The Freeman 1959
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ESSAYS ON LIBERTY VOLUME VI rrHE FOUNDATION FOR ECONOMIC EDUCATION, INC. IRVINGTON-ON-HUDSON, NEW YORK 1959 EDITOR'S NOTE The study of freedom and presentation of the findings in a manner helpful to anyone who is interested is the objective of the staff and the friends of the Foundation for Economic Education. The studies are distributed, as completed, in the form of separate re leases and as articles in The Freeman, a monthly study journal. This is the sixth volume of essays on liberty, all of the selections in it having previously appeared in The Freeman, or in Mr. Read's Notes from FEE, between June 1958 and June 1959. The first five volumes of Essays on Liberty, covering earlier Foundation releases, are still available. Permission is hereby granted to reprint these essays in whole or in part, except the following: Inflation Is a Burglar by Samuel B. Pettengill Emancipation by Machine by William Alvadore Buck The Growth Objective from The Guaranty Survey The Corruption of Union Leadership by Sylvester Petro A Child's Diary by Rose Grieco The Catastrophe of Confusion by E. Merrill Root Published October 1959 Copyright 1959 by The Foundation for Economic Education, Inc. PRINTED IN U.S.A. CONTENTS Page Would You Have Signed It? Ralph Bradford .... 9 Freedom and the Purpose of Life Oscar W. Cooley ............ 19 The Prophet, de Tocqueville William Henry Chamberlin ........ 24 The Search for an Echo Leonard E. Read ............ 35 The Early Quakers: An Experiment in Freedom Frederick Walker ..... 40 Free Will and the Market Place Frank Chodorov ............ 45 The Alternative to Competition E. W. Dykes .. .. 60 The Nature of Socialistic Disaster Leonard E. Read ............ 67 They'll Never Hear the End of It John Chamberlain ...... 78 The Myth of Federal Aid Ralph Bradford ......... 84 Grasshoppers and Widows Robert LeFevre ......... 96 Regulatory Taxation Hans F. Sennholz . 100 v vi CONTENTS Page Rich Man's Tax-Poor Man's Burden Harold Brayman . .. 110 Why Not Pay Cash? Oscar W. Cooley 114 Runaway Spending Brings Crisis in Local Governments Lawrence Sullivan . 121 Tax Decalogue for the Welfare State H. P. B. Jenkins . 131 Inflation Ahead Hans F. Sennholz . 132 Inflation Is a Burglar Samuel B. Pettengill . 148 How La:bor Unions "Cause" Inflation Leonard E. Read . 153 A Merchant's Appraisal of Inflation Hughston McBain . 162 Inflation in Underdeveloped Countries Romulo A. Ferrero . 172 The Way to Economic Progress Gustavo R. Velasco . 177 Wirk E. F. Hutton 188 Emancipation by Machine William Alvadore Buck . 190 Beneficiaries of Free Market Upgrading Leonard E. Read . .... 200 CONTENTS vii Page Slums and Mansions Hans F. Sennholz .207 Fighting Fires Privately F. A. Harper ... 218 Fighting Fire for Profit Ralph Bradford 223 The Growth Objective Guaranty Survey .. ..... 232 The Corruption of Union Leadership Sylvester Petro ............ 239 Why Protection Is Easier To Sell Than Competition R. C. Hoiles ............. 251 Value Judgments in the Classroom Patrick M. Boarman .... 255 Federal Aid for Education H. P. B. Jenkins 264 A Child's Diary Rose Grieco ....... 266 The Catastrophe of ·Confusion E. Merrill Root .. 277 Engineering Education Ben Moreell 285 Campaign Promises Rae G. Heiple7 II ............ 302 Executive Salaries Hans F. Sennholz. ........... 308 viii CONTENTS Page Human Rights Are Property Rights Murray N. Rothbard ......... 315 The Declaration of Independence Against Itself Edmund A. Opitz .......... 320 On Being Practical Leonard E. Read 336 The Helping Hand Vollie Tripp .... 342 A Moral Goal for Business Gaylord A. FreemanJ Jr. ......... 352 Ethics Is Personal William Henry Chamberlin ........ 357 Jobs for All Percy L. GreavesJ Jr. .......... 367 I, Pencil Leonard E. Read ........... 371 Who Sets the Price? M. E. Cravens . 380 The Source of Money George Winder ............ 385 Positive Action Against Communism Yale Brazen . 398 Barriers to World Commerce William H. Peterson .. 404 AUTHORS, listed alphabetically .. 439 INDEX .. 443 WOULD YOU HAVE SIGNED IT? t'l Ralph Bradford IT became the literary fashion thirty years or so ago, and continues to be the vogue in some quarters, to demote, if not to defame, that group of men who are generally designated as the Founding Fathers of this Republic. The framers of the Constitution were given their full and bitter share of obloquy; but the signers of the Dec laration of Independence seemed to be special targets for detraction. Idol smashing was the order of the day. Cer tain types of writer, politician, and public speaker took delight in uncovering and proclaiming feet of clay. No niche was sacred. John Hancock-he of the big, bold signature which, as legend has it, he boasted could be read by King George without glasses? A lot of baloney! Hancock was simply a rich smuggler who had it in for the British. Samuel Adams, of the eloquent speech and provocative letters? Just a broken-down Boston agitator who couldn't even afford the trip to Philadelphia or a new suit to wear until his friends passed the hat for him. Benjamin Franklin, wise counselor and witty commen- Mr. Bradford is a well-known writer and business organization consultant. 9 10 RALPH BRADFORD tator? Just a dabbler in pseudoscience; a successful printer with an unsavory youth; a shrewd old publicist with an eye to the main chance. Thomas Jefferson, statesman, philosopher, architect, musician? Stuff! He was a rich young aristocrat with a dilettante's relish f9r the excitements of public life. John Adams, fearless champion of unpopular causes? Pah! An ambitious Massachusetts lawyer who had re cently defended the British soldiers in the Boston Mas sacre case and who had now switched to the other side. Their Motives Maligned And so on and on and on. Beginning around 1920, and continuing even to the present, it has been open season on the signers. What were their motives? What personal advantages did they seek? What selfish interests did they serve? Hardly anyone of them was spared derogatory questions, innuendoes, accusations. It was even pointed out that some of the signers had come into the Congress after action had been taken on the Declaration; and it was implied that there was some thing strange, and possibly reprehensible, about their desire to affix their signatures ex post facto! Some writers with the iconoclastic urge made much of the fact that among the fifty-six signers there were twenty-two lawyers, ten merchants, and fourteen wealthy land owners; and one such writer was almost tearfully indignant because the great Document bore no signature of either a laboring man or a dirt farmer. The implica- WOULD YOU .HAVE SIGNED IT? 11 tion seemed to be that there was something a little ques tionable about all those well-to-do landed proprietors, businessmen, and professional people getting together and cooking up a revolution. This attitude, of course, ignored the fact that Lexing ton and Concord were already household words through out the -Colonies, that Bunker Hill had been fought, that Charlestown and Falmouth had been burned, that Bos ton had been besieged-in short, that the Revolution was in full and lusty progress! There is less of that sort of sniping now, but it is still to be heard, especially among those who find the Con stitution archaic and the Declaration outmoded because the principles asserted in those documents come between them and their plans for collectivization by force. Well, to all such-to all who jeer or scoff or belittle-I have one short, hard question: Would you have signed it? History Book Impressions Let us think a little about the circumstances. Most of us have a kind of copperplate impression of what went on in Philadelphia that summer of 1776. It centers in a tableau-like picture of the signing. Certain old history book illustrations form the basis of that impression. A group of bewigged and clubbed-haired gentlemen in knee breeches, silk stockings, buckle shoes, baggy coats, and outsize waistcoats sit around a large room in com fortable chairs. They have been discussing the ills that 12 RALPH BRADFORD the American Colonies have· suffered at the hands of the British Crown. They have also been discussing what to do about the Revolution which, contrary to· the present day misconception held by many, was not started as a result of their action but was already under way. Nearly forty years later, when John Adams was eighty years old, he was to write that even the war with Britain was "no part of the Revolution." And he added: "The Revolution was in the minds and hearts of the people, and this was effected from 1760 to 1775, in the course of fifteen years, before a drop of blood was shed at Lexington." It is possible that Adams, in retrospect, misjudged the minds and hearts of the people during that fifteen year period. What they really wanted, probably, was simply to be let alone. Maybe he endowed them with the senti ments of his own stout heart and flaming spirit. At any rate, it is clear that the representatives of those people, in Congress assembled, were reluctantly revolutionary and not by any means strong for independence. Most of the delegates believed it was their duty to work for "the restoration of union and harmony between Great Britain and the Colonies"-a harmony that was, by the greater number of them, "most ardently desired." And so there had been a succession of "humble peti tions" to the Crown, with protestations of loyalty and desire for accommodation. There had even been an "ad dress to the British People." The Adamses, John and Sam, and some others, had protested that all such ges tures were in vain-and ·so it had proved. The humble WOULD YOU HAVE SIGNED IT? 13 petitions had been answered by the· dispatch of more warships and troops; the appeal to the British people had been answered not at all.