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

THE

[eld

FEBRUARY 1960

IDEAS ON LIBERTY

The Washington Monument . . . . . Rolph Bradford 3
The Silent Partner . . . . . . . . Dean Russell 14
Toward a Better Future . . . . . . Howard E. Kerschner 20
Why the U.S.S.R. Must Succeed . . . . Frank Chodorov 22
Two Kinds of Power . . . . . . . Paull. Poirot 26
Pure Collective Bargaining . . . . . H.P.B. Jenkins 31

A Great Man Warned Us of Dangers Ahead . Harold Blake Walker 32

Socialism — Substance and Label. . . . Edmund A. Opitz 34
The Perils of Playing Uncle Atlas. . . . William Henry Chamberlin 43
Change . . . . . . . . . . . RobertH. Eagle 50
Restoring the Tools of Learning . . . . John Chamberlain 55
Other Books . . . . . . . . . . 58

THE FOUNDATION
FOR ECONOMIC EDUCATION, INC.

Irvington-on-Hudson, New York


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

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A good place to start to stop li INFLATION

What family today isn’t directly of investors are able and ready to fill
affected by one or more of the classic the growing demand for electricity
symptoms of inflation—the rising ...and without tapping the taxpayers.
prices, the shrinking dollar, the pinch 0 nobody sees
on incomes, pensions and savings? There is no tax labeled “public

Our lawmakers are squeezed be- power.” So most people don’t know
tween pleas for more federal spend- ihe government is in the power busi-
ing and the responsibility of present ness, and few know their own taxes
ing the bill to the taxpayers. And as keep it there. That's why a small
always, proposals to cut federal minority can force this tax burden
spending meet resistance, although op the majority.
cutting spending is a direct way to So the key to a $10,000,000,000
block inflationary trends. tax saving is getting the facts to the
A place to save billions American public. Will you help?

One example of nonessential This coupon will bring you a new
spending is the outlay of tax money booklet with up-to-date figures and
that goes to enlarge the federal gov- information. We'll send it to you
ernment’s venture into the electric ~~ promptly, at no charge.

power business. America’s Independent

The active pressure groups for Electric Light and Power Companies
such federal “public power are after i
some $10,000,000,000 in tax funds— .
this on top of about $5,500,000,000 boner COMPANIES

it has cost taxpayers to date. * 1271 Ave. of the Americas, New York 20, N.Y.
: : + Please send me the material checked

A saving of that size would be : * below. without charge:
major blow at budget deficits, yet ca * [0 The new booklet, “Who Pays for

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want so-called “public power ? as : family, how and where the federal
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shown by repeated opinion polls. © Business, and other important facts.

Nor do they get anything from it— . [0 Names of companies that sponsor
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0 need fo po P 8 Occupation

More government spending is quite
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supply. The hundreds of independent © city Zone____State
electric companies and their millions + ..............ooill FR. :



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

THE

Tecan

FEBRUARY 1860 Vol. 10 Ro. 2

LEONARD E. READ President, Foundation for
Economic Education

PAUL L. PoIroT Managing Editor

THE FREEMAN is published monthly by the
Foundation for Economic Education, Inc., 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 $12.00 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 extending the Foundation’s work.

Accepted as controlled circulation publication at Irvington, N. Y., with
additional entry at New York, N. Y. Copyright, 1960, The Foundation for
Economic Education, inc. Printed in U.S.A.

Additional copies, postpaid, 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 ‘The Silent
Partner’ and “A Great Man Warned Us of Dangers Ahead.”

FE Any current article will be supplied in reprint form if there are enough
inquiries to justify the cost of the printing.


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

Washington
Monument

RALPH BRADFORD

FROM A MOUND on the Mall at
Washington a stately obelisk
points skyward —the Nation’s
monument to its first President,
whose birthday we celebrate this
month.

But it is more. That splendid
shaft of old-fashioned, marble-
faced masonry is a symbol —an
emblem of our country itself, and
of the spirit of persistence and
freedom which made possible that
country and its institutions of gov-
ernment.

Like the country and its govern-
ment, and like most of us as in-
dividuals, the Monument has had
its vicissitudes. The story of its
construction is one of delay, disap-
pointment, criticism, suspicion,
accusation, ridicule, bigotry, polit-
ical chicanery, and general frustra-
tion. But it is also a story of cour-
age, high purpose, determination,
tenacity, sacrifice, devotion, per-
sistence, and finally of achieve-
ment.

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

Illustration: A. Devaney, Inc., N. Y.


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4 THE FREEMAN February

A monument to honor George nor’s three little girls, Eliza, Mar-
Washington was first given con- tha, and Eleanor, a pocketbook, a
sideration by the Congress of the thimble, and a colored sash apiece.
Confederation as early as 1783, He had also bought several chil-
the year in which, as a victorious dren’s books to be distributed
general, he surrendered his com- among them; and for little George
mission to the Congress at Annap- Washington Parke Custis, aged
olis and retired, as he thought, to two, there were a toy fiddle and a
private life. But it was too soon. whirligig. There were other
He was still alive, and so were his things, too, less sentimental and
critics and detractors. He was a more utilitarian: fifty yards of
man, already elderly at 51, hollow- carpet, a reading glass to aid his
cheeked, heavily pockmarked, fa- failing eyes, a handle for his let-
mous as a war hero, but not yet ter seal, a shaving outfit, a tea
become a legend. Parson Weems waiter, an umbrella, and several
had not yet invented the cherry pairs of hose.
tree story, nor had Gilbert Stuart This was the man pictured by
painted that majestic portrait. So some “modern” writers as cold,

nothing was done. austere, unsentimental, and burnt
On the twenty-fourth of De- out inside by the war!
cember that year, accompanied by It had been enough to burn him

his aides, Colonels Walker, Cobb, out, heaven knows. He could re-
and Humphreys, the General rode member bitterly his own mistakes
home from Annapolis to Mount and the nagging failures of the
Vernon. He arrived late, but in Congress. His pride was still
time for Christmas, as he had galled by the remembrance of the
promised Martha he would do in a cabal against him in that body,
letter he had sent her from Phila- when he escaped dismissal by only
delphia two weeks before. one vote. He could still flinch at

And while in Philadelphia, amid thought of the disgraceful rout
all the preoccupations of closing of his troops at Kip’s Bay, or the
out his affairs as Commander-in- fiasco of the Brandywine, or the
Chief, he had not forgotten the ap- failure at Germantown. But he
proaching Yuletide. For Martha, could also remember, and with
or Patsy, as he called her, he had satisfaction, the redeeming success
purchased a locket, a hat, and a at Harlem Heights, the victory at
silver coffeepot. For Jackie Custis’ Monmouth, the near-miracle of
widow, Eleanor, he had provided a Trenton, and the final triumph at
fine silk handkerchief. For Elea- Yorktown.


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

1960 THE WASHINGTON MONUMENT 5

But that was all past now. Once variously estimated at from 50 to
he had written: “When we as- 70 millions. In addition, there was
sumed the soldier, we did not lay a huge volume of paper money,
aside the citizen.” Now he would called “Continentals,” which had
lay aside the soldier and resume been lavishly issued during the
the citizen. And there would be war, and which had shrunk in
much to do. He must develop his value to almost nothing.
farms, which had gone sadly to All this was partly the result
pot during the war under the of a fundamental weakness in the
slipshod management of Cousin political organization of the new
Lund. He must improve his stock. country. It was called the United
He wanted also to experiment with States, but actually it was still
various seeds, and with crop rota- only a loosely-knit federation of
tion. There were commercial proj- thirteen independent countries.
ects in his mind, too — a grist mill When a man from Williamsburg
on his place not far from the Man- referred to “my country,” he did
sion House; another mill and a not mean the United States; he
foundry at the Great Falls of the meant Virginia. These thirteen
Potomac; his lands in western ‘countries’ were ineffectually tied
Pennsylvania to develop or sell; a together by the Articles of Con-
canal around the Potomac shoals federation. The Congress, which
for commerce with the western consisted of a single legislative

territory. Yes — much to do. body in which each state had one
vote, could make no laws respec-
The Country Needed Him ‘ting individuals. It could only act

But he reckoned without the for, and upon, the several states;
fame that had come to him. It and even so, a state could do pretty
would never again be possible for much as it pleased, in spite of
him to be a private citizen. He had Congress. Moreover, the states
been touched by destiny. distrusted each other, and many

The war had left the colonies disputes arose among and between
bankrupt. Some twelve million dol- them. New York enacted a tariff
lars were owed abroad on borrow- against New Jersey; Pennsylvania
ings made from foreign govern- and Connecticut were on the verge
ments during the war. At home of going to war with each other
the continental debt in principal over their respective claims to the
and unpaid interest was around 40 Wyoming Valley.
millions. The several colonies or The National, or Confederation,
states were also in debt in amounts government was powerless to pre-


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6 THE FREEMAN February

vent such threats to the general 18,000 were either written by or
peace and welfare because it didn't to or for, or signed by, Washing-
have money enough to support ton; and Dr. John C. Fitzpatrick,
even a police-force army. It could who edited the 37-volume edition
levy no taxes, but had to depend of The Writings of Washington,
upon requisitions which it might estimated ‘that the General wrote
make on the several states —but with his own ‘hand between eight
which the latter could pay or and ten thousandletters!
ignore, as suited their pleasure. I do not know how many of
Perhaps it was only the enormous these were written between 1783
asset of holding title to all the and the Constitutional Convention
vast public domain west of the of 1787, but it is certain that they
Alleghenies that enabled the Con- were many. In his excellent ‘book,
gress to continue its precarious The Constitution of the United
existence as a government. States, Mr. James Mussatti says
Certainly this was an impossible of Washington: “He had . . . kept
situation if the United States was alive the idea of union at a time
ever to become a nation. when his countrymen were in deep
George Washington, private despair. In his ceaseless activity
citizen, saw all this quite clearly. and work through correspondence
In 1783, he wrote Hamilton that with the ‘leaders ‘of other states,
unless Congress were given the the Convention had had its
powers it needed, then “the blood origin.”
we have spilt will avail us noth-
ing.” And later, in writing about A Target for Criticism
the necessity of pointing out the Of course, Washington was
defects of the Articles of Con- guilty of.-one grave offense in the
federation, he added, “All my pri- eyes of certain leftish modern his-
vate letters have teemed with these torians — namely, he was rich! So
sentiments ...and I have endeav- were some others of the Conven-
ored to diffuse and enforce them.” tion, such as Robert Morris,
His private letters! When you George Mason, John Rutledge,:and
keep in mind that such letters in the Pinckneys. One writer of some
those days were handwritten by note, very popular a few years ago
their author, the volume of cor- as a debunking biographer of the
respondence he turned out is al- great, described the Convention as
most unbelievable. The Library of “fifty-five.sleek, well-to-do gentle-
Congress has about 40,000 Wash- men, sitting carelessly in a closed
ington papers, of which about room.” And with a touch of venom


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

1960 THE WASHINGTON MONUMENT 7

he added that Washington, as pre- village shoemaker; and these men
siding officer, was ‘grave, serious were leaders — businessmen, law-
and bored.” yers, bankers, educators, land-
Bored? Maybe he was. Ninety- owners. Naturally, most of them
nine days of presiding over sharp were men of substance. And, of
argument and listening to long- course, they wanted that near-
winded speeches might bore al- worthless paper to have value. So
most anybody. But he was there! did everybody else who had any of
He was there, guiding, counseling, it. Was that bad? Was it an evil
and lending his great prestige to thing to get the new government
the Convention. As for those well- out of bankruptcy and into sol-
to-do, “sleek” delegates, icono- vency? True, there was shameless
clastic writers have belittled speculation in the depreciated
nearly all of them, just as they paper; but that can hardly be laid
have the signers of the Declara- at the door of the delegates.
tion of Independence. One his- Many of those delegates had
torian some years ago was at great abundantly proved their ability to
pains to trace each one’s economic rise above merely personal inter-
status and commercial and finan- est. The assembly included law-
cial connections; and he came up yers, merchants, farmers, educa-
with what he seemed to think was tors, financiers. More than half of
the scandalous information that a them were graduates of institu-
good many of them were holders tions of higher learning. About
of the worthless paper that had two-thirds of them had served
been issued under the Confedera- either in the Continental Congress
tion. The inference was that the or in the Congress of the Confed-
whole idea of the new Constitution eration. Eight had helped write
was therefore simply a scheme to their own state constitutions. Some
validate their paper and redeem had seen actual service under fire
their losses! in the Revolutionary War. Some
The answer to such nonsense is: of them had put their necks in a
Suppose it were true —so what? noose a few years before when
It would have been very strange they signed the Declaration of In-
indeed if many of those delegates dependence. }
had not possessed some of the They were an able, representa-
near-worthless “Continentals,” or tive group of men, hard-headed,
other paper obligations of the practical, business-minded. They
states or of the Confederation: knew the importance of trade and
Nearly everybody did, down to the commerce and of a stable cur-


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

8 THE FREEMAN February

rency. They wanted to bring order tegrity. He was “the Cincinnatus
out of chaos. They wanted — shame of the West.” He was truly the
on them! — to restore the value of Father of his Country.
the country’s money. They wanted
to re-establish the credit of the The Long-Delayed Memorial
new nation. They wanted to create On December 14, 1799, he died
a government that would be strong at Mount Vernon, a world figure,
and that would last. There were honored and revered. He had
extremists among them. There scarcely been laid in the old family
were long and sometimes bitter tomb when Congress took action
arguments. There were also com- authorizing the erection of a suit-
promises and accommodations. At able memorial. But as many an
times the Convention threatened ambitious seeker of government
to blow up, but the wise counsel of funds has since learned, there is
81-year-old Benjamin Franklin a notable difference between an
and the leadership of George authorization and an appropria-
Washington kept them at their tion. A monument was authorized,
difficult task. And so at last they but no funds were made available
finished the job. At last they ham- for its construction.
mered out a Constitution and made This is hardly surprising, in
a nation. view of the financial condition of

And then by unanimous choice the government in the years fol-
George Washington was elected to lowing the Revolutionary War.
be the first President of that na- The matter was later brought up
tion. It was a hard task. There in Congress in 1816 and again in
were great problems, There were 1819 with negative results because
no precedents. Everything he did the costs of the War of 1812 were
was being done for the first time. to be met. It is an interesting point
He had to feel his way. He made that even though veneration for
mistakes. He worried too much Washington was by that time well-
about relatively small matters of nigh universal, members of Con-
protocol. He lacked imagination. gress nevertheless stopped to con-
He was not a theorist. He could sider the condition of the treasury.
not turn a graceful phrase. He What a shockingly unprogressive
was awkward when he tried to attitude that must be for some of
speak in public. He was criticized our present-day spenders to con-
and vilified. template!

But he was a great rock of ° But the members of Congress
patient strength and towering in- evidently felt the same way in


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

1960 THE WASHINGTON MONUMENT 9

1824 when President Monroe thorized” the monument; a site
again laid the matter before them, was selected; the foundation was
and in 1825 when the subject was put in; and on July Fourth the
reopened by John Quincy Adams. cornerstone was laid by President
Finally in 1833, a group of leading Zachary Taylor, who used the same
citizens was called together by the silver trowel Washington had used
then Chief Justice of the Supreme 55 years before when he laid the
Court, John Marshall. As a result cornerstone of the Capitol build-
of that meeting, the Washington ing.
National Monument Society -was For the next six years the work
formed, for the purpose of pri- progressed slowly but satisfac-
vately erecting the long-delayed torily, in spite of obstacles and op-
memorial. position. Some people ridiculed the
The Society went earnestly design. Others said the monument
about the business of raising would fall of its own weight. There
funds by subscription. It was slow were not wanting those who
work; and it was not until fifteen charged that the Monument So-
years later that enough money had ciety was corrupt, and that funds
been raised to begin construction. had been misused. A few grumbled
Meantime, a great competition had because the shaft was not located
been held to determine the design where L’Enfant had said it ought
of the proposed monument. Many to be when he laid out the city —
entries were received, some of the grumblers being oblivious to
them approaching the fantastic in the fact that this would have put
their proportions and ornamenta- the Monument in the middle of
tion. The winning submittal was what was then an extensive
by Robert Mills, a well-known swamp. Such things are the petty
architect of that time. It called for annoyances that plague those who
a decorated obelisk 600 feet tall undertake most any such great
arising out of a sort of colonnaded public work. It remained for the
Roman temple arrangement, cir- most insidious influence of all —
cular in form, about 100 feet high religious intolerance — to bring the
and 250 feet in diameter. This was great enterprise to a halt.

finally modified to the classic As a means of stirring up wide-
obelisk design now familiar to all spread interest in the project —
the world. what we would now call the public

Finally, in 1848 all was ready to relations angle — the Monument
make a beginning on the actual Society had encouraged the con-
construction. Congress again “au- tribution of memorial stones to be


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

10 THE FREEMAN February

placed in visible positions on the weather the ‘“Know-Nothing"”
inner walls of the Monument. The flurry, a real storm had broken
stones came from many sources — upon the country, and the Civil
from cities, states, territories; War was beginning its work of
from fraternal and patriotic or- desolation.
ganizations; and from foreign Of course, quite apart from the
governments that wanted to pay Know-Nothing issue, work on the
tribute to Washington and culti- Monument would in all probability
vate American good will. have closed down anyway during
Among many. such stones, a the war. Even such a distinctly
block of Italian marble from a national piece of construction as
Roman temple had been sent by the new dome over the Capitol
the Pope. It created no particular building was continued only be-
stir; it was just another memorial cause Lincoln insisted that it pro-
stone among many. And then one ceed as an evidence and an emblem
day —or perhaps one night—in of national strength and unity. At
1854, it was stolen —and a very any rate, the Monument was
large chunk of fat was in the fire! stopped cold. Wartime pictures of
To this day it has never been re- the Washington scene show the
covered, and nobody knows who unfinished, truncated shaft, 154
stole it. The theft was generally feet high above the foundation,
attributed to the so-called Know- and to all outward appearance
Nothing political party, which at completely abandoned. And there
that time had a very large follow- it stood for 25 years until the
ing and which, among other project was finally resurrected,
things, was strongly antiforeign this time by the government itself
and anti-Catholic. The Society and under an act of Congress signed by
the Monument were immediately President Grant on August 2,
. and helplessly thrown into the 1876.
middle of a prolonged and bitter
religious controversy. The flow of The Scar of War

contributions shrank to a trickle And then a strange thing oc-
and soon stopped altogether —and curred. The first 150-odd feet of
so did the work. the shaft had been built, or at any

Perhaps the storm would have rate faced, with dressed white
blown over in a few years; but by Maryland marble in 2-foot courses,
1854 the clouds of sectional acri- backed with rubble masonry.
mony were growing very dark in- When work was resumed after the
deed; and before the Society could quarter century hiatus, a few


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

1960 THE WASHINGTON MONUMENT 11

courses were. pulled off to get down foundation was not adequate to
below possible weather damage. take the enormous pressure of the
These were replaced and a few finished monument. It must be
more courses added with white enlarged, they figured, from a bot-
marble from Massachusetts. But tom area of 6,400 square feet to
then the builders went back to the an area of 16,000 square feet. But
same quarries, near Baltimore, -the structure, including the ex- .
from which the original marble isting foundation, was already
had been obtained. But the old nearly 180 feet tall, and weighed
quarry had been flooded, and was about 137,750 tons! The trick was
under some 90 feet of water. How- to insert, so to speak, a new foun-
ever, the same marble (so they dation, without weakening or dis-
thought) was obtainable about a turbing the towering segment of
mile away. It was of a little finer the Monument that was completed.
grain, but was the same color, and The job involved digging out
possessed even greater strength about 70 per cent of the earth
when tested. It was not until it had under the old foundation to a
been incorporated into the Monu- depth of 13 feet 6 inches beneath
ment’s face and had been exposed it, and replacing the excavated
to the weather for some time that earth with concrete. This concrete
it was seen to be of a slightly must reach back about 18 feet
different color. But by that time inside the outer edges of the old
it was too late to do anything foundation, and extend about 23
about it. As a result, even an un- feet outside. Also, in order to dis-
trained eye can detect the differ- tribute the weight over the new
ence today, after the passage of foundation, it was necessary to
80 years, pull out the old rubble-stone foun-

A second interesting problem dation from under the walls of
was the foundation. Originally, it the shaft, and replace it with con-
was 80 feet square at the base and crete. This meant that a little
about 23 feet deep, rising in more than 50 per cent of the old
stepped-pyramid form to where foundation was removed, and that
the shaft proper began. It was about 48 per cent of the shaft’s
built of blue Potomac rock, laid up area was undermined and replaced
in ordinary lime and sand mortar, with concrete. It was an engineer-
with some cement added. When the ing problem of serious propor-
Army engineers, who now took tions; and it was solved without
over, refigured the weights and causing the smallest crack in the
stresses, they decided that such a masonry above it.


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

12 THE FREEMAN February

For What It Stands tain considerations do emerge, and
So much by way of history. But should be of particular meaning
what of the symbolism mentioned to those who are prone to dwell
at the beginning? In what ways upon our country’s shortcomings
is the Monument emblematic of rather than to enlarge upon its
our country? virtues. The shortcomings exist,
Like that country and like all of course; and there are also flaws
its institutions of government, it and imperfections in the Monu-
was born of a great idea, but came ment.
into being through toil and For instance, there is the rela-
trouble, accompanied by delays, tively insignificant size of the in-
disappointments, vilifications, in- dividual marble blocks that face
ternal dissensions, and financial the shaft. One would think that
disaster. And just as its original the designers would have had
foundations were insufficient and greater regard for architectural
insecure and had to be strength- relevancy; but as you stand close
ened with new undergirding while and look up at the towering face
the structure was still a-building, of the Monument, you are struck
so the original foundations of our unpleasantly by the apparently
government, the Articles of Con- trivial size of the blocks, compared
federation, were weak and inade- with the height and breadth of
quate, and our fathers had to re- the space they cover.

place them, even while the nation Also, some of the blocks are
was still a-building, with the new chipped a little, and surface-
foundation of the Constitution. cracked here and there from pres-

And what of the demarcation in sure; and, of course, there is ab-
the color of the marble, the line solutely no adornment of any kind.
that divides the Monument into Even all kinds of planting are ab-
two sections? That is the scar tis- sent from its base. The place is
sue, so to speak, of the Civil War bare and stark and vault-like as
— and it is significant that while you stand near it. The doorway is
the scar is there, it represents no low and squat and uninteresting.
weakness in the structure. I am But now turn your back on the
told that there is no stronger spot offending portal, on the too-small
in all the masonry than along that courses of marble, on the whole
old line where the work was Monument. Walk rapidly away —
stopped so long. not just a few hundred feet, but

Of course, it is easy to pursue several blocks. Leave the Mall and
such analogy too far; and yet cer- start walking up 14th Street. Soon


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

1960 THE WASHINGTON MONUMENT 13

you will think you have lost your- sic beauty but threw it out of bal-
self in the crowded city. But sud- ance?

denly over your shoulder, or over Washington’s Monument! The
the shoulder, it may be, of some phrase summons up the image of
building, you catch a breathtaking that stately and beautiful marble
glimpse of the great white shaft, shaft. It evokes, too, an image of
lifted against the clouds. the towering figure the shaft me-

Or walk down the Mall toward morializes — grown remote and al-
the Lincoln Memorial. Go past the most legendary now with the pass-
reflecting basin. Then turn sud- ing decades, but real, human, dedi-
denly and look back — and be pre- cated, and of such transcendent
pared for a veritable shock of historic importance that his real
pleasure that borders upon awe. monument is a thing that rises

At such moments you are not higher than the great obelisk, and
conscious of any architectural in- casts its shadow infinitely farther.
congruity. Etched sharply in the His real Monument is a nation
sunlight of noonday; bathed at which, like the obelisk, was placed
night in the soft light of the upon a safe and secure founda-
moon; or when the night is black, tion; a nation which bears the
picked out and dramatized by the scars of disunity, now happily ce-
floodlights that surround it — there mented; a nation which, whatever
it stands, a thing of massive and its defects and incongruities, yet
yet somehow fragile beauty, per- rises as a majestic whole among
fect in its dimensions and in its the other nations of our globe.
conception.

And one wonders: how long Shall we keep it so? Or shall we
would it stand if a group of people, overload it with debt and inflation
without engineering knowledge or and the concentrated power that
acquaintance with the laws of Jefferson feared, until it totters
weight and stress, moved in some off balance and on the brink of
day and began pulling out sections collapse?
of the carefully built foundation? Shall we keep it bravely and

And what would happen if such beautifully erect against the skies?
people, ignoring the foundation Or shall we hack away at its foun-
and its limitations upon the super- dations until a breaking point is
structure, chose to festoon the reached, and the noble structure
shaft with great stone balconies is brought down in ruins, to be-
or other adventitious monstrosi- come a rubble monument to our
ties that not only marred its clas- greed, stupidity, and folly? >


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

DEAN RUSSELL

THE (fp) PARTNER SE

WE AMERICANS are only 6.4 per
cent of the world’s population, liv-
ing on less than 6 per cent of the
world’s land area. But we produce
more than 60 per cent of the
world’s cars, trucks, buses, trac-
tors, and other such automotive
equipment. We also lead every
other nation in the production and
use of steel, rubber, oil, clothing,
books, housing, . medicines, meat,
milk, and almost any other prod-
uct or service that the people want
or need. The reason for our pro-
ductive leadership is mot natural
resources; for several other na-
tions equal or excel us in that re-
spect. Nor are we inherently more
intelligent than others; for, after
all, we Americans are merely a con-
glomeration of peoples from every
nation on the face of the globe.
And certainly we don’t work any
harder than the people of various
other countries. Thus the only ma-

Dean Russell, formerly of the Foundation staff,
is professor of economics at Rockford College.
This article is from a study he has recently

made on the automobile and its impact on the:

American economy and government.

14

jor difference between us and
others would appear to be our
form of government. For a mo-
ment, let’s return to that Consti-
tutional Convention of 1787 and
try to discover just what those
founding fathers were trying to
accomplish.

The primary objective of our
forefathers was to insure maxi-
mum freedom of action and equal-
ity of opportunity to every citizen
in his personal and business af-
fairs. To insure that primary ob-
jective of the Revolution, the
founders of this nation designed a
cuinbersome governmental system
of checks and balances, of limited
powers, and much division of those
powers between the federal and
state governments. And by ar-
ranging for frequent elections of
officials, they hoped thereby to
prevent any one person or group
from holding for long the few
powers that the government did
have. With a few minor excep-
tions, the founders did all in their
power to bar the government from


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

1960 THE SILENT PARTNER 15

the general area of economic ac- our nation, the main highways
tivities. In fact, they deliberately were generally built and operated
designed one of the most econom- by private turnpike companies.
ically inefficient forms of govern- Water transportation was con-
ment ever known. The reason for trolled by private interests. The
that becomes more understandable railroads were all privately owned.
when we remember that they had The active part played by govern-
just led a successful rebellion ment varied from nothing to very
against the planned economy of little in meeting the economic
the government of King George needs and desires of the people.
III. They were in no mood to en- Never before in the history of the
dorse in a new form what they world had a government sat idly
had just rejected in an old form. by while its people did almost any-
Except in time of war, the gov- thing they wanted to do. And as a
ernment wasn’t expected to do direct result of that inactivity, this
much of anything. And it didn’t. nation experienced a release of
It bumbled along slowly and inef- human energy and accomplish-
ficiently, generally doing only ment that astounded the world.
those few things that had to be
done in order to keep it operating Inevitable Mistakes
at all. On occasions, the duly elect- Were there injustices? Of
ed and appointed officials of our course there were. Was there suf-
government rose to great heights fering? Yes, there was. Did some
of statesmanship. On other occa- persons exploit other persons?
sions, they sank to equally great They did. Were the votes and in-
depths of sordid logrolling. All in fluence of some senators and gov-
all, the system of government ernors for sale? They were — and
established by our forefathers was they were bought. Was there any
a pretty good mechanism to insure favoritism? There was indeed.
the primary objective for which it Were there many examples of
was established — maximum free- greed, stupidity, and outright
dom for the individual citizen. criminality? Yes, there were
In the area of economic goods countless such examples — by both
and services, the government gen- governmental and private inter-
erally confined itself to encourag- ests.
ing and aiding others (both per- Point out all the mistakes and
sons and companies) to exploit, evils you wish (they are easy
develop, and settle the nation. enough to find), and then look
Throughout the early history of again at the over-all record. Never


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

16 THE FREEMAN February

before in all history were so many ernmental controls over economic
people so well fed, clothed, and affairs. Here a man was his own
housed. There was more laughter master, and both he and his chil-
and human happiness in this land dren could rise as high as they
than in any other. Never before were capable of rising. Many of
had the world ever witnessed such them became rich and famous, and
an outpouring of the material almost all of them improved their
things of life — as well as an un- lot in one way or another. There
paralleled abundance of charity, were no price controls, and food
love, and respect for the individual and manufactured products were
person. Thousands and hundreds- both plentiful and cheap. There
of<-thousands of schools and were no wage controls, and wages
churches sprang up across the were the highest in the world.
land. Here the Biblical injunction There were no limits to the profits
to feed the hungry and clothe the a man could make, but he had to
naked became a part of our daily produce something the people
lives. Provision was made for the wanted to buy before he could
widow and the orphan, the sick make any profit at all. We were
and the poor, the halt and the the “melting pot” — for dreams
blind. We first helped ourselves, and economic ideas, as well as for
and then we helped our less pro- persons with different back-
ductive neighbors — both at home grounds. We were a brawling,
and abroad. For the most part, sprawling melange of all races,
our government remained strictly religions, nationalities, and lan-
passive in the market place. It guages. Among us were the am-
seldom concerned itself with what bitious and the lazy, the weak and
‘was produced or how it was dis- the strong, the fool and the genius,
tributed. And millions of people, evil men and honorable men. We
from lands where governments ac- could (and did) tolerate strange
tively participated in both pro- religious ideas. We could (and also
duction and distribution, came did) tolerate equally foolish ideas
pouring into the United States. about carriages that would run
They came in search of oppor- without horses.

tunity for themselves and their

children. Here a man could work Unofficial Growth

for others or for himself. Here Meanwhile, the government con-
there was no state religion, no tinued its traditional policy of -
hereditary nobility, no rigid class doing mostly nothing — except to
barriers, and, especially, no gov- act as a sort of referee that did


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

1960 THE SILENT PARTNER 17

a reasonably fair job of restrain- that’s all it did. And when John
ing murderers, robbers, and out- B. Dunlop, a Scottish veterinary
right frauds. The government surgeon living in Belfast, Ireland,
didn’t concern itself at all about first developed his idea for an air-
Oliver Evans and his ideas for a filled rubber tire, neither London
road vehicle that would run under nor Washington knew anything
its own power. True enough, in about it. Dr. Dunlop was merely
1792 the new government granted trying to devise some way to pre-
him a patent, but what he did with vent his young son from shaking
it was strictly up to him. When himself to pieces as he rode his
Charles Goodyear patented his iron-tired bicycle over the cobble-
method for vuleanizing rubber in stoned streets of that city. When
1844, the government obviously his idea proved to be a practical
knew about it since a patent was success, both his government and
involved. But it showed no further ours learned about it only when he
interest in the process. (The com- applied for a dual patent in 1889.
missioner who issued that patent, While bicycle companies in both
Henry Ellsworth, stated in his countries were most interested in
1844 Annual Report that “the ad- his invention, neither of the two
vancement of the arts from year governments appeared to care
to year taxes our credulity and about it one way or the other.

seems to presage the arrival of When, in 1893, the Duryea
that period when human improve- brothers used a by-product of
ment must end.”) Colonel Drake’s oil to supply the

As far as can be determined, the power for their “horseless car-
government knew nothing at all riage,” our government had no
about the world’s first oil well that idea at all that America’s first
was brought in by E. L. Drake practical automobile was finally in
at Titusville, Pennsylvania, in operation. The officials in Wash-
1859. The government had neither ington couldn’t have cared less.
encouraged nor discouraged him. Nor did the government have
The problem of what to do with any interest at all in the first fac-
the oil (if anything) was left tories built specifically to manu-
strictly with “Colonel” Drake. In facture automobiles in 1899 — the
due course, the government also Olds gasoline cars in Detroit,
issued patents on several types of Michigan, and the Stanley
internal combustion engines that Steamers in Tarrytown, New
had been invented or improved York, and Bridgeport, Connecti-
upon by its free citizens —but cut. The government treated R. E.


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

18 THE FREEMAN February

Olds and those twin brothers course, the booming automobile
(F. 0. and F. E. Stanley) exactly industry began using so much
as it was later to treat Henry Ford gasoline — the ‘“‘useless” by-prod-
and the thousands of other persons uct of oil — that millions of per-
who went into the automobile sons all over the world were soon
business — it just ignored them depending on it for their liveli-
entirely. When, over the years, hoods. Until the oil industry was
almost all of those automobile com- a highly successful business, the
panies failed and went out of busi- government left it completely
ness, the government did nothing. alone.
When a few of them succeeded In short, it is safe to say that
and made fortunes for the owners, the government played no part
the government continued to do whatever in the development of
nothing. the automobile and the primary
Nor did the government in any industries based on it — except the
way encourage Captain Anthony crucially vital part of doing ab-
F. Lucas as he began drilling into solutely nothing, one way or the
those strange “dome formations” other. And for that, we are for-
he had observed all along the ever indebted to the founders of
coasts of Louisiana and Texas. our nation who deliberately
Actually, Captain Lucas was planned it that way.
mostly interested in finding salt True enough, the government
and sulphur. He was about as did build almost all of the roads
astounded as anyone else on Jan- the automobile now runs on. But
uary 10, 1901, when his drilling it is doubtful if anyone will claim
rig was hurled skyward by the that our highways have kept pace
fantastic gusher of oil he had with the development and needs
tapped at “Spindletop” near Beau- of the automobile. Even if the pro-
mont, Texas. There was a good posed Interstate Highway System
market for sulphur and salt, but is completed, the over-all road
about the only use for oil lay in situation will still be grossly in-
the kerosene that could be refined adequate for the amount and type
from it. One cynic looked at that of traffic it must carry.
160-foot geyser of gas and oil
and asked Lucas, “What are you Just Suppose!
going to do with it — feed it to the A student of this problem once
longhorns ?”’ Captain Lucas found succinctly summed up the differ-
the answer to his problem in De- ence between public and private
troit, not in Washington. In due development of transportation fa-


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

1960 THE SILENT PARTNER 19

cilities in this novel manner: Sup- mostly to private initiative. We
pose, he said, that around 1900, are further fortunate that the ac-
the government had decided to as- tual building of our highways is
sume full responsibility for de- also done by private construction
veloping and building automobiles companies, with the government
—and had left the building of confining itself to a supervisory
roads to private enterprise. What capacity. Otherwise, the present
might have happened? He pre- deplorable situation might well be-
dicted that, under those circum- come intolerable.
stances, we would today have a )
highway system far superior to The Modern Trend
the few, crude automobiles that Be that as it may, the tradi-
would have been produced by gov- tional American role of govern-
ernment. (And he might well have ment as a “silent partner” has
added that a privately-owned been steadily changing over the
‘““General Roads Corporation’ past 50 years or so in all economic
would probably be running a na- areas. It is changing because we
tional contest to solicit ideas citizens want our government to
whereby government might be en- become more active in our daily
couraged to build more and better affairs. In no sense is the change
cars to run on the private highway due to any “plot,” either foreign
system.) Actually, of course, we or domestic. We ourselves de-
can never know what might have manded it and voted for the per-
been. But we do know beyond any sons who promised to do it. And
shadow of a doubt that the gov- as was to be expected, we are get-
ernment’s roads have not kept ting what we want.
pace with the development of the Perhaps we are wise enough
automobile. (and are now experienced enough)
In no sense is this a criticism of to keep our active and largely un-
government as such. Actually, restricted government within rea-
when all is said and done, our gov- sonable bounds. Perhaps we aren’t.
ernment has done a far better job No one can say with absolute cer-
of road building than we had any tainty. But this much is sure: The
reason to expect. And as time goes continuing trend toward more ac-
on, perhaps it will do an even tive participation by our govern-
better job. Even so, we are for- ment in our daily affairs and prob-
tunate indeed that the developing lems is a complete reversal of
and building of our automobiles, the principles laid down by the
railroads, and airplanes was left founding fathers in 1787.


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

20 THE FREEMAN February

Today, it is becoming increas- themselves that caused the de-
ingly popular to scoff at their con- velopment of the automobile and
cepts of eternal principles, per- the countless other products and
sonal responsibility, and severely services that have made this earth
limited governmental powers. a more pleasant place to live. Con-
Those ideas of our forefathers are versely, the world-wide situation
now often called “horse and that has been threatening for so
buggy” principles that might work many years to plunge us back into
in a frontier community but not the barbarism of complete govern-
in an industrial age of rapid trans- mental controls is due almost ex-
portation and communication. The clusively to a rejection of those
fact remains, however, that it was principles and concepts —in all
those “horse and buggy” principles nations, including our own. ~

Trowrairec] a
BIE ERE URIE]

HowARD E. KERSHNER

THE BEST estimates indicate that A partial answer to the problem
by 1975 there will be about 100 would be to encourage older people
million Americans under 20 years who are in good health and who
of age, and another 21 million desire to do so, to continue work-
over 65. About one half of our ing. Another part of the answer
population will be nonproductive. would be to encourage more sav-
Moreover, all of us want a higher ing, with the thought that one
standard of living. How can a should strive to accumulate enough
smaller percentage of the popula- to care for himself in retirement

tion produce more for all? - without becoming a burden on his
J family or on society.
Dr. Kershner is president of the Christian Free- If fewer workers in proportion

dom Foundation. This article is from his weekly .
column, ‘It’s Up to You,” September 28, 1959. to the total population are to pro-


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

1960 TOWARD A BETTER FUTURE 21

duce more for all, greater efficiency capital accumulation is sure to
must be developed and man-hour come if we reward the saver and
output increased. Working harder protect the individual in the right
will help, but mainly such in- to enjoy, possess, and dispose of
creased production must come that which he earns, as he pleases.
from better tools and equipment. Forcible distribution of wealth
In order to provide these we must by means of increasing welfare-
have more saving. We will have statism will discourage effort and
more saving if we offer more sub- so slow the creation of wealth that
stantial reward to those who are poverty will be the lot of all.
willing to deny themselves the One is forced to save when he
pleasures of current consumption pays his Social Security taxes, but
in order to accumulate capital. En- these sums do not increase pro-
couragement for savers is perhaps duction. They are not used con-
the keystone of the arch leading structively for better tools and
to more abundance. equipment but are immediately ex-
Another important stone in this pended. On the other hand, if we
arch is to encourage every person were responsible for ourselves, our
to do his best by assuring him that savings would be invested con-
he will be permitted to enjoy the structively and production would
“fruits” of his efforts. That is, expand accordingly.
that he may be allowed peaceably
to possess whatever he earns, ac- Another keystone in the arch
cumulates, and creates. One will leading to a better future is to
live frugally and accumulate prop- avoid excessive government spend-
erty if he has no fear that it will ing, leading to inflation. Inflation
be taken from him by bandits or not only steals the savings of
excessive taxation. If we give our thrifty people and destroys the
citizens that assurance, we may be security which they, by hard work,
sure that capital accumulation will have accumulated for the future
proceed rapidly and that increased but it also discourages the oncom-
production will keep pace with it. ing generation from attempting to
With better tools and equipment reach security by that means.
the one half of our people who will Thus, it not only destroys existing
be working in a few years can pro- capital but militates against the
vide more for all of us and at the creation of new capital. It is the
same time work fewer hours. Capi- deadly enemy of greater security
tal accumulation is the key to for all men and more abundant
better material conditions. And living. PS


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

\ With tongue in cheek, a well-
known individualist explains . .

* WHY THE U.S.S.R.

MUST succeeD

FRANK CHODOROV

SOME American scientists have The average American citizen,
cautiously questioned the authen- whose knowledge of physics is at
ticity of the Luniks. Nobody has best limited to a six-months course
said flatly that these trips to the at high school, is ill-equipped to
moon are hoaxes; scientists are get into the hassle. The best he can
not given to such accusations, for do is to recall that Edgar Allen
their disposition is to accept at Poe in one of his stories described
face value the statements of all a trip to the moon in such detail
scientists, including those of com- that the scientists of the time as-
munist persuasion. Such skepti- serted the thing could have hap-
cism as has been expressed rests pened. Well, if a storyteller could
on the lack of independent, non- fool the scientists, why cannot a
communist evidence supporting commissar?

the claims from Moscow. Further- Nevertheless, a view prevails
more, they say, the announcements that even if these moon satellites
from Moscow always come a day are mere fantasies, we must ac-
or two after the Luniks are sup- cept them as fact. For, if it should
posed to have been launched, which be proven that the Luniks were
is too late for verification. And, in hoaxes, the bottom would fall out
further support of their doubts, of our “race” with the commu-
they point to the fact that the So- nists. Our Washington spenders,
viets do not supply the rest of the backed by ambitious civilian and
world with such information as military scientists, would lose val-
would help track the satellites in uable support for their requests
their course. What have the Rus- for more money.

sian scientists to hide? The truth? This Lunik business suggests

22


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

1960 WHY THE U.S.S.R. MUST SUCCEED 23

how important it is for some of news was a godsend, and to those
our citizenry that the commissars who yearn for federal monopoly of
make a bang-up success of all their atomic power, it was a stimulant.
ventures. Whenever they succeed Certainly, they said, we must not
in doing anything spectacular, or let the Russians get ahead of us in
even claim an achievement, some- this business, even though we are
body with an axe to grind can use now producing as much electricity
the event to scare the American as we can use with low-cost, con-
citizen out of his wits, so that he ventional methods. We must have
loses all power of resistance to de- nationalization — and quickly!

mands made on him. That is to When Khrushchev announced
say, there is in this country a the Kremlin’s intention to outdo us
vested interest in the success of in handouts to underdeveloped

the U.S.S.R. countries, our proponents of for-
} eign aid were in their heaven. The
Various Vested Interests fact that Khrushchev wasn’t giv-

When the first Sputnik hit the ing anything but a little well-se-
air, a cry went up that we must cured credit, and that he made sure
increase the number and improve of getting his pound of flesh in
the brand of our scientists. Who every transaction, was blithely
raised the largest howl? The pro- overlooked; nor did anybody ask
fessional educationists who had whether Soviet production was
long been demanding the nationali- capable of supporting such gifts.
zation of our schools through “fed- Our foreign-aidists accepted his
eral aid.” For many years before announcement as a challenge: If
the advent of the Sputnik, these we want to win the good will of
opinion molders had been harass- the world, we must pit the dollar
ing Congress, and the country, against the ruble!
with their demands for federal And so it goes. Despite the fact
funds to overcome statistical that every achievement claimed by
shortages of teachers and class- the commissars is guarded from
room space. Now the Sputnik gave scrutiny, despite the fact that
their cause a fillip: money was what little information escapes the
needed to make scientists! Iron Curtain throws doubt on

Recently, a story of the remark- these claims, there are Americans
able advances by the Russians in who are most anxious to accept
the development of hydroelectric them at face value. Such persons
plants hit the public press. To the seem to have a pathological in-
advocates of public power this clination to believe every word and


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

24 THE FREEMAN February

every statistic published in Prav- emanating from the Kremlin —and
da, not because they are pro-com- supported by American propa-
munist, but because they are con- gandists — the best we can do is
vinced that political power can ac- to fall back on common sense and
complish miracles; a Soviet suc- principle. We know from the evi-
cess supports their faith in the dence of the ages that slaves are
competence of government and poor producers. That is the same
gives them courage to demand as saying that when the worker
more intervention at home. They is deprived of the right to possess
have an intellectual interest in the and enjoy the fruits of his labor
success of the U.S.S.R. — which is private property — he
The biggest and most powerful has no interest in production, and
vested interest in Russian achieve- his output will tend toward the
ment is the American bureaucracy.” minimum of mere existence. That
Their jobs depend on it. If the is a universal truth. True, he may
American people can be convinced, produce a little more to avoid the
for instance, that in the so-called lash of the master’s whip, but that
propaganda race these clever com- little more cannot constitute pros-
munists are outdistancing us, the perity. Therefore, since the denial
United States Information Service of property is the basic tenet of
can wangle a sizable appropriation communism, we can assert without
from Congress. Foreign aid does fear of contradiction that Russian
not spend itself; thousands of production is necessarily limited
agents all over the world must and that there is no possibility of
work hard to get rid of billions. its matching capitalistic produc-
The huge State Department tion. There is no competition for
thrives on this so-called competi- us there — unless we persist in go-
tion from the Soviets. How many ing socialistic.
government jobs would lose justi- We know, too, that it is a mat-
fication if it were demonstrated ter of principle with communists
that Russia is about as competi- to lie. They have made it plain in
tive to unhampered private enter- all their authentic literature since
prise as a high school football Das Kapital that truth is anything

team is to a professional eleven? that promotes the cause of commu-
nism, and if a statement favorable
The Common Sense Approach to communism is contradicted by

Since we who have to foot the fact, the fact must be denied, al-
bill are in no position to challenge tered, or hidden. That is dogma
the information or misinformation with all true communists. Why,


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

1960 WHY THE U.S.S.R. MUST SUCCEED 25

then, should we accept any claim without question, if we heed our
they make without demanding own people who have a vested in-
supporting evidence, and evidence terest in the “race” with Russia,
not of their own making? Would what will be the result? We shall
it not be wiser to begin by doubt- spend ourselves into a socialistic
ing every statement they make? regime. We shall give our own
Taking them at their word, we government more and more power
should judge every statistic they to do with our wealth as the bu-
produce, every promise they make, reaucrats see fit, and in the end
every word they utter as to its im- our political and economic system
portance to the cause of commu- will approximate that of our pre-
nism; what may be true to them sumed competitor. And the com-
may not be truth at all. munists will match or exceed our

If, on the other hand, we con- accomplishments, not because they
tinue to act on the assumption have progressed but because we
that communists can be believed have retrogressed. ->

Political Behavior

IT 1s TRUE that human beings fall confronts us in our public life as
farther below their own standards well as in our private affairs. The
when they are acting in the plural, . fact that we do behave worse in the
as “we,” than when each of them is plural than in the singular does not
acting in the singular, as “I.” We make our political bad behavior
know from personal experience that, good.

when we are acting as parents or as The choice between right and wrong
practitioners of a profession, we act js intrinsic to all human action. I do
more responsibly, more altruistically, not escape it by changing over from
and more humanely than when we the first person singular to the first
are acting as members of a commit- person plural. I am still misbehaving

tee or as voters in an electorate. when I misbehave as “we.”
Yet, when one has faced and ac- ARNOLD TOYNBEE
knowledged the matter of fact, the New York Times Book Review

choice between right and wrong still August 30, 1959


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

"Two PAuL L. POIROT

f

FOR YEARS, the term ‘economic A workable exchange economy
power” was used almost exclu- presupposes various conditions, in-
sively to suggest something bad cluding the infinite variability in
about Big Business. But now, with human beings with their differing
the increasing concern over the wants and differing capacities to
“economic power’ of labor unions, fulfill such wants. Men with spe-
it seems high time to examine the cialized skills, tolerant of their
charge. Just what is the nature of reasonable differences, and re-
economic power? And to what ex- spectful of the lives and properties
tent, if any, do labor unions have of one another, have reason to co-
it? Or, is it some other kind of operate, compete, and trade, thus
power that unionism exerts? serving others in order to serve
In terms of human relation- themselves. This is the kind of
ships, the word power means the noncoercive, creative power that
ability to influence others, whereas has provided most of the tools,
economic has something to do with capital, technological development,
the management of one’s own busi- goods, services, and leisure that
ness. Economic power, then — un- are available in increasing quanti-
less it is a total contradiction of ties to increasing numbers of per-
terms — must refer to the volun- sons over the world. This, briefly,
tary market-exchange arrange- is economic power.
ments in a so-called free society. In what respects, then, and to
It must mean purchasing power, what extent, do labor unions pos-
or the ability to get what you want sess and wield economic power?
from others by offering to trade Unions, as organizations of la-
something of yours that they borers, represent a great deal of
want. economic power in the form of

26


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

1960 TWO KINDS OF POWER 27

ever-scarce, always-valuable, crea- prior conditions for an optimum of
tive human effort. Any person production, trade, and voluntary
with the skill and strength and cooperation among men is a com-
will to produce something of value mon or mutual respect for human
to himself or to any potential cus- life and for the personal means of
tomer possesses economic power. sustaining life: namely, private
If others will buy his goods or property. Peace and progress with-
services, he has purchasing power. in society are threatened every
Every man who works with head time any person resorts to vio-
or hands and has a valuable serv- lence, coercion, theft, or fraud to
ice to offer is a potential customer fulfill his wants at the expense of,
or trader or buyer for the services and without the consent of, others
of other laborers. The variability involved. Such power, used in an
of natural talents, magnified in attempt to obtain something for
many instances through special- nothing, is in sharp contrast to
ized training, explains why la- the economic power involved in
borers can and do trade services peaceful purchase or trade.
to mutual advantage. All savers
and property owners also are po- Respect for Life and Property
tential buyers of labor, particu- Obviously, if human labor is to
larly when their savings are in achieve its maximum purchasing
the form of business properties power, then it is essential that
with facilities and tools and man- savings, as well as skills, be pro-
agerial talent of the job-providing tected as private property in the
type. The greater such capital ac- hands of, and under the control of,
cumulation within a society, the those individuals responsible for
greater is the demand for human their accumulation and develop-
labor to put it to its most produc- ment —those who have proven
tive use, and the greater is the themselves in open competition
purchasing power of every avail- most fit to be in charge of the eco-
able laborer. Clearly, human labor nomic goods or services involved.
possesses tremendous economic Throughout history, mankind has
power, with infinite opportunity looked to government to provide
for multiplication through judi- such protection for life and prop-
cious accumulation and use of sav- erty. Government is organized
ings. But such purchasing power coercive power, hopefully designed
inheres in individuals, whether or to suppress any and all attempts
not they belong to labor unions. at violence, force, or fraud that
As previously hinted, one of the might threaten the life or prop-


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

28 THE FREEMAN February

erty of any peaceful person. The tions or combinations in restraint
power of government is political of production and trade are coer-
rather than economic, a power of cive in nature — monopolistic at-
taxation and seizure rather than tempts to suppress, prohibit, re-.
purchasing power through volun- pulse, control, and interfere with
tary exchange. This is why the the economic power of peaceful
ideal of a free society requires cooperation.

that government be strictly limited It is precisely such coercive
in scope to the defense of life and practices that the government is
property, otherwise leaving all supposed in theory to suppress, so
peaceful persons to their own de- that all individuals may concen-
vices, producing, trading, and what trate on their respective creative

not. specialties. And whenever the offi-
cially recognized government co-

Examples of Coercion operates with, condones, or merely
Now, consider for a moment fails to inhibit private or unofficial
some forms of human action — resort to violence and coercion,

some expenditures of human labor these forces, in effect, take control
— that might be classified as coer- and become the government, thus
cive rather than economic. For in- perverting it from an agency of
stance, robbery, or seizure of an- defense to one of actual assault
other person’s property without against life and property.

his consent, would so qualify. The

enslaving and forcing of other Well-Intended Mistakes

human beings to work against Nor is this abuse of coercive
their will could not properly be power always or necessarily the
called an exercise of economic product of bad intentions; more
power. It isn’t economic power if often than not the aims may seem
force is used to curb active or quite laudable —to aid the poor,
potential competition —as when the weak, the young, the old, the
one producer or group threatens underdeveloped, the sick, the
or employs violence to bar the starving. But however worthy the
efforts of others to produce; or aims, troubles arise the moment
when one or more sellers deny coercive power instead of eco-
other sellers access to an uncom- nomic power is employed to
mitted market demand; or when achieve such goals. Coercive power,
certain laborers combine to deny while the safest and most effective
other laborers access to open job kind of power when politically or-
opportunities. Such individual ac- ganized and managed for protec-


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

1960 TWO KINDS OF POWER 29

tive purposes, is wholly unsuited Union Power Reconsidered
for any creative purpose. That's Now, let's return to our original
why it is so very important that question and consider in what re-
government be strictly limited in spects and to what extent labor
scope and function to the suppres- unions in the United States today
sion of lesser or private attempts possess and wield economic power
at violence and coercion. Leave all as distinguished from coercive
else to the unbounded creative power. We have already recognized
economic power of individuals the tremendous economic power
competing and cooperating volun- possessed by laborers in the form
tarily in their mutual interest and of creative human effort. But what
to their mutual benefit. Every ex- happens to this economic power in
tension of coercive power, beyond the process of organizing a labor
the bare minimum required to union?
maintain peace and order, is at If membership in the union is
the expense of economic power and voluntary, then exchange presum-
diminishes its potential achieve- ably occurs, the laborer offering
ments for the improvement of man his dues in return for something
and society. useful from the union such as im-
Let us summarize here with a proved communication with man-
listing of some of the major dis- agement, better knowledge of job
tinctions between the two kinds opportunities, of market condi-
of power: tions, of competitive wage rates,
and the like. Conceivably, some

Economic ~~ Coercive laborers may well gain consider-
Purchase Seize ably from such an expenditure or
Exchange Tax trade, greatly improving their ca-
Diversify Conform pacities to serve themselves and
Compete Monopolize others, without coercion against
Advertise Suppress or injury to anyone concerned.
Promote Prohibit Such a beneficial representative
Serve Control function would clearly come under
Cooperate Interfere the category of economic power in
Assist Restrain .

Attract Repulse a labor union. .

Create Destroy But what can be said of other
Develop Limit union powers: the flaunting of
Multiply Divide minority and individual rights;
Tolerate Assault the tax-like collection of dues for

Reward Penalize uses objectionable to some mem-


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

30 THE FREEMAN February

bers; the enforced conformity to liberty, and property, then in
featherbedding and make-work theory the government must sup-
practices, boycotts, seniority pat- press it. Otherwise, such coercion
terns, slowdowns, strike orders, will, in effect, displace the duly
and the like; the monopolistic constituted government and per-
practice of excluding nonmembers vert it into an agency of assault
from job opportunities; the war- against life and property. In any
like picketing of private property; event, it seems highly improper to
the shootings, bombings, wreck- refer to this major, coercive aspect
ing, destruction, open violence, and of modern labor unionism as a
intimidation ? What kind of power form of economic power. Economic
is this? power is a blessing — not a burden

If it is a coercive threat to life, — to individuals and to society. &

Comedy at the Bargaining Table

DURING the sixteenth and seven- side of the table, just as consistently
teenth centuries the “commedia dell’ play the hero’s role by indefatigably
arte,” an Italian form of drama, was fighting for higher wages and thus a
very much in fashion in our part of higher standard of living.
the world. Characteristic of this In spite of the annual comedy,
drama were such standardized roles everything shows that it is actually
as the deceived and ludicrous hus- the competition on the labor market
band, Pajazzo; the cunning servant, that decides the wage level. If nego-
Harlequin; the comic fat man, Pul- tiations with the trade unions were
cinella; the blustering soldier, II discontinued entirely, employers still
Capitano; the coquettish young wom- would be forced by competition with
an, Colombine. other employers to pay about the
The annually recurrent comedy same wages as they now do. Why is
around the bargaining table, where it that, in such circumstances, the
employers and employed play the employers agree to take part in the
main parts, reminds one of the “com- annual comedy around the bargain-
media dell’ arte.” The employers al- ing table and, in front of the whole
ways play the part of the villain in country, play the part of villains —
the piece by appearing to oppose reactionaries who are trying to put
with all their might the workers’ de- tha brake on progress?
mands for wage increases. The trade PROFESSOR SVEN RYDENFELT
union representatives, on the other University of Lund, Sweden


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

PURE
COLLECTIVE
BARGAINING

or — THE BURDEN OF SPOTLESS POWER

It was a chilly evening
At story-telling time.
Old Kaspar chewed a dead cigar
And nursed his rum-and-lime,
While Peterkin and Wilhelmine
Warmed up the futurama screen.

They saw a squad of marching men,
All dressed in dazzling white,
Who halted where a factory gate
Was bathed in neon light.
Then facing left and hoisting signs
They blocked the gate with solid lines.

“Now tell us what it’s all about!”
The little children cried.
“It’s Pure Collective Bargaining,”
Old Kaspar soon replied.
“They’ll keep blockades at all the gates
Until the firm capitulates.”

“But why are pickets dressed in white?”
Asked little Peterkin.
“It symbolizes Purity,”
Said Kaspar with a grin.
“The unions say they’ve purged their ranks
Of robbers, thugs, and mountebanks.”

“It seems a very great reform,”
Breathed little Wilhelmine.

“It does indeed,” Old Kaspar sighed,
“The greatest ever seen.

But still the cost of living soars

And wealth escapes to foreign shores.”

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

31



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

A GREAT
MAN

“WARNED US
of DANGERS
AHEAD

HAROLD BLAKE WALKER

WHEN we celebrate the birthdays 27, 1837. “By what means,” he
of men like Abraham Lincoln, it is asked, “shall we fortify against
well to be reminded of what we it? Shall we expect some trans-At-
owe to yesterday. America the lantic military giant to step the
Beautiful, as we know it, was pur- ocean and crush us at a blow?”

chased by the courage and dedica- Thoughtfully, Lincoln answered
tion of men and women who as- his own question: “All the armies
sumed responsibility in days of of Europe, Asia, and Africa com-
crisis. We may wisely profit by bined, with all the treasure of the

their understanding of both the earth ... in their military chest
nature and the hazards of free- . . . could not by force take a
dom. drink from the Ohio or make a

“At what point shall we Ameri- track on the Blue Ridge in a trial
cans expect the approach of dan- of a thousand years.”
ger?” Mr. Lincoln wondered in an What, then, is the danger Lin-
address to a young men’s lyceum coln foresaw in 1837? The danger,
in Springfield, Illinois, on January ‘if it ever reach us... must spring
- from amongst us; it cannot come
Mr. Walker is Minister of the First Presby. 1rom abroad. If destruction be our
terian Church, Evanston, Illinois. This article lot, we must ourselves be its au-

first appeared in the Chicago Tribune. .
Illustration: Culver Service, N. Y. thor and finisher. As a nation of

32


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

1960 A GREAT MAN WARNED US OF DANGERS AHEAD 33

free men, we must live thru all complex society, in a crowded
time or die by suicide.” world, but in it individuals are no
Lincoln, of course, knew nothing less significant than in the days of
of rockets or sputniks or jet the pioneers. Persons who think
planes. He lived in a different age, and serve and assume responsibil-
and yet what he said in 1837 re- ity for society are the clew to tri-
mains true today. The crisis in our umph or disaster.
day, as in Lincoln’s day, is far Individuals, assuming responsi-
more internal than external. It is bility in thousands of communi-
in the softness of our self-indul- ties, will determine what happens
gence; in the prejudices of our to our schools and colleges. Per-
minds that masquerade as truth; sons, getting under the load, will
in the failure to discover for our- say whether we have honest or dis-
selves and for our nation centers honest government in villages and
of meaning and value to undergird cities and in Washington. Citizens
creative struggle. everywhere can work in precincts
We will not “live thru all time” and wards and preach from street
with nothing to live for except corners if they are willing to
full dinner pails, two cars in every think their way to convictions
garage, and color TV in every worth preaching about and work-
room. The good life of free men ing to accomplish.
involves something more than a The ultimate question is whether
standard of living. If we want we care most for our comforts or
nothing more than extravagant re- most for our convictions. Do we
ward for minimum productivity, believe enough in the truth that
we are asking for the danger Mr. shall make us free to serve it? Do
Lincoln foresaw. If we wish to be we care enough for integrity to
indulged by a paternalistic gov- risk popular scorn for it? Do we
ernment, assuming the role of cherish freedom enough to turn
Dodo in Alice in Wonderland, say- from our self-indulgence to the al-
ing pontifically, “Everybody has tars of self-discipline?
won and all must have prizes,” we Ours is a day demanding great-
are inviting our own destruction. ness in individual men and women,
greatness in thinking, greatness in
sacrifice, and greatness in disci-
No nation can bear the burden plined service of the highest. As
of the self-indulgent revolt of its Lincoln noted, “If destruction be
people against personal responsi- our lot, we ourselves must be its
bility. To be sure, we live in a author....” -~

The Responsibility Is Personal


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

EDMUND A. OPITZ

AMERICANS appear to like most members of a Senate committee.
everything about socialism except “Now this word (sic!) ‘Socialist
the name. Let a politician lift a Party’ is much misunderstood
plank out of the old time Socialist here, because it is a general term.
Party platform, paint it red, In many countries the Socialist
white, and blue to disguise its Party is what we would call here
origin, and the voters will go on a the New Deal Party or a Fair Deal
stampede until they find some of- Party and not the theoretical so-
fice for him. Socialism, thus do- cialist of the historic kind.”
mesticated, is safe and sane This confusion about socialism
enough for a Fourth of July ora- as between substance and label be-
tion. But if an opinion poll is speaks the need of a definition. As
taken of these same voters it re- a first step, turn to Webster's dic-
veals that they are as hostile to tionary. There we read this: “So-
the socialist label as they are cialism: A political and economic
friendly to its substance. “For the theory of social organization based
great majority of Americans,” la- on collective or governmental own-
ments a pair of certified thinkers ership and democratic manage-
who jointly edit a socialist month- ment of the essential means for
ly, “ ‘socialism’ is little more than the production and distribution of
a dirty word.” goods.” This definition may be
Thus it was necessary for Mr. sharpened to read as follows: “A
W. Averell Harriman, when he di- conviction or belief that organized
rected the mutual security pro- police force — government — should
gram, to explain away foreign dictate the creative activities of
“socialism” for the inquiring citizens within a society by the
- ownership and/or control of the
The Reverend Mr. Opitz is a member of the means of production and ex-

staff of the Foundation for Economic Educa- »
tion. change.

34


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

1960 SOCIALISM — SUBSTANCE AND LABEL 35

Such definitions as these are all sonal imaginations to the dust.
right as far as they go, but they We have the light. We know what
omit an important fact about so- we are for, and that the light that
cialism: that it is a substitute now glimmers so dimly through
religion for many people, arousing us must in the end prevail.”
all the emotional response and eth- This apocalyptic mood was
ical fervor of genuine religion. It shared by Americans in the early
is a dream of the kingdom of God decades of this century. One of
on earth — but, as von Huegel ob- these was the prominent socialist,
served, “without a king and with- George D. Herron. He wrote,
out a God.” “There is approaching — and it is

It was such a religion to H. G. not so far off as it seems — a world
Wells, for example. Wells stands arranged by the wisdom hid in the
about halfway between Karl Marx human heart; a world that is the
and the present. He was active organization of a strong and uni-
among the early Fabians in Great versal kindness; a world redeemed
Britain and wrote his book, New from the fear of institutions and
Worlds for Old, about fifty years of poverty. Even now, derided and
ago. In it he said, discouraged as it is, socially un-

“Socialism is to me a very great trained and inexperienced as it is,
thing indeed, the form and sub- if the instinctual and repressed
stance of my ideal life and all the kindness of mankind were sudden-
religion I possess. I am, by a sort ly let loose upon the earth, sooner
of predestination, a socialist. I than we think would we be mem-
perceive I cannot help talking and bers one of another, sitting around
writing about socialism, and shap- one family hearthstone, and sing-
ing and forwarding socialism. I ing the song of the new humanity.”
am one of a succession — one of a
growing multitude of witnesses, In Aristotle’s View
who will continue. It does not —in These harbingers of a terres-
the larger sense — matter how trial paradise by legislative fiat
many generations of us must toil are not without antecedents. Aris-
and testify. It does not matter, ex- totle encountered them. Proposals
cept as our individual concern, for legislative interference have
how individually we succeed or “a specious air of benevolence,”
fail, what blunders we make, what he says, causing an audience to
thwartings we encounter, what fol- accept them with delight, suppos-
lies and inadequacies darken our ing, “especially when abuses under
private hopes and level our per- the existing system are denounced


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

36 THE FREEMAN February

as due to private property, that by the operational imperatives of
under communism everyone will socialist performance. This is not
miraculously become everyone only true of Russian practice; it
else’s friend. ” But, Aristotle com- is implicit in socialist theory.
ments, “the real cause of these Socialists propose to realize
evils is not private property but their dreams by putting the pro-
the wickedness of human nature.” ductive powers of men under the
The men for whom socialism is direction and control of the state.
a kind of religion, see it as the ful- Socialists prefer to speak of the
fillment of mankind's age-old social ownership of property. But
dream of justice and good will on society — which means all of us —
earth. Lenin brought to fruition cannot act as a whole to own and
the seeds planted as far back as control property; it must act
the Old Testament prophets! through its enforcement agency,
Harry Laidler, of the League for which is government. The men
Industrial Democracy, opens his who comprise the governing agen-
History of Socialist Thought cy in any society are a small mi-
(1927) with a chapter in praise of nority within that society.
Amos, Hosea, Isaiah, Jesus, and In practice, therefore, a social-
St. Augustine. This tactic of mar- ist society is one in which the vast
shaling the great figures of our majority of men are controlled by
religious tradition under the ban- the tiny minority which has power
ner of socialism is designed to to direct their economic activities.
make the critic of modern social- We might put the matter differ-
ism appear in opposition to the ently by saying that the socialist

spiritual giants of our race. dream is based on the delusion
i that men’s other freedoms will be
The Methods Kill the Dream enhanced if they are deprived of

But the dream of justice and economic liberty. By eliminating
good will among men is by no economic liberty and replacing it
means the exclusive possession of with a planned economy socialists
socialists; it is a dream shared by hope to usher in a brave new
all men of generous instincts. It is world.
possible to demonstrate, moreover, It hasn’t worked out that way
that the good things, both material in practice because the theory is
and spiritual, that we desire for all wrong. “Economic control is
all men are undermined by meth- not merely control of a sector of
ods socialists use to attain them. human life which can be separated
The socialist dream is shattered from the rest,” writes F. A.


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

1960 SOCIALISM — SUBSTANCE AND LABEL 37

Hayek, “it is control of the means til recently by expanding political
for all our ends.” Eliminate eco- liberty, invention and technology,
nomic liberty in a society and you capitalist production, and relative
begin to institute a master-slave material abundance. Men ceased to
relationship. The guiding ideals yearn for compensatory delights
which ushered in the modern pe- in the world to come and began to
riod aimed at the liberation of the dream of getting their New Jeru-
individual; from ecclesiastical cor- salem now in “England’s green
ruption, from political tyranny, and pleasant land.”

and from economic bondage. Secular hopes grew wildly, and
These movements of liberation material progress seemed to jus-
converge and the individual is tify them. Conditions of existence
more firmly fettered than ever be- were ameliorated. Life expectancy
fore. What a strange denouement! increased; many diseases were

How did it happen? eliminated. Populations have in-
oo creased at an accelerated rate since
Chronic Discontent 1800; but in spite of this, the

Socialism, as mood, theory, and additional mouths were better fed
practice, is a result of the mate- and the additional bodies were bet-
rial abundance made possible by ter housed and clothed. But this
the industrial revolution. Millions was not enough. For those whose
of people had toiled close to the expectations can only be summed
soil for millennia, only to be re- up by one word, “More!” no addi-
warded by a bare subsistence, at tional increment is ever enough.
best; at worst by plague and fam- Given this mood, discontent be-
ine. Until the modern era, pov- comes chronic in the modern
erty was hardly more attributed world. Material progress must for-
to human arrangements than to ever trail behind expectation be-
cosmic setting; one seemed about cause, in the nature of things, eco-
as fixed as the other. Generations nomic goods are always in short
toiled, fed, bred, and died and, be- supply. This does not reflect a hu-
cause of the general conviction man failure; it is a built-in fea-
that such was man’s fate, enter- ture of the universe. A thing is
tained little hope of bettering their not an economic good unless it is
circumstances. The expectation of scarce relative to human demand
unimaginable progress was re- for it. Human demands, being lim-
leased by the revolutionary itless, invariably outrun supplies,
changes which mark the modern which are naturally limited. This.
period, a period characterized un- simple fact is widely overlooked,


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

'38 THE FREEMAN February

with the result that a sense of ‘Das Kapital”
grievance has become endemic The word “capitalist” was a
among large numbers of people. It Marxian term, imported into the
is simply a reflex of the contrast language for polemical purposes
between a utopian vision and ac- and as a term of abuse. The ‘“cap-
tual living conditions. italist’’ was the owner of the fac-
Being poor is endurable, and be- tories, machines, and tools. He em-
sides, poverty is a relative matter. ployed people to run his equipment
But the feeling that one is being and then, in his depravity, stole
kept poor raises an issue of an al- everything they produced except
together different sort; justice is for the pittance they needed to
involved. Embracing the practical stay alive.
possibility of a heaven on earth is This “surplus value” theory
the first false step; belief in a con- would never have been broached —
spiracy which prevents it from ar- or, if broached, would never have
riving is the second. A mind which caught on — except that the men-
entertains the first foolishness is tality of the period consisted of a
ripe to be infected with the second. utopian expectation, a sense of
A sense of grievance is, of all grievance, and a belief that the
human emotions, the easiest to ex- masses were victims of a con-
ploit; and exploited it was, by spiracy. Out of this soil sprang
grievance collectors and dema- modern collectivist movements,
gogues. Political power had been Marxian and otherwise.
wrested from the kings and dis- But collectivism has been fed by
tributed according to the demo- another tributary as well, a non-
cratic formula. But after the glow theoretical one. Classic liberalism
of exaltation over popular sover- distrusted the state, per se. On
eignty had worn off, it was no- principle it threw up safeguards
ticed that the anticipated new to protect society from undue ex-
dawn had not broken. The imme- tensions of political power. But the
diate inference was that someone democratic principle does not ad-
must be holding it back. The bot- dress itself to the problem of lim-
tleneck could not be political — the iting political authority; it is con-
democratic revolution assured cerned only to get the state oper-
that; therefore, it must be eco- ating under popular auspices, or
nomic. A conspiracy of capitalists majority rule. If a majority wants
prevented the arrival of utopia! the state to undertake some func-
Obviously, we needed an economic tion, there is nothing in the demo-
revolution. cratic principle to forbid it, how-


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

1960 SOCIALISM — SUBSTANCE AND LABEL 39

ever unjust it might be, or how- handout from the public treasury.
ever violative of the principles of Democracy and majority rule be-
liberalism, which make for limited come a screen behind which in-

government. siders operate under the formula:
Votes and taxes for all, subsidies

Perpetuation of Power for us.
The nature of political action is Given popular acceptance of the

constant, regardless of the aus- Service State — a political au-
pices under which it operates. It thority presumed to be responsive
is of the nature of power to want to majority demand, and it is in:
to perpetuate itself and, following evitable that democratic govern-
this mandate, every government ments would get into the business
seeks to create the means of its of dispensing economic benefits —
own support. The Court at Ver- advantage for some at the expense
sailles, under the old regime, was of others.
largely a group of wastrels depend-
ing on government handouts for Pyramiding Special Pleaders
their mode of life. Their consump- There is only one way for man-
tion was nothing if not conspicu- kind to live and improve its eco-
ous. Political subventions, under a nomic circumstances, and that is
democracy, are more subtle, but by applying its energies to nature
the feeling spreads that everyone and nature's products. Goods are
is entitled to all he can get. produced in this way and in no
Government comes to be re- other. But once produced, the
garded as a benign omnipotence goods of some men may be ac-
possessing the magical properties quired by other men through po-
of an Aladdin’s lamp. If properly litical manipulation. Let govern-
approached — by means of a lobby ment perform this service and the
or pressure group which knows trek to Washington is on. Once on,
which buttons to push, which lev- it will grow in geometric progres-
ers to pull —it delivers the goods sion as group after group organ-
as obediently as a vending ma- izes to apply political pressure to
chine. Government is a tool capa- get something for nothing: organ-
ble of accomplishing anything a ized labor, the farm bloc, veter-
majority can be mustered to de- ans, regional groups, educationists,
mand. “Majority” is a technical the aged, and others.
term among political pros, refer- Business and industry, strictly
ring to a numerical figment used speaking, have to do only with the
by a literal minority to justify a deploying of economic factors and


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

40 THE FREEMAN February

resources — somebody making intervene to give him a preferen-
something, transporting it, ex- tial position in the market by
changing it. A businessman or in- penalizing his competitors.
dustrialist, pursuing his aims as Such political intervention is
an entrepreneur, seeks to turn a contrary to the principles of clas-
profit. The appearance of a profit sic liberalism and has the effect of
indicates that his talents are being giving some men an economic ad-
employed in a manner approved by vantage at the expense of other
a significant number of people. Ab- men. Government intervention
sence of a profit, on the other hand, frustrates the workings of eco-
ought to be his clue that people nomic laws by forcing economic
are instructing him to go into decisions contrary to the decisions
some other line. So long as a man of the unhampered market. The
produces and sells things people intervention annuls consumer
want at a price they are willing to choice, and the net result is eco-
pay, he operates according to the nomic advantage for political fa-
rules of economics. The vast ma- vorites.
jority of our millions of business Economic success under capital-
enterprises are conducted in this ism — the free market system — is
fashion. All that is necessary to measured by consumer satisfac-
keep this operation going is for tions. If consumers are pleased
the law to inhibit and penalize with the goods and services pro-
cases of theft, fraud, and violence. vided by a producer, as demon-
strated by their willingness to pay
A “Fair Advantage” for them, the producer makes a
The processes of production and profit. But in a political setup
exchange are self-starting and where the politicians stand by to
self-fueled and need nothing from confer economic advantage in re-
government but protection from turn for lobbying and pressure
predation. It is in the interests of group activity, material rewards
business-as-a-whole to maintain may accrue to a man, even if con-
this climate of freedom. But the sumers have returned a negative
immediate interests of a particu- vote by not buying his goods or
lar businessman do not always co- services.
incide with the interests of busi- When there is general accept-
ness-as-a-whole. That is to say, ance of the idea that it is the func-
businessman X might find it prof- tion of the state to dispense eco-
itable for himself if his respon- nomic privilege to its partisans,
sive, democratic government will there will be competition among


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

1960 SOCIALISM — SUBSTANCE AND LABEL 41

“businessmen’’ for political lar- pay for freedom. Freedom costs,
gesse. This is a departure from and thus it cannot endure among
capitalism into the practice of an a people who do not understand
under-the-counter socialism. The this or, if they do, are unwilling to
practice has been all too prevalent incur these costs.

during the past century, and is Accept the principle of religious
one of the main influences feeding liberty and things will happen
into the socialist trend. No busi- which the civilized man will view
nessman wants over-all socialism, with disgust. There will be holy
but many a businessman wants a roller revivals, store-front church-
little piece of socialism where it is es, unlettered Bible thumpers,
to his immediate advantage. Add bingo, and baked bean suppers.
up all these little pieces and the But the man possessed of a sensi-
society is no longer liberal. It may tive religious conscience is aware
be called liberal by some merely that it is not up to him to tell God
because the word has a favorable the kind of instruments He can
connotation, but it ic not liberal in use to work His mysterious ways;
the limited government sense of and he wishes to make it plain

the word. that the opponent of religious lib-
erty, if he is logical, must invoke
The Costs of Freedom a kind of inquisition to curb those

Classic liberalism meant free- expressions of religion he finds
dom: freedom to write and speak, distasteful.
to worship and teach, and, most Acceptance of the principle of
neglected freedom of all, freedom economic liberty means that the
of economic enterprise, ie. con- consumer has a right to demand,
sumer sovereignty in the market and the producer a right to supply,
place. A believer in free speech ac- any item which does not injure
cepts this principle even though he another —as injury is defined in
is fully aware that its exercise will laws against theft and fraud. This
result in campaign oratory, social- means that poor taste and doubt-
ist tracts, uplift drivel, pornogra- ful morals will find expression
phy, public relations prose, modern here just as they do in the kindred
poetry, and the “literature” of a fields of speech and religion. A
beat generation. The defender of rock-and-roll performer will ride .
free speech recognizes these things around in a pink Cadillac while a
as corruptions of the divine gift symphony orchestra has to beg for
of communication, but they are funds. A race track will be built.
part of the price he is willing to where common sense would dictate


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

42 THE FREEMAN February

a playground. People refuse to buy blage. But mere paper guarantees
mere transportation; they want a of these important freedoms are
chariot with lots of chrome and worthless if there is governmental
three hundred horses under the control and bureaucratic planning
hood. Worse yet, when political of economic life. The guarantee of
subventions are available, some religious freedom is worth little if
businessmen will seek to get “one the devotees are denied the eco-
up” on their competitors with gov- nomic means to build their tem-
ernment help. ples, print their literature, and
Freedom costs, and the costs of pay their spiritual guides. How
freedom in the areas of speech, meaningful is freedom of the press
press, worship, and assemblage are if there are no private means to
generally acknowledged by a sig- buy paper and presses? And there
nificant number of articulate peo- is no full right to assemble if
ple. These freedoms are not under buildings, street corners, and va-
assault — not in this country, at cant lots are government owned.
any rate. In the case of economic “Whoso controls our subsistence
freedom the situation is different. controls us.”
Few people mistake the abuses of If government is properly lim-
free speech for the principle it- ited, men are free. In a free soci-
self; but the abuses of economic ety a certain pattern of economic
liberty loom so large in the mod- activity will be precipitated. This
ern eye that it cannot detect the pattern will change constantly. It
market principle of which they will respond as men have less or

are violations. more political liberty. It will be
modified as technology advances,
Properly Limited Government taste is refined, and morals im-

Freedom, in sound theory, is all prove. Properly speaking, the eco-
of a piece. It hinges on properly nomic pattern of a free society
limiting government. A society is capitalism, or the market econ-
may be called free when its gov- omy. Under capitalism the people
ernment does not dictate matters are economically free, exercising
of religion and private conscience, control over their own subsistence,
does not censor reading material, and thus they become self-control-
curb speech, nor bar lawful assem- ling in other freedoms as well. &


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

The Perils
of Playing

THE GIANT ATLAS, sustaining the rest of the world. Lend-lease aid
pillars that keep heaven and earth to countries with which the United
apart, is a figure in Greek myth- States was associated in the course
ology. But there is nothing myth- of the war, very little of which was
ological about the unique role of reimbursed by so-called reverse
Uncle Atlas which the United lend-lease, amounted to well over
States has assumed ever since it fifty billion dollars. It could be
committed itself to participation argued that it was more economi-
in World War II by passing the cal to sustain allied forces than
Lend-Lease Act early in 1941. to spend this money on our own

Never in history has there been military effort. Still, in view of
such a tremendous economic blood later developments, it seems a little
transfusion, such an outpouring of ironical that about eleven billion
subsidies from one country to the dollars of lend-lease aid to the
EEE— Soviet Union (not a penny of
Mr. eo one, he ee a1” develop. which has been repaid) was fol-
ments at home and abroad. This report is lowed by vastly larger military and

based on his European tour last summer and . . .
autumn. P y foreign aid expenditures for the

43


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

44 THE FREEMAN February

avowed purpose of containing and there are always eager sponsors of
checking Soviet designs of expan- bigger and better handouts for
sion and aggression. welfare purposes all over the
From a war emergency, foreign globe. Some American Senators
aid has become a permanent habit. have sponsored support without a
Grants and loans of dubious secu- definite limit for India’s plans of
rity to nations in all parts of the economic development. And a well-
world since the end of hostilities known British woman writer on
add up to about 60 billion dollars, economic subjects recently ad-
and every year the Administration vanced the proposition that the
can be relied on to ask Congress fate of the free world would hang
for additional appropriations of in the balance until India was
about four billion dollars. The re- tided over the growing difficulties
quest is usually granted, with of its new five-year plan by an
minor cuts. annual subsidy of one billion dol-
These handouts have been used lars in foreign currency. The
for a wide variety of purposes in United States was the obvious
a large number of countries. They largest potential source of this
paid the greatest share of food and proposed handout.
rehabilitation expenditures under
UNRRA. Some twelve billion dol- Insufficient Funds
lars were spent on the Marshall Now, however, there are signs
Plan for European economic re- that America cannot play the part
construction. Still larger sums of Uncle Atlas much longer, and
have been contributed for the mar- this for a reason that has often
tial plans that followed the Mar- checked governments in extrava-
shall Plan, for the military build- gant courses in the past. The
up of supposedly friendly nations means to continue these lavish
in Europe and Asia. foreign subsidies are running out.
The American taxpayer has also Dollars have been used with such
been footing the bill for a good reckless profusion to prop up for-
deal of economic aid, some of it eign currencies and foreign econ-
going to allied countries and some omies that the dollar itself is
to neutrals like India and Yugo- today in danger of becoming a
slavia and even to a country like weak currency.

Poland which, through no desire It has long been a popular
of the Polish people, to be sure, is theory, especially among British
in the Soviet bloc. economists, that Europe faces a

And both at home and abroad so-called dollar gap. Europe can


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

1960 THE PERILS OF PLAYING UNCLE ATLAS 45

never, so this argument runs, sell of $4 billion is not negligible
enough in goods and services to either. Nor is the fact that Euro-
the United States to pay for what pean countries hold short-term
it urgently requires in raw ma- dollar liabilities in the neighbor-
terials and equipment from Ameri- hood of $15 billion. Were all these
can sources. This line of reasoning liabilities presented at once, the
easily led to the conclusion that it United States would face the dis-
is up to America, in one form or agreeable alternatives of going off
another, to subsidize Europe in- gold, in respect to foreign liabili-
definitely. ties, thereby producing a tremen-
But during the last decade this dous international financial shock,
theory of the inevitable dollar gap or of seeing the gold reserve
has been knocked into a cocked diminish to a very small figure.
hat. Indeed it has been proved To be sure, this is not likely to
true, but in reverse. Ever since happen. Such a massive run on the
1950, with the sole exception of dollar would not be in the best in-
1957, when there was an abnormal terest of the European holders of
European demand for American the dollar liabilities. It is the long-
oil because of the Suez crisis, the range trend toward an unfavorable
United States balance of payments balance of payments that is the
in relation to Europe has been un- serious aspect of the situation.
favorable. During the last two
years, 1958 and 1959, the outflow A Weakened Economy
of gold and of dollars which repre- Long accustomed to take for
sent claims on gold from America granted the idea that the dollar
to the outside world has been is the king of currencies, Ameri-

especially strong. cans do not realize, as Europeans
a. do, what a weak, shaky currency
Dwindling Gold Reserve can mean. When a country with a

In its international accounts the limited gold reserve finds itself
United States was in the red by spending a good deal more abroad
$3.4 billion in 1958, by about $4 than it receives from abroad, its
billion in 1959. The United States financial authorities find them-
gold reserve, which was $22.9 bil- selves tempted to resort to all sorts
lion in 1957, has now fallen below of disagreeable courses: to slap
$20 billion. This, to be sure, is a on quotas for the purpose of re-
tidy figure, about half the known ducing the inflow of foreign goods;
gold reserves in the world. But an to limit the amount of money a
unfavorable balance of payments citizen may take out of the coun-


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

46 THE FREEMAN February

try; to forbid foreigners to bring exchange, and foreign goods be-
in or take out the currency of the come correspondingly more expen-
country, and so on. sive. Just for this reason, because
All such measures are entirely it makes foreign imports more ex-
contrary to the spirit of a free pensive, devaluation means a cer-
economy and, in the long run, do tain amount of - impoverishment
more harm than good. But they for the people of a country that
are the usual consequences of a resorts to this practice.
persistently unfavorable interna- Fifteen years, even five years
tional balance of payments. When ago, nothing would have seemed
a currency is persistently weak it more absurd than the suggestion
is apt, in the end, to be reduced in that the United States dollar might
international exchange value. So, be exposed to the risk of devalua-
in 1949, the British pound, which tion. But, if one now travels in
had long been selling at a discount Europe and talks with financial
on foreign markets, was officially experts in London, Zurich, and
reduced in relation to the Ameri- other financial centers, the possi-
can dollar from $4.00 to $2.80; bility that the dollar might fall in
and most European currencies ex- international exchange value is
perienced the same or similar re- seriously discussed. In striking
ductions in value. contrast to the situation immedi-
Since that time, European cur- ately after the end of the war,
rencies, as a general rule, have re- dollars are being offered more
mained stable in international ex- freely than they are demanded in
change value; but the French some European exchange centers.
franc was devalued more than
once before France finally set a Unbalanced Trade

stable currency course by intro- What has created a situation
ducing anti-inflationary measures where the dollar, long regarded as
in the latter part of 1958. the Rock of Gibraltar among in-

ternational currencies, can be
Prospects of Devaluation seriously suggested as a candidate

When a currency is cheapened for devaluation? (The suggestion,
in exchange value, the immediate to be sure, is certainly premature
effect is temporarily to right the and may be altogether exagger-
balance of international payments. ated; yet the fact that one does
Exports are promoted and imports hear it on occasions is not without
are discouraged because exports significance.)
are cheaper, in terms of foreign There would seem to be two


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

1960 THE PERILS OF PLAYING UNCLE ATLAS 47

principal reasons for this striking present financial and economic con-
change. And the first of these is ditions. This is why the Adminis-
the prolonged attempt to play the tration is proposing that the Euro-
role of an international Uncle pean countries, which have been
Atlas, supporting the universe. gaining in gold reserves as the
Our over-all commercial trade United States has been losing,
balance, the surplus of what we should make more of a contribu-
sell over what we buy, is still quite tion to projects for the aid of the
favorable, even though it declined economically retarded areas of the
from $6 billion in 1957 to $3.3 world.

billion in 1958 and seems likely to

decline further in 1959. We also Time for Reappraisal

receive a substantial income from The lesson of this situation for
foreign investments, notably in the United States is clear. Until
Canada. a more normal balance of interna-

But these favorable items in our tional payments is established,
international balance of payments overseas commitments that involve
are offset by such expenditures, dollar outlays should be scrutinized
involving the outlay of dollars for with the utmost care. Military al-
foreign currencies, as $3.1 billion liance arrangements should be re-
for United States troops stationed examined, with a view to a fairer
abroad, nonmilitary government distribution of the financial bur-
expenditure of $1.6 billion, $1 bil- dens. Too often, in the past, the
lion net outflow of government assumption has been made by for-
capital exports and a $2.9 billion eign governments and accepted by
deficit in private capital move- the United States that Uncle Atlas
ments. should carry the whole load or a

It is this imbalance that has disproportionate share of the load
caused America’s gold reserves to of expenditure in a common cause.
diminish and its dollar liabilities The American financial plight
to increase, to the tune of $3.4 bil- that has been receiving increased
lion in 1958 and $4 billion in 1959. attention in recent months is a
This is why Secretary of the powerful argument for sweeping
Treasury Robert Anderson has cutbacks in foreign aid appropria-
been demanding that discrimina- tions, apart from the fact that
tion against American goods in these appropriations have already
European markets should cease as been discredited, in many cases, by
not only inequitable in itself but waste and carelessness. i
also completely unwarranted by The best time to stop a run on


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

48 THE FREEMAN February

the dollar is before it occurs. And, money supply to subsidize farm,
if the United States is to be of real business, and labor practices that
help to peoples struggling against could not meet the tests of open
communist aggression and in- competition.

trigue, the first condition is that It is interesting to note that
the dollar be maintained in a almost every European country has
sound and solvent condition. The been improving its balance of pay-
United States has now become, in ments in relation to the United
many respects, the banker of the States in recent years. This is
world; and a banker must justify partly the result of a return to
confidence by the prudent handling full normal productive efficiency

of his affairs. on the part of European industrial
) nations and Japan. This is to be
Inflationary Measures at Home welcomed. It is infinitely better,

It is not only profligate and from the standpoint of America’s
reckless spending abroad that has own long-range economic interests,
weakened the position of the dol- to have Western Europe an aggres-
lar. A second cause is the failure sive competitor (and for this rea-
to deal firmly with inflationary son, a larger potential market)
trends at home. There has been too than to carry Europe around our
much paying not for work per- collective neck as an albatross, a
formed, but for work not per- prospect that seemed not unlikely
formed, to farmers for not plant- in the years immediately after the
ing crops, to workers for unneces- war.
sary and wasteful practices, gen-
erally known as featherbedding. Competitive Weakness

Since there are in the market But, while European competi-
place no willing customers for un- tive strength is to be welcomed,
rendered services and unproduced American competitive weakness is
goods, the financing of such some- not. It was a sobering experience
thing-for-nothing schemes depends last summer to visit a new ship-
on compulsion. Pressure group de- yard in Hamburg, fitted out with
mands have led to government all kinds of automatic devices,
spending in excess of tax collec- such as cranes that were operated
tions; and the resultant deficits, by radio control, installed by Willi
monetized through the federal re- Schlieker, a Ruhr magnate who
serve banking system, are reflected became a millionaire after the war.
in rising wages and rising prices. The workers in this shipyard were
The government has expanded the as skilled as Americans; their


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

1960 THE PERILS OF PLAYING UNCLE ATLAS 49

wages were about 75 cents an a minority of Americans know
hour, a third or a fourth of what there is such a deficit. But it
American shipyard workers would should be taken as a warning
receive. nevertheless, a warning to re-ex-
Allowing for the fact that, by amine two of the weaknesses that
and large, a mark will go farther have helped to bring it about.
in Germany than a quarter in the First, there has been the im-
United States, one could under- pulse to play Uncle Atlas, to as-
stand the remark of the German sume that all the world’s ills can
engineer: “No one could afford to be cured by writing bigger checks
buy ships from an American ship- payable in United States dollars.
yard, unless it were heavily sub- This is not true. Countries that
sidized in one way or another.” will not look to their own defenses,
There is no reason to sell that will not put their own eco-
America short as a major factor in nomic and financial houses in
industrial production and world order, cannot be bailed out by
trade. All the assets which have American aid, however extensive.
made it the land of the greatest Second, there has been a failure
prosperity for the most people (as to take precautions against that
proved by the world migration modern form of clipping the cur-
figures) are still here: an ener- rency known as inflation. As a
getic, mechanically-minded popula- consequence there is a danger that
tion, a convenient layout of natural we may price ourselves out of for-
resources, superb engineering eign markets and falter in compe-
schools and research laboratories, tition with people who have had
a go-getting spirit that will over- the courage and wisdom to impose
look no tricks in trying to get and on themselves sterner financial
hold customers. discipline.

A Serious Warning It is time to give up grandiose

But even a champion in sport dreams of being an Uncle Atlas,
can suffer an upset if he becomes supporting the universe on our
overconfident, neglects his train- shoulders, and to take some more
ing, lets his muscles get flabby. A searching economic physical fitness
negative balance of $7.4 billion for tests to see that we are qualified
a period of two years will not to hold our own in a strongly com-
bankrupt America; probably only petitive world. -


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

- coe, EEN

ROBERT H. EAGLE

HISTORY records continual change. ary, all changes abolished, is hardly
As man moved out of caves and tenable when one considers the na-
into tents, as he began domes- ture of human wants, the insatia-
ticating animals and devising and bility of man’s desires, and their
improving tools, as he developed variety. Because of these facts of
the science of specialization, as his human action; any -effort to main-- -
tastes and desires underwent alter- tain the status quo in economic life
ations, as he began to envision dif- is doomed to failure. As new pro-
ferent ways of living than he had ductive processes are developed, as
dreamed of before and to realize new products are invented, exist-
that comforts and amenities which ing ones revised, and others dis-
at first seemed visionary were carded, the patterns of production,
really possible — these ever-chang- distribution, and consumption will
ing phenomena altered the status continue to be subject to alteration.
quo. Existing patterns of conduct, Prices and wages must themselves
production, distribution, consump-- change to reflect these more basic
tion, and social relationships were changes.
more or less constantly being. re- Rigidity and flexibility cannot
vised, sometimes slowly, sometimes coexist in harmony. As long as de-
fast. And these changes continue. sires for changes and improve-
To suppose that human action ments collide with factors resist-
will ever become static and station- ing change, conflict ensues. Im-
_— provements require change, and
Mr. Eagle is an Inventory Management Spe- change requires flexibility. A dy-

cialist in the General Services Administration . . ore
in Washington, D. C. namic economy that is sensitive to

50


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

1960 CHANGE 51

people’s wants and needs must be ments of the economy are de-
flexible. Rigid prices and wages are pressed as a result of the first
barriers to progress. As long as policy, the government adopts a
man’s desires and relative values second policy to allay the results of
are changing and he conceives the first. This is like running over
more efficient productive processes, a pedestrian forward and then try-
such rigidities cause industrial ing to undo the damage by revers-

conflict and chaos. ing direction and backing over him.
First, the government creates re-
When Government intervenes strictions which are intended to

However, for decades, we have resist changes and their effects
been witnessing two sets of coun- which people believe harmful to
tervailing human forces in con- them. Then it intervenes to help
stant conflict with each other — one stimulate the sort of changes it
set of pressures resisting change, first tried to prevent.
the other set demanding change. Price supports make price-sup-
Into this melee steps the State, the ported goods more bountiful, until
apparatus of compulsion and coer- production quotas are instituted
cion, presumably to help both sides. for the purpose of making them
It will try to maintain the prices of scarcer. These interventions re-
farm and industrial products, thus duce real income which would
freezing the pattern of production otherwise be available for such
and productive processes in indus- things as school construction and
try and agriculture. Then, when other wants and needs. Having
new goods and services are not held production down and prices
forthcoming in given amounts at up, thus resisting change in the
the prices people are willing to pay, form of greater output at less cost,
the government attempts to amelio- the government then turns around
rate these ineluctable results by to take care of the resulting “inade-
expansion of credit, creation of ad- quacies” and “deficiencies” in the
ditional money, by public works, economy, usually asserting such
social security, unemployment com- deficiencies to be implicit in the
pensation, and so on. free enterprise system. The gov-

By trying to keep everything as ernment then attempts to allocate
it is, the government represses from the remaining resources
progress, thus depriving the popu- funds for school construction, low-
lation as a whole of a large portion price public housing, and the like.
of the potential increase in living In a free economy, however, the
standards. Then when large seg- forces making for change (includ-


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

52 THE FREEMAN February

ing more goods at lower prices) must always adjust to necessary
provide an increase rather than a changes. However, the most dras-
restriction of output and produc- tic changes, the upheavals in the
tive capacity which are available economy, the crash programs,
for meeting the wants and needs have resulted from governmental
of the people, as the people see intervention. Left alone, the econ-
their own wants in accordance with omy tends to progress in a more
their own scale of values. normal manner. Capital accumula-
It has always been characteris- tion, essential to increased produc-

tic of Americans to want more and tivity, results from individual sav-
more education for their offspring. ings. There is a natural tendency,
The free market makes increasing when economic growth is left in
resources available for meeting the hands of individuals working .
such wants and needs through alone or voluntarily through cor-
changes — through more efficient porate instruments, for new and
productive processes and the in- expanded projects not to outstrip
crease and utilization of capital ac- their potential profitability, or
cumulation. But capital accumula- more accurately, profitability as it
tion is much more forthcoming can be foreseen and predicted by
when -the-value of the dollar is.not_ individuals risking their own sav-_
being constantly eroded by mone- ings in new ventures.

tary expansion on the part of the However, when investment
government. Government price comes out of heavy taxation fall-
supports and production quotas ing upon the public as a whole, and
are the very antithesis of economic directed by functionaries whose
growth, if by economic growth one own savings are not as directly in-
means more goods and services of volved, vast projects are under-
the kind people want most. It is taken which draw away from other
only in the free market economy, potential projects the required fac-
unhampered by price maintenance tors of production. Whether these
and restrictions on production, projects are the ones that people

that needs are optimally met. would willingly support through
: their voluntary purchases is an-
Gradual Change Is Tolerable - other question. And if the people

One consideration put forward don’t want these projects enough
to urge state intervention is that to indicate their approval by pay-
economic change affects some peo- ing freely for the services offered,

"ple adversely compared to others. then why should such “services”
This fact cannot be denied. One be undertaken by taxation, borrow-


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

1960 CHANGE 53

ing, and the creation of additional But we should also observe the
money which does not represent factors that bring about undesir-
actual willing abstention from cur- able results. They include increas-
rent consumption on the part of ing the money supply artificially,
individuals? What the people can- causing misinvestments of capital
not do for themselves, the govern- and maladjustments in labor, and
ment cannot do for them, except by handouts to industries which are
making a government decision not profitably serving the public.
which the people have not made Such interventions, by postponing
independently, and then enforcing adjustments necessary to reflect
the decision on all. Even so, the the changing demands of the peo-
government cannot of itself “pro- ple and improvements in produc-
vide services.” Only people can. So tive processes, make the inevitable
interventions on the part of gov- adjustment much more severe
ernment themselves make for when it finally occurs.

changes — the effects of which the Restrictions on production,
government in the first place inter- price supports, tariffs, embargoes,
vened to ameliorate. quotas, and wage and price control,

dampen the changes that are latent
and inherent in economic and so-
When an entrepreneur sees a po- cial life. Like a dam which builds
tential profit in a project, what is up an overpowering volume of wa-
he really envisioning? That by bor- ter, they finally inundate society
rowing money which has been like a tidal wave. But our present-
saved by those who have not con- day politicians seem to reflect the
sumed all their income or wealth, attitude of Louis XV and Madame
accumulated in banks and insur- de Pompadour: “Apres nous, le
ance funds, he can hire men and deluge.”
buy materials, build plants, and
produce products at a price which Unchanging Basic Principles
people will willingly pay and which Is there, then, nothing change-
will pay the wages, interest, and less and absolute? The changes dis-
other charges which constitute the cussed in this paper come about as
costs of the potentially profitable a result of decision and choice
project. The profits accruing to the (conscious or unconscious). In
entrepreneur under free enter- other words, change is directed
prise reflect the approval the con- toward a goal or goals. It is the
sumers have bestowed on his en- very existence of eternal principles
terprise. and immutable laws that makes

Entrepreneurs vs. Bureaucrats


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

54 THE FREEMAN February

human progress a possibility. ter that ignore basic principles are
Progress consists of gaining a bet- not feasible and eventually result
ter understanding of the change- in chaos and turmoil. Operating in
less and eternal laws of the uni- accordance with the, laws and
verse and living more in accord values that are changeless enables
with them. Change for the better change to be progress, brought
consists of acknowledging the about rationally, based on princi-
changeless values of individual lib- ple, and consciously directed to-
erty and moral responsibility, and ward the enduring goals of man-
taking the realistic, rational steps kind.

that follow from an ever clearer These goals, ideas, values, laws,
discernment of those timeless absolutes, never change. But as
ideas inherent in the God-given hu- long as they are not fully realized,
man spirit. Change for the better any step toward a greater expres-
consists of a greater realization of sion and implementation of them
the idea of freedom as opposed to implies a change—a change for the
slavery in any form and under any better. It is only because of the
" guise—the idea of individual worth existence of immutable laws and
as opposed to the deification of ideals that there can be any pat-
- “the masses’”— the idea- of human - tern,- guide, or rationale. for. pur-
equality before the law as opposed poseful change in contrast to pur-
to special privileges and immuni- poseless drifting —a meaningless

ties. ebbing and flowing. The immuta-
ble relationship between cause and
Changes That Bring Progress consequence furnishes a frame-

Recognizing the inevitability of work within which all changes
change in technology, production, take place.
and taste — the mutations of phys-
ical phenomena — we also need to Change for the better, the status
recognize the immutable frame- quo, or retrogression — which shall
work of universal laws and abso- it be? Our problem lies in under-
lute values within which they exist standing the ultimate goals of hu-
— recognize those things that re- man action, in recognizing the
main constant. The recognition of available alternatives for that ac-
the existence of those things that tion, and choosing the appropriate
never change enables us to work means for attaining the desirable
most effectively with the change- ends. Then change will mean a bet-
able. So-called changes for the bet- ter life for all mankind. PS


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

A REVIEWER'S NOTEBOOK JOHN CHAMBERLAIN

RESTORING THE TOOLS OF

LEARNING

TEN YEARS AGO if an editor had synthesis of the old and the new,
the temerity to publish an article and “experiments” will cease to
attacking “progressive” education, run one way only.
he could count on a torrent of mail To some extent, at least, the new
denouncing him as a fascist. To- synthesis will undoubtedly restore
day, though the “progressives” the old “tool” courses of the past
still dominate the teaching hier- to their ancient high estate. But
archy in the public schools, the what do we mean by “tools”?
standards of controversy are at Wasn't the “instrumental” philos-
least a little more gentlemanly. ophy of John Dewey, which has
One can now make the argument dominated the public schools for
for “basic education” —as eight- several generations, the very
een authors and scholars have thing needed to give the student
made it in The Case for Basic the means of getting along in his
Education, edited by James D. world? Isn't “vocationalism” the
Koerner (Little, Brown, 256 pp., proper educational “instrument” —
$4.00) — without running the risk or “tool” — for preparing the stu-
of total ostracism. dent to adjust himself to the de-
So much, then, has been gained mands of society?
for the right to argue — which is
what “free speech” is about any- No “Generating” Power
way. Since argument may now The answer provided by Mr.
proceed without too much inter- Koerner’s contributors is that vo-
ruption from those who consider cational tools, as Clifton Fadiman
vituperation the crowning glory puts it in the opening essay, have
of literacy, we are very probably no “generating” power. A course
at the beginning of a new period in hotel keeping, or in driver-
in education. The “old” will hardly education, is “self-terminating.”
be restored as it existed forty or A course in French, on the other
more years ago. But there will be hand, is a “generating” tool in

55


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

56 THE FREEMAN February

that it will enable the serious
student to unlock as many doors
as may be found in books written
by Frenchmen. In a secondary
school that knows its business, the
student will finish senior year —
or the “twelfth grade” — with the
ability to read, write, speak, cal-
culate, and listen. He will go forth
into the world possessing some of
the elements of reasoning, and, as
Mr. Fadiman so succinctly states,
he will be “put on to the necessarv
business of drawing abstract con-
clusions from particular in-
stances.”

When Mr. Fadiman went to high
school back in the period 1916-20,
he had four years of English, four
of German, three of French, three”
or four years of history, a no-
nonsense factual course in civics,
a year of physics, a year of
biology, and three years of mathe-
matics, through trigonometry. He
didn’t learn about “dating,” he
took no course in square-dancing,
he had to discover the secrets of
cookery for himself, and his in-
struction on how to be a good hus-
band began when he took unto
himself a wife. Yet, strangely
enough, his high school curricu-
lum proved to be quite adequate
to the “life-adjustment” which
Mr. Fadiman had to make as an
editor, writer, translator, and pub-
lic speaker.

Mr. Fadiman mentions these

“practical” advantages of his ed-
ucation merely to explode them;
the important thing, he says, is
that his “basic” foundation gave
him the wherewithal for the self-
education that should be every
man’s concern to the hour of his
death. It even allowed him to un-
lock the manual of instructions
which he had to master in order
to get a license to drive a car.

The “Social Studies”

After Mr. Fadiman’s opening
essay, there come the more special-
ized contributions. George C. S.
Benson, President of Claremont
Men’s College, thinks students
should learn that the United
States is not only a democracy but -
a federated republic. Ray Allen
Billington of Northwestern Uni-
versity and Carlton J. H. Hayes
of Columbia lament that both
American and European history
have been denatured by being pre-
sented as part of “social studies”.
courses that offer a vague mish-
mash of geography, ecology,
civics, economics, sociology, his-
tory, and current events. Clyde F.
Kohn of the State University of
Iowa pleads for a straight treat-
ment of geography as something
that ‘“‘deals consistently with the
location and distribution of phe-
nomena over the earth’s surface.”
Donald R. Tuttle of Fenn College
and Douglas Bush of Harvard


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

1960 RESTORING THE TOOLS OF LEARNING 57

speak for less preoccupation with riculum, as the essays of Oliver W.
radio techniques and business- Larkin, Joseph Kerman, Douglas
letter writing and more concentra- N. Morgan, and Bower Aly insist.
tion on grammar, syntax, the Herbert M. Schwab, who sums
“conscious art” of composition, up “the prospects for Basic Educa-
and a few masterpieces such as the tion” in a final essay, speaks out
King James Bible, Milton, and of his experience as a member of

Shakespeare. the Portland, Oregon, school
} board. Out of his knowledge of
Some of the “Basics” the ways of the ‘“educationist”

The case for the classical and hierarchy, he doubts that leader-
foreign languages is made by ship in the “basic” movement will
Gerald F. Else of the University “come in sufficient force from the
of Michigan and Hunter Kellen- ranks of public educators.” It is
berger of Brown, who note that the private citizen — the parent —
English-speaking students have who holds the key to the “restora-
much to gain from exposure to tion of learning.” And — though
other cultures and to languages none of the contributors to Mr.
which have structural character- Koerner’s symposium seems anx-
istics of their own that may or ious to make the point — the com-
may not carry over into English. petition of the private school is
As for mathematics, physics, certainly needed to spark the re-
chemistry, and biology, Stewart vival.

Scott Cairns, Sydney S. Greenfield,

Joel H. Hildebrand, and M. H. Need for Economic Education
Trytten argue convincingly that None of Mr. Koerner's contri-
there are other necessary ways of butors thinks that economics
“reading” the universe than those should be made a “specialized”
supplied by the “language arts.” high school course, although Dr.
The truly educated man must be Benson does say that the intelli-
able to express physical laws in gent high school senior is “capable
mathematical formulas and to of learning about price control in
translate them back into ordinary the eighteenth century, tariffs in .
English. And biology is certainly the nineteenth, and agricultural
essential to a perspective on the price support in the twentieth.”
humanities. Even the “electives” But even if the high school is not
— art, music, philosophy, and the place for economics as such,
speech — have their claims to a the bright college student with the
place in the “basic” secondary cur- “basics” behind him would not


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

58 THE FREEMAN February

easily be duped by socialist propa-
ganda.

“Life-adjustment” courses in
the high schools are, on the other
hand, a fecund spawning ground
for collectivists. When John
Dewey stressed ‘learning by do-
ing,” he was acting as a tradi-
tional American pragmatist. But
Deweyan ‘“‘experimentalism” has,
over the past three decades, re-
coiled upon itself. The typical
modern Dewey “experimenter”
seeks the approbation of his
“group”; he “learns to do” in com-
pany, as part of a team. “Group
dynamics” is the word for it. By
stressing the “social” aspects of
“learning by doing,” the modern
disciple of Dewey usually ends by
endorsing the tyranny of the
crowd. Thus what began as an ex-
altation of individual experimental
“action” ends, paradoxically, in
killing the urge to do new things
in unconventional ways. The
“group” might not like it.

Mr. Koerner’s contributors have
not dealt in controversial matters
that bear on the conflict of social
and economic philosophies. The

Council for Basic Education,
which sponsors this book, is, after
all, a socially non-partisan body.
But the American tradition was
created by men who had had a
“basic” education — and that tra-
dition should benefit immeasura-

bly from a recrudescence of an
educational philosophy that
stresses clarity in thinking above
all. ~>

p FREEDOM AND FEDERALISM
By Felix Morley. Chicago: Henry
Regnery Company. Xii-274 pp.
$5.00.

MR. MORLEY means to use his
terms with precision, and this pre-
cision starts with his title. When
he says “federalism,” he is refer-
ring in no way to our misnamed
federal government (we ought to
call it the central or national gov-
ernment), but to a structure by
which a group of more or less in-

- -dependent units-can: be-brought. to-

gether in a single political system.
This structure may differ in dif-
ferent manifestations but is
always characterized by a distri-
bution of power between the cen-
tral government and the partici-
pating units, by a written consti-
tution “subject to amendment by
some prescribed process,” and by
a supreme court “empowered to
decide just where the division of

sovereignty lies in any contested.

case, at any particular time.”

An “outstanding asset of the
federal form of government” is its
flexibility. “By the device of keep-
ing certain governmental powers
under strictly local control, people
with great diversities: may be:en-


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

1960 OTHER BOOKS 59

couraged to unite under one flag.” international cooperation might
Examples of federations promoted well be laid.”
by this flexibility are the Swiss I have followed through, sketch-
Confederation, joining together ily, the second part of the title
German-speaking, French-speak- Freedom and Federalism. What
ing, and Italian-speaking cantons; relation does Mr. Morley find be-
Canada, unifying communities tween the two concepts named?
“distinctively English and French Roughly, this might be summed
in their linguistic, religious and up in terms of a direct proportion:
cultural backgrounds”; and the the less federalism, the less free-
German Empire from 1871 to dom. What Mr. Morley fears is un-
1918, integrating separate mon- due concentration of power, espe-
archies. cially perhaps when, as he thinks is
The concept of federalism con- now the case, Rousseau’s concept
tinues to live, is indeed taking on of a volonté générale, so recognized
fresh life. A chapter is entitled or not, is rife, and encourages the
“The Vitality of Federalism,” and executive of a central government
in this many illustrations are given to identify with the “general will”
— including the German Federal his own ideas and predilections.
Republic, the Federation of Ma- The title of the volume, and its
laya, the recently organized Fed- purpose (to which I shall come
eration of the West Indies. The later), warrant, I think, the promi-
“resurgent vitality of federalism nence I have given the general idea
. is encouraging to all who of federalism; but what lingers in
look for something better than the mind as the core of the essay
‘cold war’ ad infinitum. For is the account of federalism in the
through the gradual formation of United States: its original nature,
perhaps a dozen great federations, involving an extension of ‘‘the doc-
of which the United States and trine of the separation of powers a
Russia [Russia not now in reality great deal farther than is required
federal] would certainly be two, by the mere structure of federal-
those polarized enemies would be ism”; its great deterioration in
disengaged, a balance of power the direction of an all-powerful
would be re-established, the back- central government; facts and
ward nations might look forward forces which show its persistence
to some such blossoming as came in the national consciousness or
to our own backward States when counter its downward motion; and
they federated, and above all a its present prospects.
better basis of less recriminatory What in all this most engages


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

60 THE FREEMAN } February

the attention is the series of steps As to what Mr. Morley himself
— a sort of Rake’s Progress — by desires, there is no doubt, objec-
which the stanch federalism of tive as he has tried to make his
George Washington and even discussion; he is for federalism,
Abraham Lincoln becomes the and the freedom which it pro-
quasi national socialism of Frank- motes. Indeed, his chief concern in
lin D. Roosevelt. Successive chapter this book (as I interpret him) is
titles hint the central story: “The to voice a warning that as govern-
Fourteenth Amendment,” ‘“Com- ments the world over become more
merce and Nationalization,” “De- concentrated (a development he
mocracy and Empire,” “Nationali- expects) liberty is endangered,
zation Through Foreign Policy,” and to suggest that the general
“New Deal Democracy,” “The Serv- adoption of federalism is its best
ice State.” Some readers may be protection.

especially struck, as I was, by the ~The essay is a labor of patriotism
immense importance attaching to -— and, scarcely less, a labor of
the first section of the Fourteenth piety. The second aspect becomes
Amendment, which gave Congress evident in the last chapter, where
“for the first time power to enforce, good government is bound up with

in all the States, rights as to which religious faith.” A “distinction is -
it had previously possessed no made between freedom and lib-
power to legislate.” erty. “Liberty has a religious as-
sociation which freedom lacks.”

Prospects for American Federal System «I jbherty is depicted by these defi-
What is to be the future of our nitions [Where the Spirit of the
American federal system? It hangs Lord is, there is Liberty’; the
in the balance. “There is a prima service of God is ‘perfect freedom’]
facie case for thinking that... [it] as earthly freedom perfected by
will continue to serve for a future faith in values not of this earth.”
now unusually unpredictable. . .. With all due respect to the high
At least equally possible is the al- purpose of the author in making
ternative that federal theory will it, I confess this distinction ap-
be discarded, even without war, pears to me an impossible one to
by the voluntary actions of Ameri- establish in the mind of the body
cans themselves, in favor of that politic, and therefore to be of little
highly centralized, managerial general value. Let us simplify,
form of government which to many rather than unnecessarily compli-
now seems demanded by the com- cate, our political vocabulary. The
plexities of modern civilization.” dictionary, says Mr. Morley, seems


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

1960 OTHER BOOKS 61

to sanction the interchangeable use back to certain naturalistic falla-
of the two terms: I should be in- cies which have been more charac-
clined to maintain that when one teristic of the eighteenth and nine-
is concerned with the meanings of teenth centuries — in the Occident
words, and especially of words at least — than of the twentieth. I
that are to have wide public signifi- will quote one (to my mind) aston-
cance, one does well, first of all, to ishing sentence. ‘Even identical
make the incorruptible dictionary twins,” says Mr. Morley, “will de-
one’s ally. velop very different political out-

I could pick a gentle quarrel looks if one lives in a well-watered
with Mr. Morley on other counts area, the other on land which re-

too. quires constant irrigation.”

His idea — he may be bending His characterization of Frank-
over backwards a little — that con- lin D. Roosevelt as “this great
stitutional interpretation “must American President” — when one

take cognizance of changing cir- considers his candid account of the
cumstance,” and, again, that “in New Deal era —is hard to under-
this [the integration] case the Su- stand. A single item in this ac-
preme Court had to interpret count will go far to explain my dif-
wording of 1868 in the light of ficulty. The speech in which the
conditions in 1954,” appears to me Four Freedoms were announced,
radically and gravely in error. A Mr. Morley declares, is “an excel-
federal constitution, including its lent illustration of the subtle man-
amendments, should be applied in ner in which — with the aid of war
the sense it was meant to have by psychology — this great American
those who wrote and adopted it — President waged his uphill fight.”
so far as this may be ascertained; He describes the Four Freedoms
if changing circumstance renders — and this description, let me say,
a provision no longer acceptable, admiringly, contains the first cor-
the only defensible remedy lies, rect assessment of the formula I
not in imposing on this a new have seen or heard —as an “in-
meaning, but in altering it by the harmonious quartette,” and a
method prescribed. “monstrosity” produced by a

His idea that there is a causal “clever amalgamation of contra-
relation between climatic and geo- dictory concepts”: note well that
physical conditions on the one hand, word “clever.” Can anyone im-
and political views and require- agine a great American President
ments on the other, seems to me to —a Washington, a Lincoln — de-
be largely an illusion, and to hark scending to such intellectually


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

62 THE FREEMAN February

puerile and morally offensive The Machiavellian theme of the
antics as are here alleged? general incompatibility of political

But enough of reservation. power and ethical principle gets
Freedom and Federalism can be provocative treatment at the hands
recommended to anyone interested of the eminent sociologists, Pro-
in its subject —and what citizen fessors Pitirim Sorokin of Har-
is not, or should not be? — and es- vard and Walter Lunden of Iowa
pecially the parts of it which deal State, in their book, Power and
with the merits and prospects of Morality. The Sorokin-Lunden
federalism and with the history of analysis of history from the prem-
the decline of federalism in the ise that “power tends to corrupt
United States. If a reader thinks and absolute power corrupts ab-
he wants a highly centralized gov- solutely” is brilliant and persua-
ernment, as against a federal sys- sive. But the authors’ follow-up
tem, he will find matter here thesis that the nations of the
which he would do well to con- world should throw away their de-
sider; if he is already on the side structive weapons and embrace a
of federalism, he will find here new kind of world government
support for his convictions —and based on scientific knowledge and
who of us does not take pleasuré creative love; well, is not this-lat-
in seeing his own positions, on ter viewpoint of human nature
whatever field of conflict, fortified quite inconsistent with the for-

or defended? : mer?
FREDERICK A. MANCHESTE Nonetheless, the first half of the
book, which breaks down history
» POWER AND MORALITY into noble declarations and ignoble

By Pitirim Sorokin and Walter policies, is a gem. Politics from
Lunden. Boston: Porter Sargent. Genghis Khan of Cathay to Boss
206 pp. $3.50. Frank Hague of Jersey City is in-
deed a sorry game, almost regard-

THE PRINCE, declared Machiavelli, less of who is playing it. The game
must be lion and fox — a lion to de- is, among other things, a word
fend himself against wolves, a fox game. History records millions of
to recognize traps. To hold power innocents who were murdered in
the prince simply could not afford massacres, ‘“crusades,” ‘purges,’
to be all virtue and no sin, or, in “liquidations,” “holy wars,” “res-
the Machiavellian phrase, ““aprince torations of order” always solemn-
who wishes to maintain the State ly declared “for the Good of the
is often forced to do evil.” Country,” “Nationalism,” “Purity


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

64 THE FREEMAN February

vious subjugation and exploitation; clude purification based upon the
inspired them with the dignity of mere banning of overt weapons?
responsible members of the new so- For as the authors themselves

ciety; alleviated the poverty and ask: “Who shall guard the Guard-
misery of vast downtrodden masses; ians?” Who indeed?

opened to all capable citizens high-
ways to the highest educational and WILLIAM H. PETERSON
social positions . . . [ete., ete.]).”

on thize with the p ON PLANNING THE EARTH

e can sympa
desire : “the authors for a new By Geoffrey Dobbs, Live Tpoo 12,
. England: K.R.P. Publications,

order with the awesome prospect 144" victoria Street), 96 pp. 98¢.
of an atomic holocaust close by.
One can hail their call for cru- GOOD WRITING combines with pro-
saders of love as opposed to cru- found thinking in this book by
saders of conquest. We need men Geoffrey Dobbs, Senior Lecturer
of the mark of Gandhi, Vinoba in Forest Botany at the Uni-
Bhave, 1L’Abbé Pierre, and Albert versity College of North Wales.
Schweitzer to turn the love of pow- On Planning the Earth is a sweep-
er into the power of love. With all ing, brilliantly generalled attack
this, Professors Sorokin and Lun- on large-scale land planning,
den score some points; and their hydroelectric schemes, and other
call for total universal disarma- major reconstructions of the
ment — if under continuous inspec- earth’s surface.
tion — makes sense. Dr. Dobbs has a profound sense

But their faith in a “noble civili- of Christian values as they apply
zation” makes one wonder. Will to things of the earth and to
human nature be uplifted by the worldly powers expressed in tem-
absence of hydrogen weapons? Can poral government. He analyzes the
politics be purified by scientific “planning” movement as a whole
knowledge and by saints and as “the major manipulation of
sages? Could the Soviet Union be natural resources in the interests
trusted to use what would be the of centralized power,” using for
world’s largest police force to but his primary example the Tennes-
maintain law and order within see Valley Authority, held up by
their own borders? And does not planners in Great Britain as an
the Sorokin-Lunden documenta- example to be followed. Dr. Dobbs
tion of the well-nigh inevitable is professionally equipped to deal
corruption of power, as detailed with the consequences of the TVA
in the first half of their book, pre- in the physical area, but he is


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

1960 OTHER BOOKS 63

of Race,” “God,” and all sorts of catch-all, raison d’etat (“reason
justifying mottoes and catchwords of state”). All too often, the State
aimed at masking the ugly power can do no wrong — the king is
motives of the rulers. above reproach (and nowadays
And no matter what era you substitute ‘“the people” for “the
pick in ancient, medieval, or mod- king”). The petty criminal is by
ern history, the pattern of power and large caught, tried, and pun-
and corruption is virtually inescap- ished. Not so with the criminality
able over the long run. Consider of rulers. If anything, history
the Byzantine Empire. In Con- books not only whitewash the
stantinople no sovereign was safe. criminal acts of the State but
Of the 107 sovereigns that occu- parade them as brilliant strokes of
pied the throne between 395 A.D. statecraft. One is reminded of the
and 1453 A.D., only 34 died in their old English rhyme:
beds. The rest either abdicated —

mostly unwillingly — or died vio- The law locks up both man and
lently by poison, smothering, stab- woman

bing, mutilation, or strangulation. Who steals the goose from off the
Some 65 separate revolutions took common,

place during the-1,058 years of - But lets-the-greater felon loose,
Byzantium. Grim stories abound. Who steals the common from the
The devout Irene had her son Con- goose.
stantine VI blinded in the very
room in which he was born. Leo V, A New Order?
the Armenian, was assassinated in Where Professors Sorokin and
820 A.D. — in St. Stephen’s chapel. Lunden go off the deep end is in
Theophano had her husband mur- the second half of their book.
dered in the Sacred Palace and his After their incisive and thorough-
severed head displayed to the ly provocative first half, they go
soldiers. sailing off on a pink cloud of “a
Yet the point of all the docu- new order.” It becomes a confus-
mented violence is the double ing discussion, filled with dubious
standard that pervades history and economics and facts. Consider this
today’s society. For whether his- bit about Red Russia (p. 150):
tory is judging Theophano of Byz- «gigs by side with inhuman regi-
antium, Catherine the Great of mentation and enslavement of mil-
Russia, or Elizabeth I of England, jens of their citizens, the Soviet and
the overriding excuse for violence similar regimes have liberated these
— then and now — is that beautiful millions from many forms of pre-


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

1960 OTHER BOOKS ’ 65

equally competent when dealing through the sluices to the people
with the social, political, and re- in strict proportion to the ‘justice’

ligious side effects. of their claim, as determined by
Dr. Dobbs raises questions an impartial Committee.”
about the long range effects of The importance of the control

the TVA on soil erosion, for ex- of water in totalitarian planning
ample, which cannot be ignored. is not new. The first centralized
More good agricultural land is state arose on the banks of the
flooded by the TVA than is re- Nile on a basis of water control.
claimed by irrigation, and the It is symbolized by the vast slave-
damage done to the productive ele- built pyramid tombs of its rulers.
ments of the earth’s surface is For the People of God it typified
nature’s reply to the promises of the slavery from which they fled
the planners. in search of the Promised Land

If the TVA is really an anti- where freedom was supported by
conservation project, despite the “former rains and the latter
claims to the contrary, the real in- rains” that could not be appor-
centive for such land planning and tioned through irrigation systems.
water collection schemes must be The ultimate evil of centralized
sought elsewhere. Perhaps the in- planning is that it is “the stealing
centive is political. Planning im- of choices.” The government com-
plies control, and control over the mittee, by depriving people of the
world is an end admirably served opportunity of making their own
by the projects for which the TVA choices, thereby reduces them to
is an admitted model. The powers slavery. “The effect... of making
given to the Authority by Con- other people’s choices instead of
gress are such that the “spread of one’s own, is to destroy the per-
control from water to almost sonality. It is suicism — suicide of
everything else makes an instruc- the self (soul); perhaps the only
tive study of the totalitarian na- way in which the soul of man can
ture of planning.” be destroyed.”

“It has been noted,” Dr. Dobbs It is not merely freedom that is
writes, “that the rain falls upon at stake; not even this mortal life.
the just and the unjust, but such It is the soul of man. This is the
an arrangement is not regarded as prize for which Hell has contended
fair by our Planners, who would from Paradise on, and for which
prefer that the rain should be the Son of God suffered even death
gathered into one place, and then at the hands of a world govern-
‘delegated’ under strict control ment. T. ROBERT INGRAM


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

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