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

IDEAS ON LIBERTY
FEBRUARY 1959

ov

The
Greatest
Bell

in the
World

See poge 28

THE FOUNDATION
FOR ECONOMIC EDUCATION, INC,

frvington-on-Hudson, New York


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

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How much

are You

paying for
socialism?

You wouldn’t knowingly pay a And it’s all so unnecessary. For
cent toward socializing the U.S.A. America’s many independent elec-
You've seen what happens to the tric light and power companies are
rights and freedoms of the individ-  able—and ready—to supply the
ual in other countries when govern- electricity the nation needs—with-
ment takes over and runs things. ou spending a cent of your taxes.

Yet you and other Americans The reason this socialism by tax-
have already paid more than §24 ation goes on is that most people
billion dollars in taxes toward the don’t know about it. So you can
socializing of the electric light and help halt it by spreading the word.
power business. So-called “public
power” has now put control of
almost 1/5 of the country’s elec-
tricity in government’s hands.

As soon as enough people know
that their taxes are being used to
buy socialism, they will stop it.

EI I EE A I I TE I I

And that’s just the beginning.
The federal “public power” pres- WHEN “PUBLIC POWER” WINS—

sure groups are pushing the idea you 1osE! Every time the lobby for fed-
that Congress should spend another eral “public power” pushes another govern-

10 billion dollars to carry this grab ment electricity project through Congress, you
farther—with taxes from you. are taxed to pay the bill.

America’s Independent Electric Light and Power Companies

Company names on request through this magazine


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Jl THE

Tecman A MONTHLY JOURNAL OF IDEAS ON LIBERTY

FEBRUARY 1959 Vol. 8 No. 2

LEONARD E. READ President, Foundation for
Economic Education

PAuL L. POIROT Managing Editor

THE FREEMAN is published monthly by the
Foundation for Economie Education, Inc., a non-
political, nonprofit educational champion of private
property, the free market, the profit and loss system,
and limited government, founded in 1946, with offices
at Irvington-on-Hudson, New York. Any interested
person may receive its publications for the asking.
The costs of Foundation projects and services, in-
cluding THE FREEMAN, are met through volun-
tary donations. Total expenses average $12.50 a year
per person on the mailing list. Donations are invited
in any amount — $5.00 to $10,000 — as the means of
maintaining and extehding the Foundation’s work.

Accepted as controlled circulation publication at Irvington, N. Y., with
additional entry at New York, N. Y, Copyright, 1959, The Foundation for
Economic Education, Inc. Printed In U.S.A,

Additional coples, postpald, to one address: Single copy, 50 cents;
3 for $1.00; 25 or more, 20 cents each.

Permission is hereby granted to anyone to reprint any article In whole
or in part, providing customary credit is given, except “Toward 8

Point of No Return’ and ‘'Emanclpation by Machine."
fy Any current article will be supplied In reprint form if there are enough
FTE

Inquiries to justify the cast of the printing.


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

ROBERT C. TYSON

THERE ARE many great industries could be that the phrase had ap-

in this land and though each of plicability and significance to the

them has its own accomplishments affairs of individuals, of nations,

of which to be proud and its own and indeed of the civilizations

special problems about which to that have come and gone across

be perplexed, there are some prob- the pages of history. All of us as

lems that are common to all our individuals can recall certain deci-

industries and to all our individ- sions we made — perhaps long ago

uals. — but which, once made, irrevo-

One way of thinking about such cably and inexorably dictated

problems is in terms of a “point much of our individual destinies.

of no return.” I was once a passen- And nations, too, can make fateful

ger aboard an airliner flying decisions as one once, for example,

across the ocean. It actually hap- was made at Munich. Are we in

pened to be a speedy and quite un- this land of ours perchance also

eventful trip. Nevertheless, when marching toward a point of no re-

someone said we had passed the turn? It can be a disquieting
point of no return, it gave me a thought.

bit of a pause. It meant we were In just our own life spans there

- committed to continue onward, for have been profound changes in

good or ill. To turn back had be- the political, the economic, and

come impractical, if not impos- the social institutions and atti-

. sible. tudes of America. I shed no nos-

There was time for conjecture talgic tears at the passing of the

as we flew on and on and the so-called “good old days” as such.

words, “point of no return,” kept I seek, instead, for the central

coming back into my mind. It theme of this evolution. Its out-

—_— ward manifestation is perhaps

Mr. Tyson is Chairman of the Finance Com- the ever-growing power and cost-

mittee of United States Steel Corporation.

This article is from an address before the liness of our central government,
Texas Mid-Continent Oil and Gas Association, . in . .
Dallas, Texas, October 7, 1958. with corresponding subordination

3


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

4 THE FREEMAN February

of the authority and dignity of are concerned that the social and
state and local governments and legal frameworks seem to compel
of individuals. But even deeper the leaders of our labor unions to
than that is perhaps the increas- seek dominating political power;
ing public acceptance of the notion that superior individual and cor-
that it is proper for the majestic porate performance are tax pun-
power of government to be em- ished, while inefficiency is shel-
ployed, either directly or indi- tered and idleness subsidized;
rectly, to compel vast redistribu- that increasing numbers seek and
tion of our incomes or, as Kipling get government subsidy or special
once said, “by robbing selected privilege at taxpayers’ or con-
Peter to pay for collective Paul.” sumers’ expense.
I could, as could each of you,

A Disturbing Evolution give further instances of the

This represents a far greater wholesale resort of the American
change in what we might call the people to the political means of
politically acceptable than most getting something for nothing
people realize. In your hearts from each other. But rather I
there must be an uneasy feeling want to uncover, if I can, the un-
that something is wrong about derlying processes of this evolu-
having the minimum you must tion. I think there are at least
pay to, say, an office building three of them that interact with
janitor dictated in far away each other and have potentiality
Washington. There is something of becoming self-stimulating
grimly humorous, too, about de- spirals to spin us toward some
scribing the taking of up to about point of no return.
90 per cent of an individual's One of them I am compelled to
honestly earned income as a fair describe, however impolite it may
tax. There is something both sad- be, as the “give-away spiral.” The
dening and disquieting in the fact second process I have already
that, in the midst of the biggest noted as the ‘‘rob-Peter-pay-Paul
peacetime boom with the highest nostrum.” The third process I
peacetime tax rates ever experi- think of as “institutionalized in-
enced, no significant progress flation.”
could be made in reducing an
enormous federal debt, and we The Give-Away Spiral
are now confronted with the pros- The give-away spiral, once it is
pect of inflationary deficits meas- initiated, is nurtured by ordinary
ured in the billions. Perhaps you human nature. Once a moral prin-


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1959 TOWARD A POINT OF NO RETURN b

ciple is broken to gain the favor acquired. But each new grant
of any group, then other groups diminishes the relative value of
enviously and competitively seek all prior grants, thus calling for
similar privilege on threat of their renewal and enlargement all
withholding political favor. The over again. As an example, in
grantor of privilege, having sacri- every one of the past five Congres-
ficed the moral defense previously sional election years Congress has
acceptable to all, automatically be- increased social security benefits.
comes self-entrapped. He cannot This is not to condemn those bene-
or dare not withdraw the privi- fits, but to show how the spiral,
lege, for privilege once granted is once initiated, increasingly be-
soon regarded as vested right by comes self-stimulating.
its recipient; and resentment of
its withdrawal outweighs prior The Rob-Pefer-Pay-Paul Process
gratitude for its receipt. Once the give-away spiral has
This is well illustrated in the been embraced it inevitably in-
story of an officeholder that comes vokes the rob-Peter-pay-Paul
to mind. The officeholder, seeking process. For there is no way for
re-election, was walking down the some to gain from government
street when he met Joe, one of his giving except that others suffer
constituents. After a greeting, he from government taking. Govern-
said, “Joe, I know you are going ment is society’s armed and or-
to vote for me next week.” Joe re- ganized power to defend the na-
plied, “No, I don’t guess I will.” tion and to control the behavior
The officeholder said, “That would of the populace, but it has no
really be ingratitude. Don’t you power of itself to produce that
remember two years ago when I which it donates to people at home
got you on the special relief roll, or abroad. Swords are not plow-
and don’t you remember last year shares; prisons are not factories;
when I got that son of yours a job courts are not voluntary and com-
in the Post Office?” Joe answered, petitive markets; expansive bu-
“Yes, I remember you done those reaucracy is not productive man-
things, but what have you done agement. Government is neces-
for me lately?” sary, but is nevertheless a net
The point is that the grantor of burden on, not a net support to,
privilege is condemned to go on the economy. I will not press the
and on giving more and more to point. Nor am I, for the moment,
politically significant groups concerned with whether compul-
merely to retain favor previously sory redistribution of income


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

6 THE FREEMAN February

rests on true Golden Rule ethics despoliation. That is why our Con-
or on misguided Robin Hood ro- stitution and Bill of Rights bristle
manticism. with prohibitions on the exercise
What does concern me is how of government's power. That is
the practice modifies the historic why too much government is a po-
motivations of the American peo- tential enemy of freedom and why
ple. The system of economic incen- eternal vigilance is the price of
tives established in our land is an liberty.
integral part of individual liberty
and neither can exist without the Maximum Incentives
other. That it has worked beyond Consider now the economic in-
the dreams of other times and centives arising in a voluntary so-
places is witnessed by the historic ciety. The system says to each one
rise in American living scales. living under it that he can have
The extent to which we tamper for himself whatever he produces,
with those motivations is thus or its equivalent, in voluntary ex-
worth a minute’s meditative con- changes; but he is permitted no
sideration by everyone. power to take for himself what
I submit to you that the ma- another has produced except that
terial essence of individual free- it be voluntarily bestowed. The
dom is that no one shall resort to maximum incentive that is pos-
compulsion or intimidation in his sible without undermining a simi-
dealings with others — that is, no lar incentive to others is thereby
man may take another’s property applied to each individual or
or physically injure or confine family unit. And the corollary is
him without his consent; and not that since no one may despoil an-
even government may do these other, then no man can escape
things except to punish those who the need to exert himself produc-
attempt them. People are only tively and so help to meet the in-
free when their acts are volun- escapable survival requirement of
tary; and their acts can only be humanity on earth. The system is
voluntary when the government's one of maximum possible incen-
own majestic power of coercion is tives and spurs applied to each and
limited in its exercise to cancel- every individual living under it.
ling out coercion, fraud, and theft It also is one of maximum possi-
in the dealings of people with ble opportunity for no man can
each other; and when, above all, employ coercion to prevent an-
that government power is never other from entering an occupation
utilized to implement intergroup similar to his own.


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1959 TOWARD A POINT OF NO RETURN 7

Competitive Markets ously direct production to yield the
Out of this come automatically maximum consumer satisfaction.
what we know as free competitive I suppose that you have been, as
markets. And imbedded in com- have I, amazed at the great sensi-
petitive markets are many of the tivity and responsiveness of our
features that explain the extra- competitive system to the chang-
ordinary rise of the American ing demands of King Customer.
civilization. Here are some of Let some new item please the pub-
those features: lic, be it television or even hula
Competitive markets, as you hoops, and through beckoning
know, are our only guarantee of profit prospect a new industry is
productive efficiency. They are born almost overnight. Let some
also our only mechanism for the industry or product lose customer
continuous and impersonal dis- favor and it quietly and imperson-
pensing of economic justice. Under ally disappears, its manpower and
competitive markets the seller of resources being diverted to other
anything is free to seek out who- more valuable pursuits. Remem-
ever in the entire land will pay ber the long list of automobiles
him the most in the light of what that exist now only as memories!
must be paid to others for the We know also how swiftly, even
same thing. Similarly the buyer frighteningly, our competitive sys-
is free to seek out whoever will tem responds to the alternating
sell at the lowest price in the light inflationary and deflationary in-
of what others are charging. fluences imposed upon it.
Whatever the resulting price, it Such responsiveness had led
represents the voluntary decision many mistakenly to suppose that
of the interested parties, all of boom and bust are inherent in the
whom have the recourse of re- competitive system itself rather
fraining from purchase or sale if than in the abuse it accurately re-
they deem it unsatisfactory. The flects. In our competitive system
fairness of a wage, price, profit, or we have, indeed, a most wondrous
of a loss is never to be determined invention of mankind. It is stimu-
from its arithmetic magnitude, lator, guider, and governor of eco-
but only in terms of whether it nomic effort, provider of oppor-
was achieved in the absence of tunity, dispenser of justice, guard-
fraud or coercion from any source ian of efficiency, promoter of
—that is, in truly competitive progress.
markets. I mention just one more of the
Competitive markets continu- many important features of com-


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

8 THE FREEMAN February

petitive markets because it is a the stick from behind. Thus the
less recognized but nevertheless income tax rates on superior in-
a happy and gratifying feature. dividual performance have been
In every human being, I am con- lifted to 90 per cent — and might
vinced, there is somewhere some as well be 100 per cent as far as
bit of genius or special talent. In incentive is concerned. The pathet-
totalitarian states it can never be ic thing is that the nation gains
fully released. But through our little if any revenue from steep
competitive markets every one can progressive taxation but it can
and is both searching for and en- lose the effective services and
couraging it in others and is al- leadership of the very ones who
lowed freely to develop it in him- have competitively proven their
self. Thus we have a precious de- superior productive effectiveness.
vice for finding, releasing, and re- Also, it actually can lose revenue
warding all the genius of all the because such people cannot pos-
people, and so long as we preserve sibly generate income for them-
it I have no fear of limited evil selves without generating much
genius rampant elsewhere in this additional income for others in
world. the process, thus enlarging the
Here then is the secret of the over-all tax base. Corporate com-
extraordinary rise of the Ameri- pensation of employees, for ex-
can civilization, and please note ample, is a dozen times the divi-
that it has all rested on the sys- dends paid to owners.
tem of maximum and universal At the other end of the incentive
incentives and opportunities in- scale we have greatly removed in-
herent in a society that really be- dividual and family incentive to
lieves in and actually practices be self-reliantly industrious and

individual freedom. thrifty against old age, unemploy-
ment, or emergency. Some of you

Undermining Our System may be startled to realize that in
But what have we done to that any necessary cut back of the work
system of incentives? force some wage contracts with
Today’s relevant fact — which I labor unions already provide that,
doubt anyone seriously disputes — instead of working hours being

is that we have gone a long way reduced to less than four days a
towards undermining it. In terms week, employees must be laid off
of “carrot and stick” folklore we entirely to enjoy unemployment
have been shrinking the carrot in compensation leisure.

front and even supplanting it with In short, through progressively


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

1959 TOWARD A POINT OF NO RETURN 9

bitter tax punishment of the more this tax rides on the broadest in-
productive and an ever-widening centive of the competitive system,
rewarding of the nonproductive, because corporate America pro-
we are steadily adopting the vides three-fourths of all non-
Marxian dictum: “From each ac- governmental wages. The tax is a
cording to his ability, to each ac- big factor and usually a deterring
cording to his need.” This is some- one in virtually all major business
thing that communists warmly decisions. It is a penalty on effi-
advocate we adopt, but which they ciency, and the greater the effi-
themselves would not think of ciency the greater the tax per
practicing because they know, unit of output. On the other hand,
having tried it out, that there is inefficiency, by being spared a
no more certain way to divert similar tax burden, is sheltered.
people from being productive to We punish the efficient, coddle the
being indolent than to tell them inefficient, and thereby clog the
that no one will be allowed to bene- self-cleansing and efficiency-guar-
fit very much from working anteeing features of the competi-
harder, better, or longer than his tive system.

neighbors, and that no one needs No one doubts that the power to
to suffer very much from not tax involves the power to destroy,
working diligently. and that a 100 per cent corporate

tax would destroy private capital-
Burdensome Taxation ism, thus ushering in some sort

If we view the broad trend of of sterile socialism. In terms of
corporate taxation, we see much this arithmetic we are already
of the same philosophy at work. over half way to socialism with re-
Federal taxation now taxes over spect to three-quarters of the na-
half of corporate taxable income; tion’s production. How this has all
and the income remaining is taxed come to pass in the land of the
again when transferred to stock- free and the home of the brave
holders. And, when, in addition, can only be explained, I suppose,
the tax code unrealistically counts in terms of the famous lines of
part of what is really depreciation Alexander Pope:

cost as taxable income, then W€ Vice is a monster of so frightful mien,
have what in effect is “confisca- As to be hated needs but to be seen;

tion of capital.” If seen too: oft, familiar with her
Perhaps you have no sense of face,

shock at a 52 per cent corporate We first endure, then pity, then

income tax. But bear in mind that embrace.


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

10 THE FREEMAN February

We have gone far indeed under come increasingly unresolvable,
the driving force of the give-away and when they become completely
and attendant rob-Peter-pay-Paul unresolvable we have passed a
spirals — perhaps further than we point of no return.

realize. The tax dilemma is a perfectly
straightforward one: There is a
Institutionalized Inflation point —even though no one can

Implementing and interacting define it with precision — when the
with these spirals is the inflation burden of taxation selectively im-
spiral. As a peacetime phenomenon posed on the more productive and
I think of it as having two ener- efficient will substantially destroy
gizing origins. One of them is the both their incentive and their
insatiable requirements of the ability to engage in new produc-
give-away spiral. The other is the tive investment, out of which alone
monopoly power granted to labor comes the creation of new self-
unions. Both politically invoke the sustaining jobs. You recall, of
framework of soft money required course, that the only way that such
for their functioning. jobs ever come into existence is

I think I have already said when someone invests savings —
enough for us to understand that supposing they have not already
once we embrace the policy of been taxed away —in productive
having our government take care facilities and thereby creates the
of those who do not take care of environment in which men may go
themselves, then the forces of to work producing the marketable
human nature take over to make values to cover their continuing
the process competitively self-per- wage. Impair too much the inves-
petuating and self-augmenting. tors’ profit in so doing, and the
We have to do Lewis Carroll's doing of it will be curtailed. There
Alice one better: We have to run will be fewer new jobs for an ex-
ever faster just to stay where we panding labor force to fill, or to
are. Ever more federal largess is replace those constantly being
required and so the persistently eliminated through technology. In
recurring question is, “From such fashion a vicious spiral is
where is the money to come?” born: The taxing aggravates the
There are only two answers. One unemployment burden on the
is to take it in taxes; the other State, to carry which burden then
is to engage in its printing or the calls for still more taxing. The
modern equivalent thereof. Both Golden Goose in America is a
present dilemmas that tend to be- mighty tough bird. It can and has


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

1959 TOWARD A POINT OF NO RETURN 11

taken a lot of plucking. But our known to economic science. It is
pride and pleasure in its toughness one which has devastated one
should not beguile us into suppos- country after another in the
ing it can never die. course of human history. It is
The record is clear that what loose in the world today as the
has been obtained from taxation handmaiden of extravagant gov-
has not been enough to meet the ernments functioning on paper
peacetime spending requirements, money standards.
or temptations, of a welfare- Industry in this country has
minded government. There has receded only a moderate amount
been extensive resort to inflation- from the peak of the biggest boom
ary deficit financing, both before ever experienced. But we find our-
and after World War II, to get selves suddenly confronted with
additional money to dole out. Al- the prospect of huge federal defi-
though hidden behind a formida- cits. Corporate job-creating in-
ble facade of technicalities this in- vestment in new plant and equip-
flationary process is relatively ment has been experiencing
simple: We have our government serious decline. But inflation con-
print bonds which are turned over tinues and fear of its aggravation
to banks, who in exchange for mounts. Many thoughtful people
them create equivalent amounts of warn of little likelihood that un-
the deposits which we use for employment will be significantly
money. This multiplies the supply reduced short of many months.
of money out of proportion to the We now need maximum incentive,
goods and services going to mar- but we fear that we cannot reform
ket. The result is higher prices. our system of incentive-smother-
But this process breeds its own ing taxation without either with-
historically familiar dilemma, too. drawing from the economy the
For if prices go up, then govern- support of federal disbursements
ment’s costs go up. The previously or aggravating the inflation im-
established level of out-go becomes plicit in multiplied deficit finane-
inadequate for the originally in- ing. The several dilemmas I have
tended purposes and so must be described as slowly evolving over
lifted. But this in turn increases the long years are drawing into a
the need for additional money, and central and perplexing focus.
hence for still further resort to I personally am certain that we
the printing press. We thus walk have not passed a point of no re-
in the shadow of the inflationary turn. The American Golden Goose
spiral, the most vicious spiral is a tougher bird than most people


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

12 THE FREEMAN February

realize. But I am entitled to a I have tried, too, to foresee an
shiver as I attempt to point out event which, if it occurred, would
how close we may be to a point mean that we need never reach
of no return. I have tried to fore- that point of no return; and here
see an event which, if it occurred, one also comes to my mind. It is
would mark the passage of the an intangible event, a matter of
point; and there is one that comes moral and spiritual attitudes to
to mind. That could be the official which I have thus far in these
abandonment in peacetime of com- comments deliberately refrained
petitive markets, which would be from making an appeal. It is that
marked by establishment of com- we shall reawaken our realization
prehensive price and wage controls, of what a precious thing in the
rapidly and inevitably followed by history of humanity is individual
allocation and ration controls. This liberty; of the spiritual and ma-
would be the final abandonment terial blessings that flow from its
of the system under which how rigorous practice; of the means
much of what was to be produced, of obtaining it and maintaining
by whom, where, when, and at it; of how easily and irrevocably
what price or wage, was deter- it can be lost; of the spirals that
mined by the voluntary and com- could be spinning us into statism
petitive choices of free men. In its with resolution to halt them. It is,
place would be substituted the in short, that we shall remember
arbitrary decisions of an ever and renew an historic high re-
more powerful bureaucracy, mo- solve “that this nation, under God,
tivated by political expediency and shall have a new birth of free-
self-perpetuation. dom.” LIC

RE ®069 100601 | Abraham Lincoln

THE WORLD has never had a good definition of the word liberty,
and the American people, just now, are much in want of one.
We all declare for liberty, but in using the same word we do not
all mean the same thing. With some the word liberty may mean
for each man to do as he pleases with himself, and the product
of his labor; while with others the same word may mean for
some men to do as they please with other men, and the product
of other men’s labor.


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

RICHEMANES
UX

HAROLD BRAYMAN

POOR MAN'S

wealthy man who was approached
BURDEN by a group of people who wanted

him and some associates to put up
approximately $7,500,000 for a
FEW PEOPLE realize it, but 84 per pulp and paper mill, which they
cent of all the revenue obtained Proposed to build in the South a
by the personal income tax comes few years ago when there was an
from the basic 20 per cent rate intense shortage of paper.
and only 16 per cent of the rev- This was the equity capital in a
enue arises from progression. If total investment of $25 million,
the income presently taxed in ex- the rest of which a financial cor-
cess of 50 per cent were taxed only poration was prepared to lend. The
at that rate, the direct loss in Pulp supply had been located, the
revenue to the government would Project had been carefully engi-
be just $734 million, which is ap- neered, and it showed the probabil-
proximately one per cent of fed- ity of earnings on the total invest-
eral revenue collections. ment, after interest on the senior
If all progression were to stop, capital, of $2,600,000 a year. That
the encouragement to new enter- Would have been a 33 per cent re-
prise would be so great that, after turn on the $7,500,000 risk capital
a slight time lapse, net returns to investment — a very attractive pro-
the government would increase be- P0sal.

cause of an expanding economy But the 91 per cent income tax
and higher revenues from greater to which Mr. X and his associates
economic activity. were liable compelled them to turn

shall not identify him by name, they undertook the project, it
but refer to him only as Mr. X, would mean first that the $2,500,-
this is an authentic case of a 000 annual earnings would be sub-
- ject to a 52 per cent corporate tax.
Mr. Brayman is Director of Public Relations, And then, with a normal payout of

E. I. du Pont de Nemours and Company. This

article is excerpted from his address of No- about 50 per cent of earnings in
vember 7, 1958, before the Public Relations «a . "
Society of America. dividends, he and his associates

13


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

14 THE FREEMAN February

would have had left, after paying ment would have received a 20
their own taxes, a net return of 67 per cent income tax revenue on
cents per $100 of investment — the earnings of the 500 to 700
just two-thirds of one per cent. If people thus employed. It would
the entire earnings were paid out have received a corporate tax of
in dividends, the net return would 52 per cent on all earnings of the
be only 1.4 per cent. “No, thank corporation, and income taxes from
you,” he said. “We couldn’t take Mr. X on any dividends declared.
the risk to get that kind of a re- And this would have been not just
turn.” The plant never was built, for one year but would have gone
and the paper it would have made on continuously year after year.
is being imported from Canada. The point is that, when you dis-
Now, let us see who was hurt in courage initiative, you put brakes
this instance. Not Mr. X. He eats on the economy which hurt every-
just as well as if he had gone into one — hurt government which
this venture. But the 500 to 700 doesn’t receive revenue, hurt peo-
people who would have been em- ple who are not employed, and hurt
ployed in the small Southern town small businessmen who don’t get
where the plant would have been the stimulation of increased sales.
built, and which town, inciden- Every day across this country,
tally, needed economic stimulation, instances such as this occur by
have been seriously hurt. Some of the scores, if not by the hundreds,
them certainly don’t eat as well although most of them involve
because the 91 per cent tax re- smaller amounts and fewer people.
moved all incentive from Mr. X. The fact is that people in these
The small businessmen and the high brackets are not interested
people of the town have been seri- in acquiring income subject to
ously hurt, because they didn’t get such a tax if they have to take
the stimulation of a new plant with any risk at all to get it.
all the payroll and all the pur- The 91 per cent rate hurts most,
chases that it would have made in not the people who pay it or who
this community. even pay 50 per cent or 40 per
Now, how did the government cent or 30 per cent, but the peo-
make out? Did it get any more ple who never come within the
taxes out of Mr. X? Not a dime. length of the George Washington
But if the high-bracket tax rate Bridge of paying it at all — the
had been low enough to tempt Mr. poorest and the most desperate in
X and his associates, and the proj- the country — those who are out of
ect had gone through, the govern- jobs because of this tax. eo e e


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

IN UNDERDEVELOPED COUNTRIES

-— a luxury the people can ill afford

RoMULO A. FERRERO

MANY PEOPLE TODAY, in industri- ity to take ‘“open” or ‘“unsup-
ally developed countries such as pressed” inflation in stride with-
the United Kingdom and the out much harm. But the “open”
United States, are concerned — inflation of the past 20 years has
and rightly so — with an inflation- caused a great deal of harm in
ary situation marked by a 3 or 4 Peru, as in most underdeveloped
per cent annual increase in the countries. The following are some
level of prices. But so modest a of the bad consequences I have
rate of inflation would seem like seen in an official capacity of try-
stability in many underdeveloped ing to cope with inflation:
countries. In Peru, for instance
— though we've fared better than Bond Market Killed
most of Latin America — inflation 1. Inflation kills the market for
over the past 20 years, as meas- all kinds of long-term bonds, mak-
ured by the cost of living index, ing it exceedingly difficult, if not
has been at the annual rate of 11 impossible, to obtain sound financ-
per cent, compounded. The cost of ing for major projects essential to
living in Peru is 8 times as high economic development. If public
as it was 20 years ago. works cannot be financed through
There is a widespread belief the sale of government bonds to
that free economies have a capac- private investors, then the govern-
B— ment resorts to “borrowing” from
Dr. Ferrero is a distinguished Peruvian econ- the Central Bank, which means

omist, agricultural engineer, author, teacher,

and adviser to the Chamber of Commerce and i inti
private business concerns. He also has served as outright printing of paper money

Minister of Agriculture and Minister of Fi- — inflation. The housing problem,
nance and Commerce and represented his . .
.country in several international meetings. one of the most serious in under-

15


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

16 THE FREEMAN February

developed countries, cannot be wages are much lower than they
solved unless there is a market for otherwise could and should be,
mortgages. But there is no pos- that workers are getting “social
sibility of developing such a mar- benefits” —often deferred —in-
ket under conditions of rapid in- stead of more adequate food, shel-
flation. Though authorities in ter, clothing, and other necessities
Peru have increased the yield on of the moment. Consequently,
mortgage bonds to a present rate workers press for higher wages,
of 9 per cent of face value, and which harassed employers find dif-
granted tax exemption, it is diffi- ficult to pay on top of the heavy
cult to find investors who will pay tax burden of the Welfare State.
as much as 80 per cent of face Social legislation has been one of

value for such bonds. the most powerful engines for in-
flation in many countries that can

Problems with Employees ill-afford such luxuries.
2. Inflation not only curbs the Finally, inflation creates a prob-

supply of capital available for eco- lem with respect to pension funds
nomic development, but it also up- and service indemnity reserves.
sets the labor market and makes There are no sound securities in
for bad employer-employee rela- which to invest such funds; infla-
tionships. tion eats away the real value of

Underdeveloped countries are the reserves; governments use the
seldom backward in experiments reserves of official funds to meet
with “welfare programs.” Peru, current expenditures. So these re-
for instance, boasts such “social serves add nothing to real capital
benefits” for workers as service or productivity or national income
indemnity or severance pay, paid nor in any way help to relieve the
vacations or holidays, life insur- burden of social benefits. Mean-
ance, sickness insurance, old-age while, the poorly conceived bene-
and survivors insurance, profit fits create friction between em-
sharing, health and welfare bene- ployees and employers. Pensions,
fits, bonuses for employees with based on length of service and on
long service, workmen’s compen- the employee's most recent wage °
sation, and Christmas bonuses. level, tempt employers to discharge

The cost of all these “benefits” workers who are about to qualify
is considerable, averaging approxi- and to hold wage levels down ar-
mately 50 per cent as much as the bitrarily for older workers. Such
basic wage or salary. This added problems multiply in time to break
cost of labor means that basic forth in open conflict.


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

1959 INFLATION IN UNDERDEVELOPED COUNTRIES 17

Lag in Utility Rates rises instead of starting businesses
3. Rates or service charges for of their own or helping to finance
public utilities never keep up with further industrial development.
inflation and increasing costs. Po-
litical pressure prevents rate re- Regulation and Controls
adjustment, with the result that 6. Sooner or later, rapid infla-
services deteriorate and the utili- tion leads to all kinds of govern-
ties face physical breakdown. Nev- mental regulation: price control,
ertheless, public opinion strongly, rent control, wage control, import
and wrongly, opposes increased control, exchange control. “Open”

rates. inflation thus becomes ‘“sup-
} pressed” inflation. Exports are
Depreciation Allowances particularly discouraged because

4. Tax authority allowances for internal costs rise while exchange
depreciation of fixed assets, on the control unduly depresses selling
basis of original cost, fail to rec- prices. To add insult to injury, the
ognize the declining purchasing exporters are blamed for the
power of the monetary unit. This “shortage” of foreign exchange
represents, in effect, a drastic in- and the devaluation which inevita-
crease in the rate of income taxes. bly must come. The loudest cries
The “excess profits’ tax becomes, against exporters come from the
in reality, a confiscation of capi- very ones who had pressed hardest
tal; and the replacement of worn- for the monetary policies and other
out tools and equipment becomes governmental interventions that
a major problem for businessmen. caused the inflation.

The inevitable result of all these
Misdirected Investments controls is reduced production of

5. Rapid inflation encourages the things most needed, these be-
speculation and misdirection of in- ing the favorite targets of con-
vestments. There is a marked pref- trol: housing, food, public utili-
erence for deluxe apartment or of- ties, exports. Shortages develop.
fice buildings or other real estate The international balance of pay-
as a hedge against inflation. For- ments is unbalanced. Exports de-
eign exchange is purchased, which cline. More and more foodstuffs
means correspondingly less invest- have to be imported. Saving is dis-
ment in the domestic economy. In- couraged. Investment is misdi-
vestors turn to the accumulation rected. Economic development is
of inventories to benefit from price retarded. LCI


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

oll

the darkest future any man can
face. Such longtime mass unem-
PERCY L. GREAVES, JR. ployment is one of the great curses
of our age.
LIFE IS an unfinished series of The human misery, degradation,
wanting things. From the day we and moral temptation are not all.
are born to the day we die, we Besides these setbacks to the hu-
want things we don’t have. If we man spirit, there is the great un-
didn't, we wouldn’t be normal hu- seen loss of the wealth the idle
man beings. We would have no might have produced if they had
reason to eat, work, or get mar- been employed. This loss is shared
ried. All life is a struggle to satis- by all. In a market economy every
fy more of our wants. dollar holder can buy a share of
As our society is organized, the the total wealth offered for sale.
normal way to get more of what The greater the wealth produced
we want is to take a job. Then we and offered for sale, the more any-
can use the dollars we earn to buy one can buy with each of his dol-
more of the things we want for lars. So we all have a stake in re-
ourselves and our loved ones. With- ducing unemployment and encour-
out a job, or a business of our aging the production of more of
own, we would all have to grow the things men want most.
our own food and make our own Yet millions of able and willing
clothes as well as anything else we men have recently remained unem-
wanted. Taking a job where we ployed for months on end. What is
can use tools supplied by savers is the answer?
the easiest way for most of us to Let’s use our heads. When we
satisfy more of our wants. want to sell something, we sell it
So most men want a job. To be to the highest bidder. He buys it
without a job is most depressing. for the lowest price he can. That
Continued unemployment, through is what happens at auctions every
no fault of one’s own, is probably day. It happens at the corn and
—_— cotton markets as well as the
Mr. Greaves is an economic consultant ond
journalist. stock exchanges. Even the grocer

18


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

1959 JOBS FOR ALL 19

with perishable fruits and vege- wages for some mean that others
tables reduces his prices until a must accept lower wages or un-
highest bidder buys them. employment (unless the govern-

That way, the seller gets the ment resorts to inflation). These
highest anyone is willing to pay, lower wages and unemployment
while the buyer pays the lowest (as well ag this pressure for in-
price any seller will freely accept. flation) would disappear if every
Both buyer and seller get the high- man, including the unemployed,
est possible satisfaction from ev- were free to compete for every
ery transaction. That is the way job. As long as some of men’s

of the free market. wants remain unsatisfied, there
There is no reason why these will be enough jobs to go around.
same free market principles can’t A free job market would pro-

be applied to the services of work- vide “full employment” and great-
ing men. It would be very simple, er production of the things men
requiring only two things. First, want most. Competition might
let every job seeker choose that drive down some dollar wage rates,
job which offers him what he con- but living standards would have to
siders the best returns he can get be higher. With more goods and
for the services he has to sell. services competing for every dol-
Second, let every prospective em- lar, prices would be lower and
ployer choose those job seekers everyone with a dollar would be
who offer what he considers the entitled to a share of the in-
best services he can get for the creased production. Those now
wages he can pay. Competition overpaid might temporarily suffer,
would soon see to it that no one but in the long run we would all be
was paid too much or too little. able to satisfy more of our wants.

Of course, such a simple solu- With a free market in jobs, ev-
tion would put an end to all priv- ery man would be free to take the
ileges for those now overpaid. No best offer available. Every em-
union would then be able to hold ployer would also be free to hire
up employers and consumers for the applicants that pleased him
more than they need pay in a free most. No one would remain long
and competitive market. By forc- unemployed. There would be jobs
ing some wages above free market for all, more wealth produced, and
rates, some unions now get higher a greater satisfaction of every-
wages for their members than such one’s wants. What is more, the
workers would receive in a free economic loss and dread of unem-
society. But these forced higher ployment would evaporate. @ o eo


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

WILLIAM ALVADORE BUCK

®
/ /
by Machine

The myth of mass-production slavery

Ewing Galloway

RoBOT, rabbit, wreck, slave of the machine! How many unflattering
epithets have been applied in modern times to the factory worker, the
“poor wretch” who contributes essential manpower to industry’s “dark,
Satanic mills.”

The anathema hurled at the fac- beer will be turned into soda pop.
tory, the machine, and quantity Mass production, according to
production started long before some self-anointed egg heads, is
Samuel Butler described Erehwon the worst and final blow to man’s
(spell it backwards), the land dignity and creative life. Such is
where machines were forbidden the line the Soviets preach wher-
and a long prison term was the ever it looks good, even while
penalty for constructing as tiny a building mass production in the
machine as a watch. homeland as fast as they can.

The scare story is still current This is fancy stuff in the same
around the world, nourished by package with sea serpents and the
the Kremlin, that soon Americani- Loch Ness monster, as all of us
zation will set in all over and every should know; and one day as I
worker will become a slave on the stepped from a union headquarters
assembly line, while his wine or into the dazzle of New York's

Broadway, it seemed to me that
Mr. Buck is a free-lance journalist, editor, re- this monster could and should be

porter, and author. Ho has written for nu-
merous magazines, including Partners, where crushed.

first published in N b \
Yaga uc was first published In Movember All right, let's do so here and

20


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

1959 EMANCIPATION BY MACHINE 21

now — shredding as we go, themes where everybody soon will be serv-
by Thorstein Veblen and advanced ing a machine. From this it is
by Chaplin’s film, Modern Times. clear that only one in 21 held down
. what we think of as a mass-pro-
Tracking Down Figures duction job. Would it not be more
To begin with, we may ask, ex- polite, then, to call us a nation of
actly how many Americans work “craftsmen, foremen, and kindred
at what is thought of as a typical workers” — since the Bureau that
mass-production job — where the same year placed 8,825,000 in that
operation is repetitive and broken classification? Or a nation of “pro-
down into simple, constituent mo- fessional, technical, and artistic
tions, amounting to machine workers,” whose figure was 6,445,-
drudgery — whether on the assem- 000? Or of “managers, officials,
bly line or elsewhere? No one, I and proprietors” — 6,648,000? Or,
found, has ever counted them. I nearest of all, a nation of college
therefore started working down people, considering that today
from a Bureau of Labor Statistics some 20 million of us have gradu-
figure for a recent year. ated or at least managed to shy
That year, there were 13,174,- through from a year to three years
000 production workers employed of college work?
in the land. I subtracted figures
for those industries, such as lum- Where Are Our “Robots”?
bering, where narrowly repetitive Now, let's take after that word
operations do not exist. I found “robot.” The three million include
many stray figures that helped. In few who ache to resign, few miser-
a Brooklyn tool plant, for example, able wretches, and many happy
25 of 156 employees worked at fellows. Psychologists tell us that
“robot” jobs; in an auto assembly many people are so constructed
plant of 1,800 only 1,068 actually that assembly-line work is pre-
worked on the line. After several cisely their isle of content, and
hours of diligence, I reduced the these are not always the least in-
total figure to 2,500,000. It can- telligent. Certainly there are three
not be far wrong, but to confuse million in our population who can
doubters, let us call it 3 million. I be well-satisfied on the line or in
was as surprised as probably you another such job; and doubtless,
are. in this land of opportunity and
That particular year, there were movement, these are by and large
66 million employed in our nation, the very people who are working
this “land of mass production,” there as ‘““robots” — more or less.


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

22 THE FREEMAN February

I once watched the assembly line do know how to move. Up or out.
at a Caterpillar Tractor plant, and The authors of the study noted
it seemed to me that this was a that the quit rate for the line was
rather gay place. The “Satanic higher than for other departments.
" mill” belonged on another planet; It is true that the Horatio Alger
here, by contrast, was light and Thruway from file clerk to presi-
dramatic activity. No one was in a dent is not as open as it once was.
great lather. One man on the line To create a modern factory, or-
remarked, “Oh, we gabble a lot ganize its teamwork, and run its
and have a good time.” A man in production requires much educa-
Personnel told me, “Most of the tion, high ability, and special
men on the line are there because training. But a booming industry
they want to be, I have no doubt. is always starved for talent; hence,
Maybe all. They say you can get most companies offer their em-
into the swing of it.” ployees training opportunities and

I know the name of a young mill- any lad with a wee drap of am-
ing-machine hand in a tool plant bition will find himself moving
who turns out 15,000 small parts without straining a button.

a week. It would drive me into de- The three million include few
mentia, a deadly job. But this fel- who repeat one operation day after
low slips his brain into neutral, so long day, as did Charlie Chaplin
to speak, snaps on the radio at his in Modern Times. Walker and
bench, and there is his valley of Guest found that only 32 per cent
contentment, his green pasture. of the men on the line at Plant X
He has been there for years, performed a single operation.
though he has been offered a trans- Moreover, there were some, like
fer. He owns a bigger and slicker the repairmen, who were highly
convertible than any officer of the skilled. Peter Drucker — one of

company. capitalism’s deep, scientific wor-
: riers on this personnel subject —
“Chains’ That Do Not Bind has said that monotony is not a

Few men are fastened to the as- problem in a modern plant. He
sembly line with chains, chains of also has written that, even on the
iron, gold, or duty, according to line, the American factory fur-
the sentiment at Plant X, the auto nishes the worker with “status and
assembly plant studied by Charles function” to an astonishing de-
Walker and Robert Guest of Yale gree.
and reported in their book, The The truth is, the “rabble theory”
Man on the Assembly Line. Men - the theory which energizes all


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

1959 EMANCIPATION BY MACHINE 23

totalitarianism and which still ap- no more kinship to the peasant or
pears alive elsewhere in the world proletarian of Soviet myth than
— is rare in the American front he does to one of Khrushchev’s
office today. Long ago, the produc- gorillas.
tion boss liked to talk of the fac-
tory hand as a part of the ma- A Backward Look at the Guilds
chine: “Give him enough money to We can find a useful comparison
get drunk on Saturday night, and here if we match our manufactur-
no responsibility, and there you ing times against the great time
have the whole book of industrial of the guilds. Some utopiates talk
relations.” Such arrogance, we as though the workers of olden
know now, is folly, triple-crowned. times were all sculptors of Gothic
The wage-fighting buccaneer of cathedrals or talented silversmiths
business is no longer admired. The and argue that the modern age
early communists never dreamed has degenerated these great ar-
that this change of heart and un- tists into the poor robot who can
derstanding could happen. But it accomplish little more, between
has happened — and affected all of sweats, than swallow a mug of
us from housewife to mine fore- beer in a toast to Walter Reuther.
man, from jockey to newsland’s Somehow, we must find our way
copy reader. That is why Marx's back to those golden days of yore,
egregious proletariolatry appears they urge.
so idiotic, so antique, in American But who, in truth, were these
eyes. guildsmen ? When the reek of the
A man can speak up in the fac- Middle Ages began to clear from
tory as on any other job, and the men’s minds, nearly all Europe
most exalted ears will hear — some- was agricultural and feudal; the
times. A worker for great Cadillac common man was a slave, owned
or Ford is a man of dignity and as much by his land as by his
substance and can pose with a lord. A few commoners worked for
man’s proper self-esteem as he the lords directly, and for once in
spins genial yarns over a Ham- history, the wage and servant
tramck bar. Some actually exag- problems were under control. In
gerate the pressure on the assem- the year 1300 A.D., for example,
bly line and brag that they enjoy a maid at Forncett Manor in Eng-
the excitement of keeping up the land received a 100 per cent boost
pace. The last thing the “poor in wages, from one shilling to two
wretch” asks for is your pity — shillings a year. Clearly, the lord
except on income tax day. He bears of Forncett did not want to burden


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

24 THE FREEMAN February

the soul of his vassal with too oly today look like galloping so-
much purchasing power. cialism. The guilds had power.
After the world failed to end in Sometimes they chivied the king
- the year 1000 A.D., as all Christen- or queen into passing laws which
dom expected, the upsetting decreed exactly what guild-manu-
thought entered some rebel heads factured garments people in this
that a Christian might own him- or that class must wear!
self. A flight to freedom began While the guilds perfected their
and continued for centuries. The legal squeeze on the pocketbook of
cities grew by a process of natural the citizen, feudal society fell
selection. The runaways were, no apart under the pressure of new
doubt, the less homeloving and ideas and a new agriculture. For-
churchly, but by no means coun- mer serfs flocked to the towns by
try riffraff. On the contrary, as the thousands, many driven from
Lewis Mumford wrote, “the Medi- the land by the “enclosures” and
eval city gathered to itself the the demand for wool from Holland.
more skilled, the more adventur- A truly Oriental destitution be-
ous — probably the more intelli- came the normal life for myriad
gent — part of the rural popula- folk. A quarter of the city people
tion.” These, the distinctly suc- of Europe were casuals and beg-
cessful types, formed the guilds. gars; half of the citizens of Paris
In Queen Elizabeth’s time, we were no better than that. Begging
know that a large number of the was an accepted way of life. The
guild apprentices in London were most brutal police action could not
younger sons of the country no- control piracy and crime. Before
bles. There never were many science and industrialism changed
guildsmen. the earth, smells of vast burden
As the guilds rolled into their lurked in city ways and dirty death
great days, the ordinary Tom and flowed in the open sewer that was
Jerry had no more chance to get the street. For centuries bands of
into the organization than into outcast syphilitics roamed Europe
the Duke’s iron pants. Even the in despair and rags, criminals and
journeyman who had completed his beggars without a choice. It was
apprenticeship waited long for his considered a nice pastime, when
chair in the almighty lodge and the guildsmen had their power, to
often never made it. The guilds’ glip a couple of hard-boiled eggs
ruthless control over wages, com- into your pocket and go to watch
petition, apprenticeships, and the public torture of criminals.
prices make our ideas of monop- There were 200 capital crimes in


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

1959 EMANCIPATION BY MACHINE 25

English law. Even as late as the where do the children of today’s
nineteenth century, women and counterparts of the old guildsmen
children labored in English coal go for their apprentice training —
mines, naked as Hottentots. The along with many a son of the
guilds had perished before that — shanty and many a son of the
in the eighteenth century —in a manor? To college, of course! In-
rolling boil of public hatred. deed, we have not changed the
The simple fact is, the factory guildsman into a faceless robot;
system — and later, mass produc- we are changing him into a doctor,
tion — abolished far more human a flight engineer, a research chem-
drudgery than they created. Drag- ist, a lawyer, a teacher —and,
ging an oar in a trireme, chop- sometimes a second fiddle in a
ping cotton, carrying the hod, symphony or a third baseman for
keeping an overstuffed Victorian the “Giants.” I'm sure that none
house clean, loading coal by but a mass-production economy
bucket or barrow, plowing with could give 20 million citizens a
your wife in the ox-yoke, and freshman’s dink to wear for a
many another old unhappy burden while. Nor could any less produc-
has been lifted from man’s tive system provide for 6,448,000
shoulders by the machine. The in the professional, artistic, tech-
factory has created incredible nical, etcetera, category.
abundance and has lessened the
problem that was never to be
completely solved — poverty. When Those who quarrel with Ameri-
Aristotle, poking fun at liberal can materialism from far away
ideas, stated that men would be and little ken should stare at this
able to free slaves “when the shut- figure and let its significance really
tle wove by itself,” he knew what sink in. For it shows, as specifi
was possible and what was not. cally contrasted with the guilds-
But what would Aristotle today man’s craft accomplishment, a
think of nylon stockings, not only shift of desire and fulfillment from
on the limbs of queens and court material production to the direct
ladies but also on the weaver and promotion of the art of living. A
her daughter as well! We do the Gothic cathedral is a great
impossible today and slavery has achievement in man’s aspirations,
vanished from the civilized world. but it is not greater than an elec-
In many ways the machine has tronic brain, a philharmonic or-
made all of us free men. chestra, or a well-baby clinic. Cer-
It has done more than that. For tainly, following Abou Ben Adhem,

A Realistic Appraisal


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

26 THE FREEMAN February

we can love our fellow man with
enormously greater capability than
society could manage in the days
when Queen Elizabeth decreed
that everyone in a certain station
in life must wear a beaver hat,
and beggars were licensed and as-
signed territories by law.

As all of us surmise, automa-
tion soon will take over the great
share of the drudgery involved in
mass production. As this develop-
ment progresses, the worker tends
to become more and more a skilled
supervisor of production. Being
human, the worker of tomorrow
will have problems to contend with.

THE DeVil's wa
NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE

AN EFFECT — which I believe to be
observable, more or less, in every
individual who has occupied the
position [Custom-House officer]
— is, that, while he leans on the
mighty arm of the Republic, his
This excerpt from his Introductory to The
Scarlet Lotter (1850) presumably reflects

Hawthorne's personal reactions upon losing a
position as Customs Inspector.

But they will not be problems of
slavery — such as Karl Marx en-
visioned in his fatuous Mumbo
Jumbo. Most likely — in America,
at least — they will be the prob-
lems of a physical freedom that
seems too boundless. The Ameri-
can worker’s spiritual emancipa-
tion — what he does with his im-
proving health and leisure — will
be strictly up to him. If this be
slavery, let Pravda make the most
of it.

Our machines show no tendency
to become our masters; on the con-
trary, their developing role is to
take over human drudgery as our
good and faithful servants. e o eo

Of possible concern
ES to civil servants
and other feeders

at the public trough

own proper strength departs from
him. He loses, in an extent pro-
portioned to the weakness or force
of his original nature, the capa-
bility of self-support.

If he possess an unusual share
of native energy, or the enervat-
ing magic of place do not operate
too long upon him, his forfeited


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

1959 THE DEVIL'S WAGES 27

powers may be redeemable. The ability out of whatever enterprise
ejected officer — fortunate in the he may dream of undertaking.
unkindly shove that sends him Why should he toil and moil, and
forth betimes, to struggle amid be at so much trouble to pick him-
a struggling world — may return self up out of the mud, when, in
to himself, and become all that he a little while hence, the strong arm
has ever been. of his Uncle will raise and sup-
But this seldom happens. He port him? Why should he work
usually keeps his ground just long for his living here, or go to dig
enough for his own ruin, and is gold in California, when he is so
then thrust out, with sinews all soon to be made happy, at monthly
unstrung, to totter along the dif- intervals, with a little pile of glit-
ficult footpath of life as he best tering coin out of his Uncle's
may. Conscious of his own in- pocket?
firmity — that his tempered steel
and elasticity are lost — he forever It is sadly curious to observe
afterwards looks wistfully about how slight a taste of office suffices
him in quest of support external to infect a poor fellow with this
to himself. His pervading and con- singular disease. Uncle Sam’s gold
tinual hope—a hallucination, — meaning no disrespect to the
which, in the face of all dis- worthy old gentleman — has, in
couragement, and making light of this respect, a quality of enchant-
impossibilities, haunts him while ment like that of the Devil's
he lives, and, I fancy, like the con- wages. Whoever touches it should
vulsive throes of the cholera, tor- look well to himself, or he may find
ments him for a brief space after the bargain to go hard against
death — is, that finally, and in no him, involving, if not his soul, yet
long time, by some happy coin- many of its better attributes; its
cidence of circumstances, he shall sturdy force, its courage and con-

be restored to office. stancy, its truth, its self-reliance,
This faith, more than anything and all that gives the emphasis to
else, steals the pith and avail- manly character. ® 00

Federal Aid

A POWER over a man's subsistence amounts to a power over

his will.
ALEXANDER HAMILTON, The Federalist


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

equipped with smooth-rolling
y casters, so that it might be hur-

A timely reminder of the message riedly moved in case of national
tolled by the emergency, this great bell is a
lasting symbol of the hardships,

Greatest Bell bloodshed, and torture experienced
by our forefathers. It has earned

. a position of honor, along with the
in the World Declaration of Independence and
the Constitution that were first

proclaimed at Independence Hall.

M. ROBERT BEASLEY Hanging from a beam of solid,
hand-hewn black walnut, it is jeal-
ously guarded 24 hours a day by

armed officers. Thousands of
Americans gaze in spine-tingling
AMONG the vast numbers of great ,.. each year upon this famous
Americans recorded in history, pg), geeing in it the symbol that
few stand out more nobly or com-
mand more reverence and respect
than the “proclaimer of liberty”
enshrined in Independence Hall at pany You can see the look on the
Philadelphia — the Liberty Bell. faceq of spectators, like flags hung
Though its voice may now be out in front of homes. It is in the

silent, the prophetic inscription, presence of this great symbol of
PROCLAIM LIBERTY THROUGHOUT patriotism that we can feel the

ALL THE LAND UNTO ALL THE IN- proudest of our citizenship.
proudly emblazoned around the wag born in England. The inspir-
crown and echoed in the hearts of ing words that shine from the
all true Americans. crown were chosen by Isaac
Mounted on a mahogany truck Norris, Speaker for the Assembly
Mr. Beasley is a free-lance journalist who has of the Colony of Pennsylvania.
written for The American Home, Better Homes Step by step he fought for Ameri-

and Gardens, Popular Mechanics, Successful . . . . .
Farming, and numerous other magazines. can liberties, and while his sacri-

makes worth-while our personal
sacrifices. Touching it is a rever-
ent privilege constantly sought by

On the Cover: The Liberty Bell as it appears today in Independence Hall, Philadelphia.
The circumference around the lip is 12 feet; around the crown, 7 feet 6 inches.

From lip to crown measures 3 feet, and.the clapper is 3 feet 2 inches long.

The metal is 3 inches thick at the lip, and tho over-all weight is 2,080 pounds.


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

1959 THE GREATEST BELL IN THE WORLD 29

fices were great, he did not live remelted the metal, this time add-
to hear this Bell ring out the verse ing one and one-half ounces of
he had so carefully chosen. American copper to each pound of
Norris was appointed chairman the metal. This, they soon dis-
of the committee to procure a bell covered, was the answer to the
that could be “heard far and problem. For after all, how could
wide.” The “New Province Bell,” such a great American symbol be
as it was first called, was ordered made entirely from English
from the Colonial Agent of the metal?
Province in London, and cast by When the third model, contain-
Thomas Lister of Whitechapel, ing the American copper, was
London, arriving at Philadelphia tested, it met with instant ap-
in August 1752. It was tested in proval of everyone in both sound
the State House Yard (now In- and appearance, and was en-
dependence Square) during the shrined into position at the State
next month. But perhaps times House during June 1753.
were not yet ready for liberty, for Philadelphians rejoiced when
when the first stroke of the their bell was hung into place at
clapper hit the side, the Bell last, and they utilized its golden

cracked! voice on every possible occasion.
. Neighbors complained of the
Required Repairs brazen tumult, while architects

Charles Stow and John Pass, feared the vibrations would un-
considered ingenious bell makers settle the graceful bell tower. But
from Philadelphia, were commis- the ringing continued, announcing
sioned to repair the crack. Despite occasions of joy and sorrow, or
their combined talents, the frac- summoning the citizens to the
ture could not be corrected. The public square to hear news. It was
English bell was then broken up both the town crier and the news-
and remelted. Their first attempt papers.
to recast The Bell ended in fail- It spoke to the people and for
ure, and without being publicly the people, for there is no musical
tested, the model was put back instrument so democratic as a
into the melting pot. After several bell. Its single tone expresses uni-
months they presented a beautiful son. And the Liberty Bell is the
replica of the English model; but great voice of this great nation —
when it was tested, everyone was a voice which no other on earth
aghast at the horrible tone that can shout down, or command to be
came forth. Stow and Pass again silent.


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

30 THE FREEMAN February

The noisy days of The Bell's until July 8 that it was publicly
youth were stirring, turbulent proclaimed by Colonel John Nixon
times. The colonies were increas- in front of Independence Hall.
ingly aroused by the encroach- It was on this day that The Bell
ment of the British government rang forth with the booming,
on their hard-bought New World crystal-clear voice to announce to
liberties. The Bell was forever all freedom-loving men that their
tolling alarm and excursion. new nation had been officially

This bold young American Bell born. They laughed and cried as
called the Convention of the Phil- The Bell spoke out — but everyone
adelphia Assembly and later bid listened. All through the day and
good-bye and God speed to Benja- night it recited the message
min Franklin, as he embarked for through the joyous streets of
England in 1757, carrying with Philadelphia: ‘“Proclaim liberty
him a petition of grievance from throughout all the land unto all
the Colony. the inhabitants thereof.” Even

It rang, muffled, in 1765 as the above the noise of jubilant citizens
Royal Charlotte, with a protecting firing muskets and shooting fire-
man-of-war, came bearing those works, the resonant voice of The
hated tax stamps up the Delaware Bell was heard.

River. When Parliament forbade The big bronze crier was not al-
the Colonies to manufacture iron lowed to rest in its tower. In Sep-
and steel, hats, and woolen goods, tember 1777 it became apparent
The Bell roared forth the national that the British were going to take
rage. It was muffled again, in Philadelphia, and Congress or-
sympathy, when the port of dered The Bell removed. It was
Boston was closed by the British. conveyed with the heavy baggage

Nine months later, on April 25, of the American Army in a supply
1775, it brought people flocking to train of 700 wagons, guarded by
the public square to hear how the 200 North Carolina and Virginia
Redcoats had been routed at Lex- cavalrymen. During the wild flight
ington six days before. Now in- over almost impassable roads, the
deed, the great bronze throat truly wagon that was carrying it broke,
“proclaimed liberty.” throwing The Bell to the ground

Contrary to popular belief, the for a terrible fall. But it was un-
Liberty Bell did not ring on July damaged. At last it was smuggled
4, 1776. The Declaration of Inde- to safety in Allentown, where it
pendence was accepted by final was secretly buried beneath the
vote on that day, but it was not floor of the Zion Reformed Church,


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

1959 THE GREATEST BELL IN THE WORLD 31

there to remain in Free Soil for freedom. It has traveled more than
the remainder of the siege. 20,000 miles on exhibitions, riding

Independence Hall was made a in specially prepared and guarded
prison for patriots; and had The flat cars. In little towns through
Bell remained there, it might very which it has passed in the night,
well have been melted into a gun people have lit bonfires along the
to be turned against American pa- railroad tracks so that they might
triots. get a glimpse as it rolled slowly

It was returned to its place in by.
Independence Hall on June 27, It was most fitting that on D-
1778, later to clang joy over the Day, June 6, 1944, the people of
surrender of Cornwallis in 1781. America were again to hear faintly
Later, it rang in bereavement for this majestic voice of freedom.
the death of George Washington. During a radio broadcast by May-
It joyously bellowed forth the elec- or Bernard Samuel of Philadel-
tion of Thomas Jefferson, and then phia, the great Bell was first
sounded hushed tones in mourning tapped with a rubber mallet 12
for the deaths of Hamilton and times — once for each letter in the
Lafayette. On July 4, 1826, it word “Independence”; at the close
pealed forth the fiftieth anniver- of the program, it was again

sary of the Declaration. tapped with the mallet, this time
with 7 strokes — once for each let-
Retirement with Honor ter in the word “Liberty.”

Then, on July 8, 1835, the fifty- Though the Liberty Bell is not
ninth anniversary of the date a person, it is indeed a hero that
when The Bell first proclaimed was born in our greatest hour,
liberty, it was rung in memoriam lived through our glorious youth,
as the body of John Marshall was retreated, advanced, sang, shouted,
being taken from Philadelphia to fought, and fell in the line of duty.
Washington. There was a magnif- The Liberty Bell is an American
icence in the scene as the great symbol — great, like Washington,
Bell rang out the inspiring words Jefferson, Lincoln — yet plain, like
that would for all time stir men’s any of us, or all of us. It is the
hearts and souls. For the last time only Bell in the world in whose
it rang forth — and then The Bell presence any man, regardless of
cracked — never to peal out its race, creed, political belief, or
wonderous messages again. wealth, will solemnly take off his

But never again to be silent, for hat and feel, as well as show, true
it is the incarnation of our political respect. ® 00


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

OANA \ A job that didn't wait

\ \ nN Ww
\ NAR NN Y for the government to do

RQ N \ RALPH BRADFORD
NY N \ N
Ne NR N RN

A good friend of mine who was

postmaster in a Southern city

. ® once scandalized his fellow office-

Ni holders by asserting that the Post

Office Department could be run

FIGH Tl N G more efficiently and at less cost by
——— a private company.

Others outside the government

FOR PROFIT have held the same view; and there

are those who believe that many
of the functions staked out for

itself by government could be done
better and cheaper by private en-

Y terprise. Indeed, there are certain
N N emancipated thinkers who can take
A Ne even the sacred cow of education

by the horns and make a convinc-
ing case for getting the govern-

WIN§ 0 : &
N N S\ . R N \ ment out of education.
NR NN N All such doctrine is, of course,
Lo § W NS NIN WD) AS N Nw .
rank heresy to devoted interven-
tionists, and even to many who are
WY not truly interventionists, but who
Ms SN have been reared in the tradition

Nd = that certain things are “just na-

turally” the function of govern-

NM ment. Custom, habit, inertia, the
NR) NN NN NS Mr. Broadford is a well-known writer and

business organization consultant.


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

1959 FIGHTING FIRE FOR PROFIT 33

pattern of accepting things as the Rural Fire Protection Com-
they are — all this has conditioned pany of Phoenix, Arizona? If not,
our thinking about such matters. here, in brief, is its story — a story
Even the man who inveighs most of private enterprise operating
loudly against the inefficiencies of profitably and efficiently in “gov-
the Post Office Department — its ernment territory”; a story of fire
antiquated methods, its failure to fighting for a fee — and, of course,
modernize, its delayed deliveries, a story about a thing that just
its rising costs, its annual deficits naturally couldn’t be done.
— is not proof against the habits
of a lifetime. If you suggest to Louis Witzeman
him that a private corporation Like most successful enter-
could probably do a better and prises, it began with and centers
cheaper job with the mails, he is about a man. His name is Louis
quite apt to look at you as though Witzeman. He is a former news-
he thought you were crazy. paperman who bought a house
Certain things, in the general about ten years ago in a suburb
concept, are “just naturally” a job out on the desert north of Phoenix
for government; and if you want — “out on the desert” being local-
to retain your reputation for san- ese for any spot outside the big
ity, you'd better not go around irrigation ditch that goes around
making assertions to the contrary! the four sides of the city proper.
For instance, if I said to you that But when Witzeman moved in,
the fire fighting function of the he found that he was without
modern municipality could be han- municipal fire protection because
dled cheaply and efficiently —and his suburb was outside the city
at a profit — by private operators, limits. His neighbors, of course,
what would you say in reply? were in the same fix —and so he
Why — obviously that’s the sort began to do some thinking. An
of service that offers no attrac- idea took form, and he discussed
tions or inducements to private it with a few people around the
initiative. Don’t be silly. Can you community.
imagine anybody operating a fire The idea was that of a privately
department at a profit? Or, if he owned and operated fire depart-
did, he would have to charge ex- ment with Mr. Witzeman as the
orbitant rates. That's a job that entrepreneur! Crazy? Of course!
“just naturally” falls to the munic- Any fire department official could
ipal government. tell you that fire fighting is no
So? But did you never hear of proper job for private enterprise.


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

84 THE FREEMAN February

It is altogether too risky. The a monthly fee or retainer, in re-
equipment is expensive and com- turn for which he would under-
plicated. The occupation is highly take to give them adequate fire
hazardous. Nobody could expect to protection.

carry on such a “business” except Simple — yes; but it took some
at a loss. Emphatically, it was a doing. “It was an educational pro-
thing that just couldn’t be done. gram,” Witzeman told me. ‘“Peo-

ple had never heard of a private
There Were Problems fire department and were leery of

Incidentally, I asked Louis signing up. Some also thought of
Witzeman if anybody told him it as a racket.”
that when he was getting started. In’ spite of all this, he succeeded
He replied: “Yes, they said it in selling $10,000 worth of con-
couldn’t be done — and they were tracts in advance, putting the
almost right!” funds so raised in escrow with a
So there were problems — just bank ~an achievement which,
as there would have been if he measured against the sales resist-
had been starting a lumberyard or ance encountered, must be a rec-
a printing shop; but in this case ord of some sort. To be sure, the
the problems were aggravated by people had no fire protection and
the inertia of popular thinking. he was offering them something in
Nobody would have assumed that place of nothing; still and all, it
a lumberyard or a printing shop wasn’t a proper field for private
could be operated better by the initiative; and it probably couldn’t
government. But fighting fire — be done! But finally it was done,
that was different! and a new type of “business” was
I asked Mr. Witzeman what the on its way — to possible success in
most difficult problems were and the view of a hopeful few, to al-
he started off (as was to have been most certain failure in the judg-
expected) with: “Finances” — and ment of most people.
he added: “We only had $1,600.” But the rejoicing was not uni-
Not much of a shoestring on versal. Since this suburban fire
which to launch a business that fighting effort would probably re-
was doomed to failure anyway! duce the fire hazard for the city
But he persisted. His plan was proper, as well as in the semirural
simple. Instead of taxing them- area covered, one would have ex-
selves to create and support a fire pected the city officials of Phoenix
department, the householders in to be happy that Witzeman had set
his area would contract to pay him up in business. I said as much to


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

1959 FIGHTING FIRE FOR PROFIT 35

him, and asked him if my assump- The company has twenty full-
tion were correct. His reply: time employees and employs

“Like hell they were! You see, twenty others on a part-time basis.
we slowed down their annexation There are ten who work nights or
program. Now, however,” he ad- ‘per fire” only. In the Witzeman
ded, ‘“we work for them. They parlance, these latter are “sleep-
hired us to take care of their re- ers.” The full-time firefighters are
cent annexations because our in- well trained and equipped with
surance rate reduction was favor- the latest paraphernalia for ef-
able, and interim protection was ficiency and safety. At its head-
needed until they could set up quarters the company has com-

their own services.” plete living quarters for the fight-
ers, an office, an alarm desk, and
Steady Growth its own three-way radio network.

The new venture started out in It serves subscribers on an annual
1948 with a fire station and one fee basis.
truck; but if you are envisioning As this is written, I do not have
a continued small-time operation the figures for 1957, but in 1956
or makeshift equipment, you the company responded to 1,229
couldn't be more wrong. In ten alarms. The value of the property
years it has grown to a four-sta- involved in these fires was nearly
tion, eleven-truck fire department; $8,000,000. The actual loss of prop-
and they are now in process of erty for that year is reported as
building a new, central station for $636,000, or approximately 8 per
eight trucks. It is equipped with cent, which means that about 92
modern, high-pressure fog fire per cent of the property was saved.
trucks, and boasts that it was one As a layman, I know little of the
of the first nonmilitary depart- meaning of such statistics, but I
ments in the state to use this kind am told that they rate very high
of equipment. Only the municipal in the experience of fire depart-
departments of Phoenix and Tuc- ments.
son now exceed the Rural Fire
Protection Company in size and What Does It Cost?
equipment. It now has trucks, real The question that interests ev-
estate, buildings, and miscellane- erybody, of course, is, “What does
ous assets which Mr. Witzeman it cost?” For the special informa-
estimates are worth in the neigh- tion of those who are accustomed
borhood of $300,000, and he adds to measure the cost of public serv-
that they are almost all paid for. ices in terms of government-sub-


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

36 THE FREEMAN February

sidized electric utilities, where nopoly does not exist, even the spe-
taxes and other normal cost items cialized and somewhat risky job of
are often disregarded, I asked Mr. fighting fires can be handled
Witzeman about the cost of his cheaply, efficiently, and with
service per subscriber, as com- profit by private endeavor.l
pared with the cost in taxes per Certainly his experience should
citizen of the average municipal give pause to those who assume
fire department. His reply will that certain economic functions
surprise many people, especially are ‘just naturally” or properly
those who think that a private governmental in character. That
company rendering a public serv- assumption was made long ago
ice will “just naturally” charge about the handling and delivery
more than a government-owned of our mails. As a result, that as-
facility will charge. sumption is pretty generally ac-
“Our per-capita cost,” he said, cepted. But if a contrary assump-
“is lower than any in the state tion had been made at the begin-
that is recognized by the board of ning, today we should have one or
fire underwriters.” And he added: more corporations handling the
“Our insurance reduction is equal mails, using the latest machinery,
to the lowest nonmunicipal reduc- paying taxes, earning dividends,
tion west of the Mississippi.” and almost certainly giving better
and cheaper service than we get
from our state-operated mail serv-
Now it is not the purpose of ice.
these paragraphs to urge ambi- If this appears to you as a far-
tious young men to start private fetched assumption, take the case
fire departments in a field that is of the telephone. Here is a service
already largely pre-empted by that is one of the modern marvels,
municipal monopoly. The point of developed entirely without govern-
this article is that a man in Ari- ment aid and operating a nation-
zona has demonstrated a thing wide and complicated network. It
that is too often lost sight of in a is seldom that one hears a word of
generation dominated by the phi- criticism of either rates or serv-
losophy of supergovernmentalism. ice. But suppose Alexander Gra-
It is this: That no field of human ham Bell had been told that only
activity or service is reserved by the government could develop the
either logic or necessity for the Sec also, “Fighting Fires Privately” by
hand of government alone. He has pg 4 Harper in the August 1958 issue of
shown that when government mo- The Freeman.

Opportunities for Free Men


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

1959 FIGHTING FIRE FOR PROFIT 37

telephone properly. After all, it is simple when compared with the
a form of communication, just as vast intricacies of the airplane and
the mails are. If that decision had the telephone, or with the elec-
been made, today we should have tronic wizardry of radio and tele-
a state-owned telephone system — vision. If these could reach their
and most people would be assum- present stages of efficiency and
ing that it was “just naturally” a near-perfection under private skill
proper sphere for governmental and initiative, can anyone doubt
rather than private operation. that fire fighting would have fared
But does anyone think we should equally well?
have a better service? If so, let
him pay a visit to the nearest post A Working Model
office and take a look at the way it If anyone does have such doubts,
is run —or let him compute the let him visit the Rural Fire Pro-
length of time it requires to trans- tection Company of Phoenix and
mit a letter from Washington to see what private initiative has ac-
New York! complished. And what was the mo- -
And what about aviation? If the tivation for that enterprise? Did
Wright Brothers and the other Louis Witzeman start his company
pioneers had believed that the to prove an economic principle or
utterly new, difficult, and ex- teach a lesson in freedom? Cer-
tremely hazardous adventure of tainly not. He set out to do a
conquering the skies was “just needed job for his suburban area
naturally” a job for the govern- — a job that he believed could be
ment, and if the State had taken made serviceable for his neighbors
over at that time, we should today and beneficial for himself.
be riding in state-operated air- But in the process of succeed-
planes — and most people would be ing, he has demonstrated the in-
assuming that aviation was not a exhaustible vitality of human en-
proper field for private enterprise. terprise and ingenuity when left
But does anyone dream that the free to operate untrammeled and
equipment and service would be uncoerced. Concerning the limit-
better? If so, let him take a ride less ability of man to invent and
on a government-owned train in achieve we never need to have any
England or France or Argentina. doubt, because all about us on ev-
Fire fighting, after all, despite ery hand we find the evidence to
its occasional hazards, is relatively support this faith. ooo


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

WHAT ARE the functions of gov-
ernment? This is a simple enough
question, but how many people
pause long enough to ask it in
these days when governmental ac-
tivity is entering our lives from
every possible direction. Is there
a limit to the functions of govern-
ment, or is government to expand
until it covers all human action?
This is one of the most serious
problems of the twentieth century; to tax; but I could not get out of
and while a man may ignore it in mY mind that one of these presen-
his thoughts, he most assuredly tations was a voluntary enterprise
will not evade it in his practical While the other was the direct ben-
life. eficiary of the taxing power of the
Two recent experiences clearly Burgh and Corporation of Edin-
presented to me this problem of burgh. The Bach Choir had noth-
state functions in what is possibly ing whatsoever to do with gov-
its most innocent and enjoyable ernmental functions; the Edin-
form, music. One was in Bethle- burgh Festival was intimately in-
hem, Pennsylvania, where I heard Volved with the taxpayers and the
the famous Bach Choir; the other government of that city.
in Edinburgh, Scotland, at the an- For more than fifty years the
nual Festival, the greatest in Eu- people of Bethlehem, Pennsyl-
rope. Ordinarily, the enjoyment of vania, have been holding their
two of the greatest musical events Bach Festival with such success
of the year would not motivate one that it has become internationally
to consider the functions of gov- famous, receiving the enthusiastic
ernment, coercion, and the power approval of music lovers every-
Mr. Walker is an American public relations where. Persons in all walks of life
consultant and journalist now visiting in Europe. are members of the Bach Choir,

FREDERICK WALKER

38


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

1959 REFLECTIONS AFTER CONCERTS 39

and contribute their time and en- donations and sponsorships from
ergy. This great voluntary com- individuals and organizations and
munity effort is a part of the life an extraordinary promotional op-
of the people, reflecting their in- eration, there is still the deficit, to
terest in and liking for music. be covered by the Burgh and Cor-
Spontaneously and without force, poration of Edinburgh with funds
it has flourished. Only the director acquired by levying taxes on the
and a few soloists and profes- residents of the city. The point to
sional musicians necessary to com- ponder is that there would be no
plete the program are paid; all Edinburgh Festival without the
other participants volunteer their support of the taxing power of the
time and talent. city government. The Edinburgh
The financial success of the Bach Festival has become a function of
Festival is underwritten by volun- government.
tary guarantors from many states. To question state support of the
There is no attempt to force any finest music programs may seem
citizen living in Bethlehem to pay like questioning the virtues of the
taxes to maintain a recreational home, yet this is precisely where
program in which he might take the functions of government
no interest and from which he should be most carefully examined.
would receive no benefit. The Bach Governmental functions extended
Festival is a strictly voluntary under the guise of sweet music
performance from every point of also may be used to force people
view. Anyone who loses interest or to live, work, and die in rigidly
does not like it is free to withhold prescribed ways as is now happen-
or withdraw his support. ing in many countries. If the fune-
The Festival at Edinburgh, more tions of government are not clearly
elaborate than the one at Bethle- defined and maintained, there is
hem, includes grand opera, sym- an inevitable tendency for the gov-
phonic concerts, choirs, ballets, ernmental vine to grow and ex-
chamber music, soloists, and even pand until it embraces everything
theatrical presentations. Started around it.
after World War II, it has at- I was not the only person per-
tracted to Edinburgh thousands of turbed by the problem of the
visitors from all parts of the Edinburgh Festival. Various resi-
world. Yet, despite this acclama- dents of that city in letters to the
tion and support, the Festival ends press complained that they, as
its fiscal year with a deficit. Even taxable citizens and property
after the sale of tickets, and with holders, were forced to contribute


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

40 THE FREEMAN February

to a function in which they had no mental functions exist only be-
interest and from which they re- cause the police power can main-
ceived no benefit. The champions tain the tax levies and operations.
of the Festival replied that three Without this power there could
or four million pounds were be no governmental operation. The
brought into Edinburgh each year Edinburgh Festival is a great cul-
as a result of the Festival, and tural event, and it would probably
that this substantial business just- shock its supporters to realize that
ified supporting it with tax funds. behind all the fine music stands
But the fact remains that not all the policeman to collect the tax
taxpayers of Edinburgh operate funds so necessary to keep the
transportation systems, hotels, whole project functioning. And the
restaurants, garages, shops, or same power stands behind every
other businesses able to take ad- governmental function and every
vantage of the extra trade. The tax appropriation no matter for
complaints of the burdened Edin- what purpose it is consigned.
burgh taxpayers seemed to justify My experience with concerts il-
Voltaire’s definition of government lustrates how far astray our mud-
as a force existing to transfer dled thinking and acting has led
money from the pockets of one us in dealing with the primary
group of citizens into the pockets functions of government, but it
of another group. Right here, in also demonstrates how successful
the most cultural and innocent a voluntary enterprise can be.
form possible, the fundamental Side by side I have seen the op-
functions of government to sup- posing ways in which the great
press fraud, violence, or force by problem of our time is being
persons or groups against other tackled; each dedicated to the
peaceful citizens had been sur- highest cultural purposes, and
passed; and the taxing power was each famous; one voluntary, and
being used to support special in- the other the recipient of special
terests and activities which were privileges in tax money grants.
not the function of government Strangely enough, in all the dis-
but the concern of those persons cussion of the Edinburgh Festival
interested in and benefiting from finances, there was an expression
such activities. of grave doubt concerning its con-
The present tendency to use tax tinuance. There was no such dis-
funds and to expand governmental cussion at Bethlehem where plans
activity seldom takes into account are going ahead for next year's
that all tax funds and all govern- Festival. LI


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

am onquistadores

del iclo

LEONARD E. READ

CONQUERORS OF THE HEAVENS!
Who are they today? The scientists? The engineers? The entre-
preneurs? Investors in the airlines? No, none of these. The current
conquerors of our heavens are the labor unions!

Who, acting on sheer caprice, sleek lounges of the sky are re-
can take the airlines out of serv- moved from their element and
ice? Management? Owners? No, silenced. We can, in this instance,
indeed! But the machinists’ union readily see what we are doing to
can ground the planes. And so can ourselves.
any other of several labor unions, My own experience with air-
including the stewardesses, the craft goes back to the time when
flight engineers, and even the I was a “rigger” — garbed in over-
pilots. alls — during the war “to make the

It isn’t that a strike against the world safe for democracy.” We
airlines is any more to be decried called them “crates” in those days,
than one against a humble tug- and the name wasn’t inappropri-
boat or trucking line or a great ate. The materials with which we
railroad system. It’s only that the worked were hickory, spruce,
principles at issue come into bold piano wire, turnbuckles, linen, and
and dramatic relief when these “dope,” a kind of lacquer flavored

41


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

42 THE FREEMAN February

with banana oil. Then, too, there Saw the heavens fill with commerce,
were the rotary motors which argosies of magic sails,
spewed castor oil all over the air Pilots of the purple twilight,
frames. Since 1918 I have logged dropping down with costly bales...
more than a million miles aloft, what Tennyson envisioned, our
and thus have observed the fabu- oyplorers after truth have sur-
lous contrasts between those noisy, passed.
crazy, dangerous ‘‘crates’” which a
stiff wind often held to a near On the other hand, is the strike,
standstill and the luxurious and a coercive device. It is founded on
vibrationless new jet palaces that a species of behavior opposite to
already are approaching the speed the search for truth. The strike
of sound. rests on the use of brute force
What a spectacle confronts us! and is thus destructive.
The faster we can fly the more are
we threatened with not flying at
all. As we learn how to out-wing Progress and regress as simul-
the speediest bird, we must con- taneous phenomena! There can be
template the possibility of becom- only the illusion of progress when
ing as earthbound as a population any such equation is assumed.

Strange Alliances

of ostriches. For, what can it profit a man if
he makes a flying machine that
Opposing Forces someone else ties to a hitching

The reasons for this dilemma post like a horse? In such a situa-
are simple enough to discern. At tion all energy is wasted, for the
work simultaneously are two mu- creative is canceled by the de-
tually opposed human behaviors — structive.
one creative, the other destruc- In these days of economic non-
tive. Each is in high gear. On the sense and waning self-disciplines,
one hand are the scientists and it would seem as reasonable for
technologists in their vast variety the baggage handlers to strike and
of skills, pursuing truth, prying ground our planes as for workers
deeper, ever deeper, into the in- in clay to close a plumbing fac-
finite mysteries which challenge tory. But that the lovely young
man: hostesses of our winged chariots
For I dipt into the future, could initiate a strike and close

far as human eye could see, an airline, tests all credulity. With
Saw the vision of the world, perhaps a few exceptions, these

and all the wonder that would be; girls simply are not strike-


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

1959 CONQUISTADORES DEL CIELO 43

minded ; they do not choose to stay from coercion as the Epworth
on their jobs long enough to gain League. But, practically, such ex-
any such false notions. They are, amples are not to be found among
however, “organized” by some few the “important” unions.

who have their “‘interests’’ at A libertarian should have no ob-
heart. Even more incredulous is jection if a union member quits
the fact that most of the highly his job or even if many of them
paid elite of the airlines, the cap- voluntarily quit in unison. The
tains, have resorted to the strike right to quit a job, not in viola-
as a means to their economic ends, tion of a contract, is among the
as though to defeat rather than most important rights of individ-
represent and cooperate with the uals in a free society.
management. It would make as

much sense to unionize the vice- Coercion Takes Over

presidents of the corporation! But, morally and economically,
a justifiable objection arises when
Flight by Union Consent coercion is introduced to keep

Today, every mile aloft is flown others from taking jobs vacated
under sufferance of the labor by union members. The coercion
unions and most flights are occurs not only as abusive picket-
manned and womanned by their ing and sympathetic strikes but
members. It must be .acknowl- also as outright physical violence.
edged, of course, that these unions Day in and day out — in America!
in their noncoercive aspects are —innocent people are being threat-
no more to be deplored than is the ened and assaulted, and redress is
Ladies’ Aid Society. Furthermore, not to be had. The goon squad
the airline personnel, especially records in American industry for
the stewardesses and flight: offi- the past three decades would fill
cers, usually choose to act as com- volumes, an accounting as miser-
pany representatives first and to able as the story of human slav-
reflect the coercive aspect of their ery. It is this destructive force
labor union membership second. that permits a few to impose their
These praiseworthy detachments unenlightened wills and their lust
from coercion explain why the air- for power on the owners, the man-
lines are able to fly at all. agers, other workers, and the pub-

It is the coercion —the brute lic. To argue that vicious force is
force — that is so deplorable. not always invoked to restrain
Theoretically, there might be, and others from taking vacated jobs is
perhaps are, labor unions as free as idle as to defend communism


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

44 : THE FREEMAN February

by claiming that not all Musco- This, possibly, is the key to much
vites are sent to Siberia. The of the current confusion.

threat of violence is often a more The right to a job, which is
effective control than outright vio- what the union contention amounts
lence itself. to, is to claim that a job is owned.

; This is a faulty notion of owner-
The “Right” to a Job ship, based on a false notion of a

A job vacated by a union mem- job. Nothing can be owned that
ber is regarded as his private do- does not exist.
main, not to be assumed by an- A job is a two-party affair, an
other, and this indefensible prin- exchange arrangement limited to
ciple is legally acceptable and is the time of the exchange: quid pro
enforced by the federal govern- quo, something for something, tit
ment. Although the power politics for tat. Like a coin, it has two
of labor unions is responsible for sides. And, like a coin, it is im-
much of this governmental back- possible to remove just one side
ing, we must concede that millions and have anything remaining. It’s
of individuals sincerely believe heads and tails or nothing!
that there is a moral, economic,
and social right to use force to How Jobs Are Destroyed

keep another from taking a job In a strict sense, workers hire
that has been vacated, that has owners and managers just as
been “struck.” Why this error? much as owners and managers

The error may stem from an ap- hire workers. Each seeks out and
proved practice that appears iden- employs the other’s cooperation.
tical but is, in reality, very dif- The job itself exists only while
ferent. For instance, it is neces- each is employing the resources of
sary on occasion to use force to the other. Let either party quit
protect a person’s right to the and the exchange arrangement is
fruits of his own labor, his prop- at an end. The job has vanished.
erty. And we condone this use of It does not exist. Now, for a
defensive force. Do we not con- worker to lay claim to a job he has
sider it altogether proper to use wacated is to claim something he
force to keep an intruder from oc- himself has abolished. To enforce
cupying a home which the owner such a claim is to take the em-
has vacated? And, wouldn’t it ployer’s property. This is quite as
seem to follow that a person has absurd as if the employer, after
the same right to a job he has shutting up shop, were to lay
held as to a home he has acquired? claim to his workers’ labor and


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

1959 CONQUISTADORES DEL CIELO 45

collect a cash equivalent from the ception. For none can consistently

workers’ savings! condemn the strike who stands
sponsor for any socialistic item
Examples in Other Areas whatsoever. In short, each of us

Let us shift our reflections to a must be cautious lest he find him-
nonunion area, one that is less self in the position of the pot call-
fraught with emotion. When we ing the kettle black.
engage a physician, we employ his Only to illustrate: “A” is an
resources of training and skill. He American perfume manufacturer.
accepts some of our resources in “B” is a French ditto. “C” is an
exchange. During this exchange American consumer with five dol-
arrangement the physician has a lars in his pocket. As long as “C”
job. Assume that he quits. We makes no move with his money, all
would as readily concede his right is quiet on the Western Front.
to do so as we would concede our Business may be at a standstill
right to quit him. But suppose with “A” and “B,” but there are
that, after quitting, the physician no frictions. Then, one day, “C”
uses force to keep any other phy- swaps his money for a: bottle of
sician from taking his place. The French perfume. “A,” who cer-
analogy is at once accurate and tainly is none the worse off for
prophetic. Many of us would per- this exchange between “B” and
ish were the strike an accepted ‘C,” lets up an awful yap. It isn’t
practice of physicians. And, many that he loses; it is only that he
of us will perish if the strike be- doesn’t profit by an exchange he
comes an accepted practice in com- might have enjoyed. He then
merce. claims a “right” to the exchange

The strike, however, is not to and forthwith proceeds to get a
be blamed exclusively on the pur- law passed, bringing into play the
suit of unenlightened self-interest constabulary of the government,
by union leaders. There are plenty making such exchanges impossible
of pattern makers for the strike in the future except as a penalty
in many another walk of life. is paid by “C.” Moral: “A,” as
Sure, it’s easy enough to condemn much as any striker, claims that
a strike and its viciousness, par- he has a vested right in and thus
ticularly if you're one of its vic- owns an exchange or job, after
tims. It’s a bit more difficult, which he, like they, invokes coer-
however, to uphold a philosophy cive tactics to acquire the prop-
which consistently rejects every erty of others —in exchange for
violation of liberty, without ex- nothing!


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

46 THE FREEMAN February

A Sobering Thought Russian way to end strikes. They

One evening, while several of don’t have strikes there! But,
the major airlines were grounded what a costly way! The price is
by strikes and another was threat- the end of freedom for customers
ened, I walked from my home into and for airline personnel as well.
the starlit night. Only one plane Freedom once lost is difficult to
could be heard and it was flying regain. It may take decades, per-
very high. Commercial? Not likely. haps centuries. How much easier
Probably a government job— to learn the free market, creative
transport or bomber. Then a sober- way! This will take only the time
ing thought: Let the stewardesses, that can be measured in months
the machinists, the flight engi- for persons with the potential in-
neers, the co-pilots, the captains telligence of stewardesses, ma-
invoke their strikes; let them play chinists, flight engineers, co-pilots,
their riding-rough-shod-over- captains. They could, with some
others game; let them keep the genuine effort, raise a standard
strike a little longer as a negotia- for all the rest — these of our new,
ting device. Let them do this and glamorous industry, these who
soon government planes will be all should be among the conquista-
we or they shall fly. That's the dores del cielo. eo oo

4 pte

JU.
|

1 a a +

[ i I

{ |
0r— THE ECONOMICS OF COLLECTIVE BARGAINING

(With apologies to the muse of Robert Southey)

It was a cold December day
At story-telling time.
Old Kaspar closed the windows tight
And poured a rum-and-lime;
While Peterkin and Wilhelmine
Warmed up the television screen.


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

1959 HOW WAGES RISE 47

They saw a street where people. leaned
Against the empty stores,

Or stood in shuffling, silent groups
Outside the tavern doors;

While others walked in ragged lines

Displaying sandwich boards and signs.

“Now tell us what it's all about!”
The little children cried.

“It’s more Collective Bargaining,”
Old Kaspar then replied;

“Those men are loafing in the cold

To get a pension when they're old.”

“But how can folks get pension plans
By loafing in the street?”

“Employers always have their rent
And other bills to meet;

So when their shops are closed up tight

They can’t afford a lengthy fight.”

“Then how do workers pay their bills,
If they just loaf for days?”

“Oh, they'll go out on strike again
And get another raise;

But first they have to loaf, you see,

Until they get Security.”

“But doesn’t everybody lose
When folks go out on strike?”
“It raises prices,” Kaspar sighed,
“Much higher than we like;
But it’s the customary way
Of raising hired workers’ pay.”

H. P. B. JENKINS
Economist at Fayetteville, Arkansas


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

Lot Hine So

LICHT

A Kilowatt-hour (KWH) of electric energy costs the average
American home less today than it did 30 years ago, or 20
or 10 years ago. True, our electric bills have been mounting,
but only because our use of electricity has mounted even
faster. And one big reason why we keep on using more and
more electric energy is that, while nearly every other thing
has gone up in price, the price for a KWH has gone down.

MR. E. F. HUTTON, well-known industrialist and invest-
ment banker, explains it thus in his news column, “Think
It Through” :

THIRTY YEARS AGO, a KWH in the equal to 67 KWH. If it were pos-
home cost about 7 cents; today, sible for men to do the job, it
about 8 cents. When you consider would take over 40 men to produce
that the purchasing power of the 3,000 KWH a year.
dollar has gone down, and the con- How much would 40 house serv-
sumer’s price index has gone up ants cost a year, not counting free
90 per cent, the comparison is still board and room, and no vacations?
more astonishing. Not less than $80,000 — compared
Compare the cost of the electric to $90.00. Some bargain!
energy used in the average home,
with the cost of an equal amount This is what the privately-owned
of energy supplied by human electric power industry, together
muscle. with the manufacturers of electric
The average home today uses appliances — from washing ma-
about 3,000 KWH a year, costing chines to curling irons, have done
— at 3 cents — about $90.00. for you.
An average, able-bodied work- Yet the public power socialists
ingman exerts in a year energy call them “enemies of the people.”

48


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

Describing a “social action”

so ancient of origin and persistent of practice

ye author could scarce bring himself

to phrase it in strictly modern prose. VOLLIE TRIPP

Upon a time, in a far unsettled better than any of the houses in
Countrie, a group of farmers were the Vallie. And people set to won-
hard pressed to eke out a Living dering about this Man and how he
on their homesteads. They scrab- could do these Things while they
bled and scrunged and went Hun- could not.
gry at times. But for all that, they One day this thrifty farmer
were not too Unhappy, chiefly be- met a group of settlers talking
cause none of them was much about diverse things, in the shade
worse off than another. of a wild plum Tree. Said he:
And there came unto that Land “I could use you boys over on
a Stranger, and he also took up a my farm. I can’t pay you high
homestead, like all the rest. In ap- wages, but I think I can pay you
pearance the new settler was not more than you make, working for
unlike the rest, except that he yourselves. At any rate, why not
shaved every day. The others try working for me for a while?”
wore Beards. So, in a very short Time, this
However, it soon became ap- man had all the Settlers working
parent that the new settler had a for him, and his farm now Waxed
certain Qualitie. His farm soon more Beautiful and Prosperous
took on an Orderly Look. He set than ever. In a few years there
out Orchards and a Vinyard and were fine implement houses, fields
built a House that was very much of yellow Corne, while herds of
_— fat Cattle, Sheep, and Hogs grazed
Mr. Tripp, retired from the building business, in the green Pastures. The Or-

now devotes full time to travel, writing, and .
promotion of free enterprise. chard, Vinyard, and Vegetable

49


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

50 THE FREEMAN February

Gardens were a joy to see, and Gate, I will knock him in the head
these products were now Available with this Club I have constructed
in the Vallie for the First time. for this very purpose.

The farms of his workers did “Now all you men, who must be
not improve much, which was to hiding in the bushes near-by, will
be expected, since they could not come and help me. We will have to
work for themselves, and “work finish the woman, too, I suppose,
out,” too. But their Fortunes im- though it Seems sort of a Pity.
proved in many other ways. They Then we will Divide his Cattle, his
were now able to Eat more regu- Sheep, even his Hogs, and every-
larly and have better Food. They thing that he has, equally among
wore better clothes, and their us. After all, it was our Labor
wives were able to have New Hats that made him Rich and Prosper-

at Easter time. ous. What think you of the plan,
The men worked hard, trying to my friends?”
save and get Ahead, even as their The fellow had no more than

Boss was doing. But no matter Finished, when one of the Work-
how hard they Worked and Saved, ers arose, with a great indigna-
the Boss always drove a better tion. “I will have no Truck with
team, wore finer Clothes, and had your plan, as foul a piece of busi-
a bigger, finer House than any of ness as I have ever witnessed,” he
them could have. shouted. “Have you Forgotten
how we all lived on the verge of
Now, from time to time came Starvation before this man came
mutterings of Discontent and into our Vallie? He gave us work,
Envy from these workers. One directed our efforts, which before
day, the most Discontented called had been Unproductive. Have you
a meeting of his fellow workers to forgotten how this woman helped
Consider what could be done. our Wives to improve our homes
“It is unjust that one man and even nursed our children when
should have so much More than they were Sick? For Shame — —!”
we have,” said he. “I have con- The man sat down, choked with
sidered this grave matter quite a Rage.
lot. It’s undemocratic, for one However, all the others were in
thing. I tell you what! When the full Agreement that the Rich
Boss takes his wife out riding Farmer should be killed and all
next Sunday, I will hide by the his goods divided among the Poor.
Gate that leads into his Place. But none of them would promise
When he gets out to open the to lend a hand in the actual Dirty


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

1959 THEY PASSED A LAW 51

Business. Perhaps it should be ex- sourcefullness might contrive to
plained, they were men of Deli- get out of Prison. Then he might
cate Sensibilities. So they confer- use his Superior brain once more
red long into the Night about the to enslave and exploit the poor
best way to bring about the De- workers. So it was thought best to
sired End without doing Anything kill them both, and have it Over
that would disturb their Con- With.
sciences. The workers were overjoyed at
this Proposal — all, that is, save
Toward midnight, a sly fellow the One who Voiced a Protest that
who had said little up to this time, same night. He got up, aroused
asked if he might speak. He said his family and took them from the
he had hit upon an Idea. He Vallie, and was seen no more.
thought he could get a new Law But loud was the Praise of the
passed which would make it Un- fellow who proposed this new
lawful for anyone to have Sheep, Law. This was the very thing
Cattle, Hogs, or other stock, above they wanted, to do Something
a Certain Number. Or to own any Legally which few of them cared
Propertie whatsoever above a Cer- much for doing Individually. With
tain Value. And anyone who everything done in a nice legal
Broke this Law would have his Official way, no Blame would at-
Propertie taken, and it would be tach to any of them. Their con-
given to the Poor. sciences would be clean as the
But, instead of having the Snow on Fox Mountain. At the
Farmer killed outright, it would same time their Objective, a redis-
be Better, he thought, to put him tribution of the Wealth, would be
into Prison for life. Anyway, such accomplished.
a magnanimous provision would The fellow who proposed the
make Passage of the new law Law, being something of a Law-
much easier, it being observed yer, wrote it up then and there,
that many citizens are Fussy with many Whereases, and Where-
about shedding blood. fores. And early next day he was
This Angle was discussed at on his way to see all the People
some length. A few favored the in the Vallie, addressing them on
Idea of sending the Farmer and behalf of the New Law with great
his Wife (who was .equally force and Eloquence. Then, too,
Guilty) to Prison for life. But he had secured the Promise of all
then, it was pointed out, a man his friends to work hard for its
of the Boss’ Intelligence and Re- Passage. ‘Let no door bell be left


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

52 THE FREEMAN February

Unrung,” said he. “Our Progress Worse still, nearly all of the
as a People depends on the pas- money from the Rich Farmer's
sage of this piece of Progressive estate was taken out of the Vallie,
Legislation.” and spent in Mysterious Ways.
Some said it was used to build tile
Since the new law was written showers for the Smelly Removi-
in such a way that the Majority ans, on the far Side of the World.
were spared from its provision, Some said it was used to pay
and they, being of a great num- other Farmers for not growing
ber, the law was passed Forthwith. anything. But One thing was sure.
And the Rich Farmer and his The money had left the Countrie,
Wife were now done away with, it and there seemed no Way to get
being Legal to do this. Their Es- it Back.
tate was sold, and the Money
passed into the Public Treasury. In time, people’s anger toward
However, those who worked and the rich farmer cooled, since he
Voted for the new law, expecting was no longer about. The Big
to Share in the great Redistribu- house, the Barns, the Sheds,
tion, were somewhat dismayed, slowly fell to pieces. Weeds and
after all. In the First Place, there Brush once more took hold of the
were so many People hoping to Corne fields. The Orchard and the
share in the booty it turned out Vinyard died. There were no more
that each one got but a few dol- fat Cattle and other stock to
lars. This made them sorely dis- graise in the once lush fields. For
tressed. none were found who could Do
Another thing. The lawyer Things as he had done them.
claimed that he should have a Several of his old Employes
larger share than the others, since openly expressed a wish that he
it was his Law that made the Re- was back in their Vallie once
distribution possible, in the first more. People began to recall many
place. This was resented by the Kind Things that he had done,
Others, who claimed all should even while paying them good
Share alike. The fellow who had Wages. Some said it was too bad
called the Meeting and was Pre- that he had to be killed. One man
pared to use Force, was most bit- expressed the feelings of all when
ter of all. He argued that his Per- he said:
sonal Initiative should be recog- “One thing we all have to be
nized to some extent, because the mightie Thankful for. His Blood
Original Idea was his. is not on our hands.” °* 00


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

I ONCE HEARD of a fraternity chap- scrupulously follows this rule. But
ter which had a house rule against just as soon as the deficit spend-
drinking. This is not surprising ing gets close to the limit, the
because most fraternities have Congress is asked for —and usu-
such house rules. The interesting ally grants —a new ceiling, thus
thing about this one is that every allowing the spending to go on as
two or three weeks, or whenever usual, if not at an increased pace.
the urge came, the membership Like the fraternity boys’ broken
would decide to “suspend” the house rule, the federal debt limit
house rules and have a big week- is an absolute sham. Unfortu-
end binge. Thus, the rules were nately, it lacks the humorous over-
kept unbroken. It was very con- tones of the collegiate drinking
venient but fooled hardly anyone party. Instead, it is a tragedy.
— perhaps not even the boys them- Every increase in the debt limit
selves. Facing facts, there were means another inflationary binge.
not actually rules against drinking Inflation robs the people of their
in that house — the boys merely savings, their annuities, their
suspended their drinking habits bonds. It makes spenders out of
temporarily during the week. And savers and hastens the day of com-
it wasn’t very convenient to drink plete financial collapse.
during the week anyway. The debt “limit” is only a de-
What reminds me of this story lusion within which the Congress
is the recent increase, in a long and the Administration pretend to
line of increases, of the federal operate.
debt “limit.” As you probably Though we may not care how
know, the debt “limit” prevents history records us, we need have
the administration from spending little doubt what the record must
more money than $........ without show. Most likely we will be
being illegal. The government ‘written off” as a bunch of drunks
who couldn’t give up the habit.
Mr. Dykes is an architect from Canton, Ohio. LL

53


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

i : Ly i
add ff andwriting

a i i i 7 fi

A review of Maxwell Anderson's The Golden Six

BETTINA BIEN

OVER THE YEARS, governmental ter the birth of Christ. Freedom
power had gradually been in- had been gradually eroded over the
creased. The chief executive, a centuries by one governmental in-
trusted military hero, had the re- tervention after another and was
sponsibility for maintaining peace finally destroyed by Julius Caesar’s
and his mighty legions policed far grab for power. Following
distant lands. With large tax Caesar's murder, Augustus had
funds at his disposal, he had pow- assumed complete control, and
er to grant or withhold special fa- with this came the obligation of
vors. While free food and enter- choosing his successor. From
tainment helped to keep the people these facts, intertwined with fic-
happy, politicians curried favor to tion, Maxwell Anderson’s play was
maintain their own positions. woven.
Thus, although the outward form Since Augustus had no son, he
of a limited constitutional repub- was determined to choose his suc-
lic remained, both citizens and cessor from among ‘The Golden
politicians were slowly being Six,” three sons of his daughters
molded into willing and submis- and three sons of stepsons he had
sive voters. adopted. All six youths protested
Such was ancient Rome! And when they heard their grand-
this was the setting of Maxwell father’s proposal; all were loyal to
Anderson's latest play, The Golden the ideal of a republic; none
Siz wanted absolute power to rule the
The curtain rose to show the empire; all urged a revival of the
Emperor's palace a few years af- republican spirit and a return to
1Scheduled for publication by the Dram- limited government where no man
atists Play Service, Inc. (14 East 38th would rule another. Then sud-
Street, New York). denly and mysteriously the grand-

Miss Bicn is a member of the staff of the
Foundation for Economic Education. son who protested most dropped

b4


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

1959 HANDWRITING ON THE WALL? 55

to the floor — dead — apparently After the killing of Caligula,
poisoned. Claudius was called to take the
During the next few years, two throne. By that time, public works
more of “The Golden Six” died paid for by tribute from the prov-
under peculiar circumstances. Au- inces had made Rome a splendid
gustus began to suspect that his showplace. The people had been
wife, Livia, was responsible and molded into pliant and dependent
that she also had been slowly voters by government giveaways,
poisoning him. Alone with him as free corn, benefits for veterans,
he lay dying, she confessed her and entertainment. Arbitrary and
guilt. Then in spite of Augustus’ progressive taxes had weakened
dying wish that his successor be many of the empire’s wealthy men.
chosen according to his earlier in- Claudius, his faith in freedom
tention, she announced calmly that strengthened by his years of study,
her son Tiberius — Augustus’ step- pleaded passionately for the re-
son, not one of “The Golden Six” public’s restoration. Incapable of
— would be crowned emperor. explaining in an instant all that
Within a short time, two more freedom means — written laws that
of “The Golden Six” were mur- no single man can set aside, power
dered. Only Claudius remained. divided so that no man or branch
Lame and stuttering, considered of government is supreme, equal
somewhat “simple,” he could not rights for every citizen, no tax on
cry out his praise of freedom as one man for another’s profit—
quickly as the others. So he alone Claudius felt helpless. With deep
was spared, to live quietly for emotion, he cried out that the re-
years, with time to study and to public had really worked for cen-
practice speaking without a stut- turies. But none who listened un-
ter. derstood the meaning of his words.
The empire went from bad to Used to being fed and ruled, they
worse. Tiberius found himself no longer knew what independence
hopelessly enmeshed by his posi- was. Reluctantly, Claudius took the
tion. He struggled inwardly crown. And the people cheered
against the corrupting influence anew their shackles.
of power — but finally lost the bat-
tle. Caligula, who followed, epito-
mized tyranny and dissipation. No Maxwell Anderson is a famous
tear was shed when, according to playwright. The Pulitzer Prize
the play, Livia reappeared after was his in 1933 as was the Critics’
many years to plot his murder. Prize in 1935 and again in 1936.

A Famous Playwright


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

56 THE FREEMAN February

Some of his plays have had long ment contracts, and the like — these
money-making runs on Broadway. are the handouts by which poli-
But Mr. Anderson is more than a ticians mold citizens of the twen-
successful author of popular plays. tieth century into pliant and de-
He is a man of ideas and ideals.? pendent voters. Public vacation
He wrote The Golden Six to show parks and resorts, municipal swim-
the parallel between conditions in ming pools, government subsidized
ancient Rome that helped to cause theaters — these are our “circuses”
her downfall and those we face to- today.
day. It is a skillful, almost Shake-
spearian, “historical whodunit.” It
has plot and drama. The hero, Few persons care to ask from
Claudius, is a believable, true-to- whence the funds come or to what
life, likeable young fellow. The these programs lead. Most people
play has philosophy and introspec- avoid such unpleasant topics and
tion. It has a message, as true to- seek escape in light and gay
day as in the days of ancient amusement. Musical comedies
Rome. “The tradition is so strong draw audiences of thousands. A
for freedom,” Mr. Anderson has play that praises the modern “New
said, “that the people would not Deal” hero runs on for months on
give it up unless they were doped New York’s “Great White Way.”
for a long time. But a steady un- Yet a play with a lesson from his-
earned income is the strongest tory is ignored.
dope there is.” Last year when The Golden Six

As The Golden Siz would indi- was being staged, support was
cate, the “bread and circuses” of lacking for a Broadway showing.
Rome have counterparts today. Mr. Anderson’s freedom message
Price supports, tariff protection, opened in October, in a small
old age, unemployment, and vet- theater many blocks from New
eran benefits, special bargaining York's “Great White Way,” with
privileges, tax exemptions, arti- a cast of comparatively unknown
ficially low interest rates of an actors. It ran for the short span of
“easy money” policy, lush govern- 17 performances; and then it

folded, mute evidence to the cur-
2See The Guaranteed Life (from the in- rent thinking of a people whose
troduction to his Knickerbocker Holi- tradition of freedom, like that of
day). Single copies available upon re- {he early Romans, has been under-
quest from the Foundation for Economic .
mined by government handouts.

Education, Inc.,, Irvington-on-Hudson,
N.Y. oe 0 0

The Lesson Is Lost


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

‘MEMO ON PRIVATE ENTERPRISE

No. 4 in a series

€<

... (parcel post) operation should be made
to charge rates that pay their full costs...”

The Transportation Association the Post Office Department, par-
of America is a non-profit research cel post is also government sub-
and educational organization sidized with part of its cost hidden
made up of users, investors and in the budgets of other agencies
carriers representing all modes of and not charged against the Post
transportation, Two-thirds of its Office Department.
voting memberships are held by It is impossible for private
shippers. Its efforts are devoted transportation carriers to compete
to the development and imple- against such unfair below-cost gov-
mentation of sound national poli- ernment competition!
cies that will assure the nation The TAA urged that Congress
of a strong transportation sys- uphold the following policies:
tem under private ownership and 1. That Government should not
operation. engage in any for-hire transport
During 1958 the TAA took a services where adequate, pri-
strong stand against shipper pro- vately owned facilities are or can
posals to increase the size and be made readily available.
weight of parcel post moving be- 2, Parcel post rates shall be ade-
tween first class post offices. The quate to cover all costs of the
TAA also emphasized to a Senate service and the annual parcel post
subcommittee, “We feel strongly cost ascertainment reports of the
that any such operation (parcel Post Office Department shall in-
post) should be made to charge clude all costs properly attribut-
rates that pay their full costs, in- able to parcel post service.
cluding direct and indirect costs.” Only when such policies are up-
What does TAA mean by direct held will the American public be
and indirect costs? Simply, that justly served under the basic ten-
in addition to costs charged to ets of our free enterprise system.

For a free copy of the informative
booklet, “The Truth About Parcel Post,” ALW, 2

Soonsss

address the Public Relations Division,
RAILWAY EXPRESS AGENCY
219 East 42nd Street, New York 17, N.Y.
A PRIVATE ENTERPRISE IN THE PUBLIC SERVICE



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

A REVIEWER'S NOTEBOOK JOHN CHAMBERLAIN

i

J
P-L \

GRAND
STRATEGY

IN REVIEWING General Albert C. the war was over, it is the Chinese
Wedemeyer’s memoirs, Wede- sections— roughly one-third of
meyer Reports! (Holt, 497 pp., the text — which have received the
$6.00), for a monthly magazine, most attention. General Wede-
one is tempted to review the re- meyer was, of course, anxious to
views. On balance, the book re- get the Chinese Nationalists’
ceived an astoundingly good press story told. But the General's over-
for an iconoclastic work; but it arching concern in this book is
“might have been five different neither China nor Asia as such.
books that were being discussed! The main purpose of the book has

This, in itself, though no tribute a much broader sweep: General
to the acumen of the rank and Wedemeyer has been at great
file of the reviewers, is a left- pains to evolve a theory of grand
handed tribute to the protean na- strategy that will prove relevant
ture of the General's wartime and to both peace and war as well as
postwar memoirs. For the truth to that gray-area mingling of the
is that the book is actually five two that has become known as the
books compressed into one. cold war.

Since the General is known to
most people as the man who fought Five Books in One
the good fight for Chiang Kai- The lesser ‘books’ that com-
shek in China, only to see his work prise this book, then, are to be
undone by the communists after taken as illustrations designed to

68


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

1959 GRAND STRATEGY H9

clarify the main theme. For his ables him to follow trains of evi-
“book one” General Wedemeyer dence to trustworthy conclusions.
unravels the entangling web of Altogether, the four subsidiary
emotions that pitched us headlong “books” buttress and amplify the
into a war on two fronts in 1941, General’s conclusions about grand
a war which we might have side- strategy which he sets forth in sev-
stepped or fought to better ad- eral chapters scattered through-
vantage if we had had a grand out the volume.

strategy.
For “book two” General Wede- War: Politics by Other Means
meyer draws upon his experiences General Wedemeyer developed

as Chief of Staff George Catlett his consuming interest in grand
Marshall's “planner,” making it strategy when he was a student at
plain to the reader that we blun- the German War College in the
dered to a purely military success middle nineteen thirties. He knew
in Europe without any clear no- all about Clausewitz’s classic defi-
tion of what we were doing or of nition, that “war is a continua-
how we were to turn victory on tion of politics by other means.”
the battlefield into victory at the But, since war and politics are
peace table. both a means to an end, it seemed
The “third book” in the larger to Wedemeyer that a grand strat-
book concentrates on the China egy must be prepared to take ad-
theater, where our lack of a grand vantage of either. . Any grand
strategy was ultimately to lose us strategy worthy of the name must
the friendship and the support of be rooted in broad conceptions of
some five hundred million Asi- national interest, but there must
atics. The “fourth book” consists also be due respect for the con-
of general reflections on “the war servation of energy: To render
nobody won.” In this section Gen- true service to a nation, strategy
eral Wedemeyer sometimes de- must attempt to gain its ends with
parts from his own eye-witness the least expenditure of blood and
ground to cover things which hap- treasure. Economic strength, polit-
pened in the European theater ical resources, propaganda, and
when he was thousands of miles psychology must come into the pic-
away in Agia. But his sources are ture along with purely military
firsthand — and the General’s potential. The truly successful
earlier connections with the plan- strategy will win its victories
ning of the European campaign without firing a shot.
give him an insight which en- As a student at the German


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

60 THE FREEMAN February

War College, General Wedemeyer without making any attempt to
became friendly with many of the avert a war which it knew was
German officers who, years later, coming at precisely one o'clock in
took part in the bomb plot against the afternoon (Washington time)
Hitler. Wedemeyer shared the dis- of December 7, 1941.

taste of these officers for Nazism

from the start. But his German The European Campaign

experience gave him a close-up Even before we were in the war
view of Bolshevism, which he re- Wedemeyer was in charge of the
garded as an even greater long- so-called Victory Program for the
term menace to the free world defeat of Germany. In the event
than Nazism. He returned to the of actual embroilment in Europe
United States with his own idea he hoped we would “go for the
of grand strategy in mind. As his German jugular” —~i.e., the manu-
“best possible case” he wanted to facturing stronghold of the Ruhr.
see Hitler and Stalin embroiled in Modern war, he knew, was tech-
a struggle that would result in nological —and technology de-
mortal wounds being delivered to pended on coal and steel. Ergo,
each type of totalitarianism with- why waste time on sideshows?
out involving a costly effort by the The thing to do would be to build
West. Failing this, he wanted the a force capable of enveloping the
U. S. to fight a war that would Ruhr in one great decisive thrust.

enable it to defeat Hitler without This was the American concep-
letting Stalin win any great ad- tion of the European war — a con-
vantages thereby. ception which had the ardent sup-

port of both Secretary of War
Stumbling toward War Stimson and Chief of Staff

As a junior officer Wedemeyer Marshall. Wedemeyer, both from
could only watch with pained eyes conviction and from a sense of
as we stumbled toward Pearl loyalty to Marshall, fought for the
Harbor. He didn’t like it when so-called “cross-channel” strategy
Roosevelt gave American destroy- in scores of jousts at all the big
ers an order to shoot at German early war conferences with the
submarines “on sight.” This was British. With traditional British
to risk war prematurely. Nor did indirection, Churchill favored a
he like it when the U. S. govern- more roundabout method of clos-
ment, which had built a machine ing in on Hitler. He wanted to
capable of breaking any and all ‘close the ring” in the Mediter-
Japanese codes, stood passively by ranean.


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

1959 GRAND STRATEGY 61

Milling in the Mediterranean in a fine position to defeat Japan
But to Wedemeyer as to before Stalin could make a move
Marshall, it seemed obvious that in Manchuria. But we had gone in-
protracted war in the Mediter- to war in 1941 without a political
ranean would lead nowhere. It was strategy; and into the vacuum
one thing to defend the Near caused by our lack of aims Stalin
Eastern oil fields; it was quite an- poured his own Marxist legions.
other thing to waste blood in
fighting for the possession of the The China Theater
Apennine ridges in Italy. To think As Commander-in-chief in the
that Hitler could be successfully China theater in the last stages
attacked from the “soft under- of the war, Wedemeyer hoped to
belly” of the Mediterranean was prevent a communist victory in
an illusion, for Wedemeyer’s plan- that part of the world. But here,
ning staff had investigated every again, our lack of a firm belief in
beach and dock in the Balkans and capitalist economics and the poli-
come up with the information that tics of representative republican-
there wasn’t a port in that part of ism led to a hopeless confusion of
the world through which the the issues. Our State Department
Allies could supply more than two “advisers” in the China theater
army divisions. Moreover, once tried to sell Wedemeyer a bill of
Churchill had made his deal with goods about the fine “Jeffersonian
Tito, we would have had a com- agrarianism” of the Red Chinese.
munist on our flank if we had Wedemeyer, however, had already
tried to reach Vienna or Hungary listened to Mao Tse-tung and Chou
through the ports of Salonica or En-lai, the Chinese Communist
Trieste. leaders. They had told him they
Wedemeyer considers that our were Leninists and socialists first,
preoccupation with the Mediter- and Chinese only after the suc-
ranean, which was insisted upon cess of the proletarian revolution!
by Churchill, kept us from invad- Having received this information
ing Northern Europe in 1943. If from the “horse’s mouth,” Wede-
we had made the English Channel meyer was naturally depressed by
crossing in that year, says Wede- his inability to convince General
meyer, we could have reached Marshall that we must stick to
Berlin and Prague well before the Chiang. Kai-shek in China, “or
Russians. Moreover, we would else.”
have wound up the European war General Wedemeyer’s book
in 1944, and we would have been abounds in vivid descriptions of


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

62 THE FREEMAN February

wartime personalities. It is breezy is gleaned from the controlled
and anecdotal, and in places it Chinese communist press which
has the swift tumultuous rush of reveals many symptoms of unrest.
a travelogue. But its enduring Party newspapers rail against
value is in the realm of ideas. subversive (anti-red) activity, they
What do we want as a nation? Do condemn “reactionary” and “right-
we want to become part of a gray ist” thought, and they carry news
collectivized world? Or do we want items about continuing anticom-
to remain a free republic in which munist guerrilla warfare, and the
men can associate voluntarily with rugged resistance to collectiviza-
other men to pursue their own in- tion in sections of China as well
dividualistic ends? This root as in Tibet.
choice must go far toward estab- One of the most telling episodes
lishing our national strategy. Gen- in recent years is found in the un-
eral Wedemeyer’s book is a clarion expected reaction of the intellec-
call to all of us to think our basic tuals and students to Mao Tse-
problem through. oe o ¢ tung’s 1957 “Hundred Flowers”
speech. Mao must have been con-
fident that any “flowers” that
1 O 8 4 might burst into bloom would be
recognizable offspring of his com-
munist seed. The harvest was a
IN RED CH NA rich one, indeed, but the recessive
genes of free thought came
IT 1s 1984 in Red China; Orwell’s through as dominants. Brave per-
chill vision of the future has al- sons — naively interpreting the in-
ready been brought to pass by vitation as an indication of the
Big Brother Mao. Such is the Party's sincere desire to learn of
feeling one gets from reading its shortcomings — praised the op-
Edward Hunter's The Black Book portunity to speak and gave voice
on Red China (New York: The to ideas critical of the regime and
Bookmailer, 172 pp., $2.00.). Hun- its leaders. Pent up energy gave
ter’s previous books on China es- rise to student strikes, public
tablished his competence. In the demonstrations, and actual upris-
present volume he details the un- ings in many parts of China, pro-
relieved horror and misery of a voking a party conference at Pe-
communist dictatorship reinforc- king to state that “students place
ing Oriental despotism. too much emphasis on democracy
Most of Mr. Hunter's material and personal freedom.” And all


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

1959 1984 IN RED CHINA 63

over China, punitive, ‘“rectifica- his subject matter up to moral
tion” measures were taken against judgment. And beginning with the
those persons who had innocently third chapter on slave labor, and
fallen into Mao’s hundred-petaled the following chapters on farmers,
Venus’-flytrap. religion, communist “jurispru-

Red China’s search for subver- dence,” doubletalk, family life,
sives employs three quarters of a crime, brainwashing and geno-
million professionals, plus several cide, the reader’s own emotions
million “activists” who help the are involved. One is first incredu-
purge by informing on their neigh- lous, then filled with revulsion, as
bors, parents, schoolmates, and as- he realizes that a twentieth cen-
sociates. If such vast numbers are tury society has exceeded the
needed to ferret out recalcitrants, worst fictional nightmares of the
there must be a deep-running cur- “Brave New World” variety. Red
rent of opposition to this “people’s China's aim is a society of puppet-
democracy,” even at top levels. A like people from whom all human
Yugoslav communist newspaper dignity has been stripped, where
reported early in 1958 that “Sixty minds are scientifically emptied of
deputies of the National Peoples’ any individual thoughts or plans
Congress (of China) have been and are filled with the State's
deprived of their seats. Ten stand- “doubletalk’” and ‘“doublethink,”
ing members have been expelled the better to manipulate the vic-
from the Standing Committee, the tims. It is a land where policies
supreme organ of the Congress, are set by a group of men to whom
and three ministers of the Central such values as honor, truth, jus-
government have been dismissed.” tice, love mean only those meas-
These people were communists, ures which serve the Communist
members of the ruling ‘elite. Party; and as the demands of the
Whether they were purged for Party change from day to day, the
theoretical defection or mere dif- meaning of these concepts changes
ferences of opinion is uncertain.
But, however you look at it, some-

thing about human beings con- Any book reviewed in this Book Section (or
tinuously gums up the communist any other current book) supplied by return
mechanism. Red China is no ex- mail. You pay only the bookstore price. We

pay the postage anywhere in the world.

ception; unrest is found in all
Catalogue on request.

strata of society.
The Black Book is not an im- THE BOOKMAILER., Box 101, New York 16
partial survey; the author holds



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

64 THE FREEMAN February

accordingly. A man finds himself Part of The Black Book on Red
arrested one day, trapped by fol- China is an argument against ad-
lowing the party line of the day mitting Red China to the United
before. Here is a country where Nations. One’s answer to this
children purge parents, where all problem will be determined by his
warmth of human relationships view of that organization and the
has been frozen by fear. Chan Ko- applicant's ability to meet certain
tza, a gentle poet, taking advan- technical requirements of admis-
tage of the “Hundred Flowers” sion. Mr. Hunter forcefully pre-
speech, spoke out sadly: “Why sents arguments and evidence
have friends now become strangers against this step, but the real
to one another? ... A man feels power of his book lies in its por-
a great need to have a friend and trayal of the ravages wrought by
to talk with him openly. . .. There communism on a great and ancient
are no friends here.” nation. ZELDA KAPNER

We invite your subscription to

MODERN AGE

A CONSERVATIVE REVIEW

Published Quarterly Edited by RusseLL Kirk
VoL. 3, No. 1 (Winter 1958-1959)

Humane PoLiTiCS

Including contributions by Richard M. Weaver, Raymond English,
Willmoore Kendall, Austin Warren

$4.00 per year $1.25 per copy

Address: 64 East Jackson Boulevard, Chicago 4, Illinois



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

/ 7

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Requirements for machining large Harnischfeger Specially designed
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In addition to designing the machine, attachments
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===== PAGE 68 =====

KOIEIE seeruary

Toward a Point of No Return

Rich Man’s Tax — Poor Man’s Burden
Inflation in Underdeveloped Countrios
Jobs for All

Emancipation by Machine .

The Dovil’'s Wages . . . .

The Groatest Bell in tho World
Fighting Firo for Profit

Refloctions after Concorts .
Conquistadores del Ciclo

How Wages Rise

Let Thore Bo Light

Thoy Passed a Law .

The Sham and the Delusion
Handwriting on tho Wall?

Grand Strategy

1984 in Red China .

THE FREEMAN may be forwarded any-

1959

Robert C. Tyson
Harold Brayman
Romulo A. Ferrero
Percy L. Groaves, Jr.
William Alvadore Buck
Nathaniel Hawthorne
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Ralph Bradford
Frederick Walker
leonard E. Read

H. P. B. Jenkins

E. F. Hutton

Vollie Tripp

E. W. Dykes

Bettina Bien

John Chamberlain
Zelda Kapner

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