundation and the sills, letting stop the marauders before they
the edges project an inch or two, destroyed the house, so Uncle
the destroyers could not or would John agreed to advance the money.
not build their deadly tunnels over The boy’s house must be saved —
the edge of the metal. And so at and besides, if something were not
great cost of labor and money he done quickly, the insects might
equipped the house, as far as it spread to other houses. They
was physically possible to do so, might even get into his own house
with the necessary fenders. again!

: That was the fear that had been

BUT HE WAS SHAKEN by the ex- eating away at Uncle John’s peace
perience. It gave him a sense of of mind. Sometimes in the middle
frightened helplessness to reflect of the night he would awake in
that a man of his size and strength a cold sweat, having dreamed that
and a house of such dignity and all the houses in the community,
proportions should be at the mercy including his own, had been de-
of a horde of insects, working in stroyed. .
the dark, protected from the re- -
vealing daylight by a screen of AND THEN ONE DAY a man from
mud. down the valley came to see him.

One day his second son came to The man seemed agitated, but
him in great agitation: the de- there was also a hint of calculation
vouring insects were at work in in his manner. Cl
his house also! “It’s the bugs, John,” he an-

Obviously something had to be nounced bluntly. “They've got to
done at once. -But the young man my place.” :
said he simply couldn’t afford the - Uncle John expressed his sym-
money to jack the house up, re- pathy, and began to suggest the
place the damaged sills, and insert measures that should be taken.
the shields. Uncle. John was sur- But the neighbor interrupted.


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

40 THE FREEMAN January

“I know all that,” he said, “but But — the bugs! Uncle John hur-
the trouble is, I haven’t got the ried to get the money for them.
money to do the job. So I came to By this time he was looking for
see you about a loan — or a grant.” neither accounting nor account-

A grant? Uncle John’s eyebrows ability, having become completely
went up. He knew the man had obsessed by fear of “the bugs.”
been going through some hard And so his next step was easy
times, but he was by no means and inevitable, considering his
bankrupt. Also, he was able-bodied state of mind: He made a speech
and could work. Uncle John knew at the schoolhouse, announcing
that when he said “grant” he that anybody up and down the
meant “gift.” Surely a man in his valley, or in the remote settle-
position could manage — ments across the ridge, who was

As if reading Uncle John’s in need of money to fix up his place
thoughts, the neighbor shrugged. as a precautionary measure
“All right,” he said, ominously, against possible termite invasion,
“but if they eat my house down had only to apply to him and the
and spread into your settlement, necessary funds would be forth-
don’t blame me.” coming!

More insects in his settlement!

That was what Uncle John had IN A SHORT TIME Uncle John was
come to fear above everything so busy passing out money that
else. So he hastily “granted” the he could do little else. And, of
man the money — and within a course, he had to hire a large
week two other men, who lived number of people to help handle
so far up the river that he scarcely this new activity, which added to
knew them, were on his doorstep. its cost.

“The bugs, John! We've got to He lacked not only the time but
have help. If they eat us out, also the inclination to figure out
pretty soon they'll be after you, what was happening to the value
and =" of the money he was dispensing

By this time his normal caution so lavishly. Over a period of years
had forsaken him. He knew about it lost in purchasing power at the
these men from of old, though he rate of about 3 per cent a year.
hardly knew them personally. One One day he awoke to the startling
of them, indeed, had openly sided fact that his money would actually
with his enemies in the recent buy less than half what it had
fighting. The other had always bought just a few years previously.
been shiftless and undependable. Then he looked at the size of the


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

1958 UNCLE JOHN AND THE TERMITES 41

debt he had been building up, and having come into his valley in
he was staggered at the huge relatively small numbers from
amount of it. He began to hear distant lands.
from certain members of his fam- And while he was worrying
ily on that score, too. They made about the depredations of that
loud outcries against what they particular kind of “bug,” and
called the extravagance of running spending his money to protect the
the community. They made sharp houses of his neighbors from in-
demands for a reduction of ex- vasion by the whites, other ter-
penditures, and for some payment mites, native to his area, without
on the gigantic and ruinous debt. his being aware of it, had found
But it was in vain. Too many unprotected spots and were silent-
other voices were clamoring for ly at work on the destruction of
more, more! his own house.

It almost seemed as though they
AS FOR Uncle John, he seemed were also eating away at some-
to have become obsessed with the thing vital in Uncle John himself.
mere spending of money. Even in His former independence of
such vital matters as the defense spirit had given place to an atti-
of the community, he no longer tude of placation, appeasement,
said, “We have so many men un- and favor-seeking. Whereas he
der arms,” or “We have such-and- formerly made friends by the sim-
such gunboats,” or “We have a ple process of being fair and just,
certain number of cannons.” In- he now went about almost cring-
stead, he had fallen into the habit ingly trying to purchase friend-
of saying, “We have spent this- ship with gifts of money — there-
and-that amount of money on de- by losing respect and earning only
fense.” contempt.

And his strange and indiscrim-

inating fear of the termites con- His SENSE of pride and self-suf-
tinued. In this he made a fatal ficiency were also dulled. Once he
error — namely, he assumed that had hated debt and insolvency;
all the destroyers were alike, and now he lacked the moral courage
that all were the same pale whit- to deny himself and his family a
ish color of those he had first dis- few luxuries so that he could put
covered. Actually, there were his financial house in order.
many other kinds. The whites, in- Once he had taken pride in pay-
deed, were a minority and were ing his bills promptly and fully;
not even native to his settlement, now he was in debt over the ears


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

42 THE FREEMAN January

of his great grandchildren —and were stealthily cutting away at the

he didn’t care! timbers of his house had each a
Once he had proudly told a ghostlike, invisible counterpart

bully that he would spend all he that was inwardly devouring the

had for defense but wouldn’t pay substance of his moral fiber.

a cent for tribute; now he was vol-

untarily, needlessly, and often IT TOOK the sudden and final col-

fruitlessly offering a kind of trib- lapse of his great old mansion into

ute to any who would accept it— a heap of dusty rubble to make

and he was being laughed at for him realize that an even greater

his stupidity. destruction: had occurred within
Yes, it was as though the blind himself.
and ruthless little destroyers that But then it was too late. ® o eo

IDEAS OR 002689 | Trembling in the Balance

THE VERY FINEST THING which the world’s civilization has ever
reached is this wonderful sphere in these United States of
America of free social cooperation for the advancement of
education, religion and morality, the care of the sick and needy,
the spread of neighborly kindness and helpfulness, and for the
upbuilding, thereby, of enlightened character, which dispenses
with paternalism in government and makes democracy safe for
our own Country. Without this we could never have attained and
maintained that system of limited government and individual
liberty which has made us a great and happy and relatively con-
tented people. As we have seen, this great system has received
shock after shock since we started out upon that path of conquest
in 1898, which veered in the direction of imperialism. It would be
a very moderate statement to say that it is now trembling in the
balance. It would be nearer the mark to suggest, at least, that it
is anxiously awaiting what may be its death blow.

JOIN W. BURGESS, Recent Changes In American Constitutional Theory, 1928


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

AM
DOUBLE CHARGE
" Toll Toads

F. R. SPROULE

Qurrose you drove up to a turn- roads. The toll roads subsist on
pike pay booth and were told: revenue collected at their own toll
“The toll is $3.00 for this road booths.” They were built with
plus $2.00 for the same trip if you money obtained from sale of bonds
had used the state highway.” You to private investors. They get no
might well reply: “What are you tax money. The tolls pay off the
talking about? I'm not going to bonds and provide for upkeep.

pay two tolls to travel one road!” The tax roads — federal, state,
Yet you do pay twice every time county, township, and city — are
you set wheel on a toll road. built and maintained for the most

We have two separate unrelated part with revenue from highway-
highway systems in the United user taxes, chiefly the gas tax,
States, the toll roads and the tax which averages 83%} cents per

Mr. Sproule is a businessman who studies government and ethics in his spare time. He has
written several articles for national magazines.

43


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

44 THE FREEMAN January

gallon of gasoline. You pay at the we should pay both for the use of
filling station, and of course there a tax-supported road.

are no tolls.

This being the case, it is clear Alternative Procedures

that when traveling a tax road you There are several ways by which
should pay only the tax, and when the unfair “Second Tax” could
on the toll road, only the toll. On be removed. Gasoline at toll road
the tax road system this holds service stations could be sold tax-
true. But on the toll road you pay free; or, the toll road traveler
both toll and tax. It’s as if you could present receipts for tolls
paid only plane fare on the plane, paid and be given a refund as in
but plane and rail fares both when the case of the farmer and his
riding the train. Obviously the tractor fuel (the receipt indicates
trains would be limited to special mileage, from which the amount
routes where people were willing of gasoline used — and thus the

to pay twice for one trip. tax paid — can be calculated as a
check.) * Probably the most prac-
The Highway-User Tax tical, most cheat-proof, and least

As the name “highway-user cumbersome method would be to
tax” implies, the gas tax is sup- make gas tax refunds payable to
posed to be levied only on users the toll roads so that the customer
of the tax-supported highway sys- would get his refund in the form
tem. For example, the farmer is of a toll reduction. This would be
refunded all tax he pays on gaso- administratively simple because
line used in his tractor. It is rec- the toll roads keep accurate rec-
ognized that he should not pay ords of mileages traveled by each
the tax, since he is using this gaso- type of vehicle. The average mile-
line for purposes other than travel age obtained per gallon of gas-
on the roads for which the tax is oline for each type vehicle is

levied. known. The rest is simple arith-
By the same token we should metic.
get a refund of gas tax on gas- Under the toll road arrange-

oline we use on a toll road. We, ments in nearly all cases, the pro-
too, are using this gasoline for posed gas tax refund would auto-
purposes other than travel on the matically be returned to the vehi-
roads for which the tax is levied. cle owner as a toll reduction be-
There is no reason why we should —————

av both toll and tax to travel : ®This method is now used on the Mass.
pay bo Of and tax to travel &  ,chyusetts Turnpike with respect to the
toll-supported road any more than state tax,


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

1958 DOUBLE CHARGE ON TOLL ROADS 45

cause the toll road agency exists are going to be faced with three
only to pay off the bonds and pro- choices: raise highway-user taxes;
vide necessary highway mainten- borrow; or do without some of the
ance. needed roads, or at least delay
them still further — already the
original 10-year borrowed-money
A common question among vic- plan has given way to a pay-as-
tims of the great traffic jam is: you-go program that will take 16
“Why don’t they build more toll to 20 years for completion. It is
roads?” The answer is that double conceivable that under the refund-
taxation makes it uneconomical. ing plan herein outlined and the
Only in a few very favorable loca- impending rise in highway-user
tions is there the prospect of taxes, the cost of using toll roads
enough customers who would find might be no greater than the cost
it worth-while to pay both toll and of using tax roads. In other words,
tax. Removing the tax, by refund- the tax refund might be sufficient
ing it, would set the toll roads free to cover the toll charge.
and probably result in the im- Private enterprise has taken
mediate construction of many new several close looks at the toll road
miles of toll superhighway. They business but always backed out,
get none of the tax anyway, and basically because of the double
their customers would be relieved taxation handicap — that is, not
of an unfair burden. Traffic would enough traffic at reasonable toll
flock to the toll roads, raising in- rates could be foreseen. Under the
come and allowing lower toll rates gas tax rebate plan, investors
in a beneficial circle of cause and might get into the highway pic-
effect. ture with both feet — not merely
At present the average extra as purchasers of bonds, but as
charge for use of a toll road is builders and operators of toll
1% cents per mile for automo- roads. New and cheaper pave-
biles, while the “free” road motor- ments, more efficient toll collection
ist pays only the equivalent of methods, separate lanes or roads
about 3; cents per mile in taxes for trucks, and streamlined main-
and fees. However, estimates used tenance are among the possibili-
to predict costs of the big high- ties, should the ingenuity and
way construction program now energy of the entrepreneur be in-
getting started are recognized as jected into the business of pro-
much too low. In the near future viding the arteries that carry the
the federal and state governments life-blood of our motorized society.

Remove the Road Blocks


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

46 THE FREEMAN January

Alternatives nating gas tax paid for toll road

An alternative to giving toll travel, leaving only the toll, and
roads new life is a policy widely allowing toll roads to be built
favored in Washington calling for wherever practicable as parts of
the federal and state governments the new interstate superhighway
to pay off toll road bonds and turn system. Then their hard-pressed
these highways into “freeways.” engineers could concentrate on the
This would divert large sums of remaining great: mileage of pri-
tax money away from construction mary, secondary, and feeder roads,
and maintenance of the “free” which it seems will be task enough
system, which is already stagger- in view of mounting difficulties
ing along without sufficient rev- and rising costs. Such a policy
enue. would provide needed highways

The federal and state govern- sooner, in response to the growing
ments might well consider elimi- demands of a growing population.

| toeas ONE IIBIERIY | Free the Railroads

THE GOVERNMENT has proceeded to subsidize and is continuing to
subsidize all of the railways’ competition. Taxes build highways,
pay for barge lines, provide airline terminals, and underwrite
many of the costs incurred therein. But the railways are taxed
mightily in their real estate holdings and additionally are gov-
erned by federal and state laws to such a point that they are
compelled to maintain losing lines, pay for unnecessary stations
and station personnel, and are prevented by law from stream-
lining their own operations and competing on an equal basis with
their own competition.

This is the story in a nut-shell. What needs doing, of course, is
the freeing of the railroads both from silly and featherbedded
union contracts, and from government regulation and control.
What we are fearful of, is that the railroads, instead of standing
pat on this point, will demand their share of tax money in main-
taining their industry, and in the end become nothing more than
a sustained and expanding burden on the taxpayer.

The railroads are in trouble. But if they want to get out of
their malaise permanently, they are going to have to stand up
free and strong and refuse to go along with tax support.

From an editorial in the Colorado Springs
Gazette Telegraph, November 12, 19567,


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

A noted poet and public representative of Europe
turns his talent to the greatest challenge of all —

Sheedom

PAUL VALERY (1871-1945)

can use it, that is to say men who
have a thirst for knowledge and
for the power of internal trans-
formations, a thirst for the de-
velopment of their sensibility, and
WHAT Is the composition of this who, on the other hand, know how
capital we call Culture or Civiliza- to acquire or exercise the neces-
tion? It is primarily constituted sary habits of intellectual disci-
of things, material objects, books, pline, those conventions and prac-
pictures, instruments, and so on, tices which are needed in order to
which have their probable dura- utilize the treasure of documents
tion, their fragility, their precari- and instruments that have accu-
ousness as things. But this ma- mulated over the centuries.
terial stock is not enough, any The capital of our culture is in
more than a gold ingot, an acre peril. It is in peril in various as-
of good land, a machine are capi- pects and ways. It is brutally and
tal if there are not men who need insidiously threatened. It is at-
them and know how to use them. tacked by more than one enemy.
Note these two conditions. In It is dissipated, neglected, dis-
order for the material of culture graced by us all. The progress of
to be capital, it also demands the this disintegration is plain.
existence of men who require and The whole of modern life con-

47


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

48 THE FREEMAN January

stitutes, often under the most and as precious as creators them-
brilliant and attractive appear- selves. I have seen disappear one
ances, a veritable sickness of cul- after the other those connoisseurs,
ture, since it subordinates this those inestimable amateurs who,
wealth, which must accumulate though they created no works of
like natural wealth — this capital their own, created their true
which must shape itself by suc- value; they were passionate but
cessive layers in the minds of men. incorruptible judges for whom or
It submits this to the general agi- against whom it was exhilarating
tation of the world, which is to work. They knew how to read,
propagated and developed by the a virtue which has become extinct.
exaggeration of every means of They knew how to hear and even
communication. At such a rate of listen. They knew how to see. That
activity, overrapid exchanges be- is to say that what they insisted
come a fever and life devours it- on rereading, rehearing, reseeing,
self. was by this repetition made into a
Perpetual shocks, novelties, solid value. They thus increased
news, and essential instability be- our universal capital.
come a genuine need, a nervous- I am not saying they are all
ness which is generalized by all the dead or that no more will ever be
means that mind itself has cre- born. But I observe their extreme
ated. One can say that suicide is scarcity with regret. Their pro-
implicit in the ardent and super- fession was to be themselves and
ficial form of existence of the in complete independence to en-

civilized world. joy their own judgment which no
publicity or article could affect.
The Independent Thinker The most disinterested and ar-

How can one conceive of the dent intellectual and artistic life
future of culture if one’s age al- was the very motive of their ex-
lows one to compare what it used istence.
to be with what it is becoming? There was not a show, not an
Here is a simple fact which 1 of- exhibition, or a book to which
fer to your reflections in the same they did not give scrupulous at-
way as it imposed itself upon my tention. They were sometimes de-
own. scribed, and with some irony, as

I have watched the progressive men of taste, but their kind has
disappearance of beings who were become so rare that the word it-
extremely valuable to the steady self is no longer taken as a gibe.
formation of our ideal capital, That is in itself a considerable


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

1958 FREEDOM OF THE MIND 49

loss, for nothing is more precious and vital interest. In the public
to the creator than those who can newssheets there is such a variety,
appreciate his work and abové all incoherence, and intensity of news,
give to the painstakingness of his and particularly on certain days,
work, the work-value of his work, that whatever time we can give to
that valuation of which I was reading out of every twenty-four
speaking a moment ago, that hours is entirely taken up by it
standard which, regardless of and our minds are disturbed, agi-
fashion and passing whims, could tated, or overstimulated.
establish the authority of a work The man who has a job, who
or a name. earns his living and can give an
hour a day to reading, whether at
home or in the bus or the subway,
Nowadays things move so fast has that hour devoured by crime,
that reputations are made and incoherent rubbish, monotonous
vanish overnight. Nothing stable gossip, and scraps of sc¢andal,
is made, for nothing is made for whose chaos and abundance seem

Lack of Stability

stability. calculated to bewilder and grossly
How can you expect an artist, in simplify people’s minds.
spite of the apparent diffusion of Such men are lost to books. This

art or its widespread teaching, is fatal and there is nothing we
not to feel all the futility of this can do about it.

age, the confusion of values that The result of all this is a real
is taking place, the facility which decline of culture; and second-
it encourages? arily, a real diminution of veri-

If he gives all the time and care table freedom of mind, for that
that he can to his work, he gives freedom, on the contrary, requires
it with the feeling that something detachment and the rejection of
in that work will impose itself on all the incoherent or violent sen-
the mind of his reader; he hopes sations we receive from modern
people will reward him by a cer- life at every moment of the day.
tain quality and duration of atten-
tion for some of the pains he gave On Liberty
himself to write a page. I just mentioned liberty. There

Let us admit that we reward is liberty in itself, and liberty of
him very badly. It is not our fault, mind or minds.
for we are deluged with books. All this takes me a little from
Above all, we are besieged with my subject, but we must, never-
reading matter of an immediate theless, give it some attention.


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

50 THE FREEMAN January

Freedom is an enormous word, a It will certainly be managed some
word that has been liberally used day, but we have not quite
in politics though it has been for- reached that stage and we are not
bidden here and there in recent eager for such a discovery. Mean-
years; liberty has been an ideal while, freedom to think exists to
and a myth; it has been a word the extent that it is not restricted
rich in promises for some and full by thought itself.
of threats for others; a word which It is very nice to have freedom
has made men rise and tear up to think, but one must also have
paving-stones; a word which was something to think about.
the rallying cry of those who But in most common usage,
seemed the weakest and who felt when people say freedom of
themselves to be the strongest, thought, they mean freedom to
against those who seemed the publish or freedom to teach.
strongest and did not feel them- Such freedom gives rise to seri-
selves to be weakest. ous problems; it is always causing

This political freedom is hard some difficulty, and the nation, the
to distinguish from notions of State, the Church, the school, or
equality, of sovereignty, but is al- the family will at different times
so hard to reconcile with the idea be found objecting to freedom of
of order, and sometimes with the thought in publishing, in thinking
idea of justice. publicly, or in teaching.

The above are so many powers

Freedom of Thought which are all more or less jealous

But that is not my subject. of the external manifestations of
I return to mind. When one ex- the thinking individual.
amines all those political liberties I do not intend to concern my-

a little closer, one is rapidly ob- gelf now with the root of the ques-
liged to consider freedom of tion. It is a matter of particular
thought. instances. It is certain that in
Freedom of thought is confused some cases it is good for freedom
in people’s minds with freedom to of publication to be supervised or
publish, which is not the same restricted.
thing. But the problem becomes very
Nobody has ever been prevented difficult when it is a question of
from thinking whatever he liked. general measures. For instance,
It would be difficult unless we had there is no doubt that during a
machines for detecting the war it is impossible to allow
thoughts in other people's brains. everything to be published. It is


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

1958 FREEDOM OF THE MIND 51

not only imprudent to permit news the mission of controlling, admits
of the conduct of operations — all falsifications or all the reti-
everyone can understand that — cences which suit its purpose and
but there are certain things which are in agreement with it, and it
in the interests of public order violently rejects or suppresses
could not be made known. those which are not.

That is not all. Freedom to pub- Well, what is politics? Politics
lish, which forms an essential part consists in the will to conquer and
of the freedom of trade in things retain power; consequently, it de-
of the mind, finds itself today, in mands an active constraint upon
certain cases and in certain coun- or maintenance of illusion in
tries, severely restricted and even men’s minds, which are the ma-
in fact suppressed. terial of all power.

All power is necessarily con-
cerned with preventing the pub-

You feel to what extent this is a lication of things which do not
burning question and that it is be- suit its own functioning. It does
ing asked almost everywhere. 1 its best to that end. The political
mean wherever asking questions mind ends by being forced to fal-
is still allowed. Personally, I am sify. It circulates intellectual
not very inclined to publishing my counterfeits and falsified notions
thoughts. One can easily refrain of history; it develops specious
from publishing. Who obliges us arguments, and in a word it allows
to publish? ... What demon? And itself whatever is necessary in
what good does it do, after all? order to preserve its authority,
One can keep one’s ideas. Why ex- which, for some reason unknown
ternalize them? They are just as to me, people call “moral.”

beautiful in a drawer or in one’s
head. . . . Mutual Enemies

The Political Sphere

But all the same, there are some We must confess that at every
people who like to publish, who step politics and freedom of mind
like to inculcate their ideas into exclude each other. The latter is
other people, who think only in the essential enemy of parties, as
order to write, and who write in it is of any doctrine that possesses
order to publish. Therefore, they power.
venture into the political sphere. That is why I wanted to insist
It is then that the conflict begins. on the shades of meaning which

Politics, which is obliged to fal- such expressions can assume in
sify all the values that mind has French.


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

52 THE FREEMAN January

Freedom is a notion which ap- pothesis of impediment, hin-
pears in contradictory expres- drance,or resistance, which opposes
sions, since we use it sometimes itself either to some impulse in
in the sense of doing what we our being, or to some desire of the
want, and at others in the sense senses, or to a need, or else to the
that we can do what we don’t exercise of our considered will.
want, which according to some I am only free when I feel free,
people is the very height of liberty. but I only feel free when I think I

This means that there are sev- am being constrained, when I
eral beings in each of us, but that start imagining some state which
these several beings dispose of contrasts with my present state.
only one language, and it so hap- Liberty is therefore not felt,
pens that the same word (such as nor conceived, nor desired, save
liberty) is used for very different by the effect of a contrast.
requirements of expression. It is If my body finds obstacles to
a word “of-all-work.” its natural movements or reflexes,

At one moment we are free be- if my thought is hindered in its
cause nothing opposes what arises operations either by some physi-
within us and attracts us, and at cal pain or by some obsession, or
another we find ourselves free in by the action of the external
a superior way because we feel we world, by noise, by excessive heat
are escaping from some seduction or cold, by the din or music from
or temptation and are able to act next door, I aspire to a change of
against our inclinations: that is condition, a deliverance or a lib-

a maximum of liberty. erty. I tend to regain the use of

my faculties in their full range.

Liberty Is a Response I tend to reject the condition
Let us examine this fluid no- which prevents such use.

tion, just a little, in its spontane- You will see, then, that there is

ous usage. I immediately find that an element of negation in the term
the idea of liberty is not primary “liberty’’ as soon as one looks for
within us; it is never evoked with- its original function, in the nas-
out being provoked; that is to say, cent state.
it is always a response. This is the conclusion I must
We never think we are free draw. Since the need for liberty
when nothing shows us we are and the idea of liberty are not pro-
not free or that we could not be duced in those who are not sub-
so. The idea of liberty is a re- ject to hindrances and constraints,
sponse to some sensation or hy- the less we are aware of restric-


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

1958 FREEDOM OF THE MIND 53

tions, the less the term and reflex And it is only too evident. I do
liberty will exist. : not want to judge, however, be-

A person who is scarcely aware cause it is not my place to judge.
of the hindrances to freedom of Who can judge men? ... Does it

mind, or of the constraints which not mean setting oneself up as
are imposed on him by public more than a man?

powers, for instance, or by ex- If I speak of this, it is because
ternal circumstances of any kind, there is no more interesting sub-
will react hardly at all against ject for us, for we cannot tell what
these constraints. He will have no the future has in store for us men,
impulse of rebellion, no reflex, no whom I will call men of the mind
revolt against the authority which if you wish. . . .

imposes such restrictions upon I think, then, that it is both
him. On the contrary, as often as necessary and disturbing to be
not he will find himself relieved of obliged today to invoke —not what
a vague responsibility. His own one calls the rights of the mind,
deliverance, his freedom, will con- for that is an empty phrase since
gist of feeling himself discharged there are no rights without power
of the responsibility of thinking, — but to invoke the interest, which

deciding, and willing. is everyone's interest, of preserv-
ing and supporting the values of
The Values of the Mind the mind.
You will see the enormous con- Why?
"sequences of this: among men Because the creation and the

whose sensitiveness to the things organized existence of the intel-
of the mind is so weak that the lectual life find themselves in a
pressures which are exercised up- most complex relationship, yet a
on the production of works of the most definite and intimate rela-
mind are imperceptible to them, tionship, to life, indeed to human
there are no reactions, or at least life. No one has ever explained
no external reactions. what we men are, and that pecu-

You know that this consequence liarity of ours which is the mind.
is being demonstrated very close Mind is an internal power which
to us; you can see on the horizon has involved us in an extraor-
the most obvious effects of such dinary adventure; our species has
pressure on the mind, and you can become very remote from all the
observe at the same time the prime and normal conditions of
feeble reaction it produces. This is life. We have invented a world for
a fact. our mind, and we want to live in


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

54 THE FREEMAN January

that world of our mind. It wants thoughtthatour civilization might
to live in its work. vanish with all its processes, its

It has been a question of re- works of art, philosophy, and
making what nature had already monuments, in the same way as
made, or correcting it, and thus so many other civilizations since
ending by remaking, to some ex- the beginning of time — like some
tent, man himself. great ship that is submerged. In

To refashion, according to our Vain is such a ship provided with
already considerable resources, to all the most modern devices for
remake our habitation, to equip finding its way, or to defend itself
the portion of the planet we in- against the sea; in vain does it
habit, to overrun it in every di- take pride in the all-powerful ma-
rection, to plumb its heights and chines that drive it forward, for
depths, to exploit it, to extract they move it towards its destruc-
from it whatever it contains that tion just as easily as towards
can be turned to our purpose, all port, and it vanishes with all
this is very good; and we cannot hands and cargo.

see what man would do if he failed All this struck me then, and I
to do that, save to relapse into an feel no more reassured today.
animal condition. That is why I do not feel it is use-

less to recall the precariousness
Knowledge Is Also Perishable of all our possessions, whether

Let us not omit to say that all such possessions be culture itself,
our truly spiritual activity, apart or freedom of expression.

from the material remaking of the For where there is no longer
globe, is closely linked with such freedom of mind, culture falls in
replanning, and this amounts to ruins... . One can see important

a veritable reshaping of the mind publications and reviews which
which has consisted of creating were very much alive across the
speculative knowledge and aes- frontier, and which are now full
thetic values, and of producing a of articles of unsound erudition;
large number of works, a capital one feels that life has ebbed from
of immaterial wealth. But whether these periodicals, and yet that
material or spiritual, our treas- they must still pretend to main-
ures are not imperishable. tain intellectual life.

I wrote a long time ago, in 1919, There is an hypocrisy in this
that civilizations are as mortal as which reminds us of what used to
living creatures, and that there is happen in the period when Sten-
nothing extraordinary in the dhal scoffed at certain learned


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

1958 FREEDOM OF THE MIND 55

gentlemen whom he met: despo- inventions and ways of living, by .
tism condemned them to take ref- politics in general and by several
uge in arguments over the proper different varieties of politics, so
punctuation of a passage in Ovid. that it is perhaps neither futile
Such abject misery had come nor disproportionate to sound the
to seem incredible. Such absurdity alarm and show the dangers that
appeared condemned for all time. surround what the men of my
But here it is again, revived and time have considered the supreme
all-powerful in certain places. ... good. oo 0
On every side we can see ob- ——— }
stacles and threats to the mind, Jon, FRo Tule, JRfROT on Be
whose liberties are attacked at gcarfe. Copyright 1948 by Pantheon
the same time as culture by our Books, Inc, New York.

| shins CIN Oh The Spirit of the Universe

I pouBT if a collective will is ever very potent, but the individual
will is powerful indeed and it is vital that it comes from minds
whose understanding is based on truth. And inasmuch as each
individual view of the truth is inevitably a little different from
all others, we need to integrate them for greater wisdom. The
collective pool of understanding grows from what is poured into
it, but the contributions are those of individuals and the will to
act must come from them — as the diversified individuals of a
group acting together like those of an orchestra, not as members
of a herd following the loudest voice.

We need faith, a faith in ourselves as human beings and not
as members of this or that race or religion or stage or class of
society. We need no faith in supernatural forces. We need only
to recognize that our knowledge of the universe through our
senses and our knowledge of the universe through our own in-
ward nature show that it is orderly, moral, and beautiful; that
it is akin to intelligence; that love and hope belong in it as fully
as light itself; and that the power and will of the human mind is
but a symptom of reality; that we, when we are most human,
most rational, most aware of love and beauty, reflect and repre-
sent the spirit of the universe. That should be enough. But inso-
far as we recognize this and fail to live accordingly, we know and
do evil in some degree, for the deeper the insight the greater
the sin.

N. J. BERRILL, Man's Emerging Mind.


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

Civilizat®
Hood VISION

EpMUND A. OPITZ

“I HERE has been a dramatic revolution in scientific thought in
this century. The physics and chemistry of today’s world
bear little resemblance to the schoolboy sciences of a gen-

. eration ago. The revolution in historical study has been
hardly less dramatic. Historical writing used to be largely
composed of folk legends, narratives of kings and their wars,
tales designed to inflate nationalistic pride, and the like.

But now history is conceived as gler or Toynbee. In any event,
the shadow cast by the evolving penetrating essays on each of
spirit of man (Gerald Heard), as these men, as well as other essays
the life history of cultures and on the histories of Augustine, Gib-
civilizations (Spengler and Toyn- bon, Marx, and H. G. Wells, are
bee), or as the effort to under- included in a new anthology of
stand the development of the pres- Dawson’s writings from 1921 to
ent out of the past as an organic 1954, entitled The Dynamics of
process, as with Christopher Daw- World History (Edited by John J.
son. Mulloy. New York: Sheed & Ward,

Heard’s major contributions 489 pp. $6.00). Many of the selec-
have been in other fields than his- tions appear in book form for the
tory, but Dawson as an historian first time, and the topical arrange-
invites comparison with Spengler ment of the whole affords an im-
and Toynbee. These two men have pressive panorama of Dawson’s
gained spectacular popular suc- thought, valuable even to those
cess, whereas Dawson has not. But who have read his books. The edi-
Dawson is the most prolific of the tor has arranged his thirty-one
three, and there are those who chapters under the following head-
would argue that he is a more pro- ings: The Sociological Founda-
found thinker than either Spen- tions of History, The Movement

The Roverend Mr. Opitz is a member of the staff of the Foundation for Economic Education.

56


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

1958 BEHIND CIVILIZATION — A VISION 57

of World History, Urbanism and philosophically minded person re-
the Organic Nature of Culture, flecting on the contemporary scene
Christianity and the Meaning of must ask: Why these mistakes at
History, and The Vision of the this time? Totalitarianism, Daw-
Historian. To this superb collec- son contends, is the inevitable
tion the editor has appended what backlash following the uprooted
he modestly calls “A Note.” Actu- liberalism which gained ascend-
ally it is a valuable fifty-five page ancy in the nineteenth century.
essay on Dawson. To round things
off, there is a long and thorough Persons in Community
index. Several factors in that century
This book is highly recom- conspired to deprive men of the
mended, alike to those who are in- lively appreciation that they are
terested in probing into mankind's parts of the whole cosmic process
curious and vagrant history and and utterly dependent on it. An
to those whose main concern is to awareness of this relationship is
get out of the mess we are in but the seed from which religion
who realize that no remedy is grows, flowering finally into a
much good unless it proceeds from gystem of convictions about the

a sound diagnosis. nature of the cosmos and the mor-
al obligations imposed by this na-
Who Is Christopher Dawson? ture. But there was a wing of

Libertarians with long memo- liberalism which reduced religion
ries may be wondering where they to the level of a private idiosyn-
have heard the name Dawson be- cracy, as private and as irrational
fore. Perhaps. it was in Ralph as the taste for catsup on ice
Adams Cram’s review of Nock’s cream. There are idiosyncratic
Our Enemy, the State. After a elements in the historic religions,
glowing endorsement of Nock’s to be sure, but there is more.
book, Cram said he would add only There is, in every vital religion, a
one thing: a recommendation that system of ultimate values and be-
it be read along with Dawson's liefs which gains the assent and
Religion and the Modern State. personal commitment of a signi-

This book appeared in 1936. ficant number of people in any
Among other things, it is an anal- given society. This is the bond
ysis of totalitarianism which sees that joins persons in community;
that its mistaken ideas about eco- without it society cannot be a
nomics and government are symp- going concern.
tomatic of a deeper illness. The The features which differenti-


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

58 THE FREEMAN January

ate one society from another are ity for larger loyalties than he can
structures and patterns precipi- contain in the effort to maximize
tated by generations of commit- private satisfactions. In the ab-
ment to a common set of values sence of a proper object of his
and beliefs; “behind every civili- loyalties — which it is the fune-
zation there is a vision.” Human tion of high spiritual faith to sup-
frailties being what they are, no ply —he is susceptible to mob
society will live up to its preten- masters who dragoon him into
tions, but the striving of a signi- bending the knee to the mortal
ficant number of people to do so god state.
permits “a growing capital of so-
cial tradition.” This tradition is Legitimate Materialism
capable of molding, as well as be- Thus the totalitarian drift, as
ing molded by, its component Dawson helps reconstruct it, is the
parts. This is obvious enough to agonized effort of the modern
anyone who is not color blind and world to fill the void created when
tone deaf in respect to history. the traditional faith failed to keep
Some nineteenth century ration- itself contemporary. “A society
alists appear to have been so af- that loses its religion loses at the
flicted. Nothing registered with same time its principle of inner
them except abstract individuals cohesion,” after which it attempts
capable only of nursing private in vain to brace itself with outer
satisfactions and pursuing pri- compulsion.
vate advantage. If this be the real- Dawson is a religious man and
ity, the course of conduct is read- writes from within the Roman
ily deduced: Follow self-interest, communion, but he gives full
impede it slightly with moralisms weight to the importance of ma-
extracted from the lately dis- terial factors. “Underlying the
carded religion, let everyone be on historical process and the higher
guard, and then a free for all. activities of civilized life,” he
The psychology here is faulty, writes, “there are the primary re-
stemming, as it did, from an in- lations of a society to its natural
adequate cosmology. In due course environment and its functional
it was to spell itself out into a col- adaptation to economic ends . . .
lectivist ideology. For the concrete In a thousand ways human life is
person as he appears in any his- conditioned and determined by
torical society — as distinguished material factors, and there is a
from the abstract individual of legitimate materialism which con-
rationalist fancy — has the capac- sists in the definition and analysis


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

1958 BEHIND CIVILIZATION — A VISION 59

of these relations.” Some students given nation, communicants of a
of man go no higher than this certain religion, followers of a
level. “But,” according to Dawson, chosen occupation, full of preju-
“a culture is not merely a com- dices, heirs of one of the strands
munity of work and a community of tradition, and so on. We never
of place; it is also, and above all, experience an “individual,” con-
a community of thought, and it is ceived of simply as a manifesta-
seen and best known in its higher tion of essential humanity
spiritual activities, to which alone stripped of the above “accidental”
the name of culture was first ap- variations. “A great culture,”
plied. It"is impossible to under- Dawson writes, “sets its seal on a
stand or explain society by its ma- man, on all that he is, and all that
terial factors alone without con- he does, from his speech and ges-
sidering the religious, intellectual ture to his vision of reality and his
and artistic influences which de- ideals of conduct.” It is neglect of
termine the form of its inner cul- this truth —i.e., that a culture is

tural life.” an integrated whole and not sim-
A culture is something culti- ply a collocation of separate parts
vated; “it is a work of art, a tri- — which prepares the stage for

umph of human inventiveness and the planner armed with political
endurance, and it is the fruit of power.

an age-long cultural tradition...

Social progress and the very ex- Spiritual Freedom Threatened
istence of society itself are the re- Given the picture of a disinte-
sults of the creative force of hu- grated society of self-seeking units
man personality.” There is thus “we are too apt to believe that
a reciprocal relationship between everything would go well with the
individual persons and their re- world if only we could enforce

spective societies. common standards by universal
economic planning and some form

Platform for Planning of political world organization.”
But the isolated “individual” of To avoid that danger, we need

some thinkers is a mere symbol, a vital contact with Christendom
extracted for ease of manipulation in its broad sense — our western
from the concrete persons whom heritage of religion, science, schol-
we actually confront. In our ex- arship, and literature. It is pre-
perience there are only actual peo- cisely at this point that Dawson
ple who are always citizens of a proves so admirable a guide. eo @


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

2 a i

al
A REVIEWER" S NOTEROOK

J
. John Chamberlain
|

k Capital

Punishment

NFA NER
A FEA

[% WR -
Rd SPU

OME three hundred years ago,
in the time of Thomas Hobbes,
John Milton, and John Locke, the
British people hammered out a
more or less complete philosophy
of basic human rights. Assuming
the right to life (and without it
there can be nothing to bind men
together in society), the other
rights followed. Liberty and prop-
erty were not only necessary to
sustain life but also to render so-
ciety sufficiently fruitful to sup-
port an ever-increasing number of
human souls.

Naturally, in a universe in
which nothing is very simple,
there were operational areas in
which rights—even British rights!
— seemed to collide. An empirical
folk, the British believed in cus-

60

tom, in the precedents of the Com-
mon Law. They resisted the im-
pulse to codify their rules, reject-
ing both the codifications of the
Roman law and —in the early
nineteenth century — the Code Na-
poleon. As it seemed to them, or-
derly codification and an enhanced
inquisitorial attitude on the part
of the police seemed to go to-
gether. They wanted nothing of
a Gallic — or a Roman — police. No
regimentation for an Englishman,
not even the threat of regimenta-
tion that might be presumed to
exist in an armed and highly or-
ganized constabulary!

Hang the Rascals!

The fiercely libertarian attitude
of Englishmen, however, entailed
a paradox: to protect themselves
against the necessity of having an
armed and powerful police force,
the British squirearchy of the
eighteenth century decided that
the penalties for crimes against
life, liberty, and property must be
made so horrifying that nobody
would dare to transgress. Accord-
ingly, they permitted parliament
and the judges of England to fash-
ion a series of laws and precedents
that became popularly known as
the “Bloody Code.” The Bloody
Code decreed hanging for virtu-
ally everything from petty larceny
up to the most coldly premeditated
murder. It became a byword on


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

1958 A REVIEWER'S NOTEBOOK 61

the European continent that, tigial remains of the old Bloody
though you could almost certainly Code? During the 1930’s, when he
count on a fair trial in England, was taking part in the Civil War
you could not count on the most in Spain, Arthur Koestler spent
elementary quality of mercy from three months in prison under sen-
either jury or judge if you were tence of death as a suspected spy.
found to be guilty. Thus, out of an He knows what it is to anticipate
intense desire to protect their the ominous tread of the hang-
basic rights, Englishmen — quite man. And, since he was himself
paradoxically — became contempt- innocent of the charge of spying,

uous of the right to life. he also knows that justice can
frequently miscarry. His own ex-
Jurors Rebel perience causes him to shiver

In the nineteenth century, with whenever he reads of a trial in
the growth of humanitarian feel- Britain —or in America — for a
ing, the British, still empiricists, capital offense. Accordingly, he has
commenced to find ways around put all of his well-known moral
their own law: juries often re- passion into his book on hanging.
fused to convict murderers if This is an eloquent critique and
there seemed to be mitigating cir- commentary on how libertarian-
cumstances, such as mental dis- ism can miscarry when sympathy
order or the more extreme provo- is not applied with logical fore-
cation that goes with the e¢rime thought in an area where basic
passionelle. But the precedents rights collide.
that demand capital punishment
for murders of many degrees still Rehabilitation
stand, and the “hang-hard’” judges As Koestler sees it, the death
of England still insist on their ap- penalty might be justified if it
plication. actually had a deterrent effect. But

In his Reflections on Hanging Koestler is convinced — and he
(Macmillan, $4.50,231 pp.), Arthur cites reams of comparative statis-
Koestler, a refugee from Russian tics to prove his point — that capi-
and East European communism tal punishment is no more success-
who loves England and the Eng- ful as a deterrent than imprison-
lish, meditates upon this strange ment for life or detention for a
turn of affairs. How is it, he asks, long term during which rehabili-
how is it that the fairest, most tation of the murderer can be suc-
humane, the least violent, people cessfully accomplished. Murders
in the world can tolerate the ves- are no more frequent in the Euro-


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

62 THE FREEMAN January

pean countries — or in the Ameri- world that conforms to scientific
can states — which have abolished laws. But he also believes that man
the death penalty. is a fantastic creature. His own
The reason the death penalty solution of a mystery is to sub-
does not act as a deterrent is im- mit that the universe is still in
plicit in Mr. Koestler’s analysis of process of day-to-day creation, and
“patterns of murder.” It is not that man is one of the agents of
the hardened and habitual crimi- that creation. Hence, Mr. Koestler
nal who ordinarily kills. On the aligns himself with those Chris-
contrary, most murders are the tians who would not willingly tam-
grisly by-products of marital or per with the life of any of God's
lovers’ quarrels, insane jealousies, creative agents. The pattern is
suicide pacts that are only half- God's —and if we believe that it
way carried through, and sudden is God's will that a sinner be per-
rages that are touched off by mitted the opportunity of redemp-
drink. Mr. Koestler argues that no tion, then we will not willingly
believer in scientific determinism murder even a murderer if no so-
can logically blame an unbalanced cial good is served by breaking
man for murder. Such a man is his neck.
the inevitable sum of his unfor-

tunate antecedents. M’Naghten Rules
Mr. Koestler writes with all his
Opportunity of Redemption well-known novelistic skill when he

But no Christian believer in free is giving us case studies of mur-
will can logically approve of the derers. He also has a nice turn for
death penalty either, if it once be irony. Noting the English concern
granted that it does not act as a for precedent, he investigates the
deterrent. For the Christian, the so-called M’Naghten Rules which
only justification for hanging are supposed to supply the prece-
would be its salutary effect on the dent for modern British hangings.
crime rate of the future. But if What he discovers is that the
it has no effect beyond what can M’Naghten Rules are themselves
be obtained by simple detention, the result of a violation of prece-
then charity dictates that a con- dent! Back in 1843 a North Irish
victed murderer be given the Protestant named M’'Naghten con-
chance of rehabilitating himself ceived the idea that the Pope, the
—i.e., of saving his own soul. Jesuit Order, and the Tory leader,

Mr. Koestler believes that free Sir Robert Peel, were conspiring
will is a fantastic notion in a against him. So, by mistake, he


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

1958 A REVIEWER’S NOTEBOOK 63

shot Sir Robert’s secretary, Mr. back to a time when England was
Edward Drummond. The jury sent still a primarily agricultural land.
M’Naghten to an institution when The so-called Waltham Black Act
eight doctors certified that he was was passed in 1722, when Hamp-
insane. shire landowners asked for a

Instead of taking its place death penalty law against a band
among the precedents that make of poachers who disguised them-
up the Common Law, however, the selves by blackening their faces.
M’Naghten decision was set be- The Waltham Black Act was soon
fore fifteen High Court judges stretched by the judges to cover
through the medium of a parlia- 350 new capital crimes, many of
mentary interrogation. Fourteen them bucolic in origin, such as
of the judges replied that stealing a tree. The Waltham
M’'Naghten should have been Black Act was repealed in 1823,
hanged. And because of the “prec- before the Industrial Revolution
edent without precedent,” the Eng- was well begun. And certainly the
lish have been hanging feeble- Industrial Revolution had nothing
minded murderers ever since. A to do with the law which pro-
bill which would alter the M'Nagh- vided the death penalty for theft
ten Rules and abolish the death of a squire’s turnips. Moreover, as
penalty altogether has passed Mr. Koestler himself tells us, the
Commons, but the Lords have re- death penalty for stealing from
jected it—and the government calico printers and bleaching es-
has not yet seen fit to resubmit it tablishments was repealed on pe-
to Commons for passage without tition of the capitalists themselves.

House of Lords concurrence. So much for Mr. Koestler’s sin-
oo gle remnant of Marxist cliché-
Blaming the Industrialist thinking. Save for this lapse, Re-

Mr. Koestler writes about mur- flections on Hanging is a master-
der with the clarity which he ful piece of logical inference and
brings to all subjects. But he still persuasion. eo 0
betrays his original Marxist fool-
ishness when he blames much of
the severity of Britain's “Bloody
Code” on the Industrial Revolu-

Any book reviewed in this Book Section (or
ony other current book) supplied by return

tion. On his own evidence, the no- mail. You pay only the bookstore price. We
. . . 3 ay the postage anywhere in th orld.
tion that thieves, shoplifters, high- | Ealaiogue on request, in the wor

waymen, and murderers should all THE BOOKMAILER, Box 101, New York 16
be hanged as “examples” dates



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

Do You Laugh
Your Greatest

Powers Away?

THOSE STRANGE
INNER URGES

You have heard the phrase;
“Laugh, clown, laugh.” Well, that
fits me perfectly. I'd fret, worry
and try to reason my way out of
difficulties—all to no avail; then
I'd have a hunch, a something
within that would tell me to do

a certain thing. I'd laugh it off was; but how could I use it, how
with a shrug. I knew too much, I 6,14 I make it work for me daily?
thought, to heed these impres- Tp. was my problem. I wanted
sions. Well, it’s different now— 15 Jearn to direct this inner voice,
I'velearned to use this inner power pa ier je if I could. Finally, I wrote
and I no longer make the mis- the Rosicrucians, a world-wide
takes [ did, because I do the right = rernicy of progressive men and
thing at the right time. women, who offered to send me,

This FREE BOOK Will Prove Without obligation, a free book

. entitled The Mastery of Life.
What Your Mind Can Dol That book opened a new world

Here is how I got started right. to me. I advise you to write today
I had heard about hypnosis reveal- and ask for your copy. It will prove
ing past lives. I began to think fo yox what your mind can demon-
there must be some inner intelli- strate. Don’t go through life
gence with which we were born. laughing your mental powers
In fact, I often heard it said there away. Simply write: Scribe LES.

The ROSICRUCIANS (aMORQ) sa,eue, Catioria, 0.5. A.



===== PAGE 67 =====

by Sinclair
Weeks

Secretary of Commerce

American peace, prosperity and
progress result from a system of
free, private enterprise and a sys-

tem of government which, prop- If we are to keep prosperity
erly administered, encourages and foster long-range economic
such enterprise. growth, however, businessmen
Some form of free enterprise— also must be economic statesmen
in contrast to the tyranny, slav- with a vision and a sense of duty
ery and despair prevailing behind that embraces the well-being of
the Iron Curtain—is practiced in the entire nation.
most of the free countries. Each The alternative to free enter-
nation follows a system satisfac- prise is captive enterprise.
tory to the traditions and the When we encourage the Ameri-
needs of its people. can private business system, we
Opportunity and growth were— act in the interest of every single
and are—the very foundation mortal in this entire nation. Pros-
stones of the American way of perous business makes jobs and
life. Optimism and good will are increases the prosperity of every-
conspicuous traits of the Ameri- one—the record of the last sev-
can character. eral years certainly proves this.

The above comments are excerpts from an article by Sinclair Weeks.
A copy of the complete article may be obtained by writing to:

The Public Relations Division of

2 RAILWAY EXPRESS AGENCY, INC.

219 East 42nd Street, New York 17, N.Y.

A PRIVATE ENTERPRISE IN THE PUBLIC SERVICE


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

FROM A LIBERTARIAN’S LIBRARY

Pics of interventionism and socialism tend to immobilize the
population and capital of the world, thus bringing about or main-
taining the world divergencies of productivity, of wealth and in-
come. A government that nationalizes efficient industries produc-
ing for the world market and then mismanages them not only
hurts the interests of its own people but also those of other nations
living in a world community.

These international conflicts are inherent in the systems of
interventionism and socialism and cannot be solved unless the
systems themselves are abolished. The principles of national wel-
fare as conceived by our progressive planners conflict with the
principles of international cooperation and division of production.
If international cooperation is to be restored, the policies of gov-
ernment interventionism and socialism must be abandoned. If the
policies of interventionism and socialism are to be continued, the
disintegration of the world market and world cooperation with all
its ill consequences must be accepted.

A sclection trom How Can Europe Survive? by Hans F. Sennholz,
D. Van Nostrand Company, Princeton. 336 pp. $4.00