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

IDEAS ON LIBERTY

AUGUST 1962

The British Nationalized Health Service . . George Winder 3
The Irresponsibles . . . . . . . . KennethW. Sollitt 15
The Failure of the State Employment

Service . . . . . . . . . . . OscarW.Cooley 16
What You Can lose. . . . . . . . JessRaley 23
Fiscal Stimulant . . . . . . . . . H.P.B. Jenkins 27

Individual Liberty in the Crucible of History

4. A Collectivist Curvature of the Mind . Clarence B. Carson 28
A Monopoly of the Worst Kind . . . . Henry Thomas Buckle 42
Thoreau and the Modern American

Housewife . . . . . . . . . . Frances West Brown 44
Moppets and Money . . . . . . . D.M Westerholm 52

Books:
The Sickness of Socialized Medicine . . . John Chamberlain +60

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Irvington-on-Hudson, New York

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The Law

By FREDERIC BASTIAT (1801-1850)

“BUT HOW is legal plunder to be identified?
Quite simply. See if the law takes from
some persons what belongs to them, and gives
it to other persons to whom it does not
belong. See if the law benefits one citizen
at the expense of another by doing what the
citizen himself cannot do

without committing a crime.”

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THE

Teemai A MONTHLY JOURNAL OF IDEAS ON LIBERTY

AUGUST 1962 Vol. 12, No. 8

LEONARD E. READ President, Foundation for
Economic Education

PAUL L. POIROT Managing Editor

TIHHE FREEMAN is published monthly by the
Foundation for Economic Education, Inc.,, a non-
political, nonprofit educational champion of private
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Copyright, 1962, The Foundation for Economic Education, Inc. Printed
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===== PAGE 5 =====

A } 9¢]

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/ i Health Service
1)

GEORGE WINDER

THE LATE Lord Horder, who was system would improve. Many so-
one of Great Britain's most dis- cialist Members of Parliament
tinguished surgeons, speaking claimed that the country had, in
prior to the time Britain’s medical fact, no medical organization, for
system was taken over by the they could not conceive of such a
state, said, “It is universally ac- thing without a central authority
knowledged that our health serv- to guide it. The central control
ices are the best in the world.” which they established would,

It is probable that a good many they believed, not only secure a
other countries will have made the more efficient medical service but
same claim so we shall not press would also ensure a cheaper one.
the point except to say that in The expected cost of the new Na-
1948, when a socialist government tional Health Service had been
established the British National carefully worked out beforehand
Health Service, it took over a by the famous economist, now
medical system well up to the Lord Beveridge, who arrived at
standards of the time. an estimate of £170 million a

Yet that government seems to year. This was less than the £180
have been quite certain that once million which all medical services
in’ the control of the state this were believed to have cost the peo-
Mr. Winder, formerly a Solicitor of the Su- ple in private expenditure before
preme Court of New Zealand, is now farming the war. Moreover, it was claimed

in England. He has written widely on law, . .
agriculture, and economics. that this figure should not have

3


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

4 THE FREEMAN August

changed much by 1965; the im- shall see later, has been due, not
provement in general health which to any increased remuneration
the nationalized services would going to doctors, but chiefly to in-
bring about should prevent any creased hospital expenses.
increased costs. Below are the published costs of

Britain’s National Health Serv- three famous hospitals, in 1938
ice has now functioned for four- when they were charitable trusts,
teen years so let us see to what and in 1960 when they were state
extent the high hopes for it have institutions.

been fulfilled. These show a rise of costs from
i six to nine times — far above any
The Estimate Was Low increase which can be accounted

The first and most obvious fact for by inflation. These figures are
is the gross error in the forecast typical of an increase which has
of costs that was made by Lord taken place in all of Britain’s hos-
Beveridge. In its first year the pitals. Administrative costs, in-
nationalized service cost not £170 cluded in the above figures, have
million but £377 million. The risen from eleven to eighteen
figure has risen year by year; in times although hospitals no longer
1960 it cost £ 820 million of which have to collect funds from many
only £23 million was for capital sources as they did under the old
expenditure. system.

The British Cost of Living in- The rising costs of drugs and
dex shows that most prices were pharmaceutical preparations have
multiplied by three between 1938 also been of concern to the govern-
and 1960. Medical costs, however, ment. In 1950 these were £37 mil-
are more than four and a half lion and in 1960, £89 million. In
times what they were. This, as we 1951, in an effort to prevent waste,

Hospital Number of beds Average weekly cost per patient
193 1960 1938 1360

Guys 690 630 £6/ 3/8 £36/10/11

Charing Cross 293 286 £4/10/ 1 £36/14/11

Royal Portsmouth 250 205 £2/ 9/11 £23/ 8/10



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

1962 . THE BRITISH NATIONALIZED HEALTH SERVICE 5

the government imposed a charge tient who must pay his fee. Under
of one shilling on each prescrip- the system now practiced in Great
tion. This was increased to two Britain, much of this excellent
shillings in 1961. relationship is undoubtedly re-
Both these charges were hotly tained; nevertheless, it is inter-
resented by the socialists as being rupted by an invisible stranger in
departures from their principle of the form of a higher medical au-
free medicine. As a socialist Mem- thority peering over the doctor’s
ber of Parliament once expressed shoulder with power to criticize
it, “If the Tories laid their sacri- his work and inflict a fine upon
legious hands on the Health Serv- him if he is too experimental in
ice, which the Opposition regarded his treatment or prescribes too
as the very temple of the nation’s many expensive drugs. The doctor
social security system, the Labour is no longer the servant of the
Party would fight it with the same patient but of the National Health
determination which they had Service.
brought to fighting the Rent Act.” The importance of this change
Such tirades, however, had no ef- in the doctor’s status is difficult to
fect on the conservative govern- measure. The old traditions are
ment in its determination to en- still a powerful force with every
force these minor charges, even honest doctor, but there can be no
though they have not stopped the doubt that the former relationship
rise in total cost of drugs and between the doctor and his pa-

pharmaceutical preparations. tient is slowly being undermined;
and this tendency will increase as
Better Service? control passes to a younger gen-

That all British medical services eration of medical men who have
cost so much more in real terms never known the old ways.
than they did before they were There is little doubt that if the
nationalized might be tolerable if matter were put to a vote the
the services the people receive had British people after 14 years of
correspondingly increased. But, experience would still endorse the
who can value that intimate asso- nationalized system. But this by
ciation which should exist between no means indicates that they are
the patient and his doctor? Under getting better medical services
the old system of free enterprise than before; it merely means that
the doctor was an authoritative they mistakenly believe such serv-
master, a trusted friend, and at ices are now costing them nothing.
the same time a servant of his pa- To the man who is ill, the fact


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

6 THE FREEMAN August

that he can call on a doctor and National Health Service either in
pay no fee seems to be such an hospitals or as general medical
obvious boon that he usually is ob- practitioners. The number had in-
livious to the price he is in fact creased by 1960 to 32,223. The
paying. Thirteen per cent of the greater increase took place in the
cost of the National Health Serv- hospitals where the number of
ice is paid in National Insurance salaried doctors rose from 9,650
Contributions, 4 per cent in minor in 1950 to 12,300 in 1960, that is,
charges, and the rest in general by 27 per cent. During the same
taxation. This supposedly free period, however, the number of
medical service costs an average staffed hospital beds increased
of over a pound per week per fam- only 4% per cent, from 453,000 to
ily. One would have to be very ill to 473,000. This can be contrasted
pay more than this in direct fees. with a 33 per cent increase be-
It is this lack of association be- tween 1929 and 1938 under the
tween services rendered and pay- competitive system. In 1935 there
ments made which induces the were more hospital beds in Britain
British voter to turn a blind eye per thousand inhabitants than
to the defects of his National there are today, yet one of the

Health Service. chief charges made by the social-
ists against the competitive sys-
The Function of Price tem was that it had insufficient

As everyone knows, the strength hospital beds. The small increase
of a demand for any service very in the number of beds, together
largely depends upon its price. with the fact that there were 466,-
When the state took over Britain's 000 people on the waiting list for
medical services and announced such beds in 1960, certainly sug-
that in the future they were to be gests that the National Health
free, there was an instant and un- Service has failed to meet the in-
precedented increase in the de- creased demand that the absence
mand for them. Under free enter- of medical fees has made upon it.
prise whenever there is a great This great shortage of beds has
increase in the demand for any caused the authorities to insti-
service there is almost always a tute a system of priorities. Acute
consequent increase in its supply. cases can always be found a bed,
Does the same principle apply to but those requiring operations for
socialized medicine? At first such complaints as hernia, vari-
glance, yes. In 1952 there were cose veins, and the like may have
27,879 doctors employed by the to wait up to a year and longer.


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

1962 THE BRITISH NATIONALIZED HEALTH SERVICE 7

Hospital Shortage development of Britain’s medical
Perhaps the chief reason for services and that the British peo-
this failure of the National Health ple are receiving a far poorer
Service is that since its inception service than they would have re-
the building of hospitals has al- ceived if the prewar system had
most ceased. Only one hospital was been allowed to continue its de-
built in thirteen years. Many so- velopment.
cialist doctors before nationaliza- In “The Genesis of the British
tion believed that when the gov- National Health Service” written
ernment took over, all financial by the well-known economist John
worries would disappear. With Jewkes and his wife, the authors
unlimited funds, the government support the above conclusion,
would hasten to build all the hos- pointing out that in 1939 Great
pitals required. In practice the Britain was more amply supplied
position has been exactly the op- with hospital beds in proportion
posite, The government has been to population than the United
far more cautious in its capital States, but that since the war this
expenditure than the most con- advantage has disappeared. “It is
servative of private concerns. Ov- difficult to escape the conclusion
erwhelmed by the unexpected and that in the United States the
ever-increasing cost of its Health quantity of medical services avail-
Service, it has tried to keep down able for each person is larger and
expenditure by checking expan- is tending to increase more rap-
sion. idly than in Great Britain.”

Mr. D. S. Lees, a Senior Lec- They also make comparisons
turer in Economics, in an excel- with the medical services of
lent booklet, ‘Health Through Switzerland which for the most
Choice,” has pointed out that this part are still under the competi-
failure to spend money on new tive system. The Swiss have more
hospitals has been an outstanding doctors and many more hospital
feature of the British nationalized beds per 1,000 of population. Be-
Health Service. Whereas before tween 1948 and 1959, money spent
the war the yearly expenditure for on hospital building per head of
capital purposes was about 20 per population was four times as
cent of current health expendi- great in Switzerland as in com-
ture, since nationalization it has paratively wealthy Great Britain.
been only about 5 per cent. Many Waiting lists in Swiss hospitals
medical men believe that nation- are literally unknown.
alization has actually retarded the True, the British government at


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

8 THE FREEMAN August

last has been stung into activity entirely different medical systems.
by constant criticism and this year Tuberculosis, pneumonia, and
commenced a program to spend diphtheria have diminished, but
£50 million building hospitals the same is true elsewhere.
over the next five years. Whether Chronic diseases, cancer, and neu-
this expenditure will eliminate rosis have increased.
the long waiting lists for hospital It was claimed that the expen-
beds remains to be seen. diture on the National Health
These waiting lists have an- Service was a form of national
gered the socialists who seem to investment which would increase
have forgotten that they are re- wealth by reducing the amount of
sponsible for the introduction of days lost to industry through
the nationalized hospital. In their sickness; but figures for absence
publicity at the General Election from work on account of illness
in 1959 they stated, “Nearly half have in no way diminished,
a million people are waiting for In summation, the British Na-
hospital beds; too many doctors’ tional Health Service has failed to
surgeries are still grim and meet the increased demands made
gloomy; too many hospitals are upon it, and even after the change
still out-of-date and makeshift; in the value of money is allowed
the mental hospitals are over- for, medical attention costs the
crowded and dilapidated and, in British people a great deal more
spite of gallant efforts by those than before the war. Moreover, in
in charge, are quite unsuitable those material factors which lend
for modern psychiatric care; the themselves to measurement, Brit-
committees and staff of the Serv- ain’s medical services have ex-
ice have been frustrated by end- panded far more slowly than they
less administrative delays, and in- did in the 30 years before nation-
evitably enthusiasm has been di- alization. They also have expanded

minished.” more slowly than in the United
States and Switzerland where
No Evidence of Progress medical treatment has remained,

As for the hopeful claim made for the most part, on a free en-
by Lord Beveridge that the Health terprise basis. If the British peo-
Service would improve the health ple still believe in their state-
of the people, there is no evidence owned National Health Service, it
whatever of this. Infant mortality is not because of its virtues but
rates have improved, but so have solely because of the illusion that
they in many other countries with it costs them nothing.


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

1962 THE BRITISH NATIONALIZED HEALTH SERVICE 9

What the Poor Had To Lose their beer and spirits cost £1,001
It may be argued that at least million and their tobacco £1,140
the poor have benefited by not million.
having to pay the doctor’s fees. It is sometimes claimed that
Even this is doubtful. Prior to the chief beneficiaries of the na-
nationalization, the great amount tionalized system are the middle
of charitable hospital service, classes who, prior to the Na-
which then existed, looked after tional Health Service, had to pay
them. Today, the poor must share their doctor's fees. It is difficult
with others the crowded surgeries to see their gain, however. The
which are the result of “free taxes they pay for medical serv-
medicine.” ices they may not receive average
It could be argued, of course, well over a pound a week per
that these crowded surgeries and family. The middle classes do, in
hospitals are evidence of the cry- fact, pay for medical care, the
ing need for a free medical serv- only real difference being that
ice which must have existed be- now they are deprived of some of
fore nationalization but was con- that personal responsibility which
cealed by the inability of the poor was once the basis of their char-
to pay the doctor’s fees. But the acter.
crowded surgeries are not due so Only about 5 per cent of the
much to really sick people asking people now employ those doctors
for treatment they could not pre- who have kept out of the National
viously afford as to the desire of Health Service. They pay twice
many people to have free treat- over, for they must also pay in
ment for the slightest cold or ill- taxation their share of costs for
ness. Before nationalization, a the nationalized service.
really sick person was sure of
treatment whatever his financial An Ambiguous Position
means. Now, with the many claims In considering the doctor him-
on the doctors’ services, a sick self under Britain’s National
person may fail to get the atten- Health Service, the word “nation-
tion his illness requires. alized” may seem a bit out of
If we look upon the National order. The position of the gen-
Health Service as a form of char- eral practitioner, for instance, is
ity, it is worth considering an ambiguous one. He may still
whether the British people really have his own private patients if he
need it. Whereas in 1960 health can get them; but the doctor who
services cost them £820 million, originally believed he could get


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

10 THE FREEMAN August

the best of both worlds by having majority of general practitioners
both paying and state patients aim to get as many registered pa-
soon found that the vast majority tients as possible. A doctor is ex-
of them preferred to register un- pected to accept on his panel ev-
der the state system, thus retain- eryone who applies. But he natu-
ing his services at no apparent rally does his best to avoid poten-
cost to themselves. The result is tial patients who might require
that all but a few British doctors his services too often, such as old
now depend on the National people and chronic invalids.
Health Service for a living. A general practitioner is al-
Some six hundred doctors re- lowed to have up to 3,500 regis-
mained outside the scheme from tered patients, yet doctors claim
the beginning and are allowed to that about 1,500 is all they can
carry on under the old competi- properly attend. More than half
tive system. Lately, these inde- of Britain's general practitioners
pendent practitioners have grown have more than 2,500 patients
in number, probably due to the while 29 per cent have more than
growth in private health insur- 3,000. For each patient on his
ance. In 1948 some 100,000 people panel, a doctor now receives 19/6
subscribed to private health poli- ($2.73) a year — occasionally
cies; in 1960 more than 1,000,000. more, to induce a doctor to go in-
According to Dr. John Hunt, sec- to unpopular areas or to a country
retary of the College of General area where the panel must neces-
Practitioners, one quarter of Brit- sarily be small. There are also
ish doctors have insured their allowances for “good behavior”
families for private hospital such as attending refresher
treatment. courses. Out of his capitation fee
The general practitioners em- the doctor must pay the costs of
ployed by the National Health his surgery and the wages of his
Service are paid, not according to receptionist or nurse. The fee is
the amount of work they do or the the same for the doctor who em-
number of patients they attend, ploys capable assistants and uses
but according to the number they the most modern equipment as for
can persuade to register on their the doctor who gets along with
panel for medical services if they the aid of a stethoscope and an
should be required, For every pa- overworked wife. The result is
tient on his panel, a doctor re- that the doctor who accepts only
ceives a fee, whether he attends as many patients as he can con-
such patient or not. Therefore, the scientiously handle will have a


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

1962 THE BRITISH NATIONALIZED HEALTH SERVICE 11

very inadequate income. For more ing a prescription for some patent
income, a doctor must have a large medicine they have seen adver-
panel of patients, which will mean tised so they can have it at the
a crowded surgery, hurried inter- expense of the National Health
views, and often a snap diagnosis. Service. Young doctors sometimes
The system places a premium on are suspected of prescribing too
bad and hasty service. Moreover, generously in order to attract
because the patient has nothing new patients to their panels. Many
to pay, he tends to visit his over- doctors believe their surgeries are
worked doctor as often as possi- looked upon as social centers by
ble. As one doctor has put it, “The women patients.
patient seeks the doctor to gratify
his every whim; the doctor tries Passing the Buck
everything in his power to avoid There is a minimum service
the patient.” which the doctor feels compelled
Under such conditions, it is not to perform, but only the more con-
surprising when a doctor develops scientious will go beyond this.
a feeling of guilt and resigns the Most, if they can possibly do so,
service, explaining as one did re- send their more troublesome jobs
cently, “The horror of this sys- to the hospitals, thus adding to
tem is that many excellent doctors the already excessive demands
are trapped by it, but I have hated upon those institutions. Simple
myself for it and now I am out operations, formerly taken in
of it.” stride, are now handled this way,
Many of the patients also are as are such time-consuming jobs
unhappy. Knowing the reluctance as a check-up to find out the pa-
of the doctor to visit them, the tient’s general state of health. The
more considerate do their best to District Medical Executive Coun-
visit his surgery, though they cils do not seem to resent this
should have remained in bed. passing of responsibility to the
Knowing also that their visit crowded hospitals. They even en-
brings the doctor no financial re- courage it by forbidding the gen-
turn, some are constantly apolo- eral practitioner to do a number
getic. “I’m sorry to trouble you, of jobs which were formerly
Doctor,” is a phrase constantly on within his province. In most
their lips. Others, of course, areas, he is not allowed to do
aggressively insist on their rights X-rays or blood tests or perform
and expect the doctor to do any- regularly on women patients the
thing they demand, such as writ- cancer-warning Papanicolous test.


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

12 THE FREEMAN August

One of the most constant com- It is worth noting that this
plaints of the general practitioner British system of socialized medi-
is the great amount of paperwork cine with its capitation payments
required by the authorities. The was adopted in Australia in 1946
majority of British doctors may by a socialist government. In 1952
still have the skills and loyalties a conservative government abol-
inherited from the past, but under ished it, replacing it by insurance
the National Health Service, they against illness through private
have every reason to forget them companies. Although the govern-
and to take as little responsibility ment did not entirely desert the
as possible. Whatever service they medical field, it restored the old
may render their patient will not and well-tried relationship be-
in any way affect their capitation tween doctor and patient. This
fee. government, incidentally, is still

Since nationalization, the peo- in power.
ple have developed a habit of
suing their doctor in the Law Third Party Medicine
Courts for negligence. Although In the past the doctor was re-
such actions existed in the past, sponsible only to his patient and
they have now become much more to public opinion. Now he has a
common. This again makes the higher authority which he must
general practitioner reluctant to conciliate. He may be told, for ex-
do more than the minimum re- ample, by his District Medical
quired of him. After all, there is Executive Council that he is giv-
a limit to the responsibility one ing his patient too many drugs
can undertake for 19 shillings and of an expensive kind and that his
6 pence. Moreover, medical col- drug bill which the state has to
leagues on the salaried hospital meet is above the average for his
staff are in no such invidious posi- district. If these excessive costs
tion, for the government is re- are continued, he may be required
sponsible for their mistakes. This to pay a proportion of the bill him-
has caused some doctors to sug- self. Here is a paradoxical instruc-
gest that the general medical tion to doctors from a recent
practitioner would be better off memorandum by the Ministry of
as a salaried official than he is Health: “Without prejudice to the
under the present system, in doctor’s rights to prescribe what-
which he has all the disadvantages ever he thinks necessary in any
but none of the advantages of in- individual case, a doctor may be
dependence, called upon to justify the cost of


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

1962 THE BRITISH NATIONALIZED HEALTH SERVICE 13

his prescription.” Another mem- bers of the profession seldom can
orandum, evidently trying to do anything about it, but the
overcome the natural reluctance younger members are showing
of the panel doctor to visit the their disapproval by simply leav-
patient, gives full instruction as ing the country. John R. Seale,
to when such visits should be M.D. M.R.C.P., has shown the
made. extent of this exodus in a booklet

Another cross the general prac- published by The Fellowship for
titioner must bear is that a pa- Freedom in Medicine. Although
tient may inform the District Med- doctors have always emigrated
ical Executive Council that his from Great Britain, they are
doctor is not giving him the full leaving now at a rate higher than
service to which he feels entitled. ever before. Between 1956 and
Occasionally the public is regaled 1960, of doctors trained in British
in the press with a list of fines medical schools, 1,070 have emi-
inflicted on doctors who have com- grated to Canada, 1,100 to Aus-
mitted such offenses as failing to tralia, 190 to New Zealand, and
answer night calls. In 1960, dis- 750 to the U.S. In the twelve
ciplinary action was taken against months of 1960 more doctors
doctors in 410 cases. trained in England and Ireland

But what most troubles the emigrated to the U.S. than in the
general medical practitioner is whole period from 1930 to 1939.
that his fixed fee, multiplied by Canadian statistics show that
more patients than he can ade- British doctors are entering
quately serve, leaves him with a Canada at a rate five times as
far lower real income than most great as that for British immi-

doctors enjoyed before the war. grants in general. Last year, one-

third of the medical students who

Doctors Are Leaving qualified in Great Britain left the
In 1951, after an inquiry on the country.

remuneration of doctors, the capi- Moreover, knowledge of the dis-

tation rate and the salaries of hos- advantages under which British
pital doctors were raised to com- doctors are now serving has pene-
pensate for inflation. Since then, trated to the rising generation.
rates have risen only slightly, but Although the number of students
prices generally are up a third, at British universities has doubled
causing a decline in the real in- since the war, the number study-
come of doctors. Naturally, doc- ing medicine has actually de-
tors are dissatisfied. Older mem- creased since the introduction of


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

14 THE FREEMAN August

the National Health Service. could be understood. Recently the
There were 14,200 medical stu- General Hospital at Weston-super-
dents at British universities in Mare advertised for a Senior
1950 compared with 12,700 in House Officer in Surgery. It re-
1958. The resulting vacuum in the ceived applications from one Brit-
British Health Service has to be on, one Australian, one Portu-
filled with doctors from the Com- gese, one Greek, one Japanese,
monwealth and by foreigners. Be- three Anglo-Indians, three Egyp-
fore the war, some 200 Common- tians, five Pakistanis, and forty-
wealth doctors a year registered three Indians.
in Great Britain, chiefly from Young British doctors who have
Canada, Australia, and New Zea- some memory and regard for
land. In 1960 the number was older medical traditions seem to
1,400, mostly from India and Pak- be expressing their opinion of
istan. The number of foreign doc- their National Health Service in
tors registering before the war that manner sometimes described
with the British Medical Council as “voting with their feet.” Brit-
was under a dozen a year. In 1960 ish nurses are infected by the
it was 1,701 and last year over same spirit. There is a general
2,000 — from such places as Syria, dissatisfaction with their rates of
Spain, Greece, Peru, Turkey, Ja- pay and, for the first time in Brit-
pan, and Yugoslavia. Some of ish history, there has been talk
these are well-trained but, as Dr. of a nurses’ strike. Fortunately,
Seale points out, others are from the high ideals of the profession
medical schools of which the Brit- have prevailed. It takes some time
ish authorities can have very little to undermine a good medical sys-
knowledge. Nearly half of all tem and particularly to destroy
junior posts are now held by doc- the long-established traditions of
tors from overseas. . trust between doctor and patient
A report issued by the Nuffield which the older British doctors
Provincial Trust showed that in remember. Nevertheless, the Brit-
many casualty departments the ish National Health Service is do-
provision of medically qualified ing both,
supervision had broken down and Perhaps the greatest tragedy is
that able nursing sisters were that the generation of Britons
making the diagnosis and carry- now growing to manhood may un-
ing out the treatment. A doctor questioningly accept the National
was usually available, but often Health Service, for they never will
he spoke no language in which he have known anything better. @
|


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

lhe [responses

KENNETH W. SOLLITT

CONSIDER the vast number of decisions

. made for us and the decreasing number
of things we can, or for that matter, are

"willing to decide for ourselves. Parents,

of necessity, decide things for their
children. When the children are old enough, they are placed in
schools where most of their decisions are made for them. After
high school (or college) every able-bodied young man serves a
stretch in the Armed Forces where to make a decision for him-
self might be regarded as un-American activity!

After that training in conformity we get more of the same
when we join a labor union and are told when to work and for
how much, when to strike and for how long, and when we work
not to work too hard. Or we may become big business executives
and be told whom we can hire, how much we must pay them re-
gardless of their value to us, whom we can fire and under what
conditions, what we can produce, how much we can charge for
goods or services, and how much we must pay Uncle Sam for his
services in regulating us to death.

We don’t even make a decision as to what social functions we
attend, what we’ll wear, whether we accept the cocktails offered
us there — the society in which we move decides those things for
thousands of so-called adults.

But you don’t achieve adulthood by letting others make all
your decisions for you. Freedom is opportunity to make decisions.
Character is ability to make right decisions. It can be achieved
only in a climate of freedom. For no one learns to make right
decisions without being free to make wrong ones. As our Ameri-
can freedoms keep diminishing, so does the character of our
people. Can irresponsibles form a responsible society ? ®

The Reverend Mr. Sollitt is Minister of the First Baptist Church of Midland, Michigan.
La

15


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

Ff

FEw, if any, private business ven-
tures have been more pushed
around and kicked about by gov-
ernment than have employment
agencies.

Even at the turn of the century
the employment agent was looked
upon as a grasping character, in-
tent upon exploiting the ‘poor
worker” when he was most in
need. Scarcely anyone bothered to
consider why the jobless might

TH E FAI LLU RE seek an agent's help, thus placing

themselves in his power.
So it was that legislators passed
OF THE ST ATE laws strictly regulating the agen-
cies and setting up “free” state
employment services to compete
with them. Since 1933, all the
E M PLOY M E NT state services have operated under
the wing of the United States Em-
ployment Service, which pays their

SERVICE bis

Even their friends admit that
the state employment services
show a dismal record. As early as
1914, a writer in the National
Municipal Review stated that 19
states had such services but, ex-

Mr. Cooley is Associate Professor of Eco-
nomics at Ohio Northern University,
OSCAR W. COOLEY Illustration: A. Devaney, Inc., New York.

16


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

1962 THE FAILURE OF THE STATE EMPLOYMENT SERVICE 17

cept in Wisconsin, they were “a Employers who have job open-
negligible factor in the labor mar- ings are loathe to turn to the
ket.”! In 1931, Aaron Director and state employment service as a re-
Paul Douglas (now U.S. Senator) liable source of high-grade labor.
observed: “The high responsibili- Many employers do not even re-
ties which are latent in public em- port their job openings to the
ployment work are .. . almost service, preferring to fill the open-
totally unrealized in the actual ings in their own way — that is,
practice of the offices.””? W. H. by means of “help wanted” ads,
Miernyk found in a sample study through private employment firms
of Massachusetts workers in the (of which there are some 4,400
early 1950's that 45 per cent throughout the country) and by
learned of their jobs through hiring at the gate.
friends and relatives and 35 per
cent located jobs by applying at Some of the Complications
the gate. Only 7 per cent were When the state employment
placed by the state employment services were married to the un-
service, although all who apply employment compensation system
for unemployment compensation in the 1930’s, they were given the
automatically are registered with responsibility of getting jobs for
the latter.? compensation claimants. This par-
Former Secretary of Labor, tially explains why the applicants
James P. Mitchell, stated in 1958 referred by the state services are
that nonagricultural employment not eagerly snapped up by em-
had increased by over nine million ployers; they may lack the ability
workers in the preceding decade to hold a job. Of all the job-
but that nonagricultural place- seekers, they presumably are the
ments by the state employment least thrifty, and the most likely

services had declined.* to apply for public aid; neither
"1 F. A. Kellor in National Municipal characteristic recommends them
Review, April 1914. highly to employers. They are also

2 A. Director and P. Douglas, The a heterogeneous lot, for the em-
Problem of Unemployment (New York, ployment service must seek jobs
1931), p. 342, f

or all who apply and who are

3 W. H. Miernyk, Inter-Industry Labor ligibl PP .
Mobility (Boston: Bureau of Business & deemed eligible for compensation.
Economic Research, Northeastern U,, Furthermore, employment serv-
ry > a W. Hab dW. Coh ice officials are bureaucrats, paid

uoted by W. Haber and W. J. Cohen, .
Social Security: Programs, Problems and out of public funds rather than by
Policies (Homewood, Ill., 1960), p. 327. those whom they serve; they lack


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

18 THE FREEMAN August

the economic incentive to give per- per cent of the employment busi-
sonal service. ness in the state, and that in five
Since many job openings are years it would handle 90 per cent.
not listed with the unpopular state His budget had more than doubled
employment services, such open- in the preceding five years.
ings may never be known to com- The Colorado state service func-
pensation claimants. Many of the tions like a private employment
latter do not exert themselves to firm, advertising widely for busi-
find jobs, nor are they urged by ness, and performing management
employment service officials to do consulting functions. When ques-
so. Thus, the service’s own lack of tioned about using tax money to
knowledge of the jobs available create an empire in competition
actually encourages people to re- with private enterprise agencies,
main idle and collect compensa- Teets replied: “We are not living
tion. in a free enterprise system, but
More and more the government rather operating under a con-
employment service in each state trolled economy.”®
is operating as a general employ- In The Field Representative and
ment exchange, for job-seekers not His Work, a manual published in
receiving compensation as well as 1940 by the Ohio State Employ-
those who are, and even trying to ment Service, personnel are in-
place persons who are already em- structed how they should meet
ployed but want other jobs. Hand- criticism:

some offices are being built to im- If the employer says, “I am against
press employers and win their government in business . . . includ-
patronage. ing the OSES,” tell him OSES was

A recent bulletin describes the founded in 1890 at the request of
invasion of the employment labor and employers to combat the
agency field taking place in Colo- abuses which were practiced by pri-
rado.” Bernard Teets, director of vate agencies. The bringing together
the state employment service, is °f unemployed workers and employ-
quoted as saying that 60 to 65 per ers jobs is logically a community
cent of his appropriation of $2.- function, a government function the
700,000 for 1958 was devoted to a oho Dost offic, the police, and
serving already employed persons, tne citizens of the community . .. If
that his bureau was handling 60

—_— 8 Denver Daily Journal, July 9, 1959,

5 “Birth of a Monster,” 1959, Bulletin as quoted by John Fanning in “The
published by private employment agen- United States Employment Service
cies, Story.”


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

1962 THE FAILURE OF THE STATE EMPLOYMENT SERVICE 19

the employer says, “We use private which it must play: first, the pay-
agencies because the applicant is ment of compensation to the job-
more likely to stick and work harder |egg registrant, and second, the

when he has to pay for a job,” say: finding of a job for him. To pic-
Workers are more efficient when free ture this process of “carrying

from worries. Paying for a job does water on both shoulders,” let us
by Pp assume that the function of pay-

more efficient. In many cases it is | . ; ¢ db
quite the opposite, because the pay- 18 compensation 1s performed by

ment of a fee puts a decided hard- CO» the employment-getting func-
ship on the worker and causes finan- tion by E.
cial worries. The Service charges no C’s functions are, first, to in-
fee either to you or to the worker. terview the claimant with a view
to determining his eligibility to
The implication in this docu- receive compensation; second, to
ment is that workers and em- determine the amount of compen-
ployers need to be protected by a sation to which he is entitled and
solicitous state from the “abuses” authorize its payment; and third,
of private employment agencies. to maintain a continuous check on
Fee-charging, it seems, is one such his eligibility and cut off pay-

abuse. ments when he comes to the end
The advertisement, “No charge of his benefit period.
to ‘employer or employee,” which E’s functions are, first, to re-

is freely used by the state em- cord the working history of the
ployment service in its radio and claimant, his qualifications and
other appeals, suggests that find- skills; second, to record the job
ing jobs for people is rightfully openings reported by employers;
a charity, not a business. This no- and third, to refer the claimant to
tion stems from the viewpoint jobs which seem suitable, one
that the jobless are disadvantaged after another, until he is hired.

persons, innocent victims of a C, it should be noted, is a sort
faulty system, which inevitably of “employer.” He pays the claim-
disemploys some. They are, it ant a sum of money weekly for a
seems, objects of charity to be limited period of time ( maximum:

cared for by a social agency. 26 weeks in most states, unless in-
creased to 39 by federal supple-
A Dual Role To Play mental compensation). E, mean-

The efficiency of the agency while, is trying to interest the
which mothers the unemployed is claimant in entering the service
greatly affected by the dual role of another employer who will pay


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

20 THE FREEMAN August

him a higher wage (in most If the claimant does not want to
cases), perhaps indefinitely, but take the job which E makes avail-
who also will require some 40 able to him, he can easily find an
hours per week of labor, per- excuse. For example, the wage is
formed according to the em- lower than he is accustomed to
ployer’s directions, whereas C re- receive (under present law com-
quires no labor. The claimant nat- pensation cannot be denied to a
urally weighs these two alterna- claimant who refuses a job on the
tives, balancing one against the ground that it offers substantially
other. less wage and poorer conditions
At first glance, C’s proposition than prevail for similar work in
would seem the less lucrative since the locality ). Or the job is a long
unemployment pay averages but distance from his home; this, too,
$31 per week (proposed legisla- is an allowable excuse. He, a good
tion would raise it to two-thirds union man, would be expected to
the worker's average wage”). work with “scabs.” The work is
Upon examination, however, the beneath him. The work is above
offer of pay while idle has its at- him. It is women’s work. Truly,
traction. Unemployment compen- the acceptable excuses are legion.
sation is not subject to income Often a claimant’s excuse comes
tax, either federal or state. The as no surprise to E. He has ex-
recipient has no expense for trans- pected it. Why, then, did he bother
portation to and from work, to make the referral? Perhaps be-
lunches, work clothing, or union cause, in order to collect his week's
dues. And — he has his leisure, stipend from C, the claimant must
which has value, he alone knows be able to report that he was re-
how much.’ ferred to a job, applied, and found
Thus, the claimant’s cash bene- it unsuitable or was rejected.
fit is determined by C, within
limits set by the law, but the value The Claimant's Obligation
of his leisure is completely beyond Some states suggest that a com-
the control or even the knowledge pensation claimant bestir himself
of C. Hence, the sum of the two, and look for a job independently.
or his total idleness wage, may New York serves notice on the
easily exceed the wage offered by claimant, “You are expected to
E's client. The wages of idleness look for a job on your own,” but
compete with the wages of work, according to employers such as
and E has an uphill task. Seth Levine, executive of a New
7 HR 17640, introduced in June 1961. York City shoe factory, this


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

1962 THE FAILURE OF THE STATE EMPLOYMENT SERVICE 21

search-for-work requirement “is, make up their minds what they
in practice, a dead letter. Dozens want to do. Do they want to get
of claimants have told me that the unemployed people into jobs?
unemployment office makes only Then it would seem logical to
the most perfunctory inquiries cease paying them liberally to re-
about their job-seeking efforts. main idle. But, if they want to
Usually a mere visit to the union turn what was intended to be tem-
hall suffices.”’8 porary, emergency unemployment
The New Jersey law states that relief into an outright dole, then
a person laid off for not more than they should quit trying to operate
four weeks need not look for work employment agencies.
at all but just report to C for his
check, and the New Jersey state Private Agencies
director of employment security The private employment special-
is empowered to waive the search- ist is still in business, despite the
for-work requirement completely massive invasion of his field by the
for all claimants if he thinks eco- government. The ‘blue-collar’
nomic conditions warrant. trade having been largely lured to
the ‘free” state employment
Which Will It Be? offices, private firms now concen-
Before 1946 no independent trate on placement of white-collar
search for work was ordinarily re- people, including many technicians
quired; now, 28 states specifically and executives. For example, one
require it. Sixteen of these made Pittsburgh agency in 1960 placed
the change after abuses of the un- 500 executives, 183 of them as
employment compensation system managers.
were exposed in the 1940’s. How- Some 85 to 90 per cent of place-
ever, the federal government is ments by private agencies are peo-
on record as opposing any gen- ple already employed but seeking
eral requirement that workers con- greener pastures. In about two-
duct an independent search for thirds of the placements, the em-
work.? ployer pays the agency fee, this
Those responsible for govern- practice having increased in re-
ment employment services should cent years. That employers are
8 S. Levine, “How To Play the Unem- willing to pay private agencies to
ployment Insurance Game,” Harper's, find employees for them indicates

August 1961. . SC
} . a demand for the service,
9 R, Altman, Availability for Work, a

Study in Unemployment Compensation To an increasing extent, private
(Harvard, 1950), p. 118. agencies are placing people in jobs


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

22 THE FREEMAN August

outside the immediate locality. Even were the exchange of infor-
This is accomplished not only mation among the employment of-
through branch offices but through fices of the nation operating effi-
cooperative arrangements between ciently, the present practice virtually
agencies. For example, there is guarantees that the official employ-

the National Association of Per. Ment agencies do not have compre-
sonnel Consultants. which em hensive information on employment

b 62 b ies in 32 opportunities. The reason for this is
races mem er agencies m that the Employment Service is deep-
states. Copies of job orders are

ly involved in the administration of
provided each member by the ynemployment insurance — and nec-
agency in which the order origi- essarily so.10

nates. A resumé of the qualifica-
tions of the applicant to whom the
job is referred, including three
references, is given the employer.
Thus, jobs and applicant are
matched, even though widely sep-
arated.

Private employment firms co-
operate even more broadly through
the National Employment Associ-
ation, Detroit, which promotes
standards of ethical practice and
defends the profession from gov-
ernmental attack and encroach-
ment.

Beyond publishing general in-
formation regarding the demand
and supply of workers in various
areas, the United States Employ-
ment Service does little to promote
inter-area mobility. Its ineffec-
tiveness was noted by the Com- ____
mittee for Economic Development, 10 Digtressed Areas in a Growing Econ-
in a recent study of distressed omy (Research and Policy Committee,

Committee for Economic Development,
areas: New York, June 1961).

The jobless worker who regis-
ters with the local “unemployment
office” and then goes home to live
on his compensation while he
awaits a job that may never come
is surely less mobile than the one
who registers with a private em-
ployment agency, agrees to pay
it a fee when and if he takes a job
he is referred to, and meanwhile
lives on his savings and odd-job
income under the urgency of get-
ting a job in the near future.

Private employment agencies,
allowed to operate freely and with-
out “competition” by tax-sup-
ported bureaus, would help sub-
stantially to connect workers with
jobs and give the increased mo-
bility today’s worker so greatly
needs. ®


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

YOU | CAN

03¢

JESS RALEY-

ONE of the first things I remem- bitters, nicotine, and other nebu-
ber is a story about Oscar Jones lous factors. The time I have lost
and a box of matches. It seems was lopped off those years as-
this old gentleman was out walk- sumed to have been expended in
ing one evening after dark and the past. This, of course, is the
decided to light his old cob pipe. worst kind of loss, because when I
According to the story, he dropped have a year to live, I have been
a match and then wasted the dead six months; but perhaps I
whole box in a vain attempt to should start at the beginning.
find that which was lost. Shortly after our first child was
Perhaps this story was a bit born the wife and I decided to
overdrawn, but it does tend to purchase an eighteen-year endow-
emphasize the most frustrating ment insurance contract. At the
experience known to man. Some time it appeared to be a very good
quirk of human nature makes this investment, an almost painless
method of separation more exas- way to insure the child's educa-
perating than loss through rob- tion through four years of college.
bery, poor judgment, or even The agent knew his business, had
taxes. This being true, I feel sure everything included; even trans-
you can understand how I reacted portation and incidentals, We
to the discovery that eighteen checked with the college of our
months of my life are lost. I choice and were assured that the
hasten to add that this does not sum contracted for was ample, As
pertain to future years which may the years passed Mr. Stork paid
possibly be lost to obesity, sweets, his respects at regular intervals
meme until we amassed four educational
Mr. Raley is a free-lance author, speaker,
philosopher from Gadsden, Alabama. endowment contracts.

23


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

24 THE FREEMAN August

These contracts came to mean year fund, more than the right
a great deal to us. In fact, one to walk across a college campus.
might say they had a sentimental
value, above and beyond their ac- A Disturbing Experience
tual worth. There was a time when To say that I was disturbed by
a quarterly payment on our chil- this condition would be the under-
dren’s higher education wiped statement of all time. Since I earn
out a three-week vacation; we money by devoting a certain
settled for a weekend on the river. amount of time to a particular
The house was damaged perma- task, money, to me, equals time.
nently when we were compelled Going a step further, I found that
to forego painting it two years in the time required to earn the lost
succession. Then there was the buying power was equal to a year
spring my wife had set her heart and a half. Adding to this the
on new drapes for every window wounded pride, deflated ego, and
in the house, but had to settle for loss of direction triggered by such
a premium payment and a box of an experience makes the total sum
dye. appalling indeed.

As a whole, those were wonder- A senator with whom I dis-
ful years, of course. Perhaps we cussed my problem was a great
did become just a bit smug, but deal less disturbed than I. It seems
I prefer to think of the emotions this senator has a sure-fire remedy
we felt as pardonable pride. At for anyone in my condition. His
any rate, there was a certain satis- theory maintains that the govern-
faction in the belief that we were ment (and he as a vital part)
putting first things first. This should, and very shortly would,
belief acted as a sustaining factor make me whole in this matter
through many hardships until the through direct aid to higher edu-
time arrived for our number one cation.
son to enter college. Now, we In all truth, I am not a prudish
realize that the downward trend man. If one or all of my children
of dollar value should have been can earn a scholarship, freely en-
observed more closely. The value dowed by an individual or organi-
of the sum designed to cover four zation, no one will cheer louder
years’ expenses had so declined than I. I do not believe, however,
that it would cover only two years that the individual citizen can be
and four months. At this rate, it made completely whole by dissect-
appears doubtful that the young- ing the general public, of which
est child can buy, with his four- said citizen is a part. In fact, the


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

1962 WHAT YOU CAN LOSE 25.

people of New York, Detroit, or society as a whole. This general
San Francisco are not responsible information is good to know, but
for the education of my offspring, it fails somehow to prepare —
and I have no desire to see them properly arouse — the individual
forced to shoulder this burden. All for a meeting, at arms length,
that I want government to do in with this nebulous monster.

this matter is ‘to coin money, Inflation is a personal adversary
regulate the value thereof” —and to all individuals who attempt to
otherwise refrain from upsetting manage their affairs in a manner
the stability of the unit of ex- befitting citizens of a free Repub-
change. If the state will do this, lic. When the government arbi-

I will finish the job myself. trarily expands the supply of
} money and credit — through deficit
What Is Inflation? spending and pumping bonds into

Working on the assumption that the fractional-reserve banking
action is the best antidote for a system — the result is much the
severe blow, I set out at once to same as watering the soup when
re-examine my position regarding company “drops in” for dinner. In
inflation. The general facts are this case, however, the guest may
well-known, of course. Many re- be assumed to be unwelcome, and
member when a dollar, with fixed the host denied freedom of choice.
gold content, represented a fairly Irresponsible pressure groups
certain buying power. Many re- and those who advocate an all-
member, too, that when the gold powerful state have sustained
content of the dollar was cut al- themselves for quite some time by
most in half, it produced nearly watering the responsible citizen’s
double the number of dollars; but soup. These inflationists are sus-
each new dollar had only a frac- tained by the thin soup but their
tion of the old dollar's purchasing hunger is unappeased. To remedy
power. this, they propose to add more

Americans, in general, know water rather than invest in the
that “cheap money” is a monster means of production. This tends to
swallowing up the life savings, increase money income more rap-
pensions, and retirement insur- idly than real income; and the
ance of responsible citizens. Many soup grows thinner for everyone,
informative papers have been including those responsible citi-
written approaching this subject zens whose work and savings made
generally and showing the effect the product possible in the first
of inflation on a people, nation, or place.


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

26 THE FREEMAN August

When you examine inflation as eral public has failed to overcome
a personal enemy, able, and almost inflation in general. The implica-
certain, to take some part of your tions of the general problem are
life, many provocative questions too remote for most of us to
are sure to demand answers. Does grasp. I believe this incentive-
inflation happen, or is it planned? killing monster can and will be
If it is planned, are the planners controlled when individual citizens
superficial philanthropists who recognize the enemy for what it
honestly think this is good for the is and launch a personal counter-
economy; or do they seek to de- attack.
stroy the individual citizen by Concerning this counterattack:
killing incentive, and making if you are fed up (or perhaps un-
everyone a common ward of the derfed would be more appropri-
state? Regardless of how you an- ate) with watered soup as I am,
swer these questions, I think you zero hour is at hand. Henceforth:
will agree with me that the gen- Eternal vigilance! @®

THE SUCCESS of the European Economic Community is a classic
illustration of the benefits that flow to people when, under for-
ward-looking governments, markets are broadened, trade barriers
torn down, and enterprising people invited to capitalize upon
opportunity. Economies of international division of labor can be
realized, but only with the willingness of people to adjust them-
selves and find their best opportunities. We must avoid two
perils: of becoming so concerned over adjustments that the bene-
fits are lost; and of getting drawn into substituting government-
directed trade under quota systems for free market trade. Bur-
geoning bureaucracies are the impediment, not the means, to
progress in the free society.

From the April 1962 Monthly Letter
of the First National City Bank of New York


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

FISCAL
STIMULANT

iY §
or —DOCTORING THE_PRIVA
A

TE SECTOR,
No

When fireflies came out to dance H
And stars began to blink,

Old Kaspar shook his piggy bank ,
And settled down to think, pe

While Peterkin and Wilhelmine

Looked at the metaphoric screen.

They saw some men who went along
A residential street

And scattered dollars in the air
Like peasants sowing wheat,

While people ran from all around

To pick the dollars from the ground.

And as the sowers moved ahead,
The crowds got bigger yet,

As rumor spread the word around
Of dollars there to get,

And many workers left their jobs

To join the dollar-picking mobs.

“Now tell us what it’s all about!”
The little children cried.
“It’s called a Fiscal Stimulant,”
Old Kaspar soon replied.
“It shakes us out of sloth or slump
And makes the business index jump.”

“For curing slumps,” said Kaspar then,
“The Planners all agree

There’s nothing in this world to match
A dollar-spending spree.

It drives the wolf from every door / | >»

And makes demand for products soar.” oo

“It seems a very clever plan,” °
Breathed little Wilhelmine.

“One imperfection,” Kaspar sighed,
“May not have been foreseen.

The folks in dollar-picking mobs

Soon lose their zeal for finding jobs.”

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

27


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

ANY CAPABLE OBSERVER should be

able to see that there has been
INDIVI a gradual and mounting circum-
scription of liberty in America in

the twentieth century. It mani-
fests itself in the spreading ten-

tacles of government control and
regulation, in the concentration
of power in the federal govern-

ment, in government by Presiden-
= tial decree, in the unchecked rul-
lm the ings of independent commissions,
in the proliferating activities of
government agencies, in the vir-
tual confiscation of earnings by
means of the progressive income
tax, and by a diminishing control
of their property by owners.
Complaints about the increas-
of ing role of government in what
were once the private affairs of
citizens, about the attrition of in-
HISTORY dividual liberty and of family, lo-
cal, community, and state control
of affairs are met with a chorus
of replies which are larded with
such terms as ‘‘necessary,” ‘“inevi-
table,” “destined,” “realistic,” and

CLARENCE B. CARSON “practical.” Note, for example,

the tenor of this recent announce-

Dr. Carson is Associate Professor of History at
Jacksonville State College in Alabama. This is
the fourth of six articles in a series on Indi-
vidual Liberty in the Crucible of History. The
fifth one, “The Road to Collectivism,” appears
next month,

Illustration: Tower of Old North Church, Bos-
ton. A. Devaney, Inc., Now York.

4. A Collectivist Curvature of the Mind


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

1962 A COLLECTIVIST CURVATURE OF THE MIND 29

ment from the White House. “We major distortion of history. In
are going to have an urban de- fact, the turning to government
partment,” said John F. Kennedy. to solve every problem, the exten-
“It may not come this year, but sion of government regulation
in my opinion, it will become as and control, the provision of gov-
necessary and inevitable as the ernment aid, result from a bent
Department of Agriculture and of the American mind. Not only
HEW.”! Many writers and speak- did this curvature of the mind not
ers imply by their language that grow simply out of circumstances
the momentous changes of this but, on the contrary, it was im-
century have occurred as a result planted by theorists, novelists,
of ineluctable processes that were and assorted reformers. That
beyond the will and control of ideas derived from this curvature
man, that the centralization of of the mind now appear “natural”
government, for instance, was and “inevitable” is not particu-
born by immaculate conception larly strange; it is the recurrence
out of necessitous circumstances.2 of a phenomenon that has oc-
curred time and time again in
A Major Distortion history — the phenomenon of the
So far wide of the mark is this acceptance by those who do not
interpretation of the changes of analyze their beliefs of whatever
this century as products of cir- is established and usual as natu-
cumstances that it amounts to a ral and right.
_ There was a time not so very
1 Time, LXXIX (March 23, 1962), p.16. long ago, however, when those
the rst chapter of The New Age ideas imbedded in the muational
of Franklin Roosevelt 1932-1945 (Chi. consciousness by the New Na-
cago: University of Chicago Press, tionalism, the New Freedom, the
1957), Professor Dexter Perkins refers New Deal (s), and the Fair Deal
to “the mecessity for the regulation of .
their affairs by government,” “the need were new and untried, when they
for control,” a “point of view of the appeared as ridiculous to men of
problem of relief that was destined to be power and influence as any other
accepted,” a question that is “inevitably . .
ideas do now. This means nothing

complex,” “the need for relief appro-
priations,” and “justifiable to meet the more (nor less) than that the col-
needs of relief. ...” He argues, in the |outjyigt curvature of the mind

second chapter, “that the New Deal had
its roots in social circumstances and is has now become an orthodoxy. My

more wisely regarded as the reaction of point, however, is that those ideas

the Americans to the Great Depression hich hold A y
rather than as the accomplishment . . which now hold sway over Ameri-

of any individual.” (p. 71.) Italics mine. cans were spread by men. They


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

30 THE FREEMAN August

were formulated into theories by existing order with its individual-
writers and speakers, propagated istic orientation, Men like William
by reformers and politicians, Graham Sumner and Andrew
served as ideological ballast for Carnegie took such ideas as natu-
programs and movements, and are ral selection and survival of the
believed by many Americans be- fittest and described them as the
cause they were taught to them.? means by which social progress
was wrought out of individual ef-
How the Way Was Prepared fort. Sumner, as I have shown,
In earlier articles, I have at- used the ideas of gradual evolu-
tempted to explain how the way tion and the determining role of
was prepared for a new ethos in social custom and practice in hu-
America. The intellectual founda- man affairs as an argument
tions of liberty — belief in reason, against the possibility of reform.
freedom of the mind and will, But Sumner’s individualism was
natural law, and individual re- vitiated by determinism, his quest
sponsibility — were undermined by for freedom turned into the ex-
deterministic theories bolstered tolling of necessity, and the basic
by Darwinism, by an increasing ideas from which he had drawn
emphasis upon the role of the non- his defense became a springboard
rational in human behavior, and for the collectivistic interpreta-
by doctrines of force and neces- tions which abounded among
sity. Industrialization and mecha- thinkers in the late nineteenth
nization, accompanied by the rise century. In short, reform-minded
of the city, the influx of numerous thinkers worked out a justifica-
immigrants from Southern and tion for reform which they based
Eastern Europe, the concentra- on Darwinian evolution. Some his-
tion of wealth, and the growth of torians refer to such reform theo-
corporations and trusts posed new ries as reform Darwinism.t
problems for the livelihood and The collectivist ethos — viewed
independence of the individual. as a coherent philosophy — resulted
Darwinism provided the ideas from the mingling and mutation
for a new outlook. At first, Dar- of ideas drawn from many
winism was used to preserve the sources. It has become by now a
kind of “American” ideology.

3 It should be said, in justice, that Properly speaking, it is neither
there is a considerable body of scholarly ’
literature today analyzing the ideas of ————0
reform and showing how they came to 1 Eric TF. Goldman, Rendezvous with
inform Americans. But this has been ill Destiny (New York: Vintage Books,
taught thus far by historians at large. 1956), ch. V.


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

1962 A COLLECTIVIST CURVATURE OF THE MIND 31

socialism, nor communism, nor not a figment of my imagination,
capitalism, Its adherents prefer to permit me to quote from some of
call it democracy or, when they those who spread it. Lester Frank
are in a more descriptive frame of Ward, a pioneer American sociolo-
mind, social democracy. Thus far, gist and seminal social thinker,
the application of this ideology said:

in America has eventuated in the The individual has reigned long
creation of a partial welfare state. enough. The day has come for society
It supports a tendency toward to take its affairs into its own hands
some kind of national socialism and shape its own destinies.b

within a framework of interna- And again:

tional (excluding the communist But society must be looked upon in
sphere) socialism, and the United the light of a conscious individual. In
States is listing heavily in that ay a5 it is conscious and in pro-
direction at present. To trace this portion to the completeness of its con-
ideology back to its sources is to sciousness, it does not differ from an
expose the eclectic means by individual. No individual ever limits
which it was formed. But this his activities to the simple sphere of
should not mislead us as to its self-preservation. Every individual
present condition as a total ideol- is always seeking to benefit himself
ogy whose adherents now accept in every possible way. Society should

and propagate without doubt or do the same. . . . The extent to which
thought. it will do this will depend upon the

collective intelligence. This is to so-
ciety what brain power is to the in-

Society as an Organism
dividual... .6

The collectivist curvature of
the mind owes its bent most di-
rectly to the conception of society
as an organism. Briefly stated,
this is the view that society — far
from being merely a collection of
individuals — has a being of its
own. In the thought of collecti- Society is an organism, ever grow-
vists, society is “thingified,” has ing. History is the self-consciousness
a life and needs of its own, is the 5 “Sociocracy,” American Thought:
source of “human” being, and, Civil War to World War I, Perry Miller,
presumably, is the end for which ed. (New York: Rinehart, 1954), p. 113.
man exists. To show that the ex- | Lalics mine.

i i i 6 Lester F. Ward, Applied Sociology
istence of such a conception is (Boston: Ginn and Co., 1906), pp. 38-39.

Frederick Jackson Turner, who
attempted to explain American
history in terms of physical en-
vironment, and did spread the
idea of the end of the frontier,
declared:


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

32 THE FREEMAN August

of this organism. ...7 First we rec- ian in structure and in practice. So-
ognize why all the spheres of man’s ciety is a living organism and must
activity must be considered. Not only obey the laws of life. ...
is this the only way in which we can All that progressives ask or desire
get a complete view of the society, is permission — in an era when ‘“de-
but no one department of social life velopment,” “evolution,” is the scien-
can be understood in isolation from tific word — to interpret the Constitu-
the others. . . . Therefore, all kinds tion according to the Darwinian prin-
of history are essential . . . all are ciple; all they ask is recognition of
truly parts of society’s endeavor to the fact that a nation is a living
understand itself by understanding thing and not a machine.10
its past.B .
Derived from Darwinism
The central concept of the com-
plex of ideas which increasingly
dominates American thought,
then, is the organic conception of
The rude society resembles the gociety. It is the hard core of the
creatures that though cut into pieces jdeology which has informed the
will live; the highly civilized society twentieth century reform effort.
is like a highly organized animal... .? The organic conception was de-

Note, in the choice of language rived mainly from Darwinism, by
exercised by Woodrow Wilson, analogic extrapolation of ideas
how this conception had entered arrived at from the biological
into the stream of political data with which Darwin dealt. It
thought: has been variously envisioned and

The trouble with the theory [of a applied by different thinkers.
Constitution based on natural law Thus, to Theodore Roosevelt the
with checks and balances] is that gov- Social organism was the nation.
ernment is not a machine, but a liv- Attend to the revealing termi-
ing thing. It falls, not under the nology with which he spoke:
theory of the universe, but under the National efficiency has many fac-
theory of organic life. . . . Living po- tors. It is a necessary result of the
litical constitutions must be Darwin- principle of conservation widely ap-
"7 Fritz Stern (ed), “An American plied. In the end it will determine our
Definition of History,” The Varieties of failure or success as a mation. Na-
History, (Cleveland: World Publishing tional efficiency has to do, not only
Co., 1956), p. 203. 10 Woodrow Wilson, The New Freo-

8 Ibid., p. 201. Italics mine. dom, William E, Leuchtenburg, intro.

9 “Social Problems,” American and notes (Englewood Cliffs: Prentice-
Thought, p. 50. Hall, 1961), p. 42.

Henry George, the pace-setter
and pathfinder of reformers, be-
trays his organic conception of
society with these words:


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

1962 A COLLECTIVIST CURVATURE OF THE MIND 33

with natural resources and with men, in a world made one by science and
but it is equally concerned with insti- the atom, the old national boundaries
tutions. . . . It is a misfortune when are dissolving, the old landmarks van-
the national legislature fails to do ishing.... A workable human society
its duty in providing a national rem- has to be fashioned and we must start
edy, so that the only national activity where we can — by setting up the in-
is the purely negative activity of the stitutions of a common economic life,
judiciary... .1t by employing our wealth and wisdom
to spark the growth of production in

. . ye poorer lands, bg working together
1712
rights. This way of thinking with like-minded powers to establish

has entered into the writing and pe permanent patterns of a work-
speaking habits of Americans, gable world economy.13
and now we encounter casual ref-
erences to national resources, na- On the other hand, John Dewey,
tional income, national wealth, na- the philosophical catalyst who
tional purpose, national problems, wove together the many strains of
national vigor, and human re- reform thought into an ideology,
sources (of the nation). applied the organic conception to
Other thinkers broaden the or- ideas and ideologized democracy.
ganic conception so that it em- To Dewey —if I may quote my
braces all the peoples of the earth. own summation of his ideas —
Would-be-president Adlai Steven- ‘‘democracy is a political system,
son expresses such an extension an economic system, a social sys-
in this quotation: tem, and an educational system.
It is a criterion for judgments, a
should therefore be designed not pri- theor y of knowledge, a method, a
marily to counter communism — principle, an aim, an ideal, a
though it will do this too — but to thing in itself. It is a way of life,
create conditions of self-respect and a form of life, a form of associated
self-sustaining growth in economies living, a guide for living, a mat-
still behind the threshold of modern- ter of faith. It is equalitarian, hu-
ization. . . . I believe that this is the manistic, scientific, concerned
chief way to [sic] us to extend our with the needs and wants of man,
vision of “a more perfect union” to constantly changing and growing.
all mankind. It is a commonplace that It calls for a particular kind of

He refers elsewhere to “national

The purpose of our aid programs

11 Theodore Roosevelt. The New Na-
tionalism, William E. Leuchtenburg, in- 13 “Extend Our Vision... to all Man-
tro. and notes (Englewood Cliffs: Pren- kind,” The National Purpose (New
tice-Hall, 1961), pp. 35-36. Italics mine. York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston,

12 Ibid. p. 43. . 1960), pp. 32-33. Italics mine.


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

34 THE FREEMAN August

organization of society and a par- was especially the case as individ-
ticular orientation of all aspects ual liberty picked up overtones,
of the culture . . .,” and “there within the collectivistic ethos, of
is the nondescriptive usage ... — selfishness, acquisitiveness, and
democracy as an agreed-upon value narrowness. But, in the main, in-
which is to be realized in the so- dividual liberty was shunted aside,
ciety, an unquestioned good.”'* not overcome by direct assault.

The above ideas, too, are the basic Many another ideational twig
ones of the prevailing ideology. was grafted on to the ideological

tree of the organic conception of
Displacing the Idea of Liberty society before it bore collectivistic

It is not whim that prompts me fruits. The religion of humanity —
to give so much emphasis to the partly temporalized Christianity
organic conception of society and and mostly refurbished humanism
of ideas. For it is beliefs drawn — provided the moral fervor and
from these that have crowded out ethical imperatives to collectivism.
the belief in individual liberty. As one historian describes it, this
American thinkers did not so religion of humanity comprised
much disavow individual liberty the following views, among others.
(though they frequently con- Its root lies in universal human
demned individualism) as they nature; because of this common root,
accepted ideas which displaced historical religions are all one. . . .
and subordinated it to other be- Its moving power is faith in manasa
liefs. After all, once the mind has progressive being. Its objective is the
been curved to think in terms of perfection or complete development
such grandiose conceptions as na- °F Mam the race serving the indi
. . vidual, and the individual the race.
tional purpose, the fabric of so- Its tical k is to h .

; KX practical work is to humanize the
ciety, the unity of peoples, the world. . . 15
needs and desires of mankind, in-
dividual liberty can be, and has Environmentalism was grafted
been, made to appear pale and in- on to collectivism to serve as ex-
significant beside them. How in- planation of human behavior. But
commensurable are individual lib- this new ethos avoided absolute
erty and the “good of mankind” determinism. The claims of deter-
when they are portrayed as in minism were shaken for many
conflict with one another! This twentieth-century thinkers by the

14 Clarence B. Carson, “The Concept 15 Ralph H, Gabriel, The Course of

of Democracy and John Dewey,” Modern American Democratic Thought (New
Age (Spring 1960), p. 184. York: Ronald Press, 1956), p. 187.


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

1962 A COLLECTIVIST CURVATURE OF THE MIND 35

“radical’”’ freedom of William power... .”"16 Thus defined, liberty
James. It was radical because becomes a claim for effective
James not only denied that man’s power, and, since Americans were
behavior is determined by exter- entitled to liberty, it became a
nal forces, but also denied that claim upon government to pro-
there were any fixed and immu- vide the citizenry with power,

table laws in the universe. At any Many other ideas have found
rate, reformers turned to the mel- lodging in this collectivistic ide-
iorism of Lester Frank Ward, ology, though some of them are
who accepted the large role which not firmly fixed. The belief in sci-
society and environment play in ence and scientism is fairly deeply
human behavior, but argued that embedded in it. Sometimes class
men, acting collectively, could con- ideas are stronger than the or-

trol social development. ganic conception of society, and
some collectivists — those nearest

Undermining Faith to the Marxist tradition, usually
Collectivists used relativism to — find the depository of virtue to

undermine the prevailing certain- be not so much in the “common
ties. They deified the ‘common man” as the laboring man, or
man” and hypostatized, as I have simply “labor.” Strangely, too,
already shown, the democracy elitist ideas — though described in
through which he was supposed a different language — have found
to speak. They called for a posi- their way into this ideology. Thus,
tive role for government, which we find collectivists venerating
should act forcefully as the “arm” experts and joining in the call for
of society to achieve the aims of leaders. And, of course, social
the “people.” Thinkers redefined planning and human control ap-
rights so that they became “posi- pear to be firmly fixed in this
tive” rather than “negative” con- ethos, ag does equalitarianism.
cepts. For example, John Dewey

defined liberty as “power, effective Man-Made Ideas

power to do specific things. There In making my account of the
is no such thing as liberty in gen- curvature of the mind, thus far,
eral; liberty, so to speak, at I have tried to make clear that we
large. . . . The moment one ex- are dealing with ideas formulated
amines the question from the by men, not some magical trans-
standpoint of effective action, it TE——— Probl fu
becomes evident that the demand (yey Yorks Philosophical Library,
for liberty is a demand for 1946), p. 111.


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

36 THE FREEMAN August

formation thrust upon us by fate. Ward in the late nineteenth and
I want to go further and point early twentieth centuries. His
up the fact that the spread of central works were Psychic Fac-
these ideas and the impetus to re- tors in Civilization, Dynamic So-
form came from men and groups, ctology, Pure Sociology, and Ap-
not, as Professor Dexter Perkins plied Sociology. He opened the
gays of the New Deal, from “a so- way for reform, theoretically, by
cial process arising out of depres- arguing that a new stage in evolu-
sion, .. "17 tion had been reached, a stage in
In the first place, these reform which society could take over the
ideas were formulated and spread direction of its development by
by theorists. Henry George, a using “social intelligence.”
leader among these, published In this new stage, mind had
Progress and Poverty in 1879. It repealed “the law of nature, and
is estimated that by 1905 more enacted in its stead the psycho-
than two million copies had been logic law, or law of mind.”'? He
sold in the United States and else- advanced the notion that feelings
where. The cause of the evils in are the source of ideas. “The true
America, George declared, was the order of the phenomena is that
private appropriation of rent— the conditions arouse the feelings
the unearned increment from land. and the feelings create the ideas
His solution: take all rents by way or beliefs. These last are the final
of a single government tax, and form into which the whole is
the situation will right itself. crystallized in the human mind,
George’s specific proposal made no constituting the thought of the
long range impact, but his covert age and people in which they pre-
attack upon property, his declama- vail. . . .”? He redefined justice
tions against existing conditions, and equality. “The true definition
his proposals to use government of justice is that it is the enforce-
for social purposes, have left a ment by society of an artificial

deep mark. equality in social conditions that
are naturally unequal. By it the
The Reformers strong are forcibly shorn of their

The major reform ideas which power to exploit the weak.”:! The
were to go into the new ideology hedonistic strain in the new
received their early articulation in 19 Henry 8. Commager, The American

the writings of Lester Frank Mind (New Haven: Yale University
—_— Press, 1954), p. 206,

17 Perkins, op. cit., p. 80: 20 Ward, op. cit., p, 47.

18 Gabriel, op. cit., p. 212, a Ibid, p. 28.


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

1962 A COLLECTIVIST CURVATURE OF THE MIND 37

thought was made explicit: “The against Commonwealth (1894).
new ethics has for its aim the Daniel De Leon, American Marx-
minimization of pain and the ist and socialist leader, told an
maximization of pleasure.”’?2 audience in 1896:

Of Ward's influence, Commager Our system of production is in the
says: “He inspired a whole gener- nature of an orchestra. No one man,
ation of scholars and reformers no one town, no one state, can be
to believe that it was possible to said any longer to be independent of
remake society along happier the other; the whole people of the
lines, and a new generation that United States, every individual there-
did not know him worked with in, is dependent and interdependent
his tools and fought with hig Upon all the others. The nature of the
machinery of production; the subdi-

weapons.”’=3 .
ens vision of labor . .. compel the estab-
Thorstein Veblen worked to con- lishment of a Central Directing Au-

struct an evolutionary view of thority. . . .25

economics, an economics no longer .

“inhibited” by fixed laws. Justice Herbert Croly provided some of
Oliver Wendell Holmes. Jr. the theories of Theodore Roose-
wrenched the interpretation of velt's New Nationalism in The

constitutional law out of the path © romise of American Life (1909).

of its “subservience” to the Con- Utopian Novelists
stitution or to natural law, be-
labored his colleagues for making
decisions based upon their social
and economic assumptions, and
implied that judges should bow
to the will of the majority.2*
Henry Demarest Lloyd de-
nounced the depredations of pri-
"vate wealth and public corpora-

Against the sordid background,
as they described it, of ruthless
competition, unholy business con-
spiracy, the inequities of massed
wealth in the hands of a few and
the vast deprivation of the many,
utopian novelists etched into the
foreground the vision of a per-
¢ fect society for America, a so-
tions and held out the lure of jety ryled by brotherly love and
solution to the problems which governed by the ethics of social
beset America by collective effort justice. Perhaps the most influ-
in the influential book, Wealth ential of these was Edward
2 Ibid, p. 28. Bellamy’s Looking Backward, pub-

23 Commager, op. cit., p. 215, 25 Thomas G. Manning and David M.

24 See, for example, Holmes’ dissent- Potter (eds.), Government and the
ing opinion in Lochner v. New York Economy, rev. by E. David Cronon
(1905). (New York: Holt, 1960), p. 46.


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

38 THE FREEMAN August

lished in 1888. It sold hundreds of nipulations of businessmen in
thousands of copies in the next government in “The Treason of
few years.2¢ The good society, on the Senate.” “Ray Stannard Baker
his view, was one without private investigated the railroads; in
property, where all men served so- FEwverybody’s Thomas W. Lawton
ciety in a kind of industrial army bitterly attacked contemporary fi-
during the years from the age of nanciers; Charles Edward Russel
21 to 45, and in which power and investigated the beef trust and
force had given way to love and Judge Ben Lindsey existing
good will. There were other uto- abuses in criminal law. . .,”’*7 as
pian novels in these years for the magazines picked up mass circu-
discriminate searchers after lation by publishing these popu-
heaven on earth. William Morris lar exposés.

provided News from Nowhere, A related phenomenon was the
and William Dean Howells wrote muckraking novel, which may
A Visitor from Altruria. have had an even greater influ-

ence in conveying a picture of an
Muckrakers America desperately in need of

The way was prepared for change and reform. There was
utopia in the early twentieth cen- Upton Sinclair's The Jungle,
tury by writers called Muckrakers, Theodore Dreiser’s Sister Carrie,
who created a new genre of Frank Norris's The Octopus, Rob-
literature — the nonfiction semi- ert Herrick’s The Web of Life,
scholarly exposé. Ida Tarbell ex- and Jack London’s The Iron Heel.
posed the activities of John D. So effectively did muckrakers
Rockefeller in her two-volume mingle fact and fiction, reporting
History of the Standard Oil Com- and righteous indignation, open
pany, a work distinguished both description with covert prescrip-
for its scholarship and the right- tion that the historian who would
eous indignation of its author. disentangle the reality of these
Lincoln Steffens exposed corrup- years from the myth has a for-
tion in The Shame of the Cities. midable undertaking.

Jacob Riis wrote sentimentally, There were movements, too,
even maudlinly, of tenement life in which took up the cudgels for col-
How the Other Half Lives. David lectivism and helped to spread
Graham Phillips told of the ma- these ideas. Prominent among

26 Daniel Aaron, Men of Good Hope 27 Alfred Kazin, On Native Grounds
(New York: Oxford University Press, (New York: Doubleday Anchor, 1956),
1951), p. 102, p. 81.


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

1962 A COLLECTIVIST CURVATURE OF THE MIND 39

these was the Social Gospel move- Christianity to Christian social-
ment. Religion, which had long ism, that one had to take a trip
offered the most profound bases (in 1899), the only practicable
for individual liberty, was sub- means of traveling would be by
stantially changed as a result of train. But in traveling by train
this movement. Out of moral con- one would be involved in all of the
viction, out of concern for social evilswhich had gone into the mak-
and economic conditions, under ing of the railroads, maintaining
the influence of the theories of them, and operating trains upon
evolution and the sociological find- them. Herron’s words convey the
ings of the effect of environment fervor of his conviction about the
upon men, preachers and thinkers evil involved in participating in
formed their thought and started society’s corruption:

the movement.

Instead of being individualistic, The economic system denies the
this movement was sparked by right of the sincerest and most sym-
men who conceived of society as Pathetic to keep their hands out of
an organism.28 The life of an in- the blood of their brothers. We may
not go to our rest at night, or waken
to our work in the morning, without
bearing the burden of the communal
guilt; without being ourselves cre-
ators and cause of the wrongs we
seek to bear away.30

dividual, they held, is inextricably
bound up within this organic
unity. For this reason, individual
salvation is inadequate. Almost all
sin involves not only the sinner
but others as well, and it is point-
less, on this view, to attempt to The Social Gospel
deal with it as though it were an

individual matter.? Gospel believed that before in-

Furthermore, some thought, §iyiquals could be reached and
man sins frequently merely by helped, society itself must be
participating in the social order, changed. Besides their organic
a participation which he can (jew of society, these men be-
hardly avoid. Suppose, said George |jeved in the immanence of God,

D. Herron, who went from social and that the Kingdom of Heaven

28 Charles H. Hopkins, The Rise of the “2S to be realized upon earth. The
Social Gospel in American Protestant- regeneration of society was to be

ism (New Haven: Yale University Press, the first step in the realizati
1940), p. 125. p ton of

29 See Walter Rauschenbusch, A The- 30 George D. Herron, Between Caesar
ology for the Social Gospel (New York: and Jesus (New York: Thomas Y. Crow-
Macmillan, 1917), pp. 5-6, 20, 35-37. ell, 1899), pp. 24-25,

Many preachers of the Social


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

40 THE FREEMAN August

this Kingdom. In what amounted in a narrow sense, provided the
to a plan for the redemption of ideas for political movements
society, the church had three which made some impact upon
functions, according to one theo- American thought. The Socialist
retician: to present and embody Labor Party was organized in
a social ideal, to initiate agencies 1877, and ran its first presidential
and movements for the realization candidate in 1892. The party con-
of the ideal, and to supply the tinued to grow and despite a split
sacrificial service necessary for in its ranks, the main wing
the accomplishment of the mis- gained national following. From
sion. 3! 1901 to 1912 the Socialist Party
This plan of action did not in- in America grew rapidly in mem-
volve, for most of the men, the bership and became for a time an
prospect of violent revolution; important factor in presidential
they rather hoped to change so- elections.?** More important, how-
ciety by convincing men of the ever, than the immediate follow-
need for reform along ideal lines ing which the party had was the
planned with an intimate under- widespread dissemination of its
standing of the workings of so- ideas.
ciety. It was, in a sense, the appli-
cation of some ethical ideas drawn A Growing Organism
from Christian doctrines to re- Socialism was based upon the
form Darwinism. The full story of view that society is an organism
the impact of the Social Gospel in the process of development.
would have to be told in terms of This growing organism develops
the work of the social action com- according to laws differing from
mittees of many denominations, of but analogous to the growth of
the formation of national and in- the individual. Since to him the
ternational bodies to spread the well-being of all is more impor-
ideas, and of the innumerable tant than that of any individual,
sermons preached to thousands of the socialist believes “that the in-
congregations embracing the So- dividual should subordinate him-
cial Gospel under such church bul- self to society, maintaining that
letin titles as “Am I My Brother’s thus alone can the welfare of all

Keeper?” In this manner did col- be secured. .. .”3 Socialism is “a
lectivistic thought enter many of 32 Harry W. Laidler, Social-Economic
the churches. Movements (New York: Thomas Y.

fali ; Crowell, 1946), p. 688.
Socialism, both in a broad and 83 Richard T. Ely, Socialism (New

31 Hopkins, op. cit., pp. 137-38. York: Thomas Y, Crowell, 1894), p. 3.


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

1962 A COLLECTIVIST CURVATURE OF THE MIND 41

principle which regulates social tation of history, the “principles”
and economic life according to the of political science, and the ‘“certi-
needs of society as a whole... .”3% tudes” of economics. Anyone who
In its narrower and more precise has been through any one of the
meaning, socialism is the idea that majority of American colleges and
the economy must be reorganized; universities in the last thirty
private property must be abolished years should have some inkling
so far as it is a significant instru- of how much a part of “educa-
ment of production; productive tion” this curvature of the mind
property must be collectively has become.

owned and managed; distribution Enough has been said, how-
must be carried out according to ever, to show clearly that the ven-
a plan based upon need.?" tures in collectivism in this cen-

tury have not been simply the re-

Any complete story of how col- sult of a social process rooted in
lectivistic ideas were propagated social circumstances. The installa-
by groups should call attention to tion of collectivistic practices fol-
the activities of certain unions, to lowed upon the creation of a col-
the Progressive Movement, to the lectivist curvature of the mind.
Populist Movement, and to the Some circumstances lent plausi-
New Deal. Nor should I neglect an bility to collectivist ideas. For
account of how, in the course of example, railroads that linked
time, the halls of the academy towns throughout the country
echoed the sentiments of Richard and industries with a nationwide
T. Ely, Lester F. Ward, John market may have given a sem-
Dewey, Frederick J. Turner, blance of credibility to such no-
Walter Lippmann, Thorstein Veb- tions as national income, national
len, et al., as teachers and profes- problems, and national health,
sors presented collectivistic ideas But it was men who developed the
that had become embedded in the ideas, spread them in literature
theories of sociology, the interpre- and by movements, interpreted
To 15d 5. the meaning of circumstances,
35 See “Socialism: Principles and Out- and seized the opportunities . to
look,” Encyclopaedia Britannica, XX translate a curvature of the mind
(1955 edition), p. 887. into a direction for a people.


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

ve eer rane ey

The following excerpt from Buckle’s History of Civilization |
in England (1857) refers to the tendency toward centrali-

zation of government in France, which began in the four- |
teenth century, was pushed further by Louis XIV in the |
seventeenth and by Napoleon in the nineteenth. It reminds

| us in the twentieth century that those who will not learn
from history are condemned to repeat it. {

Monopoly of the Worst Vind

HENRY THOMAS BUCKLE

IN FRANCE everything is referred
to one common center in which all
civil functions are absorbed. All
improvements of any importance,
all schemes for bettering even the
material condition of the people,
must receive the sanction of gov-
ernment, the local authorities not
being considered equal to such
arduous tasks. In order that in-
ferior magistrates may not abuse
their power, no power is conferred
upon them. The exercise of inde-
pendent jurisdiction is almost un-
known. Everything that is done
must be done at headquarters.
The government is believed to see
everything, know everything, and
provide for everything.

To enforce this monstrous mo-

42

nopoly there has been contrived a
machinery well worthy of the de-
sign. The entire country is cov-
ered by an immense array of offi-
cials who, in the regularity of
their hierarchy and in the order
of their descending series, form
an admirable emblem of that feu-
dal principle which, ceasing to
be territorial, has now become
personal, In fact, the whole busi-
ness of the state is conducted on
the supposition that no man either
knows his own interest or is fit
to take care of himself.

So paternal are the feelings of
government, so eager for the wel-
fare of its subjects that it has
drawn within its jurisdiction the
most rare as well as the most or-


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

1962 A MONOPOLY OF THE WORST KIND 43

dinary actions of life. In order of masters or parents. And the
that the French may not make whole plan is executed with such
imprudent wills, it has limited the energy that, as the French while
right of bequest; and, for fear men are never let alone, just so
that they should bequeath their while children they are never left
property wrongly, it prevents alone.
them from bequeathing the At the same time, it being rea-
greater part of it at all. In order sonably supposed that adults thus
that society may be protected by kept in pupilage cannot be proper
its police, it has directed that no judges of their own food, the gov-
one shall travel without a pass- ernment has provided for this
port. And when men are actually also. Its prying eye follows the
traveling, they are met at every butcher to the shambles, and the
turn by the same interfering baker to the oven. By its paternal
spirit, which, under pretense of hand, meat is examined lest it
protecting their persons, shackles should be . bad, and bread is
their liberty. . . . weighed lest it should be light.
The people, even in their ordi- In short, without multiplying
nary amusements, are watched instances with which most readers
and carefully superintended. Lest must be familiar, it is enough to
they should harm each other by say that in France, as in every
some sudden indiscretion, precau- country where the protective prin-
tions are taken similar to those ciple is active, the government
with which a father might sur- has established a monopoly of the
round his children. In their fairs, worst kind, a monopoly which
at their theaters, their concerts, comes home tc the business and
and their other places of public bosoms of men, follows them in
resort, there are always present their daily avocations, troubles
soldiers, who are sent to see that them with its petty, meddling
no mischief is done, that there is spirit, and, what is worse than all,
no unnecessary crowding, that no diminishes their responsibility to
one uses harsh language, that no themselves, thus depriving them
one quarrels with his neighbor. of what is the only real education
Nor does the vigilance of govern- that most minds receive — the con-
ment stop there. Even the educa- stant necessity of providing for
tion of children is brought under future contingencies, and the
the control of the state, instead of habit of grappling with the diffi-
being regulated by the judgment culties of life. @®


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

AND THE MODERN AMERICAN HOUSEWIFE

FRANCES WEST BROWN

I SHALL NEVER be rid of Henry. ence; but I soon found him pop-
He has become a part of me, an ping up quite frequently at very
important living part that I strange moments in very strange
should never want to lose. places.

I first met Henry in a college One day I went into a college
literature class. The professor shop to purchase some slacks, a
was a terrible bore, his lectures pair of good, comfortable, baggy,
ill-prepared, his assignments long long-legged, wool slacks. The clerk
and often dull. One week he as- brought out for my inspection a
signed us Thoreau’s Walden. variety of colors in my size as
Thinking of it as only another well as numerous shirts and
time waster, I picked up a copy sweaters to match. I selected a
at the library, planning to race pair of the style I desired and
through it in one evening. I soon went to the dressing room. Un-
found that to be impossible. fortunately, the legs were tapered

Walden took some time and con- in such a way as to squeeze my
centration. I can’t say that I was calves and the length stopped
then enthralled nor did I imme- two inches above my ankles.

diately recognize its value to me. “Do you have some without the

But, I met Henry. tapered legs and with a little
I really didn’t realize that we more length?”

had met, so subtle was his influ- “Oh, but this is the way they

EE S— wear them now.”
Mrs. Brown is a Texas housewife, a free-lance . :
writer, and n high school teocher of English, I stood there silently, but a line

44


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

1962 THOREAU AND THE MODERN AMERICAN HQUSEWIFE 45

from Walden kept racing through What is this spending of the
my head: What authority have best part of one’s life earning
they in an affair which affects me money in order to enjoy a ques-

so nearly? tionable liberty?

“I refuse to be dictated to by I noted the scorn in his voice
the fashion-monger,” I said deter- as he ended by saying: as if you
minedly. could kill time without injuring

“I beg your pardon,” the clerk eternity.
stared at me. I quit my job the next day. I

Although the voice was mine, decided to do exactly what I
the thoughts were Henry's, and I wished to do. I took a poorer paid
didn’t know exactly how to ex- job as a low-low junior reporter
plain his mysterious presence. on a small paper, but I loved the

“Oh, nothing,” I said, “I'll not work and the occasional by-line.
take the slacks. Those are not At the end of the next year I was
what I want.” planning to be wed to another

I rushed out of the store, but I junior reporter. All thoughts of
heard Henry, before he disap- Europe were out of my head, and
peared, laughing and saying: I was, of all people, most happy.
Every generation laughs at the
old fashions, but follows religious- The Simple Life
ly the new. In those years of early mar-

I left college and took a job to riage the funds were often low. I
save every penny for a trip to was thankful for Henry’s visits;
Europe. I did not want a go-now- he always whispered encourage-
pay-later three weeks flying tour. ment to me,

I wanted to spend some time in My greatest skill has been to
Europe and really get the flavor want but little.

of the countries. I thought that by All men want, not something to
using the strictest economy I do with, but something to do, or
could in three years save enough rather something to be.

to quit my job and spend three to I wished to live deliberately,

six months abroad. and not when I came to die, dis-
I hated my job and the time cover that I had not lived.

dragged on. Before the first year Simplicity, simplicity, simplic-

was over I was disgusted. One ty!

evening when I walked into my Simplify, simplify.

apartment, there was Henry. We On one occasion my husband

had quite a discussion. and I were invited to attend a


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

46 THE FREEMAN August

very important dinner in the city. A civilized country, where - -- -,
I wanted so desperately a new he roared his warm laughter at
outfit that John consented to take me, where people are judged of by
the necessary amount from his their clothes,
going - into - business - for - my- I wanted to tell him to hush,
self fund. I went shopping and but he had always been so wise,
found the perfect garment. I was so helpful to me, I decided I would
just about to have the clerk put not endanger his friendship.
it into a box for me when Henry At home I shortened my old
appeared: suit and cut the sleeves from the
The cost of a thing is the blouse. In a day’s work I had a
amount of what I will call Life modern suit I was proud to wear.

which is required to be exchanged That evening John asked, “Did

for it, immediately or in the long you find a suit, hon?”

TUN. “I surely did. I found a beauti-
I stopped and stared at the out- ful, perfect suit.”

fit. IT would rather he had not “How much?” he asked, with

appeared at this time. He kept fear in his generous voice.

talking: “Oh, I decided it cost too much
No man ever stood the lower in Life. I didn’t buy it.”

my estimation for having a patch “What!”

in his clothes; yet I am sure that That night I showed him my

there is greater anxiety, com- creation. He was very compli-
monly, to have fashionable clothes mentary and proud. I also intro-
than to have a sound comscience. duced him to Henry. I thought

“Are you well, madam?” two gentlemen who could so easily
“Oh, yes, quite well. Henry just find agreement should meet. John
told me not to buy the suit.” had heard of Henry but had
“Henry?” never ventured to become well-

“I just decided it was not wise acquainted.
for me to buy the suit.”

“Oh --=-=----- could I show
you something else?” Henry put ideas into John’s

“No------- , I paused. “Yes, head as he often did into mine.
can you tell me where to find the Only a few months later John de-
sewing notions?” cided that one can’t kill time with-

I bought two fifteen-cent pack- out injuring eternity, and he
ages of scam binding and left the launched his own paper in an-
store. But I had not lost Henry. other small town.

Being One’s Own Boss


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

1962 THOREAU AND THE MODERN AMERICAN HQUSEWIFE 47

Our two sons arrived, and the be dusted daily, when the furni-
paper’s expenses were terrific. It ture of my mind was all undusted
seemed that financially we were still, and I threw them out the
going under. We decided that I window in disgust.

should hire someone to keep the We spend more on almost any
boys and go back to work. That article of bodily aliment or ail-
night Henry came: ment than on our mental altment.

The mass of men lead lives of How many a man has dated a

quiet desperation. What is called new era in his life from the read-
resignation is confirmed despera- ing of a book!

tion. But it is a characteristic of

wisdom not to do desperate Thinking for Oneself

things. When the time came for my
Then he began to say over and tour-of-duty in P.T.A., I was, at
over again: first, quite eager to do my service

The cost of a thing is the to the improvement of the schools
amount of what I will call Life and of my abilities as a parent.
which ts required to be exchanged However, I soon became disgusted
for it, immediately or in the long with the lack of action on the part
run. of the organization. I sat quietly

The next day we decided to back and let the others lead the
ask for a loan to keep the paper group into a chaos of utter use-
going another year and to keep lessness. I took it calmly until at
me home with my boys. one meeting it was proposed to

Those years when the boys were budget $150 to purchase an elabo-
little and I was tied so closely to rate silver service for the socials
home became rather discouraging which followed the business meet-
to me. I grew very tired of dust- ing and programs. This proposal
ing, sweeping, washing, ironing, burned my natural instinct toward
and cooking over and over and economy.
over. When my despair became Our school library was only half
unbearable, I ran to fetch Walden. finished — chairs, tables, and, more
Sure enough, Henry had the an- importantly, more books were all

swer for me: sadly needed. The age of audio-
You are the slave-driver of visual education was here, but our
yourself. school owned only one movie pro-

Once I had three pieces of lime- jector — no television, no tape re-
stone on my desk, but I was ter- corder, no slide projector, no rec-
rified to find that they required to ord player. How could these moth-


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

48 THE FREEMAN August

ers even think of a silver service John to buy a new house. I found
for their social hour! I knew quite a new one that fit our needs if not
well that they used glass cups or our pocket book. I figured with a
sometimes even paper ones at realtor on how much trade-in our
home, but I sat quietly. house would bring and how much
That is — until Henry sat him- we would be obligated per month
self beside me and started bruis- to live in the new house. The
ing my conscience with his words: total cost was of little signifi-
No doubt another may also cance.
think for me; but it is not there- Henry jumped up with his
fore desirable that he should do usual the-cost-of-a-thing-is-Life
so to the exclusion of my thinking remark, but I did not listen. I told
for myself. him to vanish as this was too im-
I jumped to my feet and brave- portant to the boys for me to be
ly led the opposition to defeat the concerned about spending my Life
measure, For the next few years to pay for it.
I found myself guiding the P.T.A. I had things well-arranged. I
into a worth-while position, its fixed John’s favorite supper and
original purpose of providing did it so inconspicuously that he
service to the school through com- didn’t even notice the trap.
munity effort. I told him the plans, and he was
seriously interested. He always
wanted that which pleased me and
Our little two-bedroom house provided the best for his boys.
which had been perfect for the That night I couldn't sleep.
boy’s elementary school days sud- Henry wouldn’t let me rest:
denly seemed to become wholly in- I would rather sit on a pump-
adequate. Several of our friends kin and have it all to myself than
had bought new, larger homes, to be crowded on a velvet cushion.
and the urge to do likewise That didn’t make sense. What
burned within me. And the boys did he mean?
were rather large to share such a Public opinion is a weak tyrant
tiny room. And our kitchen had compared with our own private
no built-ins. And we didn’t have opinion. What a man thinks of
central heating. And we could use himself, that is which determines,
a two-car garage, one side for the or rather indicates, his fate.
car, the other for storage. I could He would not leave me alone. I
think of so many valid reasons. got out of bed to keep from dis-
I set forth a plan to convince turbing John. In the cold living

We Pay with Our Lives


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

1962 THOREAU AND THE MODERN AMERICAN HOUSEWIFE 49

room my thoughts began to come above the garage that served as a
more clearly. family room and as extra storage.
The boys had never once talked It was easily paid for with so
about moving. They sometimes little Life that we hardly missed
complained about the lack of closet it.
space for certain things, but they
didn’t seem unhappy with the Vocational Guidance
house. Oh, those school years passed
It was I who wanted to move. much too rapidly. It seemed as if
Really, I didn’t mind the size of the boys were ready for college
our house too much. I really didn’t when they should have only been
mind that my stove sat out of my leaving junior high school, and my
cabinet or that the house had a plans for them were just not
floor furnace and heaters scat- working out.
tered about, rather than one cen- John and I were in perfect dis-
tral unit for heating. It was just agreement about the future of the
that the Davidsons, the Kellers, elder of the boys. Bob had made
and the Rices had new houses, and up his own mind that he wanted
I knew that John’s income was to enter the newspaper business
equal to any of theirs. I didn’t with John, We were all pleased
want us to seem to be poor man- about that. I wanted him to go
agers, I wanted to look successful to a good liberal arts college and
to the world. But was public opin- prepare himself. John argued that
ion worth the debt it would Bob could better learn the trade

create? by working in the trade.
Henry patiently repeated his I came in one evening to find
words: John reading Walden. I was sure

Public opinion is a weak tyrant that I had won the argument; for
compared with our own private a man of Thoreau’s intellect would
opinion. surely favor a decision for one to

My decision was made. I slept send his son to college before
the remainder of the night so well learning his trade. I was mistaken.
that John had to shake me awake Henry and John collaborated, and

the next morning. I came down in defeat.

He said that he could almost tell Henry’s argument was this:
by the expression on my face that If I wished a boy to know some-
Henry had been there and the thing about the arts and sciences,
wisest decision had been made. for instance, I would not pursue

That summer we added a room the common course, which 1s


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

50 THE FREEMAN August

merely to send him into the neigh- or a rancher. Jack had maintained
borhood of some professor, where extra high grades in school with
anything is professed and prac- really little effort. Before gradu-
ticed but the art of life; to survey ation he was offered a scholarship
the world through a telescope or to Tulane.

a microscope, and never with his John and I were very proud,
natural eye; to study chemistry, thinking of the credit to us to
and not learn how his bread is have a son at Tulane and to have
made, or mechanics and not learn a medical doctor in the family.
how it is earned; to discover new Only a few days later we were
satellites to Neptune, and not de- absolutely appalled when Jack an-
tect the motes in his eyes, or to nounced that he had decided to
what vagabond he is a satellite refuse the scholarship. He wanted
himself; or to be devoured by the to go to Oklahoma State Uni-
monsters that swarm all around versity to study veterinary medi-
him, while contemplating the mon- cine. He had never really wanted
sters in a drop of vinegar. to be an M.D.

Bob finished high school and I am sure I would have burst
started immediately working at into tears had not Henry once
the newspaper office—not as a again saved me from an act of
manager, but as a route boy, a desperation!
copy boy, an assistant typesetter, I would have each one be very
and on a few occasions when no careful to find out and pursue his
one else was available as a low- own way, and not his father’s or
low junior reporter. He learned hits mother’s or his neighbor's in-
his trade well. stead.

A few years ago he came home It was soon easy to see that for
to announce that he had decided Jack his own way was best.
that one can’t kill time without in-
juring eternity. He had heard A Worthy Bequest
John say it many times. He and Life has been good to John and
his wife were taking their little me. We were sitting last evening
girls and were starting a news- recalling our life and its decisions.
paper, a weekly, in a nearby town. “I only regret that we have so

Jack never had an interest in little to leave the boys,” I men-
newspapers, All of the salesman- tioned.
ship of both John and me could “Of course, there is the house
never convince him to follow our and the paper.”
trade. He wanted to be a doctor “Oh, but that is not a memorial


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

1962 THOREAU AND THE MODERN AMERICAN HQUSEWIFE 51

from us to them. The house will Then he vanished, and somehow I
only sell for a little, and the news- feel that he'll not need to come
paper will only bring a living, not back. Since our first meeting his

ever wealth.” influence has never been gone, nor
At that, Henry leaped into our would it ever leave my life,
midst: Today I went to town and

Nations are possessed with an bought two copies of Walden, and
insane ambition to perpetuate the I mailed one to each of the boys,
memory of themselves by the enclosing this note:

mount a . hey .

amount of h mmered stone they I would like for you to become
leave. What if equal pains were . .

tal ; ] d voli hein better acquainted with my dear
aken 0 smooth an polish thet friend, Henry David Thoreau. The
manners? One piece of good sense reading of this book started a new
would be more memorable than a ery in my life; it helped me to con-
monument as high as the moon. I sider my values before I acted. I hope
love better to see stomes left in it can bring to you some of the hap-

place. piness it has brought to me.
He didn't repeat his remark, With love,
but he said it with great finality. Mother

IDEAS ON LIBERTY An Interesting Question

THE SOCIALIST does not trust in the goodness of humanity. He is
convinced that the hungry will not be fed, the naked clothed, the
aged cared for, the sick visited, unless the power of the state
intervenes to confiscate from society the means necessary for the
state to attend to these needy. But this poses an interesting
question. If the vast majority in our society really share this
powerful urge to help the needy, why do they fear for the fate
of charity if left to the voluntary care of the people? It is a
well-known fact that there is little or no administrative cost in
the sort of family or neighborhood charity for which America
was famous, whereas there is great administrative cost in the
compulsory redistribution of wealth by government agencies. So
what is there to lose in allowing the people to follow their avowed
inclinations without recourse to the power of the state?

GLENN L. PEARSON, College of Religion,
Brigham Young University


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

D. M. WESTERHOLM

EVER FACE the allowance problem We had observed this process
in your family? My guess is that with great interest in many a
if you have a child over the age of friend's home, and pondered upon
three, you have. They may not it during our own offsprings’
score an ‘A’ in arithmetic on Pablum days. We did not wish
their report cards, but when it them to grow up thinking that life
comes to putting the bite on Dad owed them an allowance. Life, in
they can become veritable whiz- general adult terms, might not
kids! Naturally, they do not consider their demands as cute
achieve this amazing degree of and cunning as admiring parents
proficiency immediately — this type had!
of polished performance takes Three firm basic tenets evolved
time and practice and opportunity. during the time spent shoveling
Somewhere along the way the the strained comestibles down
parent has allowed his moppet to greedy little gullets: 1. They
evolve the belief that a certain would understand what money is.
stipend, payable regularly in cool 2. They would understand that it
coin of the realm, is one of his was a product of labor. 3. They
inherent and Constitutional rights. would further understand that
All too often the principle of labor was not only necessary but
earned right, as opposed to inher- honorable. That's all. But we
ent right, is simply left out of the hoped to effect this understanding
reasoning. without tears, turmoil, or rebel-
—_— lion from the troops. We hoped,
Mrs. Westerholm is o Registered Nurse, house- further, that it would be accepted

wife, and student of liberty of Inglewood, Cal- .
ifornin. ¢ with respect and not resentment

52


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

1962 MOPPETS AND MONEY 53

— for we had no desire to produce the “Treasure Chest” in the freez-
a brood of future Scrooges. er, with proper motherly magic.

We were well aware that this After seating my now toothsomely
would take a bit of doing, As the smeared son on a kitchen stool and
years passed, we would be dealing draping him like an Arabian Shah,
with pretty sensitive tissue, so I started the lesson by conversa-
our efforts had to be both direct tionally reminding him in simple
and prophylactic. Our earnest aim words just where and how his
was to help them learn to become father was employed. I told him
effective, responsible, and happy that in return for Daddy’s work

citizens. he was paid a certain amount of
} money, and I explained how this
Where Nickels Come From money was spent. We spoke of the

Inevitably, the day arrived when fairly familiar expenses of run-
the first of the children became ning the household, such as food,
old enough to join the herd racing mortgage, utilities, church tith-
madly after the Good Humor Man, ing, doctor and dentist, and buy-
and to learn that money was the ing clothes. I also told him about
source of all Milk-Nickles. For the his own savings account — a fact
first time he galloped into the which pleased him so much I could
house screeching, “Gimme a nickle, just see the translation of all those

Mom!” nickles into piles of Good Humor
And it seemed that the time had products!
come for the first specific lesson I went on to point out that we

in regard to money. Since “The all did our part to share in the
Cat” was barely five at the time, I labor which produced Daddy’s sal-
asked my question as gently as ary—1 with my housework and
possible. “But where do nickles gardening, etc., and he with his
come from, son?” help, too. He helped to keep his

As gentle as it was, the thought room neat (reasonably!), and he
of that delectable treat rolling in- watered, pulled weeds, amused the
exorably, if musically, away down baby, and he set and cleared the
the street made that question al- dinner table. So, he too was quite
most more than five-year-old flesh definitely and honorably laboring
could bear. “From Daddy!” he in the family interest, at his own
wailed. “Now can I have the age level. Until now his “wages”
nickle 7” had consisted of indirect payments

Instead of answering, I quickly of toys, books, trips, additional
produced an ice-cream bar from clothing, church offerings, and the


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

54 THE FREEMAN August

modest sums deposited regularly positive and pleasant results; and
in his savings account. that he would have some control
(We did not consider food, shel- over the manner in which these
ter, medical care, or basic cloth- results were obtained. Most im-
ing to be commodities he should portant, that this was actively
earn. These we did consider were earned right, and not inherent,
his simply by right of his age. passive entitlement.
Nor did we think every small help- Time enough later to speak of
ful act about the house called for the intangible wages such as per-
a payment — there should, we felt, sonal satisfaction, inspiration, and
be sensible balance established self-realization. These were prod-

here.) ucts which demanded consider-
- oo ably more than a five-year-old’s
Shifting Responsibility maturity and experience to com-

Since he now had found that prehend. Right now, material ob-
money could buy items which he jectivity seemed the best teacher.
individually desired, we would en- You may think that even with-
trust him with a portion of his out the above-mentioned intan-
“wages” in direct cash, in ratio to gibles the plain correlation of labor
his extra chores. This would com- and profit alone was quite a large
mence, however, only when he had idea for a child so young to grasp
a little better comprehension of in less than one hour’s chat. True
what money actually is, and would —if that had been all a totally new
continue for as long as he used idea to him; but we had been
this money with reasonable wis- teaching him indirectly for much
dom and honesty. We on our part longer than this... as all parents
would offer as much assistance do. By our own parental example
and advice as he wished, and would of working cheerfully and happily,
periodically review his needs with he had learned far more than he
him, in a continuing attempt to consciously realized. Qur son had
make equitable adjustments. We night by night seen his father
would start the next day to learn come home from a job which quite
more about money, and what it openly was a challenge and a sat-
really is. isfaction, as well as a means of

Not once was the word ‘“allow- earning a livelihood. He had heard
ance” used. The idea was to im- the expression, and seen the re-
press the thought that labor was sults, of ‘salary increases.” He
a positive and usually pleasant ac- had day by day watched his
tivity which brought about certain mother doing her tasks with quiet


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

1962 MOPPETS AND MONEY 55

but obvious pleasure. He had of- We did not expect him in one day
ten heard them both discuss money to comprehend fully in detail all
matters and come to amicable de- that he would see, but he could fol-
cisions. low the continuity of the idea of
Now, all of this is not to say the displays — especially with the
that he had never seen his father explanations he would simultane-
return home disgruntled or dis- ously receive. Rather like a young-
couraged, that he never saw his ster following a long Disney story,
mother when she was less than de- these progressing visual pano-
lighted at the early morning pros- ramas should be much more com-
pect of a sink full of dishes and prehensible and interest-holding
five unmade beds! He did see them than words alone.
so — this, too, is part of life — but The Cat was awed and thrilled
he saw it as the exception and not by the beautifully executed pano-
the rule. He saw them overcome ramas of early man’s habitat. The
it and not be overcome by it. saber-toothed tiger in the back-
“Love ye one another” is not only ground, and animal skin clothing
an ideal theological command, itis of the family in the foreground;
also ideal advice for daily living. the cave dwelling, the stone and
And so he had learned, and read- wood tools and weapons, were all
ied himself for the next lesson; a fascinating introduction to the
which was, of course, the handling accompanying quietly worded com-

of money himself. mentary on very basic elementary
The following day arrived on economics.
the usual wave-crest of tooth- He could actually see the hunt-

paste, eggs, corny gags, and sleepy ers procuring meat and fish, the
greetings, and an added note of herders guarding their undomesti-
excitement; for “The Cat” (my cated flocks, the first agronomists
son’s nickname) and I were going harvesting their tiny fields of na-

adventuring! tive vegetation, the women pre-
} paring the food and clothing, the
The Museum of Natural History early artists at work on the cave

Our first stop was the Museum walls, the children playing and
of Natural History. This was the working at various chores, and
quickest and clearest method we the elders performing less ardu-
had been able to decide on as an ous tasks. He could compare yes-
aid to the first introductory ex- terday with today quite vividly;
planation of the history of barter, could not only see the contrasts
exchange, and eventual commerce. but also the basic similarities.


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

b6 THE FREEMAN August

As we progressed from frame to followed the game herds and the
frame he saw the family unit ex- more stationary tribes who tilled
pand to the tribal group, then the the soil, and fished and hunted in
first suspicious intertribal com- season — carefully preserving the
munication, followed by tentative surplus foods for the barren days
first “markets” of barter and ex- of North American winter. We
change. He saw fish traded for watched the scavenger tribes who
furs, and protection traded for simply raided the villages and took
shelter — value for value. what they were too lazy or

Going further ahead up the haughty to work for. We were
time path, he observed the first shown fine intricately designed
money symbols used, such as tiny and wrought belts of wampum,
shells, animal teeth, dried red used as money; as well as the less
beans, and eagle feathers — all ex- palatable scalps and animal claws
changeable for real value such as and teeth.
food, clothing, shelter, or even a We watched the Pilgrims land
mate. And rates of exchange es- and briefly traced their early
tablished quite directly and heartbreaking years as colony
promptly, in a no-nonsense man- after colony was established. The
ner by skillful use of a club or Revolution and the final establish-
spear! Now here was progress a ment of the central government,
young man of five winters could and the remarkable documents
follow and understand even more which accompanied it were not
readily than could an adult. After mere words; they were seen as
all, he was still convinced of the real events occurring to real peo-
priceless value of a red “glassie” ple —and these pictorial impres-
marble and a pair of dried frogs sions would later help to make the
— and still young enough to view words real, too.

the law of the fang and claw with We saw a national coinage and
a certain wistfulness! currency established (our form of

wampum!), and studied pictures
Early America of early smelting and minting, and

We blinked owl-eyed into the of the first Treasury vault at Phil-
sunlight and then on to the Amer- adelphia (later removed to the new
ican history section, where we once Capitol at Washington), and ac-
more followed the cool, dimmed tual coins of silver, gold, and cop-
paths of forest and glen in pur- per. We also saw gold certificates;
suit of duck and deer and fish. and T nearly lost rapport here. It
We saw the wandering tribes who was not at all easy for a youngster


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

1962 MOPPETS AND MONEY 57

to really comprehend the double at least the rudimentary under-
symbology of a piece of paper rep- standing that he was in an indi-
resenting a specified amount of rect manner paying the farmer
stored gold, which was itself mere- who had produced the food. He un-
ly representative of real value. derstood further that the money,
Material facts helped again here, with which he paid, was a symbol
however, as we sat down and fig- of the mnonedible fruits of his
ured out just how much two or father’s labor.
three thousand dollars in our gold This background which we had
“wampum” would weigh —and seen so dramatically displayed at
how obviously bulky and unhandy the Museum was, of course, a
it would be. sketchy and very incomplete ex-
planation of the complicated sci-
ence of economics; but it appeared
Well, by now he seemed to have adequate for basic introductory
the idea pretty well in hand that understanding. He had a few solid
money was simply a convenient planks to use as a platform for
medium of exchange, representing more complete eventual compre-
actual goods or labor, and used as hension. A five-year-old child na-
a nonperishable, accruable symbol. turally could not be expected even
It could be received in place of to begin yet to grasp the actual
perishable or inconvenient ex- intricacies of a monetary system
change items, to be used when and which has baffled many adults.
as the receiver personally chose. He had seen pictures of Wash-
(Although he would not have used ington and Hamilton and Jeffer-
these exact words for his own ex- son, and understood that they
planation.) were men great in wisdom and
Feeling that more than enough service to our country, but obvi-
had been given for one bout of ously not precisely what these
mental digestion, we adjourned to services were. Much later, in
a nearby restaurant for some food school, he would study Hamilton's
of a more physical nature. It was financial theories, and trace out
not only a tasty meal; it proved to the amazing story of the establish-
be an excellent way of summariz- ment of our international credit
ing the morning’s lesson. We were reputation during the first forma-
partaking of actual “fruits of la- tive months of the Union. He
bor”; and when at the end of the would follow the organization of
meal, The Cat was allowed to the First Bank of the United
proudly pay the bill, he did so with States and the employment of the

Time To Digest It


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

58 THE FREEMAN August

first customs tariffs and tonnage mingled thoughts of saber-toothed
duties. I hoped to see him one day tigers, and treasure vaults, piles
grasp the significance of the dif- of pennies, and Indian Chiefs —~
fering philosophies of Hamilton all to be sorted out and digested
and Jefferson which became so ap- piece by piece in the days to come.
parent at this time —because He certainly had a better idea of
these fundamental differences were what money was, and we hoped
and are still today a severe test of gradually to help him learn more
Constitutional interpretation. fully to understand and apply
Hamilton, by declaring the sep- these ideas in a practical and re-
arate state war debts to be a cen- alistic manner in the years ahead.
tral federal responsibility, pro-
claimed to the watching world that The Results
we were a united nation, and not All of this took place four years
to be viewed as a mere loose as- ago, and in these four years he
sembly of quarreling factions. Jef- has absorbed more detailed infor-
ferson, on the other hand, saw pro- mation and insight. He has not
phetically clear dangers in too only grasped at least the basics of
complete a step toward full cen- a complicated monetary system,
tralization. They both saw in this but has indeed seemed to have es-
conflict of ideas the seeds which tablished some pretty clear inter-
later actually materialized in the pretations of his own. He does not
Civil War. This basic conflict still take money for granted, but nei-
remains very germain today. ther does he value it for its own
The thing my young son and I sake. He translates it as labor's
were investigating — money — is results, and labor and work are
very important to both a family easy and honorable words in his
and a nation. Not the most impor- vocabulary. Sure, he goofs now
tant, to be sure, but important and then — he is still a child — but
enough to warrant thorough study he has some fairly steady hand-
and application. As in an auto- holds to help him get back on the
mobile, where there must be cor- track, too.
rectly designed and engineered co- Let me add here that we were
ordination of all the parts to have richly blessed in that our children
a successfully functioning vehicle, had early shown strong traits of
so, too, is it with a family or a generosity, and our money lessons
nation. in no way seem to have lessened
As we drove home, at least one this. They have learned to be gen-
of our heads was buzzing with erous with their own time and


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

1962 MOPPETS AND MONEY 59

money and property, however, and we did not do what we could to
not simply to dispense someone pass these ideals on to our chil-
else’s largess, dren.

Individual initiative, personal All too often, obviously good
responsibility, pride of achieve- qualities of living may be unin-
ment, a firm sense of integrity, tentionally diluted, generation by
and realistic evaluation of worth generation, by the simple lack of
are the things our children seem clear specific communication of
to be gradually learning —and these qualities to our youngsters.
they're having fun learning them, We do not expect our children to
too. The belief in the dignity and learn algebra or physics by some
value of individual achievement sort of automatic osmotic process;
would seem to be a basic neces- these subjects are taught formally
sity to the understanding and ac- and deliberately. We merely plead
quiescence of personal and nation- the case for the same deliberate
al liberty. We feel we would be teaching of the essentials of lib-
derelict in our duty as parents if erty, in all its many forms. @®

IDEAS ON LIBERTY One’s Own Business

EVERY MAN AND WOMAN in society has one big duty. That is, to
take care of his or her own self. ... Now, the man who can do
anything for or about anybody else than himself is fit to be head
of a family; and when he becomes head of a family he has duties
to his wife and his children, in addition to the former big duty.
Then, again, any man who can take care of himself and his
family is in a very exceptional position, if he does not find in his
immediate surroundings people who need his care and have some
sort of a personal claim upon him. If, now, he is able to fulfill all
this, and to take care of anybody outside his family and his de-
pendents, he must have a surplus of energy, wisdom, and moral
virtue beyond what he needs for his own business.

WILLIAM GRAHAM SUMNER
What Social Classes Owe to Each Other


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

A REVIEWER'S NOTEBOOK JOHN CHAMBERLAIN

the SICKNESS of
Socialized Medicine

IF YOU ARE AGAINST state-inflicted ernment medicine” to inflate the
public health insurance, financed cost of medical service without
by a compulsory levy, it is enough adding anything of value to the
in many quarters to mark you general level of health. It may
down as a moral monster. By im- seem like the humanitarian thing
plication it is assumed that your to do to make medical service a
“negativism’ means that you want “free good,” like parks or streets
poor people to suffer. But does a or the water from the public
compulsory national health pro- drinking fountain at the corner,
gram, “free” to everybody out of But actually everybody loses un-
taxes, actually result in a healthier der most public health programs.
society ?
Since many foreign nations, The Value of Nothing

from England and Germany in The reason, if we look at the ex-
Europe to New Zealand in the perience of England, France, Ger-
Antipodes, have had ten, twenty, many, Sweden, Austria, and New
and even thirty years of experi- Zealand, is that people do not value
ence with their own versions of what they presume they are get-
compulsory “medicare,” there ting for nothing. What results
should be a definitive answer to from public medicine is a big over-
this question. Helmut Schoeck, a consumption of trivialities, with
professor of sociology at Emory doctors at their wits’ end to find
University in Georgia, has pinned time to spend on serious matters.
down a vast number of pertinent Speaking of compulsory medical
facts in his symposium, Financing “insurance” in Germany, Werner
Medical Care: An Appraisal of Schollgen remarks that personally
Foreign Programs (Caxton, 348 ‘‘costless’” access to doctors and
pages, $5.50). The testimony of medical supplies “encourages the
Dr. Schoeck’s many experts is that waste of huge amounts of money
it is the general tendency of “gov- and medical resources on minute

60


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

1962 THE SICKNESS OF SOCIALIZED MEDICINE 61

and imaginary ailments. Conse- service I can think of.” “Over-
quently, it cannot really, in the treatment” and ‘multiple treat-
long run, help individuals with ment” follow. With state ‘“medi-
prolonged and catastrophic ill- care” piled on top of other com-
nesses.” pulsory welfare expenditures in
Looking at the British experi- Sweden, “tax evasion has become
ence, Colm Brogan discovers that a matter of economic survival.”
the National Health Service which The population is not noticeably
came out of the Beveridge plan healthier. And freedom from “ma-
“celebrated its tenth birthday terial” cares has not made the
without having built one single Swedes any happier. “Sober sta-
hospital throughout the length tistics show that social ills have
and breadth of Britain.” English continued in the era of an ever
girls, says surgeon Reginald S. more perfect welfare state. The
Murley, decline to take up nursing crime rate, especially among the
because of the inadequacy of the younger generation, has reached
hospitals under the compulsory frightening proportions. Wide-
health program. The deficiency is spread alcoholism has not been
“somewhat concealed by the num- curtailed. The divorce rate has
ber of girls from Ireland and the reached new heights, and despite
Continent who come to Britain to generous state subsidies . . . the
nurse.” birth rate in Sweden has fallen
In Germany, ‘free’ medical back toits low level of the 1930’s.”
treatment is accepted with con-
tempt by many people who, after
taking the pills they get for “noth- This sort of quotation might be
ing,” turn right around and spend multiplied many times over from
their own personal funds on the Dr. Schoeck’s book. The reason for
most arrant type of quack. In the degeneration of medicine when
Sweden, which adopted a compul- governments try to match free pa-
sory health service in the nineteen tients with “panel” doctors, or
fifties, Alfred Zanker tells us that dictate arbitrary “fee schedules,”
“the captive beneficiaries of com- or otherwise interfere with the
pulsory health insurance . .. de- market pricing of medical service,
mand medical benefits far beyond is that there is no accompanying
what their specific contributions way of instilling responsibility in
pay for.” The general attitude is either patient or physician.
“I had to pay my share, now it is As economist Dennis S. Lees
the state’s turn to render any says, the humanitarian cry for

No Way To Fix Responsibility


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

62 THE FREEMAN August

“adequacy’’ comes to mean any- tary relinquishment of time, en-
thing we want it to mean. There ergy, and pills to the occasional
is no way of deciding between the patient who cannot pay for what
competing claims of “adequate” he receives.
medicine and ‘‘adequate” public
housing and “adequate” nation- Some Hopeful Signs
alized train service if marginal In America, there is a tired feel-
utility ideas are excluded. “We do ing in many quarters that compul-
not know,” says Mr. Lees, “nor is sory “medicare” is part of the in-
anything built into the machinery evitable “wave of the future.” But
of the public sector to tell us, “it ain’t necessarily so.” In both
whether production is optimal or Switzerland and Australia, the
not.” Yet in a world of scarce voters have firmly rejected the de-
goods — and medicine is still a mands of the socialists that medi-
scarce good — there must be some cine be made a compulsory ‘free
way of deciding where optimal as good” financed by taxes or social
against “adequate” resources are security levies. The Swiss, in 1958,
to go. “Men and materials em- had 1,109 separate voluntary in-
ployed to build hospitals cannot at surance plans recognized by the
the same time be used to build federal government, with a mem-
schools and factories . . . Firms bership totaling 4,011,925. “Be-
producing medical supplies cannot tween 80 and 90 per cent of the
at the same time be producing ex- Swiss people are members of such
port goods.” associations,” says Marcel Gross-
When doctors and hospitals and mann. The federal government in
medical supply companies price Switzerland does give some sub-
their services, there is an auto- sidy help to voluntary plans which
matic check on their indiscrimi- meet formal requirements as non-
nate use, and money is left for profit mutual companies, but that
education and factory building. is all. The insured have free choice
Hardhearted ? Well, if it were left of physicians, and the doctors set
at just that, it would be hard- their own price on their services.
hearted. But doctors, from time The Swiss are certainly as healthy
immemorial, have not attempted as the Swedes or the English, and
to wring big fees from those who they are not afflicted with sky-
come to them asking for chari- rocketing medical costs. Moreover,
table care. The price system, which the traveler in Switzerland notes
can provide for “optimal” disecrim- practically none of the social ills
ination, is compatible with volun- that afllict welfarist Sweden.


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

1962 THE SICKNESS OF SOCIALIZED MEDICINE 63

In Australia, where the Labor with the Plan is carried on in
Party ruled at the end of World Canberra, the national capital, by
War II, there was an assumption no more than fifteen or twenty
that the people would vote a Na- people. Everything else is handled
tional Health Service Act on the — and well handled — by the insur-
order of the British legislation. ance societies themselves, each of
But, miraculously as it must seem them dealing with its own sub-
to us, the Australian Liberal scribers.”

Party beat back the Laborite de-
mand for a comprehensive compul- One Control Leads to Others

sory system for supplying doctor’s One fear expressed by Dr.
services, drugs, hospitalization, Schoeck and some of the contribu-
and dental benefits. tors to his symposium is that

When a Liberal government as- when governments undertake to
sumed office in 1949, a physician, provide comprehensive state plans
Sir Earle Page, was appointed for compulsory medical insurance,
Minister of Health. Sir Earle the mounting costs will lead to
helped put the Commonwealth regimented preventive medicine.
government behind a subsidy of Dr. Schoeck raises by inference
voluntary insurance societies the Orwellian specter of compul-
which left the Australian equiva- sory setting up exercises, compul-
lents of our own Blue Cross and sory fat-free diets, compulsory ra-
Blue Shield to take care of their tioning of cigarettes and alcoholic
own members. Nobody in Austra- beverages, and other such inter-
lia is compelled to protect himself ferences with the ancient idea that
by insurance against the “hazards a man’s home is his castle, includ-
of living and dying,” but the coun- ing the type of table he may care
try is pretty well blanketed by the to set in the castle’s dining room.
voluntary system. The logical authoritarian answer

The Australian Health Plan, to high compulsory medical costs
says Sir Earle, “has started to pay is an equally compulsory enforce-
for itself in shorter illnesses, less ment of “preventive” health stand-
sickness, shorter hospitalization, ards. Well, if compulsion is to be
with a consequent turnover of hos- the universal wave of the future,
pital beds and a saving of millions why not? So, one-two-three-four,
of hours of working time.” And bend that back.
because there is no central admin- Libertarians who would prefer
istrative expense, “the govern- to leave the promotion of any and
ment’s paper work in connection all medical benefits to private


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

64 THE FREEMAN August

hands will not fail to note that the Switzerland and Australia, on
coercive “wave of the future” has terms that are mutually agreeable.
swept over “voluntary” Switzer- At least there is a competition be-
land and Australia to some extent: tween societies to serve their
both countries tax their citizens to members. As for the U.S., it has
provide relatively small amounts the grand opportunity to remain
of subsidy money for bestowal on with the Swiss and the Australians
selected private medical insurance on the side of relative medical vol-
societies. But if one must choose untarism. Dr. Schoeck’s book illu-
between types of public health co- minates a score of pitfalls and out-
ercion, the Swiss and Australian lines at least one or two ways to
systems are certainly greatly to be relative sanity. One can hope for
preferred to the British, German, it a wide reading before the coun-
Austrian, or Swedish variety. At try makes its final choice between
least, the patient and the doctor common sense and going off the
are left free to find each other in deep end. @®

IDEAS © 100807Y | What Is True Benevolence?

THERE IS INCREASING EVIDENCE that more and more of our phys-
ically fit citizens are enjoying their position as voluntary victims
of the welfare state. Through their own thoughts and efforts
they are becoming unfit, unwilling, or unable to take care of
themselves. Nations grow strong through the strength of their
citizens. The citizen’s strength is gained by struggling, mentally
and physically, to meet difficulties and overcome obstacles. Let us
grow under the attitude developed by the exchange of service
instead of withering under the attitude of entitlement through
outright gifts at the hand of a so-called benevolent government.

RALPH E. LYNE, Taylor, Michigan


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

E500 Stdinis of Ly

* This best describes the readers of The Free-
man — of whom 47,000 are in the United States,
1,500 in other lands.

No other description applies for they are
teachers, wage earners, clergymen, captains of
industry and finance, farmers, housewives, pro-
fessional people. They are of varied creeds,
races, and colors and range from the very poor
to the very wealthy. Their common interest is
as students of liberty!

A few of The Freeman pages are available
each month for advertising messages to this
select readership. Inquiries are invited.

THE FOUNDATION FOR ECONOMIC EDUCATION, INC.
IRVINGTON-ON-HUDSON, NEW YORK



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

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