===== PAGE 1 ===== THE [eelld JULY 1960 IDEAS ON LIBERTY Adult Delinquency . . . . . . . . Ben Moreell ’ 3 Freedom: The Mortar of Maturity . . . Stephen B. Miles, Jr. 13 How To Reduce Taxes . . . . . . . Leonard E. Read 17 Fair Shares in the Wheat Belt. . . . . H.P. B. Jenkins 25 Union Power and Government Aid . . . Sylvester Petro 26 In Defense of Life and Property . . . . Minneapolis District Court 40 The Two-Fold Crisis: Personal and Social . Edmund A. Opitz 46 Insuring lrresponsibility . . . . . . W. M Curtiss 54 The Tariff Controversy: A Christian Dilemma . . . . . . . . . . H.J Ritscher 56 Free Market — Free Men . . . . . . John Chamberlain 61 sn THE FOUNDATION FILE FOR ECONOMIC EDUCATION, INC. Irvington-on-Hudson, New York ===== PAGE 2 ===== ed CECI SEVEN] ao densmamars = 2 2? I) ee ge CTT ® al Modern, all-electric Medallion Home in Tampa, Florida YOUR NATION OF LIGHT... 40% of all the electricity in the world is used in the U.S., most of it supplied by One of America’s wonders to foreign visi- The independent electric companies tors is the wealth of electric power that that turn out over 34 of America’s elec- we put to work in our homes, on our tricity have doubled the supply every ten farms, in our jobs. years, and are building now to double it We use more light and power than the again in the next ten. And because they next six nations together—three times as and their millions of owners will put up much as the Russians—and we keep on the money for the new plants and lines, using more all the time. On the average, You won't be taxed to pay for them. you use twice as much as you did just ten These hundreds of companies are ready years ago and pay 16% less for it per and able to supply all the low-price power kilowatt-hour. people can conceivably need in the future. Ore dock, Ashtabula, Ohio. Time exposure shows streaks from moving lights on loading machinery. Electrified farm, Valley Center, Kansas ye ra J —— S——— ~ ——— - Dr pA ME Lee ===== PAGE 3 ===== Ribas £154 9 Tn GIR” = _— — Ts Oil refineries at Port Arthur, Texas Big-city skyscrapers, New York AND POWER! hundreds of independent electric companies This means there is no need for the fed- eral government to build any more electric systems that all Americans would be taxed to pay for. You can get more facts and figures about this in a new, free booklet. Write for “Who Pays?” to Power Companies, Room 1114-Q), 1271 Ave. of the Americas,New York 20,N.Y. AMERICA’S INDEPENDENT ELECTRIC LIGHT AND POWER COMPANIES Company names on request through this magazine Nu-Pike Fun Park, Long Beach, California ===== PAGE 4 ===== A MONTHLY JOURNAL OF IDEAS ON LIBERTY JULY 1960 . ©. Vol. 10 No. 7 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 mare, 20 cents each. ‘ Permission is hereby granted to anyone to reprint any article in whole "or in part, providing customary credit is given. . Any current article will be supplied in reprint form if there are enough FE inquiries to justify the cost of the printing. ===== PAGE 5 ===== BEN MOREELL WE HEAR MUCH these days about gap in your case; only I can know “juvenile delinquency.” Most of us it in mine. are deeply concerned about this If TI have the natural talents to problem. But what about “adult do great things in engineering or delinquency’? I confess that I am science or the church or civic an adult delinquent. I suspect that affairs or elsewhere, and those many others throughout America talents are little used, I am de- should be similarly tagged. linquent. And the measure of my What is “delinquency”? My dic- delinquency is the spread between tionary defines it as “failure, omis- what I did and what I might have sion, or violation of duty.” To have done. Thus, the wayward youth or a useful concept of “delinquency” the moron may be far less delin- we need a yardstick to measure its quent than those of us who, though degree. Such a yardstick is the we have been blessed with many “gap” between a man’s actual talents and opportunities to de- achievements and what he might velop and use them, have failed to have achieved if he had made full do so. use of his God-given talents. Only Wherein have we failed? First you can know the span of that of all, my generation has squan- RU dered its legacy. We were be- Admiral Ben Moreell is the famed founder of queathed, by our political fore- the Navy's wartime Sea Bees. He was the first . _ (1946) non-Annapolis, four-star admiral since hears, an unearned heritage — the the establish t of the Naval Academy. At . . . . present. Admiral Moresit is Chairman of the greatest citadel of individual free- Board of ] yon : . Board of Trustees of Americans for Constiti- dom and opportunity the world This article is from an address of February has ever seen. We have failed to 4, 1960 to The Women’s Patriotic Conference R on National Defense, Inc., Washington, D. C. Strengthen that heritage, or even 3 ===== PAGE 6 ===== 4 THE FREEMAN July to preserve it. We have permitted “Is it rational that now, when its structure to be eroded and its the young people may have to face foundations weakened to the point problems harder than we faced where we are in grave danger of ...we are giving up the study of losing the entire edifice. Should how the Greeks and Romans pre- that debacle occur, we will have vailed magnificently in a barbaric deprived our posterity of their world; the study, too, of how that rightful heritage of freedom. The triumph ended, how a slackness gap between what we did and what and softness finally came over we should have done is great in- them to their ruin? In the end, deed! more than they wanted freedom, I, and millions like me who they wanted security, a comforta- should have known better, have ble life, and they lost all — security permitted this to happen. Our re- and comfort and freedom.... treat along the road back to serf- “Are we not growing slack and dom has accelerated to a point softin our political life? When the where those noble words of our Athenians finally wanted not to National Anthem, “The Land of give to the State, but the State to the Free and the Home of the give to them, when the freedom Brave,” have been drained of they wished most for was freedom meaning. Truly, most of our gen- from responsibility, then Athens eration are “adult delinquents”! ceased to be free and was never To measure that delinquency, let free again. Is that not a chal- us see how “free” we Americans lenge?” are today and, equally important, There are lessons to be learned how “brave”! from the experience of the men of old. But we are inclined to dis- Ignorance No Excuse miss the ancient wisdom because No one who has given serious our modern “social engineers” as- thought to the things we have been sure us that our new knowledge of doing to our social structure in technology and civics, of economics recent years can claim ignorance and human nature, make those les- of their ultimate effect. There are sons obsolete. We ignore them at warning signs on every page of our peril! recorded history. But we deliber- If we are in trouble today, it is ately ignore them. Miss Edith not because we have lacked Hamilton, world authority of the prophets who pointed out the dan- Greco-Roman civilization, recently gers besetting the course we have made this statement: chosen. ' ===== PAGE 7 ===== 1960 ADULT DELINQUENCY 5 On August 11, 1846, the London government, but if, from indo- Times published this warning: lence, or carelessness, or coward- “The greatest tyranny has the ice, or want of public spirit, they smallest beginnings. From prece- are unequal to the exertions neces- dents overlooked, from remon- sary for preserving it; if they will strances despised, from grievances not fight for it when it is directly treated with ridicule, from power- attacked; if they can be deluded less men oppressed with impunity, by the artifices used to cheat them and overbearing men tolerated out of it; if by momentary dis- with complacence, springs the ty- couragement or temporary panic, rannical usage which generations or a fit of enthusiasm for an in- of wise and good men may here- dividual, they can be induced to after perceive and lament and re- lay their liberties at the feet even sist in vain. At present, common of a great man, or trust him with minds no more see a crushing tyr- powers which enable him to sub- anny in a trivial unfairness or a vert their institutions; in all these ludicrous indignity than the eye, cases they are more or less unfit uninformed by reason, can discern for liberty; and though it may be the oak in the acorn... . Hence, for their good to have had it even the necessity of denouncing with for a short time, they are unlikely unwearied and even troublesome long to enjoy it.” perseverance a single act of op- What words of wisdom — and pression. Let it alone and it stands how applicable to our current na- on record. The country has allowed tional predicament! it, and when it is at last provoked We come now to this pertinent to a late indignation, it finds itself question: If these warnings are gagged with the record of its own valid and we have failed to heed ill compulsion.” them, what freedoms have we lost It requires no great feat of as a result of our ‘“indolence, or memory to recall the many inci- carelessness, or cowardice, or want dents in our own last quarter cen- of public spirit”? tury when we could well have Freedom in society means that profited from this admonition. persons as well as their property are secure from arbitrary inva- Words of Wisdom sion. To the extent that a man’s In 1860, in his “Essay on Repre- life and goods are at the disposal sentative Government,” John Stu- of another, he is not free! The art Mill stated: degree to which our government “A people may prefer a free has taken control in these areas of ===== PAGE 8 ===== 6 THE FREEMAN July life and property marks the degree ment from exercising complete of its departure from our. r.original arbitrary despotic and discrimi- principles. natory powers over the property of the individual through the levy The Greatest Intrusions and collection “of this unlimited Tt is'my firm conviction that the tax upon incomes’ two greatest intrusions on indi- . And with. respect to conserip- vidual freedom in the history of - tion for foreign wars Professor our Republic are, first, the Six- Burgess said: “From the point of teenth Amendment to the Consti- ‘view of the Constitutional im- tution, which was ratified in 1913, ‘munities of the individual against and which provides for the gradu- governmental power, this distine- ated income tax; and, second, the tion [i.e., that Congress had "Act of May 18, 1917, whereby authority to organize and employ Congress ‘‘authorized and or- only volunteer forces in foreign _ dained” a conscript army for use war and reserve compulsory serv- in foreign war, ice. for repelling invasion, sup- Here is what a great scholar. ‘pressing insurrection -and execu- has ‘to say about these two enact- ting the laws of the Union inter- “ments. I quote from the late John nally] will be seen with a little re- - W. ‘Burgess, Emeritus Professor flection to be most vital. For while of Political Science and Constitu- Congress, that is, the government tional Law at Columbia Univer- of the United States, can always, sity. In his book, Recent Changes of its own motion, declare a for- in American Constitutional eign war, it cannot, of itself alone, Theory, (first printing 1923; sec- produce an invasion of the United ond printing 1933), he wrote: States or an insurrection within “We have, therefore, under this the country. It depends upon other Sixteenth Amendment as I inter- wills as to ‘whether these condi- pret it, an investment of the gov- tions shall or shall not exist. ernment with entirely unlimited “Now the power in a govern- power in the levy and collection of ment to conscript its citizens or the most comprehensive of all “subjects into its military service taxes, the income tax, the tax ‘upon an occasion which it may, of which can take, thus unlimited, the its own motion, at any time, invent entire product of all property and and perpetuate, amounts to a of all labor. There is now nothing. power to hold the people of the in our Constitution, as I under- country under permanent military stand it, to prevent the govern- law, that is, to hold them under a ===== PAGE 9 ===== 1960 . ADULT DELINQUENCY 7 law which is not limited by any of records (that is, bank deposits, Constitutional immunities protec- bank accounts, safe-deposit tive of the individual against gov- boxes), the right to privacy in ernmental power. . .. one’s home, freedom to plant and “In view of these considera- raise such farm crops as one wills, tions, I cannot believe that the protection from arbitrary actions framers of our Constitution by government which erode the vested the power in the govern- values of our savings by inflation, ment to raise and employ con- and so forth. The list is long. We script armies for, and in, foreign are subjected to compulsory par- war. It is the most despotic power ticipation in Social Security, man- which government can exercise. It datory wage rates, compulsory can be so exercised at any mo- membership in labor organiza- ment, and on occasion created by tions, fixed rent controls, restric- government itself, as to sweep tions on choice of tenants and pur- away every vestige of individual chasers of our property, and liberty and put the last drop of others. blood of every man, woman, and child in the country at the arbi- Emergency Powers trary disposal of government.” I have in my library two sizable Here, then, according to Profes- documents. One lists the “Emer- sor Burgess, we have surrendered gency and War Powers of the to government our two most pre- President and of the Executive cious natural rights, that is, the Branch of the Government ac- right to life and the right to ac- quired since 1933.” The other is quire, preserve, and enjoy prop- entitled “Provisions of Federal erty which, in its ultimate effect, Law Presently in Effect by Rea- is the right to sustain life. son of the National Emergency The Declaration of Independence Proclaimed by the President De- says that men possess certain in- cember 16, 1950.” herent rights, being so endowed The striking feature of both by their Creator. To secure their lists is the tenacity with which rights men established a govern- so-called “emergency measures” ment,. and this government now hang on long after the emergency turns about and impairs those has passed. There are many which rights. : have been carried forward from What other rights have we lost? World War I! It appears that ‘Among them is the right to own those who believe in concentration and hold gold, the right to privacy of power in the hands of the cen- ===== PAGE 10 ===== 8 THE FREEMAN ' July tral government take advantage of sions on studies of the financial be- every emergency to achieve great- havior of nations, have stated that er centralization; and they never when the tax take of government let go! rises to the range of 20 to 25 per Parenthetically, many of these cent of the earned income of the same zealots for centralization people, large segments of the pop- now go further and ardently ad- ulation will demand an easing of vocate concentration of power in the burden of direct taxes by in- the hands .of a world government creasing the volume of the money. to which they propose that we sur- This is inflation! render our national sovereignty. It has been demonstrated that This would, in effect, make us once the government assumes re- largely. subject to the control of sponsibility for the economic wel- those very “backward nations” fare of its citizens, the 20 to 25 who, it is claimed, are now in per cent range in tax take of such dire need of our help! earned income is quickly reached. In the United States we are far Growth of Government beyond this point. We are now It is to be noted that every one above 35 per cent! And the in- of the controls and restrictions evitable progression appears to be imposed on persons by the laws, on schedule, as indicated by the rules, and regulations to which I fact that from 1933 to 1955 there have alluded, requires an enlarge- has been a 500 per cent increase ment of the power of the central in the money supply of the United government in Washington. This States (that is, total deposits and has undermined personal liberty currency outside banks) while the as well as the sovereignty and po- population increased only 32 per litical integrity of the individual cent. In spite of the vastly in- states. : creased productivity of our indus- But there is more! The enor- trial machine, there has occurred, mous growth of government has since 1933, a sharp decrease, some imposed a heavy tax burden on 55 per cent, in the purchasing every citizen. But not even the ex- power of our money! cessive taxation we now bear is sufficient to pay the mounting Our Freedoms costs of government; so the gov- It is unfortunate that we have ernment resorts to inflation. forgotten the old adage: ‘“Whoso Competent economists, such as controls our subsistence, controls. Colin Clark, basing their conclu- us.” Professor F. A. Hayek cau- ===== PAGE 11 ===== 1960 ADULT DELINQUENCY 9 tioned us, “Economic control is in any realistic discussion of free- not merely control of a sector of dom, what happens in the eco- human life which can be separated nomic realm is basic. from the rest; it is control of the How much freedom have we lost means for all our ends.” in the economic realm? As I have Freedom of worship is an empty stated, the latest statistics show thing if we are denied the finan- that more than 35 per cent of the cial means to erect churches, pay national earned income is now con- our clergy, print religious litera- fiscated by all levels of govern- ture, and propagate our faith. ment. Freedom of the press means noth- ing if we are deprived of the Where the Blame Lies means to buy presses, type, and Where lies the blame for our newsprint. And what meaning can current condition — so foreign to be attached to free speech if we the promises of the original Amer- know that we must speak in a cer- ican character and faith? tain way or else lose favor with The fact is that all of us, you ~ those who control the food, cloth- and I, must share the blame. Some- ing, and shelter which we need to where we got off the track. Over survive? Unless we have full free- the past 50 years we have encour- dom in the economic realm, we aged —nay, we have actively par- cannot have full freedom in any ticipated in — the propagation of a other. Unless we have a society in misplaced faith in the power of which the producer enjoys the full government to accomplish all sorts fruits of his labor, our freedom is of social, economic, and even moral impaired precisely to the degree purposes. Implementing this faith that political exactions deprive the we have thrust enormous powers man who works, whether with upon government; or else, with mind or muscle, of his production. great docility, we have acquiesced Slavery is commonly thought of while the powers and functions of as ownership of one man by an- government have been extended, other. But the slaveholder would accelerated, and centralized. Such not quibble about owning the man, enhancement of political power at provided he owns the products of the expense of the natural rights the man’s labor! A slave, in other of individuals is correctly labeled words, is a man to whom the right ‘socialism.” of economic freedom is denied. The tendency of citizens in all From this premise the denial of walks of life is to be complacent all other rights follows. Therefore, about the advance of what might ===== PAGE 12 ===== 10 THE FREEMAN July ~~ be called piecemeal socialism — po- against us appear to have substan- litical intrusion that does not en- tial basis in fact! For example, croach upon what each one con- those of us in business acclaim the ceives to be his own territory. We superior productivity of the free tend to be apathetic about the gen- enterprise system, but we look for eral socialistic drift. In many in- special privilege or government stances we actively support social- subsidies or loans when we can- istic measures under the guise of not obtain funds from private “promoting prosperity” or “devel- sources. The farmer is proud of oping the community.” But we his individualism but strives for should now be aware that what a politically guaranteed income threatens to engulf us is. total and subsidized electricity, irriga- state socialism. tion, and tools. The doctor is op- All those in positions to influ- posed to socialized medicine, but ence public opinion have a duty to ~ wants government subsidies for actively oppose socialism wher- training, research, and laborator- ever it appears, because socialism ies. The educator points to the de- is ancient tyranny under-a modern plorable lowering of standards disguise — even though it has en- which results from political domi- listed some misguided idealism in nation of education — then insists its behalf. If the promise of Amer- that federal aids to education are ica is to be redeemed, we must op- essential for national survival! pose state socialism on every level The scientist opposes any inter- — philosophical and spiritual as ference with freedom of inquiry — well as economic and political. If then implores government to pro- our sole concern is merely that as- vide generously for “research es- pect of socialism which directly sential to the National Defense confronts our own company or our and the common welfare.” The own industry or our own com- union official extols “free Ameri- munity, we may contribute to the "can labor” — then maintains that advance of socialism on other he must have special laws which fronts by our neglect, if not by confer upon him exclusive power our positive actions. to coerce and regiment his mem- What is the current pattern of bers, to abolish freedom of con- our behavior? tract and to resort to intimidation and violence, all under the guise Common Taint of “conserving labor’s gains.” Unfortunately, many of the Young people want government charges of inconsistency launched to provide them with an educa- ===== PAGE 13 ===== 1960 ADULT DELINQUENCY 11 tion, a job, and a pension. Old peo- This could be done in five steps as ple are content, for the moment, follows: with generous retirement privi- 1. Let us stop this uneasy drift leges. And the man-in-the-street toward collectivism by ending all demands from government a sub- further special privileges and pri- sidized house, food, medical care, vate raids on the public treasury and an ephemeral thing called -— whether conducted by labor “economic security.” unions, businessmen, farmers, or And most of us know that, since any other group. In one respect, government produces nothing, this is the easiest step of all — we what it gives to one it must take need only refrain from passing away from someone else, with more socialistic laws. But we have generous deductions for “handling become so addicted to socialism charges” in the course of the that it will be just as hard for us transaction. to break the habit as for an al- One wonders — is this in truth coholic to stop his compulsive the “Home of the Brave”? Are drinking. brave men satisfied to live off the 2. Let us undertake at once an fruits of some other man’s labor? orderly demobilization of the bu- Is our case hopeless? Must we reaucracy by the progressive re- surrender unconditionally and take peal of the socialistic laws now on what comes? No, not if we are our books. This is the road back to dedicated to the restoration of our social health and fiscal sanity, and country as the “Land of the Free it will be a struggle all the way; and the Home of the Brave.” every pressure group in the nation will fight to retain its special A Positive Program privileges, subsidies, and govern- What specific steps must we ment protection. But if freedom is take? to live, all politically privileged I believe that no one, no matter positions must go! how exalted his position, can de- 3. Of the powers that remain in termine for 177 million people government, let us return as many their day-to-day economic and so- as possible to the individual states. cial decisions concerning such mat- For, on the local level, the people ters as wages, prices, production, can apply more critical scrutiny to associations, and others. So I pro- the acts of their government and pose that these decisions, and the take corrective action. problems connected therewith, be 4. Let us resolve that never returned to the persons concerned. again will we yield to the seduc- ===== PAGE 14 ===== 12 THE FREEMAN July tion of the government pander knowledging that unless each one who comes to us offering gifts, of us humbly tries to govern his paid for with our own money, in actions by God’s will — as this is return for a surrender of our interpreted in such statements as natural rights. the Ten Commandments and the 5. Above all, let us hold high be- Sermon on the Mount — he brings fore our eyes the banner of in- chaos into society and invites tyr- dividual moral responsibility, ac- anny. ~ Abuse Freedom — Lose It THE weakness of a free society man’s privilege to serve the com- is the fact that so few of its people munity. They were convinced that understand it. Far too many have no free economy stood a chance the notion that to be.free means of survival whose people felt no to be unrestrained. To them it burning sense of responsibility to means freedom to deceive, freedom sacrifice as needed to maintain it. to exploit, freedom to malign, free- Freedom, in their language, meant dom to steal (politely), freedom being free to exercise this privi- to lie (for a profit), freedom to lege, to perform civic duties con- avoid civic duty, freedom to dis- scientiously, to serve God and one card moral values. Freedom, in another as conditions might re- short, to do as you please so long quire. They did not interpret free- as you keep out of jail. dom as license to promote the good Few of those who hold this con- of any man, themselves included, ception of freedom use all these at the cost of justice to another. forms of free expression. Some Freedom in their view was pri- use one and some another — but all marily justice — that gave every together gnaw away at the struc- man the fullest and fairest oppor- ture that makes true freedom pos- tunity to make the most of what- sible. ever was best in his make-up. Our earliest ancestors, who came Whether or not our own free- to this wild land to escape the dom will endure depends on which punitive restraints of monarchical of these views predominates society, knew that to find a dura- among our people at this crucial ble free order here they must. first moment in their history. of all assume voluntary restraints. From the March 1960 “Bankers” Bulletin, . Bank ial Co tion, They regarded it as every free Bankers Commercia rporation, New York ===== PAGE 15 ===== ® 3 x 3 x % FREEDOM THE MORTAR OF MATURITY x Xx x * 4 x STEPHEN B. MILES, JR. TODAY many of those who have The classic example of contact been most sympathetic with our with reality used to be farming. past moves toward collectivism The farmer prepares the ground; are starting to beat the drums to sows; the seeds grow into plants; make the government responsible he harvests the crop. The better for the “mental health” of “its” he has done his job, the better the citizens. They point to the facts harvest — and the better he and that half our hospital beds are oc- his family will live. But today, cupied by “mental” patients and farmers (and others) are not free that one out of every 10 or 12 of to work in this way. Often the us is destined to spend some time work a man does bears little rela- in a mental hospital. They conclude tion to the rewards he reaps. And that “mental health” has now be- so it is little wonder that he tends come important enough to be taken to lose contact with reality. over by government. In the Winter 1959-60 number But here may be an issue made of Modern Age (reprinted in the to order for libertarians. For men- May 1960 Freeman), William C. tal distress is largely, if not main- Mullendore traces the confusion of ly, loss of contact with reality. In our society to lack of “responsible fact, this is how schizophrenia, re- individualism.” It may be that one sponsible for 55 per cent of the of the most striking examples of “mental cases” in hospitals, is now that confusion is precisely the described. And loss of contact with same mental distress that the so- reality is directly traceable to loss cialists would cure by less individ- of freedom. ual responsibility. —_— Examining studies of insanity, Mr. Miles offers a management consulting one finds such cases as the man service in Los Angeles and does free-lance . . . writing and editorial work. who, all during his childhood, was 13 ===== PAGE 16 ===== 14 THE FREEMAN July protected by his mother — and mentally “slugging it out” —a when it finally became necessary freedom more vital to man than for him to get a job and assert any of his gregarious. “drives,” himself, went into a tailspin. Here Even a new-born infant seems is a young woman who had been to have a. deep-seated need - for told all her life by an older sister freedom .of. movement. When the what to do, what to eat, what to baby gets a little older and strong- wear — and who had broken down er, he will scream. -and kick and shortly after getting married. struggle and get. red in the face if Here is another young lady who he is constrained. from turning had waited on her invalid father over when ‘he “feels like it, or day and night for the 30 years stretching, or doubling up. The be- since he suffered a stroke and so haviorists call "this “rage.” It. became totally dependent on him would be equally appropriate to for an emotional outlet. Here is a call it a demonstration of man’s man with a history of almost con- basic, and elemental, love for free- stant illnesses as a child who, asa dom, and of his growing aware- consequence, was never expected ness that he is an individual with to do any real work or assume any inalienable rights. real responsibility even during his well periods. And so it goes. Evolution Toward Liberty Most of these persons as chil- The normal development of the dren went regularly to school and child is such that, as he grows studied their school lessons. Many older, more and more freedom be- of them became known as espe- comes available to him, seemingly cially “bright” students. But none restricted to that amount he can of them learned enough about the use in each of his stages of fine art of controlling situations, growth. Just as by using his free- rather than being controlled by dom to pit himself against the ob- them, to develop the maturity nec- stacles of the world, the child — essary to cope with life once the and later the man — develops the crutch of over-protection or emo- physical, mental, moral, and spirit- tional dependence was withdrawn. ual muscles that will build matur- They did not learn how to make ity and enable him to understand their own decisions and choices — his world, so has our civilization and how to take the consequences. developed by gradual (and fitful) They did not have the freedom that steps. The evolution of life itself, comes only with standing on their if read correctly, suggests that own two feet and physically and the need to be free is one of the ===== PAGE 17 ===== 1960 FREEDOM : THE MORTAR OF MATURITY 15 primary needs of man. Lecomte du deprive him of the sanity and ma- Nouy says in his great book, Hu- turity for which he was born. man Destiny: Without freedom he cannot build “Evolution has all the appear- up and toughen those inner re- ances of being a choice, always sources which give him the flexi- made in the same ascending direc- bility and initiative so necessary tion towards a greater liberty. ... for the give and take of life. The increasing freedom of human It is by freely trying out many beings is evident if one starts with different modes of behavior and the monocellular being and the then evaluating the consequences mollusks: freedom of movement, that are associated with such-and- liberation from the chains im- such a type of behavior under posed by a strict dependence on such-and-such a circumstance that the environment (concentration the wild gyrations of childhood, of saline solution, temperature, laughter one moment and tears food, etc.), liberation from the ne- the next, are narrowed down with cessity of using the hands for the oncoming of maturity to small- walking or digging, liberation er and more controlled emotional from the time-consuming method swings that will enable him to of transmitting useful acquired face the problems of life with ini- characters and experience tiative, self-reliance, and love. The (through speech and tradition), gradual integration of reality into and last of all . . . liberation of the patterns of thinking, feeling, conscience.”? and behaving is interrupted for the The quest for freedom is not mentally disturbed individual. He simply a thing added on, as dicta- somehow never learns to be self- tors and bureaucrats seem to as- reliant in the confidence that sume, or even one of the luxuries things will turn out as planned; of integrity. It is part and parcel to take the initiative, and thus of the stuff of which human life is make himself into an agent made, built in through a hundred through which the cosmic crea- million years of evolution, a mil- tive force may flow;2 or to love, lion years of pre-history, thou- which for the mature individual sands of years of history. When involves self-discipline and respon- the circumstances of a man’s life sibility for others. He knows only deprive him of freedom, they also the dependence of the child — but 1 Du Nouy, Lecomte. Human Destiny. 2 See Leonard E. Read, “Economics Longmans, Green and Co., 1947. pp. 92- for the Teachable,” THE FREEMAN, Jan- 93. uary 1960, pp. 32-40, ===== PAGE 18 ===== 16 THE FREEMAN July he yearns to express the emotions fare-statism, or whatnot. In its of adulthood, the emotions in- most extreme form, non-freedom tended to fit him for maturity, leads to, or perhaps is, insanity. without knowing how to do so. He (For his 1984, George Orwell ex- is torn between two worlds, and panded a lunatic asylum to be the result is the extremes of be- coterminous with civilization.) havior of the manic-depressive; Life always throws down a chal- the delusions of persecution and of lenge to the newcomer. That chal- grandeur of the paranoic; and the lenge reads: ‘Prove thyself.” silliness, negativism, apathy, and Parents, teachers, friends can help “split personality” of the schizo- the individual get ready to meet phrenic. that challenge, but they can protect } him from accepting it and the at- Life’s Challenge: Prove Thyself tendant risks only by withdrawing Friedrich Hayek shows in The him from the enterprise of life. Sensory Order that reality is not And the attendant risks. Facing simply something in the “outer challenges from which the teeth world” to be reached out to by have been pulled just will not do. sensory organs, but rather is Such a situation is as artificial as created by each individual for him- providing a dog simultaneously self.3 Such a concept of the de- with food and with electric shocks velopment of reality makes it even — and likely to have the same re- more apparent that a nice balance sult: breakdown. between emotional responses, be- Whatever can be said in opposi- tween work and accomplishment, tion to an agency using coercion between experience of effect and against one group or individual to understanding of cause is required protect another (and it is much) — in order that relationships the greatest harm may, in the last (which are all we know) may be analysis, be caused not by the integrated in a constantly tighten- coercion, but by the protection. ing nexus. The “development” of Society can provide the individual “reality,” so conceived, which is with anesthesia but not with ma- here called maturity, is threatened turity. Only by “bringing off” by injudicious interference with affairs where he has freely staked the freedom of the individual, something of value can the indi- whether it be by parental over- vidual learn —and by learning, protection, teacher coddling, wel- hold the bricks of security in place "3 Hayek, F. A, The Sensory Order. The by freedom, the mortar of ma- University of Chicago Press, 1952, turity. > ===== PAGE 19 ===== How To Reduce Taxes LEONARD E. READ THE CUNEIFORM SIGNS, as shown about these ideograms. First, the above, are copied from a clay cone word “freedom” here puts in its now on display at The Louvre. The earliest written appearance. Sec- cone was excavated by the French ond, is the remarkable clarity used at the site of ancient Lagash, a to depict “taxes.” These Sumerians prehistoric city located in Mesopo- expressed in a symbol the nature tamia. The messages on the cone of governmental “take” better were etched with a reed stylus on than we express the process in our soft clay during the third mil- modern languages. Note its barb lennium B.C.! or fishhook or harpoon character- While the experts on Sumerian istics, suggesting, so very clearly, civilization may not agree pre- that this instrument is one which cisely in their interpretations, the can be thrust into, but hardly re- consensus is that the above three trieved from whatever it pene- signs mean “freedom from taxes.” trates. The nature of taxation thus There are two features to observe revealed itself at the very dawn 1 See Samuel! Noah Kramer, From the Of history, and experience con- Tablets of Sumer (Indian Hills, Colorado: firms this early disclosure: Taxes The Falcon’s Wing Press, 1956), Chapter . . 6, “The First Case of Tax Reduction,” aT€ €asy to increase but almost im- pp. 41-46. possible to decrease. 17 ===== PAGE 20 ===== 18 THE FREEMAN July We need not go beyond the ex- country’s earned income.2 As a periences of our own country in rule this is the level beyond which this century to verify the one-way direct tax levies become politically tendency of our taxes. They con- inexpedient. Inflation, therefore, tinue to penetrate inexorably becomes the only alternative deeper, always advancing, never means of financing excessive ex- receding. Look at the record: The penditures. And the more over- population of the U.S.A. increased expanded the government, the from 76 million in 1900 to 174 mil- more the inflation! lion in 1958 while government ex- Inflation in the U.S.A., however, penditures per person (in terms of is more dangerous than in other 1947-49 dollars) rose from $56 in countries and for a simple reason: 1900 to $580 in 1958, a more than We are more specialized than other tenfold expansion of governmental people are or ever have been. We assessments per person — man, are so specialized that all of us woman, and child. are dependent upon the exchange ) } of our numerous specializations. Spending and Inflation In a highly specialized economy Where is the end of all this? If such as ours, the exchanges are not the trend of the past few decades by barter; a circulating medium be projected into the future — the of exchange is required. This is near future even — the prospect is money’s most important function. that of a once great economy fly- Inflation, let it be repeated, is a ing to pieces. The expenditures of politically engineered increase in government (now equal to 35 per money volume. This thins or di- cent of the peoples’ earned in- lutes the circulating medium. The come) have long since passed the medium can, assuming a continua- point where they can be met by di- tion of inflation, become so thin rect tax levies. Inflation — increas- that it will lose all of its circu- ing the volume of money — is then lating power. This is what hap- resorted to. This reduces the value pened in Germany after World of the monetary unit. Serious in ~ 24Dr. Colin Clark, the Australian econ- our country? The dollar has lost omist, has concluded from his study of 52 per cent of its purchasing value governmental costs that whenever the since 1939! figure for any country rises to more than N Al . ] 20 or 25 per cent, progressive inflation Historically, in most instances, and the debauchery of the currency is governments resort to inflation likely.” See p. 110, Liberty: A Path to Its . Recovery by F. A. Harper. Irvington-on- when the collection by government Hudson, N. Y.: The Foundation for Eco- reaches 20 to 25 per cent of the nomic Education, Inc., 1949. ===== PAGE 21 ===== 1960 HOW TO REDUCE TAXES 19 War I when 30 million marks Omitting the enormous activi- would not purchase a loaf of bread. ties and costs related to the “cold The purpose of this paper, how- war,’”’? government’s expansion in ever, is not to point out the dan- the U.S.A.-—and elsewhere, for gers of government in an ever- that matter —is a growth in so- expanding role with its ever-in- cialism. It is an increasing prac- creasing costs, and the ultimate tice of the collectivistic concept — consequence of this course — infla- the notion that the individual ex- tion. These threats are well known ists for the group, by the group's to all individuals who are likely to permission, and for the group's be of any help in slowing down sake. and eventually reversing present This concept denies the Creator trends. Not as well known is the and substitutes therefor the fact that a mere rehashing of omnipotent State as the source of these threats, coupled with scold- man’s rights and the dispenser of ings and exhortations, will not privileges. State supervision of turn the tide. People simply are welfare and prosperity is substi- not frightened away from collec- tuted for personal responsibility. tivism by statistical or mathemati- The State takes from and gives to, cal or materialistic arguments as its political hierarchy sees fit. which show the expansion of gov- The Marxian ideal, “from each ac- ernment, the rise of the debt, the cording to ability, to each accord- bite of taxation, the erosion of the ing to need,” is, quite consistently, dollar, the extent of inflation, and part and parcel of the collectivistic So on. doctrine. Ignored is the idea that government is for the purpose of The Moral Case for Freedom securing the inalienable rights of The purpose of this paper, there- man. It cannot be otherwise, for fore, is (1) to suggest that argu- the State, not the Creator, is the ments on behalf of freedom, when ——— confined to the materialistic — 3 While the wastes and excesses in cur- . rent “defense” expenditures are related which too often they are — account to a spreading acquiescence to socialism, in part for the seemingly irrevers- this aspect of the subject is beyond the ible one-way direction of the tax- scope of this paper. The purpose here is : served by pointing out that for fiscal 1961 ing process and (2) to draw at- “defense” expenditures are one per cent tention to the moral arguments higher than at the end of the Korean that must be perfected and pre- War. But, nondefense expenditures are p ¢ p 86 per cent higher! See Monthly Tax Fea- sented if any change is to be tures, February 1960. Tax Foundation, brought about. Inc., New York, N. Y. ===== PAGE 22 ===== 20 THE FREEMAN July ultimate sovereign — according to does. He may, for instance, com- collectivism. plain about the cost to him. And, Examples of this from-each-ac- how much is that? Why, only a cording-to-ability-to-each-accord- pittance — 30 cents, perhaps. What ing-to-need thesis are the progres- a niggardly position to take! He, sive income tax, TVA, government with his big income! And, if he mail delivery, government hous- argues that anyone, regardless of ing, compulsory social security, how wealthy, can be “pennied and subsidies to farmers, protections dimed” to death, he is confronted against competition, federal aid to with the impossible task of nam- education, and so on. A specific ing the ‘instances that take so example would be a federal grant many of his pennies and dimes. for a local hospital. He may even generalize about na- Taking this specific example, the tional financial trends but, to do people who seek federal aid for so, he must talk in terms of bil- their local hospital present a lions of dollars. Such terms are as united front. They achieve a polit- incomprehensible to his listeners ical unanimity, a wholeness, and as are 100,000,000 light years. their demands come through clear Opponents of socialism who and loud. Once the hospital is built argue only materialistically would it stands as tangible evidence of be well advised to add the moral an “accomplishment,” a monu- argument. As distinguished from mental testimony to the “wisdom” socialism’s proponents, with their of its sponsors. The good it does united front, they are a splintered is visible. It can be photographed and fragmented lot. It is next to and publicized as a concrete in- impossible for them to unite on stance of community welfare. 4 Dr. Thomas Nixon Carver, thirty-two years Professor of Political Economy at Pennies or Principles? Harvard University, once said to me, “The ] . ) two most influential books in Western Now this federal grant-in-aid Civilization have been the Bible and means of local achievement does Adam Smith's Wealth of Nations.” Adam Smith and the Biblical writers were, have some opponents. An observ- among other things, moral philosophers. ant taxpayer who resides in New Reflect, also, on the thinking that went York sees no reason why he should into the Declaration of Independence, the eye discussions in the Constitutional Conven- be compelled by the political ap- tion, and the arguments set forth in The paratus to subsidize the citizens Federalist Papers. The appeals were not of Los Angeles or Dallas. But sup- made on the basis of material advantages. ) The arguments were in the realm of pose he expresses his opposition moral philosophy, and the case was won materialistically as he invariably by appealing to man’s sense of justice. ===== PAGE 23 ===== 1960 HOW TO REDUCE TAXES } 21 materialistic terms.5 The financial fend for themselves as does the injuries done to them are not alike hand-feeding of squirrels. Men, as in any two instances, nor do the well as animals tend to regard any injuries, imposed in dribbles, coddling as a right. Simply reflect greatly excite the victims. The on any of the thousands of special damage is done more or less unob- privileges granted by government, served. Nor can these material in- of more than a year’s duration, and juries be photographed, or dram- see if one can be discovered that is atized with any persuasiveness. In- not already regarded as a right. visible, material erosions of an in- How can it be otherwise if the col- dividual’s larder are no match for lectivistic notion is accepted that the huge government dam or the government isthe grantor of rights new, merciful, thousand-bed hos- as well as the dispenser of privi- pital. This is a one-sided contest leges? The opponents of socialism between the seen and the unseen, are on weak ground if they rely on with the things seen considered materialistic arguments against real while the unseen is dismissed those who believe in their privi- as imaginary. leges as rights. The socialists bring Supplying groups of the popula- “human rights” to their side; the tion with government pap as adversaries only complain about quickly destroys their capacity to pilfered pennies and dimes. 5 Experiences of the past three decades A Moral Reorientation support this contention. Many antisocial- ists have been certain of a common Over the past fourteen years I private property interest among the mil- have lectured at scores of meetings lions of insurance policyholders, share- before audiences of nearly every holders, and homeowners. However, re- peated attempts to organize them against tyPe. In most of these lectures, I socialism have come to naught. They sim- have expressed in materialistic ply will not coalesce along materialistic : lines. Nor should we believe that wage terms the course our country is earners have been brought together in NOW on, and my conclusions — also labor unions by reason of monetary moti- in materialistic terms — have been vations. Their enormous memberships : . have been achieved by (1) coercion and actually frightening. Never once (2) the conviction that the “benefits” have my facts, the documentation, they seek are rights. More obvious to or the conclusions been challenged. many union members than to the rest . of us is the fact that they-do not make Yet, in all these years, I have never money by striking. These costly ventures, Witnessed a single individual who like their expensive union memberships, was moved away from his collec- are either forced upon them or charged « «ge . off to “gaining rights for the working- tivistic notions by reason of a fear man.” of what the future held for him ===== PAGE 24 ===== 22 THE FREEMAN July materialistically.® The collectivist, not being able to point out where communist, socialist, state inter- the exits are, or not knowing how ventionist — call him what you will to conduct a rescue operation. — merely responds, in effect : “I will suffer any indignity for my Adherence to Principle faith!” : It is only in the moral realm that However, during these years, I socialism’s antagonists —freedom’s have noted countless individuals devotees —can find any common who have made the ideological ground for concerted or unified switch from collectivism to free- effort. Where we can make no im- dom. In every case, where diag- pression at all over the personal nosis has been possible, the indi- loss of 30 cents, or any multiplica- vidual made the switch because he tion of small change, we can win had grasped, for the first time in agreement on the point that there his life, the right and wrong of it is no difference in principle be- all. The experience was a moral tween the forcible extortion of 30 reorientation! cents and the forcible extortion of The materialistic argument has one million dollars. One is misap- only the force of shouting, “Fire!” propriation as well as the other. or “Man overboard!” It can com- The distinction is one of degree, pel attention. And there, it seems, not of kind. To violate the prin- its usefulness ends. If, after get- ciple, even minutely, is to com- ting attention, one cannot advance promise the amount but not the the moral argument, he may only principle. The principle is sur- add to the state of confusion — like rendered, regardless of amount. To forswear allegiance to honesty and 6 The material needs of Americans are integrity — the principle here at satisfied to an unprecedented degree. issue — is to destroy the moral un- This explains, in part, why appeals to gjarpinnings without which no good material well-being are so futile. Douglas . Murray McGregor of Massachusetts In- society can endure. stitute of Technology has this to say: Legalizing the forcible extortion Man is a wanting animal —as soon as ¢ the oitizens’ resources does not one of his needs is satisfied, another ap- pears in its place. ...Man’s needs are or- alter the morality of the act. It ganized in a series of levels—a hierarchy merely absolves the offender of his of importance.... Man lives for bread . . alone, when there is no bread. ... But crime — in the eyes of the legal ap- when he eats regularly and adequately, paratus! Not in the eyes of one’s hunger ceases to be an important moti- Maker! Absolution by the State vation.... A satisfied need is not a moti- h . ] if it b vator of behavior!” See The Management as meaning only 11 1 € con- Review, November 1957. ceded that man’s rights to life and ===== PAGE 25 ===== 1960 HOW TO REDUCE TAXES 23 liberty are endowments of the on his own, forcibly deny the right State, that is, are endowments of of another wage earner to any job those quite ordinary human be- connection peaceably agreed upon. ings who succeed in attaining po- No sensible individual would have litical office. That these people are the effrontery to impose his per- the source of rights is no more sonal idea of a minimum wage or valid than the divine-right-of- maximum hours on a nation’s citi- kings thesis. It is only the modern zenry. way of rendering an old world Moral standards for individuals, fallacy. fairly well established by all the world’s moral and ethical systems, Inalienable Rights find no reasonable sanction for Once we accept the only alter- modification by individuals acting native to state omnipotence, concertedly, whether organized as namely, that man is endowed by governments or labor unions or his Creator with certain inalien- trade associations. No new rights able rights, we cannot, logically, come into existence by -collecti- grant to government any powers vizing two persons or a million of which do not pre-exist in the indi- them. If this is not a correct con- viduals who organize it. These clusion, then, pray tell, what is the rights of the individual in relation magic number at which new rights to others, when viewed personally, originate? are fairly clear and need little in the way of elaboration. Self-Discipline Required No sane farmer, in his capacity The above is only suggestive. It as an individual, would dream of has been set forth merely to stake forcibly collecting from all citi- out the area in which each of us zens a sum of money as payment should strive for perfection. For for not growing wheat. No re- it is only in moral philosophy — spected resident of Dallas would the study of right and wrong, a think of going about the country qualitative discipline — that the coercively collecting funds for a case for freedom and the rights of Dallas hospital, regardless of how man can be won. Short of a grow- urgent the need. No thoughtful ing effectiveness in this area, we businessman would try to keep are committed to a continuance of customers by personally forcing a the present course. The only end competitor to raise his price for to this course of governmental ex- the same product. No wage earner pansion and its ever-penetrating with any sense of justice would, tax take is, as history seems to ===== PAGE 26 ===== 24 THE FREEMAN July reveal, either atrophy or revolu- — its only competence — govern- _ tion. ment will become an aid, not an ail- It is only when we understand ment; a bargain, not a burden. that government can have no Taxes will then be a matter of rightful powers of control, over relative unimportance. and beyond the powers that inhere Summarized, this paper insists in individuals as moral rights, that the only way to reduce taxes that we can clearly recognize the is for each devotee of liberty to proper limitations of the State. become, as best he can, a moral With this recognition will come philosopher. Too difficult? Only if the trimming process: government the Golden Rule, the Ten Com- reduced to the enormously im- mandments, and the Declaration portant function of securing the of Independence are beyond one’s rights of man. Limited to this role scope! ~> Reprints available: 10 for $1.00. The Problem of Poverty A cOMMUNITY which lacks the thrifty type will soon drift back into savagery whence it sprang. . . . The distinct trait of the savages, as has been shown, is to live without thought or provi- sion for the future. They are much like animals — they eat their fill as soon as they catch their prey, then sleep until they get hungry, then starve until they make another catch. It cannot be too often repeated that he who lacks sense enough to save, lacks the fundamental requisite for enabling him to lead a civilized life, and for sustaining personal independence. The seed of suc- cess is not in him. He is, and will remain, an inferior and a de- pendent. But the contrary doctrine is frequently defended. So many treat thrift as a vice and prodigality as a virtue. Spend, it is argued, “spend until it hurts”; it is the spender that keeps the wheels of industry moving; the more one consumes, the more does he stimulate production. It is the slogan of the super sales- man. Whether anyone really believes in this philosophy or not, it has afforded an excellent excuse for prodigality, both in private and public economy... . JOHN RUSTGARD ===== PAGE 27 ===== FAIR SHARES IN THE WHEAT BELT Or —INTERVENTIONISM ON THE PLAINS It was a sunny afternoon At story-telling time. Old Kaspar puffed a long cigar _And sipped his rum-and-lime, While Peterkin and Wilhelmine Looked at the panoramic screen. They saw the rolling countryside Below the setting sun, Where many red and white men died Before the West was won — When cowboys rode across the plains And robbers stalked the wagon trains. But where the scalping parties lurked In days of long ago Were furtive men with glasses trained Upon the fields below, Where tractors moved across the plain Among the strips of growing grain. “Now tell us what it’s all about!” The little children cried. “It is the Federal Crop Control,” Old Kaspar then replied. “It regulates the wheat supply To keep its market prices high. “The men with glasses on the hills Are checking off the plots A To see that farmers plant no more o Than Washington allots. The Planners take the greatest care To grant to each his proper share.” “It seems a very perfect Plan,” Said little Wilhelmine. “It does indeed,” Old Kaspar sighed. “The best in seventeen. But still we need some more, I hear, To solve the Surplus problem, dear.” H. P. B. JENKINS : Economist at Fayetteville, Arkansas 25 ===== PAGE 28 ===== UNION POWER AND GOVERNMENT AID SYLVESTER PETRO UNION POWER over the last sixty the role of public opinion. One may years has varied in accordance say that opinion rules all govern- with the privileges and immunities mental action, but the problem is which governments in this coun- — whose opinion? — and how? try have given trade unionists. One is tempted to go further and Union Membership: 1897 - 1959 say that government has responded As a logical matter, union mem- to more or less clear shifts in pub- bership and union power need not lic opinion. But the situation is necessarily vary in direct propor- more complicated than that. tion with each other. Quite the The problem of ends and means contrary is possible — union power is universal in political economy. might increase while membership Though there may be agreement declined, or vice versa. There are concerning ends, policy judgments other problems of definition. In the all involve choices among means. abstract, union power might be de- A proper choice of means requires fined as the capacity of unions to a degree of knowledge and sophis- gain their ends. More concretely tication far beyond that which the and realistically, it means the general public possesses. These ability of unions to extract im- limitations rule any discussion of mediately from employers and ultimately from society and the Dr. Petro is Professor of Law at New York consumers a greater return for the University School of Law. For an elaboration efforts of union leaders and mem- of his suggestions on putting the principles of freedom to work in labor relations, see The bers than a free market would ac- Labor Policy of the Free Society (New York: Ronald Press, 1957). cord them. 26 ===== PAGE 29 ===== 1960 UNION POWER AND GOVERNMENT AID 27 Power so defined will vary from 1943 13,642,000 members union to union, so that gross mem- 1944 14,621,000 bership of all unions does not nec- 1945 14,796,000 essarily correspond to the total 1946 14,974,000 power of all unions. Yet, as will 1947 15,414,000 appear more clearly later, there is Not much has happened since a definite relationship between 1947 While unions today claim, as union membership and union has been noted, a total member- power. Growth of union member- chip of 17,000,000, even if that ship and increase of union power claim is credited the figure would come from the same source: special gyggest that union membership as privileges and immunities granted ; percentage of the labor force has by governments. lost ground in the last thirteen Union membership has grown in years. this country from 440,000 in 1897 Certainly there has been a great to 17,024,000 in 1959. The 1959 preoccupation among the top men figure includes all AFL-CIO unions of the AFL-CIO over the fact that and all independent national and ypjons have at best, from their international unions with reported point of view, stood still, and at U.S. membership in excess of 100,- yorst seriously lost ground since 000. Canadian members are ex- World War II ended. If newspaper cluded. stories are to be credited, there It will not do, however, to notice was much head-shaking amid the only the extremes. Significant in- palms at Bal Harbour, Florida, in sights are to be derived from look- February, where the dedicated ing at what happened in between: men of the AFL-CIO met to 1910 2,116,000 members ponder their problems. A story by 1915 2,560,000 Mr. A. H. Raskin in The New 1920 5,034,000 York Times (Feb. 10, 1960, p. 16) 1925 3,566,000 quotes John W. Livingston, the 1930 3,632,000 federation’s organizing director, 1935 3,728,000 as attributing the sad situation to 1936 4,164,000 “ferocious attacks” by employer 1937 7,218,000 groups and “labor’s” inability to 1938 8,265,000 overcome internal feuds. The 1939 8,980,000 unionized sector is supposed to 1940 8,944,000 represent only 39 per cent of the 1941 10,489,000 organizable potential today — as 1942 10,762,000 against 40 per cent in 1955. Plans ===== PAGE 30 ===== 28 THE FREEMAN July to combat the decline include eral conclusion can be stated briefly stepped-up organizing and a vigor- and simply: during the period ous approach to the resolution of when the laws of the land were ap- interunion rivalries. plied with some rigor to trade- union action, unions made little or Governmental Action or Inaction: no net progress in enlisting and Relationship to Union Growth keeping members; they about kept If the conclusions I have derived pace with the growth of the labor from study of our labor law his- force. But when all branches of tory are accurate, these measures government came to the assistance are not likely to prove effective of the unions, their membership without positive government as- growth was dramatic. Then, when sistance and connivance. For noth- law and its administration became ing emerges more clearly and con- a little more even-handed, unions vincingly from that history, in my were once again unable to achieve opinion, than the conclusion that any material growth. unions unaided by government The key period in union growth cannot induce substantial numbers covered the years 1935-1945, and of the working force to become more particularly 1936-1940 and and to remain members. They need 1942-1943. But before exploring compulsion and coercion in order the relevant events of those to get and keep great numbers of periods it will be well to broaden members, and these they can exer- the perspective. We shall not be cise only when government does able properly to evaluate the gov- not do its basic duty to society. ernmental conduct of those key I could be wrong on this, al- periods unless we have some basis though I think I am not. But even of comparison. if unions can induce great num- bers to become members, without Government and Unions: 1800-1917 special privileges of compulsion From the beginning of our his- and violence they can get no better tory as a nation till World War I, wages and working conditions than trade unionism was viewed by law the free market would provide. If and government as no different that is true, I cannot see why they from other forms of voluntary as- should be successful in keeping sociation. Today’s orthodoxy, al- great numbers, if we as a nation though it is losing some of its dog- deny unions the privilege of com- matic confidence, continues to in- pulsion. sist that trade unions were dealt The essential basis of the gen- with unfairly by the common law, ===== PAGE 31 ===== 1960 UNION POWER AND GOVERNMENT AID 29 and by state and federal govern- courts as to just where the line ments. But this position rests upon ought to be drawn as regards such mere assertion. The fact is that forms of monopolistic coercion as government, even with the best the closed shop, secondary boy- will in the world, has always had cotts, and stranger picketing. But trouble applying the laws of the that uncertainty existed, I be- land to trade union action. At com- lieve, because of the essential dif- mon law, unions were not con- ficulty of the legal problem — not sidered suable entities and could because the courts were intent therefore not be reached by or- upon providing special privileges dinary suits at law. Violence has for union coercion. The important always been a feature of trade thing was that there was no un- union organization and collective certainty at all as regards the im- bargaining, and local police have permissibility of outright violence. always had an extremely difficult Courts were firm on that issue, and time keeping the peace in labor even the police and the politicians disputes. were of the view that a man was Perhaps unions should have been not entitled to use violence merely outlawed as criminal conspiracies, because he was a trade union but, current orthodoxy to the con- officer or agent. trary notwithstanding, neither the Almost equally important, the common law nor legislation ac- common-law rights of employers tually did so. Hence unions as such were still intact. They could refuse were allowed to survive in spite of to hire a man because he was a their having committed the most union member; hire him only on viciously antisocial kinds of acts. condition that he refrain from Indeed, Eugene Debs was virtually union membership; and fire any canonized even in his own day, al- employee for joining a union. Em- though he was guilty of the worst ployers could also refuse to bar- kind of defiance of law and order. gain with unions, just as they Still, it was pretty well under- could refuse to bargain with any stood, at least among the responsi- other person or agency. ble members of society and of gov- Beginning in the 1890’s and con- ernment, that trade unions had no tinuing into the 1930's, trade- special privilege to violate either union expansionism also had to the basic laws of civilization or the contend with the antitrust laws. rules and principles of. the com- These laws did not explicitly or mon law. There was a good deal of directly limit monopoly-type coer- uncertainty among common-law cive organizing techniques, but in ===== PAGE 32 ===== '30 THE FREEMAN July putting limits upon certain kinds right to break off relationships of secondary boycotts they did with unions when they proved un- have an indirect effect of that reliable or exploitative suppliers kind, for secondary-boycotts have of labor. The famous Hitchman always been used mainly as or- Coal case, which held that em- ganizing devices. While the anti- ployers had a constitutional right trust laws did not apply to union to condition employment on a violence, they did constitute a limit promise by employees not to join - upon industry-wide strikes where unions, was perhaps the clearest it could be shown that the inten- expression of the then prevailing tion was to affect market prices. policy. To sum up on the conditions ex- In this period of what I have isting till roughly World War I, called “free competition,” trade one may say that unions were in unions survived and even grew, the same position, legally, as all but their growth was anything but other self-interest groups. We spectacular. By 1917 they had might call this the period of free gained a membership of less than competition. Unions had no special three million (2,976,000). privileges or immunities. They could use some forms of monopo- Government and Unions During listic coercion in order to compel World Warl membership and bargaining. But From 1917 to 1920 unions grew the government did not do their to a little over five million mem- organizing for them, and it did bers. In 1914, however, a signifi- not force any employer to bargain cant event had occurred. Devoting with them. Perhaps even more im- serious effort to political action, portant, employers still had intact unionists achieved a substantial the freedom of contract which was success when Congress passed the so essential a feature of the com- Clayton Act, in 1914. The Clayton mon law scheme of things. Act did not, in fact, free unions Today we consider it vital that from the strictures of either the as purchasers we remain free to Sherman Act or the equity powers break off relations with any seller of the federal courts. As regards who does not suit us. This, we both, the legal situation changed recognize is what keeps business- not at all, for the Supreme Court men serving the public, rather in the Duplex and the Tri-City than exploiting it. In those days cases held that the Clayton Act it was considered equally vital that was merely declaratory of existing the purchasers of labor have a law. And yet merely securing the ===== PAGE 33 ===== 1960 UNION POWER AND GOVERNMENT AID 31 Clayton Act was a substantial suc- Board, the Fuel Administration, cess. Moreover, it originated a pat- the powerful War Industries tern of thought and action, espe- Board and other such agencies. (p. cially in Congress, which continues 138) to this day: a predisposition to In this period the basic features deal very gently with union peti- of the Railway Labor Act and the tions and complaints. Wagner Act were conceived: com- Another familiar pattern was pulsory collective bargaining and set in the early days of World protection of workers against dis- War I: Unions utilized the emer- charge for union membership. gency in order to exact concessions Compulsory arbitration was not from the nation. used during World War I, but the Professors Harry A. Millis and government’s mediation agencies, Royal E. Montgomery have long counting trade-union leaders been identified as friends of the among their members, paid due “labor movement.” We may as- regard to union demands. Millis sume that their account of the and Montgomery sum up the situ- policies adopted during World ation: “Organized labor made only War I was not distorted by a bias one real concession — relinquish- against unions. In their carefully ment of the right to strike — but it researched book, Organized Labor made this concession in general (McGraw-Hill, 1945), they re- terms, with no penalties attached. ported quite candidly that the AFL In such a setting, the trade union leaders conditioned their support growth that has already been sum- of the war effort on the govern- marized was almost inevitable.” ment’s recognition of “the organ- (p. 139) ized labor movement as the agency Incidentally, the unions did not through which it must cooperate honor their no-strike pledge dur- with the wage-earners.” (p. 136) ing World War I any more faith- The government agreed. When it fully than they did during World began organizing the various bu- War II.! reaucracies which were to run the I There were 3.789 work stoppages in country during the war, the gov- 1916, in 1917 there were 4,450, and in ernment accorded suitable recogni- 1918 there were 3,353. Taking the years his associates in the “labor move- per of 132 for work stoppages and 142, the Council of National Defense, ,,q 1918, 117 and 110. These levels were the Emergency Construction not attained again till 1937, the year in - ===== PAGE 34 ===== 32 THE FREEMAN July Lest accurate perspective be nation, I feel, lies in the fact that lost, special emphasis should be government was giving unions no laid upon the fact that during great assistance during the years World War I, while government 1920-1935. The implication is that lent administrative aid and pres- without such special assistance tige to the unions, the basic legal unions could not keep more than structure remained unchanged: about three and a half million neither statutory nor common-law members enrolled. principles were modified. When the While government aid to unions war ended, the basic rules of the was limited in this period, it will competitive society once more be- not do to neglect the steps which came applicable. Probably for this were taken in the direction of spe- reason, union membership declined cial privilege. Two were especially after the war ended, and remained significant. The first of these was down for the next fifteen years. the enactment of the Railway , Labor Act in 1926, establishing Government and Unions: 1920-1935 for the first time the statutory Total union membership fell principles of protection of union from 5,034,000 in 1920 to 3,728,- ’ membership and of compulsory 000 in 1935. Some have suggested loctive bargaining between em- that the depression caused this vB ployers and the majority repre- drop, but that explanation is unac- gentatives of their employees. The ceptable. Actually, union member- : ) second was the Norris-LaGuardia ship remained steady at about Aut of 1932 which made it virtu- 3,500,000 from 1923 on, having ally impossible for employers to fallen from 5 million in 1920 to go; re injunctive relief in the fed- 3,629,000 in 1923. The real expla- eral courts against monopolistic- which the Wagner-Act policies took hold. ally coercive union boycotts, and And after 1937, till 1941, work stoppages extremely difficult to secure such and number of workers involved did not . . . come near what the unions achieved dur- relief from even outright union ing World War I. However, they sur- violence. passed their old record of wartime strikes Both statutes contained latent for two of the years of World War II f | in th (for 1944 and 1945 the figures were 173 1eatures which were in the suc- "and 188 and 166 and 308, respectively). ceeding years to transform condi- The other years, 1941-43 averaged about tions in labor relations. The ele- the same in terms of number of work : Co. stoppages, but substantially higher in mental compulsory bargaining terms of number of workers involved principles of the Railway Labor (1941: 150 and 210; 1942: 104 and 75; 1943: 131 and 176), (Bureau of Labor Act were to become the framework Statistics figures) of the Wagner Act. The restric- ===== PAGE 35 ===== 1960 UNION POWER AND GOVERNMENT AID 33 tive features of the Norris Act unions during this period. Legis- were to produce antitrust exemp- latures, state and federal, gave tions for unions. Perhaps even them favorable laws. Administra- more important, in taking away tions, especially those of the na- the jurisdiction of the federal tional government, enforced these courts the Norris Act established favorable laws well beyond the the pattern which was to make hilt. And the Supreme Court of labor relations an administrative the United States not only went law field, with the National Labor along with distorted interpreta- Relations Board the dominant tions of already unduly favorable agency. From this a great many laws, but also established consti- serious and untoward consequences tutional privileges for such coer- flowed. But these were to be real- cive union action as picketing. The ized only in the years after 1935. favoritism did not diminish during Till then, neither the Railway the emergency years of World War Labor Act nor the Norris Act pro- II. On the contrary, it tended to vided enough special privilege for expand. Unions did little to hide unions to achieve any dramatic their intentions to profit from the growth. emergency. I think it is not a dis- tortion to say that, although union Government and Unions: 1935-1947 leaders talked a great deal about Between 1935 and 1947 unions patriotism, they did not act the achieved the goal of every special part of patriots. interest group: a full, even over- Fundamentally what happened full, complement of legal rights in the years 1935-1947 is that most and privileges — with no corres- of the effective free market checks ponding legal duties. As already to forced union growth were de- noted, they did very well in terms stroyed at the same time that the of membership gains. From a most effective legal restraints upon membership of 3,728,000 in 1935 aggressive and compulsory union- they acquired a membership of ism were removed. To put it an- over 15,000,000 in 1947. The dra- other way, peaceful and lawful matic character of this increment resistance to unionization was pro- can be appreciated only when one hibited in one way or another, sets it against a near-stable mem- while violent and unlawful action bership of under four million for by unions went substantially un- the preceding thirty-five years. checked. Every branch of government Free market checks to expansive came to the assistance of the unionism can come from two ===== PAGE 36 ===== 34 THE FREEMAN July sources: (a) employees who prefer chasers; he could not shop around; not to join unions, and (b) em- he had to bargain with that one ployers who find that dealing with agency. Thus it is proper to refer unions is neither an effective nor to the union’s position as a monop- economically feasible method of olistic one. And the results to be solving their personnel problems. expected from all such monopolies The Wagner Act of 1935 did not were forthcoming in labor rela- completely abolish either of these tions. Unions abused their posi- checks, but it impaired them con- tion. siderably. If a majority of em- ployees in an appropriate bargain- Violence Tolerated ing unit voted in favor of union Unfortunately, the monopolistic representation, the minority was privileges of unions did not end left with no choice other than to there. Legally, an employer could accept the union as exclusive bar- refuse to make the concessions gaining representative. When one sought by the exclusive bargain- realizes that the selection of the ing agent. Moreover, if the bar- appropriate bargaining unit was gaining agent called a strike in left to the almost unhampered dis- order to reinforce its demands, the cretion of the National Labor Re- employer had a legal right to at- lations Board — and that the tempt to keep his plant operating Board thought its duty was to by hiring replacements for the carve out the bargaining unit strikers. The law has always pro- which was most likely to result in vided, too, that a union could not the election of a union — one is use violence during strikes as a likely to conclude that a great means of blocking the access of deal of gerrymandering went on. struck employers to the labor That conclusion is affirmed by ex- market. As a practical matter, amination of the cases. however, owing to faulty and in- After a union was certified as adequate enforcement of the laws, exclusive bargaining representa- unions had a virtual privilege to tive the employer was under a duty commit violence. The sitdown to bargain with that union — and strikes are a memorial to some of with no other — on all matters re- the blackest days for law enforce- lating to wages, hours, and other ment in the history of the coun- terms and conditions of employ- try. The tenor of the thirties is ment. The employer did not have nowhere more clearly symbolized, the choice which a free market in my opinion, than in the history makes available to all other pur- of Frank Murphy's career. As Gov- ===== PAGE 37 ===== 1960 UNION POWER AND GOVERNMENT AID 35 ernor of Michigan it was his sworn picketing-free speech doctrine in duty to prevent the violence and a rough sort of way tended to free the sitdown strikes of the UAW. the unions from state laws pro- He flouted that duty. He was re- hibiting picketing and boycotts. warded, not punished, for that Thus, at the same time that the dereliction. Franklin Delano Wagner Act preached in terms Roosevelt appointed him a justice of majority rule, the absence of of the highest court of law in the all checks upon picketing and sec- nation after he had been guilty of ondary boycotts operated to give cynically abusing the law of the unions an unimpeded right to force land. As a justice of the Supreme themselves upon unwilling em- Court, one of Mr. Murphy’s most ployers and employees even where notable opinions was the one in none of the employees desired rep- Thornhill ». Alabama (1940), resentation. The same immunity where he held in effect that a made it possible for unions to have coercive union act, picketing, was their way more often than not in entitled to the protection of the disputes with employers over sub- Constitution of the United States stantive terms and conditions of as a form of freedom of speech. employment. The favorable-to-unions legal climate was not limited to the re- With Government Aid moval of the checks which em- If the strong unions were in a ployers and nonunion employees position to extend their organiza- might pose to expansive and ag- tions to the limit, nobody should gressive unionism. The Norris Act be surprised. And if they had the had been on the federal statute strength to impose almost any books since 1932, preventing fed- terms and conditions they pleased, eral courts from granting injunc- nobody should be surprised, either. tive relief to beleaguered em- They had acquired a privileged ployers and employees. There were monopoly and they did not intend similar statutes in most of the to let it go unused. Let me remind states, especially the more indus- the reader that union membership trialized states. Toward the end grew from 3,728,000 in 1935 to of the thirties and early in the 10,489,000 in 1940. The surprising forties the Supreme Court inter- thing is that these highly privi- preted the Norris Act as in effect leged organizations did not man- canceling the application of the age to unionize every employee antitrust laws to monopolistically during that period. coercive union activities. The Enrolling union members is one ===== PAGE 38 ===== 36 THE FREEMAN July thing; keeping them on the mem- slipped a little from 1943 to 1944, bership rolls is another. Ap- when the total membership has parently this was the great prob- been counted at 14,621,000. lem of the union leaders during There has been no really marked the war years. Their efforts during union growth since then. In that 1942-1945 seemed to be directed fact lies the basis for some really most vigorously toward inducing interesting reflection. Why have the National War Labor Board to unions stopped growing since help them organize employees and roughly the end of World War II? then, by way of the maintenance of membership device which the Government and Unions: 1947 to Date WLB evolved, to keep them paying The easy answer would be that dues. Millis and Montgomery re- the Taft-Hartley Act, enacted in port in Organized Labor that as 1947, did the job. But I am dis- time wore on the WLB granted satisfied with such an answer. At “union security’’ to all unions the very least it is necessary to which requested it, except where note that there has been other the “requesting union failed to legislation, especially on the state demonstrate its responsibility in level, which like the Taft-Hartley adhering to the no-strike pledge.” Act has taken a stand against com- (p. 764) In blunter language, the pulsory unionism. The right-to- government bought the loyalty of work laws are perhaps the most the union leaders by compelling significant. But even when one employees to maintain their union adds to Taft-Hartley all the state membership. and local laws designed to cut down It seems permissible to infer the privileged coercion which that the WLB proved exceedingly unions enjoyed well into the for- serviceable to the unions during ties, the fact remains that both the war, for there is a remarkable national and state legislation has jump in union membership from been by no means vigorously en- 1942 to 1943. In the years pre- forced against unions. My book, ceding as well as in those follow- entitled How the NLRB Repealed ing 1942-1943, the growth is noth- Taft-Hartley, records my opinion ing like what occurred in those that the Taft-Hartley Act was by years. From 10,489,000 in 1941, no means faithfully applied. The unions grew to only 10,762,000 in opinion is common, moreover, that 1942. But by 1943 the figure the right-to-work laws have not jumped to 13,642,000. Then the been widely respected. Finally, a growth rate, while still significant, good many of the special privileges ===== PAGE 39 ===== 1960 UNION POWER AND GOVERNMENT AID 37 which unions enjoyed prior to willing to submit to union domina- Taft-Hartley they enjoy equally tion. Employees are declared to today — as, for example, exemption have the right to refuse to join from the antitrust laws, and the unions or to participate in con- privilege of stranger picketing certed activities; employers have which the Supreme Court’s pre- had restored their right to combat emption doctrine affords. unionism with statements of anti- If unions have stopped growing union opinion — so long as they do even though they still enjoy spe- not contain threats of reprisal or cial privileges from government, force or promises of benefit. does it follow that the special priv- Even though the new restraints ileges did not account for their upon union aggression have not great growth in the thirties and been enforced as vigorously as early forties? I think not. The they might have been in all cases, most important fact to bear in they have still had a substantial mind here is that government has effect. One need only review the not since 1947 — and earlier in decisions of the National Labor some states — been single-mindedly Relations Board and of the state on the side of the unions as it was and federal courts over the last during the preceding period. State thirteen years in order to see that and federal law now takes the po- aggressive unionism has fre- sition, subject to some qualifica- quently encountered legal restric- tion, that unions are no more justi- tions. In thousands of cases during fied in coercing people into unions that period unions have been pre- than employers are in coercing vented by the law from imposing them out of unions. Union re- their will upon unwilling em- straint or coercion of free em- ployees and resisting employers. ployee choice is just as illegiti- The Taft-Hartley Act and similar mate as employer coercion of that state legislation have not broken choice. unions or reduced them signifi- cantly in size and numbers, but A Change in Attitude it seems clear that they have had This limitation on aggressive a braking effect. Many types of union organizing is supplemented picketing and boycotting have re- in national and state policies by mained privileged; much violence measures which reinvigorate the has continued. But numerous in- most effective free-market checks stances of each kind of aggression to expansive unionism: those posed have been hindered or completely by employees and employers un- prevented. And this fact, I con- ===== PAGE 40 ===== 38 THE FREEMAN July clude, has mainly accounted for is too much to expect that all the the observable halt in union special privileges which unions en- growth, joy will be repealed in the near There have been other, closely future. However, courts and ad- integrated causes. As a general ministrators are more likely under rule it seems to be extremely diffi- these conditions to apply the exist- cult for large organizations to ing law fairly and accurately to maintain great growth rates after unions; and in those cases where a certain point has been reached. legislation is not entirely clear, Accretions seem to become pro- one may reasonably expect that gressively more difficult. The they will not favor an interpreta- easiest segments of the working tion which adds to union privi- force were organized first; now leges, as they did so often in the the difficult ones are left. If one past. must organize the more difficult If public opinion, speaking gen- ones with fewer effective instru- erally, at once holds unionism a ments than were available when “good thing” but distrusts union the easier ones were brought into leaders, the immediate legislative the fold, the results are not likely results are likely to be neither to be so good. clear-cut nor healthy. One may . expect the same kind of fragmen- Public Opinion Modified tary, incoherent legislative ap- Finally — concurrently with law proach which has occurred in con- changes and the phenomenon just nection with the regulation of noted — public opinion at every business. In fact this process has level has changed. The common already begun. I contended in an working men, the professional article in National Review (March men, political figures, even aca- 26,1960) that the Landrum-Griffin demic intellectuals have come to Law is bad legislation, bad in de- a more realistic opinion concern- tail and unwholesome in general ing unions. Many continue to feel approach. It takes the government that unionization is “good for the further along the interventionist country,” that unions are needed path, and its detail is so complex in order to keep employers from as to be incomprehensible at abusing workers. But very few points. The same thing can be said people today are of the opinion of much business regulation — that unions can do no wrong, per- most notably, perhaps, the Robin- haps workingmen least of all. With son-Patman Act. “public opinion” so oriented, it If we continue along the route ===== PAGE 41 ===== 1960 UNION POWER AND GOVERNMENT AID 39 marked by such legislation as Although Marxism and New Robinson-Patman and Landrum- Dealism have enjoyed great vic- Griffin, we shall, I believe, even- tories in the past generation, the tually break down in one way or strange fact is that the theory of another. We shall either strangle the free society has, although very ourselves in bureaucratic red tape, quietly, made great strides during corrupt our bureaucracy so that the same period. Those who wish we can get something done, or so to promote free enterprise will do hamper the activity of our private well to acquaint themselves with associations that full socialism will the great literature of the free so- seem the only reasonable way out. ciety, not only of past centuries, but of this one as well. Some of the Return to a Free Market best of the current literature is to The realistic alternative is to be found in the writings of Fried- rid ourselves of special privilege rich Hayek, Henry Hazlitt, Ludwig and the companion welfare-state von Mises, and Wilhelm Roepke. idea that government is an all- But there has been much more, as purpose device fit to solve all our perusal of Henry Hazlitt’'s biblio- problems. In order to do this it is graphy, The Free Man’s Library, necessary to refute all totalitarian will demonstrate. Further im- ideas, whether of the Marxian or provement in the climate of labor Keynesian varieties, and to take relations can come only as indi- up again the development of free- viduals better understand, explain, market principles with a full un- and practice in their daily living derstanding of the theory and the economic and moral principles practice of the free society. of the free society. ~ A Study in Numbers E. I. pu PONT DE NEMOURS & COMPANY, INC., was owned by 219,375 stockholders as of March 31,1960. The company has approximately 86,000 em- ployees of whom about 46,600 are stockholders. News release of April 13, 1960 ===== PAGE 42 ===== In Defense of LIFE and PROPERTY EDITOR'S NOTE: When production sponsibility for law and order in employees, represented by Local the city and county and to tempo- Union No. 6 of the United Pack- rarily close the Wilson & Co. plant. inghouse Workers of America, That same day the governor pro- “called a strike on October 29, 1959 claimed martial law, closed the at the Albert Lea, Minnesota plant plant, and until further order sus- of Wilson & Co., Inc., the company pended jurisdiction over the case undertook to continue operations by local courts. with some of its supervisory and maintenance employees. Later, the Wilson & Company thereupon company began to employ mew appealed, contending that Gov- workers to displace strikers re- ermor Freeman's order of martial fusing to return to work. Despite law should mot include closing the an order by the district court of company’s packing plant. Their Freeborn County enjoining the cause was heard on December 186, union from interfering with free 1959 at Minneapolis before a stat- access to the plant, picket lines wutory court comprised of United had increased by December 10 to States Circuit Judge John B. San- an estimated 1,000 or more per- born and United States District sons, with threats and acts of vio- Judges Edward J. Devitt. and lence reported. Gunnar H. Nordbye. Early on December 11, 1959 the Portions of their ruling, as law enforcement officials of Al- here presented, should be of in- bert Lea and of Freeborn County terest and concern to all who be- requested Minnesota Governor, lieve in the right to life and prop- Orville L. Freeman, to assume re- erty under law. 40 ===== PAGE 43 ===== N 1960 IN DEFENSE OF LIFE AND PROPERTY 41 No ONE will disagree that a seri- any unlawful act by the use of ous situation existed at or near force or violence, accompanied by plaintiff’s plant at Albert Lea the power of immediate execution when strikers and their sympa- of such threat or attempt, they thizers sought by mob violence to shall be guilty of a riot.” M.S.A. prevent some 300 persons from (Minnesota Statutes Annotated) carrying on their lawful employ- 615.02. ment with plaintiff. oo “When three or more persons Obviously, however, plaintiff gpa) assemble with intent: was within its rights notwith- “To commit any unlawful act standing the strike in attempting by force; to keep its plant in production and “To carry out any purpose in to afford employment to those per- g,ch a manner as to disturb the sons who were willing to work. public peace; or Plaintiff is protected by the Con- “Being assembled, shall attempt stitution of the United States In to threaten any act tending toward its right to possess its property , preach of the peace or an injury and to use it in any lawful man- persons or property, or any un- ner that it may desire to pursue. |,ful act — Plaintiff cannot be held respon- “Such an assembly is unlawful, sible for mob violence which Was and every person participating allegedly precipitated by its at- therein, by his presence, aid, or tempt to keep its plant open, instigation, shall be guilty of a A strike by union workers does ysqemeanor.” M.S.A. 615.04. not prevent the employer from employing nonunion workers in its plant. That the laws of Min- nesota are enacted for the ex- press purpose of curbing viola- tions of law of the kind herein recounted is clear from the fol- lowing statutes: “When three or more persons, having assembled for any pur- pose, shall disturb the public peace arresting offenders, shall be guilty by using force or violence to any of a misdemeanor.” M.S.A. 615.05. other person or to property, or “Every person who enters into shall threaten or attempt to com- a combination with another to re- mit such disturbance, or to do sist the execution of any legal “Every person who shall remain present at the place of an unlaw- ful assembly, after having been warned to disperse by a magis- trate or public officer, unless as a public officer or at the request of any such officer he is assisting in dispersing the same, or in pro- tecting person or property or in ===== PAGE 44 ===== 42 THE FREEMAN July process or other mandate of a orders had been set for hearing court of competent jurisdiction, before the court, but without any under circumstances not amount- attempt to call out the national ing to a riot, shall be guilty of a guard in aid of the civil authori- gross misdemeanor.” M.S.A. ties in maintaining peace and 615.07. order in the suppression of mob violence, the governor summarily declared martial law for the city of Albert Lea and the entire county of Freeborn. “Every person who shall... throw any deadly missile, in a public place, or in any place where there is any person to be en- dangered, although no injury ac- The rights of the courts to pro- tually results, shall be guilty of a ceed against members of the mob misdemeanor.” M.S.A. 615.09. by way of contempt were enjoined. The workers who desired to re- turn to their work at the plant were forbidden to return, and plaintiff’s right under the federal constitution to operate its plant was abrogated by the decree of the military. “Any person who shall use in reference to and in the presence of another, or in reference to and in the presence of any member of the family of another, abusive or obscene language, intended, or naturally tending to provoke an assault or any breach of the peace, Proceed Cautiously shall be guilty of a misdemeanor.” We are not unmindful of the M.S.A. 615.15. discretion which must necessarily At the time the governor de- rest in the governor of a state in clared martial law, the local gov- determining whether martial law, ernment of the city of Albert Lea with the resulting deprivation of and the county of Freeborn was constitutional rights, shall be im- functioning. The courts were open, posed upon any community. More- the citizens were moving freely over, we recognize that courts in and about their daily pursuits should proceed cautiously before without danger, except those who interfering with the acts of a desired to continue with their governor of a sovereign state in work for plaintiff. determining that martial law is The district court of Freeborn necessary in the state of which he county had issued restraining is the chief executive and com- orders against mass picketing and mander-in-chief of the armed violence, and contempt citations forces of the state. We are also by reason of the violation of such mindful of the necessity of pre- ===== PAGE 45 ===== 1960 IN DEFENSE OF LIFE AND PROPERTY 43 venting bloodshed and that prop- theft or arson. No official in- erty rights must at times be trusted with the enforcement of sacrificed in order to prevent the the law can select the laws which spilling of blood. he will enforce or the citizens that But a free people do not sur- he will protect. He has sworn to render to mob rule by the ex- enforce all laws and to protect all pediency of martial law until all citizens, and there is no escape means available to the city, county, for him ‘from the paramount au- and state to enforce the laws have thority of the Federal Constitu- proved futile, The imposition of tion.'... the drastic action and the curtail- “The fact that a large group of ment of constitutional rights of individuals may have a grievance, citizens of a state resulting from just or unjust, against an owner a declaration of martial law, can- of property will not warrant a not be sustained except in situa- resort to violence to remedy that tions of dire necessity. grievance, nor will the hazard, in- We are convinced that that situ- convenience, and expense involved ation has not as yet arisen in in suppressing the violence justify Freeborn county. the state in refusing to enforce The governor possesses no ab- the law or in depriving the owner solute authority to declare martial of his property or his right to law. Military rule cannot be im- enjoy it. To say that, because the posed upon a community simply lawful use of property will incite because it may seem to be more lawless persons to commit crimes expedient than to enforce the law and to destroy life and property, by using the national guard to aid such lawful use must be sup- the local civil authorities. pressed, is to say that the will of As this court stated in Strut- a mob, and not the Constitution of wear Knitting Company v. the United States, has become the Olson.... supreme law of the land.” “The state has no more im- But it is urged that the gov- portant interest than the main- ernor’s judgment as to the meas- tenance of law and order...It is ures necessary to be taken to as much the duty of the state to suppress the mob should not be protect property from destruction questioned by the courts and in by mob violence and to preserve absence of arbitrary, capricious the liberty of the citizen to use conduct on his part in declaring his property lawfully as it is to martial law, the courts are im- protect the same property from potent to stay his hand. However, ===== PAGE 46 ===== 44 THE FREEMAN July there is an utter absence of any authorities, a governor could im- persuasive showing here that law pose martial law and the military enforcement could not be main- could issue an order that the in- tained in the city of Albert Lea nocent citizens leave the neighbor- and in the county of Freeborn by hood because if they did so, peace the national guard available to the and tranquillity would prevail. governor in aid of the local au- thorities. Rights Surrendered Moreover, we cannot subscribe Lawlessness in this manner to the principle or doctrine that a could be suppressed, but it would governor of a state may bow to be obtained by compelling the vic- the demands of a law-violating tims of such lawlessness to sur- mob that a plant under strike render their constitutional rights shall be closed when neither the so precious to all freedom-loving local nor state authorities have people. used all the means available to It is entirely understandable them to suppress the mob by in- that the local officials of the city voking enforcement of the laws of of Albert Lea and the county of the state enacted to be enforced Freeborn when they met on the under such circumstances. evening of December 10 were Peace and order may be re- greatly exercised and concerned stored by acceding to the demands as to what might happen on the of the mob, but at the sacrifice of following day in light of the mob law. Such expedient measures violence which had already taken would encourage and breed mob place at plaintiff's plant, and that rule and law violations in every that concern prompted the promul- labor dispute. No citizen would be gation of the petition to the gov- secure in the peaceful possession ernor for aid. of his property. But when the military moved By way of analogy, let us as- into the city on the morning of sume a situation that not infre- December 11, it must have been quently arises in our country. apparent that in this local labor Racial hatred, for instance, against dispute the state of Minnesota so-called minority citizens moving was not required to surrender to into a community, with the re- mob violence. Under the factual sulting demand that such citizens presentation herein, it would be leave the neighborhood, often in- a shocking reflection on the stabil- cites mob action. If the violence ity of our state government if the could not be suppressed by local state could not quell the mob ac- ===== PAGE 47 ===== 1960 IN DEFENSE OF LIFE AND PROPERTY 45 tion in Freeborn county without There could be no freedom of declaring martial law and decree- the press, freedom of speech, free- ing the deprivation of constitu- dom of assembly, freedom from tional rights of those who are the unreasonable search and seizure, victims of the lawlessness. . .. and all courts could be abolished A declaration of martial law except the military courts estab- connotes the disintegration of the lished by the military. local and state government which The abdication of our civil form has been created to maintain peace of government to military rule, and order under civil rule. Under with the seizure of private prop- martial law, all constitutional erty in contravention of federal rights could conceivably be abol- constitutional rights, cannot be ished. sustained on this record. -> There Must Be Freedom THE MOST DRASTIC deprivation which any person can suffer is that of the freedom to utilize and enjoy the faculties which nature has given him and which his will and desire have developed. Keep a man from exercising his mind, his body, his faculties in the pursuit of his own wishes and delights, keep him from enjoying the fruits of his efforts — and you have done everything evil to him that you can. The greatest desire of each person, in short, is to be free to get the most he can out of life. There is no other way objectively to define social goals than to call them the sum of those individual goals which can be harmonized in society. SYLVESTER PETRO, The Labor Policy of the Free Society ===== PAGE 48 ===== EDMUND A. OPITZ THE TWO-FOLD CRISIS: Personal AND Social IN THE FINAL ACT of Eugene Do you think of yourself as a O'Neill’s play, The Great God child of God? Do you think of Brown, the curtain opens to dis- yourself as a creature of the close a corpse on a couch. A police- State? These are verbal symbols, man is standing by about to write and they have the power to shape something in a notebook with a your destiny in one direction or the stubby pencil. other — depending on how you use “What’s his name?” asks the them. You have to decide, and the cop. decision is not an easy one. “His name is Man,” comes the Our grandfathers, in this re- reply. spect, had an easier time of it “How do yuh spell it?” says the than we. They may have been in policeman. error, but they were not in doubt. Good question! How do you They were confident that they spell out what it means to be a knew the secrets of the cosmos man, or a woman, living in these and the meaning of life; their days? This is not a question to be churches gave them the answers. taken lightly, for the terms in The old answers were good an- which you think of yourself will swers in their day, but nothing is determine in large measure the more passé than answers to ques- kind of person you will be, and the tions people are no longer asking. kinds of rewards life will offer Is this actually the case in reli- you. gion? Today’s verbal symbols are The Reverend Mr. Opitz is a member of the different, but perhaps the same staff of the Foundation for Economic Educa- . . tion. This article is from a vesper sermon old hungers are still with us. which he delivered at Beloit College in Wis- . . consin, March 6, 1960. Herman Melville shipped out as 46 ===== PAGE 49 ===== 1960 THE TWO-FOLD CRISIS 47 a cabin boy while still in his teens. of itself today — is that science has With him he took an old guide- explained the universe in purely book to English towns which had naturalistic terms, dispensing belonged to his father. The ship with the hypothesis of God and docked in Liverpool and, book in thus with the need for religion. hand, Melville set out to explore The modern mind, tutored by a the city. Alas, the city for which smattering of science, is largely the guidebook had been written immersed in the view which con- had changed beyond recognition; ceives the world as a closed, in- the old landmarks had vanished. terlocking system, self-contained, He lost his way. and operating according to un- This is precisely the kind of varying rules which we can dis- situation where religion, some cover by experimentation. kind of religion, will step in to offer its services. It is the busi- Primitive Taboos ness of religion to help man get It seemed to many people that his bearings in this strange uni- the new knowledge and power dis- verse; to remind him that, al- pensed with the need for religion. though he is a creature and not And religion itself was partly to the Creator, nevertheless he is not blame. At any given time primi- the plaything of capricious forces; tive religion and religious super- that, in some measure, and with stition exist alongside of advanced God’s help, he can shape his own and spiritual religion. These destiny. . primitive elements came into acute But a doubt may ‘intrude. Reli- conflict with modern knowledge. gious doubt did arise, as a matter Real religion suffered by associa- of fact, and has been with us as a tion. Primitive religion opposed mood for a century or more. The the new knowledge merely be- doubter does not deny that tradi- cause it was new; people accepted tional religion has been helpful to the new knowledge and came to man in the past nor that it might regard all religion as irrelevant. be helpful to him today and to- The word “agnostic” was coined morrow. All he says is that, as in 1869 to describe the prevailing we now understand the universe, attitude — the result of an unwar- the kind of help religion once ren- ranted extrapolation from legiti- dered is no longer available. mate scientific inquiry. We had The premise behind this line of the tools to operate on the natural thought — prominent in the nine- world, but no means of contacting teenth century, but much less sure a hypothetical supernatural world. ===== PAGE 50 ===== 48 THE FREEMAN July And anyway, the new dispensation cause its members share a com- continued, no purpose would be mon understanding of certain served by making this effort; we basic principles. There must be a are doing all right for ourselves consensus as to the object of ulti- without outside help. God is not mate concern — we call it God. just unknowable; he is also un- There must be general agreement necessary! as to the relation between God Such a dubious conclusion might and man, and as to the nature of not be serious if religion were a man and his proper end. There thing confined to the churches. must be a common understanding But it is not. Religion is coexten- as to what constitutes justice, sive with human life. Christianity, honor, and virtue. almost from the beginning, as- pired — not to remain a sect — but Society Cradled in Religion to become a society. And, to a con- The source from which a society siderable measure, Christianity derives its convictions about these did become a society — Christen- matters is its religion. In this dom. Over a period of many cen- sense, every society is cradled in turies the inner spiritual life of some religion, Christian or other- individuals was “in play” with the wise. The culture of China is un- structures of their social life. This thinkable without Confucianism; balance has now been seriously Indian society is the expression of disturbed — where it has not been Hinduism; Islam is composed of destroyed outright. followers of Mohammed. In like Christendom was some seven- fashion, our Western culture stems teen centuries old by the time from the Judeo-Christian tradi- the American experiment was tion; we are a branch of Christen- launched. The men who shaped the dom. As one of our editorial American system were the inheri- writers has said, “The United tors of a great religious tradition. States is not Christian in any — a triple strand woven of He- formal sense; its churches are not brew, Greek, and Roman elements full on Sundays, and its citizens — and the American dream of a transgress the precepts freely. But society of free men was largely a it is Christian in the sense of ab- projection of that religion. This sorption. The basic teachings of is how the original American Christianity are in its blood- equation got its built-in religious stream. The central doctrine of its dimension. political system — the inviolability A society is held together be- of the individual — is the doctrine ===== PAGE 51 ===== 1960 THE TWO-FOLD CRISIS 49 inherited from 1,900 years of been a transcendent God; and the Christian insistence upon the im- ultimate goal for man, as con- mortality of the soul. Christian ceived by the religious vision, is idealism is manifest in the culture the Kingdom of God. God is out- and habits of the people. . . . The side time, in eternity. The King- American owes all this to the dom of God, likewise, is not to be Church. . . . He owes it to the confused with some ideal human leadership the Church provided in society which men might construct the founding, settlement, and po- by the year 2000 or 10,000; the litical integration of his incredi- Kingdom of God is beyond history. bly bounteous land.” In other words, our institutions Brave New Worlds and our way of life are intimately But suppose man in his pride, related to the basic dogmas of out of touch with the sacred order, Christianity. From this faith we decides that a perfect society —a derive our notions of the meaning heaven on earth —is within his of life, the moral order, the dig- reach. For a time, at least, all the nity of persons, and the rights energy and idealism which he had and responsibilities of individuals. put into his religion he puts be- Ours is, therefore, a religious so- hind the drive to construct a col- ciety, but a society whose religious lectivist utopia, the brave new base is now badly eroded. We may world. This is what has happened feel the resulting dislocations on during the past century. “In an the economic and political levels, age prepared for by nearly 2,000 but they stem from a deep-rooted years of Christianity,” writes malady on the spiritual level. Bertram Wolfe, “but in which the As the religious man under- faith of millions has grown dim stands the universe, this natural and the altar seemed to them va- world which we can see and touch cant of its image, Marxism arose is not the only order of reality. to offer a fresh vision. ... History The natural world is grounded in was to be given a new meaning, a a spiritual reality, which we can- new goal, and a new end in Time. not sense but whose reality may ... At last man would become as be corroborated by intuition, rea- God, master of his own destiny, son, or revelation. When man loses maker of his own future, con- contact with this divine order, he scious architect of his world.” will transfer his allegiance to mun- The effort to fashion a home- dane objects. The object of reli- made heaven on earth was a faith gious faith and idealism has always which gave meaning to the lives ===== PAGE 52 ===== 50 THE FREEMAN July of many dedicated men. There is outside its borders, and on the H. G. Wells, for instance, who other, against collectivizing politi- wrote, at the turn of the century, cal encroachments from within. “Socialism is to me a very great In a word, the religious vision thing indeed, the form and sub- dims, and in consequence the so- stance of my ideal life, and all the cial picture it once projected gets religion I possess.” This dream of out of focus. If the original Amer- a socialist commonwealth has ma- ican equation had a built-in reli- terialized, but in so doing it gious dimension, that equation will evolved into totalitarian tyranny. cease to balance as the religious Science, also became a religion factors are leached out of it. In- for many who believed that if man dividual liberty, equal justice be- would apply scientific methods to fore the law, the right to private society, he could create a utopia of property, respect for minorities, wealth, power, speed, and comfort. are all what might be called “sec- This dream, too, has been largely ond stage” ideas. Ideas on the pri- realized, with fateful conse- mary level are religious convic- quences. Science has given us tions about man’s inviolable soul, power, but not purpose; it has put the sanctity of private conscience, into our hands the means for our and the belief that man’s final al- mutual destruction, but it hasn't legiance is to God, not the State. given our lives meaning. Therefore, if we want to preserve our “second stage’ ideas, we must A Loss of Direction rehabilitate their “first stage” re- These hopes and others to which ligious foundation. If we attempt men have pinned their faith have to bypass this fundamental step, gone stale, and one senses an emp- we exhibit the folly of the woman tiness and loss of direction in who declared that she didn’t fear men’s lives, making for a twofold the bread shortage because at her crisis. First, there is a personal house they used toast! Unless you crisis, whose resolution demands have bread in the first place, you that we find the beliefs and con- won't get toast in the second! victions which will make our own lives meaningful. To this is cou- Rehabilitating Our Religious Heritage: pled the social crisis of the free so- A Job for Churchmen ciety. The free society is engaged How do we ‘go about rehabili- in a two-front war in defense of tating our religious heritage? This its value: on the one hand, would appear to be a job for against totalitarian threats from churches and churchmen, so let us ===== PAGE 53 ===== 1960 THE TWO-FOLD CRISIS 51 take a look at the religious scene. God.” (Nels Ferré The Christian On the professional religious Century, July 1, 1959) front, the picture is baffling. Here Include in this confusing pic- are three theological samplings of ture the infatuation of highly late vintage. placed churchmen with political Last year in The Christian Cen- power; their failure to grasp the tury (April 15, 1959) a professor meaning of the free society, and at Hartford Seminary extolled an- their effort to put the Church into other theologian who says, “The political programs hostile to it; entire world is empty of God; and their ambiguity toward commu- the entire world is redeemed by nism. I deliberately used neutral God in Jesus Christ.” This man terms here: “ambiguity toward “sees the problem of the contempo- communism”; but in the light of rary church as that of witnessing the recent controversy surround- to the living Christ in a world in ing the Air Force Manual one is which God is dead. Atheism is obligated to be more specific. suddenly seen to be closer to Among other charges it is alleged Christianity than religion.” by the Manual that there are Com- A professor at Harvard Divinity munists among the clergy. This al- School asserts: ‘God does not ex- legation is categorically denied by - ist. He is being — itself beyond es- a spokesman for the National sence and existence. Therefore, to Council of Churches. Each side in argue that God exists, is to deny this controversy fired its shots him.” (Paul Tillich, Systematic through a smokescreen, and the Theology, Vol I, p. 227) general alarm was exploited by We understand the point these the unstable elements who feed on men are trying to make, but their this kind of thing. In such an at- manner of making it smacks of ex- mosphere it is impossible to get at hibitionism. You might suspect the matter at issue. But we can that, with professors such as get the current fracas into better these, students in our seminaries focus if we go back a few years would be confused. They are. A and draw upon the knowledge and professor at Andover Newton honesty of Reinhold Niebuhr. Theological School writes: “Even In the August 19, 1953, issue of in our theological seminaries we The Christian Century Niebuhr can no longer take for granted wrote an article entitled “Com- that students believe Christianity munism and the Clergy.” The to be true, even at the heart of its piece was occasioned by a state- message concerning the living ment of Bishop Oxnam which ===== PAGE 54 ===== 52 THE FREEMAN July made a sweeping denial of com- Ecclesiasticism Takes Over munist influence in the churches. ~~ Organize religion beyond a cer- “Such a statement causes difficul- tain point and ecclesiasticism ties,” writes Niebuhr, “because takes over; the Church becomes there are in fact communist sym- a power structure alongside the pathizers and fellow travelers in State, the claims of authority the Church. I wonder whether crowd out personal religious ex- Bishop Oxnam ought not to have perience, a priesthood scorns the admitted this more freely. . .” prophet and the innovator, re- Niebuhr goes on to assert that ligious liberty is overridden, the “it must be affirmed that there individual conscience suffocates, have never been many explicit and the Church is corrupted. Not Stalinists in the churches. . . . from such a source, but only from Nevertheless, there are a few and a Church true to its Founder, can we ought to admit it.” How does “this nation under God... have a the seemingly incongruous union new birth of freedom.” between Stalinism and Christian- The crisis of our time is social, ity occur, we ask, and Niebuhr and the crisis is personal, but answers, “The pathetic clerical there is no way of dealing with Stalinism could not have developed the-social crisis directly because’ except against the background of itis a reflex of the personal crisis, a very considerable Marxist dog- This is where we come in. matism in the ‘liberal’ wing of Every artist is to some extent Protestant Churches.” But even revealed in his painting, poem, or though it published Niebuhr’s ad- symphony. Man, too, comes from mission and explanation, The the hands of his Maker with the Christian Century jumps into the Creator’s signature still on him, present controversy with a denun- but barely legible. The work of ciation of the Manual’s allegation, restoration is up to the individual. referring to the communist “Thou hast made us for thyself,” charge as “this false and defama- said Augustine, “and our hearts tory attack on clergymen and are restless until they find rest in churches.” (3/2/60) Thus the per- thee.” son who tries to make a balanced Ther first question we must ask judgment is beset on the one side of our religion is: “Is it true? Can by those who see Communists it make its case before the bar of everywhere; and on the other, by reason as to the nature of the those who deny that there are universe and man’s place in it?” Communists anywhere! The answer is that it can; the ===== PAGE 55 ===== 1960 THE TWO-FOLD CRISIS 53 affirmative has it over the nega- must either hatch or go bad. This tive. But this is not enough, al- is the nature of an egg, and in though it’s a good beginning. At this respect the demand of our this first stage the inquiry is rela- own nature is not essentially dif- tively impersonal. But from here ferent. on each one of us comes into the equation in an intensely personal The Choice Is Ours way. It’s like finding ourselves The full embodiment of the Gos- alone at the controls of a plane pel vision is beyond the capacity with no choice but to go forward of any generation of men, but at or go down. The first stage would least a portion of that vision has be enough if religion were simply worked its way into the law, cus- a set of propositions to be held at toms, and conventions of Chris- arm’s length, argued about, and tendom. This vision once inspired merely accepted as reasonable. Re- our free institutions; and this ligion is this, but it is also more original inspiration can be re- than this; it is not merely believ- kindled. ing certain truths; it is living Our Declaration of Independ- them. In religion it is not simply a ence sets forth the conviction that battle for men’s minds; it is a political liberty is part of the cove- contest for men’s souls. Beyond nant between a man and his mere faith, religion demands Maker. In so doing it steps off, faithfulness and commitment. The not so much in a new direction as Gospel doesn’t say, “This believe, into a new dimension. At the heart and live”; it says, “This do, and of our system is the conviction live.” that sovereignty resides in the There was a Greek philosopher, Creator; that it is he who endows Heraclitus, who lived five centuries men with the full stature of their before Christ. Change is the law of humanity. life, he wrote, everything is in flux — including man. We are crea- The eighteenth-century tures in transit. We can’t drift churches, true to the demands of along as we are, just being our our faith, proclaimed ‘liberty jolly little selves; we must grow, throughout the land.” The men of and if we don’t, we decay. Heracli- such churches created the Ameri- tus put this in a colorful way when can dream, and the men of such he said: “We aré here as in an churches can today, if they will, egg.” Now an egg cannot go on recreate it. This choice is ours, but and on just being a good egg; it it must be freely willed. > ===== PAGE 56 ===== W. M. CURTISS A TINY NEWS ITEM in your morn- joined to cause the injury have a ing paper may have escaped notice; somewhat closer relationship to the certainly many readers would miss employment than those in the or- its significance. . dinary case involving horseplay.” A messenger boy in a New York Presumably, if the cook in the firm’s office, while awaiting an assign- cafeteria had been the victim, the ment, was amusing himself by injury might not have been com- shooting paper clips out of a win- pensable. The article reporting dow with a rubber band. He was this incident was headlined : PAPER- injured when a clip backfired and CLIP FLIPPING IS UPHELD BY COURT hit him in the eye. — COURT RECOGNIZES THAT BOYS The Workmen’s Compensation WILL BE. Board awarded the boy damages. Though this item appears of in- The boy’s employer protested, but finitesimal significance in a day of the Appellate Division of the moon-shots, summit meetings, and courts upheld the Compensation general world tensions, neverthe- Board by a three to two vote. The less, it illustrates a weakness in our case was taken to the higher Court system: turning over to govern- of Appeals and the decision of the ment a responsibility that rightly Appellate Division was affirmed belongs to individuals. Similar il- five to one. lustrations could be taken from the The Workmen’s Compensation government-controlled compulsory Board decided the boy’s activity auto insurance, social security, and was sufficiently close to the regular a host of other welfare schemes. course of his employment to make . } his injury compensable. The Ap- Workmen's Compensation pellate Division observed: “The Before we had compulsory act and the instrument when con- Workmen’s Compensation laws, —_— workers were protected under Dr. Curtiss is a member of the staff of the . . Foundation for Economic Education. common law against negligence o4 ===== PAGE 57 ===== 1960 INSURING IRRESPONSIBILITY 55 and carelessness of their em-- State Board and to the insurance ployers. It was understood that an carriers, often unaware of the cost employee assumed the obvious and involved. customary risks of his job. True, In consequence, New York em- an employee might have had to go ployers now pay rates for Work- to court to recover damages; and men’s Compensation that are undoubtedly there were cases among the highest in the land. where justice did not prevail. American producers, in many It was under Bismarck in Ger- lines, are finding it more and more many that “social consciousness” difficult to compete in world mar- first became popular, leading to the kets because of their high costs of adoption of many welfare schemes. production. New York producers In this country, President Theo- areata disadvantage in competing dore Roosevelt advocated Work- with producers in other states men’s Compensation in a message where insurance rates are not so to Congress in 1908. By 1911, ten high. While costs of production, states had passed laws, and now, including insurance for Work- all states have Workmen’s Com- men’s Compensation, do not direct- pensation laws. ly determine selling prices, they do Workmen's Compensation is es- have a vital effect on profits and sentially an insurance plan, re- on the ability to stay in business. quired of employers. In New York State, an employer may insure with Aside from its economic conse- a private carrier, with the State quences, the “paper clip” decision Insurance Fund, or — in some cases has deep-seated moral implications. under strict regulation — can self- Is it proper to relieve a youth, or insure. Under the law, compen- his family, of all sense of respon- sation is not contingent on proof sibility for his actions? Various of the employer's negligence; it is forms of individual and family in- required that the injury be job- surance are available to cover cases connected. Over the years, the de- like this, leaving the responsibility cisions of the New York State where it belongs, and at the same Board have become more and more time reducing the incidence of such “liberal,” resulting in the ‘paper cases. A government-sponsored, clip” decision cited above. compulsory plan is certain to result Many employers have welcomed in inefficiency, waste, graft, and Workmen’s Compensation laws. abuse. And in thelong run, a higher They have been willing to pass cost will be the general breakdown their responsibilities along to the of the moral fiber of a people. > ===== PAGE 58 ===== IN DEALING with economic and political issues, it is important to bear in mind that they represent merely, as it were, the visible tops of far deeper social problems. They are like the tops of icebergs. The full reality invariably involves a submerged part of the problem, THE and it is our task to find this hid- ’ den aspect lest we lose our orienta- tion and fail to reach a sane solu- TARIFF | . The tariff controversy illus- trates, perhaps better than any Controversy other example, how we can get } shipwrecked intellectually if we treat social problems only with re- A CH RISTIAN gard to their economic or political . aspects. In the tariff controversy, both sides, free-traders as well as DILEMMA protectionists, indubitably believe themselves motivated by humani- tarian considerations. Both sides, no doubt, carry high proportions of individuals who think of them- selves as sincere Christians. But — if this is so — how can we, as - H. J. RITSCHER true Christians, square the dis- criminatory treatment of foreign- domiciled groups of human beings with the basic religious tenet that .all men are brothers? Where does the love of Christ end and love of country begin? Mr. Ritscher is Vice-president of the Intercon- tinental Credit Corporation, a division of the Pan American Trade Development Corporation. ===== PAGE 59 ===== 1960 ’ THE TARIFF CONTROVERSY 57 The raising of this question main of public law, we do deal should not be interpreted as a slur with One World — an organism against patriotism. On the con- that encompasses all of humanity trary — it is natural and healthy and the entire earth. This organ- that we should prefer our own ism is severely wounded whenever nation’s moral code and laws over we take measures that spring those of other nations — which we from other than world-wide, su- may experience as alien and even pranational, and purely economic- horrible, in certain instances. It utilitarian considerations, devoid is quite proper for me to experi- of any political motivation. ence such feelings, be it as an In an atmosphere of truly dis- American, a Frenchman, a Chi- passionate deliberation, it would nese, or an Egyptian. Thisiswhy I be very easy to prove logically am full-heartedly a member of the that there can be no protectionist nation in which I live, and this is measure that, ultimately, will not the very reason for the existence be economically harmful to hu- of independent nations (and the manity. Thus, in considering the justification for their continued avowed purpose of protectionist existence even though the world measures to raise prices above the contracts technologically before level they would normally have, our eyes). Conversely, because are we supposed to overlook how these feelings are experienced by tariffs result in the suppression of individuals as a simple matter of industries waiting to be born in fact, the imposition of a world place of the ones that cannot do government, at this moment in without protection? world history, would be experi- enced as, and perforce would have Our Emotions Impede Thought to be, a super-tyranny. However, As soon as such a question is to the extent that we are motivat- raised, two inner obstacles immedi- ed by patriotic feelings in taking ately get in the way of any sane the protectionist position in the consideration of the problem: tariff controversy, we not only 1. Protected industries exist commit the error of transferring physically, and we can hear with into the domain of economy a feel- our bodily ears the screams of ing that is proper only in the do- those who would be affected by the main of political action — but also, elimination of tariffs. Against patriotism itself thereby becomes this, we need not only a trained distorted into nationalism. In eco- inner ear in order to hear the nomic affairs, contrary to the do- silence of the far greater indus- ===== PAGE 60 ===== 58 THE FREEMAN July tries that are waiting to spring up double task of finding not only a as soon as tariffs are eliminated; logical but also a psychological ap- we also need the confidence that proach to a sound solution. It is thinking can lead us to perceiving invaluable for this purpose to dis- objective realities. (Are the unborn tinguish between the economic and industries really -there?) Con- political aspects of a given con- sideration of the tariff controversy troversy. Such discrimination en- thus leads us to the question of ables us to determine the specific what we must or can do in order principles under which we ought to strengthen our individual to act, or want others to act, in powers of inner perception and our dealing with the problem at hand trust in the practical usefulness -— depending on whether, or to of pure thought. what extent, it concerns the econ- 2. The dispassionateness we omy or the domain of political ac- need in order to heed logical argu- tion. Obviously, the principle of ments evaporates when the at- utility must govern a sound econ- mosphere becomes heated with omy — but this is not what we seek feelings that are not proper for from government as citizens of a the sphere with which we are deal- nation. In this respect, what we ing. want is justice — and needless to , say — equal justice. Thoughts like A Psychological Approach these, once their correctness is ac- It is not possible here to get into cepted, will cool down the heated the tremendous chapters of hu- feelings, and it will then be pos- man education and human psy- sible to appreciate that it is just chology opened up in citing the as right to desire “One World” first of these two difficulties. economically as it is wrong con- " (What is human education as ceptually to want it politically; or against ultilitarian training and conversely, that it is politically “group adjustment’ practices? as correct to insist on the inde- What is human psychology as pendence of our nation as it is a ‘against animalistic psychology? mistake to be an economic nation- What does a commercialized and alist. inartistic environment do to the ‘Once this is grasped, it is pos- "inner man in us?...in our chil- ‘sible to come to grips with the dren?) However, with reference dilemma outlined initially — the = to the second difficulty, we can contradiction between protection- here recognize that in dealing with ism and religious tenets — and to -any social problem we have the be both a true universal Christian ===== PAGE 61 ===== 1960 THE TARIFF CONTROVERSY 59 and a patriot. Nor ig this all. Thus if it has any, must be to humanize far, in order to defend many an the other two. Institutions of this economic or political measure be- third domain of social life, given fore our religious conscience, we as they are to the achievement of had to ‘develop, or at least to sup- knowledge, insight, and wisdom, port, the notion that religion is must, therefore, have the oppor- solely concerned with our inner tunity to develop in full freedom world and has nothing to do with from the basic influences that matters such as tariffs and world operate in the economy and in government. The unfortunate con- political life. Otherwise, principles sequences which this notion has such as utility and democracy will had for our individual lives and persist on invading (and pervert- for the development of the world ing) pedagogy, for example, and at large can hardly be exagger- tend to make cleverly-trained or ated. For, if we do not translate not-so-cleverly-trained herd ani- into earthly deeds what can in- mals out of our children. If we spire us from higher worlds, do complain about the poisons that we then not fail in our specifically are used to increase crop yields human task — to be a bridge be-. contrary to the recommendations tween the world of spirit and the of the Food and Drug Adminis- world of matter? tration, about the billboards that By learning to discriminate in blot out the beauty of our land, the treatment we should accord about the protection of gangsters economic problems as against polit- when they are allied with trade ical ones, we are set free to come unions, we deal merely with symp- out of our defensive spiritual cor- toms of social diseases caused by ner and to make the healing forces the invasion of economic and polit- of the inner world practically ef- ical principles into the social fective on the social scene. This is, domain of inner life. however, only part of the whole picture. It is also necessary to pro- A Three-Dimensional Perspective tect the inner world from the ©n Human Society forces of commercialism and polit- Once we perceive that human icalization in order not to suffo- society consists of three differently cate the healing forces that em- principled domains, and once we anate from it. Not only religion, recognize the specific significance but — even more so -— education, of each of these domains for the art, and science form the third whole social organism, we can domain of social life whose task, finally begin to treat social prob- ===== PAGE 62 ===== 60 THE FREEMAN July lems sanely: that is, in accordance Close analysis of the tariff ques- with their true nature, depending tion has led us -—as it should — on whether they fall within the to the consideration of the funda- domain of the economy, or the do- ments of human society. But ex- main of political action, or the do- actly the same would have been main of the inner life. the outcome had we thoroughly Thus, I. am damaging human analyzed any other social problem, society if I use the State to treat be it our failing public education, a group of French human beings the decline of our national health, engaged in the manufacture of our inability to cope with commu- perfume less well than a group of nism, our self-defeating foreign our own citizens engaged in the aid program, or whatever. In every same pursuit. I may rightfully instance we shall arrive at the resort to arms to prevent Soviet same conclusion: that the solution policemen from capturing a polit- of any of the social, national, and ical fugitive who has escaped to international problems that beset our territory and into the protec- us rests on our recognition that tion of our moral code. I commit human society encompasses three a socially harmful act if, by chan- distinct domains and that each of neling the proceeds of school taxes these domains operates under dif- solely to the public schools, I put ferent principles, with which we a financial penalty on parents who ought to become sufficiently famil- prefer to send their children to in- iar to let them work unimpeded in dependent schools. their proper fields. > Private Undertakings WHEN A PRIVATE INDIVIDUAL meditates an undertaking, however directly connected it may be with the welfare of society, he never thinks of soliciting the cooperation of the government, but he publishes his plan, offers to execute it himself, courts the assist- ance of other individuals, and struggles manfully against all obstacles. Undoubtedly he is often less successful than the State might have been in his position; but in the end the sum of these private undertakings far exceeds all that the government could have done. : ALEXIS DE TOCQUEVILLE, Democracy in America ===== PAGE 63 ===== A REVIEWER'S NOTEBOOK JOHN CHAMBERLAIN FREE MARKET IN EUROPE, Wilhelm Roepke, a the free market. But he does not German who teaches at the Grad- believe in it for the reasons that uate Institute of International are usually advanced to support Studies in Geneva, is a famous it. It is true enough, as he says, figure. It was his economic teach- that the free market is more effi- ing that fired the creators of the cient than socialism or “plan- West German Republic to go for- ning”; it is true that it offers the ward under a traditional free consumer a wider variety of goods market economy at a time when and services and leads to a higher the current in England, France, standard of living. But Roepke, and Scandinavia, was still flow- though he is no enemy of affluence ing strongly in the direction of as such, would be for the free State Welfarism, dirigisme, and market even if it could not com- Social Democracy. In the United pete with socialism in bringing States, however, Roepke is not economic benefits to the many. He very well known. His doctrine, would be for it because, without as set forth most recently in A it, the human being would lose Humane FEconomy: The Social his noneconomic freedoms. And it Framework of the Free Market is these freedoms, says Roepke, (Henry Regnery Company, 312 that are the really interesting pages, $5.00), does not square ones. with that of any of the more vocal Having set out to defend the contemporary American social market for nonmarket reasons, theorists who compete for the Professor Roepke finds himself white space of our publications. enmeshed in the wider subjects of Yet his voice should be particu- sociology, psychology, ethics, and larly welcome in the land of James religion. The State-directed econ- Madison, whose political theory is omy is bad, he says, because it close to Roepke’s own. treats man as a statistic in a mass. Roepke believes passionately in In any society where Welfarism 61 ===== PAGE 64 ===== 62 THE FREEMAN July or socialism or dirigisme domi- free market is that it is supple; it nates, the human “statistic” is to can be bent by free men to any be made happy by underwriting pattern that is desired. his total life situation, from cradle At this point Roepke confesses to grave. Exercising no individual that he doesn’t like the way free responsibility for his choices, the men have been behaving in those “statistic” finds himself an en- areas of the world. that have so feebled integer in a society that far managed to escape the wider runs to mass slogans, to “social ravages of socialism, state wel- religions,” and to mechanized “en- farism, and dirigisme. In passages tertainment” via cheap radio and that might have been written by television shows. John Kenneth Galbraith or Arthur ] Schlesinger, Jr., he chastises Freedom Rests on Private Property Americans for preferring tailfins Roepke obviously believes there to a more unadorned type of. car, is no escape from what he calls for going overboard on ‘install- “enmassment” in any of the vari- - ment buying, for preferring ous types of “planned” State. gadgets to concerts. Communism, When a State begins ordering an he says, is bad because it sets economy, it kills the property people chasing after ideology; but . sense. Without inalienable prop- it is not much of an improvement erty, people lose their defenses when people “chase after... motor against the genus politician. They scooters, television sets... and begin by letting the State pre- quickly acquired but unpaid-for scribe a hierarchy of goods and dresses.” Co services. They end by letting the The difference between Roepke State prescribe the very order of and Galbraith is that Roepke life itself. And when they have doesn’t believe that it is the State's signed away their inalienable business to make up for the esthet- rights, they have nothing to fall ic deficiencies and the lazy habits back on if they wish to criticize of the people. As an esthetic and the powers that be. moral critic Roepke addresses him- Unfortunately, as Roepke sees self to the individual directly, it, the free market does not in urging upon each and every one itself guarantee anybody against of us “a reasonable plan of life, “enmassment.” All that one can saving, and provision for the fu- expect from the free market is a ture.” In other words, it is up to neutrality that will respect the the individual to provide his own ‘individual’s will. The virtue of the setting for the free market. The ===== PAGE 65 ===== 1960 FREE MARKET — FREE MEN 63 individual doesn’t have to take ties.” “Econometrism’ encourages tailfins, motor scooters, or televi- government in the idea that it can sion sets —or, if he does take play God by manipulating the them, he can do so in a modera- “aggregates” in order to increase tion that allows for the exercise of - the GNP. But nobody, says other tastes and for adequate in- ‘Roepke, can guess the needs of surance against the needs of the tomorrow merely by consulting a future. “functional relationship of aggre- gates.” Misleading ‘'Statistical Aggregates’ The proof? Roepke recalls the If Roepke doesn’t like some of economists who “abused the Key- the manifestations of the Ameri- nesian theory” in order to ‘deny can mass market, he .does have that our economic system had any many . good things to say about natural growth potential.” These . the possibilities of “decentrism”- economists have left behind them "in the United States, where fed- “only the theory of the ‘mature eralism still exists to provide a economy’ — an intellectual fossil of framework for the decentraliza- the Great Depression.” Other tion of political decisions. To economists, consulting the “rela- Roepke, “centrism’ is the enemy. tionship of aggregates,” predicted As an economist, Roepke doesn’t a “permanent dollar gap.” By pre- like what his own “science” has .dicting an American depression in recently been doing in its “cen- 1948, Swedish economists misled trist” preoccupation with statis- their government and central bank tical “aggregates.” When one into making disastrous policy de- begins to worry about the Gross cisions. Roepke doesn’t go so far National Product, one forgets the as to advocate the muzzling of individual, who might, indeed, pre- “centrist” economists, but he does fer leisure to “product.” Any con- think people should remember that ception which reduces the eco- economics is a “moral” science. As nomic process to a “functional re- such it should be concerned less lationship of aggregates suscepti- with “aggregates” and “multi- ble of being defined in terms of pliers” and ‘accelerators’ than mechanics and calculated by with “relations dependent upon the mathematical methods,” says unpredictable behavior of men.” Roepke, is “bound to end up in the The extrapolation of past facts, claim that thesé same methods while interesting, cannot be used permit forecasts whieh are more to foretell the future, for “the than the weighing of probabili- unforeseeable forces which move ===== PAGE 66 ===== 64 THE FREEMAN July human history as a whole may at the Atlantic,” it does not do much any moment modify supply and to enumerate them. Roepke might demand in a manner which defies ‘take heart from the recent Dbe- econometric treatment.” havior of the American buying public which has shown encourag- ing signs of an awakening in- dividualism. For example, the car Roepke’s case against socialism market has changed considerably extends to the “fiscal socialism” since Roepke wrote A Humane of the Welfare State in any form. Fconomy,. no longer is chrome a When the State takes it upon it- ‘‘status symbol,” and if one self to give “all-encompassing chooses to drive a “compact” it security,” it becomes ‘“an income merely indicates that one has pump, working day and night, with many uses for one’s money. ' tubes and valves, with suction and Roepke writes as if ‘keeping pressure flows....” Since the up with the Joneses” were still a money to pay for welfare is “con- preoccupation with Americans. jured from the people's right But since he was last on these pocket into their left,” it could, shores, a counter movement has theoretically, be put through the been under way. Now one can “income pump” without inflation. bowl or go in for skin diving or But as a practical matter the “in- figure skating without worrying come pump” won't work without about being declassed merely be- chronic inflation. If people are cause one doesn’t belong to an ex- unemployed, inflation is necessary pensive country club which spe- to keep the “tubes and valves” filled cializes in golf. Americans are in default of tax money; if there more and more coming to take is full — or overfull — employment, their leisure as they please. And, the “wage push” is inflationary in since this entails spending money and by itself. as they please, they may eventu- Roepke’s book is pessimistic to ally revolt against the “fiscal a degree that barely stops short socialism” of the centralized Wel- of “paralyzing despondency.” fare State on the ground that it While it admits there are “encour- doesn’t leave them enough cash aging symptoms on both sides of for their own choices. ~> Inflationary Consequences of Intervention ===== PAGE 67 ===== Join the thousands of others from all 50 states and many foreign countries who hold individual, joint, trust or corporation savings accounts and get the following outstanding advantages for your invested savings. HIGHEST EARNINGS —Effective January 1, 1960, we are paying at the rate of 42% per annum. Accounts opened or added to by the 10th of any month earn from the 1st of that month. ASSETS OF OVER $400,000,000.00, with over $90,000,000.00 in cash and government bonds and Reserves of over $30,500,000.00 as of December 31, 1959. AVAILABILITY OF FUNDS — Coast Federal has always paid every withdrawal immediately on request. SAVE-BY-MAIL — Airmail postage paid both ways on all transactions. SECURITY of principal assured through progressive, conservative manage- ment and the additional protection of $10,000.00 insurance on each account. a e MEMBER — FEDERAL HOME LOAN BANK — FEDERAL SAVINGS AND LOAN INSURANCE CORP. —— — — — — — — —— — — — —— — — — — — — — WT ——— SS——— —— — O—— ——— — ——— ———— NT". —— — — a JOE CRAIL, PRESIDENT 4) Coast Federal Savings, Department “H" 855 South Hill St. ot 9th {Please check-mark as desired.) Los Angeles 14, Calif. 1. [J 1 enclose [J check, [1 money order, to open 2. [7] Please send me a copy of your a savings account in the following name or “Coast Federal Savings Guide,” names: Savings Account Information and latest financial statement. Name Address City Zone State ===== PAGE 68 =====