Leonard E. Read Journal
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1957 - 24 Indiana. He volunteered the information that he was almlng at a company donation to FEE. Wants me to help him with a program for Harvard Business School Alumni folks around the country. He is to be head man next year. Umpired curling in P.M. Ag and I dined at Union League Club with Dorothy and Ben and then to evening matches. St. A. had a bad day. Almost won from Wisconsin, one of the best rinks and then proceeded to get clobbered by Minnesota and Alaska. Minnesota is doing by far the best curling I have ever seen - simply out of our class. March 30. Attended a meeting this morning of 35 -40 curlers from all over the country, the aim being to organize a U. S. Curling Association. The idea was given enthusiastic approval and a committee of the group was appointed to effect same: Walter Selck, Chairman; Joseph Carson, Howard Etesen, H. K. Holley, Paul Moreland, Walter Rhodes, and LER. The afternoon matches saw St. A. defeated by Illinois and an extremely exciting contest between underdog Michigan and undefeated Minnesota, the score tied in the ninth 11- ll, Detroit winning when Skip of Minnesota missed his last shot. The Bill Reids, the Junius Coopers, Bill Haight, Don Dunn, Ag and I went to the Matador Room at the Stock Yards for dinner and thence to the Stadium for the last match of this unusual and very interesting championship. St. A. played Detroit and North Dakota to win top honors, a rink that can give a good account of itself against any anywhere. Hughston closed the event by awarding the cup, medals and so on. MF's tab was just short of $70,000, and maybe worth it. March 31. All of us except Junius, to airport for AA's #20, 8:30A.M. for Idlewild. Routine. Bill Reid had two company cars on hand to drive all of us home. Stock worth in excess of $5,000 sent by Gulf Oil. April l. Phoned Howard Pew. We are to get together soon for 24 hours, including a game of golf. To Canadian Club for luncheon with Leo and Fred Fairchild - Nominating Committee of FEE. Decided to re- elect same Officers and Executive Committee, to ask Howard Pew first and McBain second to fill the new office of Vice Chairman, to renominate all of those whose terms expire except Fleming, Jackson, McCarthy and to invite John Rettaliata, McHugh, Bob Gaylord and Paul Holden. Phoned McHugh. He accepts. Phoned Hutch, asking him to extend the invitation to Bob Gaylord. Phoned Pew, asking him to accept Vice-Chairmanship of Board. Agreed. Nelson Shepherd phoned from Sioux Falls, S. D., about Dean Berkeley attending 1957 - 25 our July Seminar. "Send him along;" April 2. Phoned Jasper who had many interesting things to say, all favorable. Phoned Hughston as absentee member of Nominating Committee. He agrees to all we did. Phoned Paul Holden at Stanford. He accepts inviation to be Trustee. Phoned Alberto in Washington. He is leaving for the Argentine in 10 days. Alexander Jordan of Toronto here for several hours. April 3. Irenee du Pont sends $3,000. To Plaza Hotel for luncheon with Jeff Coolidge - to talk about FEE and ways he could help. Herrell DeGraff, Secretary of FEE's Board, received, inadvertently, a mild collection letter and ''blew his top" in a letter to me, resigning and so on. He has a real low boiling point. April 4. Phoned DeGraff. Said his letter "startled me." To make a long story short, he apologized for getting angry, asked that I destroy his letter and to forget his resignation. A copy of my memo to St. A. Curlers is appended. What a beautiful day. A heavy, wet snow - nature's pure, white preface to her coming-out party, when, I suspect, she will bedeck herself in brilliant greens. April 5. We ought to do an essay on "The Right to Quit." It would be difficult to find an employee who doubts in the least his right to quit his job when and if he so chooses. However, few of these same persons accord a like freedom to the employer. Why shouldn't he too, be just as free to quit the arrangement? We are always looking for the causes of socialism, for without knowing them how can we direct our writings? Maybe we stumbled onto a basic cause this morning at coffee. Harper and I were talking about the growing number of J people who run hither and yon, directionally no more sensible than a chicken \ with its head cut off, in search of happiness. They run for wealth, mink coats, gold Cadillacs, off to Europe, into crowds and they run thus because they can find no interest in themselves. These barren soils, lacking any ''inner Sovereignty," topple easily in the collectivistic direction. Self-reliance means no more to them them than a title Emerson used. The person who dispises THE FOUNDATION FOR ECONOMIC EDUCATION, INC. IRVINGTON-ON-HUDSON, NEW YORK LEONARD E. READ, President MEMORANDUM April 4, 1957 TO: The Curlers of St. Andrews FROM: Ye Ed. of SB SUBJECT: I Owe You A Report On U. S. Championship The ten rinks entered in this National Round Robin competition finished in the following order: w L Pts QE.E! (Hibbing) MINNESOTA 8 1 115 60 (Chicago) ILLINOIS 7 2 104 68 (Minot) NORTH DAKOTA 6 3 89 80 (Portage) WISCONSIN 6 3 92 60 (Detroit) MICHIGAN 6 3 89 69 (Seattle) WASHINGTON 4 5 58 84 (Nashua) NEW HAMPSHIRE 3 6 64 110 (Winchester) MASSACHUSETTS 2 7 64 101 (Fairbanks) ALASKA 2 7 85 95 (St. A) NEW YORK L 8 66 99 No foursome ever tried harder nor attended better to their physical condition than did Bill Reid, Bill Haight, Don Dunn and Junius Cooper. Remember, this was an endurance affair -- 10 ends Wednesday evening, 3 10-end matches on Thursday, 3 10-end matches on Friday, and 2 10-end matches on Saturday. Nor did any rink ever gain a greater esteem for good sportsmanship than ours. Not only did they never grouse over their defeats but there just wasn't any of that sort of thing in their hearts. Some rink had to be at the bottom of the totem pole and for the sake of the First U. S. National Championship and the game of curling no rink could fill that spot with better grace than our own. I was proud of them -- every inch of the way. Had our rink been favored with the same fortunate circumstances as at the New York Playdowns -- it was not -- Reid et al could have finished in fifth or sixth place, such was the competition, Our one win was 18 - 4 over New Hampshire (Carl Hines is no slouch in Grand National Competition). We did have our moments. The very strong Wisconsin rink barely won against our lads. It was done with their Skip's last rock. Detroit with a better rink than was ever entered at the Stockton -- the only rink to defeat Minnesota -- trailed St. A a good part of the way in our contest with them. - 2 = However, let's face it: This affair, without d,oubt, was the greatest aggre gation of curling skills in USA experience. Much of it was of the high power variety, beyond anything in perfection I have ever noted in G~and National or Eastern Canadian rinks. Take, for instance, the winner, Minnesota. Ken Watson claimed that the Hibbing rink could play even-Steven with aqy rink Canada ~as to offer. The Skip, Harold Lauber, is a golf pro. His brother, Louis, is vice-skip. They have curled together for more than 20 years. The other two are about as exp~rienced and as skilled. These folks expect to make 85% of thei+ shot~. But, that's only the half of it. It's the shots they call for -- shots demanding a l-inch tolerance, shots, short of too many martinis, we wouldn 1 t think of playing. The Skip, half the time, lies on his belly to eye the rock and to connnand the sweeping. St. A has about the same chance of winning against this outfit as Ye Ed. has of beating Ben Hogan at golf. It's mathematically possible but the Law of Probability argues against such an 9utcome. The thrill was to watch the Minnesota rink sweep. If the shot required it there were all four furiously beating the ice and in pe+fect rhythm. They had not less than 6 feet advantage per rock over St. A. A similar advantage was held,more or less, by all other rinks. I like the comfortable, have-fun, take-it-easy curling we do at St. A. and, after Chicago, our kind is as far as my personal aspirations go, unless it's umpi~ing again-- that's fun, mingling with the experts without the necessity of being one. Nonetheless, I believe we should encourage skillful cuding among our members to the point where St. A will be a threat at future NY Playdowns and always a possible entry in the National Championship M~tches. This? however, will require serious and constant practice of a brand unknown to us. The whole affair at Chicago was expertly man~ged and the sportsmanship was of the highest order. This is a splendid event done with superb showmanship and good taste and St. A should lend all encouragement for its continuance, even though we may not be in it again for some years to come.