FEE head dies at 84 LEONARD .READ S LIBERTARIAN lEGACY

eonard E. Read, founder chamher of commerce work. Read recounted that he had, in Hoiles, then ownerofthe Free- of the Foundation for He spent ten years as manager his Chamher work, become Read dom Newspaper chain which amtimll!t/from ",'ge I L Economic EduGltion and of the National Chamher of "head over heels" in his invol- was to grow significantly over a leading figure in the modem Commerce's Western Division, vement with FDR's NRA. He the next hour he lectured me the yt:ars. lihcrtarian movcment individual, the principles and his associates. Read began a Irvington-on-Hudson, New . Commerce, the nation's rderences about U.S. Chamher the authors of the Constitution puhlishing company called York. Read had heen active in largest. policy." Read resolved to had in mind; and he pointed to P'Jmphlcteers, Inc. Hoiles had promoting free market and Leonard Read's involvement "straighten out the poor the perfidy of NRA and other already published some of the libertarian ideas since 19:H. In with whar he called :'the free· henighted soul," and went to alphabetical hatchings of the of Bastiat from a transla· recent years, he had had aseries dom philosophy" began in Mullendore to make out his New Deal. Never before or tion in the late 19th century. of minor heart attacks, but was a mecting with the case. As Read recounted the since have I listened to such Rt:'Jd followed suit and pub. actively involved in the activi- tiercely individualist business· meeting, he "dwelt on the skilled exposition.... I closed Iished Bastiafs 1be Lau', the ties ofthe Foundation which he man William C. Mullendore. of our policy" to Mul· the interview by saying, 'Mr. first American edition of Ayn created and nurtured from the Read had, up to that time, an Icndon:, for the better part of Mullendore, I have never Rand's An/hem, Rose Wilder beginning. unexceptional poUtical and half an hour. Mullendore then thought ofany of these matters Lane's Gilli! Me Liherty, Andrew Read was born on September philosophical outlook. In 1955, spent the next hour giving his in this way before. I believe you Dixon White's Fiat Money 26, 1898 on a farm in Hubbard· in an appreci:uion of Mullen· answer. Reacl "For are right.' At that mOl:nent, the Inflation in France, and a work ston, Michigan. Atthe age of 19, dore written for 1be Frr!eman, page 3 .... -::t Whole course of my life was by Virgil Jordan and Henry Haz· he joined the Aviation Section 'JQ >D (f, alterc:d." litt, Fn'f!lto/ll in America. of the Signal Corps, serving in .:::: .... -uro Indeed it WolS. In the mid Lerinard Read's long· "I England, France and Germany. z .... m 1950s, Read and Mullendore nurtured dream ofsetting up a In 1918, Read was one ofsome -ffT"l-l began to gather an informal foundation to promote such 2500 soldiersaboard the troop- C· ..... group together to explore their libertarian ideals full timecame ship Tuscania when it was sunk zrz \.\2llGSlreeI.SE July 1983 , Z1> "mutual concern with the threat to fruition in 1946, with the by a German submarine; he Washinl1lon. D.C. 20003 tt to' indi\idual liberty posed by establishment in Irvington·on· \ spent the next several hours, as Z ro -< the growth of government. Hudson of the Foundation for he later recounted, "in a col· ' Mullendore later introduced Economic Education. The lapsible contraption on a very ..7.J fT"I Leonard Read to Ayn Rand, and Foundation was headquartered cold and angry Irish sea." He c· 1> Orval Watts became Read's in a heautiful five acre estate was later moved to reflect on (.JI (oj fT\ chief economist at the Los less than an hour's drive north those hours during the Korean W 0', Angeles Chamber of Com· ofNew York City. Read hrought War, when he. published, in merce. By the early 19-10s, a Or,",11 Watts with him from Los 195 I, his seminal antiwar pam· C' t(l[midahle number of people Angeles, F.A. ("Baldy") Harper Oil <::' phlet "Conscience the c' had made each other'sacquain· and W.M. CurtiSS from Cornell e;, Battlefield." IMUll " tance: W.1\1. Curtiss, Baldy University, and later such peo· W Read worked with a number ...... pic as FrJnk Chodofllv, Dean I ...... Harper. Herhert and Dick Cor· of businesses in the 1920s, and . Russell, P'Jul Poirot, Bettina ;.;...... ,. nuel)(:, Rose Wilder Lane, in' 1927 a " ;.in. !lim, and Edmund Opill. l11is ...... , .. { ..:' !,;. .\ 41 0#' I: '·(:'.1. (' \' \ allltfm"v/ on /XIII<' 5 ...... ' .' I ,. " iO") ,; '-",;' .' From the beginning of his For Read, socialism was a Read's opposition to warhad published. Read maturc lik, Read's philosophy parasitic, noncreative system much the same simple root: the Leonard Read was never an col/lillI/I'dfrom page .3 was always one of indi\idual· \\11ich rests on predation, and, hdief that we do not have the intellectual the caliber of \\Cas (/11: first significant Iibel1ar· ism. lihel1y, private property, ultimately, raw \iolc:nce, as right to usc \iolence and coer· Hayek, Friedman or Mises, but ian drcle in the United Statcs in trade and international well as being an insole:nt, cion. During the Korean War an this was never what he set out the lwentielh century. peace. His devotion to Truth authoritarian pretention to irreparable split developed to hccome. Read was rather FEE quickly hecame the cra- and Freedom, a devotion which "know what is hest for other hetwen the isolationist, anti- one of the very greatest dle of the modern Iibel1arian was truly "religious" in the people." Read rested much of war "Right" epitomized by teachers of the philosophy of mO\'cnwnl, the le:ading center broadest sense, is a theme run- his argument on an insight Chodorov, John T. Flytln and liberty of our time. His soft- for market thinkers. In ning through each of his more . gleanled from reading FA Baldy Harper, on the one hand, spoken, almost aristocratic ele- I<)-1(,. FEE puhlished an attack than two dozen hooks, and all Hayek's essay, "lne Use of and the Buckley-kd Cold War gance pulled indi\idual minds I on eontrols by two young ofhis teachings and FEE semin- Knowledge in Society," III wit, Right which grew into the into reflection and thought by n:onomists, George Stigler and ars. In his near-dassk A/I)'tbing that in conducting a life in modern conservative move- the pure power of attraction. I' Frkdman, hoth of A.!(/ce.f/ll. Leonard Read society each indhidual tacitly ment, on the other. While he At the ,close of many FEE \ "hom went on III receive wrote that "A man has a com- remained on friendI)' terms seminars, which thousands of "- Nohd Prizes in economics in mitment 10. his own con- with Illuch of the conservative people. have participated in science, that is, to truth as his ·t:"J \';·t'!\?i movement, l.eonard Read the I<)70s and IYHOs. It occame I, _ t;" ... 1'''':/':''': over the past thirty-five years, 'a for teaching and puh- highest conscienn: discerns .,.,.;..•• .' 1-'..,_"-,,--t'" 1,·IL,...,.tic' .•.• never lost sight ofcertain basic Read stressed the importance Ibhinl\ which featured such truth, and every word and deed 1;.-. _ '\", .'l\:r.' tmths. In his Prologue to "Con- ofsclf.improvemenl, ofthe pur· /. ..:' li ;..-,' \ .,".'1 notahles as Ludwig von Miscs must he an accurate reflection ,tL'h '/":' "- , science Oil a l3attlefield," Read suit of excellence in attracting and lIenry lIazlitt. ther(:of." Naturally, III follow \,J'\);":;f 1ii wrote, "An analysis of liberty peopk to the philosophy of As the post World War 11 their own consciences, human Leonard Read (/893·/983) that would, at this juncture, freedom. And he ended his own magazine 71)(' Frl!('I//(/l1 began heings must he free. Read rdies on f.,r more information prove 'popular,' would be use- speech at the endofFEE semin- to falter hecause ofits financial stn:ssed that in his explanation than anyone person or organ- less... It is strange that war, the ars hy making a dramatic point. diflieuhies, fEE acquired it and of the title: ofthat book: "By my ized group, such as govern· most hrutal of mail's acti\ities, 'nle lights. in the room where converted it inlO the title 'Anything ThaI's Peaceful,' ment, can ever amass or obtain; requires the utmost delicacy in he spoke would be darkened, /low·familiar digest-size I mean let anyone do anything our very lives rest on ourability discussion... War is liberty'S and in .the blackness, Read said lTlol1lhly. For more than thirty he pleases that's peaceful or to make free use ofthe informa- greatest enemy, and the deadly quietly, "Not all the darkness in years, 71l(' fh'/!/Iu/II has pub- creative; let there be no organ- tion which other people have, foe of economic progress." the world can put out the light IishnJ such thinkers as von ized restraint against anything and impart to us through their Read wrote that in 195 I, but of one single candle." I\lises, Hayek, OlOdorov, Rand, hut fraud, \iolence, misrepres· actions in a free market econ· near the end of his life, as ifto Leonard E. Read endeavored Read, lIazlitt, Harper, Hans Sen· entation, predation; limit socie· omy. He captured the essence show that his \iews had not to be a candle, a flame in the nho/z, Percy Greaves, Bettina ty's agency of organized of this in his classic "I, Pencil," changed, Read had FEE reprint darkness. Because ofhim, there Bien Greaves, Dean Russell, foree-government-to juridi· in which he pointed out that no it, with some slight updating. is a great deal more light in the Edmund Opitz, Israel Kirzner cal and policing functions, tab· single person knows how to lhere was rumored to be, at world today than there was and a host of others. For many ulating the do-nots and· make a simple pencil-and to .that time, considerable conflict when he began, half a century 1i1X:l1arians, TIl(' Freeman was prescribing the penallies prove it, he rdated the "family among FEE's l30ard ofDirectors ago, to preach the philosophy for manyyears \irtuallythe only against unpeaceful actions; let tree" of a pencil. Milton Fried- over the prudence of FEE's of freedom. Leonard Read will outlet for writing, and it do this, and man later used tbis to effect in reprinting so antiwar a pam- be missed; FEE, the monument reached an eventual circulation leave all else' tb' the free, unfet- his telc\ision series "Free to phlet. Read listened to . of his life, will live on. of 60,000 readers. tered market!" OlOose." objections-and then had it -R.A.C.

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