WEBVTT NOTE 9. Lu's Famous Seminar 1 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:18.480 Chapter 9, Lew's famous seminar. Lew's seminar at New York University began in 1948 and ended in 1969. For 21 years the seminar gathered at the graduate school in Lower Manhattan every Thursday from 7.25 to 9.25 p.m. 2 00:00:18.480 --> 00:00:24.840 When Lew entered the room with almost military punctuality at 7.20 pm, a small flat briefcase 3 00:00:24.840 --> 00:00:29.560 under his arm, he always had a friendly smile for everyone and a quick searching glance 4 00:00:29.560 --> 00:00:34.480 for me. He liked me to attend the meetings. He would sit down at the center of the long 5 00:00:34.480 --> 00:00:40.040 side of the table and take a small sheet from the inner pocket of his jacket. This tiny 6 00:00:40.040 --> 00:00:45.920 piece of paper was all he needed for the evening. Then he would start to talk. He presented 7 00:00:45.920 --> 00:00:52.920 He presented his ideas clearly, in simple words, in contrast to the often difficult terminology used in his books. 8 00:00:52.920 --> 00:01:03.920 The composition of his lectures was always the same. He began with a statement and returned with a closing word to exactly the point from whence he had started. His thoughts had completed a perfect circle. 9 00:01:03.920 --> 00:01:07.920 On Lew's 89th birthday, Leonard Reed presented him with a plaque. 10 00:01:07.920 --> 00:01:32.920 You are a great teacher. You, Mises, are truly a teacher. Two generations of students have studied under you, and countless thousands of others have learned from your books. Books and students are enduring monuments of a teacher, and these monuments are yours. This generation of students will pass away, but the ideas set in motion by your writings will be a fountain source for new students in generations to come. 11 00:01:32.920 --> 00:01:38.880 Yes, Lew was a great teacher. He had the ability to lift minds of his students, to incite their 12 00:01:38.880 --> 00:01:45.240 mental curiosity, to arouse their imaginations to new visions. Frank Diersen, a prominent 13 00:01:45.240 --> 00:01:49.640 corporate lawyer in New York City who attended Lew's regular course at New York University 14 00:01:49.640 --> 00:01:57.140 from 1946 and regularly came to the seminar from the beginning in 1948 to 1955 and in 15 00:01:57.140 --> 00:02:27.140 The seminar was the most enriching experience of my life. It opened new worlds to me. Keynes once said, at 25, your ideas are fixed. But in Dr. von Mises' class, men of 40 and 50 abandoned earlier convictions to accept the truth that he taught. Every lecture was a mind-stretching experience. In the first seminar, I remember Dr. Mises had finished his lecture on welfare legislation, attacking the economics of various social policies. 16 00:02:27.140 --> 00:02:32.640 Policies. The entire class was astonished at his critical attitude. They arranged a 17 00:02:32.640 --> 00:02:37.420 special meeting after the lecture and invited the professor to attend. They wanted to teach 18 00:02:37.420 --> 00:02:43.420 him the social facts of life. And what happened? Wonder of wonders! After all the arguments 19 00:02:43.420 --> 00:02:48.700 had been submitted and Dr. Mises had explained everything anew, the class came away in complete 20 00:02:48.700 --> 00:02:54.120 agreement with Dr. Mises and shared a new conception of economic realities and economic 21 00:02:54.120 --> 00:03:11.120 and Economic Freedom. Jack Holman, who for many years was director of Johnson & Johnson and has a PhD in economics and is a licensed professional engineer in the state of New York, felt similarly about Lew. He attended the seminar from 1950 to 1952 and he told me, 22 00:03:11.120 --> 00:03:33.120 I have never known a man as erudite as was Dr. von Mises. He was extraordinarily learned in every field of knowledge. In discussing economics, he would bring in examples from history to illustrate the points he was making. I remember only too well some of the sentences he said during his lectures. Some of them I noted down. On September 21, 1950, he said, 23 00:03:33.120 --> 00:03:38.640 said, One of the indispensable prerequisites of a mastery of economics is a perfect knowledge 24 00:03:38.640 --> 00:03:45.600 of history, the history of ideas and of civilization, and of social, economic and political history. 25 00:03:45.600 --> 00:03:49.980 To know one field well, one must also know other fields. 26 00:03:49.980 --> 00:03:55.840 On December 14, 1950, he said, An ethical standard is judging various modes of conduct 27 00:03:55.840 --> 00:04:01.000 from the point of view of a scale of values which derives from divine commandments, or 28 00:04:01.000 --> 00:04:05.480 Apart from that which is in the soul of everyone, the realm of ethics is not something which 29 00:04:05.480 --> 00:04:09.120 is outside of that of economic action. 30 00:04:09.120 --> 00:04:14.840 You cannot deal with ethical problems apart from economic ones, and vice versa. 31 00:04:14.840 --> 00:04:21.320 On December 21, 1950, he said, the fundamental contribution of the classical economist, what 32 00:04:21.320 --> 00:04:24.680 is good for the individual is good for society. 33 00:04:24.680 --> 00:04:30.480 Yes, Lew was a great teacher, though his English pronunciation was never perfect. 34 00:04:30.480 --> 00:04:35.400 I often wondered whether others would be affected by it. I looked around, watching their expressions, 35 00:04:35.400 --> 00:04:39.680 but they always listened attentively, their eyes fixed on his face, occasionally making 36 00:04:39.680 --> 00:04:44.880 notes. I was the only one whose thoughts were diverted, perhaps because I loved him so much 37 00:04:44.880 --> 00:04:50.240 and wanted so badly for him to succeed in whatever he did. He himself was completely 38 00:04:50.240 --> 00:04:55.860 absorbed. Sometimes he folded his hands close to his face, his elbows resting on the desk. 39 00:04:55.860 --> 00:04:59.380 Sometimes he leaned back in the chair, his hands pressed against the table, his head 40 00:04:59.380 --> 00:05:06.380 I had thrown back, his eyes introspective, seeing nothing. He may have looked at people, but he did not see them. 41 00:05:06.380 --> 00:05:15.380 Once in a while he shot a furtive glance back to my place. I felt he saw me, and then back he was in his thoughts, fully concentrated on the lecture. 42 00:05:15.380 --> 00:05:24.380 During the discussion he was vigorous in his arguments, but he was always polite and civil. He never offended people, but he found no excuses for socialists. 43 00:05:24.380 --> 00:05:31.380 He explained every subject to the point of disarming his opponent, but never, never did he persuade anyone against his will. 44 00:05:31.380 --> 00:05:34.380 Occasionally the discussion became too lively and excited. 45 00:05:34.380 --> 00:05:40.380 Then Lew, with a single remark, brought the students back to the subject and released the tension. 46 00:05:40.380 --> 00:05:42.380 He always knew how to guide them. 47 00:05:42.380 --> 00:05:44.380 His restraint and civility were unparalleled. 48 00:05:44.380 --> 00:05:51.380 The students may have differed in their views about a subject, but they were united in their feelings of admiration and respect for Lew. 49 00:05:51.380 --> 00:05:58.380 In the last five or six years of the seminar, it was a great relief for him when I brought the car to NYU to take him home. 50 00:05:58.380 --> 00:06:08.380 When I was not there and he was brought home by others, he was forced to talk or to discuss further some problems, and he was too polite to tell them how tired he was. 51 00:06:08.380 --> 00:06:15.380 With me there was no need to talk, he could relax. But regularly he asked me, did you like the lecture, were you satisfied? 52 00:06:15.380 --> 00:06:21.680 To ask me that question, it touched my heart. I was never as attentive in his seminar as 53 00:06:21.680 --> 00:06:26.280 I should have been. I took too much interest in the students who attended. I watched them, 54 00:06:26.280 --> 00:06:31.560 I studied their faces. I saw many come and go, whose names I did not even know. But others 55 00:06:31.560 --> 00:06:36.080 I saw grow and develop, acquiring stature and insight. 56 00:06:36.080 --> 00:06:40.840 Lew met every new student, hopeful that one of them might develop into a second Hayek. 57 00:06:40.840 --> 00:06:46.400 If he saw a tiny spark, he hoped for a flame. Never did he show any sign of impatience, 58 00:06:46.400 --> 00:06:50.960 and he encouraged everyone to speak out and give his opinion. Again and again he advised 59 00:06:50.960 --> 00:06:56.400 them to read and to learn foreign languages. It is a great pity, he often said, that American 60 00:06:56.400 --> 00:07:01.440 scholars do not know foreign languages and are unable to read foreign literature. Every 61 00:07:01.440 --> 00:07:06.300 economist should study Marx and Engels in the original language. Only if they know their 62 00:07:06.300 --> 00:07:22.300 He pointed to the example of Keynes, who hardly knew any German or French, and was therefore unaware of solutions for economic policy, which had already been advanced by French and German authors. 63 00:07:22.300 --> 00:07:28.300 One evening at the seminar, Lew cited authorities in French and in German. A student objected, 64 00:07:28.300 --> 00:07:33.500 Why are you giving these citations, professor? he asked. I can neither read French nor German. 65 00:07:34.140 --> 00:07:38.380 Learn it, was Lew's answer. You are engaged in scholarly activities. 66 00:07:39.260 --> 00:07:44.460 Among the students I knew best was Hans Seinholtz, who was born and raised in Germany. 67 00:07:44.460 --> 00:07:49.260 He was a pilot in the German Air Force during the Second World War, was shot down and captured, 68 00:07:49.260 --> 00:07:54.460 and became a prisoner of war in the United States. During his captivity, he became acquainted with 69 00:07:54.460 --> 00:07:58.900 with my husband's books. He had already finished the study of law and political science in 70 00:07:58.900 --> 00:08:05.260 Germany, but he decided to remain in the United States. In 1949 he started studying economics 71 00:08:05.260 --> 00:08:10.540 with my husband at New York University. For years he was a participant at the seminar, 72 00:08:10.540 --> 00:08:15.100 and he wrote his doctoral thesis with Lew. Today he is head of the economics department 73 00:08:15.100 --> 00:08:20.020 at Grove City College. He lectures frequently throughout the country, and is known as one 74 00:08:20.020 --> 00:08:50.020 One of the staunchest defenders of the free market. A new generation of Mises disciples, advocates of the Austrian School, have emerged from Professor Sandholz's courses at Grove City College. He has written many books. The latest one, Age of Inflation, became a best-seller. His wife, the former Mary Holman, who usually participated in the seminars at the Foundation for Economic Education while she was Leonard Reed's personal secretary, is his close assistant. I always had, and still have, a special interest 75 00:08:50.020 --> 00:08:54.980 in this marriage. One day, shortly after Hans and Mary had met, I invited them to our house 76 00:08:54.980 --> 00:09:00.580 and told each of them, separately and in private, how much I thought of the other one. It was 77 00:09:00.580 --> 00:09:05.140 a very simple way of bringing them together. They married, and in due time their son Robert 78 00:09:05.140 --> 00:09:11.200 was born, became my godchild, and is still a favorite of mine. Mary Senholtz later edited 79 00:09:11.200 --> 00:09:16.140 on Freedom and Free Enterprise, a collection of essays by nineteen scholars in honor of 80 00:09:16.140 --> 00:09:23.940 by my husband on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of his doctorate, February 20th, 1956. 81 00:09:23.940 --> 00:09:28.980 The best known of all of Lew's American students today may be Professor Murray Rothbard. He 82 00:09:28.980 --> 00:09:34.020 came to the seminar in 1949 and became one of the most devoted and able advocates of 83 00:09:34.020 --> 00:09:39.380 Lew's teaching. Lew may not have agreed with all of Rothbard's views, but he always considered 84 00:09:39.380 --> 00:09:44.460 him to be one of his most gifted students. Those who have read Rothbard's pamphlet, 85 00:09:44.460 --> 00:09:50.460 of the Essential von Mises, know his deep insight and warm understanding of my husband's work. 86 00:09:50.460 --> 00:09:56.460 Today Murray Rothbard is a professor of economics at the New York Polytechnic Institute in Brooklyn, 87 00:09:56.460 --> 00:10:00.460 a prolific writer famous as a scholar and historian in his own right. 88 00:10:00.460 --> 00:10:04.460 He and Joey, his wonderful wife, are very good friends of mine. 89 00:10:04.460 --> 00:10:08.460 Another man in whom Lew put great hope was Israel Kirzner. 90 00:10:08.460 --> 00:10:12.460 In later years, Lew chose Kirzner to be his assistant for the seminar, 91 00:10:12.460 --> 00:10:16.460 to help him with student problems and relieve the burden of the office hours. 92 00:10:16.460 --> 00:10:21.780 Now Dr. Kirzner is Professor of Economics at New York University, fulfilling and surpassing 93 00:10:21.780 --> 00:10:24.580 all of the hopes Lew cherished for him. 94 00:10:24.580 --> 00:10:29.180 Lew considered Kirzner's The Economic Point of View an important and valuable work and 95 00:10:29.180 --> 00:10:30.780 wrote a foreword to it. 96 00:10:30.780 --> 00:10:35.100 Professor Kirzner, who is highly regarded among students, headed the circle of scholars 97 00:10:35.100 --> 00:10:40.180 who, since my husband's death, succeeded in proving the great importance of the Austrian 98 00:10:40.180 --> 00:10:41.180 School. 99 00:10:41.180 --> 00:10:45.880 Thanks to his never ceasing effort, this movement is expanding more and more. 100 00:10:45.880 --> 00:10:50.880 I am sure my husband would have been delighted about Professor Kirzner's latest important work, 101 00:10:50.880 --> 00:10:56.580 Perception, Opportunity and Profit, published by the University of Chicago Press. 102 00:10:56.580 --> 00:11:04.780 Louis Spadaro, a quiet, positive, earnest scholar, attended Lew's seminar for many years and wrote his doctoral thesis with Lew. 103 00:11:04.780 --> 00:11:09.380 He is now Dean of the Graduate School of Business Administration at Fordham University 104 00:11:09.380 --> 00:11:13.380 and President Emeritus of the Institute for Humane Studies. 105 00:11:13.380 --> 00:11:17.380 Most of the seminar students became, over the years, good friends of ours. 106 00:11:17.380 --> 00:11:24.380 Mr. Stanton Evans attended Lew's regular course at New York University and was a member of the seminar for one year. 107 00:11:24.380 --> 00:11:34.380 He once said about my husband, the first thing Professor von Mises tried to teach us in his seminar was the science of epistemology, the science of how we know things. 108 00:11:34.380 --> 00:11:41.380 It is not an easy topic, for the most difficult topic for the human mind to grasp is the extent of its own ignorance. 109 00:11:41.380 --> 00:11:48.380 Stanton Evans became an editor and journalist and writes a syndicated column for the Los Angeles Times Syndicate. 110 00:11:48.380 --> 00:11:53.380 He wrote various books such as Revolt on the Campus and The Future of Conservativism. 111 00:11:53.380 --> 00:12:00.380 Since 1980 he has been president of Consumers Research, Inc. and publisher of Consumers Research Magazine. 112 00:12:00.380 --> 00:12:06.380 Percy Greaves first came to the seminar in 1950 and attended almost all the meetings until Lew stopped teaching. 113 00:12:06.380 --> 00:12:11.380 My husband thought very highly of Percy's knowledge and understanding of economic theory. 114 00:12:11.380 --> 00:12:16.380 It is a great pity, he often told me, that Percy did not make his Ph.D. 115 00:12:16.380 --> 00:12:19.380 Lew's work was like scripture to Percy. 116 00:12:19.380 --> 00:12:25.380 He was the chairman of the dinner meetings that the students arranged from time to time with the financial help of Isidor Hodes, 117 00:12:25.380 --> 00:12:28.380 another faithful and devoted participant of the seminar. 118 00:12:28.380 --> 00:12:35.380 Grieves and his future wife, Bettina Bien, later became friends of ours and spent their honeymoon with us in Vermont. 119 00:12:35.380 --> 00:12:44.380 Ronald S. Hertz, now a prominent certified public accountant with a large firm on Park Avenue, attended Lew's seminar for many years beginning in 1949. 120 00:12:44.380 --> 00:12:51.380 No matter how verbose, inane, inept or belligerent the question or the questioner, Ronald Hertz wrote me once, 121 00:12:51.380 --> 00:13:04.380 He was heard through and then received a patient, meticulous response. It must have been the respect which Professor Mises showed to students, which kept even those who began with great antagonism coming back. 122 00:13:04.380 --> 00:13:13.380 There was a whole group of high school students whom Lew allowed to attend his seminar. They were bright young boys, eager to learn and deeply interested in today's problems. 123 00:13:13.380 --> 00:13:19.700 They had discovered that Lew was their man of the future and not a reactionary as friendly 124 00:13:19.700 --> 00:13:24.580 economists would call him before they shelved his uncomfortable words of truth. 125 00:13:24.580 --> 00:13:28.000 One of the youngest members of this group was George Reisman. 126 00:13:28.000 --> 00:13:32.520 One evening in the autumn of 1953 he rang the doorbell at our apartment. 127 00:13:32.520 --> 00:13:37.660 I opened the door and saw a young, blonde, shy boy of about 15 years who asked to see 128 00:13:37.660 --> 00:13:39.540 Dr. von Mises. 129 00:13:39.540 --> 00:13:43.860 I asked why, and he told me that he was in high school, had read all of Lew's books 130 00:13:43.860 --> 00:13:48.100 he could get a hold of, and was wondering whether the professor would allow him to attend 131 00:13:48.100 --> 00:13:54.180 his course and the seminar. My husband talked to him, and helpful as always, admitted him. 132 00:13:54.180 --> 00:13:59.280 From then on, George Reisman came regularly for years. He wrote his doctoral dissertation 133 00:13:59.280 --> 00:14:04.980 with Lew, and often came to the house to converse with him. Reisman was hardworking, thorough, 134 00:14:04.980 --> 00:14:10.140 and Inquisitive. In later years he translated one of Lew's books from the German. It was 135 00:14:10.140 --> 00:14:16.960 published in 1960 by van Nostrand under the title Epistemological Problems of Economics. 136 00:14:16.960 --> 00:14:21.960 After many years as a professor of economics at St. John's University in Brooklyn, Reisman 137 00:14:21.960 --> 00:14:28.060 is teaching now in Los Angeles at Pepperdine University. In 1979 he published a book, The 138 00:14:28.060 --> 00:14:33.900 Government Against the Economy. It is widely discussed and received especially good reviews. 139 00:14:33.900 --> 00:14:36.560 George became a credit to his teacher. 140 00:14:36.560 --> 00:14:42.180 Ralph Raco was another one of the high school students whom Lew watched with great expectations. 141 00:14:42.180 --> 00:14:46.860 Raco later went to Chicago to continue his studies and is now teaching history at the 142 00:14:46.860 --> 00:14:49.980 State University of New York at Buffalo. 143 00:14:49.980 --> 00:14:54.180 He wrote in The Alternative, February 1975, 144 00:14:54.180 --> 00:14:59.020 To know the great Mises tends to create in one's mind lifelong standards of what an ideal 145 00:14:59.020 --> 00:15:00.940 intellectual should be. 146 00:15:00.940 --> 00:15:06.460 These are standards to which other scholars whom one encounters will almost never be equal, 147 00:15:06.460 --> 00:15:11.900 and judged by which the ordinary run of university professors at Chicago, Princeton or Harvard 148 00:15:11.900 --> 00:15:16.700 is simply a joke, but it would be unfair to judge them by such a measure. Here we are 149 00:15:16.700 --> 00:15:21.620 talking about two entirely different sorts of human beings. 150 00:15:21.620 --> 00:15:26.140 Another one of these young men whom Lew admitted to the seminar was Lawrence Moss, who at that 151 00:15:26.140 --> 00:15:33.140 At that time was a junior at Queens College. Moss had heard Lew speak when Lew sat on the platform with Senator Barry Goldwater. 152 00:15:33.140 --> 00:15:38.140 He was so impressed by Lew's ideas that he tried his very best to meet Lew and get into the seminar. 153 00:15:38.140 --> 00:15:44.140 Rothbard helped him and arranged it for him. From then on, Moss was a regular in the seminar. 154 00:15:44.140 --> 00:15:48.140 Having been indoctrinated in his college with rather liberal ideas, 155 00:15:48.140 --> 00:15:53.140 Moss and a friend who also joined the seminar started to ask Lew many questions, 156 00:15:53.140 --> 00:15:56.140 which Lew answered with never-ending patience. 157 00:15:56.140 --> 00:16:00.140 One of the older students was annoyed at the steady questioning of the newcomers. 158 00:16:00.140 --> 00:16:04.140 The older student wanted only to listen to the professor. 159 00:16:04.140 --> 00:16:08.140 He was not interested in the mental gymnastics of these youngsters. 160 00:16:08.140 --> 00:16:12.140 So he called the Dean of Students at Queens College and reported these two young boys, 161 00:16:12.140 --> 00:16:17.140 saying that they were on the grounds of New York University without permission of Queens College, 162 00:16:17.140 --> 00:16:21.140 without paying admission fees and disturbing other students. 163 00:16:21.140 --> 00:16:32.140 The Dean called the two students and asked for an explanation. They told their story and asked the Dean to call Dr. Mises to hear from him whether they had behaved improperly. But the Dean believed them and said, 164 00:16:32.140 --> 00:16:38.140 If you are reported a second time, I will make a note on your record. It did not happen again. 165 00:16:38.140 --> 00:16:45.140 Lew's friend Henry Haslett often came to the seminar. He always sat next to my husband and participated in the general discussion. 166 00:16:45.140 --> 00:16:51.900 Lew was especially pleased with his presence. Once in the academic year 1957-1958, 167 00:16:51.900 --> 00:16:56.940 Ayn Rand, the famous author of Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugs, also attended. 168 00:16:56.940 --> 00:17:04.180 She was one of the strongest believers in my husband's theories and often spoke and wrote about him in her various lectures and publications. 169 00:17:04.180 --> 00:17:08.620 If I remember correctly, Alice Widener also attended the seminar once. 170 00:17:08.620 --> 00:17:13.100 For many years she has published USA, a bi-monthly periodical. 171 00:17:13.100 --> 00:17:18.140 She reads tremendously, travels frequently, speaks various languages, and knows many important 172 00:17:18.140 --> 00:17:20.460 people in the political arena. 173 00:17:20.460 --> 00:17:24.620 My husband had a high opinion of her and called her one of the best informed reporters of 174 00:17:24.620 --> 00:17:26.320 the United States. 175 00:17:26.320 --> 00:17:30.400 She is a member of the Mont Pelerin Society, and it was during one of their meetings that 176 00:17:30.400 --> 00:17:32.800 I met her for the first time. 177 00:17:32.800 --> 00:17:38.040 The seminar was frequented by people of various nationalities and professions. For five years 178 00:17:38.040 --> 00:17:43.640 two Jesuit professors attended, Father William McGuinness, a professor of economics and management 179 00:17:43.640 --> 00:17:48.520 at Weston College, and Father Michael Mansfield, a former economics professor at Hong Kong 180 00:17:48.520 --> 00:17:54.200 University. I remember them especially well, for Lew always took a special delight in leading 181 00:17:54.200 --> 00:17:59.140 these and other clergymen into philosophical and theological questions with respect to 182 00:17:59.140 --> 00:18:05.300 to Social and Economic Problems, and I remember clearly also a young Catholic priest, now Reverend 183 00:18:05.300 --> 00:18:11.860 Monsignor F. Davis, who in 1979 in a small book, This Priest is Thankful, which is touching 184 00:18:11.860 --> 00:18:17.420 through its honesty, spoke about the great influence that Lew exerted on his life. I 185 00:18:17.420 --> 00:18:22.340 also remember Captain Richard L. Fruent, a medical doctor from the Naval Station at Lake 186 00:18:22.340 --> 00:18:27.500 hurst, New Jersey. He was working with the Air Force on problems specific to flying. 187 00:18:27.500 --> 00:18:32.340 He traveled 5 or 6 hours every Thursday to attend Luz Seminar, even in winter when the 188 00:18:32.340 --> 00:18:39.100 roads were icy and dangerous. He never missed a meeting. Now retired, he lives in California. 189 00:18:39.100 --> 00:18:44.500 A good friend of mine is Phoebe Tan, a very gifted, beautiful, young Philippine woman 190 00:18:44.500 --> 00:18:49.860 who wrote her doctoral dissertation with my husband and later married Edward Facey, another 191 00:18:49.860 --> 00:18:54.340 student of Luz whom she met at the seminar. Both have been teaching for years at Hillsdale 192 00:18:54.340 --> 00:18:59.620 College in Michigan. Another participant in the seminar was William Peterson, who for 193 00:18:59.620 --> 00:19:04.660 some time was Professor of Economics at NYU and is now teaching at the University of Tennessee 194 00:19:04.660 --> 00:19:09.180 in Chattanooga. In the course of years he became more and more convinced of the truth 195 00:19:09.180 --> 00:19:14.740 and importance of my husband's ideas. He writes frequently for the best magazines using quotations 196 00:19:14.740 --> 00:19:20.900 from Lew's books to emphasize his own ideas. Mary, his talented, elegant wife, also visited 197 00:19:20.900 --> 00:19:31.900 She attended the seminar frequently. She became well known through her book reviews in the Wall Street Journal and is very successful in her work in General Motors, which she took up after they moved to Washington D.C. 198 00:19:31.900 --> 00:19:48.900 In this connection, I would like to tell a little story that happened in June 1955. The Petersons and their children, then perhaps four and five years old, attended a seminar arranged by the Foundation for Economic Education and conducted by Lew at Buck Hill Falls Inn in the Poconos. 199 00:19:48.900 --> 00:20:05.900 My husband was the main speaker. The seminar was held in a special building on the beautiful grounds of the hotel. The conference room was large, with a long oval table. I took my place as usual somewhere in the back. The first day of the meeting, Lou spoke about the gold standard. 200 00:20:05.900 --> 00:20:13.900 Murray also sat in the back with her two children. According to the lecture notes of Bettina Biangreeves, my husband said during his speech, 201 00:20:13.900 --> 00:20:23.900 There will be, one day, a period of history in which the government will leave the butter price as it is, and people will be in a position to eat butter at the lowest possible price. 202 00:20:23.900 --> 00:20:34.900 This little girl, sitting so quietly in the back of the room, who is listening without too much interest to what we are saying, will perhaps live in a world where the butter price will be left to the free market. 203 00:20:34.900 --> 00:20:40.260 Market. But this will certainly not happen if we don't study these problems and if we 204 00:20:40.260 --> 00:20:45.180 don't tell the results of our thinking about these problems to the people. This clearly 205 00:20:45.180 --> 00:20:50.220 shows that Lew had noticed the children. The next day, Mary sat down at the table between 206 00:20:50.220 --> 00:20:55.940 her two children, directly opposite Lew. I was flabbergasted. I could not imagine these 207 00:20:55.940 --> 00:21:01.220 small children staying quiet for two hours. I was afraid they would disturb my husband. 208 00:21:01.220 --> 00:21:05.140 Mary knew what she was doing. She had given them books and drawings, and the children 209 00:21:05.140 --> 00:21:09.620 behaved as if they were glued to their chairs, turning the pages of their books, glancing 210 00:21:09.620 --> 00:21:14.540 at pictures, drawing, never looking up. Only toward the end of the lecture did they get 211 00:21:14.540 --> 00:21:18.420 restless, fidgeting about on their chairs, pulling out their mother's sleeves, whispering 212 00:21:18.420 --> 00:21:23.580 into her ears. Lew had hardly spoken the last word when Mary jumped up and rushed out of 213 00:21:23.580 --> 00:21:28.860 the room, holding a child at each hand, looking neither right nor left. Today one of these 214 00:21:28.860 --> 00:21:35.860 I wrote about our friend, George Kutter, in my acknowledgements at the beginning of this book. He and his wife, Hila, were very close to us. He was a journalist and economist who started attending Lew's school. 215 00:21:58.860 --> 00:22:05.740 Seminar in 1949. Active, enthusiastic, always full of new ideas. He had one feeling, one 216 00:22:05.740 --> 00:22:11.460 conviction that never changed after he started studying those ideas. My husband was to him, 217 00:22:11.460 --> 00:22:16.660 and ought to be to all the world, he said, the light burning in the darkness. 218 00:22:16.660 --> 00:22:21.820 Then there was Bettina Bian, now Bettina Bian Greaves. She first came to the seminar in 219 00:22:21.820 --> 00:22:27.300 1951 and attended it to the last session, not missing a single meeting. With the passing 220 00:22:27.300 --> 00:22:38.300 After many years she became a household word with Lew and me. If there was any information Lew needed, any refreshing of his memory, he would say, call Bettina, and surely enough she had the answer. 221 00:22:38.300 --> 00:22:47.300 After four or five years in the seminar, Bettina took her seat next to my husband, taking notes in shorthand, and no one would have dared to contest for that seat. 222 00:22:47.300 --> 00:22:56.300 I spoke first to her in 1952 during a seminar in California. At that time she was still rather quiet, hardly asking any questions. 223 00:22:56.300 --> 00:23:00.780 Later, working with tremendous zeal, studying Lew's books from beginning to end, reading 224 00:23:00.780 --> 00:23:06.020 them again and again, her inner security grew in relation to her knowledge. She wrote an 225 00:23:06.020 --> 00:23:12.140 excellent bibliography for my husband's work, published by the Foundation of Economic Education, 226 00:23:12.140 --> 00:23:17.620 and for his 90th birthday she catalogued, with my permission and without Lew's prior knowledge, 227 00:23:17.620 --> 00:23:23.640 his whole library of about 6,000 volumes, to Lew's greatest surprise and delight. 228 00:23:23.640 --> 00:23:27.520 The location of the seminar changed three times in 21 years. 229 00:23:27.520 --> 00:23:30.080 Lew and I loved the second location best. 230 00:23:30.080 --> 00:23:34.960 It was Gallatin House, the former British Embassy Inn on Washington Square, a beautiful 231 00:23:34.960 --> 00:23:36.760 brownstone building. 232 00:23:36.760 --> 00:23:41.160 Two stone lines at the entrance of the tiny garden bore witness to the past. 233 00:23:41.160 --> 00:23:45.840 Looking out the windows of this office overlooking Washington Square, Lew once said that this 234 00:23:45.840 --> 00:23:49.900 might have been the view that inspired Henry James for his great novels. 235 00:23:49.900 --> 00:23:54.300 We all loved this place in spite of the parking problems we all had. 236 00:23:54.300 --> 00:23:59.420 When the seminar was held in the old NYU building where it had started, so many students attended 237 00:23:59.420 --> 00:24:04.260 that the room was often overcrowded and not a single chair could be added. 238 00:24:04.260 --> 00:24:08.340 Some of the students may have come out of curiosity to hear the famous professor, but 239 00:24:08.340 --> 00:24:11.620 most of them had a goal and were studying hard. 240 00:24:11.620 --> 00:24:16.180 In later years when the seminar was held in the new NYU building, the number of students 241 00:24:16.180 --> 00:24:20.820 was smaller, but what they lacked in numbers they made up in enthusiasm. 242 00:24:20.820 --> 00:24:25.980 Lew never missed a single seminar. His various lectures and out of town obligations were arranged 243 00:24:25.980 --> 00:24:29.500 in such a way that they never conflicted with the seminar. 244 00:24:29.500 --> 00:24:35.600 Once in December 1961, Lew had to go to the Presbyterian Hospital for a hernia operation. 245 00:24:35.600 --> 00:24:40.060 He checked in two days before on a Sunday morning. They did the necessary tests and 246 00:24:40.060 --> 00:24:44.940 with permission of the surgeon, Dr. David Habith, I picked him up Monday evening and 247 00:24:44.940 --> 00:24:50.820 I took him to NYU, where he gave his course. I then took him back to the hospital, where 248 00:24:50.820 --> 00:24:55.660 he was operated on the next morning. Lew was a great defender of women and never doubted 249 00:24:55.660 --> 00:25:00.600 their mental capacities or potentials. His seminar in Vienna was well known for the many 250 00:25:00.600 --> 00:25:06.580 highly gifted women who attended and who later became leading figures in economics and education. 251 00:25:06.580 --> 00:25:11.980 I would not be astonished if one day women's lib would discover Lew once the activists 252 00:25:11.980 --> 00:25:16.580 Women's have overcome their anxiety problems concerning the equality of sex, and consider 253 00:25:16.580 --> 00:25:20.060 politics and economics their most important tasks. 254 00:25:20.060 --> 00:25:23.980 If they do, they may well declare my husband one of their heroes. 255 00:25:23.980 --> 00:25:28.900 Lew explained in Socialism, All mankind would suffer if woman should fail to develop her 256 00:25:28.900 --> 00:25:34.540 ego and be unable to unite with man as equal, freeborn companions and comrades. 257 00:25:34.540 --> 00:25:38.980 To preserve the freedom of inner life for the woman is the real problem of women. 258 00:25:38.980 --> 00:25:42.140 It is part of the cultural problem of humanity. 259 00:25:42.140 --> 00:25:46.540 In closing this chapter, I want to tell a little episode that is absolutely true, though 260 00:25:46.540 --> 00:25:49.660 I cannot give the names of the persons concerned. 261 00:25:49.660 --> 00:25:54.480 Some years ago, a graduate student at NYU was revising his program of studies and wanted 262 00:25:54.480 --> 00:25:57.820 to include Lew's seminar in his official curriculum. 263 00:25:57.820 --> 00:26:02.500 His faculty advisor told him that he could take the seminar course on his own, but not 264 00:26:02.500 --> 00:26:04.580 as a part of his official program. 265 00:26:04.580 --> 00:26:09.580 Mises' theory, said the professor, is a religion, not economics. 266 00:26:09.580 --> 00:26:15.580 Eight years later, that same professor, reminiscing over the great social experiments of the last generation, 267 00:26:15.580 --> 00:26:20.580 was greatly disturbed at the fact that the experiments were always a dismal and known failure. 268 00:26:20.580 --> 00:26:25.580 I have always tended to be liberal over the years, and I favored all these new programs, he said, 269 00:26:25.580 --> 00:26:29.580 but one by one, I have seen them all fail and have to be discarded. 270 00:26:29.580 --> 00:26:33.580 You know, perhaps Mises was right after all.